congratulations to christine toy johnson winner of the 2022 alvin epstein memorial prize for solo performance

 
 

the alvin epstein memorial prize
for solo performance

 

meet our six 2022 finalists

June Ballinger

As an actor June has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway and in numerous regional theatres across the country as well as in television and film (T.V Hunters, The Blacklist, Law & Order.) Netflix’s Monster (mid 2021). She is a member of New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Actors Center as well as The National Alliance of Acting Teachers. June wrote, performs and tours nationally her solo play Remembrance Day based on the life of her mother a British WWII Bletchley Park codebreaker. June was the Producing Artistic Director of the Passage Theatre Company from 1996-2017 where she developed and produced numerous new plays by writers including William Mastrosimone, Leslie Ayvazian, Matt Smart, Caridad Svitch, Cori Thomas, Laura Maria Censabella and Tanya Siracho and presented over 50 solo plays in Passage’s annual Solo Flights Festival. She and playwright David Lee White devised the interview-based plays Trenton Lights and Profiles. Earlier in her career she founded Word for Word which created musical plays composed from the writings of school children. She was a longtime volunteer with NYC’s 52nd Street Project. www.JuneBallinger.com www.RemembranceDayPlay.com

 

Jill Bess

Jill is an actress, director, teacher, and award-winning playwright. She received her B.A. in Drama from UC Irvine and spent several years as an actress in the Los Angeles area. At 25 Jill got an acting job with Alaska Repertory Theatre, and soon after, Alaska Light Opera Theatre. She eventually landed a 2-year gig in the outrageous night club show, the WHALE FAT FOLLIES, and realized that Alaska, rich in the arts and adventure, was now her home. Over the last 30 years, Jill has directed, written, or acted for just about every theatre company in the state of Alaska. Her plays have been seen regularly at the Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference and performed throughout the state of Alaska. Favorite acting credits include Silda in OTHER DESERT CITIES, Beth in DINNER WITH FRIENDS, Blanche in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, The Princess Conti in LA BETE, and performing in her three original one-woman shows, CONFESSIONS OF A PK, THIS STRANGER MY FRIEND (now called CRAZY LIKE ME and a full one act play), and her nationally award-winning one-woman show THE MOMMY DANCE, which toured throughout Alaska, the lower 48 and Western Canada. Jill will direct two versions of her updated revival of THE MOMMY DANCE this coming May. Jill is a certified Meisner acting teacher and coaches individuals in her private studio, ALASKA TRUE ACTING. You can see Jill in her film debut in THE FROZEN GROUND with Nicolas Cage and John Cusack, and the award winning short film SHADE.

 

Alec Silberblatt

Alec Silberblatt is a playwright and actor originally from Pittsburgh, PA. His plays include A Tell-Tale Heart (Commissioned for The Pittsburgh Public Theater), The Mon Valley Medium (The Studios of Key West, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Emerging Artists Theater, Carnegie Stage), The Angel of Allegheny County (New Wave Theater Collective), and others. His work has been produced/developed by: The Studios of Key West, The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Playhouse on Park, New Wave Theater Collective, Middle Voice Theater Company, The Barrington Collective, Greenhouse Ensemble, Harridan Productions, and the NYU Steinhardt School. His short films and screenplays have been programmed as part of The Chain Film Festival NYC, Independent Film Festival Boston, Pittsburgh Shorts Festival, Cindependent Film Festival, and The Peace on Earth Film Festival. As an actor, he’s worked with George Street Playhouse, Ivoryton Playhouse, Off the Wall Theater, Hatch Arts Collective, Quantum Theater, PICT Classic Theater, Lake Dillon Theater Company, City Theatre Company, Strange Sun Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Hartford TheaterWorks. TV/Film: American Rust(Showtime). Resident Artist at the Studios of Key West (21/22 season), and member of The Pittsburgh Public Theater’s Playwrights' Collective.

