Lauren Vélez
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Lauren Vélez
Luna Lauren Vélez (born November 2, 1964) is an American actress. Her most notable television roles are as María LaGuerta on Showtime (TV network), Showtime's ''Dexter (TV series), Dexter'', Detective Nina Moreno on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox's ''New York Undercover'', Dr. Gloria Nathan on HBO's prison drama ''Oz (TV series), Oz'', and Elena on American Broadcasting Company, ABC's comedy-drama ''Ugly Betty''. She also starred as Rio Morales in ''Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse'' (2018) and ''Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'' (2023). Early life and education In the early 1950s, Vélez's parents moved from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, New York, where she and her identical twin sister, Lorraine Vélez, were born. The twins have five other sisters and one brother. Vélez's father, a New York City Police Department officer, eventually bought a house in Far Rockaway, Queens, and moved the family there. The twins staged improvised plays and acting for the family and participated ...
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San Diego Comic-Con
San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fantasy media, Comic-Con has grown to include a large range of popular culture, pop culture and entertainment elements across virtually all genres. According to ''Forbes'', Comic-Con is the "largest convention of its kind in the world". Since 2010, Comic-Con has filled the San Diego Convention Center to capacity with over 130,000 attendees. Comic-Con is home to the Eisner Awards, which recognizes creative achievement in American comic books, often referred to as the comic industry's equivalent to the Academy Awards. San Diego Comic Convention, Trade name, doing business as Comic-Con International, is the corporate name of the public-benefit nonprofit corporation behind Comic-Con. The corporation also organizes WonderCon, an annual convention ...
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Far Rockaway, Queens
Far Rockaway is a neighborhood on the eastern part of the Rockaway peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens. It is the easternmost section of the Rockaways. The neighborhood extends from Beach 32nd Street east to the Nassau County line. Its southern boundary is the Atlantic Ocean; it is one of the neighborhoods along Rockaway Beach. Far Rockaway is located in Queens Community District 14 and its ZIP Codes are 11691 and 11693. It is patrolled by the New York City Police Department's 101st Precinct. History Precolonial and colonial era The indigenous inhabitants of the Rockaways were the Canarsie Indians, a band of Mohegan, whose name was associated with the geography. By 1639, the Mohegan tribe sold most of the Rockaways to the Dutch West India Company. In 1664, the English defeated the Dutch colony and took over their lands in present-day New York.See New Amsterdam In 1685, the band chief, ''Tackapoucha'', and the English governor of the province agreed to s ...
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I Like It Like That (film)
''I Like It Like That'' is a 1994 American comedy-drama film about the trials and tribulations of a young Puerto Rican couple living in a poverty-stricken New York City neighborhood in the South Bronx. The film stars Lauren Velez, Jon Seda, Lisa Vidal, Griffin Dunne, Jesse Borrego and Rita Moreno, and was written and directed by Darnell Martin who, in her filmmaking debut, became the first African-American female filmmaker to take helm of a film produced by a major film studio. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Plot Lisette Linares is a young mother of three children and married to Chino, a bicycle messenger. Although he is always reliable as the breadwinner of the family, Chino is having an affair with their lustful neighbor, Magdalena. One summer evening, as a blackout sweeps the neighborhood, Chino gets arrested for looting. Now faced with the reality of keeping her family together while the main breadwinner is i ...
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Much Ado About Nothing
''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play was included in the ''First Folio'', published in 1623. The play is set in Messina and revolves around two romantic pairings that emerge when a group of soldiers arrive in the town. The first, between Claudio and Hero (Much Ado About Nothing), Hero, is nearly scuppered by the accusations of the villain, Don John. The second, between Claudio's friend Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing), Beatrice, takes centre stage as the play continues, with both characters' wit and banter providing much of the humour. Through "noting" (sounding like "nothing" and meaning gossip, rumour, overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into believ ...
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Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100. An "off-Broadway production" is a production of a play (theatre), play, musical theatre, musical, or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Some shows that premiere off-Broadway are subsequently produced on Broadway. History The term originally referred to any venue, and its productions, on a street intersecting Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in Midtown Manhattan's Theater District, New York, Theater District, the hub of the American theatre industry. It later became defined by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers as a professional venue in Manhattan with a seating capacity of at least 100, but not more than 499, or a production that appears in such a venue and adhe ...
