Athena Reich, actress, singer, teacher, Lady Gaga impersonator and TV show host - to name just a few hats she wears - is one of New York City's best kept secrets. Athena has way too may accomplishments to name. She has toured the US and Canada with her own music and performed as a Lady Gaga impersonator many times, including appearing on Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory commercial. From her Upper West Side home, Athena also teaches many young people how to be be musicians and actors, and experiences the joys of watching her students grow.

When asked how she manages all of her different projects, Athena said, "I have a great organizational system. I tend to focus on where I am at the moment, with what I am doing and who I am with." Seemingly tireless, Athena manages her dancers, her students, her gigs, and her auditions with an ability that would inspire awe in the most driven A-type personality. But she is also down to Earth, a true artist who somehow makes time for her friends.


Raised in Toronto, Athena toured North America and Europe, hiring a publicist for promotion. She performed as many as seven gigs in a week, hoping to reach a wider audience. She even started a women's touring group called Sirens Wild Ride. She has appeared in numerous off-broadway and nationally touring theater production. For a while she even acted in a musical that toured the Midwest. As her brand grew, she performed with A-listers such as Janeane Garafolo and even cowrote with Lorraine Ferror. Her song Love is Love was #1 for weeks on MTV's Logo quicklist countdown and her version of The Logical Song was in the top ten for weeks on NewNowNext.

Athena eventually made her way to New York where she says she "would be happy to spend the rest of her life." When she first got there she busked as a gold statue in Times Square, along with the Naked Cowboy and Spider-man.

In spite of being enormously talented, she feels she has never quite gotten past a glass ceiling. Burning out on touring, Athena decided to concentrate on other aspects of her career. For years now she has been teaching music and acting on the Upper West Side, and has since branched into web TV, hosting a show called The Curious Cook and producing a comedic web show called Roommate Wives that will begin production in May. She has even started a non-profit music education program called Music For Everyone, which allows donors to sponsor children who are talented and focused but economically disadvantaged.

There is so much to say about this vibrant and amazing young woman, that it would be best perhaps to simply check out her website and all of the links in this article to get a taste of who she is. Athena is available for music and acting lessons as well as Lady Gaga shows. Contact her for details.

Things are about to get crazy at the Dunn Center for the Performing Arts.

Organizers are spicing up an already busy homecoming weekend at N.C. Wesleyan College with a concert featuring Athena Reich as Lady Gaga, said Sheila Martin, executive director. The Lady Gaga impersonator will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 29.

Reich will sing, not lip-synch, the songs that have brought Lady Gaga international fame, Martin said. The performer will be in wigs and outfits copied from or inspired by the pop star and have back-up dancers accompanying her as she rocks the night away. Two costume contests will round out the evening.

“We wanted to try to do something that would not only attract our students but would be attractive to our younger alums to try to get them back on campus for homecoming. We have had some good response from some of them who plan to be here and not only participate in the Lady Gaga thing but other activities as well,” Martin said.

When everything goes right and the audience is in the mood to have fun, Reich said her shows become like a giant dance party. People who normally are afraid to dance in public find themselves smiling and letting loose.

“I want people to be screaming, to be dancing, to just be at the edge of fun. I want them to be partying no matter what age they are,” said Reich, who lives in Manhattan.

Though Reich makes several costume changes during her show, she is not the only one who will be going “Gaga,” Martin said. Organizers want the audience to take a more active part in the evening’s entertainment by participating in costume contests with cash prizes for the winners.

There will be a $500 prize awarded to the audience member with the best Lady Gaga costume, Martin said. There also will be a contest for the best non-Gaga costume worn by a high school student. The prize will be $250 to the student and $250 to his or her high school. The participants will be asked to come onstage during intermissions for a fashion show and judging, and the winners will be announced by the end of the night.

“I think the ones who dress up to compete for the $500 prize will be the real hit of the night. We have talked to a couple people on campus who are working really hard on their outfits. Some of them – even guys – are talking about doing it or girls are trying to talk them into it,” Martin said.

By the end of the evening, Martin said she hopes the concert has made a favorable impression on younger audience members, showing them that the center has things to offer to them, too.

