Having performed five seasons with Jon Cocteau Repertory and numerous productions with Metropolitan Playhouse, actress Amanda Jones, currently starring in Sink or Swim Rep‘s production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband as Mrs. Cheveley, is no stranger to wit, lace and cunning plots on stage. She seems to entrance audiences and critics alike; her past performances have been delectably described as “nuanced”, “confident” and “delicate” by such as the New York Times.

She played the title role in the successful Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh not only in New York City, but continued on with the show in it’s regional transfer and  return to the New York stage.

The secret to her success? I think we can find some clues in the following interview.

Amanda Jones

When did you know you wanted to be an actress?

My mom put me in an acting class for kids at a community college when I was in kindergarten. After that, I took every opportunity to be in a play or musical; and being an actress (along with archaeologist and lawyer) was always on my list whenever people asked what I wanted to do when I grew up; but I don’t think I really knew ’til I was about to graduate from college. Almost everyone I knew was going to med school or law school or going through corporate recruiting and none of that interested me. I looked back over my college career and realized I had done something like 14 plays in 4 years. I thought, “This is what I want to do. This is what I LOVE to do. Rather than go work for some bank just because everyone else is doing it, I should go to New York and become an actor. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll do something else; but if I don’t do this now, I may come to regret it.”

Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh

I auditioned for the first production of the play at NJ Rep. The playwright, Joel Gross, kept staring at me, and when I was leaving, he blurted “You look so much like her [Marie Antoinette]!” It’s certainly not something I ever expected to hear, and so even though I wasn’t able to do that production I became obsessed with her. I read the Antonia Fraser biography, and when I scheduled a vacation to Paris, I made sure to include a side trip to Versailles. I walked through the palace, through her bedroom, and out to the Petit Trianon, where she spent much of her time after the king gave it to her as a gift. It’s so far from the palace – like a 45-minute walk – that it gives you a real sense of her desire for privacy. This trip happened only a month or two before I was cast in the New York production, so it was quite fortuitous. I read another book, Queen of Fashion, that theorized Marie Antoinette used style as a way to become popular and powerful in the eyes of the French people. The three actors together poured over a book from the Met exhibit “Dangerous Liaisons” that portrayed clothing of the period. Incidentally, I was just rereading the book Dangerous Liaisons, and apparently the Queen had a copy! She’s a very easy subject for research, because people were fascinated with her. There’s just so much information, and research is one of my favorite parts of preparing for a period piece.

It seems you have a passion for period plays or they seem to follow you. What excites you about these plays?

The plays definitely follow me because of the way I look, but I also seek them out. Growing up I read lots of Austen, Dickens, Thackeray, Elliot; and I think my love of acting grew out of a desire to crawl inside those books, and live there for a few hours. The language of period plays is beautiful and complex and a pleasure to speak. The parts I’ve acted in these plays have often been

The Importance of Being Earnest

women of wit and intelligence, compassion and such pure joy that I wish I were more like them. And of course, the costumes are amazing.

You’ve worked on Wilde before. What for you makes his women so delicious to portray?

Wilde’s women are assertive and often the drivers of action. Cecily and Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest are not merely love objects for the men; they are the ones who force action on Jack and Algernon. An Ideal Husband has a villainess – and the main conflict of the play is between her and Lady Chiltern. And they are bearers of both great wit and wonderful nonsense. I think Cecily Cardew is still one of my favorite roles ever. The romance that she builds with Earnest entirely in her head, and then the confident way she brings Algernon into it the moment she meet him, is just so much fun.

What can we expect from the Sink or Swim Rep’s production of An Ideal Husband?

Cyrano

Based on the audience reaction at the first preview: pretty much wall-to-wall hilarity. Intrigue and romance; beautiful costumes from Ryan Moeller; a simple but lovely set; and great direction and performances all around.

If you decide to go to graduate school, go early and go to the best one you can. Be judicious in deciding who teaches you – get recommendations from people you trust, and if the teacher won’t let you at least audit a class, they’re very suspect. Don’t be afraid to ask anyone – and I mean anyone, up to and including Meryl Streep – for help or advice. Be persistent about contacting people who hire, and letting them know who you are and what you’re doing. Even if you have a place in a company of actors, you should always be keeping feelers out for your next job. If you decide to set up a website, do it yourself so you can update it yourself. Decide when you are going to stop saying “yes” to everything and when you are going to start doing only projects you really like, and trust your gut. If the audition is a nightmare, the production could be too.

