Cultural Corner
Up Close with Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill
By Marla E. Schwartz
Florida audiences are familiar with Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill as she has been performing in the area for years. And there’s no doubt that the upcoming production of her show LATIN ROOTS at Festival Miami at the University of Miami presented in collaboration with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers will electrify you. An accomplished stage, film and television artist, her current show is a love-letter to her father Desi Arnaz. Her father passed away in 1986 and her mother, Lucille Ball in 1989. She and her brother Desi Arnaz, Jr., oversee their parent’s distinguished legacy by managing Desilu, too, LLC.
LATIN ROOTS gives people a rare opportunity to hear Lucie and the UM band perform many of her father’s famous hits. You can feel Desi’s presence when you listen to this music. “I only dreamed I’d do a concert entitled exactly this – LATIN ROOTS,” Lucie said. It was a long road with lots of hard work done to make it happen. “After my father passed away I started listening to his music because I found this treasure trove of cassettes which were the original Desi Arnaz arrangements and recordings that had never been published before, it meant a lot to me getting to know that music. I had 200 original arrangements in 20 boxes in my garage. What do you do with these boxes of great Desi Arnaz Orchestra arrangements?”
Well, what she did was contact Michael Feinstein, (who will also be appearing at Festival Miami) a singer, pianist and archivist who was contacted by Ira Gershwin to catalogue his extensive collection. He was the perfect person to ask advice.
“Michael said you must give these to the Library of Congress, they have a whole music division and they preserve paper. I called them up and asked them if they’d be interested in having this and they were thrilled and came to get it all and subsequently over a couple of years archived it in proper boxes and catalogued it all,” Lucie said. “In 2009 at the New York 92nd Street Y, famous for its Lyric & Lyricist Series, I was talking about what happens to arrangements after the people that use them are no longer with us. The Artistic Director said, ‘whatever happened to your dad’s arrangements from the orchestra?’ I told him and he said, ‘wouldn’t it be great if we could a do an evening celebrating the Latin Music craze in this country and how it started, seen specifically through the music of the Desi Arnaz Orchestra?’ I thought ‘this is has totally come full circle for me.’ I met this great arranger, conductor Ron Abel, twenty-three years ago, and who is still my musical director, and he suggested we get the CD out in January in time for this concert.”
The question is – will Ron be appearing in LATIN ROOTS at Festival Miami this year? “Absolutely. I couldn’t do it without him,” Lucie exclaimed. “He’s in Fran Dresher’s new show HAPPILY DIVORCED (on TV LAND) and he got a call truly out of the blue from Fran’s ex-husband Peter (Marc Jacobson) who is the producer. He asked him flat out if he’d play himself. Peter didn’t want a Ron Abel type, he wanted Ron Abel to play the guy who plays the piano in the piano bar they frequent in practically every episode because her best friend who works in the florist shop with her in the series is a singer and they’ve incorporated this into the show. It’s a very kind of risqué subject matter and it’s hysterically funny. Fran is better than she has ever been. She’s really good in this and the writing is quite funny and Ron plays this great Ron Abel guy at the piano who plays his butt off and they sing and play live music and as the episodes go on apparently he even has lines. He thought they were going to give him a name, like Joe, to set him up, but he saw the credits at the end of one show and he’s listed as Ron Abel as himself and that’s a huge compliment. It’s way better than having a character named after you.”
TV Land originally aired classic television shows but it has now moved into the exciting realm of combining this programming with newer shows, original shows, movies and its own awards ceremony. In fact, it was in 2007 at the 5th Annual TV Land Awards show that Lucie and Desi accepted the Legacy of Laughter Award for their mother which was reverentially presented, which great humor, of course, by the magnificent Carol Burnett.
“I’m excited about being able to do it at UM because my daughter Katie is a graduate of the Musical Theatre department and I’m hoping she’ll be coming with me,” Lucie said. “I love those guys over there and Shelly Berg {Dean/Frost School of Music} is a genius – he’s crazy good and smart. And Michael Kerker, Director of Musical Theatre for ASCAP, has been a friend of mine for many years, asked me if I’d be the entertainment on Nov. 3rd, and then we’ll do a little talk-back with him at the end. I’m really looking forward to it.”
