Self Rediscovery by Robin Gorman Newman

October 3, 2011 – 6:03 pm

It’s never too late to see your passions come to fruition….even as a mom caught up in parenting.

I’ve adored theatre my whole life.

In high school, I was part of the ensemble of Anything Goes.  While singing is not my strength, I won the role of an Angel, and took pride in that status.  My family came to cheer me on, and it was an experience I’d not soon forget…and still makes me smile.

In college (Hofstra University), I was the Arts Editor of one of the school newspapers, and when I graduated, my dream job was to become a professional Theatre Critic.  But, when Frank Rich was hired by the NY Times that very year,  my bubble was burst. He had scooped up the job I yearned for. So, instead, I took an entry level job in corporate America and freelanced on the side writing theatre reviews for the Queens Tribune and other local publications.  While not prestigious like the Times, it kept me on the pulse of theatre, and I got to see many shows and do interviews with performers and other entertainment folk.  I was in my element!

Over the years, reality set in and the lure of a paycheck, and as I ultimately found my way to a career in public relations, my theatre critiquing took a backseat.  I still attended shows but as a leisure pursuit.

When my books were published, How to Meet a Mensch in New York and How to Marry a Mensch (decent person), I was delighted to be an author.  As a little girl, I dreamed of writing books (I used to make them as a kid) and one day seeing my book in a store or library and to catch someone actually reading or buying it.  That dream was realized!

But, in the back of my mind, the thrill of theatre always loomed.

I decided to explore what it might be like to become a producer.  I reached out to some producers, and they were kind enough to meet with me.  One, who has sadly passed away…way too young….became my cheerleader and would invite me to readings of shows so that I could experience that part of the process.  Then, one day, out of the blue, he said to me MENSCH: THE MUSICAL.  I’ll never forget it!  And, I said, what?!  And, he replied and repeated as if it were a no brainer.  MENSCH: THE MUSICAL.  And, I said, really?!

He was suggesting that my books might be adapted for the off bway stage as a musical and that he had interest in the project.  I was stunned…thrilled….and scared out of my mind.  I didn’t have playwriting experience.  I took some classes and took at stab at it, but had no level of confidence in my ability.  So, I tabled it…but never forgot.

Parenting became my focus, and I launched MOTHERHOOD LATER…THAN SOONER after being tired of feeling like the oldest mom in the playground.  I’ve worked at the site and organization tirelessly for about 6 years now (and continue to), and a friend one day said to me that it’s my “platform.”  I knew what that meant…but didn’t grasp what it was leading to or what specifically she might have been alluding to.  Did she know something I had yet to discover?!

She was right!  One day, I got wind of a show that had just closed in LA called IN MOTHER WORDS.  I reached out to introduce myself and didn’t think I’d ever hear back from anyone.  Then, I got a pleasant surprise.  The co-creators/producers reached out to me via email and suggested we arrange a chat.  I wasn’t sure if they had an agenda or what I even had in mind, but at the very least, I wanted to know more about the production to see if MotherhoodLater.com might somehow support it.  Clearly, we were curious about each other, and that’s a good place to start.

I had been writing theatre reviews for MotherhoodLater.com and working with marketing companies on a promotional level…since reaching moms and mom bloggers had become all the rage…and I know how to do it!  So, I knew I could do that for IN MOTHER WORDS.

What emerged from our phone conversation was so much more.  I understood these women.  I liked these women.  They excited me.  The conversation was stimulating, supportive, and I felt a connection to kindred spirits.  The project was something I wanted to be part of.  Little did I know, they were planning to next bring it to New York City.  The name became MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD, and they sent me the script.  After a read and further discussion, and a meeting with the NY-based conceiver/producer, I was sold.  Associate Producer became my title, and I’ve embraced it with everything I have!

                                                  (photo credit: Steven Rosen of http://www.stevenrosenphotography.com)

 At 51, I’m coming home professionally.  What a smart marriage of my parenting efforts and love of theatre.  The universe planned it perfectly….even if I didn’t see it coming.  I was putting the steps into place on a gradual basis.

I’m now working on writing the book for MENSCH: THE MUSICAL, and I look forward to seeing that come to fruition one day.

My spirit has come home.  I’m psyched and feel like I’m on the career path I was meant for.

Who knows what the future will bring?  But, I do know that if I can do it, you can do it.  What is it you’ve always longed for professionally?  What steps can you take?

