Creative Team
Dorothy Lyman
- Director
Dorothy Lyman began her acting career in New York in the late 1960s as a
member of Joseph Chaikin’s innovative Open Theatre. She won her varied and
challenging roles in London, New York and Los Angeles theatrical
productions, including Shrivings with Sir John Gielgud, Fefu and Her
Friends, House of Mirth and Niagara Falls.
Moving to television, she earned two Emmy Awards for her portrayal of the
flinty but engaging Opal Gardner on the ABC daytime drama All My Children.
Her 15 year stint on various daytime dramas led to 136 episodes on the
Lorimar sitcom Mama’s Family portraying Vicki Lawrence’s sartorially
spirited daughter in law, Naomi. She has appeared in numerous feature films,
winning praise for her work in such movies as Victor Nunez’ Ruby in
Paradise, and appeared in Ted Demme’s Blow, Oliver Stone’s World Trade
Center and Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. She continues to guest star in
episodic television in such shows as Reba, Judging Amy, The Practice, CSI
Miami, Law and Order SVU, and Battlestar Galactica.
Ms. Lyman plunged into directing early in her career, bringing the work of
our generation’s most noteworthy playwrights to the American stage,
including the original off-Broadway production and subsequent national tour
of John Ford Noonan’s offbeat A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking
and Snoo Wilson’s Loving Reno at New York Theatre Studio. Her startling 1984
production of Vicious, a meditation on violence, drugs, love and rock and
roll, stirred Los Angeles critics and audiences alike. As director of Jane
Chambers’ ensemble piece, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove, Ms. Lyman took on
the subtleties of same-sex relationships with openness and wit. Other Los
Angeles directing credits include A Month in the Country at the Odyssey
Theatre Ensemble and Thomas Babe’s Taken in Marriage and A Prayer for My
Daughter, performed in repertory at ITA Stage. Always endeavoring to extend
her creative reach, Ms. Lyman wrote and starred in A Rage in Tenure, an
unflinching look at marriage and identity. The play, produced at Los
Angeles’ Theatre Geo, was a critical and box office success, earning Ms.
Lyman and her play four Dramalogue Awards.
In 1990, Ms. Lyman was tapped to direct the NBC daytime drama, Generations.
In 1995, her considerable gifts as a comic actress and her reputation as a
“can-do” director came to the attention of Fran Drescher, who brought her on
as a producer-director of the hit CBS comedy, The Nanny. Other television
directing assignments included The Simple Life for Sternin and Frasier Ink
Inc. and the recent CBS four-camera film comedy, Payne starring John
Laroquette and JoBeth Williams. In 2001 she adapted Betty Fussell’s
acclaimed memoir, My Kitchen Wars, for the stage. The one-woman show
premiered at Los Angeles’ Second Stage Theatre in February, 2001 and ran at
the 78th Street Theatre Lab in New York City in 2004.
The Northern Kingdom, written by playwright Nancy Fales Garrett, was Ms.
Lyman’s feature film directing debut. The film has garnered awards at the
San Diego Film Festival, River’s Edge Film Festival, Wild Rose Festival, and
was an official selection at the Syracuse International Film Festival, the
Fallbrook Film Festival, The Buffalo-Niagara Film Festival, and the Los
Angeles FAIF/IndieFest. It will be distributed in late 2008 by Vanguard
International Cinema.
Split Ends marks Ms. Lyman’s return to comedy. The film is currently in post
production.
Jendra Jarnagin — Director of Photography
Jendra
Jarnagin’s early expression of photographic talent garnered her an
invitation to participate in a professional video program at the age of
twelve, and by age fifteen she was confident that her calling in life was to
be a Cinematographer. After attending NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts,
Jendra’s passion and aptitude for lighting led her to begin her professional
career as a Gaffer. She lit many diverse projects, including commercials,
documentary television for National Geographic and The Discovery and History
Channels, and many studio pictures and episodic TV series such as Sex & the
City and Law & Order. Jendra has shot a wide variety of projects. Notable
films include Jason Koffeman’s Polaroid, which was lauded for its
cinematography in IndieWire and Ain’t it Cool News, and EXIT, starring Tony
LoBianco and Jack Scalia, winner of several awards including the Platinum
Award and Best Director at Houston-WorldFest.
