Stories Tagged ‘actor’
Amanda Duarte
Amanda Duarte has probably always been an actor and writer, because as she puts it “…she was never good at anything else…” I find that hard to believe and laugh as we sit down at the G:NY studio and have a chat. The topic: how Amanda got where she is, and where she’s going. Amanda duped her way through college, conning professors into giving her credit for acting and writing gigs. After graduating, she lived in San Francisco for many years, honing her skills by getting acting jobs at various venues. Eventually, she made the leap to the Big Apple: the ultimate test of an actor’s true value. Amanda quickly realized the game was much bigger in the city that never sleeps; however, she’s proving she’s up for the task.
Dante Russo
As he explains these theories, my eyes wander to Dante’s living room walls, particularly on the art and pictures he’s collected on his journeys and those that connect him to his family. “Yeah, that one is my sister Theresa and I when we where kids. She passed away when I was young…” Dante explains as I admire the two children in the picture combined together in a waltz-like dancing stance. Dante tells us of his new play “Extraordinary”; a production inspired by his late sister and empowered by his family’s foundation for her. The Theresa Alessandra Russo Foundation , as it was named, since 1992 acts in the interest of nurturing the development of children with special needs via funding creative activities such as music, dance, and art. Dante speaks passionate about the foundation, highlighting the fact that in association with the foundation, he and his family are also announcing the Theresa Academy of Performing Arts, an academy dedicated to actually instructing special needs children in the creative arts.