The Sink or Swim Rep‘s production of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband plays through Sunday, July 29th at The Connelly Theater (220 East 4th St, NYC).

For more information visit www.SinkorSwimRep.org

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Marielle DeLuna & Antonio Miniño in front of her photographs | photo by Decia Bodden

In she walks wearing one of New York based Dominican fashion designer Peter Hidalgo‘s latest creations for Spring/Summer 2012, a turqouise Mosquito dress that asserts her readiness to conquer the world and create all opportunities. She has a lot to celebrate, a dream come true to most artists and even bigger accomplishment for someone from the small pond of Dominican Republic to the mecca of Art and Design.

Marielle DeLuna is an emerging photographer who said yes to living her passion later in her life. From being an American Airlines employee to owning Marielle DeLuna Photography, she has broken molds with her unique personality and love for the obscure in a land where this practice is most unconventional.

She is not a stranger to adversity having received “shade” from purists for her radical views and tell-it-like-it-is personality. Sticks and stones that will never affect an outstanding mother raising a beautiful family, an anchor that reminds her of what is really important at the end of the day. Judging by their participation in one of the photographs being displayed at the Broadway Gallery in SoHo they support her passion wholeheartedly.

Marielle took some time to answer some questions for The Happiest Medium.

When did you fall in love with the lens? what inspires you?
Marielle: Since I was a child I love Art… My inspirations come from old and romantic paintings; the paintings are a dream to me, a secret or a mysterious kind of beauty.
Beauty can be created and represented by a dream, or fantasy, sometimes romantic and sometimes repugnant.

How did you get involved with Broadway Gallery and this exhibit?
MDL: Thanks to my dear friends Chloe Fernandez and Peter Hidalgo, both in fashion actually.

Marielle DeLuna

How has being a native of the Dominican Republic influence your Art? how does it add to it and how does it make it challenging?
MDL: In Dominican Republic traditional photographers and art buyers are mostly interested in folkloric Art and Destination Photography, which is why I think I’ve been mostly influenced by International artists, but there is a part of our history that really inspires me and makes me dream of the past and the people of yesteryear forcing me to look for other ways of expression…. Our Colonial Zone is full of history and very rich in untold stories that I try to catch with my eye and translate with my lens.