Kasie Edwards, a senior at N.C. Wesleyan, said she is a Lady Gaga fan and was glad to hear the Dunn Center would hold a show like this. She already has made a costume for the night and is trying to get many of her friends to participate.

“I think it is a great show for the students. Most of our shows are geared toward an older audience, so it is kind of nice to have something that is geared toward a younger audience,” Edwards said.

Reich has not been impersonating Lady Gaga long. When a fan asked the singer, songwriter and actress to do a show as Lady Gaga on New Year’s Eve in New York, Reich didn’t own any of the pop star’s music. But the idea sounded like fun, so Reich called her agent to set it up and immersed herself in all things Gaga.

“The more I listened to her and the more I watched her, the more I really got a respect for her. Hours and hours and days and months making costumes and learning her lyrics and her choreography. Then the big show came, and I had so much more fun than I thought it would,” said Reich,

More offers to play Lady Gaga started coming in after the first show, and between those, acting gigs and performing her own music, Reich has had a busy year.

Being a Lady Gaga impersonator allows Reich to combine three of her loves, singing, dancing and acting, since she always stays in character during the show. It also has influenced the style of she prefers, which has more of a folk sound.

“Right now, I am going to be releasing some dance music. ... I have gotten really into this dance pop world listening to her music all the time,” Reich said.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

"..Seeing the transformation on the stage during the change-over is somewhat amazing. ..When the stage lights suddenly change, the actors quickly assume a different role. There is a noticeable difference in body language and demeanor. Even speech patterns are different. It really is interesting to see this transformation live. ... {this happens} to the characters portrayed by the other six actors. The multi-talented Athena Reich portrays Jury #4 and Less Doyle. Ms. Reich, who in addition to being an actress is an award winning musician, also had to play vastly different characters. Through voice and mannerisms, she also brings life to her characters without the necessity of elaborate make up or costume changes."

What Theater People Love (and Hate) About Same-Sex Marriage

On Monday, many gay members of the Broadway community -- from theater ushers to playwrights -- will be wed onstage immediately following a performance of "Hair." Though much of the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (L.B.G.T.) theater set is celebrating same-sex marriage, not everyone is rushing to the altar to get hitched.

"Do civil rights need to be tied to marriage?" asked Jennifer Miller, a downtown theater veteran and professor of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt.

Although Miller is in favor of same-sex marriage, it raises lots of questions for her, especially since its benefits -- like spousal health insurance or tax breaks -- still exclude people who don't choose to be wed.

"Do I want to be fighting for gay marriage or do I want to be fighting for health care for everybody?" she said.

But Oskar Eustis, the artistic director for the Public Theater, said you can't really go wrong with allowing same-sex couples to marry in New York.

"Being for gay marriage is sort of like saying you like strawberries," he said. "Who the hell is against it?"

Eustis spent much of his career in small, alternative theaters across the country until he took the helm of the Public in 2005, and he's noticed that New York's gay marriage win has unified theater-types like never before, particularly in more mainstream Broadway communities.

"What we're seeing [now] is much more mainstream, commercial people being willing to stand up and show their support and actually be leaders on this issue," he said.

Actress and singer Athena Reich, who calls herself a "second generation gay" because her father lives in Toronto with his husband, said after same-sex marriage was passed, she felt a change in the way people in her neighborhood treated her. When she moved to the city 11 years ago, she said she was taunted when walking down the street with her girlfriend.

"Now you see 14-year-olds, gay kids, kissing on the subway," she said. "This is an official win that makes it harder for people to discriminate against us."

Still, she said the struggle isn't over yet.

"My eyes are on the prize," she said. "It’s going to go federal."

Some big time theater producers, like David Stone of "Wicked," and Tony-winning celebrities like Cynthia Nixon (of "Sex in the City" fame) have long been familiar faces at rallies and events in support of gay rights. In October 2009, Stone even footed the bill for buses that sent the cast of "Hair" to march on Washington for gay rights.

This weekend, the cast of "Hair" will perform a benefit at Rockwood Music Hall on the Lower East Side to raise money for Broadway Impact, a gay rights organization whose mission is to "educate and inspire our community into action towards equality." A play exploring the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage in California, called "8," will also come to Broadway for one night in September.

