Literary event series debuts in Rosendale
ROSENDALE, N.Y. >> The Rosendale Theatre Collective is launching a new bimonthly literary event series.
Titled “Prosendale,” the series opens Saturday, March 4, at 2 p.m. with memoir readings by local authors to celebrate Women’s History Month. Five female authors from the Hudson Valley will each read an excerpt from one of their memoirs. A panel discussion with the authors will then be facilitated by Martha Frankel, executive director of the Woodstock Bookfest.
A question-and-answer session with the audience will follow. There will be an opportunity to interact with the authors at separate stations in the theatre, where copies of their books can also be purchased and signed by them. The participating authors include Laura Shaine Cunningham, Denny Dillon, Mourka Meyendorff, Nicole Quinn, and Mary Lois Timbes.
Cunningham has published nine books. Her memoirs, “Sleeping Arrangements and A Place in the Country,” were excerpted in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many literary journals.
She is also the author of Russian historical novels under the pen name Laura Rose. Her plays have been produced at Steppenwolf and regional theatres and published in many anthologies. Her many prizes include two NEA awards, two NYFA awards, both in literature and theater, and a Yaddo Fellowship. She is also the president of Actors and Writers. Her new memoir,” Forbidden Russia: An American Playwright in Moscow, Ukraine, Belarus, and Beyond,” will be published next year.
Dillon is an actress, comedian, and writer. She has recently appeared in Apple+TV’s “Servant,” Netflix’s “Uncoupled,” and HBO’s “The Outsider.” Dillon is a former cast member of “Saturday Night Live,” and she gave a memorable cameo in “Saturday Night Fever opposite John Travolta.”
Dillon made her Broadway debut in “Gypsy” with Angela Lansbury and received a Tony nomination for “My One & Only.” In addition, she won a CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on HBO’s “Dream On. In 2002, she moved to the Hudson Valley and is busy completing her book of memoirs, “Two Tickets to Calamity.”
Meyendorff (Mourka) is an award-winning author of two published books. Her memoir, “DP: Displaced Person,” and an anthology of 30 short stories, “Flipping the Bird.”
The daughter of a Russian baron, she was born displaced in a refugee camp in Germany, far from the opulence of Imperial Russia that was her birthright. A series of wars destroyed this privileged existence, and Meyendorff’s life became a series of extraordinary moves. She has performed as an actress, dancer, musician, and storyteller at venues throughout the United States and Europe.
Quinn is a Writers Guild of America member. She has written screenplays for HBO, Showtime, network television, Jodie Foster’s Egg Pictures, John Singleton’s New Deal Productions, and Vassar College. She wrote and directed “Racing Daylight,” starring Melissa Leo and David Strathairn. She has produced/narrated audiobooks for Audible, her short plays are published by Playscripts, and she has authored a trilogy of feminist-dystopian fantasy novels, including “The Gold Stone Girl.”
Timbes (Adshead) is an author, theatre director, producer, actress, and raconteur. She has produced several shows at the Rosendale Theatre and directed three comedy sketches for Frank Marquette’s Theater on the Road at The Chocolate Factory in Red Hook.
She was the founding producer of an Equity theatre in Fairhope, Ala., from 1988 to 1996. She has written a memoir of the town, “The Fair Hope of Heaven,” the novel “That Was Tomorrow,” and a collection of short stories, “Travelin’ Light.”
Admission is $12, $10 for members. Visit rosendaletheatre.org for more information.