What is next for Marielle DeLuna?
MDL: A Fantasy Book.

~~~

Marielle DeLuna’s photos were on display through February 2nd at the Broadway Gallery in SoHo NYC.

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L-R: David Riley, Sebastian Galvez & Juan Carlos Lopez in "Wearing Lorca's Bowtie"; photo by Sion Fullana

AENY-The Bridge is a non-profit organization which was established in the fall of 2010 to promote inter-disciplinary artistic collaborations and build a cultural bridge between Spain and the United States.

Last December I was witness to one of their great creations and wanted to introduce this fairly new company to The Happiest Medium readers.

Helmed by Josh Hecht & Ignacio Garcia-Bustelo, the creation was Wearing Lorca’s Bowtie, an innovative multi-disciplinary piece inspired by internationally acclaimed Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca’s trip to New York. The riveting production, which incorporated dance as much as acting and bilingual text, received a short run at the Duke on 42nd Street.

Both Josh (JH) and Ignacio (IGB) graciously answered some questions for THM.

When did you know you wanted to be a director?

Ignacio Garcia-Bustelo

IGB: I’ve always known – ever since I discovered I had a different sensibility, an original perspective when  looking at things.  I really am an actor who directs; I’ve worked as an actor for the last 11 years, and in the course of my career I’ve worked with many different directors.  Only a few of them took the time to really explore what I had to add as an artist to the parts I was playing, what my personal voice was… Being a director allows me to directly express what my vision is, and put it into practice. The communication between director and the audience is really straight forward, not filtered by someone else’s vision or ideas. You are responsible for what the audience sees or experiences.

JH: I started directing when I was in college.  Before that, in high school, I had been an actor, but I was never very good at it.  I think most of us in the theater start as actors when young, because that’s what we see. Eventually, some of us realize we’re actually playwrights, designers, directors, producers, casting directors, etc.  At least, I hope we do!  Anyway, in college I started directing, and it instantly felt more right, more where my talent and my disposition and my unique skill set lay.  I went right away from being a mediocre actor to being at least a very promising director.  And I’ve never looked back.

IGB: AENY was founded in 2010 to promote collaboration amongst different artistic disciplines and build a cultural bridge between Spain and the US.

AENY is a collective of artists from different disciplines, and it is our desire to find a common language that expresses our needs, longings, etc. from different angles and perspectives. This is not a linear world we live in, we receive information and stimuli from very different sources and channels: TV, computers, graffiti, iPods, magazines, the Internet, cellphones, etc., all at the same time.  Different languages, different means of communication.  New York has a natural tendency to this; you just have to take the subway to know what I mean: you see a blues band on the station, hip hop dancers on the train, posters everywhere advertising the last thing, announcements from the train speakers, overheard music from somebody’s earphones, news from the morning newspapers…. Melding different artistic disciplines and languages is not as different from the world we are used to as we might at first think. This is our goal, to create a language of our own that reflects the world as we experience it.

The other major objective was to establish a cultural bridge between Spain and the US.  In NY you have quite a few institutions that are mainly directed to a Spanish speaking audience.  We didn’t want that, we didn’t want to make a differentiation between audiences based on the languages they speak.  NYC is one of the most eclectic places in the world and we wanted to see that reflected in our work.  For that reason, we decided to team up with American designers and creators.  Collaboration is not always easy but in the end it’s always positive. If you have the right people in the mix, you get exposed to different ways of thinking, and you learn from that.  This is the kind of spirit that we’d like to promote in AENY.

Josh Hecht

JH: A shockingly short amount of time!  Ignacio and I first started talking about it in the summer.  This October, we did a devising workshop to generate some material.  A section of the first scene came out of that.  Following this, Ignacio, Judith, Mar and I engaged in a series of meetings generating ideas for content and a structure, which Mar and I then compiled into a loose story  And in November we went into rehearsals, creating the piece as we went.  In 5 weeks we went from a story-board to a complete show.

IGB: AENY was born a little more than a year ago.  In the beginning it was just an idea, a dream some of us had.  Then some of us took it more seriously, and tried to really make something out of it.  When we had the very basic structure and organization to start functioning we said, ‘hey, maybe it’s time to start thinking about our first project together’.  This was back in June 2011, I think.Because of the kind of organization we wanted to become, it didn’t make sense to just make a straight theater play (even though most of the members were actors by then), and so I proposed to devise a piece based on Lorca’s collection of poems Poet in New York.  As artists living in NYC it seemed like a good starting point, while the open structure of the collection of poems also seemed to allow the integration of different disciplines.

When we presented the project to the Spanish General Consulate in NY, they thought it was a great idea. Iñigo, Agueda and Barbara at the Consulate and Cristina at the Spanish Embassy in Washington have played crucial roles in the developing of this initiative.  None of this would have happened without their help and support.  Then we started the conversations with the venue and with the creative team, and later a workshop in mid September / beginning of October to get to know each other better and find ways in which to collaborate.  The open and collaborative nature of the project had attracted many artists to AENY’s first production, but we were basically strangers back then…we got to know each other but we had never worked together before in most cases…So it’s been a very fast process. We went from individual artists to collaborators within weeks, and that’s not a simple task when you are trying to integrate dancers, visual artists, actors, musicians, writers…people with different interests, different sensibilities and a different language…

Proper rehearsals started November 5th, which left only 4 weeks to create content and structure, to write and assemble the piece.  If it sounds crazy it’s because it is…but that’s also the beauty of it, the spontaneity and energy that comes out of it is often inspiring, and it has set the grounds for future projects.

IGB: I think it’s interesting and surprising for the audience.  It’s not usual to see a production like this, committed not only to the text but also to other means of expression.  I don’t think there’s much of a difference when it comes to Spanish / non-Spanish speakers though, as the show features texts in both languages and there’s also an important visual component in our work.

JH: For me at least, it has always been important to me that the show be bilingual.  What a missed opportunity not to have plenty of Spanish and English on stage  The piece is in many ways about cultural boundary-crossing.  And Lorca himself struggled with communicating across the languages.  I think the Spanish is very accessible to non-Spanish speaking audiences.  I think we’ve found very theatrical ways of translating all of it without the audience realizing it’s being “translated.” I don’t think anything is lost here.  Ignacio and I have also been very interested in visual story-telling — using images and stage pictures to do as much work as the text at times.  The band is also a crucial part of this.  Incorporating the visual artists has been more challenging.  Ultimately, this is always a theater piece into which other disciplines must fit.  But the company is very multi-disciplinary and we both wanted to include as much of that as possible.

JH: Hard to say.  I will say this, as an American, I was really only familiar with Lorca’s later plays.  I was stunned by how embedded in the very fiber of every Spanish-language culture he is!  Every Hispanic person who has come to the show — not just Spanish, but also Argentinian, Cuban, Chilean — comes with a familiarity with Lorca that is like Shakespeare in the English-speaking world.  I was unaware of that.  It’s been fascinating to listen to how the audience listens.

IGB: Not really! Not that I know of anyways ;)  It was never our intention to do a straight adaptation of Lorca’s poems or writings and I believe people understand that.  What you have here is a work that’s inspired by Lorca. We are not trying to say ‘this is how Lorca should be done’. On the contrary, we’ve explored some aspects of Lorca that interested / moved us, that’s our intention – to explore with integrity.

IGB: We’d like to build a long term audience for AENY, people who come see the show and say, ‘OK, that was interesting, I look forward to seeing their next thing! ‘  The worst thing that could happen was if the audience left indifferent, but I think the show, and AENY as a company has a strong personality and a singular voice to prevent that from happening.  The show is very layered, and therefore I think people would get different things out of it depending on their background, their mood and their connection to the city.

JH: For me, Lorca is a lens through which we explore our own experience of living in this city.  I want them to think about loneliness and connection, about desire, about dislocation.  I want them to be moved.  And I want them to touch each other more.  Is that corny? ;)