There’s one particular song on the CD called THE MUSIC IN YOUR HEART, where you can feel Desi’s musical gift reverberating through the generations. “Oh, thank you. I tell you not just because my son Joe wrote it but because I think it turned out so well. I asked him to send me something and a week later he sent this great groove with a wonderful melody and terrific guitar riffs and I said it was fabulous – but there were no lyrics and he writes lyrics. He said he felt it was right but didn’t know what it was saying. I thought I’d give it a shot. I thought about it for a long time before I put anything on paper and all of the sudden it wrote itself in thirty minutes. I felt that here I was doing this tribute to my dad, this was the third generation and Joe was always saying to me that it’s too bad Grandpa Desi isn’t still here because he was a guitarist too and I’d like to get his take on my music and play it for him and it was my way of saying we’re always still here in spirit.” And there’s more, when you listen to Lucie sing Dan Fogelberg’s song Leader of the Band, a brilliant bonus cut on her CD, it will move you to tears. But joyful tears.
Lucie also discussed her experiences working with Vivian Vance, an accomplished Broadway actress who is primarily remembered for her portrayal as Ethel Mertz in one of America’s most beloved television shows I Love Lucy and as Vivian Bagley on The Lucy Show.
There are abundant reasons as to why this gifted woman was such a mentor to Lucie. “First of all, the fact that she was always Aunt Viv, and always listened – you know when you’re a little kid not too many people who are busy running studios and being celebrities have the time to really sit with their kids and just listen,” Lucie explained. “That was the hardest thing for my mom – to have the time to just sit down and hang with her kids and ask questions like ‘what do you like best about school’ or ‘what’s the worst thing that happened today – or the best thing’ or ‘who’s your favorite doll’ or anything just something that you’re interested in – because they’re busy. But Vivian, whenever she was around, would be the one who would go over in the corner with us and sit down and talk to us like we were adults. She talked to us little kids like she cared.”
“I loved that about her and as I grew older and I was an actress and she would guest star on our show and she took a more adult interest and she said ‘so, Lulu, what do you do on your hiatus’ and I started naming all the fabulous vacation spots in the world, because every four or five months there’d be a two week vacation and you could go somewhere,” Lucie remembered with great affection. “And she said, ‘hey, hey, hey, hey – you’re a theater person at heart, you went to a high school with a great theater department and I’ve seen you in plays and you’ve got to get back to the theater, don’t become a typecast television personality for the rest of your life, you’ll never get out of it.’ And I looked at her and thought wow, I get it. Here she was a pretty terrific theater performer herself for years and years and years and then she had this big such success granted on I Love Lucy but it didn’t last forever and she didn’t own the show and then she started to go back out on the circuit and appeared in Medea, but she’s Ethel Mertz. And they don’t want Ethel Mertz in Medea, so she said make sure that while you’re doing this you’re also going back out there and showing the theater people that you mean business. That you’re for real. And boy that first summer, the next chance I had, I went out on an audition for a summer stock production of Cabaret and was cast to play Sally Bowles.”
She went on to play the title role of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun at the Jones Beach Theatre on Long island, NY and made her Broadway debut in 1979 in the musical They’re Playing Our Song, receiving sensational reviews at the lovable goof Sonia Wolsk, for which she received The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, Theatre World and Outer Critics Circle awards. “I think if Vivian hadn’t woken me up a little bit to that who knows where I’d be,” Lucie said. “She knew where my heart was and the interesting thing is that I got the national tour of Seesaw {a musical with a book by Michael Bennett, music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, based on William Gibson’s play Two for the Seesaw} before the Annie Get Your Gun thing, which was my first really big break, and we opened in the Colonial Theatre in Hartford and when the curtain came down I heard this applause just off stage left. I looked in the wings and there was Viv. She had somehow found out that my show was opening in Connecticut and she lived somewhere in Connecticut so she came up and there she was in the wings and I could hardly bow because I was crying so hard.”
