What’s a Salon?
BY FRED CHERNOW
In today’s parlance, a salon
is a beauty parlor. But in
19th-Century Europe, it was
“a gathering place for cultured
people to amuse one another and
to refine their tastes of the finer
things in the arts.”
On October 24, in Building #1,
Apartment 30 E, a salon took place.
There were 18 guests of hostess
Marilyn Chris. Marilyn gave a
cold, first reading of a hot, new
play, Nannie Doss: The Jolly Black
Widow. Not only was this a one
act play, but it had just one actor,
and that actor was Marilyn Chris.
The audience was riveted by her
performance in what the playwright
calls a comic/drama.
Playwright Marsha Lee Sheiness
started her professional career in
Los Angeles as an actor with a
BA in Speech and Drama, before
moving to the Big Apple. She was
an original playwright-in-residence
at Playwrights Horizons in NYC
and has had her work produced
by PBS Channel 13/WNET and
Off Broadway, as well as in Japan,
Canada and England. Her musical
adaptation of the Charles
Dickens literary classic, Great
Expectations, with music and lyrics
by Robert Bendorff, was a 1997
finalist for the Richard Rodgers
Award.
Sheiness has also had an equally
impressive career as a director,
overseeing more than thirty productions
of her own work as well as such
stage classics as Bus Stop, Little
Shop of Horrors, and The Miracle
Worker. And for many years, has
served as teacher/mentor/lecturer
and Dramatist Guild member. She
was present at the Salon and paid
rapt attention to Marilyn’s interpretation
of her script.
You all know Marilyn Chris as
co-producer, along with husband,
Lee Wallace, for five years, of the
Short Film Festival. She appeared
in Brighton Beach Memoirs on
Broadway and for 20 years on ABC
TV’s “One Life to Live” as Wanda.
She is a recipient of Drama Desk,
Obie, Outer Critics Circle awards
and Variety Critics Poll.
After the one-hour, ten-minute
reading of this thought-provoking
play, a light supper followed.
The NST residents who attended,
including this one, discussed making
the salon experience available
to other interested residents. Any
suggestions or questions?
Playwright Marsha Lee Sheiness and actor Marilyn Chris
888.838.0808 Toll Free 844-44-CARES Florida
44 NORTH SHORE TOWERS COURIER ¢ December 2017