It’s certainly not easy even contemplating that when you’re in the throes of everyday parenting.  I get that, and sometimes feel like a chicken without a head, but if you want it badly enough, it may be done.  So, I urge you to go for it when the timing is right, and aim high…even if it means taking baby steps alongside your child!

A BIG thank you to Susan Rose and Joan Stein, and the rest of the MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD team for welcoming me with open arms!!   And, if you haven’t already seen the show, it’s a must see for any mom or anyone with a mom! See it with your mom or daughter! You’ll find it to be a bonding experience, with much to talk about.  My eight year old son has asked to see it, and I plan to take him.  It excites me that he wants to see how mommy spends her time.  I hope that he one day too will follow his passions.

Stay tuned for MENSCH: THE MUSICAL…..coming one day to an Off Broadway theatre near you.

 

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Motherhood Out Loud – Review from the Huffington Post

September 26, 2011 – 9:19 am

By Rochelle Jewel Shapiro

Motherhood Out Loud, now playing at Primary Stages after 59 E. 59th St, makes you feel as if someone has read your mind or your mother’s or your grandmother’s, because no one would dare to say outright what the actors are saying on stage. The twenty scenes, united by themes of mothering that span birth to death, were written by a collection of playwrights that includes Beth Henley, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Some of the stories are true, some are composites of the playwrights’ friends’ stories, and others are invented. But they all feel true, intimate, and necessary.

There is magic unfolding as you watch Saidah Arrika Ekulona (Obie award winner for Ruined) morph into a Muslim mother of a teenager who just got her period to a divorced mother whose son is sent to Afghanistan, to a teenager interviewing her grandmother. James Lecense (winner of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award) is believable whether he is playing the male character or the character’s mother, Elizabeth. Randy Graff (Fiddler on the Roof (2004) and winner of the Drama Desk and Tony awards) can have loud, pull-your-hear-out desperation as a sleep-deprived mother as well as quiet desperation in Queen Esther when she plays a woman whose son wants to go to a Purim Festival as Queen Esther. Mary Bacon (The Good Wife, Law & Order) can go from the panic and joy of a new mother to a mother-in-law who needs wising up.

My prediction is that Motherhood Out Loud will be a hit. It’s already been warmly received in L.A. and Greenwich Connecticut. I see this show as a hit in New York and lighting up stages all over the country: Florida, Texas, Washington, and more, then on to London.

From Motherhood Out Loud, whether you’re a mother or not, you’ll get an appreciation for just how thorny the role is. You might even end up forgiving yourself for the inevitable messes you’ve made with your children or your mother has made with you. And all the while, you’ll laugh hysterically and become tear-glazed, knot-throated, what my Russian bubby used to call “farklempt.”

Follow Rochelle Jewel Shapiro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@rshapiro

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From the show’s writers – Claire LaZebnik

September 22, 2011 – 6:56 pm

We all want things to go well for our kids, and sometimes we push harder than we should in our efforts to make that happen.  Michael’s mother gets a little too excited when her teenage son goes on his first date: her expectations are high as she drives the kids to and from their movie.  But because her son has autism, she panics and jumps in too quickly when the conversation starts to falter–and succeeds in making a bad situation worse.

I’m the mother of a teen on the autism spectrum so was able to draw on some personal experience for this fictional monologue.  I wanted to write something that was specifically about having a child with autism but would also resonate universally.  And one thing every parent of a teenager learns is that very few things are actually within our control and sometimes the best thing we can do for them is take a step back.
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Why we can never escape our siblings

September 11, 2011 – 6:16 pm

New science sheds light on how birth order and brother-sister relationships shape our lives. An expert explains.

By Mandy Van Deven

Siblings

Zurijeta via Shutterstock

Sometimes a family tragedy can expose bonds you didn’t know existed. That’s what happened with my younger sister and me. Although just 11 months apart, we could not have been more different: I rebelled as hard as she conformed, and if you met us at a party … well, that would never have happened, because we never went to the same parties. If we hadn’t been forced to spend summers together with our dad after our parents’ divorce, my sister and I would have spent scarcely any time together at all. Then my mom was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and given less than a year to live. Suddenly, for the first time in our lives, my sister and I were not only inseparable but totally in sync.

