My play PARTY TALK is now streaming on the podcast STANDBY FOR PLACES, available on Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts! “Marie and Dave have an intimate conversation as a friend’s party begins to wind down. The boundaries are set as we listen in to these two navigating their way through primal desires and intellectual fortitude.”
I played Juliet’s Nurse/The Widow in the comedy IN JULIET’S GARDEN at Schenectady Civic Playhouse on 4/3/2022 alongside a bunch of awesome people! Much thanks to my fellow cast members and director Laura Darling!
In February 2021, I wrote the six-minute play OPERATION BLACK FLY in about four hours for Art in the Public Eye’s 2021 Virtual Play Festival to benefit the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls, NY. The play won 2nd Place for Best Overall Play, and actor Lauren Whiting tied for 2nd Place for Best Actor. I’m very proud of the work my awesome team did! Check out the YouTube video of the play on my Videos page under Media, and follow APE on Facebook HERE.
Early recovery from addiction is a delicate balancing act, and social events become a minefield. At a friend’s birthday party, recovering alcoholic Marcy finds herself locked in battle with the alluring Voca, the manifestation of both alcohol and her yearning for it. Will today be the day?
My play Not Even One played in Confetti Fest 16 online from December 3 – 13, 2020. We received the following Roving Adjudicator Merit Awards from TANYS (Theatre Association of New York State): Meritorious Achievement in Playwriting, Excellence in Direction by Linda Shirey, Excellence in Ensemble Acting by the Cast, Meritorious Achievement in Lighting by Nick Nealon and Linda Shirey, and Meritorious Achievement in Costuming by the Cast. It was an amazing premiere I’ll never forget!
I recently did some writing for a local blog called “Girl Gone Smart”. My posts “ECT = Electroconvulsive Therapy” and “Not This Time” have already been featured on a well-known Capital Region blog “What’s Up in the Neighborhood”. Check out the first post HERE and the second HERE!
AWESOME UPDATE: Roman Jaquez‘s film The Way Forward is making the festival rounds and winning big! We won Best US Drama at the World Film Fair in Los Angeles, and I was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the International Film Festival in Milan, Italy! We ended up taking home Best Cinematography in Italy as well, and my friend Yury Tsykun took home Best Supporting Actor at the Festival in London. I’m so proud of this film! Check out two trailers in my Videos section; I’ll let you all know when The Way Forward reaches a streaming service!
In September 2019, I accepted a paid part-time internship with the Martin Van Buren Historic Site in Kinderhook, NY. Over the next several months, I synthesized farming documents and reports into a new interpretive guide for the MAVA tour guides titled “Fashion, Free Soil, and Forward Motion: Martin Van Buren’s Farmland 1839 to 2020.” I’m very excited to have contributed to the National Park Service!
In July 2019, I appeared as astronomer Henrietta Leavitt in a full production of Silent Sky with the Schenectady Civic Players. It was a life-changing experience with an amazing cast, stage manager and director. “There’s a reason we measure it all in light.” Click HERE for more information about the Schenectady Civic Players.
In February 2019, I presented my combined academic/dramatic research on German female sexuality during and after WWII at the Capital District Feminist Studies Conference at Skidmore College (pictured). I graduated from UAlbany with a Master of Arts degree in Public History in May 2019.
In May 2018, myself and my fellow UAlbany grad students Dustin Connors, Lindsy Bystroff, and Jonathan Peters created the film (F)Empowered, a documentary about the empowerment of women through movement and exercise. It recently won Third Place in the 15 Minutes Max Student Film Festival at the College of St. Rose, and placed as Honorable Mention in the Documentary category in the SUNYWide Film Festival at SUNY Oswego. Go visit my Media: Videos page to watch (F)Empowered!
My one-act post-WWII drama Adele in Berlin placed as a FINALIST in the Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival in NYC in August 2015!
The cast was made up of Tana Sirois (Adele- nominated for BEST ACTRESS), Parker Madison (Yuri), Joshua Popa (Tony), April Leonhard (Elise), David Bowen (Johnny), Gonzalo Vargas (Russian Soldier), and Eileen Elliott (Klara). Cameron McIntosh (nominated for BEST DIRECTOR) directed the piece. I’m very grateful to my team for their hard work, talent, and dedication, and to all those who supported us online and/or in person. To each and every one of you: thank you!
Lydia Nightingale 