Shellen Lubin - Bio

PERFORMING

Shellen has been onstage—as both a singer/songwriter and an actor—for years, both in and out of New York City. She and her songs have been featured on radio (Woody’s Children on WQXR-FM, a one-hour special on WBAI-FM, and various shows on WABC, WOR, and WEVD-FM), cable television, and in Milos Forman's first American film, TAKING OFF. Click here to read some sample lyrics and hear a few mp3 song files. MOTHER/CHILD, her one-woman musical, was called by WBAI-FM: “a dynamite show about the joys, agonies, conflicts, and concerns of combining new parenthood, person-hood, and artist-hood.” Click here to read more press quotes and pieces written about Shellen. Other performing credits include stage, screen (including principal roles in the films GREEN CARD and TAKING OFF), and television. Click here for photos and info on performances.

PLAYWRITING

Her play, IMPERFECT FLOWERS, played to rave reviews in Omaha, Nebraska, as part of SNAP!Fest (“a night when acting and lights and music and a glorious script all come together into something bordering on magic,” Omaha World-Herald.) The first act of the play, a one-act entitled ANTHESIS, also received raves in L.A. when it played at the West Coast Ensemble. Other plays and musicals have been performed in productions and staged readings at the Public Theatre, Henry Street Settlement, Manhattan Class Company, and many other venues. Click here for more info on plays.

DIRECTING

Shellen has directed numerous plays, musicals, and cabaret acts in productions, workshops, and readings, more recently ON THE LINE at 78th STREET THEATRE LAB (by Leah Kornfeld Friedman, Maxine Kern, Shellen Lubin, Elsa Okon Rael, Marilyn Rockafellow , and Dana Zeller-Alexis); staged readings of Susan Merson's BOUNTY OF LACE for Judith Shakespeare Company's Resurgence Festival, Stephanie Satie's LEON'S DICTIONARY at 78th STREET THEATRE LAB, Jule Selbo's LAKE GIRLS at Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Elsa Rael's LAST LADY OF STUYVESANT TOWN for the Women's Project; TONY SCHATZ and STEVEN CHERA at The Metropolitan Room and Don't Tell Mama. MY BRAVE FACE which she co-created with Robert John Cook \ has been performed at a number of venues around town with Robert John Cook, Cynthia Enfield , and Matthew Gandolfo. Click here for more directing info.

COACHING

As a vocal and acting coach, she teaches professionals for stage, screen, and recordings, and has taught and performed at a number of colleges and professional and private schools, most notably Bennington College, her alma mater, where she was a guest artist in the Black Music Division for Bill Dixon. She has coached actors in starring roles on soap operas and in theatre, and a number of boys for the role of Gavroche in LES MISERABLES on Broadway and on tour. As a teaching artist, she has not only developed and taught programs for schools, but worked as a consultant and professional developer for a number of institutions, including Teachers College, Marymount College, Lincoln Center Institute, and Nashville Institute for the Arts. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Marymount Manhattan College teaching Elements of Music. Click here for more coaching info.

TEACHING ARTIST and LIBRARY SERVICES

Shellen was a Children's Librarian for the New York Public Library for five years, and continues her work with them appearing at many branches performing SONGS, STORIES, MOVEMENT, AND MORE for young children, and Theatre and Music Workshops for children, young adults. She also does professional development with librarians, teachers, and parents, and teaching artist residencies in the tri-state area. One of her most memorable performances was at the Countee Cullen Branch where she and storyteller Bob Basey performed STORY-SONGS AND PROTEST-SONGS FROM THE SIXTIES for Black History Month 2005. She has an MILS (Masters in Information and Library Science) with honors from Syracuse University, and is a member of the Beta Phi Mu honor society.

ARTICLES, POEMS, and the MONDAY MORNING QUOTE

Her philosophical musings on artistry as a means of understanding ourselves and living more deeply, truly, and meaningfully have been read by thousands in seven cover pieces for Backstage, the Performing Arts Weekly. Click here for Backstage articles. Each December she writes a poem for the new year, usually illustrating it as well. Click here for New Year Poems. She also writes a weekly piece called the “Monday Morning Quote” which goes out on the internet first thing each Monday to an ever-increasing list of subscribers. Click here to read quote pieces and/or to subscribe.

Shellen is a member of most writers’ and performers’ unions and served as Co-President of the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media with Elsa Rael, her longtime collaborator and friend.