September 1, 1996
Sunday's Magazine ------- The Arts

Vann, one of a dozen siblings, to tell all.

By: Frank Merkling
News-Times Arts Critic

How do you rate if you're the seventh of 12 children? Judging from the example of Liza Vann, a New York City actress and producer who finds herself in that position, you're "The Top of the Bottom Half."

Vann will appear in a one-woman show of the same name, written by herself and Katherine Griffith - it bears the subtitle "An Evening with the Keeper of All Knowledge" - Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and next Sunday at 6 in The Schoolhouse, the multipurpose arts center on Owens Road in Croton Falls, N.Y.

"Because I come from such a large family, Katherine convinced me to join the ranks of all the other people doing a one-woman show, which is the role du jour," Vann said over the telephone from New York.

"This show is a sort of survival manual - 17 rules for survival, to be exact. I've done it at the Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury and in staged readings on both coasts, and people have compared me to everyone from Deepak Chopra to Will Rogers to Erma Bombeck."

A native of North Carolina who has appeared at New York's Cafe La Mama and in half a dozen shows off-Broadway, Vann has kept a trace of the accent she picked up while working in England.

Tickets for her engagement at The Schoolhouse are $13 for Friday and next Sunday, $15 for Saturday. Call (914) 277-8477.