I will take any opportunity to keep Mae West‘s memory alive here on THM - I’ve worshiped her since I was a child.  Not just a film actress, West was a pioneer of the stage who didn’t wait around for parts to be written for her.  Nor did she shy away from the subject matter that interested her most – sex.  So it just stands to reason that she would write a vehicle for herself which she could star in – and title it bluntly.

Almost a century later, I’m absolutely ecstatic that The Dirty Blondes will present a staged reading of Mae West’s infamous stage play, SEX, for a limited engagement September 29-October 2 at UNDER St. Marks, directed by Courtney Laine Self.  Written by West almost 90 years ago, SEX is about a sharp-witted prostitute from Montreal’s Red Light District looking for true love.  It was initially shut down in 1927 during its Broadway run, and West was jailed for “lewdness and corrupting the youth.”

I got to chat with Ashley Jacobson, the Artistic Director of The Dirty Blondes, who took a minute out of her hectic schedule to talk about sex, SEX, how some things never change – and how the things that DO change are not always what you think.

It is SO GREAT to see someone take this great play out of the trunk, dust it off, and give it a good shine. I’ve been a Mae West fan since the age of 8, so literally grew up knowing about Mae West, her work and her mission. But why don’t you go ahead and tell us a little bit about how you came to know about SEX and what made it seem like the perfect script to do as a staged reading?

Ashley Jacobson: I always grew up knowing about Mae West as well, but mostly just about her stardom/Hollywood Fame. I came across her book of plays on Amazon one day when I was looking for plays by women, and was so confused! I had no idea she had been a playwright, let alone one that was produced on Broadway. Then I just fell down the research rabbit hole and became more and more impressed by her and excited by the play’s history. She was the patron saint bad-ass we have been looking for! As a company with the name “Dirty Blondes” we are clearly interested in playing off people’s perceptions of femininity and sexuality and challenging these notions with surprising theater. Mae West literally embodies everything we think about ourselves as a company, so it seemed like the perfect thing to explore.

We also wanted to do it as a reading because we wanted it to be presented as a conversation starter, rather than a perfectly polished piece. There is a lot of meat in her play and a LOT to talk about – in terms of the play itself and what Mae West meant by all of it. There are also some problematic elements, including the way race is discussed in the play. So we wanted to present it and make sure we had the opportunity to provide the context and conversation around it. A reading seemed like the best way to accomplish all that.

There’s a lot that’s changed in the 90 years since SEX was seen by its original audience. Obviously what was considered shocking and scandalous back then is almost yawn-inducing now. Does this script hold up? And in the parts where it may not, are you playing it straight, or giving a bit of a wink-and-nod to the audience?

Ashley: The script holds up! Not just for its salaciousness, but Mae wrote some really interesting characters in her play and good characters will always hold up. The story itself, about redemption and about this woman finding her way to a new life, is a timeless story. We’re playing the script straight, letting it speak for itself but also being completely conscious of things that might be considered problematic NOW. The play still needs a “trigger warning” – and not for the same reasons it was considered problematic 90 years ago. There is a lot of talk of violence against women, some racist language – these things were considered fine then, but they certainly aren’t now. Mae West captured a moment in time with this play, and showed us how it was for women in the 20s. We’re interested in exploring that much more than the raunchiness of the story – which, you’re right, isn’t anything to bat an eye at now.

Mae West was a pioneer – a feminist long before the feminist movement. If she was around today, what updates do you think she’d be making to her work in general? And more directly – how different would SEX be if she were to write it in 2016?

Ashley: Wow! What a question! You can see that Mae West progressed as a feminist even in her own life. By the time she reached Hollywood she was one of the biggest advocates for including people of color in her films, and when she was on Broadway she insisted on casting gay & lesbian actors, even though they weren’t allowed in the union. I don’t know if I can speculate on the type of artist she would be now – although I’m sure she would be basking, enjoying the fearlessness of some fellow female performers in the comedy and TV arena – but I honestly don’t know if SEX would be all that different. I would hope it would have a better take on race relations now, but I think it would still focus on how women are continuously reduced to the lowest common denominator. I think it would still talk about the struggle to find empowerment in female sexuality, while avoiding being defined by it. Violence against women is still a serious issue, human trafficking and unfair treatment of sex workers are all important issues now and she sheds some serious light on them in her play.

The Dirty Blondes embody so much of what Mae West was herself – a feisty, strong female doing it all – creatively – herself. Talk to me about what it would be like if you could bring her back and have her come see your staged reading. Do you think she’d be honored? Pleased? Or a little threatened even?

Ashley: Oh God, that would be incredible. (Also thank you for the very nice description!). I would hope she would be honored and excited for us. I would hope that she would see how she paved the way for us to be more fearless and unapologetic – to create the theater that we aren’t seeing anywhere else. She might be a little overwhelmed by how much we intend to dissect the work in our talkbacks but I hope she would see that we are doing that because we believe that she had so much to offer; that her play, although it was widely panned by critics during its time, is actually a full and fruitful story with so much to say about being a woman then AND now. I think Mae West, were she alive today, would be a huge proponent of sisterhood and supporting women artists. There is room for all of us, and I believe that Mae West believes that. She wrote roles for herself and then cast as many people as humanly possible in her plays – she was an artists’ artist.