By Julia Furlan

Feature in ArteFuse of "Bright Lights, Queer City" at the Leslie Lohman Gallery. My piece is the first one pictured in the article in the link below.

My art is featured, along with others, in the Village Voice, as it covers "Bright Lights, Queer City" at the Leslie Lohman Gallery. Written by Michael Musto. Click link below to see a photo of me and my paintings.

Press photo of Athena and cast from "Broadway Sings for Pride", June 27, 2011

Featured in this week's Go Mag as the Editor Pick of the Week in promotion for our upcoming gig Monday June 27th at 7pm with Broadway stars at the Gay Center in the village.

TRANSLATION FROM GERMAN:
Athena Reich is coming to Europe! The Canadian is sympathetic to us in 2011 to honor with a few tour stops. For those who have not yet heard so much of it, here is an interview which was given an exclusive romeoliebtjulian.com lead with her. It reveals all sorts about herself, their music, love and all the things you mean in their lives much. Experience the multiple Outmusic winner and nominee for Best Video of the Year at MTV logo here openly and unpretentious.


Q: You just came out with your latest album “LITTLE GIRL DREAMS”. Having worked with Cynthia Daniels must have been quite inspiring and very productive. How do you describe your collaboration?

A: Cynthia and I had an interesting working relat...ionship. At times I felt infatuated with her. Other times she drove me absolutely bonkers. She’d come up with an idea and I’d hate it. I’d come up with an idea and it seemed like she didn’t get it. When we finally created something we both adored, we knew we had discovered something good. It was intense. She’s won several Grammies & Emmies but told me Little Girl Dreams is the best record she has ever collaborated on & produced. OMG what a compliment.


Q: In LOVE IS LOVE you sing the lines “I’ve been with girls, I’ve been with boys.” Can some of your songs be considered autobiographical? Since you write them yourself, the idea seems quite probable. How much Athena is in your songs?

A: It’s all autobiographical. I write when a feeling is so overwhelming that it haunts me for weeks, robs me of sleep, chants itself in my brain over and over…

And yes, I’m queer, lesbian, bi… whatever label you want to stick on me. But my favorite way of describing my orientation is this: I’m queer but my “pair-bonding” energy is with women. My most romantic desires and commitment feelings are with women…so really… I’m a lesbian. But I’m also a little queer/bi because I still can have sexual feelings for men. And yes, to answer your questions very directly, I’ve been with boys and I’ve been with girls.


Q: LOVE IS LOVE is a song with quite a strong content. It says that “love is ruled by love alone.” Is that your own opinion?

A: Yes. When people argue against gay marriage I have to wonder what is lacking in their relationship that they need to busy themselves with casting stones. Love is complex. Love can be difficult. Love can seem different or strange to others from the outside. So long as it’s between two consenting adults, judging others is absolutely ridiculous, and only exposes that person’s naivety towards the depth, breadth, and true beauty love.


Q: In a few words, how would you describe your style of music?

A: Quirky Storytelling anthemic Pop/Rock


Q: Are you also interested in fashion?

A: I’ve been interested in fashion since I was 12 years old and shopped for ripped jeans and hippy flower shirts in thrift stores in Toronto’s Kensington Market. Now I just want to make outfits out of bubble wrap and duck tape and wear a lot of fishnets.


Q: How did you come up with the idea of being a Lady Gaga imitator?

A: The correct term is “tribute artist” Excuse me!

Just kidding. I don’t take myself that seriously.

I became a Lady Gaga impersonator because someone found my music online and emailed me saying she loved my voice, and would I perform in front of thousands of people at her New Year’s Eve event for Professionals in the City? So the idea came from a fan and it’s taken off from there.


Q: She is very popular among the gay community. In your opinion, why is that the case?

A: Gay men always love a sexy, bold woman with an edge….A story of an ugly duckling blossoming into a swan…. She talks about being an underdog. About being different. About being bullied in school. But mostly it’s because her fashion and sex appeal is simply outrageous and out of control.


Q: You seem to have many fields of interest: singer/songwriter, actress, TV Host/Personality, Lady Gaga Impersonator and Arts Educator. Don’t you sometimes feel like losing track?

