by Antonio Miniño on August 22, 2010
One of the best things about the Fringe Festival is how it embraces diversity – it becomes one of the best summer reminders as to how culturally rich and fascinating this city can be. In Swaha: Rituals of Union Trinayan Dance Theater mixes tradition, with dance, storytelling and ritualistic precise movements that will evoke your senses and successfully accomplish the elephantine task of getting you out of your head, no verbal dialogue required.
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by Antonio Miniño on August 16, 2010
This one woman show at the New York International Fringe Festival is the stuff we live for here at The Happiest Medium; as managing director Karen Tortora-Lee will tell you, our mission is to highlight, showcase and celebrate our favorite medium, and that is exactly what writer/performer Leila Arias does in Omarys Concepcion Lopez Perez Goes To Israel (to Speak to God at the Wailing Wall). It takes a certain kind of performer to pull off a solo-show, and Ms. Arias has the spunk, chops and enthusiasm to transport us to Jerusalem, the Bronx and Puerto Rico in a 40 minute journey.
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by Antonio Miniño on July 18, 2010
Never Norman Rockwell
We’ve reached our final installment of our Midtown International Theatre Festival’s Q&A. Today we chat with Kyle Baxter, writer of Never Norman Rockwell, and co-artistic director of The Collective Objective.
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by Antonio Miniño on July 16, 2010
Until We Find Each Other
We continue our Midtown International Theatre Festival Q&A and speak with not only the playwright of Until We Find Each Other (Brooke Berman), but we also asked the show’s director, David Winitsky some questions.
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by Antonio Miniño on July 10, 2010
The Starship Astrov
We continue our Midtown International Theatre Festival Q&A with writers Duncan Pflaster of The Starship Astrov, and Michelle Glick, writer and performer of the solo show Asian Belle.
Let us start with Duncan.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Not until about 15 years ago- I thought for a long time I was going to be an actor. There’s something really wonderful about making an audience laugh and react, which I loved as a performer… But as a writer, you get to play all the parts! Now I only act if people specifically ask me, or if there’s an emergency casting. Continue Reading…
by Antonio Miniño on July 9, 2010
The Gospel According To Josh
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s pretty hot outside… summer, yeah… summertime! What that also means is it’s theatre festival season. If you live on the motto that “life is like a box of chocolates,” you can easily apply the same to the festival circuit. Festivals hold lovely truffles covered with exquisite themes, filled with yummy character developments that leave you with a thought provoking aftertaste. They also have strange, oversweetened eerie stuff.
Out of the Midtown International Theatre Festival box –a festival running from July 12th through August 1st in the Big Apple– I’ve chosen a couple of possibly lovely truffles. We start our first Q&A with Joshua Rivedal, writer/performer for The Gospel According To Josh.
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by Antonio Miniño on July 6, 2010
When Shea Elmore talks about his upcoming project, This Is Storybox, his face lights up and you can’t help but listen and be intoxicated with his excitement and sincerity. What he brings us is an interactive approach to performance, where audience members choose to be part of the action or plainly be a viewer.
The project is reminiscent of the 60s movement of the Theatre of the Opressed and Brazilian Augusto Boal, yet Elmore’s contemporary take was inspired and emerged from his collaboration with a professor from the University of Central Florida.
In our Q&A you will find out what makes Storybox different and why you should step in.
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by Antonio Miniño on July 1, 2010
A professor once told me –”If you want to be cast in the kind of plays that you really believe in, if you want to do work that is meaningful to you, with actors trained in the same way as you, and have the same aesthetic… create your own theatre company together, the most important thing in this business is networking, and that starts NOW, in this classroom”– great advice from a very wise man. Seems to be that Rachel McPhee and Jackie LaVanway, cofounders of On The Square Productions, received the same words of wisdom.
Their company strives in non-traditional casting, and community outreach, which might give us a clue as to why their production of William Shakespeare’s A MidSummer Night’s Dream takes place in a garden in Astoria.
Here’s a Q&A with both ladies regarding their upcoming venture.
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by Antonio Miniño on June 30, 2010
The other day I was walking by myself, minding my own business down Riverside Park, trying to have some me time with . . . well . . . me, and I noticed these pianos just lying there unattended. So I snapped a shot and did some snooping around, and found out about a fantastic non-profit called Sing for Hope, and their Play Me I’m Yours arts project.
Play that thang! ©Antonio Minino
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