~~~

Learn more about AENY by visiting their website www.aeny-elpuente.org
You can even pick if you want to read the site in Inglés o Español. Go on, take a risk,

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Director Joe Barros (green) and part of the cast of The Legend of Julie Taymor

The rise and fall of director Julie Taymor and the behind-the-scenes scandals of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark is the premise behind the 2011 Fringe sensation The Legend of Julie Taymor, or The Musical That Killed Everybody! In the show Julie faces financial problems, actor injuries, technical malfunctions, opening delays, scathing reviews, all while battling her arch-nemesis, an unrelenting theatre columnist.

Behind every great show, especially a high energy rock musical like this one, there is a great director. In this case producing artistic director of New York Theatre Barn, Joe Barros, helms the direction and choreography of one of the hottest tickets at the Fringe this year. Read on and check out the show this Wednesday. But hurry! the show is selling like Book of Mormon only way cheaper.

First show you ever saw that made you want to be a director and a choreographer?

The film The Wizard of Oz and a subsequent community theatre production.

Biggest non-theatre related influence in your art?

I don’t have many non-theatre related influences.  This is a hard one!  Hmmm…this may sound a bit cheesy, but here goes: Oprah, Judy Garland, and Michael Jackson.  All three posses/possessed a great amount of talent, passion and purpose.

Biggest achievement as an artist?

Producing (and choreographing) I Married Wyatt Earp in New York.  This musical was a co-production between New York Theatre Barn and Prospect Theater Company.   It was an honor to work with Prospect to produce the musical at 59E59 Theaters and such an absolute dream to bring this glorious all-female musical to life.  I first saw the show when I was training at The Hartt School in 2003 and have been in love with the show ever since.

Biggest failure as an artist that lead to greatness?

I worked on two shows in New York that were not very good and they weren’t very successful because of extremely poor producing.  I am not particularly disappointed with the work that I did on those shows but they were huge failures.  And had I not had those experences to learn from, I would not be further along today.

How did New York Theatre Barn get started?

I founded New York Theatre Barn in 2007 with a friend and colleague.  It has since grown into a very exciting incubator for new musicals and plays, and is ultimately a place for writers to investigate their craft. We are currently developing a new musical that the company conceived called Speargrove Presents, about a conservative Texas high school’s planned production of the musical Rent (based on true events).

How did you get involved with The Legend of Julie Taymor, or The Musical That Killed Everybody!?

Scene from The Legend of Julie Taymor

The production had a posting under Playbill.com jobs searching for a director for a new rock musical in the 2011 NY International Fringe Festival.

I heard cast members of Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark made an appearance – did you get a chance to find out what they thought of the show?

From their reactions I could certainly tell that they were having a lot of fun.  I’ve heard from a few members of the production staff who said they not only had fun but were impressed with our production.

Any chance Bono, The Edge, or  Julie might show up?

