Elysia Segal

Elysia Segal (born April 30, 1985) is an American actress, playwright, and historian. She has written over thirty history and STEM-based museum theatre pieces for cultural institutions across the United States and has been featured by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the United Nations' International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and on television across the globe. She is a member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, and Dramatists Guild of America.

Elysia Segal
Born (1985-04-30) April 30, 1985
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
OccupationActress, Playwright, and Historian
Years active2007 - present
Websitehttp://elysiasegal.com

Early Life and Training

Elysia Segal was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, Florida. While there, she placed fifth at the 2003 National Catholic Forensics League National Championships[1] and was elected to the Teen Arts Advisory Council for Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood.[2]

Segal also participated in the school's nationally-acclaimed ASPIRE Science Research Program, which matches students with leading researchers at local research facilities to gain graduate-level analytical and research skills.[3] She has since credited this experience as highly influential of her love of blending STEM topics and in-depth research with the arts. She was a semifinalist in the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge[4] and won first place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2003[5] with her research project analyzing the use of proteoglycans as a biomarker for congenital hydrocephalus.[6] Main-belt asteroid 17795 Elysiasegal was named for her in recognition of this achievement.[7][8]

Segal graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts Drama program after studying at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, the CAP21 Musical Theatre Conservatory, Stonestreet Studio's Film & TV Workshop, and at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland and went on to pursue a Masters of Arts in the inaugural class of the Museum Studies program at City University of New York, developed in collaboration with the New-York Historical Society. She is a Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG) through the National Association for Interpretation.[9]

Acting Career

Segal's performance credits include her portrayal of the feisty, lesbian performance artist "Maureen" in RENT, The Legend of Flowers (Lincoln Center), George M. Cohan: In His Own Words (Lake Placid Center for the Arts), and The Who's Tommy (DeBaun Center for Performing Arts).[10][11] She has also made a number of film and television appearances including The Music Never Stopped (Official Selection of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival),[12] Going the Distance, Royal Pains, and Mercy,[13] and has appeared in numerous museum theatre performances at cultural sites across the United States (see § Museum Theatre below).

In 2010, Segal starred as "Gillian" in Together This Time: A New Rock Musical by Andrew Heyman and Zac Kline,[14] a role which she originated at NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program two years prior. She also appeared in the show's off-Broadway premiere later that summer at the Lucille Lortel Theater.[15][16]

She also portrayed "Beth II" in Ryan O'Leary's 'Y: The Last Man',[17] a film adapted from the Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra graphic novels of the same name. It premiered at the 2011 Litchfield Hills Film Festival[18] and screened with a Q&A panel at I-CON 30 at Stony Brook University.[19] She received a Best Actress nomination at the 2011 FTC Luminaries for her appearance in Louis Matta's time-travel film The Traveler, which went on to win Audience Favorite Sci-Fi Mini Short in the 2011 ShockerFest International Film Festival.

Segal received a nomination for Outstanding Actress[20] for her performance as "Daisy Miller" in the world premiere reading of the play Pushing Daisy at the Gene Frankel Theatre.[21][22] The largely autobiographical piece by playwright and cancer survivor Lauren Epsenhart was the first to be produced by The Pushing Daisy Project, an organization which promotes cancer awareness by showcasing new works.[23][24]

Writer/director Terence Krey later cast her as "Cassandra Southwick" in his web series pilot Entwined,[25] which went on to win "Best Use of Numerical Element" in Celebrate the Web 5, and then again as "Chloe," the lead in his genre-blending indie-horror-romance feature Not A Monster.[26] They collaborated the next year for Celebrate the Web 6 as well on the steampunk-inspired pilot "The Belle and The Bot," with Segal (also a producer on the project) playing Abigail, the time-traveling Southern belle from the year 1863, and Krey as her tragic robot husband, Edward.[27] The show won "Judge's Choice" and runner up for "Audience Choice" in the competition, and was screened at VidCon 2012.[28] She also co-produced and starred as Penelope in Krey's supernatural dramedy feature film, "Winter Slides."[29]

In 2014, she was cast as the lead in Things I Left on Long Island, a new play by Jonathan Larson Grant recipient Sara Cooper, which premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival.[30][31] The play was the recipient of the 2014 Fringe Excellence Award for Playwriting[32] and was a TimeOut New York Critics' Pick.[33] She had previously workshopped the play with Cooper at Theater for the New City and Dixon Place. She also workshopped material from Cooper's musical Elevator Heart, music by Amy Burgess, Julia Meinwald and Julianne Wick-Davis.

Museum Theatre

Segal first became interested in museum theatre and costumed interpretation while working with Wildlife Theatre at the Bronx and Central Park Zoos in 2010. She has since gone on to research, write and perform original theatrical shows and experiences for school groups and the public at a number of institutions including the New York Transit Museum, the New-York Historical Society, and the DAR Museum, among others. Her historical interpretations often give a voice to underrepresented women in history and science such as inventor Mary Walton, a citizen scientist from the late 1800s who beat Thomas Edison to discovering a method to quiet New York's elevated railroad[34], and the pioneer women who inspired the creation of the iconic Madonna of the Trail statues along the National Old Trails Road.

