Life & Work with Anita Lee of Sherman Oaks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anita Lee.

Hi Anita, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve lived in Los Angeles almost 35 years and for most of those years I’ve worked in the Los Angeles theatre, independent film and music worlds. I studied acting, history and philosophy in college and screenwriting after graduation. Somehow I’ve always been surrounded by and collaborated with artists, filmmakers, musicians, actors…and writers. I taught my self to play guitar so I could turn my poetry into songs and in doing so I opened myself to lifetime of amazing experiences.
I hold a minor in creative writing and a degree in performance and directing. My experience as a writer translates naturally to creating press releases and marketing material to promote shows that I work with whether a new music release, concerts, films, solo shows or full cast plays and musicals.

In 2010 I started Anita Lee Publicity, a boutique PR Agency working with Southern California creatives. I’ve represented hundreds of productions in 99 seat Non-Equity and Equity houses. I work with music acts fronted by high profile talent, performing artists, theater companies, film & theatre festivals, film and TV directors and independent film productions.

In 2024 I launched an Independent Arts Magazine called RabbleRouse News® to help shine a spotlight on the incredible talent that exists in LA yet never gets noticed. In a city of almost 4 million souls the LA Times employs just one theatre critic. The decline of local media coverage of theatre, music and local art happenings has been hard to accept. People think there is no theatre in Los Angeles because our corporate publications find it irrelevant as they themselves become irrelevant. Theatre and independent performing spaces are thriving in LA.

I love what I do… I love artists, musicians, performers, writers, creators, designers, advocates and to have the opportunity to bring attention to people’s work is the greatest privilege of my life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Is it ever a smooth road? I don’t think so. On seeming failures… some of my most satisfying accomplishments came on the heels of a seeming failure. A redirection that led to something even better than imagined.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I became the producer of Sandstorm: Stories from the Front when a film and writing project evolved into a play… The play ran for two years in Los Angeles and went on to be performed around the country and in Washington DC. After the Sandstorm closed I worked at the Elephant Theatre Company where I was an associate producer for many productions under the tutelage of Dave Fofi. Some of my publicity work has included NEA Four member John Fleck in his productions of There are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden, Mad Women and Blacktop Highway at Redcat, La Mama NY, The Odyssey and Skylight Theatre; Mayuri Bhandari: The Anti-Yogi, Moving Arts production of Robert Bailey’s In Some Dark Valley; Jean Smart, Frances Fisher, Mimi Rogers, Monique Edwards and Melina Kanakaredes in MY CHILD: Mothers of War at The Hudson; Ed Asner in FDR, Laurence Fishburn and Angela Bassett in Fences, Kelly McGillis and Julia Duffy in The Little Foxes Directed by Dámaso Rodriguez and Baby it’s You directed by Floyd Mutrix produced by Warner Bros Theatre Ventures & American Pop Anthology with Jonathan Sanger & record producer, Richard Perry at Pasadena Playhouse and I’m Not Comedian…I’m Lenny Bruce by Ronnie Marmo, Directed by Joe Mantegna.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
People who are interested in working with me as their publicist | marketing manager may email me at a.lee@anitaleepublicity.com.

For coverage on RabbleRouse News: Producers, publicists, music acts, managers, artists etc. can send correspondence and a press release to RabbleRouseNews@gmail.com.
If you’d like to buy a very reasonably priced ad on the website email RabbleRouseNews@gmail.com

Support the arts… love life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anitaleepublicity.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rabblerousenewsla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anitaleepublicist/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-lee-8b1466b/
• Other: https://rabblerousenews.com/

Image Credits
Photo by Miguel Perez – LR: Nancy Youngblut, Kaye Freeman, Anita Lee