25th Annual LAWTF Announces Hosts Line-Up

Ted Lange

    The 25^TH Annual (Silver Anniversary) Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival (LAWTF) has a roster of distinguished artists who will co-host four days and five programs at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood 90027 and the Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Avenue, Venice. 90291. This year’s overall theme is A Toast to 25!.

    Thursday, March 29, 2018, at 6:30 p.m.- LEGACY AND DESTINY Champagne GALA and Awards Ceremony, directed and written by Iona Morris---Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, in Hollywood.

Ted Lange- Known internationally for his portrayal of Isaac Washington on the long-running TV series The Love Boat, Lange received the Renaissance Man Theatre Award from the NAACP for his stage accomplishments as actor both on Broadway and in Los Angeles), playwright (23 plays), among them George Washington’s Boy and Lemon Meringue Façade), and director (including the recent comedy Classic Couples Counseling at the Secret Rose Theatre). His one-man show in which he portrays Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Behind the Mask, tours worldwide. He recently returned from the Ira Aldridge memorial celebration in Lodz, Poland.

Hattie Winston- Best known for her work on television (Becker, Homefront, Nurse, The Electric Company), Ms. Winston has also starred on Broadway (The Tap Dance Kid, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Me Nobody Knows, I Love My Wife, Hair, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, Scapino)and co-adapted Nativity: A Life Story. She was also a founding member of the Negro Ensemble Company (Song of the Lusitanian Bogey, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Kongi’s Harvest, Daddy Goodness, God Is a (Guess What?), Man Better Man, Livin’ Fat, The Michigan).

The remainder of the Festival on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will take place at the Electric Lodge in Venice.

Friday, March 30, 8:00 p.m.- LOVE, SEX AND #MeToo

Fay Hauser-Price has worked in many artistic genres as a writer, director, actor, singer, and producer, receiving kudos, refining her skills, and growing her audience. Hauser has been on the boards in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as Viola, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as Dussie Mae. She was on the National tour of Purlie plus performances with NY Shakespeare Festival and her own solo show Jewels in the Crown. Hauser’s latest solo performance piece, Shinning Hauslights on Prejudice Alley: A Mixed Roots Conversation, is in preparation to tour.

Kat  Kramer founded Kat Kramer's Films That Change the World to showcase motion pictures that raise awareness about important social issues. As an actress, Kat has appeared on stage and screen. She has starred in two popular one-woman shows, The Colors of Myself and Kriss Krossing. Kat has played the classic roles and won awards as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, Anne Frank in The Diary Of Anne Frank, Estella in Great Expectations, Lisa in David and Lisa, and Saint Joan in The Lark.

Saturday, March 31, 3:00 p.m.- OBSESSIONS

Rosie Lee Hooks - A founding member of the musical performance ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, she more recently appeared in the acclaimed Robey Theatre Company productions of Knock Me a Kiss and Transitions. Other stage credits include A Change Is Gonna Come, One Thousand Cranes, 227, Checkmates, and Poetry Cabaret. She is currently director of  Watts Towers Arts Center and Charles Mingus Youth Arts Center. She was a founding member of the D.C. Black Repertory Theatre Company.

Anna Maria Horsford- Anna Maria Horsford was born and raised in Harlem, New York. Her parents immigrated to the United States from the island nation Antigua & Barbuda, in the West Indies (then a British colony), during the 1940s. Anna grew up not really feeling American but not West Indian either, just somewhere in between. "My first big break came when I auditioned at the New York Shakespeare Festival." Working in many different aspects of show business has allowed her to venture into areas other than acting, such as directing. She also has an Art Institute in upstate New York. Known for her work on television (The Bold and the Beautiful, The Wayans Bros., Amen), she has also appeared on stage (Les femmes noires, Perfection in Black, A Black Quartet, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf).

Saturday, March 31, 8:00 p.m.- MY MOTHER, MY SELF

          Eloise Laws-  Celebrated award-winning vocalist and Broadway actor. Eloise's musical career has included more than 5 albums and CDs, as well as a career in the theatre where she featured in and co-developed the musical, It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, which premiered at the Denver Center Theatre Company and opened on Broadway at the Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, garnering four Tony ® Award nominations. Ms. Laws also received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress in a Broadway musical and a Helen Hayes Award Nomination for her stunning performance at the Kennedy Center.

James Pickens, Jr. - Pickens has been a regular or recurring performer in a number of TV series, including Grey’s Anatomy, Roseanne, The Practice, The X-Files, Beverly Hills 90210  and Another World. With a strong stage background, he appeared with Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson in the Negro Ensemble Company production of  A Soldier’s Play and also performed with New York’s famed  Roundabout Theatre Company (A Raisin in the Sun) and Circle Repertory Company (Balm in Gilead)..

Sunday, April 1, 2018, 3:00 p.m.- ANGELS, CULTURE, AND COMING OF AGE

Sky Palkowitz- The performance artist is billed as The Delusional Diva, creating playing multiple characters in shows for children and adults. Also, classically trained, she toured 22 cities with Shakespeare By The Sea. Her latest solo show is named Calling America: Don’t Hang Up!  The recipient of an MFA from the University of Delaware, she’s been seen at Theatre of NOTE, Independent Shakespeare Company,  Highways Performance Space, Theatre Asylum, Hudson Theatre,  24^th Street Theatre and other area venues.

          Joyce Guy- actress, dancer, playwright, director, and choreographer is a “military brat” raised various places in and out of the U.S.  Her solo works have been performed throughout the Los Angeles and in New York.   Recently choreographed Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs at Rogue Machine Theatre and was nominated for Ovation Award.  Currently choreographing A Raisin in the Sun at A Noise Within.  Joyce has studied West African dance over 25 years with African masters throughout the country.  Joyce is director/producer of the documentary film Dancing Like Home, her quest to Casamance, Senegal, West Africa to find the origins of the region’s dance. Her recent television appearances include roles on Criminal Minds, Colony, StartUp and Animal Kingdom.

Festival performers and honorees are the subjects of separate releases. For more information about Festival programming, please go towww.lawtf.org or call (818) 760-0408.