ALBANY - The producers of The Creative Life: A Conversation Series at UAlbany have announced actor and author Sonia Manzano will be the guest of a free and open to the public event.
The event takes place 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 30 at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown University at Albany campus at 1400 Washington Ave.
The actor and author is probably best known for her almost five decades portraying Maria on Sesame Street.
Manzano is a first-generation American of Latino descent who was raised in the South Bronx where her involvement in the arts was inspired by teachers who encouraged her to audition for the High School of Performing Arts. She was accepted there and began her career as an actress. A scholarship took her to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and, in her junior year, she came to New York to star in the original production of the off-Broadway show Godspell. Within a year, Manzano joined the production of Sesame Street where she eventually began writing scripts for the series. Performances on the New York stage include the critically acclaimed theater pieces The Vagina Monologues, The Exonerated and Love Loss and What I Wore. Movie credits include Deathwish, Follow That Bird and Elmo in Grouchland.
Manzano has won 15 Emmys for writing television scripts.
On the same day as the Creative Life conversation, Manzano will also perform at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center joining actors Patricia Kalember and Bhavesh Patel in Selected Shorts at 7:30 p.m.
The Creative Life series is a major arts initiative of the University Art Museum, New York State Writers Institute and UAlbany Performing Arts Center in conjunction with WAMC Public Radio. Creative Life guests span the creative disciplines including writing, music, dance, choreography, visual arts, architecture, theatre, filmmaking and more. The series celebrates the depth and range of artistic practices, helps to demystify the creative process for the audience and explores what it means to dedicate one’s life to a creative pursuit. It is also intended to bring attention to the vibrant arts community on the University at Albany campus.
For more information call the UAlbany Performing Arts Center’s box office at 518-442-3997.
