Arts In Creative Pinellas
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- Arts
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Creative Pinellas is the designated arts agency of Pinellas County. We bring you the stories of artists, performers and creatives through our podcast and in our journal at creativepinellas.org.
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Arts In – Eugenie Bondurant
Eugenie Bondurant is film and TV actor, cabaret singer, teacher, director, international runway model – and part of the heart of St. Pete.
At an age when many women actors are struggling to find good roles, she was cast in the pivotal role of Tigris in the last Hunger Games film. In 2019, she started work on a DC comics film called The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and starred with Harry Connick Jr. in Fear of Rain, a national film that was shot in St. Pete, playing a very scary villain and talking Cole Porter to Connick during breaks.
They'd already auditioned over 100 guys for that part and couldn't find anyone they liked. When they let Eugenie audition, they rewrote the villain to be a woman.
Then she got a call from the director, who said they'd been doing test runs of the Conjuring film and feedback from audiences was that they wanted much more of her character. So amid the pandemic they actually rewrote and re-shot much of the film to expand Eugenie's character. She got a whole new look, new lair, new backstory, more stunt work – and a DC comic based on her character, with material from scenes she played in the film.
Last year she joined the Marvel universe via Werewolf By Night – as an elegant and deadly monster hunter in a fun classic horror film world, in an ensemble with Gael García Bernal and Harriet Sansom Harris directed by multi-Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino.
And after 25 years of teaching acting, Eugenie opened up her own acting school – Station 12 Studio. Classes take place in front of the big screen at the intimate Greenlight Cinema. She still appears in and directs local indie films and shorts, and uses her storytelling skills to bring classic songs to life with her piano-playing husband, Paul Wilborn.
Eugenie shares these amazing stories – and how as an actor, she works hard to humanize the villains that she plays onscreen.
A vibrant 61 years old when this was recorded, as Barbara St. Clair notes, Eugenie Bondurant is "living her best life."
Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley
Executive Producer Barbara St. Clair -
Arts In – Merry Lynn Morris
Dancer, choreographer, professor – and inventor – Merry Lynn Morris talks with Barbara St. Clair about her work exploring dance and disability, and how dance companies and educators are embracing a diversity of dancing bodies in performance.
Published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast magazine on May 16, 2023 – https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
Photo by Jim Lennon – Mary Lynn Morris and Dwayne Scheuneman in ML Morris choreography -
ThinkTank Young Artists' Ensemble Singers
Members of ThinkTank TYA's Young Artists' Ensemble Edwin Noah Perez, Kaylee Tupper Miller and Jadon Milne share their thoughts on how it feels to sing.
Published in the Arts Coast magazine feature "Both Sides of the Bay Cabaret" by Creative PInellas 5/12/23. -
Beacon 2023
Cindy Stovall talks with Helen French, Lauren Slone and Alexander Jones about 2023's Beacon dance celebration at St. Pete's Palladium Theater.
Featured in "Beacon 2023" published in the Creative PInellas Arts Coast magazine on April 25, 2023 – https://creativepinellas.org/magazine/beacon-2023/ -
Arts In – John Parks
In a potent conversation ranging through his fascinating career, dancer and educator John Parks talks with Barbara St. Clair about his experiences touring the South with the Jose Limón Company during segregation, his inventive teaching philosophy – and how he helped the undervalued dancers in the movie version of The Wiz go on strike for equal pay and credit. . . and win.
Transcript available at https://creativepinellas.org/magazine/arts-in-john-parks/
Photo by Tom Kramer -
The Agitators at freeFall Theatre
Cindy Stovall of "Beauty & The 'Burg" talks with actor Jennifer Christa Palmer, who plays Susan B. Anthony in freeFall Theatre's 2023 production of "The Agitators" by Mat Smart, and Matthew McGee, freeFall's director of community outreach.