The influence that Vivian had on Lucie was a very magical connection. Additionally, people want to know how much of her mother and father reside inside of Lucie not only as a performer, but as a person.
“I’m definitely a combination of both of them and some of the other great people I’ve worked with my whole life. I’m a sponge. I pick up from everybody and when I was growing up we had a different guest star on the HERE’S LUCY show almost every week for six years and you learn a lot from watching people do what they do,” Lucie explained. “And you learn what to do and what not to do and you learn when somebody comes in with an attitude it’s a much more difficult week. And when everybody has a job and there’s somebody in your office or your store that sucks all the air out of the room it makes it much more difficult to do your job. I decided I didn’t want to be one of those people. I wanted to be one of the people that contributed to the good feeling in the room and not the opposite.”
In fact, when you watch Lucie perform you do get a feeling that both her father and mother are present with you during every moment of the show. “I’m sure there’s an infinite amount of things I cannot even list as they’re all inside me and they’re hard to put your finger on,” in terms of their influence, she said. “From my mother it was a personal thing. It was take care of Lucie and what she means by that is you know how when you’re on an airplane and they say if the oxygen mask falls please place it on yourself before you put it on your child … if I don’t take care of me, everything else falls apart around me. And being a mother and a working woman – you know, I’ve got five kids and all kinds of little businesses that I run, I tend to not take time for myself and it’s only now that I’m about to turn sixty that I’m learning to say no in the nicest possible way. But if it’s something that isn’t actually crucial for my business or anything else that doesn’t need to be done I don’t feel obligated to be the person to say yes. I kind of pooh-poohed it when she first said it and I was like yah, yah, yah – thanks mom, you know – but boy that’s great advice. Terrific advice.”
“And my dad was extremely practical in a business sense but also in a personal sense. You know how people say one day at a time – well, he took it one step further and would say when things get rough and you’re really wracking you’re brain about trying to figure out how to solve some problem and it doesn’t happen and you go around and around and around and don’t know what to do, he said if that happens – then don’t do anything,” Lucie exclaimed. “I went ‘what?’ He said what that means is that you don’t have enough information and that’s why you don’t know what to do. It’s telling you that you need to go back and ask for more information about the situation. Once a few more pieces of the puzzle fall into place you’ll have a much better idea of what feels right in your own heart and then follow it no matter what anybody says to you.”
“Follow your heart, go through brick walls and up mountains and down the other side and don’t let anybody tell you you’re wrong – follow your heart. And then even if it turns out to not “work out,” it’ll be what you were supposed to do. You’ll either learn an amazing lesson from it that you were supposed to learn or eventually it will put you in a position because something even better happens,” Lucie explained. “You make the best decision you can make and you ask as many questions as you can and you look at it this way and that way and sideways until you think you have enough information and you go for it. And that has helped me so much in my life that it’s unbelievable”
Of course, Lucie speaks very highly of her sibling, Desi Arnaz, Jr. “My brother owns the Historical Boulder City Theatre in Boulder City, Nevada, which was a movie house and then turned into a performance space,” Lucie said “He and his wife (Amy) ran a ballet company for twelve years and they used to rent a little space behind the theater and after awhile it was part of their budget to rent space in it to hold their recitals every year. And finally Desi said it came up for sale one year and thought if he owned the theater he wouldn’t have to pay to do recitals and he could rent it out to other people to bring other shows in and that’s what he does. They don’t own the ballet company anymore. They sold it a few years ago to their partner, but AN EVENING WITH LUCILLE BALL: THANK YOU FOR ASKING {a one-woman play performed by actress and renowned impressionist, Suzanne LaRusch, and written by Suzanne and Lucie.}a show about my mother opened there and he built the sets and did the lighting. He does that kind of thing from time to time and he runs the spotlight and he’s all about being the behind the scenes guy.” If you want more information on productions taking place at this theater you can go to: bcchautauqua.org. The next production takes place on September 17th and its called The Genius of Nature with portrayals of Albert Einstein and John Muir.
