John Farmanesh-Bocca, Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin and Jack Stehlin transcript of Career Achievement Award speeches at Stage Raw Awards  Sept. 9, 2019

Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin and Jack Stehlin at the 5th Annual Stage Raw Awards

Monday September 9, NAT artistic director Jack Stehlin and I (Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin) were honored with a Career Achievement award from Stage Raw,  a digital journal dedicated to discovering, discussing and honoring L.A.-based arts and culture. Thank you to Stage Raw, Founding Editor Stephen Leigh Morris, and to their entire team of journalists and arts supporters. Thank you also to producers Ammo Theatre and IAMA Theatre Company. 

The award was presented by actor/director/playwright/designer/choreographer John Farmanesh-Bocca, who is a friend and colleague and all-around artistic genius, who also happens to be founding artistic director of Not Man Apart Physical Theatre Ensemble (NMA). You may know John from our co-productions with NMA - Titus Redux at the Kirk Douglas), and Tempest Redux at the Odyssey Theatre. 

Thank you to all who attended the evening. It was fun to celebrate with you! If you were unable to attend, here is a bit of what Jack and I shared:

"This is a humbling and really quite unexpected award, and we accept it in the spirit in that we must share it with you, our friends, our family, our theatre family, and the people who come to the theatre to sit in the dark and breathe together and watch life unfold on stage.
 
We share this with the company members of The New American Theatre.  Thank you for collaborating, and giving to this art.  This is ALSO YOUR CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. YOU EARNED IT. YOU ARE EARNING IT. "

In friendship,

Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin
and Jack Stehlin

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John Farmanesh-Bocca presents Stage Raw Career Achievement Award to Jack Stehlin and Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin of The New American Theatre Credit: Rick Proctor

John Farmanesh-Bocca:

"Thank you to Stage Raw, Founding Editor Steven Leigh Morris, and to their entire team of journalists and arts supporters, I don't know how you do it. Thank you also to the hosting producers Ammo Theatre and IAMA Theatre Company. Populated by fellow NYU alums.

I am honored to have been asked to be the presenter of the Stage Raw Career Achievement Award this evening to my dear friends Jack Stehlin and Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin.

I’m going to call them up in a few moments. But first a little preamble about
​Jack & Jeannine.

To speak about them properly, to express the width and breadth of their work, the affection by which they approach it, the community that we are all in with them, I’ll have to start a little out of the way in order to tee it all up, so bear with me...

Did you know the city of Vienna in Austria, gives more money annually to the Vienna Opera House for its productions, than our entire National Endowment for the Arts supplies to our entire Country? … and that was before the NEA was cut into shreds. One small city government in Europe, values the ''cultural significance,'' ''community bonding'' and ''universal empathy'' of theatre, more than the richest Country in the world.

Theatre in the United States let alone Los Angeles has become synonyms with struggle and sacrifice. You all know it.

I bring this up when presenting a career achievement award to my dear friends because it cannot go without saying that tremendous amounts of struggle and sacrifice are at the white-hot center of achieving a long and prolific career in the performing arts.

There is not a one of us who hasn’t had to question our sanity for remaining dedicated to a venture that has bankrupted many or at least brought them very close to ruin. Many times, it's just a question of how many years can you take it? Before you bag it.

What other profession, often times, asks you to pay in order to work.

​Yet, we soldier on because we decided long ago, who we become by doing this craft, how our spirits evolve, that's somehow more important to us than what we own.

It is a conversation that my mentor and pal Jack and I continue to explore. “Isn’t insane? What are we doing? Why do we do it? Oh yes, we must.”
If you are a Theatre Creator on any level, if you ever put your own skin in the game, you understand the tremendous amounts of energy, interest, dedication, passion, curiosity, monies, sheer stubborn WILL and faith that is essential to create even the smallest tiniest of shows.

Jack Stehlin & Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin have been the happy warriors of the 99 seat Los Angeles Theatre Scene for 25 years. They have blazed a trail, that along with others as crazy and dedicated, helped make Los Angeles a legitimate theatre town.

Since its inception, The New American Theatre, which was formerly known as Circus Theatricals – a name bestowed on the company as Jack is a descendent of circus trapeze artists, jugglers, and acrobats...

Jack & Jeannine have produced more than 100 productions, premiering nearly 30 new plays. A prolific amount of producing and creating by anyone's standards.

A Little Background
Besides having been lucky enough to be involved with the duo over the years, to create some of my favorite work, being one of the small handful of directors that Jack actually trusts to direct him in Los Angeles, Jack and I both attended at different times one of the world’s more celebrated performance conservatories, The Juilliard School. But long before I even attended Juilliard or even had a notion to move to Los Angeles from the east coast... I actually met Jack Stehlin back in 1994 in a bar in Greenwich Village.

