Robin Lane is a New York-based producer, director and actress. She’s also a Psychotherapist (LCSW, PhD). Her show Badass Women 50+ talk show is about women who will not go gently into the night replete with humor, cartoons and performances. You can watch Badass Women 50+on the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) Airtime is: Last Tuesday of every month, at 7:30 PM.
FWM: Tell us about your background.
Growing up I thought I was going to be aa movie star that’s because in my generation we were either housewives teachers bookkeepers or movie stars ha ha ha ha. I had come from a lower middle-class family and my parents dreams for me were to marry a man who belonged to a union – had a secure job. The movie of my day was Gilda with Rita Hayworth and at 14 I longed to be her so I auditioned and got myself into the drama division of the high school-Performing Arts. I learned to analyze plays and understand stage craft. I think one of the reasons I’ve never had any back problems at my age of 87 is because I was trained to bend gracefully and fall without getting hurt. The biggest problem I had was acquiring Eastern Standard speech I had a pronounced Brooklyn accent and making the distinction between words like water which in Brooklynese is pronounced wAWda or the British way which is wotha and Eastern Standard which is simply water was such a challenge that I found it easier to start to speak like a Britt which did not go over well back in my neighborhood. Given my looks and whatever talent P.A. enabled me to develop made it pretty easy for me to go on after graduation get a scholarship to another Drama School very famous in it’s day and then to be admitted as a lifetime member to the famed Actors Studio.
FWM: What do you love the most about the entertainment world?
In the course of my career, I have either acted with directed or produced plays with a number of the renowned actors of my day. For example Olympia Dukakis who recently passed away , Coleen Dewhurst, Estelle Parsons, Christopher Reeve, Dustin Hoffman, Rip Torn, Len Cariou , Austin Pendleton whom I absolutely adore he’s one of the most generous actors of all time, there are simply are too many to mention and I’m sure that much of your readership doesn’t even know who these illustrious artists are. I told you that I had wanted to be film star those fantasies never quite went away and so when I hit the age of 40 and hadn’t become a glitterati of the screen and was either on the road or standing by for a Bway name I got bored and said screw it I’m off to some other venture. Having studied character analysis going into the field of psychology was a logical move. Getting the necessary education and training and leaving the theater community felt at times like I was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat. That journey enabled my understanding of the process of change and adaptation and it’s a repetitive theme on our show. As a clinician I’ve specialized in romantic relationships so that has also been a theme on Badass Women 50 plus. I’ve been married four times , widowed twice , been a wild child in my day and along with my training its enabled me to help countless patients find true love. Treating patients is solitary work . I missed the community of theater folk. So after 20 years, I began producing and directing as I didn’t want to act anymore I liked being in charge. That’s a part of the fun of doing my show – I love putting it all together and having the final say.
https://youtube.com/c/BadassWomen50Plus
FWM: Who have you met along the way that you truly admire?
The actor I most admire is Al Pacino. The day I auditioned for the Actors Studio was the same one he did and we were both admitted. We became friends although his level of acting was always way beyond anything I could ever achieve and I was good. He is an artist who fully embodies whatever character he plays and he is as brilliant doing Shakespeare as he is in a contemporary play or film. There is nothing he can’t do. He was always sweet kind and generous to me and this was after he had won umpteen awards he never changed. He keeps stretching and stretching he does not ever rest on his laurels. There are a lot of other actors whose names I won’t mention because I don’t wanna make enemies who keep doing the same thing over and over but not Al . He’s on the board of directors at the Actors Studio. Very few people realize that the Actors Studio is free. There are acting sessions every Tuesday every Friday come hell or high water from 11 to 1 where members get to exercise their instrument and get critiqued . We have Units for playwriting so writers get the same experience everyone there is a professional of course and there are endless seminars and classes that go on and no one ever pays one single cent. I’ve been a member since 1964 I have taken endless classes seminars yada yada never paid one dime, So being on the board is a very important position that like any board of any major institution takes a lot of your time After all the money has to come from somewhere it’s the Boards responsibility to figure that out. I haven’t seen him in a long time but I guarantee you that if I were to call him tomorrow it would be like we had just spoken. I find him a wonder.
FWM: What led you to launch your show, Badass Women 50+ ? Who are some of the Badass Women on your show?
I’ve always known that every woman has to have a Plan B because the only sure thing is change. In recent years my darling husband of 40 years a man I had a hot and heavy love affair with from day one, He was married when I met him but the truth of the matter is a marriage breaks up not because of the “other woman “ but rather that something between the two simply isn’t working anymore if it ever really did . I was older than Harvey and had excellent health habits and he was a smoker so I knew that the likelihood was he’d predecease me. In the last decade I’d been producing and directing plays and readings at the national arts club A prominent arts institution in New York City which really didn’t give me much public visibility but when you have a husband who is madly in love with you and you look into the mirror of his eyes you are the brightest star in the firmament and that is visibility enough.
