Followed by a Q&A with Albany Road writer and director Christine Swanson, producer Michael Swanson and cast Renée Elise Goldsberry and Lisa Arrindell
Sponsored by the Irish Black Alumni on the Vineyard
On her way to the most important meeting of her career, severe weather forces a New York executive to share a rental car with her ex-fiancé’s mother, only to discover that the mother is hiding a major secret and she’s the only one who knows it.
A visionary storyteller from Detroit, multiple award-winning director Christine Swanson earned her MFA in Film from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, one of the nation’s top-ranked graduate film programs.
Christine earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame, double majoring in Film Theory and Japanese. She was chosen by the Notre Dame Alumni Association as The Rev. Arthur S. Harvey Award recipient, acknowledging her achievements in the arts.
Christine has developed, written and/or directed entertainment projects for HBO Films, Lionsgate, Universal Television, Warner Bros. Television, CBS Television Studios, TV One, A&E Networks, BET Films, Starz and Faith Filmworks.
Christine’s movie directing credits include the network and cable television records breaking The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, starring Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis. The film won “Best TV Movie” from the African American Film Critics Association and the Satellite TV Award for “Best Television Movie.” The film was nominated for five NAACP Image Awards including “Outstanding Directing in a Television Motion Picture” for Christine and a Critics’ Choice Awards Nomination for “Best Television Movie.”
Some of Christine’s television directing credits include episodes of Chicago P.D., P-Valley, FBI, Found, Sweet Magnolias, All American, All American: Homecoming, MacGyver, Roswell, New Mexico and Bel Air. Her memorable episode of Chicago P.D., entitled “Black and Blue,” was rated “Best Episode” of Season 6 by Fansided.
Christine serves on the board of trustees for Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana; is an advisor to the Film and Television department at the University of Notre Dame and has served as a professor in the University of Georgia’s MFA Screenwriting Program. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband, studio executive and producer Michael Swanson, and their four children.
Emmy Award winner Michael Swanson is a Hollywood TV studio executive, movie producer and theatre producer. He is also a visionary entrepreneur and president and CEO of the entertainment company, Faith Filmworks.
As senior vice president of production at Universal Studio Group, Michael is the studio executive responsible for the production of Universal Television’s Parks and Recreation, Hacks, The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Good Girls, Never Have I Ever, Community and Master of None.
Throughout his distinguished career in entertainment, Michael has produced movies to critical and audience acclaim including Albany Road, All About You, All About Us, For the Love of Ruth, To Hell and Back, Andraé Crouch: Making The Journey, Two Seasons, Notre Dame First Time Fans: Legacy, The Wayman Tisdale Story and Fannie.
After attending Princeton Theological Seminary, Michael joined NBC’s “Must See TV” national primetime sales team in New York City that sold commercial space for top-rated NBC shows including Seinfeld, ER, Friends, Frasier and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. This sales team became the first in broadcast television to book over $2.2 billion in upfront advertising revenue.
Earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in Film, Television and Theatre from the University of Notre Dame; Michael was chosen by the Notre Dame Alumni Association as The Rev. Arthur S. Harvey Award recipient, acknowledging his achievements in the arts.
Michael serves on the board of directors for Wedgwood Circle, FEAST, Success Through Education Program and is a member of Notre Dame’s Performing Arts Advisory Council, the Coalition for Faith and Media and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A South Side of Chicago native, Michael resides in Los Angeles with his wife, filmmaker Christine Swanson, and their four children.
Renée Elise Goldsberry is a Tony Award- and Grammy Award-winning stage and screen actress, singer, and producer.
She currently stars on the critically acclaimed Netflix musical comedy series Girls5Eva, now in its third season, for which she has received Critics Choice and TCA Award nominations for her breakthrough role as Wickie Roy, a member of a one-hit-wonder band from the ‘90s who gets a second shot at fame. Her performance—which showcases both her acting and singing chops—has been hailed as “Emmy-worthy” (Vanity Fair), “the show’s comic standout” (The Hollywood Reporter), “a hilarity hurricane” (Entertainment Weekly), and “TV’s funniest diva” (The Daily Beast).
Most recently, a documentary about her life, Satisfied, which is executive produced by Broadway luminaries Audra McDonald and Kelli O’Hara as well as Steven Spielberg for Amblin Entertainment, premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary—featuring interviews with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana DeBose, and Goldsberry herself—intimately charts her journey navigating her family and career amid the breakout success of her role in Hamilton. This year, she will also release an album of new music, showcasing her as both a songwriter and recording artist, selections of which will be featured in the documentary.
Goldsberry is perhaps best known for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking Broadway musical, Hamilton, for which she won the Tony Award for ‘Best Featured Actress in a Musical’ as well as Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards. For the original cast recording, she won a Grammy for ‘Best Musical Theater Album’; and for the Disney+ filmed version, she received a Primetime Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie’.
A stage veteran, her Broadway work includes some of the most iconic musicals in recent memory, including: The Color Purple, originating the role of Nettie; as Nala in Disney’s stage version of The Lion King; and as Mimi in the final Broadway cast of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning Rent, which was filmed for television. On Broadway, she also starred in David Lindsay-Abaire’s celebrated play, Good People, starring Frances McDormand and for which Goldsberry received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for ‘Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play’. Her first major stage appearance was in the national tour of Dreamgirls.
Goldsberry’s New York stage credits also include acclaimed turns at The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park: The Tempest, in which she portrayed Prospero; and Two Gentlemen of Verona, for which she was nominated for the Drama League’s ‘Distinguished Performance’ Award. Her Off-Broadway credits also include The Baker’s Wife, Love’s Labor’s Lost, As You Like It, and I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road.
Her screen credits include the title role in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks starring Oprah Winfrey; memorable supporting performances in Marvel’s She Hulk and Netflix’s Altered Carbon; a recurring role on CBS’s The Good Wife; a supporting turn opposite Sterling K. Brown, Taylor Russell and Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the lauded independent feature Waves; a featured cameo in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s feature directorial debut Tick, Tick… Boom!, and two Daytime Emmy nominations for her fan-favorite performance as Evangeline Williamson on the daytime drama One Life to Live, for which she was also nominated for two NAACP Image Awards. Her first recurring onscreen performance was as one of Vonda Shepard’s backup singers across all five seasons of Ally McBeal.
Lisa Arrindell was born in the Bronx, New York, and brought straight home to Brooklyn, where she was raised. She is a graduate of The High School of Performing Arts, now called The Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts and Performing Arts, and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre at The Juilliard School. Lisa’s extensive acting career includes HBO’s A Lesson Before Dying, Disappearing Acts, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First Hundred Years, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, The Sin Seer, Livin’ Large, Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, Random Acts of Flyness, Elementary, Madam Secretary, Saints & Sinners, The Quad, Notorious, Bull, etc. Lisa appeared on stage in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof [Broadway], Jubilee [Arena Stage], Reparations [The Billie Holiday Theatre], Richard III [NY Shakespeare Festival], Heliotrope Bouquet [Playwrights Horizons], and Earth and Sky [Second Stage] among others. She served and is currently serving as the resident acting coach for Seasons 2 and 3 of Starz’s hit television show, P-Valley. Along with her acting career, Lisa educates and inspires audiences with her passion for health and wholeness. She enjoys teaching theater students who are earnestly curious about pursuing a career in the performing arts and is on staff at The Freeman Studio and The Billie Holiday Theatre’s Youth Arts Academy. Lisa is also a member of The Actors Center Company in New York City and is the joyful mother of two stunning, loving, highly creative, and intelligent people.
