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NEWSLETTER
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The Playwright and the Singer
Brian Mori’s newest play is scheduled to open off Broadway in March, and Liz McKeon is taking her cabaret act to Europe.
They are just two of several former and current Foundation staff who have developed pursuits in the arts beyond their work at Ford, turning avocations into acclaimed careers.
Debra Vogel, for example, a current staff member in the Foundation’s New York headquarters, is a singer and actress who has appeared on many stages, most notably at the club Don’t Tell Mama on West 46th Street in the the heart of New York City’s theater district. She has created several cabaret shows, including “An Evening of Love”, “Love Addiction and Other Affairs of the Heart” and “Foreign Affairs”.
One reviewer referred to a show she developed with the singer Brian Tom O’Connor, “Guy and Doll”, as “a hilarious and touching new cabaret/revue” in which the performers “mine the grand treasure trove of the musical theatre for humor and poignancy.”
John Koprowski, who worked in financial services from 1982 to 1993, is a well-traveled actor and singer described as a “multi-faceted artist”, eliciting accolades for his work in film, theater and music, ranging from Shakespeare to rock and roll and with frequent performances in comedy programs. He created an acclaimed “musical journey through the days that created the 60s sound”, a cabaret show titled “Five Years That Rocked the World”.
Brian Mori has had considerable success with a series of plays produced and praised in a variety of venues, including theaters in New York City and California.
His newest play, “Hellman v. McCarthy”, deals with the “greatest literary feud in modern American history,” says the playwright, and focuses on the night of January 24, 1980, when the novelist Mary McCarthy appeared as a guest on The Dick Cavett Show and famously declared that “every word” Hellman writes “is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.”
Says Brian, “Hellman being Hellman (even her friends feared her venom) went ballistic and sued McCarthy and PBS and Dick Cavett and Dick Cavett’s production company for libel.”
An intriguing aspect of the production, due to open March 14, is that Cavett will play himself, and PBS plans to tape the performance.
His plays have been staged by theater groups throughout the country, and three have been anthologized. One of these, “Adult Fiction”, set in a Times Square pornographic bookstore and movie arcade, won the Davie Prize for playwriting and was published in the anthology New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2000.
He also has a screenplay in pre-production, “OBSCURA”, which he describes as a “dark thriller”.
Mori worked at Ford for 24 years in an administrative capacity in the Rural Poverty and Resources and the Community and Resource Development units. He’s now a consultant to the Foundation, working in the Metropolitan Opportunity and the Education and Scholarship units.
Liz McKeon has a new job as Programme Director of the IKEA Foundation and was scheduled to move to Holland in January to begin work there.
“In my free time,” she said, “I plan to scout music venues and musicians with an eye towards performing jazz and standards.”
She had a busy year last year, performing cabaret-style shows as fundraisers for such charities as the New York Alzheimer’s Fund; Cycle for Survival, which benefits cancer research, and the civil rights organization Lambda Legal, all of which were held at Don’t Tell Mama and the Duplex Cabaret Theatre on Christopher Street in New York’s Greenwich Village.
The “legendary” Duplex, as it calls itself with considerable justification, was started in 1950 under the direction of the actor Hal Holbrook and prides itself on working with the “best and brightest up-and-coming” composers, singers and comedians as well as established Broadway professionals.
The club commits itself to providing “a dynamic platform for emerging talent, performers seeking to launch their careers and hone their craft.”
“Over the summer,” Liz said, “I also spent time helping a friend kick off a new foundation for global jazz talent, inspired by his experience at the Berklee College of Music program in Valencia, Spain.”
She worked at the Foundation from 2008 to 2011, first as its representative in Russia and then as director of the Special Initiative on Urban Poverty in Developing Countries.
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