They haven’t yet.  I think they’d have a blast.

If you could have anyone in the audience of your show who would it be?

Taymor herself, and my grandparents who are no longer with us.

What’s next for Joe Barros?

I am currently in rehearsals for Guys and Dolls for the Fire Island Pines Arts Project which I am choreographing.  I am also the choreographer for the new musical Odyssey which is being produced in the city by Araca, and am the director/choreographer for Gallery Players‘ upcoming production of Little Shop of Horrors.  I am so excited about Little Shop as I am collaborating with puppet designers on a totally new concept for the plant. And…The Legend of Julie Taymor has been invited into Fringe Encores.  So if things go as planned, the show will be making a return to NY next month!

~~~

Final performance Wednesday, August 24th at 7pm
Buy online at www.FringeNYC.org and by phone 866.468.7619

The Bleecker Theatre (45 Bleecker Street at Lafayette Street)  One block North of Houston Street and One block East of Broadway.

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by James Lantz

There is theater outside of NYC, my friends, and I recently discovered Burlington, VT to be a thriving arts community with fresh ideas, innovative expressions and fascinating creators. Karen and The Happiest Medium have always inspired and encouraged us to think outside of the NYC box and bring topics and people located outside of the concrete jungle to our faithful happiest readers.

A New York filmmaker – saved maybe by premonition – packed his bags a decade ago for Burlington, VT and is now ready to present his evocative and important play The Bus at 59E59 Theatres in Manhattan, premiering October 4th and playing through the 30th. James Lantz answered some questions about his work and Vermont life.

How long have you been in Burlington, VT?

We’ve been in Burlington almost 10 years to the day; I moved my family here from NYC just days before 9/11. We had planned on leaving the city for months but weeks before our move, my wife kept having dreams of burning cars and buildings so we had this feeling that we couldn’t get out of town fast enough. As a commercial filmmaker, I sometimes worked for American Express in a temporary office in the World Financial Center that was destroyed during the attacks. It was all very surreal. In so many ways, we felt lucky.

What’s the best thing about Vermont life?

Oh gosh, there are so many things: the lake, the mountains, the hiking trails, the air. A couple of weeks ago I saw a moose standing in the middle of a field. Plus Burlington’s a great town; I walk everywhere. The people are great — we’ve got a great group of friends here. There’s a vibe in Burlington that’s completely different from anyplace else that I’ve ever lived before — very engaged and open-minded and concerned about Things That Matter. And yet everybody’s pretty cool, too; nobody gets too uptight. It’s a great place to raise our kids.

How did you get into play-writing?

James Lantz

I left filmmaking when we moved to Vermont — I had been a commercial filmmaker for nearly a dozen years, wrote scripts on the side, and produced a number of shorts. It was very expensive and frustrating to spend so much time and effort and money and rarely see the fruits of your labor. Finally I said, that’s it — I’m outta here. I left New York with the idea that I’m never going back to film. Well fast forward a few years later and, even though I’d left filmmaking, the urge to tell stories never left me. Then one night I saw a play by a friend and it occurred to me (this might be heresy to some theater-makers and so I apologize) that a play was really like a live movie. And so that got my wheels turning and in a very short time I had written a stage play which turned into The Bus.

Who is your biggest influence as a writer?

Wow, I have so many influences that I draw upon that, I suspect, many playwrights draw from the same well. But I guess one of my influences that’s not so ordinary for a playwright would be Alfred Hitchcock — I adore his craft of telling stories. He was brilliant at playing an audience and moving emotion just where he wanted it — he was like a magician and I study him frequently. Rarely do you see a Hitchcock film and say, ‘I know where that’s going.’  Another unique influence is Carl Jung — I’m an armchair student of his and some of those who followed him. I’m fascinated by Jung’s writings on dream imagery and archetypes. When I write something, I want it to have some of the same qualities as a vivid dream (Paula Vogel speaks about this, too, how that a play should always be just a bit ‘off-kilter’ … just a little bit odd.) I have to be careful though not to get too deep with Jung — it’s easy to get lost in depth psychology — with Jung, I have to restrict myself to the shallows.

Tell us a bit about The Bus?

It’s hard for me to talk about my plays. I’d like to ask other playwrights if they have the same problem — for me, the worst is when it comes to writing a synopsis — oh vey! — I can never write those things.

