Lulu Braunstein, Producer; Carrie Vanhouten, Creator; Lisa Anne Morrison, Director
LULU BRAUNSTEIN grew up in a theatrical family in the UK and found herself involved in local theatre wherever life took her. She worked in production for live televised events in London many moons ago, and for many more years than she intended she produced and directed elementary school musicals in her home town in Norcal. She sits on the board of the marvelous Town Hall Theatre, in Lafayette CA, and is a founding member of Sorry, Wrong Thread Improv group, and of The Stay at Tone Moms singing group. As the producer and co-founder of The Menopause Monologues she is thrilled to be presenting and representing so many women who have suffered for far too long from the lack of understanding, research, and discussion of this incredible life stage. In bringing communities together to enhance empathy, understanding, and learning Lulu truly hopes to clear the fog of menopause!
CARRIE VANHOUTEN is the creator and co-founder of The Menopause Monologues. Carrie is a mixed media artist, performer, Reiki practitioner, and workshop facilitator. She is a founding member of an improv comedy group that regularly performs around the Bay. Through The Menopause Monologues, Carrie combines her passions for visual storytelling and woman-centered health and healing to provide a platform for women to share their experiences and address the stigmas surrounding menopause.
LISA ANNE MORRISON is the director and co-founder of The Menopause Monologues and has worked as a theatre professional for over 25 years. She is a co-founder of the LA-based improv group Those Meddling Kids which performed across Los Angeles and had a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A longtime member of Theatre of NOTE in LA, Lisa also served on the board of Town Hall Theatre in the Bay Area, where she helped launch the New Voices (now SNAP) series to amplify underrepresented playwrights. Lisa has worked with CoachArt - a nonprofit that pairs artists and athletes with chronically ill children and currently serves on the board of Citizens for the Vote advocating for voter’s rights for all. Her acting credits include television (13 Reasons Why, Beverly Hills 90210), commercials, and theatre, with performances at Cal Shakes, TheatreWorks, Magic Theatre, Z Space, A Noise Within, and Laguna Playhouse. As a director, Lisa is passionate about work that lives at the intersection of theatre and activism. She is especially excited to bring The Menopause Monologues to many cities, fostering a shared space for women to tell their stories and build community. Lisa holds a B.F.A. from CalArts.
THANK YOU TO OUR LOCAL BOOTS-ON-THE-GROUND GO GETTERS WHO MAKE IT ALL POSSIBLE.
LOCAL CO-PRODUCERS
BAY AREA
YUKIE FUJIMOTO
Yukie Fujimoto was a senior company member with ODC/Dance and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Mills College. Throughout her career, Yukie has performed a wide range of roles, including Cinderella in David Allan’s Cinderella, Ulysses Dove’s Vespers, Brenda Way’s Part of a Longer Story, and KT Nelson’s Walk Before Talk. She was also nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for her performances in Sonya Delwaide’s Apero and Letter á Jos. Yukie performed in the 2024 premier of The Menopause Monologues with her solo, Departed and has since reworked it into Strange Flower, which integrates 13 gestures sourced from women, each distilled into a physical score of offering, connection, and transmission. No longer coming from a place of anger, Yukie hopes this iteration invites the viewer to enter her body as a site of shared memory - where each movement becomes a choreographic node of vulnerability, resilience, and transformation.
BEVERLY JANE PEATROSS
Beverly Jane Peatross created "The Ovaryature" for The Menopause Monologues as a visual and musical representation of her journey through womanhood, from menstruation to perimenopause. Like many women, she has struggled mightily with that insidious not-quite-enough-ness. Or being way-too-much-ness. Period too late, babies too early, too prudish, too sexual, trying this, trying that, trying too hard to please, giving up completely…. In the midst of her own perimeno-madness, her outlook teeters daily between crippling trepidation and boundless courage.
As the birth mother to Big Magic Village, a yoga studio tucked away in a countryside Barn (SF East Bay), she hosts and facilitates an ever evolving array of communal gatherings - yoga, sound baths, ceremony, meditation, dance parties, camp outs and creative play - that nurture compassion, joy and connection. In addition, she co-founded the wellness company Two Little Birds Retreats with partner and nervous system guru Nicole Koch, creating spaces where women - and people who love or identify as women - can explore self and healing, and support one another through every season of life. A classically trained soprano, Beverly Jane uses her voice in many ways, from teaching yoga to performing opera to jamming on guitar with the people she loves. She can’t help but to weave music, laughter, art and story into everything she does. She is wholly grateful for the life she’s been blessed to create with her hard working hubby and 4 nearly grown kids in the SF Bay Area.