A: Do I sometimes feel like losing track? Like do I long to take a long walk in the woods and sit by the water and stare at the ripples for hours? Yes. Constantly. Then maybe I’d return to a little cabin in the woods and tinker on the piano. Then I’d make love to my girlfriend and we’d watch a romantic comedy together while cuddling. Then we’d sleep for 10 hours and wake up and do it all over again. Then in a couple years we’d start making babies. ;)


Q: Which would be the activity you could never abdicate?

A: Songwriting. I think songs will keep needing to come out of me.


Q: So the “What would you bring to a lonely island?”- question would be answered by you with 1. Guitar, 2. Lady Gaga wig and 3. Paint brush?

A: 4. piano. There’s so much more I want to figure out on the piano.


Q: April, 7th you’ll be performing at The Stonewall Inn in New York and you announced on your homepage to play your new song about the Japan & Libya situation. Would you consider yourself a politically active singer?

A: I’m inspired by trauma. It has everything to do with my childhood, and my sense of justice.

Do I follow the news and comment on its details? No. I’d have nightmares if I watched the news every night. I can only watch The Daily Show… I can only digest the news when it’s cushioned by comedy and a strong left wing perspective.

But my songs definitely make statements on social issues such as gay rights, childhood sexual abuse & war.

Q: Are you also active in the fields of homosexual rights?

A: Yes. I am out as a queer performer and talk openly about gay marriage or whatever other gay issue is at hand. Check out this parody I did of Don’t Rain on my Parade in support of MarriageEquality.org. I perform at many fundraisers for various causes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQamkRldpj0


Q: What is your opinion on gay marriage? Would you consider it for yourself and why?

A: Ever since I was a 4 years old girl I wanted to get married and be a Mommy. Being gay didn’t change that for a heartbeat. I can’t even imagine why it would.


Q: How do you prefer to spend your leisure time?

A: Escaping to the countryside with my girlfriend. She’s a veterinarian so her work is very meaningful but it can also be draining so we like to get out of the city to catch up on sleep, watch quirky TV comedies such as “The United States of Tara” and stare at the woods from a cozy country shack.


Q: Having moved from Canada to the US and now traveling the world it might be difficult to stay in touch with close people like family and friends. How do you manage to not lose contact?

A: It’s been hard but I do tour less now than I did 5 years ago, precisely for that reason. However you never know when I’ll need to hit the road again, or for how long. I stay close to the people that matter with visits and long phone calls and I’m addicted to facebook.


Q: How did you get in touch with the EASE program?

I have been working in special education since I was 17 years old. I actually sort of grew up in it. My father was part of the team that developed Bliss Symbolics (a method of communication using symbols for people with language disabilities that was popular in the 80’s) and my mother worked in Deaf Education and research. There is great need for quality arts education in the special needs community so it was a natural direction for me to go in. I have worked for The Manhattan New Music Project (a not-for-profit arts organization) for years; writing, developing and facilitating professional development programs for special education teachers working with students with disabilities. EASE was a natural extension of the work we had been doing for years.

People can find out more about the EASE program at http://www.mnmp.org/arts/research/ease/


Q: Why did you decide to support the idea?

A: The program works. We have Columbia University as our 3rd party evaluators and the research is overwhelmingly positive, showing that the teachers continue to do the activities even after we leave, and that their student’s communication and socialization deficiencies dramatically improve as a direct result of the arts based activities we teach them. We get feedback all the time that children who never spoke started making sound by singing along to one of our games, or that a parent called to ask the school what we did every Wednesday because their son came home every Wednesday and looked his parents in the eyes, where before he’d just stare at the floor.


Q: What can fans expect from your Europe tour this year?

A: Edge. Raw passion. Piano. Guitar. Maybe some electronic beat experimentation mixed in with vocal harmonizers. Storytelling. Earnestness. I love connecting with the energy of the audience. It’s all about the relationship. I love to make my audience laugh. I love to touch incredible sadness but then come right back with something ridiculous.

Five Minutes with Athena Reich

Q: Tell us who you are and where you’re from.: My name is Athena Reich. I was born in Toronto, Canada and I now live in New York City.