Here’s why it’s hard for me to talk about The Bus: I wrote that play five years ago and spent several months writing it. We then worked many months to produce it at FlynnSpace in Burlington. Wow, that was my first experience in theater — I saw all the work that went into producing a play and I though, ‘Holy crap, what did I just get into!’. Afterward, I was exhausted. Then a couple of years later I wrote The Bus as a screenplay. I probably spent another couple of months writing it as a film. Then last year I spent many more weeks doing a re-write of the play and re-submitting it which is how we ended up being invited to play at 59E59 in October. Now I’m working on producing The Bus in NYC and fundraising — these days I’m probably spending 60 to 70 hours a week on this play. Add up all those years, months, weeks and hours and it adds up to a lot. My relationship to The Bus is similar to my relationship with my children — if you asked me about one of my kids, I’d smile, show you a picture and say, ‘He’s a great kid. You gotta meet him sometime.’ I feel the same way about The Bus.

Having said that, The Bus is the story of two boys who, late at night, regularly rendezvous in a parked church bus just to be close. When their secret meeting place is in danger of being discovered, the boys find themselves in the middle of a family conflict between a large church and a small-town gas station — and the clash proves explosive.

Okay, can you tell that I just cut and pasted the synopsis from the play’s website? Sorry. But if I had written something fresh, it would’ve taken too long. I’m talking hours.

Has the thought of doing a site-specific production – Say a park and an abandoned bus ever cross your mind?

Yes. However, I have to say that I’m not a big fan of site-specific work — I understand it and applaud those who are pushing the boundaries and doing some great stuff in some very cool places. However, for me, it always feels like site-specific places are lacking in a certain spirit that comes naturally to a physical theater. Since I was a little kid I’ve LOVED walking into theaters — just about any kind — they always felt holy to me and they just hummed with some sort of invisible spirit. And they do — to me, it’s archetypal — we’re wired to be ready to ‘receive’ a story in these sanctified places. As an artist, I can’t imagine achieving that same spirit in a site-specific production, it just wouldn’t feel complete.

To me site specific work feels like sex on the kitchen floor — spontaneous and thrilling, yet lacking something important.

Are you using the same cast and creative team as the Burlington production?

No. Unfortunately, because the show is playing for a month in NYC and then we’re taking it on the road, many (if not all) of our original production team would just not be able to devote the time necessary to take it to the city.

What’s after 59E59 for you?

Oh wow … just getting through November is where all of my energy is being focused now. After that I want to get back to writing – three or four projects are calling to me. I write best in the winter, so the timing is good.

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The Body Politic at 59E59

We asked the producers of The Body Politic at 59E59 to entice us in 59 words to check out their last performance today.
The Off-Broadway debut of At Hand Theatre Company has received some great mentions and satisfied audience members. They think The Happiest Medium readers would like it because:

The number one reason you should see The Body Politic is because it is a fun, clever, romantic comedy. The second big reason is because it closes on Sunday, March 6th! The third reason you should check it out is to see the amazing cast of Matt Boston, Eve Danzeisen, Brian Dykstra, Daren Kelly, Michael Puzzo and Leslie Hendrix!

BUY TICKETS
IN PERSON: 59E59 Theaters Box Office
59 East 59th Street (betw. Park & Madison)
BY PHONE: 212-279-4200
ONLINE: www.59E59.org
59E59 Member E:Line 212-753-5959 ext. 104

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Ali Kresch in Mendacity (Photo by Lauren Rayner)

Ali Kresch delivers a collage of expressions in Mendacity, (written & directed by Lauren Rayner) an experimental visually striking solo performance with a poignant and healing look into the uncomfortable yet significant and much needed subject of rape and the self destruction that could sadly ripple after.   Ms. Rayner sharing her own personal stories of sexual assault for the stage is undeniably  no small feat. She has also interviewed other women to develop this show that is described as a word-collage. This is a very accurate description for the show, as Ms. Kresch repeats certain words to reiterate their meanings in her story and the way different inflections create different emotions. Unfortunately this a compelling show does not make. There  is no driving plot-line to keep us fully focused or to appreciate the important message Ms. Rayner is trying to convey.

Ali Kresch in Mendacity (Photo by Lauren Rayner)

Yet if I was to walk into Mendacity at the Museum of Modern Art as an installation art piece it would enrapture the audience and  get the message across. I wonder if the Kraine Theater was a disservice to the piece and how effective would it have been, rather, in Under St. Mark’s which is another one of the FRIGID venues. It’s a tricky decision to make when the show is selling out and receiving extra performances.  To find fault on this piece is very uncomfortable because of the cause it is tied to and what it tries to communicate. I found myself rooting for every second, moment and kernel  of what was being created on stage to work.