Some patterns came naturally, since they were holdovers from when we were kids. Negotiating household chores was a breeze. I agreed to wash the dishes if she would dry and put them away. The next night, we swapped duties. Other moments of synchronicity caught us by surprise, like realizing we both avoid dealing with our emotions by taking on more responsibility. During the nine months my mother fought a losing battle for her life, she found joy in watching her daughters put aside their childhood differences and learn to appreciate each other as adults.

In “The Sibling Effect,” science writer Jeffrey Kluger argues that the relationships we have with our siblings are the most important ones of our lives. From the time we gain a brother or sister, they can be both our fiercest competitors and closest confidantes. They teach us the social skills we carry for life and stand by us during our best and worst experiences — divorce, the birth of children and our parents’ deaths. In his book, Kluger uses the latest scientific findings to explain the meaning of everything from birth order to the stigma of the only child.

Salon spoke to Kluger about the enduring loyalty of siblings, why treating children the same is a bad idea, and the problem with being the middle child… (read the rest of the article here)

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From the show’s writers – David Cale

September 5, 2011 – 10:51 am

My friend Janice Paran, who is the dramaturg on Motherhood Out Loud, got in touch with me to ask if I would like to write a monologue for the show. Janice described the show’s concept and told me that the cast would consist of three women and one man, and that they had one monologue for the actor and needed another, with certain requirements.

The show already had Marco Pennette’s brilliant (and hilarious) monologue about gay couple using a surrogate mother to have a child, so, for variety, so to speak, my monologue needed to be from the perspective of a straight man, and, for what she felt would be good for the overall script of Motherhood, Janice floated the idea out of the subject being the man’s aging mother who is subtly beginning to lose her faculties.

I was immediately taken with the idea of the show and being part of a multi-writer collaboration, and I was very intrigued by the subject that Janice had suggested.

Most of the monologues I write I feel are like portraits of people. Often times I try to portray a real person who has moved me in some way, though often giving them a fictionalized life. I lost my own mother when I was sixteen, so I don’t have experience of her as an older person, though I could imagine. So I zeroed in on my dear friend Billy’s mother, who I’d always found captivating, and who I’d always been in uncanny agreement with when it came to assessing contestants and their performances on ‘American Idol’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

I’d written a solo show about a NYC Central Park Carriage driver and Billy’s mother was in town from upstate New York where she lives. She wanted to take a carriage ride around the Park, and Billy called and asked me if I’d like to join them. “You could do research for your carriage driver show and observe Mom for the Motherhood show at the same time!”

In the cab headed uptown to Central Park, Billy and I had the most beautiful moment with his mother.

Very quietly she lamented to us that when she was a young girl everyone called her by her birth name, Elizabeth, but since she’d become an adult people had just referred to her as Betty.

“I wish people would call me Elizabeth again”, she said, “Betty’s just so blah.”

It was so human and intimate and affecting.

This is how ‘Elizabeth’, my contribution to Motherhood Out Loud, began.

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Most of Forbes’ Most Powerful Women Are Moms

August 27, 2011 – 1:28 pm

(CBS News) Forbes is out with its annual ranking of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Topping the latest list is German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton moves into the No. 2 spot, followed by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff at No. 3.

Women on the list come from politics, business, media, entertainment and non-profit groups.

Their power derives from money and might, but also social media, reach and influence.

Photos: Powerful moms

They control $30 trillion collectively. They’re 54 years old, on average. Twenty-nine are CEOs. Eight are heads of state. Seventy-four are list returnees. And 22 are single.

Among many noteworthy moves on the list: First lady Michelle Obama fell from No. 1 to No. 8, and Oprah Winfrey from No. 3 to No. 14..

Moira Forbes, president and publisher of ForbesWoman, discussed the list on “The Early Show” Thursday.

One number that stands out: Eight-eight percent of the women are mothers.

“It’s a percentage that surprised even us,” Forbes says. “Power women today are not necessarily choosing career or family. They are doing both.

“On average they have two kids. They have all taken unconventional paths as mothers.”

