Tamara Tunie was center stage May 17 at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts for the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Oral History Project. She answered interviewer David Gordon’s thoughtful questions with honesty and reflection, heart and humor.

“What I think a lot of people don’t understand about directing is it’s not just about the play, it’s also about managing people, because it’s a multitude of personalities all in one space trying to create one thing, and it’s managing those experiences, personalities, different ways of communicating, getting everybody on the same page, and I think that’s more the challenge than actually moving people about the stage and directing them.” ~Tamara Tunie

Tamara Tunie is a film, stage, and television actress, director, and producer. She is perhaps best known for playing Medical Examiner Melinda Warner in the series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” She starred as  Marie Van Der Veen, the matriarch of a Native American tribe, on Sundance TV’s THE RED ROAD. Ms. Tunie, also starred in AMC’s DIETLAND and the BBC/Netflix political drama Black Earth Rising. Her many roles on television, include Jessica Griffin on the CBS Daytime Drama “As The World Turns,” for which she received two NAACP Image Award nominations and two Soap Opera Digest award nominations, and Alberta Green in Season One of the hit series “24.” She can be seen in recurring roles and guest appearances on “Almost Family” “Emergence”, “Better Call Saul”, “Blue Bloods”, “Billions”, “Alpha House”, “Elementary” “Survivor’s Remorse”, “Zoo”, “The Good Wife”, “Law and Order,” “Sex and the City,” and “NYPD Blue” and was featured in the film, FLIGHT.

David Gordon is Managing Editor of TheaterMania, and President of the Outer Critics Circle.

Contributed by Shellen Lubin

The LPTW Professional Development and Heritage Programs are made possible, in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by Public Funds from the NYC department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council. LPTW is proud to have SHOWTIME as a Brava Sponsor.