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Top brass at the 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) announced on Tuesday that the Oscar-nominated short film writer will serve as facilitator for this year’s Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion in September.

The fifth Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion will champion ten emerging filmmakers from the Caribbean and its diaspora and their feature film concepts.

Participants will be expected to develop a detailed treatment during the course and will pitch to a jury. The person adjudged to have presented the best project and pitch will win a cash prize of Tt$20,000, roughly equivalent to Usd $3,055.

Festival top brass will soon unveil the filmmakers selected for the Rbc Focus, which takes place from September 22-25.

Lazaridi was nominated for an Academy Award for her work on the 2001 WWII short drama One Day Crossing. Her 2011 feature Coming Up Roses starred Bernadette Peters and Peter Friedman and was directed by Lisa Albright.

She has consulted on projects for New Line and...

Today is Bernadette Peters’ birthday. Peters has taught theater geeks everywhere to embrace both their comic and dramatic sides, to sing their hearts out, and to wear their curly hair as big as they want to. Even if you only know her as Sophie in Anastasia, you know she’s got a voice. Here are five reasons we’ll always love the Broadway darling:

1. She can still make us cry singing “Rose’s Turn.”

When Peters performed a short version of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” on Smash it was wonderful, but when she performed as Mama Rose in Sam Mendes’ Gypsy,...

Imagine Gypsy’s Mama Rose transplanted to a depressed New England town decades later and you have the flavor of Coming Up Roses, Lisa Albright’s debut feature starring Bernadette Peters, who actually played the role in a Broadway revival. Playing a failed musical theater actress struggling to raise her younger daughter under dire financial circumstances, the veteran actress provides a touch of blowsy glamour to this determinedly gritty indie. Set in 1985 in a crime-ridden New Hampshire town, the film depicts the plight of the unemployed Diane (Peters), who clings to her show business past even as she struggles to

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Today BroadwayWorld is particularly proud to present an exceptionally exciting exclusive byway of this career-spanning chat with two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway legend Bernadette Peters. In this all-encompassing conversation we discuss many aspects of her storied career, with a special focus on her upcoming feature film, Coming Up Roses, which opens this Friday in NYC - a gritty and uncompromising independent feature offering Peters a searing central role as a struggling actress with a teenage daughter Rachel Brosnahan and their shared experiences cohabitating in 1980s era New York City. In what very well could be her finest dramatic performance of the new millennium, Peters does it all in Coming Up Roses she even gets to sing in it - the soundtrack features a familiar Fiddler On The Roof tune, a Kander amp Ebb gem and even a stirring original song. Additionally, Miss Peters also sheds some light on her role in...

So, the workshop happened. And Michael (Will Chase) is out as Joe Dimaggio. (Bye-bye, Michael. No more sneaking kisses with Julia in plain sight.) He wasn’t gelling with the show — “Marylin: The Musical” that it, not Smash — and he had to go. His performance was suffering from the torrid affair. And the writing process itself had become stifled since Julia’s head wasn’t in the game. But she’s more important than Michael so he was shown the door.

(And frankly, the scene where Julia sits in for Ivy as Michael goes over lines was pretty dumb — and pretty on the nose. So, an upside is that we’ll never have to see a moment like that again.)

Anyway, most of the episode not involving the workshop is devoted to Ivy (Megan Hilty) and her Broadway diva mom played by Bernadette Peters (for you non-theatre folks, she was...

Smash destroyed a childhood memory of mine with last night's episode. Well to be fair it's not really Smash's fault. See, with Bernadette Peters guest starring this week I'd been fondly recalling seeing her perform “Music Music Music” on The Muppet Show. But when I searched online for the clip, I couldn't find it. That's because she didn't sing “Music Music Music” on The Muppet Show. Teresa Brewer did. So for thirty years I've been fondly recalling something that never existed. It's jarring.

Anyway, we're one day before the workshop and we open on The Most Repulsive Pairing In Show Business, Michael and Julia, holding hands on a public sidewalk. The way you do when you're carrying on a secret affair. Thankfully Eileen and Derek approach before I get too nauseated.

Upstairs in the rehearsal space it's sweltering. Ellis informs the cabal that the super told him the boiler's acting up.

When a big Broadway star like Bernadette Peters makes her way onto a national TV program, Broadway babies await it with abated breath. Yet, when a big Broadway star like Bernadette Peters appears on an actual musical TV series like Smash, Broadway babies have reason to throw an all-out bacchanal - and, last night, they most certainly had a reason cause celebre. While Glee has spoiled us with a plethora of guest stars from Broadway and Hollywood over the course of its three seasons - Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Carol Burnett and Patti LuPone among them - the presence of two-time Tony Award-winner Peters - to say nothing of the forthcoming appearances by Norbert Leo Butz and Marc Kudisch - is a gift from the theatrical gods that instantly makes Smash must-see-tv for the theatrically attuned among us which, lets be honest, is most of us. Playing Ivy Lynns blithely...

Before I say a single word about this week’s episode of Smash, can we pause to discuss Bernadette Peters’ performance of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”? Holy mother of Broadway, I can honestly say I grinned ear-to-somewhere-three-inches-past-my-other-ear for the duration of the brassiest, most charismatic number in Smash‘s seven-episode history.

