Brynda Mattox has been an activist almost as long as she has been acting and producing. After receiving the prestigious Lexington Community Award which included a complete academic scholarship to Tran ...Show More
Brynda Mattox has been an activist almost as long as she has been acting and producing. After receiving the prestigious Lexington Community Award which included a complete academic scholarship to Transylvania University in Lexington, KY, she continued her activist and artistic work there. She had leading roles in Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You, Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, Terrence Rattigan's Separate Tables and Berthold Brecht's Gallileo. In addition, she marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in March, 1963 which led to the integration of her college in the fall of 1964. Brynda became to the first woman to receive Transylvania's Outstanding Senior Award as well as another complete academic scholarship to Yale University Divinity School.While at Yale, she started one of the first after school programs for at risk children in America in the Edgewood neighborhood in downtown New Haven, CT and initiated the Yale Cabaret Theatre in the International Student House where she performed Tennessee Williams' This Property Is Condemned, T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party and Eugene Ionesco's The Lesson. The next year the Yale Drama School started its Cabaret Theatre which is now a permanent fixture there. Brynda received Honor's in Public Speaking at Yale Divinity School and attended the first Vietnam War protest in Washington, D.C. in November, 1965 and was listed in the first edition of Outstanding Young Women in America that same year.Upon her graduation from Yale with an M.A. in Religion, Brynda worked for the London Methodist Church as a youth counselor in the working class area of Battersea and became a special teacher for very advanced and very slow learners in the London Borough of Hillingdon. She traveled extensively during her 2 and 1/2 years abroad and was in Israel during The Six Day War in 1967. Upon her return to New York Brynda became deeply involved in the Off-Off Broadway scene with the Judson Poets Theatre in Greenwich Village. Her picture appeared in a 1972 issue of Life Magazine along with the entire cast of Al Carmines' musical A Look at the Fifties.Her work in New York was equally challenging as the Director of Entertainment for Hospital Audiences, Inc., a non profit organization. Brynda initiated and administered programs sponsored by the American Theatre Wing, the National Musicians Union, the New York Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. These grants brought live entertainment to prisons, state schools, mental and general hospitals in and around New York City. Eventually, playwriting workshops and productions were established that created a venue for writers like Miguel Pinero to begin writing while they was incarcerated. Brynda also had the opportunity of working in conjunction with New York University to establish training for hard core unemployed individuals for positions as recreation workers in assisted living and nursing homes. The crowning achievement for her was the United Nations Children's Film Festival which entailed the children of Bellevue Children's Hospital selecting films from UNICEF's Children of the World film series and inviting the children in the surrounding neighborhood of Bellevue Hospital to see the stories of youngsters from other countries. Once a month, more than 500 children came to these educational, inspiring ,and awesome films.Brynda was the Director of the University of Kentucky Summer High School Drama Institute for several years and was instrumental in taking Gorey Stories adapted by one of her students, Stephen Currens, from the works of Edward Gorey to Broadway in October, 1978 as well as portraying the role of Lady Celia in the original production. Upon her completion of her second M.A. in Acting and Directing from the University of Kentucky, Brynda moved to Los Angeles. Almost immediately upon her arrival, she created the role of Brenda Sue, a ditzy Dolly Parton wannabe maid who can't make a decent cup of tea, on the television talk show spoof, Tea with Michael Raye. This show was a combination of British and American humour/humor. Brynda worked on this show for three years as an actress, producer and publicist.Over the years Brynda has produced and acted in six bi-coastal productions with roles written specifically for her: a one woman show, Attic Lies/Attic Prayers by Louis Z. Bickett II, Flesh Failures by Dennis Embry and Quivering Heights by Tony McKonly and Ivan Polley. She created the role of Bonnie Bell in The Grand Finale by Michael Raye and Tom Porter and performed it for over a year in various Southern California venues. She spent ten years teaching a highly successful senior citizens acting class culminating in an invitation to perform Live Spelled Backwards by Jerome Lawrence at the NOHO Arts Festival. Presently, Brynda facilitates an On-Camera Intergenerational Audition Preparation Class at the Las Palmas Senior Citizen Center in Hollywood. She also serves as the Vice President of the Argyle Civic Association which was instrumental in stopping the Millennium Project from being built on either side of the iconic Capitol Records Building.Since the loss of her husband, Cliff Rapp, Brynda's acting and producing efforts have increased exponentially. She has appeared as a guest star on Days of Our Lives and the Bill Hader / Fred Armisen Docmentary Now! spoof, Kunuk Uncovered written by Seth Meyers. She is working on two scripts by another former student, Dal Platt-The Grandmaster, an Asia/American, martial arts/love story and THE Lion of Whitehall about the great abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, for whom Muhammed Ali was originally named. Bruce Foreman has written a comedic film for her entitled Touring America about an older couple who go on a Bonnie and Clyde bank robbing spree.Brynda is also entering into uncharted creative territory since she is writing her memoir tentatively titled Portrait of a Hillwilliam (a hillbilly with class) suggested by the late comedic genius, Jim Varney. One chapter has already been published in the Kentucky Explorer magazine. However, several friends have suggested she title it either Applachian Princess which is what the late composer Al Carmines called her or Blue Diamond Girl, a ballad she has written about her life in the company town of the same name which no longer exits. Hide