But as I said I could anticipate what would come to pass which a year ago this April it did . So two years ago ago In realized that I wanted to do a TV show that would address the terror of aging and loss especially for women like myself who had once been beautiful . being beautiful is an asset and no one likes giving up an asset. in one way or another we all face challenges to the assets we hold.
It also bothered me that so many women feel it incumbent to lie about their age. In the 60s we used to say you are either part of the solution or part of the problem. But more to the point the mission was a show that would be inspirational. As a clinician I know that good problem solving skills are essential at any age but as losses mount with the passing of years they are essential. So I devised a format wherein we have guests who have gone through really tough times and might not initially been adept at problem-solving but through their own pluck developed those skills and found the light at the end of tunnel. People had been telling me for years that I’m a role model and so the mission of Badass Women is to have guests that fit that bill. Our last show was devoted to Sharon McDougle who lost her father when she was four and her mother when she was seven and was raised by a sister who had three children younger than her and she went on to be the first African-American to lead a NASA division that prepares the Astronauts for flight. She made history along with Mae Jamison who she dressed for her journey into space .When we asked her how she was able to surmount all that she did she said “ I have always chosen to be positive- to be happy” I have devoted several programs ( discounting for clinical depression of course ) how positivity is a choice and detailed the steps to acquire it. We also like to entertain so we have lots of whack a doodle visuals , we tell jokes and The great singer Judy Scott has often ended our show with a magnificent rendition of a song that relates to the subject that we have been addressing. And our next up-and-coming show in honor of Pride month One of our guests is a 33 year old transgender woman who has had a very trying journey to self actualizing .She’s beautiful and accomplished but the challenges she’s had to overcome and will continues to struggle with makes her a role model for LGBTQ young people.
FWM: Tell us about your Co-host the beauteous Eurasion, Maria Soccor. How much fun is she to work with?
My Co-host Maria Soccor is a talented actress an award-winning documentarian and though she is less than half my age she is one of my best friends .She is Eurasian. She is a former beauty pageant winner. In a prior episode that’s now on our YouTube channel Badass Women 50+, she tells the story of what it’s like to do pageants and the skills required which she subsequently passed on to inner city girls to enable them to be prepared for job interviews- poise is poise. hard-working talented fun loving adorable a darling girl who can tell a dirty joke along with the best of them. We get countless emails from viewers who have become fans as her bubbly nature in concert with her beauty ain’t easy to resist. I consider her a de facto daughter. She’s also a political activist and ran for City Council in her community during the height of the pandemic but she lost which I was thrilled because it would’ve been really just too much for her to be taking on with all she always has on her plate. Right now she’s in the middle of working on a film which I don’t think I can even tell you about as it’s very much in the making.
FWM: Your show is filled with humor, education, and performances. Where do you get your inspiration for your segments?
After every episode I always have moments of terror thinking I will be unable to figure out the next one and then of course inspiration comes. It can from an article in the paper or something a friend talks about and Zoom Boom Bam! there it is the idea and solution as to how to craft the next one. The Chinese have a curse which is “ may you live in interesting times “ It’s almost impossible not to find inspiration for an episode as the challenges we face are daily and our viewers long for inspiration. I never thought I would wind up being the role model I am as in my youth I was a wild child . On our channel the show we did a month after my husband died was about change and adaptation exactly what I was living. a lot of the show is actually my autobiography because I share very intimate details of my own life and Lordy girlfriend I’ve had quite a journey. What makes the show so good as we don’t let anyone get away with bullshit. Sometimes people don’t want to come on because they have an image to protect at least they think they do I’m too old to give a shit about image and MARIA having spent her youth in beauty pageants couldn’t care less.
We are on air in New York City from a TV community channel called MNN. I wanna give a shout out to them because they are some of the most creative caring people I have met and I have met them all darling. I always tell people don’t send your kids to NYU film school and spend all that money they can get everything they need at MNN where the equipment is state of the art as are the classes and seminars.
But because it is only seen in the five boroughs we had to develop a YouTube channel. some of the videos we post there haven’t even been shown on MNN TV .Our podcasts are on Apple and Spotify.
I’m also on TikTok dancing to the oldies and have thousands of followers which is a riot because I had to have my great nephew show me how to access it. You can find me there @badasswomen50plus
