Thank you Lesly Fredman, InterPlay Atlanta’s Spirit Awardee 2015!

LESLY FREDMAN, InterPlay Atlanta Spirit Awardee (2015)

Interview by Ruth Schowalter, Certified InterPlay Leader

On Saturday afternoon, October 24th, 2015, Atlanta InterPlay is excited to honor Lesly Fredman the “Spirit of InterPlay Award” for the creative gifts of art, play, connection, and heart that she brings to multiple communities in the Atlanta area.

Those of us living in the metro-Atlanta area are so fortunate to have Lesly Fredman in our lives. She is joyous, deeply intuitive, vastly talented, and really smart! Actor, director, dancer, writer, editor, improvisation teacher, InterPlayer, and creativity coach, Lesly playfully engages with people in her multiple Atlanta communities, meeting each person where they are with a big resounding, “YES.”

A Bouquet of Dancing Flowers for Peace. Lesly is the Russian Sunflower (second from the right)

And she cross pollinates--bringing her Dancing Flowers For Peace and improv students to Atlanta InterPlay and InterPlayers to her improv classes and Dancing Flowers’ warmups. Present and loving, Lesly’s laughter and keen mischievous playfulness inspires us all and serves to connect us in ways that are deep, fun, and meaningful. 

A week before celebrating Lesly with the InterPlay Spirit Award, I met with her for this interview so you readers could experience some of her exceptionally fun spirit. Enjoy!

Tell me your thoughts on creativity. I believe that the creative spirit is the best part of our nature. I call upon mine constantly as guide, playmate, benefactor, partner. My desire to coach arose from my adventures as a producer/director, teacher and performer, but it originated in a fierce pledge I had made to myself long ago: that I would never turn away from my commitment to using every skill and talent I possesses for as long as I live. 

Proud as I am to tell the story of my mother singing in nightclubs in New York with her sister, I remember the regret with which my mom spoke of not studying opera when she had the opportunity. My father, who wrote eloquent letters to the editor and memorable postcards, inexplicably turned down a job as a sports writer for a newspaper. Maybe my mother wouldn’t have been an opera star or my father a Pulitzer Prize winner, but they still might have known the thrill of the ride, the joy of answering the call. 

And that is the heart of my coaching: to honor the creator inside those I work with, play with — to assist, challenge, support, and champion them, all the way to the thriving point. (This answer came from Lesly’s introduction on her website.)

Talk to me about some of the reasons you are an InterPlayer. InterPlay can be exhilarating. It allows us to be graceful and gracious and mischievous. And it’s about movement from the outside that stirs us inside and expands our reach physically, mentally and spiritually.

InterPlay Atlanta, Second Saturday. (Lesly is center second row in red pants)

What inspires you?   Art in any form that takes my breath away. The annual announcement of the MacArthur fellowship awards. Being in conversations with other people's imaginations. Saxophone players. Nature at its most spectacular.

Favorite activities. Sister trips. Sharing absurdity and laughter (lots of it!!) with my partner Matt. Adventures with my friend Jesse. Reading. Making up characters and taking them out to restaurants.

Four objects you can’t live without. Books. Lipstick (for decoration). My Toyota (until I can get a transporter). Screened in porches.

Books on you’re reading now. Alexander McCall Smith’s Le Popo Agency,

Something about everything.

What does this InterPlay Spirit Award mean to you? I feel very honored to be recognized for being playful! I love that over the years I have had the good fortune to welcome more and more playmates into my life.  And I am thrilled that creative play is being valued as an essential ingredient for well-beingness!

FLOWER GIRL. Lesly playfully embodied being the Flower Girl at her friend's wedding this past summer.

Thank you Lesly!

InterPlay Atlanta is excited about celebrating Lesly with this spirit award on the first International Day of InterPlay Celebration and FUNdraiser. Lesly, along with other exceptional people across the United States and around the world, will be acknowledged for their creativity, leadership and the way their life reflects the spirit of InterPlay. Yay Lesly! We hope you will come to applaud her contributions to us all who have been impacted by her considerable gifts.

Here are the details:

1:00 to 3:30 P.M.

The Social Hall at
Decatur First Christian Church
601 West Ponce de Leon
Decatur, Georgia 30030

Ample parking is available. From the church parking lot, enter the first door you come to, which will be indicated with an InterPlay sign. The Social Hall is at the end of a long hallway on the left.