When Sitting All Alone in Your Room IS a Cabaret
Friday, September 18, 2020 at 4:30
Community Gathering on Zoom - register with the bright red reservation box to receive the Zoom link.
Some of the game-changing initiatives that cabaret is taking to generate intimate performances on isolated platforms. And how performance material needs to meet the current cultural moment.
In the room: Bernie Furshpan, managing partner of Metropolitan Room and founder of MetropolitanZoom virtual cabaret; Natalie Douglas, actor, cabaret performer, educator, music historian; Alexis Fishman, actor, cabaret performer/coach; Mardie Millit, cabaret performer.
Panelists
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NATALIE DOUGLAS
12-time Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs Winner. She has been called “a true force of nature,” by Clive Davis of The Times (UK). She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Cafe Carlyle, The Town Hall, Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Pheasantry in London, and at her NYC home club, Birdland Jazz Club where her award-winning TRIBUTES monthly residency (Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Elvis, Dolly Parton, Nat “King” Cole, Dame Shirley Bassey, Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack, Joni Mitchell, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lena Horne, Barbra Streisand and more) is now in its fourth year and her portrait hangs on the Wall of Fame. She is also the recipient of two Backstage Bistro Awards, a Nightlife Award and two awards presented by the Mabel Mercer Foundation, The Donald F. Smith & Margaret Whiting Awards. Natalie has released three albums, including the MAC Award Winning “Human Heart. Natalie has also made her mark as a much sought after educator & actor - she is a Master Teacher for the Mabel Mercer Foundation, the St. Louis Cabaret Conference & the Eugene O’Neill Cabaret & Performance Conference. Natalie holds a Bachelor’s Degree from USC in Psychology, Theatre and Women’s Studies and a Master's Degree from UCLA in Psychology and Theatre. For more info, visit www.nataliedouglas.com
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ALEXIS FISHMAN
Born and bred in Sydney, Australia, Alexis is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). She was nominated for a Helpmann Award for her performance as 'Young Dusty' in Dusty, her first show after graduating. Alexis then went on to star in some of Australia’s biggest musicals Including Shout! and the award winning Sydney premiere of Kiss of the Spiderwoman. Other Australian credits include Urinetown, Closer, Troupers for the Sydney Theatre Company as well as plays at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Darlinghurst Theatre Company and Monkey Baa Theatre Company. Alexis is the creator of seven solo cabaret shows including the award winning Club Gelbe Stern which made it’s US debut at the NYMF where Alexis was awarded ‘Outstanding Individual Performance’. Other shows have been performed across Australia at the Adelaide and Melbourne Cabaret Festivals, Shir Madness Jewish Music Festival, The Reginald Theatre, Chapel Off Chapel, Ginger’s at the Oxford Hotel and Claire’s Kitchen. In New York, Alexis’ shows have been seen at 54 Below, Pangea, JCC Manhattan, Triad NYC and Laurie Beechman Theatre as well as venues in New Jersey, Ohio and Florida. Recent highlights include performing one of her newer shows, Amy Winehouse: Resurrected alongside Amy’s father, Mitch Winehouse at City Winery, NYC in May 2019. Alexis is also a cabaret coach, helping clients realize their dreams of creating engaging, intriguing and sparkling cabaret shows.
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BERNIE FURSHPAN
manages professional singers and songwriters and is the Booking Director at The Triad Theater in NYC, and the former owner of The Metropolitan Club (2011-2017). The Long Island resident was born in Israel and came to this country in 1963 to be raised in Brooklyn, where he graduated with honors from James Madison High School. Later, when a pre-med student at Stony Brook University, he found time to be a drummer in the rock band, J&B, and was a cartoonist for the Fortnight and Statesman publications. Dr. Furshpan went from graduating New York Chiropractic College to owning one of the largest practices in New York State for 27 years. While practicing, he invented the Furshpan Maneuver to correct disc bulges and herniations. Never forgetting his love of sports, he produced one of the biggest sponsorship pitches on behalf of NASCAR to Nextel for the Cup Series. Finally, before taking ownership of The Metropolitan Room (named NYC’s # 1 jazz/cabaret venue by New York Magazine), he summited Mount Kilimanjaro on his 50th birthday and delved into a successful comedy career. Once COVID hit, he created MetropolitanZoom, an innovative simulated reality of a live nightclub show with a live audience utilizing the Zoom.com platform.
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MARDIE MILLIT
“Evoking both Bette Midler and a young Carol Burnett” (Stephen Holden, New York Times), vocalist and comedienne Mardie Millit is “high-level finesse and charm” (Larry Myers, Ptown Nitelife). At Elaine’s, the legendary show business and literary nightspot, where she appeared for its final three years, Mardie became known for her late-night duets with TV and movie heartthrobs and even a former head of the CIA. She has also made regular appearances at the Monkey Bar, the Rainbow Room, Birdland, Iridium, 54 Below, and Joe’s Pub, both as a solo performer and with on- and offstage partner Michael Garin. Mardie has appeared regionally in a slew of classic musical theatre roles and in New York premieres of original shows by the likes of William Peter Blatty, Billy Stritch and Mark Waldrop. Her most recent theatrical endeavors have been with Dream Productions at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, where she has played Joanne in Company, the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, and Berthe in Pippin, and (deities willing) will be playing Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd in 2021. She has been performing her music/comedy show, Live from Lockdown! regularly on Facebook Live from her Harlem living room since April with nothing but a piano playing husband, a smartphone, and a dream.