I had just graduated undergrad NYU and I was bartending in order to survive my school debt. This trendy place mostly served people in the fashion industry and celebrities, and nobody really showed their soft underbelly, but then Jack came in one night and sat at my bar on East 9th street for hours after a performance at the Public Theatre and he was so generous with himself, to this newly minted want-to-be-actor/artist - we had a long and memorable conversation that night about art and life and theatre, those of you who have had the privilege of being in conversation with the man know what I am talking about, it was transcendent.

I was struck at how open, easy and available he was to have a conversation with me, about things that really mattered.
I mean here was a guy who was doing what I wanted to do, A NEW YORK STAGE fixture - Dozens of plays at The New York Shakespeare Festival with fellow Juilliard alums Kevin Kline, Val Kilmer, Kevin Spacey, and Mandy Patinkin, he had acted toe to toe with them all. He had worked with legendary directors the likes of Gene Saks, Carey Perloff, Steven Berkoff, Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson, who trusted him to bring to life a variety of characters that any actor worth their salt would envy.

Oh, and from time to time he understudied a guy named Al Pacino on Broadway.

I was in awe of the guy, and yet he was the most accessible, kind, open, honest, available and humble human I had ever met.
At the time I remember he had kicked around the idea of coming to Los Angeles - Despite the advice given to him by his agent from many years before, which was to indeed move to Los Angeles and get into film and TV, he instead told me he had set out to work on stages all over the world, and he did for 20-some odd years. This guy rocked my world.

Not long after that night that I met him, having just closed the Scottish Play in New York, this one Jack had produced, directed and acted in, Jack was taking a subway home, struggling to make rent.

As happens with every artist, he hit that moment of WTF!! ''Enough with the theatre, enough with the suffering.'' It was time to take his old agent’s advice and move west to Los Angeles, Now or Never he thought.

The moment Jack swore off theatre and landed in Los Angeles is when we inherited him as one of our more prolific theater creators!

When he landed Jack called his old Juilliard friend John Bunzel. John was in the movie business, so his first suggestion to Jack was, of course, to go to a play reading.

What is wrong with us? There is something about theatre artists, right? We get triggered, reading a play, seeing a play, being in a play, basically anything dealing with theatre invites us in, makes us feel at home no matter where in the world we are.
So, there was a discussion after the reading, Jack piped up, expressed his thoughts about what he s
aw and heard, which then earned him an invitation to a cup of coffee. 15 minutes later, Jack was invited to be the artistic director for his first Los Angeles Equity company that worked out of the Hudson Theatre.

With the full awareness that he had just sworn off theatre to pursue film and TV, Jack had a deep sigh, and accepted the position and went to inspect his new workspace the next day.

Walking in, the first thing he saw was an enigmatic multi-talented woman that would change Jack’s life forever, “There stood the most beautiful exciting women I had ever seen,” Jack said. It was Jeanine Wisnosky, who happened to be the managing director for that company.
Jeannine had not moved to Los Angeles that long before. She hailed from Chicago where she earned an M.B.A. in Marketing from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Communications and Advertising from the University of Illinois.

No slouch herself, She acted with The National Shakespeare Conservatory in NY, and did comedy improv with the Second City in Chicago.
Whip Smart, Beautiful, Heart of Gold and Hilarious, Jeannine is a wonder and an absolute joy.

If Jack’s the dreamer and philosopher, Jeanine is the driver, they balance each other beautifully and together they make an incredible, dynamic and sturdy theatre making machine.

Jeannine, she is like an engine that never quits, never gives up, you could run her on salt water.
She is an actress/producer/marketing director/arts advocate/community engagement advocate and chair of the Culver City Cultural Affairs Commission.
She literally does it all. And to her children’s chagrin she even does a mean polka. (Inside Joke.)
Needless to say, they are now married and alongside their prolific and epic amount of creation, by anyone’s standards, they have three amazing daughters, their most prized creations.

From that moment back in 1995, Jack & Jeannine have worked together to build a company. Not just a membership company that makes plays, but a gathering place for working artists to hone their craft, work on new material and gain the sense of peer security that can only be accomplished when working with those you truly trust.

For me, working with Jack and Jeannine is like working with artistic and spiritual God Parents.

There is this unconditional love for the artist, they suffer with you, they believe in you, and that truly makes you want to be better, to live up to their belief.
Ultimately, they serve not only the theatre, they know they are pursuing WITH YOU, the BIGGER QUESTIONS of who and why we are; what our ultimate purpose is as humans and connecting to the spiritual in quite literally everything.

