SHARON L. GRAINE
Writer/Director/Actor
SHARON L. GRAINE  Our New Shows  MAMMY PLEASANT  EARTHA KITT  DIVAS 

Director/Writer/Actor

Sharon L. Graine

RESUME

Sharon L. Graine

Writer/Director/Producer/Actor

Cell:  (323) 896-3613  Email:  sharonlgraine@aol.com

 

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CAREER SUMMARY________________________________________________________________

 

I began my career as a model/actress and went on to become a Radio Personality, Independent Producer/Director and a Publisher at the same time I was pursuing my degree in Journalism from West Los Angeles College and my Bachelors degree in Radio and Television Arts and Sciences from California State University Long Beach.  Some of the highlights of my career include working at KTYM, KACE, KSUL, KLON, KMPC, METROMEDIA etc. in News and Public Affairs. I have also written for a number of Newspapers & Magazines. 

 

Years later, I took what I learned from my career in radio production and publishing and applied it to a different medium of communication:  live theatre. I became involved in the Los Angeles Theatre world.  Working as a stage manager, then a producer with such directors as Ed Cambridge and C. Bernard Jackson, I learned what it took to be an effective director.  How to use what I had learned as an actor to help other actors take the journey into becoming….being.   What it took to create a piece of work that left both the audience and actors transformed at the end of each performance. While delving into the world of directing I, in the capacity of producer, went with the play “The Meeting” to New York.  This granted me the opportunity to understand the similarities and differences between theatre on both the East and West Coast and enhanced my ability as a director.  

 

As a director, what is most important to me is that actors understand that when they undertake a role, they have the wonderful privilege of creating characters that, if done right, will transport the audience to another time and place. Live theatre allows the audience to forget the outside world, and become a part of the world being created on stage.  This is a wonderful privilege not afforded to many.  My job as director, is to give the actors a blueprint from which to build their characters, provide them with the necessary tools, and allow them to do what they do best, which is create.  As I enjoyed the creative process of directing immensely, I made the decision to form my own acting troupe.

 

In 1991, I founded the KSLG Playhouse Theatre Players, and produced, directed, and sometimes wrote radio shows from the Golden Age of Radio. My productions were so authentic that audience members often remarked that they felt transported back to the 1940s when watching our radio shows. It was important to me that every detail of that era was depicted, from the clothing, to the microphones, to the commercials.  After years of performing in various theatres throughout Southern California, including a short stint at “The Jazz Bakery”, I decided to open my own theatre so that KSLG Playhouse Theatre Players would have a home base from which to operate, and where I could write, direct, and produce my own plays.  In 2004, I opened the Playhouse at The Brewery Arts Colony.   As a director/writer/producer, I have seen several of my plays nominated for NAACP Image Awards.  Plays such as “When Divas Were Divas: Their Lives, Their Way”, “Dorothy and Otto:  The Dorothy Dandridge Affair”, and “My Name Is Eartha, But You May Call Me Miss Kitty”.   In 2007, I was named Woman of the Year by the Women in Theatre organization.  I am currently in talks to produce and direct “House on the Hill, Mammy Pleasant’s Story” in San Francisco. 

 

 

 
Sharon L. Graine Resume Cont
 
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PLAYS:____________________________________________________________________________
 
Director/Writer/Actor                                       
Drama
Memoirs Of A Married Couple
Playhouse Theatre Players (PTP) – Los Angeles 2009
 
Director/Producer                                             
Dramedy
Just Old Men Talking
Playhouse Theatre Players (PTP) – Los Angeles 2009
 
Director/Writer /Producer                                 
Musical
My Life As Sammy Davis Jr.
Playhouse Theatre Players – Los Angeles 2009
 
Director/Writer /Producer                                 
Musical
Truck Stop Cafι “An Adaptation From
Bagdad Cafι” – PTP – Los Angeles 2009
 
Director/Writer /Producer                                 
Musical
My Name Is Eartha, But You May Call Me Miss Kitty – 
Indio Performing Arts Center -  Indio CA 2009
Playhouse Theatre Players – Los Angeles 2007 
 
Director                                                            
Musical Drama                         
Out West, Women Of The Plains
PTP – Los Angeles 2009
 
