“My Letter to Fear” Event Recap

Over the weekend, we at IBG hosted our first-ever staged reading. We brought together ten fantastic actresses from screens big and small to appear live and on stage in Los Angeles for My Letter to Fear, an original work by our own Patricia Steffy, the proceeds from which would benefit fellow local charity the East L.A. Women’s Center. The beauty of an event like this was not only the chemistry that immediately clicked when the women sat down together on stage, but also just how each woman infused her own personality into the pieces.

My Letter to Fear looked at a wide variety of women’s issues — from the “perils of aging,” to abuse, fear, and neglect, to reflections on worth and dreams. Interspersed with the fictionalized monologues were also a couple of very real letters, describing experiences of the women who have been helped by the East L.A. Women’s Center — women who were in the audience and hearing their stories told through new, empowering voices for the first time. While Constance Marie, with the titular monologue, and Elizabeth De Razzo with “Shorthand,” had the audience tearing up, Jennifer Aspen’s spin on the serious “Worry,” and Tamara Taylor equally-so with “Gratitude,” won over the audience for their lighter takes, making what could have been dark and dramatic tales even more accessible.

Jen Lilley had the audiences in stitches when she ripped through a list of complaints women have about themselves in “Beautiful Women;” Lesley Fera tackled a topic that hit her close to home when discussing “egg freezing brochures” in “Women of a Certain Age;” Charlene Tilton reminisced over “Precise Girls;” and Elyse Levesque took on technology in “Legacy,” lamenting if all we’ll be reduced to is our history in 140 characters. Marie (braving an elder generation by playing a 74 year-old), Mekenna Melvin, and Tracie Thoms played off each other in “Perspectives,” debating at what age a woman truly has the best of her world. The culmination of the show saw all ten women reading with each other, though, as they gave advice to their former selves and the audience by association in “Letter to My Ten Year Old Self.”

Following the reading, the cast mixed and mingled with ticket-holders during a VIP champagne and dessert reception, once again keeping to IBG’s tradition of creating intimate settings designed to give everyone in attendance a personal experience. The women also took the time to say a few words to IBG about why they were happy to get involved for such a cause — and why they chose the piece selections they did — so look for those videos to be posted here on this blog shortly.

If you couldn’t be in L.A. to attend My Letter to Fear in person, you can feel like you were there with our photo gallery from the event, below. Additionally, the performance was filmed and will be available in our DVD store, with the proceeds also benefiting the East L.A. Women’s Center.

My Letter to Fear

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One Response to “My Letter to Fear” Event Recap

  1. July 2012 | My CMS says:
    July 29, 2012 at 8:13 am

    [...] in the event! Even from afar we can make a difference in helping women in some way or another! CLICK HERE  to read it. This entry was posted in Uncategorized by Scooby5. Bookmark the [...]

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