Lucie currently lives in Connecticut with her husband, the exceptional writer and thespian Laurence Luckinbill, where they’ve teamed up to form ArLuck Entertainment, a film and television production company. “ArLuck Entertainment was originally established so we could produce our own theater productions,” Lucie explained. “Larry writes and creates historical one man shows, the Lyndon Johnson show and the Teddy Roosevelt, Clarence Darrow and Ernest Hemingway shows, and we produce those ourselves and take them out on the road. And when in 1991-2-3, the year’s right after my mother died, I started interviewing people who were still around and I collected this archive of footage which was eventually turned into the Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie, the documentary that appeared on NBC.” This Emmy-Award winning documentary also was seen on A & E and Nickelodeon. In 2001, Lucie and her brother executive-produced the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special which aired on CBS, and received an Emmy nomination.
And speaking of anniversaries, “My God, we celebrated our 30th anniversary last June 22nd and we’ve been celebrating it all year long with belated cruises, we just came back from our 30th anniversary cruise and yesterday was my 31st anniversary,” Lucie said. She and Larry are the proud parents of three upstanding young adults, Simon, and the forenamed Joseph and Katherine, and Lucie is stepmother to Nicholas and Benjamin. So when this woman says she has to set boundaries and cannot possibly agree to everything that comes her way – she means it – she’s always on the go. It’s because she’s ultra-industrious and is admired for her work ethic that causes her to be in such demand. So take advantage of any opportunity you have to see her perform because it may take her awhile before she gets back to town and you really don’t want to miss her when she is performs in South Florida.
You’re really in for the treat of your life when you attend LATIN ROOTS, at 8 PM on Thursday, November 3, at the UM Gusman Concert Hall. Tickets are $50/35/20, available at festivalmiami.com where you can also get a complete listing of concerts that begin on October 15. You can also call the box office at: 305-284-4940. For more information on Lucie please go to luciearnaz.com.
Festival Miami began in 1983 and was originally called the International Festival of Americas. It was founded by Dean J. William Hipp with the artistic direction of Multi–GRAMMY® award winner, maestro José Serebrier. This celebration of music and the arts was so successful that it’s now presented every October by the Frost School of Music and is acknowledged as the annual music festival that opens the South Florida arts season. Festival Miami’s very ambitious schedule and innovative programming aspires to offer opportunities for music enjoyment and personal enrichment to as many residents and visitors to the area as possible.
Festival Miami Event Schedule
October 1st – November 4th, 2011
Gunther Schuller – Into the Creative Mind of a Total Musician
September 30–3:30 PM
Clarke Recital Hall in the Weeks Center for Recording and Performance
Deepen your understanding of current music trends at a free lecture by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Gunther Schuller, one of America’s most distinguished musical icons. Schuller is also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award. FREE
Gala Opening Night: French Horn Celebration Featuring the Frost Symphony Orchestra
October 01–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
The Frost Symphony Orchestra opens Festival Miami 2011 with a bold and brassy French horn exploration of celebrated music by Franz Haydn, distinguished composer Gunther Schuller, and premier hornist and composer Richard Todd. $85/65/45/25
On Stage with Gunther Schuller and the Frost Chamber Players
October 02–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Milhaud’s La Création du monde conducted by Gunther Schuller; Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 2 with Bergonzi String Quartet and Brian Powell; and Schuller’s Quintet for Horn and Strings featuring hornist Richard Todd. $20/$15 seniors/Free for UM student
Emerging Young Composers—New Works for String Quartet
October 05–8:00 PM
Clarke Recital Hall in the Weeks Center for Recording and Performance
Frost School of Music student composers entered an adjudicated competition for new string quartet works and the winners will have their compositions premiered at Festival Miami by the Stamps, Graduate, and Bergonzi String Quartets! FREE
Benny Golson—Taking Note of a Legendary Jazz Career
October 06–4:00 PM
Clarke Recital Hall in the Weeks Center for Recording and Performance