Finally – staged readings are fantastic. I’ve seen some where you forget you’re not watching an actual play. However, there’s always hope for bigger and better, right? In which case I’m wondering – does The Dirty Blondes have any hopes of doing a full-out production of SEX if this reading goes well?

Ashley: I guess we’ll have to see, but I think the fact that its a reading is a really big part of what we’re doing. We have scheduled some incredible talkbacks with current and retired Sex Workers, Feminist Burlesque Dancers, and an incredible Mae West historian. We really wanted to place the play at the center of a larger conversation – and sometimes you can’t do that in a full production. So presenting the piece as kind of a work-in-progress is important to us. But who knows, if we get the lightning to hit just right, there could be room for bigger aspirations!

Thanks so much for not only answering these questions, but for bringing this back to the stage. I can’t tell you how excited I am to know that new audiences will be seeing this work – even (if only for now) as just a reading!

Ashley: Thank you for such thought-provoking questions!

~~~

For a little extra fun, I’m going to leave you with some Mae West Drunk History courtesy of The Dirty Blondes themselves. Take it away, gals …

Mae West Drunk History from The Dirty Blondes on Vimeo.

~~~

FRIGID NEW YORK @ HORSE TRADE
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
THE DIRTY BLONDES

PRESENT

MAE WEST’S SEX
directed by Courtney Laine Self

September 29-October 2

UNDER St. Marks
94 St. Marks Place
(between 1 st Avenue and Avenue A)
Performances: Thursday through Sunday at 7pm
Tickets: $17
CLICK HERE to purchase

Talkback Schedule:

Kick off the opening night with some bad ass feminist poetry by Maya Osborne and guests, and stay after the show to grab a drink and talk to our amazing cast.

Friday, September 30
Native New Yorker LindaAnn Loschiavo is a journalist, dramatist and Mae West Historian.

Saturday, October 1
Juniper Fleming previously directed, produced, and performed in an all sex worker revival of SEX, at Dixon Place Theater this past June.

Sunday, October 2
Veronica Varlow is a siren born of the 1940s Fantasy of Pinup Girls and Femme Fatales. Beguiling and beautiful, Varlow weaves a spell upon her audiences like none other.

Related Posts:

• Too Much Of A Good Thing Can Be Wonderful! – Mae West’s Birthday Bash
• Outskirts of Eden: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Why So Much Shame?: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Basic Help (2014 Frigid New York Festival)
• Tina And Amy: Last Night In Paradise (2014 Frigid New York Festival)

When you think about it, we’re all part of the F*It Club.  Oh yes we are!  When was the last time you said to yourself, “Fuck it, I’m not waiting around for this to just happen on its own!  I’m going to MAKE IT HAPPEN!”  You know, in true Laverne and Shirley “Doin’ it our way!” spirit – that’s when you joined the F*It Club.  But, you know, there’s a REAL F*It Club too.  And that’s the one I’m going to tell you a little bit more about today.

So they created a club.  Not a stodgey company or a even an exclusive group.  But a club where “the hope is that the audiences will find themselves enjoying the work more”. And not one of those red-velvet rope clubs however, where only the rich and attractive can get in. But a place that can serve as a home for artists.  ALL artists.

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Heather Litteer’s Lemonade [Photo credit Steve Menendez]

Read on as Heather tells me all about the ramifications of her role of a lifetime, what it means to be a powerful sexual woman in today’s society, and how she juggled all this while remaining close to her steel magnolia of a Southern mom.

​​Heather!  Your story sounds fascinating.  Why don’t you start off by telling us what “Lemonade” means.
Heather Litteer: Lemonade started out as a poem about all the different jobs and acting roles I have had. They say your real life can mimic the kind of acting work that comes to you, and in my case it did!

Lemonade also represents my southern upbringing. I was raised in Georgia and we drank a lot of lemonade during those hot summers. I moved to NYC at 18 but I kept a close relationship with my mother over the phone and we talked almost daily. She was a pure Proper Southern Woman as well as a Steel Magnolia. She always had these southern sayings. “When life hands you lemons, you just make lemonade” was one she used constantly, so that’s where the title came from. Lemonade is the sweet and the sour in life. The play weaves in and out of my experiences with film work and how it affected my relationship with my mother. It’s about never giving up hope and to always keep pushing that envelope. If you fall down 12 times, get up 13 times.

Heather Litteer

So, your tagline’s pretty bold – you’re “not a hooker … but you play one on TV”.  You’ve been cast as strippers and junkies as well.  What’s wrong with that?
Heather:  I don’t see anything wrong with playing strippers, junkies or hookers or even being a stripper, junkie or hooker. Except being a junkie is not so healthy! So long as no one is getting used, abused or hurt, I love and respect them all.
I was a stripper and even danced at Billy’s Topless as well as numerous nightclubs like Jackie 60 in the New York gay 90’s. I was part of the House Of Domination, and my nickname was Jessica Rabbit. It was a blast!
Junkies, hookers, and strippers are fun roles to play, but they can also be heartbreaking. When that’s the only way people perceive you, and you’re being repeatedly typecast and stereotyped, it can get old. I was the girl people called to play these roles because I was brave and I wasn’t afraid to get naked!

