November 29, 2007
Laughter is the best medicine, second acts, and positive
chi
One of the things The Three Tomatoes love most about being
three tomatoes, is that it‘s opened so many new doors to meeting really interesting, funny, and fabulous people -- especially those who
have changed the course of their lives and are following their passions. So pour yourself a cup of coffee (unless of course
it’s cocktail time, in which case, a martini will do) and sit back and meet three women who will inspire you.
Everything’s a laughing matter
Laughter is exactly what Saranne Rothberg turned to when, as a single mother with a five- year-old daughter, she learned that she had
stage four breast cancer. On her way home she stopped at a video store and later that night watched a marathon of the comedy
videos she had rented. Today after 11 misdiagnoses, three surgeries, four chemotherapy protocols, and 44 radiation treatments, she
is cancer free and heads the ComedyCuresFoundation, which she
launched from her chemo chair in 1999, as an outgrowth of her personal experience with the “healing power of a comic
perspective”.
ComedyCures® is a national non-profit organization bringing joy, laughter, hope and therapeutic comedy programs to kids &
grown-ups living with illness, depression, trauma and disabilities. Through the goodwill and humor of the comedy industry,
and private and corporate donations, ComedyCures® digitally and personally entertains and educates millions of people a year living with illness,
their families and medical caregivers. You can find out more about ComedyCures' award-winning therapeutic comedy programs at www.comedycures.org.
Saranne has a simple goal—to help you find joy in your journey. She has
received many humanitarian recognitions, including being selected by Oprah as one of her 100 most inspirational heroes. Now
she’s one of ours too. You can read more of her story at Oprah.com.
Talk about a second act
We met Pat Addis, a Broadway producer (Little Women and Spring Awakening), a couple of years back
at an event at The National Arts Club, and have
since been on her mailing list for all kinds of performances and events that Pat is involved in. And since everything
we know about producers we learned from Mel Brooks, we thought it would be really interesting to talk to a real producer.
First, let us say, Pat does not fit the male, cigar chomping, deal making producer stereotype. She’s diminutive,
soft spoken, and until you know her background, you’d think was one of those” ladies who lunch” type gals, at well places like
the National Arts Club in Gramercy Park. But over
lunch, a very different story unfolded.
Pat is a true New Yorker, born and raised here, and today
lives in Gramercy Park. She graduated from Finch with honors in costume design and
merchandising, and started out in acting, modeling, and writing -- that was before she got married and had three children. Then
she did a 180 degree turn and started a premium promotion company which she ran successfully for 30 years, before turning it over to her daughter in
2000. Then she was left with the “what next” question.
Now for a lot of folks in Pat’s position, the answer might have been to chill
out, travel, and take life easy. But that is not Pat. She was looking for something far more exciting. She
has always been in love with the New York theater, so she decided to turn her passion into her next act. She enrolled in an
intensive 14 week course at the Commercial Theater
Institute, which offers training programs for commercial theater producers. She dabbled for a while in
off-Broadway and then produced her first Broadway show Little Women in 2004. Since then she has been involved in
Chita Rivera, The Dancers Life, Bridge & Tunnel,
Shout, and Spring Awakening. What she really loves is introducing audiences to plays she loves (her first criteria for
producing) --new musicals like, At the Back of the North Wind, which you can see at The Players Theater Monday December 3. It’s described as a “A magical flight for the whole
family into a world of possibility”. And in a nutshell, “A world of possibility” is really what
describes Pat herself. Now that’s a tomato.
Finding your inner chi and more with Feng Shui
Joan Stigliano has been a professional interior designer for
thirty-some years (although she would prefer that we said twenty-some years, and her youthful appearance would let her get away with that
too.) Now Joan has always loved her profession, but her real passions have always been animals, art, and nature.
Then one day in the late 1980s, she attended a seminar on the “new” ancient philosophy of Feng Shui, the Chinese art of
placement that seeks to bring people and their environments into a positive relationship with one another. She was intrigued, and
when she got an invitation to participate in a five-day intensive training seminar, she attended and was “hooked”.
She then went on to get a three year professional certification and today is
considered one of the leading Feng Shui designers in the New York area. What Joan loves about Feng Shui is that it
let’s her combine all of her passions - design, animals, art, and nature, and it literally has changed her life. And today,
feng shui design is very important in creating “green environments” which she loves too. And now, here’s
the best part. Joan is joining The Three Tomatoes “Ask the Experts” as our resident feng shui design
expert. Check out her article this week on “Going Green with Feng Shui, The Wisdom of Nature”.
Here's to the healing powers of laughter, a world of possibilities, and positive
chi.
'til next week,
The Three Tomatoes
Copyright©2007. The Three
Tomatoes. All rights reserved.
