Margaret Ladd Headlines VICTORY GIRLS, Starting Tonight at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity

This summer, The K.G. Scully Players are pleased to present VICTORY GIRLS, by Kristina Poe, directed by Jill DeArmon, as part of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. The festivity will take place June 13-July 10th at The Clemente. Tickets are $18 and are available at www.planetconnections.org.

Seventy-five years ago Josie was a radical beat poetess and a dangerous downtown denizen. Now back in New York City for a reunion of her USO Jr Hostess gang, Josie is haunted by a memory she cannot outrun. Her granddaughter Rachel wants to keep Josie safe. Josie, however, has paid a dear price for something she failed to do in 1942. Not all casualties of war happen on the field of battle.

Victory Girls is a play about love, friendship, and the importance of finding the courage to live your own life.

VICTORY GIRLS will star Margaret Ladd (FIRST BORN, "Mozart in the Jungle", Woody Allen's "Crisis In Six Scenes", Falcon Crest) as Josie, and will co-star Valeria A. Avina, Jamie Klassel and Leah Raymond.

(the June 30th performance will feature Megan Greener going on for Ms. Klassel.)

VICTORY GIRLS features costumes by Alexis Forte, and sound by Jaden DeArmon.

VICTORY GIRLS performs:
Sunday June 18 at 8:45pm
Wednesday June 21 at 7:15pm
Sunday June 25 at 4:15pm
Friday June 30 at 9:15pm
Sunday July 2 at 5:15pm
Saturday July 8 at :15pm

VICTORY GIRLS is an Equity approved showcase, and all actors are appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Valeria A. Avina - "Rachel"
actress, writer, producer and a voice teacher based in NYC originally from Durango Mexico. MFA Acting at the University of Iowa, Fitzmaurice Certify Voice Teacher, Associate Producer at Gabriela Dias Entertainment and a Board Member of BBr Productions Inc. Recently she finished shooting a horror film called INVEIGH, and Episode for The Ralph Friedman Project Season 1.Valeria, is a member of the Saudade Theatre Company, The Other Realm Theatre, INTAR Unit 52, Teatro SEA, The Flea (The BATS), Navigators Theatre Company, Rising Sun Theatre Company, VASTA Member ,a member of AGR Immersion, and she is the Co -founder of a Latino Web Series called "Claro Wey". www.valeriaavina.com

Jamie Klassel - "Mary Beth"
NYC credits: Philip Roth in Khartoum (LAByrinth Theater Company, Public Theater); Dear Darkness (The Ohio Theater); Cynthia and The Dreadful Kite (Lab's Barn Series at The Public); Sahm's Club (The Kraine); Work (Ars Nova), Venezuela (Irish Arts Center, Players Theater); Blackouts (Center Stage); Hamlet (Zipper Theater). Regional credits: Murder on The Nile (Dorset Theater Festival); The Little Prince (Roundhouse Theater).

Margaret Ladd - "Josie"
Margaret Ladd returned to New York City, where her heart has always been, and since then has appeared as Malcolm McDowell's wife in Mozart in the Jungle as well as Woody Allen's "Crisis in Six Scenes." Margaret Ladd is an award winning actress whose career has spanned Broadway, Film and Television. Margaret made her professional stage debut at the famous Williamstown Summer Theater where she played Kathleen the Irish Maid in Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" with Olympia Dukakis. And Cordelia in " King Lear" From there she went on to her New York debut to star in Mike Nichols Off-Broadway production of "The Knack" followed by "The Great Indoors" on Broadway with Geraldine Page. This production was followed by several other Broadway plays including "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." Starring Zoe Caldwell. Margaret was accepted unanimously as a Life Member of The Actors Studio.

In film Margaret Appeared in Robert Altman's "A Wedding;" Peter Yates' "The Friends of Eddie Coyle;" with Robert Mitchum; Lindsay Anderson's "The Whales of August" starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish. (Margaret played Bette's role as a younger woman). On Television she has portrayed many roles, and is probably best known for a nine-year stint as Emma Channing, Jane Wyman's eccentric daughter for which she won the Soap Opera Digest award for best Comedic Relief in a Dramatic Series. This past year Margaret Appeared as Malcolm McDowell's wife Claire in the Amazon series "Mozart in the Jungle."