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Into The Woods
''Into the Woods'' is a 1986 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from "Little Red Riding Hood" (spelled "Ridinghood" in the published vocal score), "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Rapunzel", "Cinderella", and several others. The musical is tied together by a story involving a childless baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family (the original beginning of the Grimm Brothers' "Rapunzel"), their interaction with a witch who has placed a curse on them, and encounters with other storybook characters during their journey. The second collaboration between Sondheim and Lapine after ''Sunday in the Park with George'' (1984), ''Into the Woods'' debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986 and premiered on Broadway theatre, Broadway on November 5, 1987, where it won three ...
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Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March22, 1930November26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. Regarded as one of the most important figures in 20th-century musical theater, he is credited with reinventing the American musical. He received List of awards and nominations received by Stephen Sondheim, numerous accolades, including eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award, eight Grammy Awards, an Olivier Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1982, and awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 1993 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Sondheim was mentored at an early age by Oscar Hammerstein II and later frequently collaborated with Harold Prince and James Lapine. His Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals tackle themes that range beyond the genre's traditional subjects, while addressing darker elements of the human experience. His music and lyrics are tinged with complexity, sophistication, and ambivalence about various aspects of li ...
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Phylicia Rashad
Phylicia Rashad ( ) ( Ayers-Allen; born June 19, 1948) is an American actress. She was most recently dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University before her three-year contract ended in May 2024. Known for her roles on stage and screen, she has received two Tony Awards as well as nominations for six Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom '' The Cosby Show'' (1984–1992) which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series nominations in 1985 and 1986. She also played Ruth Lucas on '' Cosby'' (1996–2000), and Brenda Glover in '' Little Bill'' (1999–2004). She was also Emmy-nominated for her roles in '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (2008) and '' This Is Us'' (2019–2021). On stage, Rashad became the first Black actress to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for revival of '' A Raisin in the Sun'' (2004). She won her second Tony Award ...
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Dreamgirls
''Dreamgirls'' is a Broadway musical, with music by Henry Krieger and lyrics and book by Tom Eyen. It is based on the show business aspirations and successes of R&B acts such as The Shirelles, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and others, and particularly The Supremes, as the musical follows the story of a young Black female singing trio from Chicago, Illinois called "The Dreams", who become music superstars. Grossberg, Michael " 'Dreamgirls' continues to spark questions about its Motown inspiration" ''The Columbus Dispatch'', March 6, 2015 Staged with a mostly African-American cast and originally starring Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine, Ben Harney, Cleavant Derricks, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Obba Babatundé, the musical opened on December 20, 1981, at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. The musical was then nominated for 13 Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical, and won six. It was later adapted into a motion picture from DreamWo ...
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Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" or simply "the Bard". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in Lon ...
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Sanford Meisner
Sanford Meisner (August 31, 1905 – February 2, 1997) was an American actor and acting teacher who developed an approach to acting instruction that is now known as the Meisner technique. While Meisner was exposed to method acting at the Group Theatre, his approach differed markedly in that he completely abandoned the use of affective memory, a distinct characteristic of method acting. Meisner maintained an emphasis on "the reality of doing", which was the foundation of his approach. Early life Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Meisner was the oldest child of Hermann Meisner, a furrier, and Bertha Knoepfler, both Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from Hungary. His younger siblings were Jacob, Ruth, and Robert. To improve Sanford's health during his youth, his family took a trip to the Catskills. While there, however, his brother Jacob contracted bovine tuberculosis from drinking unpasteurized milk and died shortly thereafter. In an interview many years later, Me ...
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Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey Jr. (January 5, 1931 – December 1, 1989) was an American dancer, director, choreographer, and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT). He created AAADT and its affiliated Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (later Ailey School) as havens for nurturing Black artists and expressing the universality of the African-American experience through dance. Ailey's work fused theater, modern dance, ballet, and jazz with Black vernacular, creating hope-fueled choreography that is credited with spreading global awareness of Black life in America. His choreographic masterpiece '' Revelations'' is recognized as one of the most popular and most performed ballets in the world. On July 15, 2008, the United States Congress passed a resolution designating AAADT a "vital American cultural ambassador to the World". That same year, in recognition of AAADT's 50th anniversary, then Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared December 4 "Alvin Ailey Day" in New York City, whi ...
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