Hosted by Arlene Dahl

  “The Night John Lennon Died”

Written by Louisa Burns-Bisogno

  Based on the book by Ann Loring & Saundra Shohen

  Date of reading: Monday, October 23, 2006

  Time:  Reception 5:30pm /  Program 6:00pm *

Emergency rooms are centers of democracy receiving the victims of accidents, illnesses and the crime related injuries of the rich and poor alike. So it was the night John Lennon died.

Saundra Shohen saw it all serving as Roosevelt Hospital ’s Emergency Department Administrator for five years. She was there when the first cases of AIDS appeared and later wrote on its challenges. She also established a volunteer-based service for rape survivors that is now used as a national model. Her friend Ann Loring was often with Saundra when she was paged back to a crisis in the ER and often told her, “You should write a book.”

Ann Loring co-authored the book “Emergency” with Saundra Shohen. In the 90 plus years of her life she distinguished herself as an award-winning actor, writer and producer, and as President of AFTRA for seven years and a longtime member of both the National and local boards. She was also a New York Chapter Governor and National Trustee of the Television Academy and a member of the boards of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Theatre Wing. But her passion was mentoring a new generation of writers for television, film and theatre.

Louisa Burns-Bisogno, award-winning screenwriter and “O’Neill” playwright was approached by her mentor Ann Loring and friend Saundra Shohen to adapt “Emergency” for television or film. In addition to writing, she consults internationally on media (in Moscow and Ireland ) and runs an annual writers retreat in Tuscany , Italy . She currently teaches at both Kean University in New Jersey and Western Connecticut State and conducts small group workshops. She credits her own students’ successes with the fact that she uses the “Ann Loring method.”

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