Margaret's love for theater lead her to create the "Imagination Workshop," After working on the world premiere of a play by Eugene Ionesco at the Berkshire Theater Festival and she and Ionesco witnessed a performance done by mentally ill patients. This experience proved to Margaret that these people could, with the help from professional theater artists, while safe behind a character that they created, turn their already highly developed imaginations outward and become creative as artists do, instead of inward and delusional. This program has attracted international recognition. Some of our major theater artists have joined Margaret and her playwright husband Lyle Kessler who developed the work together.

Margaret and Lyle have twins, Katharine and Michael Kessler. The family moved back from Los Angeles to New York, the city they truly love, after Steven Adly Guirgis saw Margaret in a play of his at the Elephant Theater in Los Angeles and invited them both to work with the Labyrinth on many plays. In 2012 they were invited to become Labyrinth Company Members.

Leah Raymond - "Young Josie"
Leah received her BA in theatre from Florida State University. Favorite theater credits include work with The One Minute Play Festival, LAByrinth Theater Company, Cherry Lane, Urban Stages, Primary Stages and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Some TV credits include WHAT WOULD YOU DO? , Alec Baldwin's Love Ride and Mansions & Murders. Find her at www.LeahNRaymond.com .

Jill DeArmon - Director
Jill DeArmon started teaching theater at public elementary schools while she was still attending Baltimore School of the Arts. After studying dance and theater at Philadelphia University of the Arts, she co-founded the theater department of the still thriving Young People's Theatre Company (YPTC) in Maryland where she directed 10 shows in four years. Jill moved to New York City in 1995 and since then she is a proprietor of Center Stage NY, has taught at ps11, Rebels With Applause, and The Lee Strasburg Institute. She was The Managing Director of LAByrinth Theater Company (Artistic Directors: Philip Seymour Hoffman & John Ortiz) from 1999-2002, and she is co-founder of Developing Artists Theater Company. Jill's New York choreography credits include: Stopless (LAByrinth Theater Company), Erin Cressida Wilson's Trail of Her Inner Thigh (LAByrinth), John Patrick Shanley's first musical A Winter Party (LAByrinth Theater Company), A Taste of Honey (Theatre 22), and Vanessa Hidary's Culture Bandit (Nuyorican Poets Cafe). Jill's Producing credits include; LAByrinth Theater Company's Stopless, In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings, and Culture Bandit & Darwaza. Her directing credits include: David Deblinger's Cockamamie Soup, Developing Artists' Runaways, Knee High to a Microphone, We Said Out Loud, These Days, Billy Sleepyhead and LAByrinth Theater Company's The Fairy Tale Project by Webb Wilcoxen. Her most recent work is as choreographer for Queen Latina & Her Power Posse: the Reboot (created by David Anzuelo, at Cherry Lane Theatre) and as director of Bree O'Connor's SAHM's Club (FRIGID New York, Horse Trade Theater Group) . Jill is a LAByrinth Theater Company member and Artistic Director for Developing Artists. www.developingartists.org

Kristina Poe - Playwright
Kristina Poe spent the first twenty years of her theater career stage/company/production managing regionally and in New York, including a seven year stint as company manager for LAByrinth Theater Company. Her first play, LOVE SICK, was produced in both L.A. (extended twice, and named one of the Top Ten Reviewed plays in L.A. in 2011) and NYC, and is published by Dramatists Play Service. Her next play, THE RESTLESSNESS OF DESIRE, closed out LAByrinth's 2012 Barn Series and was a Semi-Finalist for the O'Neill Conference; her most recent play, THE IDEA OF ME, was part of Cherry Lane Theatre's Mentor Project, with Chay Yew as her mentor, and was also included on The Kilroys Honorable Mention list of 2015. Ms. Poe's work has also been developed at Barefoot Theater Company, The Actors Studio, The Public Theater, NY Madness, Nylon Fusion Theatre Company and Cincinnati Playhouse. She received the Celebrating Women Playwrights grant, attended University of North Carolina School of the Arts, is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company and The Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Workshop.

The Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is New York's premiere eco-friendly/socially conscious not-for-profit arts festival. Fostering a diverse cross-section of performances and events, the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity seeks to inspire artists and audiences both creatively and fundamentally, in a festive atmosphereforming a community of like-minded artists. At the heart of the Festivity are like-minded individuals striving to create professional, meaningful theatre, music and film, while supporting organizations which give back to the community at large.

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