KATHLEEN OLSON
Kathleen McGhee Olson is a Residential Landscape Designer in the San Francisco Bay Area. She takes pride in collaborating with her clients to create beautiful spaces to enhance their connection to nature and the outdoors. Kathleen has been an active volunteer in schools and nonprofit boards most of her adult life. In addition to the Menopause Monologues, she currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Town Hall Theatre, in Lafayette, CA. Kathleen has been a lifelong Theatre and Arts lover and supporter, and was privileged to be in the inaugural cast of the Menopause Monologues. Working with like-minded women creating a production that speaks to long misunderstood and neglected female experiences has been a joy and revelation. Kathleen is excited to see this experience brought to as many women (and non-women!) worldwide as possible. The importance of bringing personal stories, laughter, and accurate information to break the stigma and fear of the Menopause years cannot be overstated.
ANITA EMBLETON
Anita Embleton Anita Embleton is a go-getter in all the ways. She is a dedicated community leader and helped launch the first ever The Menopause Monologues in the East Bay Area. Anita served as Board President for Lafayette Partners in Education overseeing fundraising for Art and Science in the community's public schools. She also served on the Board at Town Hall Theatre. She is the mom of two and has been traveling the world since becoming an empty nester. In her travels she spent time in India where she received her certificate for yoga instruction and is now living in Spain as a teacher and a forever supporter of TMM.
LOS ANGELES
ALINA PHELAN
Alina Phelan Ballou has been a company member at Theatre of Note for over 25 years. She is an actor, director and producer. She was so excited to welcome The Menopause Monologues into Note’s intimate (small) black box theatre. We take pride in being one of the first venues the show traveled to, and the show was an epic success. I’m so proud to have played a part in this very important show being seen by audiences in so many exciting cities! Keep it going, TMM!
LISA CLIFTON
Lisa Clifton is an actor, writer, and producer, Lisa has been a member of Theatre of NOTE since 2001. She jumped at the chance to co-produce the Menopause Monologues' production at NOTE, and it was life changing. It's so rare to be part of a show that is so empowering, so impactful, and audiences love it so much! She's thrilled NOTE was able to play a role in the Monologues' successful, on-going tour of the production!
NEW YORK
YUKIE FUJIMOTO
BEVERLY JANE PEATROSS
ALINA PHELAN
CHRISTINE COURTNEY
Is a leadership expert, speaker, and the founder and CEO of Leadership Development Partners. LDP is a firm dedicated to helping leaders design work places where people don't just show up - they light up. She is the host of the podcast Stepping into your leadership, where she explores what it takes to lead with clarity, confidence and impact. She also hosts and attends ridiculously awesome dinner parties. Christine is a proud and enthusiastic supporter of The Menopause Monologues and was happy to host the team in NYC where she attended 100% of the run!
SEATTLE
AMIE NEWMAN
Amie Newman is a writer, storyteller, and activist whose work explores the intersections of women's health, identity, and social justice. A former journalist, managing editor of the award-winning RH Reality Check (now Rewire News), and longtime nonprofit communications leader, she has devoted her career to elevating women's stories and advancing conversations about the politics of women's health and lives. Her writing has appeared in numerous books and outlets, including Ms. Magazine, Lilith, Truthout, Our Bodies Ourselves, and the upcoming anthology Redacted, a collection of essays on divorce, coming in April 2027. She is the editor of Eat Me: Essays, Poetry, & Art on Eating Disorders From Midlife Women, a forthcoming book from Third Rail Press in Spring 2028, and continues to write freelance personal essays and poetry focused on the beauty and bizarreness of midlife. Newman is thrilled to serve as associate producer of The Menopause Monologues and is currently working on a documentary exploring eating disorders in midlife.
TIANA COLOVOS
Tiana is a clinical nutritionist, health systems leader, and fiber artist who has long been curious about nourishment, transformation, and the intelligence of the body. Her career in healthcare has included work at University of Washington Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, and EvergreenHealth, where she focused on improving systems of care.
That inquiry has increasingly led Tiana toward somatic exploration, relational practice, and creative work with natural fibers, where she makes felt handbags and sculptural vessels. For her, these are not separate pursuits but different ways of paying attention—to form, to material, to the body, and to what is emerging. As Associate Producer of The Menopause Monologues, she brings both perspectives—the systems-level and the deeply embodied—to a cultural conversation about a transition that has too often been hidden, medicalized, or reduced to euphemism. She said yes to the project because she believes profoundly in women telling their stories, and in the shift that becomes possible when women learn from, lean on, and teach one another. She is especially drawn to the project’s ability to daylight sheltered ideas and inequities while making room for humor, curiosity, and the possibility of seeing menopause—and ourselves—reclaimed.