Restricted in a small black PVC tube structure, Kresch shows us her physical dexterity as she uses movement to narrate her stories as complimenting images are projected behind her. The choreography is the standout of the show, creating an urgency to her words and a vulnerability that might have otherwise been stifled. Best moments of Mendacity are when other characters are brought into the mix and we get to see Kresch skilfully portray different personas. Sprinkling more of these moments would help the show tremendously.

Mendacity would be a great piece for the high-school and college circuit; an admirable work with potential.

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FRIGID New York Festival 2011 runs February 23-March 6 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets ($10-$16) may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444. All shows will run 60 minutes long or less.

Related Posts:

• FRIGID Hangovers – I’ll Have Another Round! (FRIGID New York 2011)
• Hi, How Can I Help You? – Just Another Night In The Dungeon (FRIGID New York 2011)
• FRIGID New York Festival 2011 – Five Questions For: Mendacity
• The Extraordinary Fall of the Four-Legged Woman: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• CHALK: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Papi holds Pretty Big (Pretty-n-Papi featuring Leah James Abel & Olivia Hallie Lehrman (Photo by Dana Reichma)

In Pretty-n-Papi (written by Leah James Abel, Cody Schreger, and Olivia Lehrman) Ms. Pretty Smart is pretty ready for her pretty man to walk into her life, but things aren’t looking that bright for this girl in the love department so she decides to start online dating, why not! Haunted by a radio commercial of “Princess Charmony,” she surfs the web on her ginormous macbook and creates a profile, username: PrettySmart. Princess Charmony (played dare I say charmingly by Rebecca Houlihan) hooks up our poor Ms. Smart with loser after loser in search for the man of her dreams, someone she can grow old with and eat pickles dunked in Fluff.  Maybe she needs to rethink her ideals? No worries, there are enough fish out in the sea; or I should say in the audience as her dates are forcibly and uncomfortably picked from theatregoers who are just looking to watch a show.

It seems the days of just connecting from your seat, making sure you turn off your cell-phone and keeping quiet are over. The “now” thing (or should I say “retro” thing) is to be part of the action. The fourth wall is smashed into a million bits to the extent that one of the actresses shoves carrots into an audience members mouth. Once the audience is interrogated by Ms. Pretty (played with spunk by Olivia Hallie Lehrman), she reenacts what her life would be like if she ended up with one of these bad connections.

All three actresses are very skilled at showcasing their comedic and physical talents but the show ends up being messy. The actresses do their best at not tripping over used props on the floor and at transitioning smoothly from one scene to the next, yet without much success. Sadly the underdeveloped material and staging of Pretty-n-Papi is not up to par with the superior cast.

Although Pretty-n-Papi was not my cup of tea, I’m sure Princess Charmony will keep trying to match them with their ideal audience.

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FRIGID New York Festival 2011 runs February 23-March 6 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1sr Ave and Ave A). Tickets ($10-$16) may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444. All shows will run 60 minutes long or less.

Related Posts:

• FRIGID New York Festival 2011 – Five Questions For: Pretty-n-Papi
• Inside Straight: The Twisty Path Of Personal Investigation In A Modern Age (FRIGID New York 2011)
• I Love You (We’re F*#ked) (FRIGID New York 2011)
• The Happiest Medium Is Partnering With FRIGID New York Festival 2011
• CHALK: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Candy Simmons in Scarlet Woman

Simple: if you love a good murder mystery and film noir you will enjoy Scarlet Woman. Matthew Well’s play has more twists and turns than a twizzler, and actresses Candy Simmons and Megan Hill love chewing on that licorice!

Carmine (one of the characters played by Candy Simmons), is a woman who can’t get a recent fire out of her mind, except she can’t really remember the details! Off she goes to find out who killed her father. Her clue? One of his former lovers who sends her off on a wild noir chase to another lover… and that lover to another… and another… you get it. Megan Hill does a great job at physically transforming into the different smokey ladies and even a couple of  dandies.

The play contains everything you would expect in a film noir movie: stylish costumes, cigarette smoke, campy dialogue, crazy plots, and the wrongly accused. Director Rob O’Neill has a wonderful grasp for comedy and shadows (great use of a white screen to project silhouettes  and bring other characters to life). The production succesfully captures a bleak tone within all the laughter and a lot of it has to do with Candy Simmons’ genuine portrayal of a perplexed woman in desperate need of answers.

