Crista Marie Jackson graduated with a BFA in theatre from Hofstra University. She is delighted to be returning to Words of Choice. She was most recently seen as Mephistopheles in Faustus and is currently appearing as a puppeteer in the New York Theatre Workshop's production of Things of Dry Hours. 

 

Carl H. Jaynes has been a member of Flock Theater in New London, Connecticut for the last 10 years, where he performed the title role in their production of Othello .  He has been a regular performer at the National Puppetry Conference, held annually at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Waterford CT.  Off-Broadway: Fortune and Men’s Eyes, Robin’s Band, Goin’ Back Home.  Most often, Carl can be found working in the administrative areas of theatre, having been producer or gen-eral manager for: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Sakina’s Restaurant, Wonderland, and Living in the Wind.  Carl is a graduate of Northwestern University’s school of speech.  He has traveled with Words of Choice to nine states.

 

Claudia Schneider  Performances include: A Single Woman (The Culture Pro-ject, NYC), Correct Usage and Common Errors (Playwrights Horizons), Cindy Cooper’s The Dwelling Place (The Actor’s Chapel, NYC), Martin Charnin’s WINCHELL (Brooks Atkinson-Broadway Workshop), Frank McCourt’s The Irish and How They got That Way (The Irish Repertory Theatre, National Tour), Cowgirls  (NY Workshop with Judy Kaye}, Six Degrees of Separation (Queens Theatre in the Park), A Name for the Moon ( Lincoln Center with Barbara Barrie), Waiting for the Parade (Redfield Company),  A Williams’ Evening (with Patricia Neal & Eli Wallach, National Arts Club);The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, The Diary of Anne Frank, California Suite,  Broadway Bound.  Recent Film and TV: Third Watch, Mona Lisa Smile, Black Rain. “The Words of Choice experience continues to challenge and inspire thought into action.

 

Francesca Mantani Arkus (director) has directed and collaborated on numerous pieces in New York City at New York Theatre Workshop (reading series), HERE, Blue Heron Arts Center, Phil Bosakowski Theatre, Access Theatre, 78th Street Theatre Lab, TADA, The Director’s Company, Barrow Group, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Emerging Artists and Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.  She has served as Assistant Director to Tina Landau on Floyd Collins at Playwrights Horizons and Time of Your Life  at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Seattle Rep, and A.C.T. in San Francisco. Francesca is a director with New York University’s First Look Theatre Company, and a board member of Alive Process Theatre.

 

Cindy Cooper (creator, producer) is an award-winning playwright and journalist in New York. Her plays have won awards from Pen & Brush, Samuel French Off-Broadway Short Play Festival, Nantucket Playwrights Festival, Malibu International Festival, and others. How She Played the Game about six women from sports history, was produced in New York at The Women’s Project and at Primary Stages, as well as 100 other venues, including in Budapest, Montreal and Helsinki. A two-time Jerome Fellow, her plays are published in 14 volumes, including Women Heroes  and Hit the Nerve.  Her articles have appeared in Women’s eNews, Ms. Magazine, The Nation, Marie Claire, Equal Justice, On The Issues Magazine, others, and she has written six non-fiction books, including Mockery of Justice, made into a CBS-TV movie. Her most recent play, SILENCE NOT, A Love Story was heard at the Anne Frank Center in New York this winter. A former practicing lawyer, she served as Communications Director at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She has guided discussions about reproductive freedom topics with thousands of people at college campuses and in communities across the country, as well as for House and Senate staffers and Congressional members in Washington D.C. and opinion leaders elsewhere.

 

IN DISCUSSION --

 

Marilyn Torres earned her BFA from Adelphi University and MSE from Mercy Col-lege.  Her credits include:  Lysistrata, The Big, Fat, Naked Truth, Marisol, Merciful Good Fortune and Blind Date at the Kennedy Center, and Freedom Train  at the University of Maryland.  Professional ex-perience includes the First Look Theatre Company, The Festival of New Works, The Long Island Shake-speare Festival and the independent film, An American Lady.  She is a winner of the Irene Ryan Region II acting competition, as well as a national winner.  She toured with Words of Choice in South Dakota in 2006.

