A:Is for the Art in your own backyard

We always think we have to go outside our own front door to find art. Sometimes and most often for me it has been right where I have lived. My Mom and sister were artists. My parent’s friends were artists. Some of my ex’s have been exceptional artists. Being a singer, actress, writer, producer makes me an artist. So I guess it should come as no surprise that I live in the generational home of artists. The last time I was looking for a place to live I didn’t know I was going to end up becoming part of a family and finding my roots. I had been in Provincetown doing “Batboy” and was coming home to NY. I was going to take over the apartment of my friend Raquela who played the Acid Queen in “Tommy” and “Julie” in "Showboat" on Broadway. She had just signed a recording contract and was off to places unknown and I was the grateful recipient of her rent-controlled apartment. She had left the key with a friend who had disappeared. I came back to be displaced. A friend asked me to sing for a benefit for Katrina and then asked me to help produce. I told him of course but I needed a place to stay so he offered his house as a temporary refuge. His place was an enormous apartment in the Chelsea Hotel that looked like a home. I though that is what I want. That night I went onto craigslist and answered an add. That is how I met Caroline Thomas, Robert Benes and their daughter Elissa. What started out as a family renting a room has become much more.

Robert is a painter and his paintings adorn the house. Their lush vibrant colors jump off the canvas and into your soul. They speak volumes while being mute. Robert started in High School. At San Francisco Collage he improved his craft and mastered the technique of three dimensional design. Under Sol Bernstein he developed a hand/eye coordination by not looking at the page. His ideas come from meditation, nature and people. It is his life experiences that breath life into these three dimensional slates. Having exhibited in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and of course NY it is in his home where almost everyone who sees them asks who did them and Robert modestly nods…. Me. Besides being a painter he is also an actor and along with his wife Caroline Thomas started Total Theatre Lab Productions.












Last Sunday they had their first reading of a play called “DemocracyInAction” which was well attended and will soon be showcased on Joe Franklin's TV
Show. "DemocracyInAction" is a play in which Caroline wrote. She is a actress, teacher, writer and director. Though if you ask Caroline she will only state writer. She is the descendant of Elissa Landi the actress who starred in the original productions of “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Sign of the Cross”. She brought Laurence Oliver to prominence and was also a writer of some renown. To see more on Caroline, log onto www.totaltheatrelab.com and check back here to see when the next reading happens for this terrific new company. Art doesn't have to be in a gallery to be great, sometimes it is right where you wake up and that is a F.A.C.T.