Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
A List of Irrational Fears for Future Leaders of the World
Production Company: Critical Point Theatre
Over eleven years, Kenrick and Jorja learn to live together while selfishly destroying the scary unknown that is post-college life, in a dark investigation of the power of fear, the state of trust in a youthful world, and the inane mental responses to tragedy.
Show Times:
- Sat 2/22 @ 6:50PM
- Sun 2/23 @ 12:30PM
- Mon 2/24 @ 7:05PM
- Tues 2/25 @ 10:15PM
- Thur 2/27 @ 5:30PM
- Sat 3/01 @ 3:40PM
Answers provided by Julia Katz (Director)
1. Your tag line is out there on postcards and press releases so we know the PR version of what this play is about. But when you talk to your family and friends, how do you explain the show to them?
JK: I think Fears addresses what happens when the kids who started popping Ritalin at five and won “good attendance” awards get cold feet upon facing responsibility. It looks at how mental illness hits Millenials and can create a warped sense of perspective for young people trying to create their “John Hughes moments.”
2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink. What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
JK: There are some pretty controversial statements that we make in the show about mass violence – the whole company comes from the small town in Virginia that was home to the Virginia Tech shooting, so it’s a big presence and we explore it a little bit in the show. I’d enjoy hearing a debate around that.
3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
JK: It’s a thick plot for an hour-long show. We go back and forth in time over 11 years, and piecing together the information is dizzying – and the best part is that it’s supposed to be that way!
4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
JK: At a reading, an audience member said that they forgot that the play was written by Andrew – that it felt like we were doing a reading of an established piece. Those moments inspire confidence!
5. Let’s fantasize for a moment. Let’s take the “off-off” off. Imagine this show is on Broadway. Would that change the production itself?
JK: Absolutely. We have big ambitions that we’re playing out on the cheap. Our production designer, Dylan Amick, could create an incredible environment with more resources – at one production meeting, we were joking about when we would have a live band on stage, contained in a Plexiglass box, that kind of thing. The thing is, the show is very expressionistic, so design elements are actually really important.
6. Taking that one step further – after paying everyone what they’re worth of course, what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless thing you would spend money on if there was no constraints?
JK: Our show uses filing cabinets onstage as a symbolic representation of memory. We would, if we could, make the cabinets GIANT with entrances and exits within them and spring-loaded doors, and we’d have the ability to fly them around the stage. That kind of stage magic.
7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
JK: Definitely going back to the moments that discuss violence – there’s a scene I’m thinking about where a character makes a joke about everyone owning a gun in town. I wonder whether that will get a laugh or a more tense reaction.
8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
JK: “Everyone does not have something that makes them special. And that should comfort people, not having to believe that they are alone in being thoroughly disappointed in life, but you’ve taken that right away from people today because we all get ribbons regardless.”
9. Is the world of this play sustainable outside a theatre? In other words … do you think people live the way the characters do? Would you want a world where they do?
JK: The play is obviously exaggerated – but I think that people absolutely do what the characters do and construct their memories in a way that is useful to them. I think that I know a ton of people who lie pathologically, who aren’t able to have a solid grasp on their reality and constantly try to manipulate their circumstances. It’s just that our play takes place in a world where everyone is like that. Suffice it to say that I would NOT want to live in that world!
10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
JK: My roommate, who wrote the play, and I have a weird obsession with Ira Glass, in the same way that a lot of young hipsters do. I would definitely poop my pants if he ever saw the play.
Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH
In the THM virtual Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH which FRIGID Show do you take on? And what do you throw?
CHALLENGES: We challenge Oscar Tango-Bravo! Because their show is about conspiracy theories and our company did a reading about the SAME THING.
THROWS: We’re going to put down rock and hope for the best.
CHALLENGED BY: You were challenged by THE CANUCK CABARET who decided to take on EVERYONE! But there’s no need to have an irrational fear about throwing down with them, they threw ROCK as well, so you’re safely deposited on the side of DRAW. Whew! Hope that was as gentle and cuddly for you as it was for me.
Thanks A List of Irrational Fears for Future Leaders of the World for participating in The Happiest Medium’s FRIGID New York Festival 2014 Q&A. And for playing our game! You’re officially ROCK in any and all challenges. You may win, you may lose – who knows! This is how it works in the crazy world of the Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH!
For the rest of you don’t forget to check out A List of Irrational Fears for Future Leaders of the World !
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Feb 23, 6:50PM
Feb 27, 8:40PM
Mar 03, 7:05PM
Mar 09, 3:40PM
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Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 8th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) February 19-March 9. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling 212-868-4444.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
A List of Irrational Fears for Future Leaders sounds like a great concept for a show. Looking forward to it.