 

Charlotte Booker

Charlotte Booker has been an actor for over forty years, mostly in NYC, except for that interesting decade in LA. She has played leading roles in regional theatre, been on Broadway twice, Off-and Off-off Broadway many times, toured all over, appeared in a few don’t-blink roles in film, and done her share of TV, including the lead in the 90’s cult series “Hi Honey, I’m Home”. She graduated from Northwestern with a BS in Performance Studies, and studied acting with Uta Hagen, Shelley Winters, and the divine Geraldine Page. She has written all her life, but only recently started putting it “out there”. Her play THE BOOTHEEL, part of a trilogy about three generations of a Missouri family, was a 2021 semi-finalist at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and the Garry Marshall New Works Project. She’s currently working on a solo show based on the life and songs of the eccentric character actress Elsa Lanchester. Charlotte considers herself a late bloomer: she’s newly-ish married to composer/writer Mark Nutter, and divides her time between Evanston, Illinois, and New York City. When she’s not in New Orleans. For more info, check out www.charlottebooker.com.

 

Christine Toy Johnson

Christine Toy Johnson is an award-winning writer, actor, director, and advocate for inclusion based in New York City. Her written works for the theatre have been produced and/or developed by the Roundabout, Village Theatre, Barrow Group, Prospect Theatre, Weston Playhouse, the O’Neill, Women’s Theatre Festival, CAP 21, Ars Nova, Greater Boston Stage Company, Abingdon Theatre Company, Towne Street Theatre and more and are included in the Library of Congress’s Asian Pacific American Performing Arts Collection (Playwrights Division). She is the co-director (with Bruce Johnson) and Executive Producer of the multiple award-winning documentary feature “Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story”, an alum of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop, and was a 2016 fellow of The Writers Lab (supported by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Oprah Winfrey). Christine serves as Treasurer of the Dramatists Guild, chair of the Guild’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee, and host of their podcast "Talkback" on Broadway Podcast Network. As an actor, she has appeared extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in regional theatres across the country and over 100 television and film appearances and currently plays “Diane and others” in the North American tour of COME FROM AWAY. Co-founding member of AAPAC (Asian American Performers Action Coalition. Rosetta LeNoire, JACL, Asian American Arts Alliance, Obie awards for advocacy in diversity and inclusion. For details, please visit www.christinetoyjohnson.com . Twitter/Insta: @CToyJ

 

Hank Greenspan

Henry “Hank” Greenspan is a playwright, psychologist, and oral historian, emeritus at the University of Michigan. His play, REMNANTS, was originally produced for radio in 1991 and broadcast on over 200 NPR stations in the U.S. Since 1997, Hank has presented it as a one-person stage performance at more than 300 venues worldwide.  More recent plays include "Done is Done," "Death / Play, or the Mad Jester of the Warsaw Ghetto," "The Stall," “The Spike,” "The Perfect Game," "East Angels," "Boxes," "AmericaNirvana," and "The Aquarium." Hank is a lifetime member of the Dramatists Guild.

REMNANTS is based on 40 years of Hank’s deepening conversations with a small group of Holocaust survivors.  It is not “testimony,” but rather what survivors share only after long acquaintance. REMNANTS has won more than a dozen awards including the Attic Theater Center of Los Angeles New Plays Festival, the Henrico National Competition, the New Hope Performing Arts Festival, and numerous public radio awards. Stage venues have included the John Houseman Theater in New York, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Mask and Puppet Theatre in Glasgow, the New British Library in London, and the Magdeburg Barracks Attic Theater in the former Theresienstadt camp--a space that was used for performance during the Holocaust itself.   www.henrygreenspan.com

 
 

an audio version of “a little more blue” written & performed by Christine toy johnson premiered on Abingdon theatre company radio june 7, 2022.

christine toy johnson continues to develop the play for live theatre. visit this page for updates on where and when and how you can see the exciting new work by the first recipient of the alvin epstein memorial prize for solo performance.

photo credit: Carrolle Photography © 1999