From his early years with Dizzy Gillespie to his remarkable 60-year career as a solo performer and TV and film composer, tenor saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson, provides insight into his creative approaches and career longevity. FREE
Soulive—The Ultimate Feel-Good Groove Band
October 06–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Soulive plays danceable organ-driven grooves fusing soul, jazz, R&B, and blues with hip-hop and funk. Wildly popular at jam fests, they’ve toured with the Rolling Stones and recorded with Chaka Kahn, Talib Kweli, Maceo Parker, Derek Trucks! $40/30/20
Jazz Master Benny Golson with the Frost Studio Jazz Band
October 07–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Jazz aficionados love his “I Remember Clifford” while TV fans know his music from M*A*S*H, Mission Impossible, and The Cosby Show theme. Here, Benny Golson performs his favorite big band arrangements with the Frost Studio Jazz Band. $65/45/25
High Octane Jazz—Introducing New Frost Jazz Professors Brian Lynch and Martin Bejerano
October 08–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Grammy Award-winning jazz trumpeter Brian Lynch pairs up with burning jazz pianist Martin Bejerano and a fantastic rhythm section for an outstanding evening of small group jazz that will light up your spirits and amaze your senses. $40/30/20
Claire Huangci—Chopin Competition Winner with Frost Symphony Orchestra
October 09–4:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
First prize winner at the 2010 National Chopin Piano Competition of USA for her distinguished Chopin interpretations, Claire Huangci performs solo repertoire by Chopin plus Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Frost Symphony Orchestra. $40/30/20
A Whole New Ballgame—Frost Chorale and Frost Symphonic Choir
October 11–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
New choral program director Karen Kennedy leads the Frost Chorale in ethereal works by Whitacre, Orff and more. Frost Symphonic Choir performs excerpts from the base-ball themed The Mighty Casey by W. Schuman. $20/$15 seniors/Free for UM students
Imani Winds—and debut of Stamps Woodwind Quintet
October 12–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Grammy-nominated wind quintet, Imani Winds, is carving out a distinct presence by commissioning new works while meaningfully bridging European, American, African, and Latin American traditions. Stamps Woodwind Quintet also makes its debut. $40/30/20
New York Voices Swing with JV1 Frost Jazz Vocal Ensemble
October 13–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Double Grammy-winning New York Voices are renowned for their excellence in the art of group singing, inspired by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Singers Unlimited and Manhattan Transfer. The JV1 Frost Jazz Vocal Ensemble will also be featured. $50/35/20
United States Marine Band—The President’s Own
October 14–7:29 PM
UM BankUnited Center
Festival Miami announces the University of Miami will host a free concert by the U.S. Marine Band at the BankUnited Center on October 14. The Washington Post calls them “not only the best in the land but, very likely, the best in the world.” FREE
Willy Chirino
October 15–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
When Willy Chirino sings, the salsa band grooves—and the audience truly can’t stop dancing! More than 60 artists including The Gypsy Kings have recorded his song, “Soy.” His CD, Son del Alma, won a Grammy Award for Best Salsa/Merengue Album $70/50/30
Brazilian Superstar Ivan Lins—Romantic and Sophisticated Favorites
October 16–6:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
When multiple Grammy winner Ivan Lins performs his own music, it is pure magic. From “Love Dance” to “The Island,” his magnificent songs are recorded by Simone, Irakerê, Chucho Valdés, Barbra Streisand, Toots Thielemans, and Michael Bublé. $50/35/20
Frost Wind Ensemble Presents the Windswept Music of Michael Colgrass
October 18–7:15 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Frost Wind Ensemble performs Michael Colgrass’s The Winds of Nagual that contemplates the search for the creative self, and Urban Requiem, representing the tragedies, struggles, energy, and power of our cities. $20/$15 seniors/Free for UM students
Suénalo
October 21–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Suénalo is the premier descarga-funk Latin jam band in Miami, with a vivid sound that reflects the cultures that shape the region. The 8-piece act meshes funk, hip-hop, cumbia, timba, jazz, Caribbean rhythms into a multicultural cocktail. $30/20/15
A Tale of Five Cities—Lowenthal Plays Liszt
