Today we are #LIVEintheHIVE with actor and playwright, Joanna Rush, who has a new performance piece, No Malarkey! headed to The United Solo Theatre Festival on March 16, 2024. She and I have so much to talk about, so many parallels to our journeys, but in particular, the theme to which I return again and again… the artist as healer. In this episode, we explore the edges where storytelling and trauma, activism and healing all meet. Joanna Rush is a playwright, actor, dancer, Interfaith minister, and author. Originally from New Jersey, she moved to NYC to dance with the famed ROCKETTES, and went on to work as a dancer, choreographer, and actor on both coasts, on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the country, as well as in film and television. Her Broadway credits include A Chorus Line, Shirley McClaine at The Palace and Pousse-Café, and Off-Broadway credits include Daughters, Inside Out, Grandma Sylvia's Funeral, Broadway Scandals of 1928 among others. Joanna is a seminary trained Interfaith/Inter-spiritual minister and counselor and received ordination through One Spirit Interfaith Learning Alliance. As a playwright, she wrote KICK – It’s not how high. It’s how strong! (Formerly titled Asking For It) and has performed it Off Broadway and at All For One Theater Festival, 2013: NY Society for Ethical Culture, The Kirk Theater, Stocker Arts Center, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Gloucester Stage, and in colleges and theaters across the US. She was chosen to perform sections of the play for “International Women’s Day” sponsored by the United Nations Counsel on the Empowerment of Women” and the Hunger Project. She was nominated for the Off-Broadway Alliance OBA Award for best performance in a solo play. In this episode, we focus on her powerful one-woman No Malarkey! “Joanna Rush is Joe Biden’s karmic twin and proud of it. Their careers have been parallel — maybe with a few exceptions. Ex-Rockette, Joanna Rush still does huge fan kicks and Joe did recently fall off his bike, but what they share are tumultuous Catholic upbringings, near death experiences, astrological signs, and a “no malarky” approach to life and the Supreme Court.” Joanna is masterful at mining both the trauma and the comedy from her life to explore the themes of rape, abortion, religion, feminism, ageism, climate change, and voting rights to uplift, educate and empower her audiences! Listen in to this compelling conversation! Watch on Youtube: https://app.maximizeu.life/podcast/edgeofeveryday Find Joanna: www.JoannaRush. com @Rush_Joanna Connect with your host Sandra Bargman: WebsiteYouTubeInstagramLinkedIn