A: My parents are both American though. My Dad is from Chicago (German Jew descent) and my Mother is Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish). So… that makes me Jamish… (I think my brother and I are the only ones)


Q: Describe your music.

A: Imagine if Annie Lennox, Janis Joplin and Regina Spektor had a slumber party in 1930′s Berlin…. There would be the impending doom of war, the thrill of sexual outrageousness, and the blues and the quirkiness and the hilarity of it all.


Q: Tell us how the band formed in three sentences.

A: My mother taught me classical piano at age 4. I taught myself guitar at age 15. I’ve been playing coffee shops and clubs ever since.


Q: What did you do before you were in a band?:

A: Before I did music I drew and painted.

Actually a few years ago my vocal chords started hemorrhaging and I wasn’t allowed to speak for a few months so I started painting and drawing again. You can see my freak portraits on my website.


Q: List the first CDs/records each of you bought.

A: Cindy Lauper – Girls Just Want to Have Fun


Q: What’s the band up to over the next few months?

A: I’m writing new songs. Paperclip agency is booking me a tour across Europe & the UK. I’ll be making more music videos for MTV LOGO. I’ll be releasing some dance singles for the first time.


Q: Best item of fan mail you’ve ever received?

A: On a napkin, after a gig, and I quote (it’s on my fridge so I transcribe it for you now):
Athena-
Today was an awful day.
I was damn near tears when I came into the cafe. And you were singing something beautiful. And then you san a ridiculous song about your cat. I’m leaving with a smile.
Thank You.


Q: What music do you have on repeat in the tour bus?

A: Janis Joplin, Etta James, Jason Robert Brown


Q: What gear do you use?: Keyboard: Yamaha NP30

A: Guitar: Guild
That’s all man… plain and simple.


Q. What’s your best on-tour story?

A: My car broke down in the dessert in Arizona. It got towed to a place that said it was a mechanic’s shop but it was really a tire repair place and the owner was on crack and was trying to get me in bed. Meanwhile his pregnant cracked out girlfriend lived in a trailer out back. The power went out for days and it was like all the men in the town (like all 5 of them) were leering at me, trying to get it on with me (and they were all twice my age. One night, at the local hangout (the gas station!) one guy said that half the town lives there because their car broke down and they couldn’t afford to get it fixed. And he wasn’t joking!
I called the police but they said they couldn’t release the car unless the owner (the guy on crack) released my vehicle so for a few more days I pleaded with him. Finally he released the car and I got it towed to an actual shop 2 miles away. They fixed it in 10 minutes.


Q: What do you demand on your rider?

A: Water bottles. And a sound system that actually works.

(Translation from Dutch)
Unpretentious and Disarming

I can't help it, but Athena Reich's Little Girl Dreams makes me think a bit of the long row of singer-songwriters that passed by the pop landscape in the 90's, with names like Billie Myers and Nathalie Imbruglia. Armed with the same kind of alternative sound, Reich lets us hear in her opening number 'Love is Love' what it is all about: "Love is love is love". Without pretension Reich starts her album, which appears very disarmingly.

Little Girl Dreams sounds are diverse - jazzy songs are followed by piano ballads - but the album never loses its coherence. When Reich involves string players and sentences like "My skin remembers fire/And my heart remembers waves' ('Bones'), then it's like I'm listening to the work of Fiona Apple - where the biggest part of the album keeps reminding off. Still, Reich doesn't copy. We have here a musician who has found the right balance between music that sounds just a bit different, and texts that go around woolliness and that touch you. For the past ladies - Imbruglia, Myers, Apple - this was enough for a number of excellent pop albums where quality
was above hit potential. And according to me Athena Reich is heading the same direction.

-Niels Vonberg

Lady Gaga's been bumped off my iPod by Athena Reich. She's young. She's adorable. She's queer. She's Jewish. She's Canadian. What's not to like? Athena Reich fills the stage with great vocals, catchy pop tunes, easily accessible lyrics and an overall stage presence that makes you feel as though she's reached out and hugged you with her smile, her soul and her wonderful voice. I spotted her first at this cool little cult show in a West Village gay bar. This weekend, this girl will be part of the Girls Rock lineup this Sunday at Webster Hall. Check out this video of her Lesbionic anthem: Love is Love. -Rolando Teco