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Motherhood Out Loud  Cast Photo Call

August 25, 2011 – 10:35 am
The <em>Motherhood Out Loud</em> cast” width=”500″ height=”381″ /><p class=The Cast: Mary Bacon, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Randy Graff, and James Lecesne (© David Gordon)

The <em>Motherhood Out Loud</em>writers” width=”350″ height=”450″ /><p class=Writers Lameece Issaq and Michele Lowe (© David Gordon)

See more photos at theatermania.com

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10 Misconceptions of Moms and Back-to-school from Facebook

August 20, 2011 – 11:25 am

By Theresa Walsh Giarrusso, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Making the rounds on Facebook (similar to a chain letter) is an angry, yet funny list that some mother wrote about kids going back to school. The list has been passed around so much that the author’s name is no longer attached. (If the author is out there let me know and I’ll gladly give you credit!) I think it’s an angry, funny and pretty truthful piece. So read it and see what you think.

From Facebook, author unknown:

  • Misconception Number 1: Moms miss their kids when they go back to school. Seriously. I’ve had enough of you by now. Every morning with the “what are we going to do today, Mom?” is finally over. I’ve had looked at your face twenty-four seven for the last 77 days. It’s time to go learn something. No more asking me about the pool, when is the next snack or if you can stay up late and watch a movie. It’s over….You’re going back to Hogwarts and I get to have a life again. There is a Christmas morning for parents and it’s called “back to school”.
  • Misconception Number 2: Moms like to go school shopping. Are you freaking kidding me? Why do I pay taxes?…so I can rack up a 200 dollar bill at Staples for crap that we have laying around my house in junk drawers. Why does it have to be new pencils? What’s wrong with the chewed up, broken strawberry shortcake pencils sitting in the bottom of the toy box for the last 6 months? And how many subject books can you possibly need? What happened to reading, writing and arithmetic. If they added a couple of things for parents to that list I wouldn’t mind so much….why not pencils, erasers and vodka …..or some Nyquil.
  • Misconception Number 3: Moms like back to school night. Why must we do this every year? I got it already. You’re the teacher…I’m the parent. My kid is either going to be smart or dumb. If he gets a certain number or colored dot on his discipline chart, he can’t get a prize from the prize box. Pretty simple stuff. Listen, I’m pretty old school. If he doesn’t listen to you…you can throw something at him. I don’t care. But I got a lot of work to do at home and I’m paying a babysitter right now. Plus, I’m pretty sure you are going to assign some project on wigwams made by some Indian tribe I’ve never heard of, so I need to get home and start my research. So, I got it. We’re all here for the betterment of the kids. Blah Blah Blah. Can I leave now?
  • Misconception Number 4: Moms like school paperwork. How many trees are you planning on killing to tell me the same stuff I had to pay a babysitter to listen to the other night? You know our name, where we live and our emergency phone numbers. He doesn’t have a nickname….call him “stinkbutt” for all I care. We don’t have any “special circumstances” that you need to know about. He lives in a home with two parents who may or may not like each other at any given time and they will fight. If that qualifies as a reason he can’t get his homework done on time then he won’t be able to function as an adult and have a real job so you may want to “educate” him on that life lesson.
  • Misconception Number 5: Moms like covering books in that annoying sticky paper. What exactly will you be doing with these books that I have to cover them in a plastic laminate? Do you often teach in the rain? Or while the children are drinking soda and eating soup? Do you know how long that takes? Has any parent in the history of education been able to do it without any air bubbles in it? From now on I’m covering it the old way…brown paper bags. That way I can cover the books and pack their lunches at that same time. Who says moms can’t multitask?
  • PS. Please tell my son if he can’t find his lunch to look in his science book.
  • Misconception Number 6: Moms like helping you with your homework. What? I am scared out of my mind. I’m pretty sure that I forgot everything I learned in fifth grade by the time I was in sixth grade. I have no idea what you are talking about most days. I don’t really know my 12 times tables, I read the cliff notes to all your summer reading and I don’t know how to conjugate anything but I do know that song “conjuction junction what’s your function” if that helps at all. And please don’t even say the words “new math” to me. What the heck was wrong the old one?
  • Misconception Number 7: Moms can’t wait to pack your lunch every day until we die. I hate doing laundry. Making dinner every night is the bane of my existence, so making your lunch every day for an entire year, in terms of “mom fun”, lies somewhere between brushing plaque off the dogs teeth and scheduling my annual pap smear. Listen, as a child I hated what my mom packed me for lunch. But, like every kid before me, and every generation to come you will find a kid to trade with…I’m sure someone likes sardines.
  • Misconception Number 8: Moms love after school activities.I don’t know who made up this idea of organized clubs and sports but they should be the ones in charge of carting your ass around. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against all after school programs. I just wish they would offer it during hours that would work best for me so that dinner wasn’t at 8:30 at night followed by 4 hours of homework. Why not do it on the weekends and call it “after-hours activities” so mommy and daddy could actually go out one night and pretend that we have a life of our own. Don’t worry about us though I’m sure that me and “what’s his name” will be married a very long time.
  • Misconception Number 9: Moms don’t mind taking you to school if you miss the busYour bus comes at 7:10 am….which means that you should be standing by the door at 7:05 am. Not eating breakfast , chasing the dog around the house or in the bathroom, asking me to check your homework while I’m taking a shower. Get it together! I don’t like running down the street in my jammies at 7:12 screaming “Please wait” or “If you stop I’ll show you my boobies.”
  • Misconception Number 10: Moms cry on your first day of schoolWe do cry but they are tears of joy. I have done my job. I have successfully kept a human child alive for at least 5 years without doing any major damage. Motherhood is the hardest job in the world!! Sure, doctors save lives and CEO’s run million dollar businesses but…you teach a kid not to poop their pants and then you can say you’ve made the world a better place.”
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From the show’s writers – Claire LaZebnik

