NJ DISCOVER LIVE RADIO/TV SHOW  DEC  7TH 2015   8-9pm  TUNE IN/WATCH    “ADOPTION, REALITY, INSPIRATION & CREATIVITY”  with Special GUESTS, singer/songwriter, playwright, author Zara Phillips, and actress, producer, director, Nam Holtz with your HOSTS  Tara-Jean Vitale & Calvin Schwartz

bY Calvin Schwartz   11-30-15

TUNE IN, LISTEN, WATCH LIVE OR ON YOU TUBE AFTER SHOW:  www.njdiscover.com

THE SHOW ALSO AIRS ON LONG BRANCH COMMUNITY ACCESS TV CHANNEL 20  

HOW THIS SHOW EVOLVED:  We like to share with our audience how a particular show came to be (evolved). Cut to two years ago. NJ Discover Live was on the road shooting our Holiday Show on location in Belmar, New Jersey at the ocean front home  of Richard Hoynes.  There were seven invited guests to be interviewed that night, a few weeks before Christmas. As it turned out, all the guests had music in common except of course the hosts, Tara-Jean Vitale and Calvin Schwartz (not necessarily musically inclined, but love music and can dance and are music journalists.)

In the hour before the live broadcast, the conversation drifted in many different directions. Then someone mentioned adoption; their children were adopted. As if a game of people dominoes was being played while the exigencies of the universe descended on Rich Hoynes’ living room, replete with cameras and sound recording equipment; one by one, the guests mentioned their involvement with adoption. Zara Phillips was a musical guest that night; she is an adoptee. I added how adoption fulfilled my life’s journey.  This resounding purposeful synchronicity bound all of us to thinking someday we would do a show about adoption. And here we are. But we wanted to look at this subject in a different way, with a twist, so to speak, shaken but not stirred. Our guests for the December 7^th show are so wondrously amazingly creative, talented, motivated and adopted.

Calvin Schwartz   11-30-15

Montclair’s Zara Phillips named Congressional Angel in Adoption

Solo play ‘Beneath my Father’s Sky’
returns to NYC stage next month

 MONTCLAIR, NJ (October 20, 2015) — Author, musician, filmmaker and advocate for adoptee rights, Zara Phillips was invited to Washington, D.C., this month to receive a Congressional Angel in Adoption Award for her tireless work to bring awareness to adoption issues and to assist adoptees in coping with an unresolved past. Phillips returns from the nation’s capital just in time to gear up for her November 5, 2015 return to the New York City stage with her one-woman show, Beneath My Father’s Sky, which debuted in 2013, directed by actor Eric Roberts and wife, Eliza.

Nominated as an Angel in Adoption by U.S. Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (NJ-11), Phillips was cited for her multi-faceted efforts to shed light on adoption: memoir, documentary film, theatre, public speaker and presenter of workshops around the country that empower adopted teens to process their feelings through storytelling and music.

The timing of Phillips’ return to the stage is apropos as November is National Adoption Month. In the critically acclaimed production, theatre-goers join Phillips’ journey to find her birth father and experience the myriad emotions and realities that follow. The play, which won the 2013 Festival Award for Best Direction, has been performed by Phillips in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Montclair.

Zara noted, “For many adoptees, not knowing who their birth parents are takes an enormous and emotional energy toll. The restlessness of not knowing the past can make focusing on the present and future incredibly challenging. It is my hope to fuel awareness with my story.”

A presenter for the American Adoption Congress, Phillips, who was born and raised in England, travels the United States and United Kingdom offering workshops and presentations on various adoption-related topics. Phillips wrote, directed and starred in Roots Unknown, named best documentary short at the Garden State Film Festival. Phillips’ memoir, Mother Me: An Adopted Woman’s Journey to Motherhood, has been touted as “bravely illuminating” the lifelong impact of adoption on each member of the adoption triad. Phillips’ music career includes work with Live-Aid founder Bob Geldof and other rock bands, as well as collaboration with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and adoptee Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC.

 Beneath My Father’s Sky was staged on November 5th at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City.

For more information about Zara and her work, log on to www.adoptionunmasked.com.

A LOOK AT MEGGIN “NAM” HOLTZ:

MEGGIN “NAM” HOLTZ is a Korean adoptee working as an actress and producer in NYC.  Nam graduated cum laude from SUNY Purchase with a BFA in dance.  She spent the first year after graduation on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham dance studio in NYC and making coffee and frappacinos while working at “Starbucks.”  During this busy time, she was cast on Broadway in “The King & I!”

After her Broadway debut, she was cast in “The King & I” in London’s West End, where she had the good fortune of performing in the beautiful London Palladium Theatre.

Nam has sung the music of Queen in “We Will Rock You” at Las Vegas’ Paris, and toured across the USA in productions of “Miss Saigon” and “Flower Drum Song.”

Now, Nam is producing a documentary film called “Found in Korea,” about adoption, her personal search for her birth family, and issues surrounding adoption. Trailer and website: www.foundinkorea.com            Donations towards post-production costs are graciously accepted.

Growing up in a transracial family has lead Nam to discover that many complex adoption issues are underrepresented in the media, and outdated by law.  She has recently been invited to speak on the “Flip the Script” panel at the American Adoption Congress Conference in Denver, taking place in March of 2016.

Her poem “Who Cut my Umbilical Cord?” is currently published in the recently released “Flip the Script” Adult Adoptee Anthology (available on Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Script-Adoptee-Anthology–YA/dp/1517686741/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1447211893&sr=1-1&keywords=flip+the+script).

Nam has traveled extensively, and her friends and family will vouch that she has a hearty appetite for humor, the truth… and yummy food.  Nam also loves animals, learning, good music and the beach

TUNE IN, LISTEN, WATCH LIVE OR ON YOU TUBE AFTER SHOW:  www.njdiscover.com

SPONSOR:  NJ Discover Live Radio/TV is proud to announce our Sponsor : WindMill Restaurants  www.windmillhotdogs.com

CONTACT INFO :

ZARA PHILLIPS:   www.adoptionunmasked.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zaraphillips/?fref=ts

MEGGIN NAM HOLTZ  http://namholtz.com

foundinkorea.com        Facebook: ttps://www.facebook.com/nam.holtz.9?fref=ts

TARA-JEAN VITALE:   https://www.facebook.com/TaraJeanVitale?fref=ts

CALVIN SCHWARTZ:   www.vichywater.net     Cerebral Writer: https://www.facebook.com/Calvin-Schwartz-Cerebral-Writer-258272024192114/?fref=ts