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returned to The Colony Theatre Sunday, June 23, 2024
Our 4th collection of rib-tickling and tenderhearted tales from the trenches of fatherhood was a fantastic evening shared with storytellers Pilar Alessandra, Brent Beerman, Ron Hart,
Alexandra Helfrich, Carlos Kotkin, Victoria Male, Juanita E. Mantz,
and Jonathan Tipton Meyers, along with music by Sage & Ray Mac.
If you missed it, or want to re-live your favorite stories,
click the names in the book-bindings below!
Meet the Cast!
Pilar Alessandra
is the director of the screenwriting program On the Page®, host of the On the Page Podcast (now in its 17th year) and author ofThe Coffee Break Screenwriter. She’s been a regular storyteller at the Story Salon in LA and is delighted to have been invited to share a story with Jam Creative.
Website: www.onthepage.tv
Socials: @onthepage
Website: www.onthepage.tv
Socials: @onthepage
Brent Beerman
has written numerous full-length and one-act plays that have reached national acclaim. His play, Gabriel’s Rapture, won the Corner Stage National Theater Contest, Dancing in the Shadows won the Pacificus Foundation of Los Angeles Literary Award, was featured in the Los Angeles Playwright’s Festival, and had a staged reading at the Moving Arts Theater in Los Angeles. A Dull Pain Sharp was a prize winner at the MOXIE Films New Play Competition and it was featured at the HOWL festival in New York City, A Journey of Angels premiered at the Yerevan Theater in Armenia as well as at the Armenian Consulate in Glendale California, Lemon Squeeze premiered at the Hong Kong Youth Theater and MOURNING SONG will receive its World Premiere in August at the Group Rep Theater in North Hollywood. Brent has also performed with the “So Say We All” VAMP storytelling events.
Ron Hart
is a television writer and producer who co-created the Disney Channel sitcom Liv And Maddie. He has also won multiple GrandSlam Championships at The Moth and been featured on numerous storytelling podcasts. Absolutely none of this has impressed his daughters Anina (18) and Lula (16) even the tiniest bit. They think he’s a dork.
Alexandra Helfrich
is delighted to share another tale at the Colony Theatre with Jam Creative Stories. Alexandra has been a decades long advocate on behalf of children and arts in education. Her past professional experience was in the world of filmmaking and post-production in both New York City and Los Angeles. Alexandra is married to feature film editor and director, Mark Helfrich, and they have two daughters. When not baking or making Limoncello, she manages her family-owned film business and writes stories.
Carlos Kotkin
is an author, screenwriter and storyteller. His dating memoir of romantic misadventures, PLEASE GOD LET IT BE HERPES was published by Penguin. He has written the animated features RIO 2, OPEN SEASON: SCARED SILLY and THE STAR. His stories have been featured in THE MOTH, RISK, KCRW'S UNFICTIONAL and STORY COLLIDER podcasts as well as in SUNSET MAGAZINE, READER'S DIGEST and The New York Times' column MODERN LOVE.
Victoria Male
is a 2023 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Finalist, whose screenwriting also made the 2024 Love List of best unproduced romance scripts in Hollywood. Her prose has been published worldwide in over a dozen literary magazines and she currently consults for the audio platform PocketFM. She worked in creative development for Ivan Reitman's The Montecito Picture Company and media startup Graphic India, in addition to producing the podcast Your Biggest Fangirl for three years.
Juanita E. Mantz
“JEM” is a USC Law educated deputy public defender, writer, performer, and podcaster.
JEM has 2 books, a memoir titled "Tales of an Inland Empire Girl" (Los Nietos Press, 2022) which won a bronze medal at the 2023 Latino Books to Movie Awards and a hybrid chapbook titled "Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer" (Bamboo Dart Press, 2021) which won a gold medal at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards for best first book.
Her stories have been published in literary journals, newspapers & anthologies. She is an alumni of VONA and Macondo and just received a California Arts Council Grant at the Established Artist level. She's presented at UCR Writers' Week, the UCR Punk Conference, Pasadena LitFest, AWP & Beyond Baroque. She taught the ASA 2020 Freedom Course on Combatting Mass Incarceration.
JEM is in the low res MFA writing program at the University of New Orleans.
On her "Life of JEM" video podcast, she does live interviews with writers. Find everything on her author website: https://juanitaemantz.com
JEM has 2 books, a memoir titled "Tales of an Inland Empire Girl" (Los Nietos Press, 2022) which won a bronze medal at the 2023 Latino Books to Movie Awards and a hybrid chapbook titled "Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer" (Bamboo Dart Press, 2021) which won a gold medal at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards for best first book.
Her stories have been published in literary journals, newspapers & anthologies. She is an alumni of VONA and Macondo and just received a California Arts Council Grant at the Established Artist level. She's presented at UCR Writers' Week, the UCR Punk Conference, Pasadena LitFest, AWP & Beyond Baroque. She taught the ASA 2020 Freedom Course on Combatting Mass Incarceration.
JEM is in the low res MFA writing program at the University of New Orleans.
On her "Life of JEM" video podcast, she does live interviews with writers. Find everything on her author website: https://juanitaemantz.com
Jonathan Tipton Meyers
Jonathan Tipton Meyers is a New York Storyteller and self-proclaimed "Pizza Rat." A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he’s performed on various-sized stages in NYC and various-sized screens for ABC, NBC, FOX, and Lifetime. His solo show "We Are Traffic: an UBER Adventure" was featured on KPCC and hailed by "The Scotsman," "The Guardian" and "The Times of London" at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He loves you and wants you to drink water.
Sage & Ray Mac
Ray Mac is a guitarist/musician who relocated to Los Angeles from New Orleans in the 1980’s. He has recently rekindled his passion for music while writing and performing with his daughter Sage, an award winning singer/songwriter known for her heartfelt and eclectic vocal style across musical genres. Be on the lookout for some new music from Sage coming out soon!
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