June pledge drive to feature concerts, travel specials, more Gish’s quarantine an immersive preparation for ‘Gone Mom’ role
“Andrea Bocelli: Believe” premieres at 8 p.m. June 5 on WUCF-Channel 24 as part of the station’s June fundraising drive.
WUCF-Channel 24’s June fundraising drive includes concerts from Andrea Bocelli, Mannheim Steamroller and Celtic Woman as well as new specials from travel expert Rick Steves and locally-produced series “Central Florida Roadtrip.” The programming kicks off June 5.
“Andrea Bocelli: Believe” premieres at 8 p.m. June 5 (it will also air a few times throughout the drive). “Mannheim Steamroller 30⁄40 Live” airs at 9:30 p.m. June 5 and “The Best of Celtic Woman” at 8 p.m. June 6.
Viewers who donate during these concert specials can receive tickets and offers when these acts come to Orlando later this year or in 2022.
In “Rick Steves Europe Awaits,” Steves shares unforgettable visits to European favorites he would love to revisit. The new special debuts 8 p.m. June 7.
“Central Florida Roadtrip,” produced by WUCF TV, hits the road again to explore local counties. On June 10, viewers can get a sneak preview of season seven.
All of this programming is part of the PBS affiliate’s June fundraiser. Donations can be made at wucf.org/donate.
“People all over Central Florida turn to WUCF to hear untold stories, experience fresh perspectives and feed their curiosity,” Dr. Phil Hoffman, WUCF executive director, said in a news release. “WUCF is grateful for our community helping us get through this past year, so thank you for your continued support in helping us bring our viewers the PBS programs they love and produce local favorites they care about most.”
Actor Annabeth Gish has always been good at turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse. And while quarantine left her stranded alone in a Canadian apartment for 14 days, it also proved a treasured experience. “It was a great gift, a positive in the wake of the coronavirus,” she says.
That solitary confinement gave Gish the chance to work on her next character, Jennifer Dulos, the real-life Connecticut mother of five who was murdered, her body never found.
The film about Dulos starring Gish, “Gone Mom,” premieres June 5 as part of Lifetime’s “Ripped from the Headlines” series.
“It was 14 days of immersive preparation for me and to really get into the spirit of Jennifer and hopefully tenderly honoring her,” says Gish.
The pandemic year proved beneficial in other ways too, she says. “This pandemic has absolutely reframed my sense of time, and I’m not rushing as much. I’m valuing staying still and staying home. It was just a beautiful reset with a ton of worry and fear and stress and anxiety, but I think it really reset my awareness of the fragility of our life and how quickly things can change.”
Gish landed her first professional gig when she was 13.
“Getting my very first role in ‘Desert Bloom,’ it changed the direction of my life because it was out of nowhere,” she says. “And I was one of 800 girls to audition. It was a singular experience that opened up a whole new world of creativity and collaboration and industry and broadened my view in a way that wouldn’t have happened had I just stayed
Annabeth Gish stars alongside Warren Christie in the thriller, “Gone Mom,” premiering June 5. in Cedar Falls, Iowa,” she it’s really about being laughs. resourceful. Pivoting,” she
Married for 20 years to says. “I’m writing a bit now stunt coordinator Wade and just optioned a novel Allen, Gish is the mother and adapted it as a screenplay of two sons, 12 and 14. “My and want to direct. I’m husband’s here in town moving in that direction, working in LA, which is which I’m excited about. great,” she says. “We try Something happens in to do that balancing thing: your 50s, you just want to when he’s working, I’m take ownership of your not, and when I’m working, voice.” he isn’t. So we can still Owning her voice is one maintain — it’s imperfect thing, but occasionally, — but we try to maintain Gish says, she is intimidated that presence with our by the challenge. kids. … We’re such a tight “Sometimes if we’re not unit, and we have a limited up to something it’s OK time with these boys.” to say, ‘No I’m not up to
The klieg lights first doing this.’ But if it’s resistance illuminated Gish when from a creative edge, she co-starred in the cultfavorite that’s when we need to pay “Mystic Pizza.” attention.
Since then she’s co-starred “I have this method: I in scores of shows such have to back up into something. as “The X-Files,” “Pretty I’m not one of those Little Liars,” “Sons of goal-setters and calendarpeople Anarchy” and “Nixon.” But where I sit down there have been work gaps, and plan something 20 too, she admits. minutes a day. I don’t do
“There have been lean that. I’m very amorphous. times, but in a remarkable I have to trick my brain way, very early on and say, ‘You know, I’m just my parents were very going to sit down and do grounded. They’re professors. this thing — maybe.’ And in They’re not entrepreneurs, a less rigorous way, I try to they’re not business get it done,” she says. people, but my dad was “I’m at that age where absolutely insistent about I feel the fear and do it saving my money from the anyway, because why not? get-go, saving and investing. The clock is ticking. I just That set me up to mean mortality. I want to being protected. But when be brave as I go into this the lean times have come, next decade.”