Here is my sonic salute to New York through the music and the artists that define it from coolomundo jazz and folk legends to its and rock and punk heroes.
My fave artists from New York include actor / lead singer David Johansen of The New York Dolls who I chatted with a few years back by phone, and Lauri Anderson who I had the pleasure of meeting when she played The Perimeter Institute! Plus I play Maggie Estep, The Ramones, The Cramps, Iggy Pop, Regina Spektor. Tom Waits and Lou Reed – All from NYC! – Coral FM
A very special thanks to my friends Lorca Peress, Steve McGraw, and John Tank for showing me the many sides of the City That Never Sleeps. – Coral FM
LORCA PERESS (President) is the Founder and Artistic Director of MultiStages, and an across-the-boards theatre artist specializing in new works. Ms. Peress’ diverse artistic background (primarily theatre, visual arts, dance, music and writing) led her to create MultiStages, a theatre company where artists from different disciplines would work together to produce extraordinary theatre. In her role as MultiStages Artistic Director, she has developed and produced all productions, readings and festivals, and supervised four New Works Contests. Ms. Peress has also conceived and directed the majority of MultiStages’ productions, and has acted in and designed puppets and masks for several. She is a native New Yorker, a Bennington College graduate, and did her professional study at the Lee Strasberg and Eugene O’Neill National Theatre Institutes (NTI). Her formative training was through several internships with Missouri Repertory and Stage West in Massachusetts, where she assisted directors Rae Allen (former Artistic Director of Stage West), Vincent Dowling (former Artistic Director of Alley Theatre, Dublin), and Harold Scott (Broadway and Regional director). At NTI, she also assisted writer Dale Wasserman in the O’Neill Playwriting Conference and worked with Theatre for the Deaf. In addition to her work with MultiStages, Ms. Peress has appeared or directed at Missouri Repertory, Stage West, The Walnut Street Theatre, Orlando Opera Co., The Century Theatre, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Repertorio Español, Lambs Theatre, Dixon Place, Theatre for the New City, HERE, The Colleagues Theatre, La MaMa E.T.C., The Sackett Group’s Women’s Work Festivals, NYU Tisch, Teatro La Tea, Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Hudson Guild Theatre, Access Theatre, the Players Club, and Latino Playwrights (Raul Julia founder). Ms. Peress has been a playwriting contest judge for Repertorio Español’s Nueces Voces I and II, the Ohio State Council on the Arts, La Mia Ink, Lee Strasberg One Act Contests, and the MultiStages New Works Contests. Ms. Peress has received an Inky Award from La MaMa Experimental Theatre Co. through the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, numerous MultiStages producing grants, and several La Mia Ink! playwriting awards. She has served on the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Production Committee, Curator for NYU hotINK Festivals for Strasberg (2002–2010). She teaches in the NYU Strasberg Studio and at the Lee Strasberg Institute, and is a member of numerous theatrical Unions, and is the Co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women.