August 16, 2011 – 5:56 pm

About six years ago, I decided to try my hand at writing an essay for the Modern Love column of the New York Times. I wrote about my hope that my teenaged son would one day find romantic happiness and my fear that, because he was on the autistic spectrum, it might be a struggle for him.

I wrote it, edited it, and emailed it to the editor of the Modern Love column. After a day or two had gone by, I panicked that the email hadn’t gone through and sent another (pathetic) one, asking if he had received it. And he wrote back something along the lines of, “Yes, and I’ll be in touch shortly . . .”

He did get in touch. He had some edits, I did some rewriting, and the essay appeared in the paper a few weeks later. It was subsequently included in a book anthology of Modern Love columns.

Cut to last winter when I get a phone call out of the blue from someone who identifies herself as Joan Stein and asks me if I remember her. How could I forget Joan Stein? Her daughter went to preschool with my son!

We chatted for a while and at some point during the course of our conversation, it dawned on me that maybe this wasn’t the Joan Stein I thought it was. And that’s when I remembered that another Joan Stein had worked with my husband on a television pilot many years ago and was a well known theatrical producer. (I had never before realized that I knew two Joan Steins.)

Eventually I recovered from my confusion enough to pay attention to what Joan was saying. She explained that she and Susan Rose (who joined her on the phone call) had pulled together an impressive and diverse collection of playwrights to contribute different pieces to a play about motherhood. It had already premiered on the east coast, but now they were heading to the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles and were thinking they’d like to include a monologue about the mother of a teenager with autism.

Susan had picked up a copy of the Modern Love book somewhere and come across my essay in it. She had mentioned it to Joan, who said, “I know Claire! I worked with her husband!” Happy coincidence.

So then, on the phone, they asked me: had I ever written for the theater?

Nope, never.

Fortunately, they were still willing to give me a shot at it.

I was unbelievably lucky: I got a crash course in theater 101 from two masters. My first attempt at the monologue was stiff and formal. Joan and Susan patiently explained to me that it needed to be rougher, more immediate, more personal, more direct. I took their notes and tried again.

More notes, more drafts, a few meetings . . . and, to my great relief and delight, “Michael’s Date” became a part of the exciting and wonderful collaboration that is Motherhood Out Loud.

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Robin Gorman Newman chats with: Susan Rose and Joan Stein, Producers/Conceivers of Motherhood Out Loud

August 16, 2011 – 5:42 pm

Susan RoseJoan Stein

Where and when did the idea for MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD come from? 

Susan (left photo): I was a active Broadway Producer in the 80′s. When my daughter Samantha was born, I decided to become a full time mom. When she started first grade, I began working part time. I teamed up with a partner in LA, and we developed/produced movies for television. When Sammi was in High School, I saw the Sara Jones’s show BRIDGE AND TUNNEL. It explored the Immigrant experience in such a unique way, and I came out asking what is another universal subject that could be presented theatrically, and immediately thought MOTHERHOOD.

Joan, how did you and Susan come to partner on it?

Joan (right photo): Susan and I met 25 years ago in NY — we were part of the “young turks” in the NY theatre — and worked together producing on and off broadway as well as being part of The Producers Group – an organization comprised of young commercial producers –and we have been friends since then.