And just as impressive was Peters’ turn as Leigh Conroy, Broadway legend, tsunami of charisma, and not exactly World’s Greatest Mom to our fair protagonist Ivy Lynn. (Come on, you know Leigh did her vocal warmups before she jumped in that cab to the workshop space.)

When...

NBC

Finally, the darn workshop is here. But first Julia and Michael Swift secretly hold hands on the street, rudely interrupted by Derek and Eileen who are also on their way to rehearsal. It’s the day before the workshop and Derek is crabby. He must be nervous. Oh, and there’s a problem with the heat in the rehearsal building. It’s like 100 degrees in there. Michael and Julia get frisky in the hallway and are caught by a none to happy Tom,...

Smash watchers know that wannabe Broadway star Ivy (Megan Hilty) has issues. And not just the kind caused by last week’s mood swings, which were the side effects of her taking prednisone to heal her vocal chords. She’s competitive to a fault. But that’s understandable, seeing that she’s always lived in the shadow of her Tony-winning mom, Leigh Conroy, who shows up in tonight’s episode. Below the real-life multiple Tony-winner who portrays Leigh, Bernadette Peters, tells us what to expect.

Entertainment Weekly: What was Ivy’s relationship to her mother when she was growing up?...

Happy Birthday to Kellan Lutz (above), who is 27, Will.I.Am is 37, Eva Longoria is 37, and rock ally Mark Hoppus is 40. What are your favorite Blink 182 songs. I haven't really followed their music that much, but I do love that one video where they run around naked. Oh wait ... that's all of them.

In ratings news, ABC's Wednesday night comedy block was down across the board, except for Happy Endings, which was up 20% from last week ... when it didn't have a new Modern Family paired with it.Meanwhile, last night's much-buzzed about episode of Whitney was also down, but not as cataclysmic as follow-up Young Drunk Chelsea.Dianna Agron has been named host of the San Francisco portion of this year's GLAAD Awards.Sebastian Stan and James Wolk will star as the twin sons of Sigourney Weaver in the USA series Political Animals. 100 Real Tweets from Homophobes Who Would Murder Their Gay Child Unbelievable.

Big voices apparently run in the family on Smash. Next Monday, Broadway great Bernadette Peters makes a guest-star turn as Ivy’s (Megan Hilty) mother, Leigh Conroy, who was apparently once a legend in her own right.

In the exclusive clip below, Peters (only somewhat reluctantly) performs a rousing rendition of the classic “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy to the delight of Tom, Julia, Karen, and other gawking onlookers from the Marilyn cast and crew.

It’s refreshing to see a big Broadway classic on a show that so often features more modern songs. Have you been watching Smash?...

2011 Woodstock Film Festival will be opened by Bruce Beresford's "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding" which is set to make its U.S. premiere, reports Variety. Catherine Keener and Jane Fonda star in the film. Also making their premieres is Lisa Albright's drama concerning a mother and daughter "Coming Up Roses," the documentary "Fat Cows Lean Cows" from helmer Meni Elias and "Another Happy Day"starring Ellen Barkin. "Giving Back," Meera Gandhi's humanitarianism documentary has a special screening where Mark Ruffalo, thanks to his anti-fracking community activism, is set to receive the Meera Gandhi Giving Back award.

2011 Woodstock Film Festival will be opened by Bruce Beresford's "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding" which is set to make its U.S. premiere, reports Variety. Catherine Keener and Jane Fonda star in the film. Also making their premieres is Lisa Albright's drama concerning a mother and daughter "Coming Up Roses," the documentary "Fat Cows Lean Cows" from helmer Meni Elias and "Another Happy Day"starring Ellen Barkin. "Giving Back," Meera Gandhi's humanitarianism documentary has a special screening where Mark Ruffalo, thanks to his anti-fracking community activism, is set to receive the Meera Gandhi Giving Back award.

2011 Woodstock Film Festival will be opened by Bruce Beresford's "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding" which is set to make its U.S. premiere, reports Variety. Catherine Keener and Jane Fonda star in the film. Also making their premieres is Lisa Albright's drama concerning a mother and daughter "Coming Up Roses," the documentary "Fat Cows Lean Cows" from helmer Meni Elias and "Another Happy Day"starring Ellen Barkin. "Giving Back," Meera Gandhi's humanitarianism documentary has a special screening where Mark Ruffalo, thanks to his anti-fracking community activism, is set to receive the Meera Gandhi Giving Back award.

I feel that before I start my review, I need to give a brief overview of Stephen Sondheim and his influence on musical theater. Sadly, I know that just by saying “musical theater,” many people have already tuned out and moved on with their lives. They should be paying attention, though. His work broke down barriers in American entertainment and made audiences rethink love, relationships, and the traditional idea of heroes and villains. If you care about film, television, comics, or any other art form, you should care about Stephen Sondheim, and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert shows just how much he has changed songwriting and storytelling.

For those who do not know Stephen Sondheim by name, it is likely that you recognize some of his work. He wrote the lyrics for West Side Story. He wrote the oft sung and parodied “Send in the Clowns” as well as “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,...