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Abby Epstein is delighted to be working with WET on the LOVE Benefit again this year. She most recently produced and directed the award-winning documentary, “The Business of Being Born,” with Ricki Lake. The film premiered at the 2007 Tribeca film festival and was released theatrically by New Line Cinema and Red Envelope Entertainment in 2008. It can currently be purchased on thebusinessofbeingborn.com and will air on Showtime later this year. Due to the success of the film, Ricki and Abby wrote Your Best Birth, a practical guide to planning your birth which will be published by Grand Central this May. They are also working on a follow—up DVD. Abby made her film directing debut at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival with the award-winning documentary feature “Until the Violence Stops.” The film, featuring playwright and activist Eve Ensler, explored how The Vagina Monologues grew into an international grassroots movement called V-Day to stop violence against women and girls. After premiering at Sundance, the film played at the Miami, Santa Barbara, Maui and Locarno Film Festivals and won the Golden Audience Award at the Amnesty International Film Festival in Vancouver. “Until the Violence Stops” had its broadcast premiere on Lifetime Television in a commercial-free presentation and received a Gracie Allen and an Emmy Award.
Ms. Epstein began her career as a theater director in Chicago where she founded Roadworks Productions and premiered works by Eric Bogosian, Patrick Marber and Mike Leigh, earning over twenty Joseph Jefferson Awards. Returning to NYC in 1998, Ms. Epstein became Resident Director of the Broadway musical “RENT” and directed the “RENT” premieres in Mexico City, Barcelona, and Madrid. In 2000, she began directing “The Vagina Monologues,” Off-Broadway and then directed the national tour, for which she received a National Broadway Theater Award Nomination. She also directed productions of “The Vagina Monologues” in Toronto and “Los Monologos de la Vagina” in Mexico City, where it has been a sold-out hit since 2001.
Other stage credits include “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” for the 2004 Fòrum Universal de les Cultures in Barcelona, the NY premiere of Jessica Goldberg’s “Stuck,” and the LA premiere of Mike Leigh’s “Ecstasy,” which received an LA Weekly Award and ran for six months at the Odyssey Theater. Also in Los Angeles, Ms. Epstein collaborated with actress/writer Darlene Hunt to develop and direct the stage comedy “Platonically Incorrect,” featuring “Will & Grace” star Sean Hayes. “Platonically Incorrect” went on to become a pilot for ABC Television.
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