Her work has been noted as presenting complex, vivid portraits of her subjects that shines a light on both their triumphs as well as their flaws and showcases a variety of themes such as problem solving, social activism, community, and overcoming obstacles such as gender inequality. It is also uniquely notable in its depth of historical research and careful inclusion of primary source materials and quotations. She often additionally utilizes innovative formats and staging, ranging from interactive encounters, to digital theatrical gaming, immersive roaming adventures, live recreations of events, and even rap battles.

In 2018 she was hired to begin producing original theatrical performances at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City, housed inside the historic former aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. She has created a number of shows, including a performance about the life of teen aviatrix Elinor Smith who rose to fame in the 1920s after illegally flying under New York City's East River Bridges.[35] Segal also oversees the innovative National Endowment for the Humanities research and performance residency Crossing the Line: Bringing History to Life with Teens, in which she guides students in the development of their research, analysis, interpretation and writing skills through their creation of original performance pieces based upon primary and secondary sources.[36]

Segal currently serves as the Vice President of the International Museum Theatre Alliance[37] and speaks regularly at conferences and events about her work in the museum theatre field.

References
  1. "2003 Grand Finals Tournament Results" (PDF). NCFL.org.
  2. "Teen Arts Council Forms in Orlando". Orlando Sentinel. 5 January 2003.
  3. "Innovation - Lake Highland Preparatory School". www.lhps.org.
  4. Berry, Mike and Catherine Hinman (12 September 1999). "3 Students are Science Semifinalists". Orlando Sentinel.
  5. "2003 Cleveland Intel ISEF Grand Award Winners". Society for Science & the Public.
  6. "Intel ISEF 2003 Finalist Profile". Society for Science & the Public. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  7. "17795 Elysiasegal (1998 FJ61)". JPL Small-Body Database Browser. NASA.
  8. "Ceres Connection 2003 Award Honorees". MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  9. "National Association for Interpretation". www.interpnet.com.
  10. "MuSE presents "The Legend of Flowers"". Multicultural Sonic Evolution (MuSE). Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  11. "See me. Feel me. Touch me. Heal me". Hoboken411.com. 12 February 2009.
  12. "Tisch @ Sundance 2011" (PDF). NYU Tisch School of the Arts. 17 December 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-02-23.
  13. "IMDB - Elysia Segal". IMDB.
  14. BWW News Desk (April 20, 2010). "Emerging Artists Theatre Presents TOGETHER THIS TIME At The TADA Theatre 4/27". BroadwayWorld.com.
  15. Gans, Andrew (18 August 2010). "Together This Time, With Hedwig's Whitton and West Side Story's Shaw, Begins Aug. 18". Playbill.com. Archived from the original on 2010-08-21.
  16. BWW News Desk (August 18, 2010). "TOGETHER THIS TIME to Premiere at FringeNYC, 8/18-8/26". BroadwayWorld.com.
  17. Rondal (8 June 2011). "Ryan O'Leary's "Y: The Last Man" Fan Film". Strange Kids Club.
  18. "Hills Film Festival 2011 - The Films". Litchfield Hills Film Festival.
  19. O'Reilly, Brendan J. (21 April 2011). "Five Towns Student Set to Release Short Film Shot on LI". HalfHollowHillsPatch.
  20. "2011 Planet Connections Awards". Planet Connections Theatre Festivity.
  21. BWW News Desk (June 22, 2011). "The Pushing Daisy Project Presents World Premiere Reading of PUSHING DAISY, 6/23". BroadwayWorld.com.
  22. Gans, Andrew (22 June 2011). "Casting Announced for Reading of Pushing Daisy". Playbill.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22.
  23. "The Pushing Daisy Project - Hope and Art Collide!". Archived from the original on 2011-09-23.
  24. "GMTWP Alums Launch New Theatre Organization Pushing Daisy Project (Theatre With A Cause)". NYU Tisch.
  25. "Celebrate the Web - The Pilots 2011". Celebrate the Web.
  26. Hood, Robert (21 January 2012). "When Is A Monster Not A Monster". Undead Backbrain.
  27. Rapp, Logan (June 6, 2012). "Celebrate The Web 6: Level Up! — The Winner's Circle!". Celebrate the Web.
  28. Baldwin, Drew (June 6, 2012). "Celebrate the Web 6 Announces Winners, 'The Belle and the Bot' Sweeps". Tubefilter.
  29. "Moviefilm Productions Presents: "Winter Slides"". Moviefilm Productions.
  30. Bowgen, Philippe (August 6, 2014). "Things I Left on Long Island by Jonathan Larson Grant Recipient Will Debut Aug. 9". Playbill.
  31. "Things I Left on Long Island at FringeNYC". August 13, 2014.
  32. Theater, New York (2014-08-25). "2014 Fringe Excellence Award Winners". New York Theater. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  33. "Things I Left on Long Island | Theater in New York". Time Out New York.
  34. "Mary Walton - Mother of Invention by Elysia Segal". Published in IMTAL Insights - Winter 2019. February 2019.
  35. "Intrepid Advancements Newsletter Winter 2019". Issuu.
  36. "Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Grant to Expand Youth Cultural Program". www.intrepidmuseum.org.
  37. "IMTAL - Home". International Museum Theatre Alliance.
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