October 22–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Pianist Jerome Lowenthal performs the solo recital A Tale of Five Cities to commemorate the bicentennial of Franz Liszt’s birth. Includes highlights from Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) plus Piano Sonata in B Minor. $40/30/20
Gershwin Piano Favorites—Shelly Berg with Santiago Rodriguez
October 23–4:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Dean Shelly Berg and faculty artist Santiago Rodriguez pair up for an all Gershwin, two-piano extravaganza featuring Cuban Overture, Three Preludes, Rhapsody in Blue, and I Got Rhythm Variations; plus Grainger’s Fantasy on Porgy and Bess. $40/30/20
Jackson Browne Unplugged
October 26–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Jackson Browne performs award-winning new songs and mega hits such as “Running on Empty,” “The Pretender,” and “Somebody’s Baby,” in a special all-acoustic concert. $70/$50/$30
Songwriters Showcase—New Songs, New Voices
October 27–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
A fabulous concert featuring songs composed and performed by students enrolled in the Bruce Hornsby Creative American Music program. Judges and audience are polled and the winning act opens the following night’s concert! FREE
Livingston Taylor—Ways to Be Your Best When It Counts the Most
October 28–10:00 AM
Clarke Recital Hall in the Weeks Center for Recording and Performance
In this master class, singer-songwriter Livingston Taylor discusses how to control nervousness and find joy on stage. In addition to his solo career, Taylor has toured with Linda Ronstadt and Jimmy Buffet, and his brother James. FREE
Livingston Taylor
October 28–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Livingston Taylor fills his concerts with upbeat storytelling, a joyous selection of his own writing, and a perfect splash of songs from the great American songbook. If you enjoy James Taylor, Alison Krauss, and Vince Gill, this is a must! $50/35/20
Gemini Presents “Good Mischief—A Musical Celebration for the Whole Family”
October 30–3:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Gemini, twin-brothers Sandor and Laszlo Slomovits, presents “Good Mischief—A Musical Celebration for Children and the Whole Family,” featuring rousing sing-alongs, and original, sparkling songs about the everyday experiences of childhood. $12/$10 Kid
Divergent Boundaries—Faculty Composers Concert
November 02–8:00 PM
Clarke Recital Hall in the Weeks Center for Recording and Performance
For 28 years, Festival Miami has been premiering new works by prominent guest composers and award-winning faculty composers. This year we proudly introduce new works by Lansing McLoskey, Charles Mason, Dennis Kam, JB Floyd, and Dorothy Hindman. FREE
Lucie Arnaz—Latin Roots
November 03–8:00 PM
UM Maurice Gusman Concert Hall
Latin Roots is Lucie Arnaz’s fiery, explosive, and heartfelt musical tribute to the rhythm of her roots and a love note to the man who introduced La Conga to the United States, her father, Desi Arnaz. Sophisticated songs with sassy sizzle! $50/35/20
Jazz Meets Gershwin—Hosted by Michael Feinstein
November 04–8:00 PM
Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Gershwin represents American music at its best and Festival Miami, JazzRoots and the Arsht Center assembled the best to perform it for you: Michael Feinstein, Denyce Graves, Shelly Berg and Terence Blanchard with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra
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A Toledo, OH native, a graduate of Kent State, Marla E. Schwartz is a Senior Writer for Miami Living Magazine, a freelance writer for Lighthouse Point Magazine and the a cultural arts columnist for AroundWellington.com Her photographs have appeared in these publications, in many Ohio periodicals, as well as in The Miami Herald, The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and The Palm Beach Post. She has had numerous plays published and produced around the country. Her short play, America’s Working? was produced in Los Angeles at both the First Stage and the Lone Star Ensemble theater companies, in Florida at Lynn University and at an Off-Broadway playhouse in NYC. Her piece, The Lunch Time Café, was a finalist for the Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville. Please check out the re-prints of her interviews with authors Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson and Dexter novelist Jeff Lindsay in the October 2010 issue #2 and Chris Bohjalian in the April 2011 issue #3 of Duff Brenna’s ServingHouse: A Journal of Literary Arts at www.servinghousejournal.com. You can contact her at marlaschwartz@att.net.