Theatre is their Church. It’s a lovely experience that reminds you why you do the thing you do.

They are the actors’ friends. They are a Los Angeles Theatre Institution.

Jack and Jeannine are one of you, they understand you, they know how difficult, painful and beautiful it all is.

And with that...
​
It is my distinct honor and privilege to present the Stage Raw Career Achievement Award to Jack Stehlin & Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin.''

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Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin:

"If you want to learn how to produce a play, look no further than going online and looking up WikiHow. Someone has done us all a favor and has listed 14 simple steps in how to make a play.

Find a script.
Find a director.
Secure Funding.
Find a venue.
Schedule auditions.
Hire a support staff.
Cast your play.
Set a rehearsal schedule.
Secure liability insurance.
Arrange for the creation or purchase of sets, costumes and props.
Create a performance schedule.
Promote the play.
Oversee the play throughout its entire run.
Reimburse your staff and investors.

And then there’s a WARNING:
WARNING! Your actors, crew, and actresses may not do exactly what you want them to do. Also, no one likes a director who constantly nitpicks.
 
In all seriousness, sure, this is may or may not be the nuts and bolts of “how” to produce a play. But what this WikiHow is missing, is the Wiki WHO 

WHO we do it with. YOU are the WIKI WHO.
​
This is a humbling and really quite unexpected award, and we accept it in the spirit in that we must share it with you, our friends, our family, our theatre family, and the people who come to the theatre to sit in the dark and breathe together and watch life unfold on stage.
 
We share this with the company members of The New American Theatre. We’ve had a long love affair and I know that it will last. Thank you for coming tonight as witnesses. Thank you for collaborating, and giving to this art.  I adore you.  This is ALSO YOUR CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. YOU EARNED IT. YOU ARE EARNING IT.
 
And now for the deeply personal: I’m a lucky person: I have the support of my parents Dennis Wisnosky and Rosemary Macko Wisnosky flew in to be here tonight. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for your encouragement and support and for sitting through my endless childhood puppet shows and backyard productions. Look! It was worth it (Thanks Steven Leigh Morris and Stage Raw for helping me justify my life choices to my parents). My sister Chris is here too. She has a respectable career as a lawyer but she would have been one hell of an actor as well. Chris, I love you!
And THANK YOU to our three daughters OLIVIA, NATALIA, and ISABELLA, who grew up back stage, in green rooms, who helped us staple programs at the last minute, and who put up with parents “in the arts.” I love you and I’m proud of you.
 
And Thank You to my husband and partner, Jack Stehlin, who has certainly made life interesting from the very first day I met him when he flashed his Cheshire grin and said, “hi, I’m Jack!”  Jack, you are the ART in Artistic Director. And I don’t think anyone here will mind me saying that I think you’re the most brilliant actor to ever grace a stage. Thank you for always surprising me, thank you for sharing your life with me, and thank you for being a rock star father. Here’s to 25 more years!
 
Let’s make some more plays!"

Jack Stehlin:

Thank you John Farmanesh-Bocca, for your friendship, the brilliance of your art, and of course, that clearly exaggerated introduction.
 
I’d also like to thank the entire Stage Raw writing staff and community for the show of support and appreciation. I met Steven Leigh Morris late one night in the dairy section of a Ralphs in West Hollywood in the Fall of 1995. Don’t ask me how I remember that. I don’t know. I had just performed in a production of Habitation of Dragons at the Zephyr Theatre for which Steven had written a review that posted in the LA Weekly. He gave it a pick of the week, and a glowing review. That review was insightful and intelligent. But most importantly, it was laced with care, and I believe with a perceptible fellowship.
 
By the way, there was a young, handsome actor playing my brother in that introduction. We still refer to each other as “brother.” His name is Cameron Watson, who later brilliantly directed our production of “I Never Sang for My Father.”
 
People.
So many good people who have helped us along the way. Long time company members and artists like that beautiful gang of people sitting right over there. And many more. 

Board members like Kent George, John Bunzel, Dean Nichols, Alfred Molina and David Trainer.
 
Our longtime producing partners at the Odyssey Theatre, Ron Sossi and Beth Hogan.
 
Thanks to my in-laws, Rosemary and Dennis, they are simply the best. I wish my Mom and Dad were here. Their support was unflinching, and I owe them so much more than words.
 
Now to the big stuff: I have three very important reasons to keep our hope alive. Our beautiful daughters, Olivia, Natalia and Isabella. I love them so very much. 

Jeannine Denise Wisnosky, my guiding light, the mother of our children, the love of my life, and, the best producer I've ever worked with. Thank you."