Student Blogger: Bea Mienik

In this musical adaptation of Fellini's 8 1/2, NINE features one man and the dozens of women in his life.

It is late July 2022, marking my fourteenth Disability Pride month and the fourteenth anniversary month of my being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.

All I knew about COMPANY was that I was entranced by its design (killed it, marketing team), I loved the art on the Playbill, and as a college student, I loved the $59 price tag of the rush ticket even more.   ... As a musical theater major, it was an exceedingly rare thrill to go into a show knowing absolutely nothing about the plot. In hindsight, I do not know if I would have asked for a warning, if I could have gone back in time. 

This one-of-a-kind school is located in Sherman Oaks, California, and educates young adults on the autism spectrum “for careers in animation, visual effects, 3D gaming, and other related fields in the digital arts.” 

For Autism Acceptance Month, Student Blogger Bea shares a story of autism acceptance through t-shirts.

2022 marks the 10th Anniversary of the Academy’s founding. Exceptional Minds hopes to double their enrollment in the next five years. They need help from me, you—all of us—to continue providing evermore rewarding, creative and good paying job opportunities for young adults with autism.

The more I learned about autism, the more I wanted to help the autistic community, especially because there is so little autism representation in media and art. I wrote a lengthy paper that proposed that special interests are the key to directing neurodivergent actors. Autists are experts in their special interests, and using specific parts of their special interest as reference allows a clear understanding of what is being asked. The step-by-step process is already complete by recalling a topic where the knowledge is already possessed. I used WandaVision as an example and explained how my method would work.

Just recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing editor Eric Litman about his newest series, The Hot Zone: Anthrax. Litman is best known for his work for Marvel on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as Black Sails, Magnum P.I., and Charmed. Currently Eric is an editor on Star Trek: Picard, a continuation of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

'You are everything.' is the line that touched me the most in Martha Gogakou's 16-minute short film, Dharmadhatu. I first saw the piece at the 2021 New Media Film Festival®, and I enjoyed speaking to its creator this past weekend. Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, Martha Gogakou has an impressive resumé. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University of London Upon Thames, an MA in Audio and Visual Arts from Ionian University, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Audio and Visual Arts department at Ionian University. She specializes in digital drawing, experimental video art, live cinema performance, and drawing in front of live audiences.

Last Wednesday, Christmas came a little early for me, as I found myself lunching at Below 54 while listening to Broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell. He was on hand to accept a $100,000 donation on behalf of the Actors Fund from the Tabernacle Choir.

“#GivingTuesday is an opportunity for people around the world to come together through generosity in all its forms by sharing acts of kindness”.

BRECHT ON BRECHT is playing now through November 20th, 2021.

This past week, I interviewed Roxanna Lewis, director of the film Mandy’s Voice. The film entails the story of “a curious and intelligent non-verbal autistic girl [who] struggles to communicate. Her mother is desperate to provide the necessary tools for survival in a world where if one is without a voice ~ one is invisible to the world as well.” 

On Sunday, October 10th, 2021, the “#BroadwayToHollywood: A New Age of Musicals” panel took place at New York Comic Con. Packed with excited fans, the panelists shared valuable information and touching sentiments about the importance of stories and the process of bringing a show from the Great White Way to the Silver Screen. 

In this new series, Felix the Cat and friends face the mysterious Xilef the Extraordinary, an all new foe more powerful than all of Felix's past enemies combined. Can Felix and friends (classic and new) save the world from this Magical, Melodramatic, Machiavellian Malcontent?

Welcome to Bea's NYCC Speed Interview Series! As I attended New York Comic Con 2021 (October 7-10, 2021), I did a series of short interviews with influential creators. For issue #9 (final issue!), here's a speed interview with Axel Alonso, Chief Creative Officer of AWA Studios. Previously, he held roles as DC Comics Vertigo (1994-2000), Executive Editor of Marvel (2001-2011), and Editor in Chief of Marvel (2011-2018). AWA Studios was 'founded by Marvel alumni and strategic investors with a mission to build a creative and business ecosystem that will bring out the best in creators with something significant to say and show and to show their works to the world'. He is famously known for an unusual switch in careers: journalism to comics.

Welcome to Bea's NYCC Speed Interview Series! As I attended New York Comic Con 2021 (October 7-10, 2021), I did a series of short interviews with influential creators. For issue #8, here's a speed interview with James C. Mulligan, an artist for The Walt Disney Company. His paintings are collected by impressive names, including (but not limited to!) Johnny Depp, Roger Daltrey, Neil Patrick Harris, (the late) Hugh Hefner, Chuck Liddel and the Presley family. Before his current work with Disney, he performed in national Broadway tours.

Welcome to Bea's NYCC Speed Interview Series! As I attended New York Comic Con 2021 (October 7-10, 2021), I did a series of short interviews with influential creators. For issue #7, here's a speed interview with comic artist Joe St. Pierre. Works include Marvel (Most Spider-Man #1 comics, Venom) and DC (Aquaman) as well as his own works, the Fabien Cousteau Expeditions and The New Zodiax.

Welcome to Bea's NYCC Speed Interview Series! As I attended New York Comic Con 2021 (October 7-10, 2021), I did a series of short interviews with influential creators. For issue #6, here's a speed interview with Jackie Cox, best known for placing 5th in the 12th season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Welcome to Bea's NYCC Speed Interview Series! As I attended New York Comic Con 2021 (October 7-10, 2021), I did a series of short interviews with influential creators. For issue #5, here's a speed interview with artist Tim Doyle of Nakatomi, Inc. Nakatomi, Inc, established in 2009, is a 'a full-service Silkscreen print shop, and Music/Pop art collective'. His past clients include Marvel, Dark Horse, Cartoon Network, Studio Canal, Metallica, Failure, 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Kings of Leon, and George Strait.