The film noir style is captivating and the spoofing of it makes for a raving good time. The actors fully enjoy responding to the elements of the genre happening around them (was that an organ serving as a soundscape to my dramatic moment? oh it’s the church across the street). However, the play could use less questions and some trimming, some elements and jokes are repeated just one too many times (Carmine’s stylistic response to the word “fire” comes to mind); one less twist would keep us interested all the way through the end. For the most part playwright Matthew Wells is successful at keeping the audience guessing.

Very impressive in a festival setting is the lighting design by Philip W. Sandström, a very important element if you are trying to recreate film noir on stage. Kudos should go as well to costume consultants Emily Bradley & Sharon Nowlan.

If you aren’t a fan of film noir this Scarlet Woman still stands on its own as a funny stylized comedy. If you are completely oblivious to the genre, wouldn’t it be funny to learn a film style through the stage? Funny being the operative word.

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FRIGID New York Festival 2011  runs February 23-March 6 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1sr Ave and Ave A). Tickets ($10-$16) may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444. All shows will run 60 minutes long or less.

Related Posts:

• FRIGID New York Festival 2011 – Five Questions For: Scarlet Woman
• All is Fine in Sunny Florida: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Lil’ Women: a rap musical: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Punk Grandpa: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• A Broad Abroad!: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Saving Tania’s Privates (photo by Joe Jankovsky)

Theatre magic doesn’t happen every day or in every show. Those instances when time stops and you are transported from every day life into the world of a writer or a performer are happening right now at the FRIGID New York festival in a basement theater called Under St. Marks. The mastermind behind all this power brought to the stage is Tania Katan with Saving Tania’s Privates. A personal, witty, no-nonsense recount of a Jewish lesbian’s challenge with cancer since the age of 21.

Saving Tania’s Privates featuring Tania Katan (Photo by Josiah Epstein)

The play starts with an invasive TSA airport pat down by a male security officer; Tania suggests the female security officer must be uncomfortable with the fact that she looks like a boy and has no breasts. Thus we are automatically introduced to the subject at hand and how it will be handled in the next 58min (give or take). Along the way we meet Tania’s bf gay, her colorful parents, her lump-spotting girlfriends, and the doctors and nurses who have affected her life over the course of a decade. Her  body has her living like she’s running a 10k marathon, with constant check ups,  training,  running and stopping to grasp air.  Each person in her life has given her a different perspective and obstacle as to how to live her life while always maintaining herself triumphant against a pesky body. I would hate to take away from the wonderful discoveries in this piece, so I will refrain from describing too much of what I hope you will go experience on your own.

Theatre has always welcomed stories of bravery, survival and struggle with dis-ease. There is a delicate balance between using the theatrical medium as a way of therapy while still conveying a message, and luckily Ms. Katan has created a raw personal comedy dealing with a serious subject matter with gusto and zero sentimentalism. She is here for the craft, not to replace the shrink’s couch. A lot of this success has to do with her crisp script and knack for storytelling. She has given us permission to laugh at her trials as we view before us not a cancer survivor, but a woman who has decided to grab life by the horns and ride that smelly  bull – and oh how wonderful it feels when you can stay on top even if only for small intervals. This is the magic of the play, this is the strength of Ms Katan.

Bravo Ms. Katan, bravo! If you only have a chance to see one show at the FRIGID this year, make Saving Tania’s Privates the one – you wont regret it. While you’re at it order her memoir My One-Night Stand With Cancer, I have!

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FRIGID New York Festival 2011 will run February 23-March 6 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1sr Ave and Ave A). Tickets ($10-$16) may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444. All shows runs 60 minutes long or less.

Related Posts:

• FRIGID New York Festival 2011 – Five Questions For: Saving Tania’s Privates
• Pretty-n-Papi, The Pickle To My Fluff? (FRIGID New York 2011)
• Inside Straight: The Twisty Path Of Personal Investigation In A Modern Age (FRIGID New York 2011)
• I Love You (We’re F*#ked) (FRIGID New York 2011)
• ONEymoon – Is ONE Enough? (FRIGID New York 2011)