Broadway Supports Cancer Patients At Visible Ink's 10th Anniversary Live Performance

On Monday, April 16th, members of the Broadway Community came together to perform in Visible Ink's 10th Anniversary Live Performance, featuring works written by patients from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Led by special guest stars Marin Mazzie and Susan Lucci, the cast and creative team included actors, singers, dancers, and musicians from film, television, and Broadway. The Production was performed at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, and was directed by Visible Ink's Artistic Director, Greg Kachejian.

Founded in 2008 by award-winning novelist Judith Kelman, Visible Ink is a writing program whose mission is to promote creativity, reduce stress, and empower people diagnosed with cancer by giving voice to their stories. Patients can write on any topic in any form (essays, fiction, memoirs, poetry, stage or screenplays, songs, lyrics). The writing need not be disease-related. Participants are mentored, one-on-one, by a seasoned writer. The 200+ volunteer mentors include Emmy and Tony Award-winning writers and composers, NY Times bestselling authors, and editors and writers from Vogue, The New Yorker, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, US Weekly, and Vanity Fair. Since inception, more than 1,900 patients have enrolled in the program

In a beautiful demonstration of Broadway's powerful influence on individuals, the finale piece, Harmony Amidst MRI Dissonance, written by Courtney Vashaw, recounted the story of how she chose to listen to Broadway soundtracks while undergoing body scans. During the tests, she would try to reconcile the musical subtext with the avant-garde time signatures of the machine. As she recalled the showstoppers that played through her earphones, stars of those shows recreated their iconic musical moments onstage behind her. The piece was narrated by Tony Award-Nominee, Marin Mazzie, and also featured Devin Ilaw (Miss Saigon), Marva Hicks (The Lion King), Javier Ignacio (Side Show), Kathryn Mowat-Murphy (A Chorus Line), and Shannon Rugani (An American in Paris).

For the 6th straight year, Andrew David Sotomayor returned to his role as Music Director. Matthew Steffens was this year's Choreographer.

The evening also celebrated the publication of Visible Ink's 10th anthology of works by patients. Visible Ink is offered free-of-charge to all participants; the program is supported solely through grants and donations. For more information, to make a donation, or to purchase an anthology, please visit www.mskcc.org/visibleink