Director/Writer/Actress                                    
Drama
House On The Hill, Mammy Pleasant’s Story
PTP – Los Angeles 2008, 2009
 
 
Director/Writer                                     
Musical
The Cotton Club Revisited
Cal State University - Los Angeles 2008
 
 
Director                                                            
Drama
Visions Of A Man
PTP – Los Angeles 2008
 
 
Director/Writer				
Musical Drama
Benches, Sketches of the 1930s
Let Me In, Hattie McDaniel 2008
Black, Bold & Beautiful Marian Anderson
Playhouse Theatre Players – Los Angeles 2008

Director/Writer				
Musical	
Club Sweet Lorraine’s
Playhouse Theatre Players – Los Angeles 2008

Director/Writer				
Drama
Inside Vincent Price, The Man Inside The Man
East Los Angeles College – 2008
Playhouse Theatre Players – Los Angeles 2007

Director/Writer				
Musical Drama
When Divas Were Divas, Their Lives Their Way
Pepperdine University 2007
Playhouse Theatre Players – Los Angeles 2005, 2006

Director/Writer				
Drama
Dorothy & Otto, The Dorothy Dandridge Affair
PTP - 2007

Writer/Actress					
Drama
M'ιcrire (Write To Me)
St. Germain En Laye, France 1999
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PRODUCER/DIRECTING HIGHLIGHTS______________________________________________

Director/Producer				
Broadway In L.A. 
Palace Theatre – Los Angeles 1989
	Carl Anderson – Jesus Christ Superstar
	Shryle Lee Ralph – Dream Girls
	Alaina Reed – Eubie
	Alphonso Riberio – The Tap Dance Kid
	Lou Rawls – Recording Artist

Producer					
The Meeting
Crossroads – Los Angeles 1988
New Federal Theatre – New York 1988

Director/Producer				
Tribute To Billie Holiday 
Coconut Grove – Los Angeles 1986

Director/Producer				
Tribute To Duke Ellington
Coconut Grove – Los Angeles 1985
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STAGED RE-INACTED GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO

Director					
LaTremenda Corte (Spanish) PTP – Los Angeles 2009
Land Of The Free – 2009

Director/Writer				
A Day With Kidder & An Evening With Archibald – 2009
	Playhouse Theatre – Los Angeles
        Torrance Television/South Bay Lawndale - 1997
	KPFK – No. Hollywood 1997

Director					
My Favorite Husband – 2008

Director					
Bickersons - 2006

Director					
Visitor From Hades – 2006

Director					
The Jack Benny Show – 2006

Director/Writer				
The Lone Ranger Meets Gunsmoke – 2006
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PRODUCTION LOS ANGELES AREA:

Stage Manager				
Check Mates  
Inner City Cultural Center
Los Angeles – 1989

Sound						
Much Ado About Nothing 
Santa Monica - Morgan Wixon 1980s
Sound						
Mass Appeal
Morgan Wixon – Santa Monica 1980s

AWARDS:
Woman of the Year Award from Women In Theatre - 2007
Women Of The Year Advocate for Humanities Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women 2005
Los Angeles City Council Award for Excellence and numerous Citations 2005, 2007
NAACP Theatre Award for Producing The Meeting - 1988Media Arts Award, for Outstanding Service to Television and Communications Lawndale, Hawthorne,      Gardena, El Segundo – Time Warner
South Bay Producer Guild Award for Programming Excellence 1998
South Bay Producer Guild Cultural Media Arts Award for Programming Excellence 1996
And an array of other awards and citations.
Sharon L. Graine Resume Cont

THEATRICAL NOMINATIONS FOR SHARON L. GRAINE’S ORIGINAL WORKS:
Best Director Nomination NAACP Theatre Awards 2004 
	WHEN DIVAS WERE DIVAS, THEIR LIVES THEIR WAY

Five nominations including Best Director NAACP Theatre Awards 2005
DOROTHY & OTTO, THE DOROTHY DANDRIDGE AFFAIR
Three nominations NAACP Theatre Awards 2005
	MY NAME IS EARTHA BUT YOU MAY CALL ME MISS KITTY
Copyright © SHARON L. GRAINE - all rights reserved.