 

WBAI PROGRAM

 

Incantation (Crista, Carl, Claudia)  By June Jordan: The late JUNE JORDAN was a poet and activist, author of more than a dozen books and a professor of English, Women’s Studies and African American Studies at UC Berkeley.

 

Letters to Justice Blackmun (Crista, Carl, Claudai) by Sally Blackmun from letters of her father, Justice Harry A. Blackmun, author of Roe v. Wade, edited and excerpted by Cindy Cooper. The late JUSTICE HARRY BLACKMUN wrote the decision in Roe v. Wade while serving on the U.S. Supreme Court, and SALLY BLACKMUN, his daughter, is a lawyer and board member of a Florida Planned Parenthood affiliate.

 

The Line (Crista) Adapted from ‘Roxi” at FWHC. FWHC.org, the website of the Feminist Women’s Health Center, collects stories -- now coming to 800 -- online.

 

Rev. Jimmy Fearall’s Hour of Destiny (Carl, Claudia, Crista) By Michael David Quinn.  MICHAEL DAVID QUINN is a playwright and satirist living in Brooklyn.

 

Seminary: Rev. Christine Grimbol (Claudia) By Angela Bonavoglia.  ANGELA BONAVOGLIA is the author of The Choices We Made  and Good Catholic Girls.

 

Nobody (Crista) By Esosa Edosomwan (excerpted).  ESOSA EDOSOMWAN is an actress, model, filmmaker and spoken word artist in New York City.

 

End of a Period (Claudia) By Barbara Lindsay. BARBARA LINDSAY is a playwright living in Seattle. 

 

Matt’s Story (Carl) By Mary Ann Sorrentino.  MARY ANN SORRENTINO is the former executive director of Planned Parenthood of RI, a columnist and author of ABORTION: The A Word.

 

Approximating Mother (Crista, Claudia) By Kathleen Tolan.  KATHLEEN TOLAN is a widely produced playwright, whose work, Memory House, premiered at Playwrights Horizons in New York in 2006, and regional theaters across the country.

 

At the Movies (Carl, Claudia, Crista) By Penny Lane.  PENNY LANE, a filmmaker, wrote, directed and produced Abortion Diaries.

 

Kathy/Parallel Lives. (Claudia, Crista) Kathy is by Angela Bonavoglia and Parallel Lives by Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney.  ANGELA BONAVOGLIA (see Seminary, above).  KATHY NAJIMY is a tv, movie and theatre actress who appears on Numb3rs and performed Afterbirth:The Best of Kathy and Mo Off-Broadway in 2006. MO GAFFNEY is a writer and performer living in Los Angeles.

 

Opposing Arguments (Carl) By Judith Arcana.  JUDITH ARCANA, now living in Portland OR, is a poet  whose book What if your mother was released in 2006.

 

JANA. (Crista)  Based on a 2005 interview with Words of Choice.  JANA MACKEY was a law student and the former Interim Director of Kansas NOW when she was murdered in July 2008 in a domestic violence incident. 

 

Siege (Claudia) by Dr. Susan Wicklund with Alan Kesselheim (excerpted and adapted).  SUSAN WICKLUND is an ob-gyn now living in Montana and author of This Common Secret.

 

The Big Mike’s Blog: A True and Terrible Time Not So Long Ago by Cindy Cooper (see above) (Carl, Claudia, Crista)

 

Laws I Want (Crista, Carl, Claudia) By RH Reality Check.  RHRealityCheck.org is a major website for reproductive health news and commentary.

 

Blessed by Alix Olson. (Carl, Claudia, Crista)  ALIX OLSON is an award-winning spoken word poet.