Studio Theater in Exile presents “Once Upon a Happily Ever After”

ONCE UPON A HAPPILY EVER AFTER

During Quarantine, Producer Jeremy Gratt and Artistic Director Mara Mills of Studio Theater in Exile collaborated with Patricia Stotter, Paul Genega, and Jonette O’Kelley Miller to produce a new take on the timeless: Fairy tale women open their hearts in imagery and song, freed from their happily ever afters.

Stop by STUDIO THEATER IN EXILE’S black box in Hudson Valley MOCA OCTOBER 1-DECEMBER 1. 2022. to see the film. Thursdays and Saturdays. 11-5:

Created By: Paul Genega, Jeremy Gratt, Jonette O’Kelley Miller, Mara Mills, Patricia Lee Stotter

Songs Written By: Paul Genega & Patricia Lee Stotter

Singers: Rosemary Loar/Laura Theodore;

Piano/Arrangement by: Donald M. Rebic;

Curator: Jonette O’Kelley Miller

Video Editing: Jeremy Gratt, Mara Mills

BIOS

Patricia Lee Stotter: Two-time Emmy Award winner Patricia Lee Stotter composes and writes for film, theatre and television. From SESAME STREET to HBO/PBS documentary films, from independent features to plays and musicals, Stotter is all about the right voice at the right time. Her deep engagement in veteran issues shows in the films she has both produced and composed music for (and which have been screened on the Hill). Awards: Emmy Awards (two wins, five nominations); American Cine Eagle; Apple Award; Shining Service Worldwide Award; Silver Star Award from the Volunteers of America.

Paul Genega: Paul Genega is the author of six full-length collection of poetry and six chapbooks. His awards include the Lucille Medwick Award (New York Quarterly), the “Discovery” Prize (The Nation) and an individual Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Perhaps, a portfolio of poems with etchings by Aaron Fink, is in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art and the Harvard Museums, among others. Genega is Professor Emeritus at Bloomfield College, New Jersey, where he founded the creative writing program and served as Chair of Humanities. A new and selected collection of his poetry is due out by Salmon Poetry (Ireland) in 2023.

Jonette O’Kelley Miller is an independent art historian and art consultant. Her work, research and writing are informed by the duality of visual culture in its ability to both expose, as well as, unfortunately, substantiate social injustice. Her article “A Primer on Visual Racism” appears in Tiffany Lin’s 24 Views. Her most project with STIE and Hudson Valley MOCA is the online exhibition “Truth-telling: Voices of First People”.

About Studio Theater in Exile

Studio Theater in Exile is a collective which morphed out of the Newman Theater and Theater in Odd Spaces. Formed in 2018, Studio Theater in Exile shares and builds upon the mission of these previous organizations, and now supersedes them as an official entity. The Newman Theatre, in Pleasantville, NY, ran from 1993 to 2005 and its mission was to “Bring the Arts and Community Together”. Besides mounting established plays, the Newman was known for encouraging and creating original work, including Promised Land, about the Holocaust which began at the Newman and toured from SUNY Purchase to Budapest, Hungary, Memoirs of a Mad Masseuse written by Westchester Playwright Staci Swedeen, and Shedding Light, an Abeles award winner that toured the tribe-state area. After the Newman Theater closed, the executive team ran Theater in Odd Places from 2005-2018 wanting to continue the mission and focus collaborating with others and produce new works presented in unusual venues. And thus Studio Theater in Exile was born. Mara Mills and Jeremy Gratt, cofounders with Marsha Newman of the Newman Theater and partners in Theater in Odd Spaces are the founders of Studio Theater in Exile. Karina Ramsey joined the administrative team in August 2018. Evan Bishop and Katori Walker joined us this year, both as creators and members of the collective.

mission: Studio Theater in Exile collaborates with playwrights and performers to create and develop original work. Studio Theater in Exile is a company without a space that collaborates with its environment. It is an outgrowth of the belief that theater takes place anywhere and can be performed anywhere – in the streets, galleries, libraries, museums, black boxes, backyards, and even on a stage. We have been working with performers and playwrights to develop work that can be performed in any venue. Co-founders, Mara Mills and Jeremy Gratt have worked together, since 1991, to present original work, based on the art in an exhibition, a social justice issue, history, or the spark of an idea. Karina Ramsey joined Studio Theater in Exile in 2018.