Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners (BSSP) has hired Robyn Tenenbaum to serve as creative director. Tenenbaum will lead the agency ensemble working with Blue Shield of California (BSC) in developing impactful work for the healthcare provider. Based in Portland, Ore., Tenenbaum will report to group creative directors Sinan Dagli and Nicole Michels McDonagh and serve on the creative leadership team.
A Texan turned Chicagoan turned Coloradoan turned Pacific Northwesterner, Tenenbaum has worked at agencies across the country. Most recently, she served as the associate creative director at R/GA, where her work for Nike garnered multiple One Show and Webby wins and Clios shortlists. Prior to R/GA, she served as an associate creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, working on Domino’s and Infiniti. Tenenbaum was also a Cannes Young Lions winner in 2014 and 2018.
Dagli said of Tenenbaum, “Her addition marks a deepening of our creative bench and she brings strong female creative leadership experience–developing culturally relevant and empowering work as seen by her past campaigns for Nike. I look forward to seeing how her creative acumen moves the needle for our clients.”
Tenenbaum stated, “I’ve always admired BSSP as an agency and the work they put out into the world. As I learned more, I increasingly became drawn to the mid-sized, indie culture; it felt really tight knit and familial. I look forward to forging new relationships at BSSP and creating culturally significant work for Blue Shield of California that touches people’s lives, especially creative that stands for women’s empowerment.”
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More