Bill Cunliffe — Composer
Emmy® and
Grammy®-nominated Bill Cunliffe is providing a witty and moving score for
Split Ends. After Mr. Cunliffe won several Down Beat Awards as an Eastman
student, he taught at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. His
first major jazz gig was pianist and arranger with Buddy Rich, touring
Europe with Frank Sinatra. He later performed with Ray Brown, Joe Henderson,
Freddie Hubbard, Art Farmer, Woody Shaw and James Moody.
Mr. Cunliffe was the 1989 winner of the $10,000 Thelonious Monk
International Jazz Piano Award, and has received stipends from the National
Endowment for the Arts. A number of his jazz instructional books are
published by Alfred Publications, his big band compositions are published by
Kendor Music and Otter Music; his choral music is self-published on his
website www.billcunliffe.com and by Santa Barbara Music Press. Mr. Cunliffe
was Marian McPartland’s guest on her famed “Piano Jazz” radio show in June
1998.
Mr. Cunliffe has released a dozen CDs as a leader. His latest, which spent a
month in the #2 position in the JazzWeek radio polls, is Imaginacion on
Torii Records.
As a composer/arranger, Mr. Cunliffe has been nominated both for two Emmys®
and two Grammys®, and has composed extensively for big band, chamber groups,
choir and orchestra. In addition, his performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in
Blue, featuring jazz trio improvisation, have won public acclaim. According
to the Wellington, New Zealand Times, Cunliffe’s recent concert at the
Wellington Jazz Festival was “Best jazz piano since Oscar Peterson.” The BBC
Review recently said that “Bill Cunliffe is one of the great players of the
day.” The Atlanta Jazz Journal gave his album A Rare Connection five stars.
He recently formed Metre Records with collaborator Melissa Sweeney to
provide outlets for creative musical projects in which they are involved,
both individually and together. These projects often fall outside the normal
boundaries in which traditional record companies operate. The first project
to be released on this label, now available worldwide as physical product
and download is the Bill Cunliffe/James Walker/All Saints Choir
collaboration, Transformation, music for chorus, jazz band, and orchestra.
Anisha Tomlinson – Editor
Anisha Tomlinson began her editing career with the independent film, Kids in
America, which was released in theaters nationwide in 2005. This paved the
way to her work on a number of television series, including Lifetime’s FBI
drama, Angela’s Eyes, USA’s television adaptation of Steven King’s The Dead
Zone, and the CW’s Life is Wild, a family drama set in South Africa.
Since moving from Los Angeles to New York in late 2007, Ms. Tomlinson has
continued her work in television and returned to editing independent films,
including the award-winning short, The Assasstant, and most recently, Split
Ends.
Ms. Tomlinson grew up in New Delhi, India. She moved to the United States to
attend Brown University, where she graduated with a BA in Modern Culture &
Media (or more simply, “film theory”) and Ethics & Political Philosophy.
Justine Franko — Production Designer
Justine Franko is a New York based Production Designer who began working in
the independent film community of San Francisco over 15 years ago.
Concurrently she was shooting her own award winning films that have had
world wide festival play and working with indie notables Jay Rosenblatt,
Christian Bruno, and Larry Clark. In 2003 Franko received her MFA in Film
Production from the prestigious Film Studies Program at Columbia University,
immersing herself in all three of the offered concentrations, Directing,
Screenwriting, and Producing.
Franko Production Designs and is an art team member for award-winning music
videos, commercials, and feature films. She owns and operates Franko Designs
Interiors, as well as the home furnishings and housewares shop, Om Sweet
Home in Brooklyn, New York.