We each have had our own experiences with motherhood — for 10 years, my husband and I tried to have a family — after fertility operations, a miscarriage, and 3 failed adoptions – we finally decided that we had to focus our lives on what we have, and not on what we don’t have. And what we have includes loving friends and families, as well as a relationship with our niece and nephew — which is as close to parental as one can get without being the actual parents. Both of them now have children of their own, and we are lucky enough to still be very close. My niece refers to me as “Aunt Mommy” — which is just about the sweetest compliment I could ever imagine.

What are some of the subjects addressed, and how did you choose the particular playwrights included?

Susan: We figured out that it would be hard to attract the interest of one writer to write the show. Writers who write solo shows have their own ideas and are usually working on something personal to them. We decided to create a show by a group of writers to share varied mothering experiences. We wanted it to be authentic, real and honest, and the play covers diverse subjects such as immigrant moms, adoption, special needs children and same sex parenting. More importantly, it explores the life cycle and how mothers always have a role regardless of how old your children are.

What is the message you hope people will take away from the show?

Joan: I hope that everyone who sees the show will feel united by this universal experience — after all, we all are mothers and/or have mothers — and know that this one word — Motherhood – expresses membership in the same club where we have different, vital, meaningful experiences.

Tell us about the history of the show prior to arriving in NY? How did it come to be produced at Primary Stages?

Joan: Susan and I started by reaching out to writers whom we know and asking them to share their personal stories with us. All in all, we gathered more than 35 stories! About a year into this process, we brought Lisa Peterson in to direct and help develop the play. The show started to take shape, and we had to make the difficult decision of which pieces best fit into the structure. That was the hardest part, because all the stories were wonderful — but we knew we had to keep the play at a manageable length.  After several staged readings and workshop productions, we had our world premiere at Hartford Stage Company in March 2010, followed by a west coast premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in February 2011, and now we are looking forward to our NYC debut at Primary Stages this fall. We came to each of those theatres through personal relationships and with the imprimatur of having 15 of  the best playwrights in the country represented in MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD.

What has the reaction of the cast been to the material?

Susan: A lot of our cast members are moms and really connect with the material. Even if they aren’t mothers, everyone has a mother.

Have you gotten feedback from moms/dads who’ve seen the show?

Joan: Sometimes I watch the audience during a performance, and I see men and women nodding as they identify with the material — whether it is about the questions confronting a young mom, or the things that none of us want to say out loud until we realize that everyone else is feeling or has had the same unspoken thoughts. Everyone has a story, and everyone wants to be heard. MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD encourages us to celebrate our similarities and our differences — and above all — to appreciate Motherhood, traditional or not — as the most rewarding, difficult and important contribution you can make to a person’s life.

Susan, you’re a mom. Was there anything from your parenting experience that played a role in the development of the show? Now that your daughter is 21, any advice you’d care to share with  moms of young children? 

Susan: When we presented the first workshop of the play, my daughter, who is an only child, was a Senior in High School, and she had just been accepted to George Washington University. Leslie Avayzian’s “Threesome” in MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD is about being an Empty Nester, and I still cry every time I hear it.

Nothing prepares you for Motherhood. I didn’t grow up around alot of babies and younger children. When my daughter was born, I had never changed a diaper. I always wanted children, and having them was not easy, so when Sammi entered our lives, I really embraced Motherhood. I am a huge multi-tasker, but I found especially in the early years of raising a child, it is all consuming and leaves little room for other pursuits..at least in my experience. Today, mothers can, thanks to social networking, connect readily with others to share experiences. It makes it less isolating, and that’s a help on a day-to-day basis when you’re caught up in the tasks that come with parenting.  So, make a point of reaching out.  You’re never alone.

What are future plans for the production?

Joan: We are planning on taking MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD all over the country and world — this is a subject matter that  touches everyone’s hearts – and we want to reach as many as possible. We are so proud to be part of this extraordinary collection of talent, and are humbled by the beautiful, funny, moving quilt of stories they have created – this show, similar to Motherhood itself, is nothing like what we imagined, and better than we could have ever hoped for.

Robin Gorman Newman, is Associate Producer of MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD and founder, http://www.MotherhoodLater.com, a community/resource for those parenting later in life.

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