​​Your show is about how women are treated in the industry.  Talk to me about when you first started seeing a pattern of misogyny.
Heather: All these roles started to come in after I did the extremely terrifying sex scene in Requiem for a Dream. That was the role that has led to me being typecast for the past 16 years. I thought working with all these amazing people, like director Darren Aronofsky and actress Jennifer Connelly, would take me to higher places. I suppose that dream was a little naïve. But I’ve always had big dreams! I just had to learn how to play the game. In Lemonade I talk about my experiences and how it makes me feel and I think this will be relatable to a lot of woman. Being treated like a piece of meat, even though I went in willingly. There are aftershocks from that. And that sex scene in Requiem is legendary!

Your show is a solo show, so you’re wearing a lot of hats.  Who is your favorite character to embody?  And tell us a little about one of their scenes.
Heather: Working on this show has been a real challenge with all of the different characters, but I love it!

My favorite character to play is definitely my Mom. It brings her back to me for little moments and I feel like she’s right there in the room with me. When I embody her it makes me feel close to her, and that is extremely cathartic. It makes me miss her so very much and I wish I could have just one last conversation with her. She passed away suddenly during the initial writing of Lemonade. I used to get a lot of guidance from her and I use a lot of her southern sayings in the show. This show is dedicated to my Mom, Nancy.

How hard is it for people to “get” the true issues of ​Lemonade?  Do you have people who, when you talk casually about the ​show, try to explain​​ it away with “Well, maybe that’s just your experience”, or “Maybe you just didn’t meet the right people?”
Heather: There are a lot of different issues covered in Lemonade. There is the mother/daughter relationship. It’s a struggle between two different sets of values, my mother with her southern roots, and me with my New York contemporary ideals.

Its also about how being a powerful sexual woman in society is perceived. Most people’s views are so old fashioned. It deals with the struggles of an actress who is feeling marginalized and like she is only being seen through a tiny keyhole when she has so much more to give. The through line of the show is to always have hope. To work hard, and never give up. There is something waiting for you right around the corner, always with a Lil’ Sugar Honey!

Heather, thank you so much for giving us a glance into what makes you so special.  I know your mom, Nancy, would be proud of the work you’re continuing to do, and it’s lovely that the show is dedicated to her.  

~~~

For the rest of you- make sure to check out the world premiere of Heather Litteer’s solo show Lemonade!

The Club at La MaMa
74A East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery
April 15-24 –  with performances on Friday and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 6pm

Tickets are $18 and can be purchased in advance here or by calling 646-430-5374

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For an emerging playwright there’s nothing like getting your work published on Indie Theater Now, run by the amazing Martin Denton who single-handedly does so much for the New York Theatre scene – championing plays and playwrights alike.    But how about getting three of your plays published on Indie Theater Now in just one month?

Meet Natalie Menna, an award-winning playwright and actress who is celebrating the fact that three of her plays were just published and are now available for purchase.  All different in scope, length, and subject they still all have Natalie’s signature brand of insight and humor:

Natalie chatted with me about where her comedic voice comes from, how she handles each milestone of success, and puts to rest the question of ever meeting a poor vegan.

Natalie! February was a terrific month for you! You had 3 of your plays published on Indie Theater Now. Amazing! So, first of all, congratulations.
Natalie Menna: Thanks, Karen!

Secondly—what does it feel like to now have your work out there officially? Is there a feeling of “I’ve arrived”?
Natalie: If I ever feel that way, please tie my hands to the bedpost. And not in the good way. Seriously, if I feel that way ever they’ll be no need to write anymore. I write precisely BECAUSE I’ve never thought of myself as arriving, arrived, about to arrive, or on the way to arriving. Departing, maybe, on a sinking ship …

Of course, publication isn’t the only way to ‘arrive’ right? All three of your plays have gotten acclaim by winning awards. What goes through your head when you find out that something you’ve created is not only being celebrated with a nomination, but then championed with an actual award win?
Natalie: I do like awards! Momentarily, I feel like I’m not on that sinking ship. But then I’m right back on it. Hours. Sometime minutes later. And then I keep writing.

In Roberta, I-Pod, and Zen A.M. you’ve shown you have a knack for writing, if not comedy per-se, then extremely comedic characters. When you conceive of a concept for a play do you set out for it to be funny, or is that just a part of your personality that shines through?
Natalie: This is a tough question. Requires me to analyze myself, which I hate. I only like analyzing others. Let’s see — a lot of people say this, and I wholeheartedly agree — “There’s comedy in everything.” EVERYTHING! That’s the way I’ve survived my life so far. The way we all do. I don’t think I consciously set out to write a comedy. I can be writing about a serious topic, for example, my play Committed, which deals with the last two days of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh‘s life before his murder. A regular laugh/riot, no? Believe it or not, audiences for the reading of that play were laughing steadily throughout. Humor is the ultimate coping tool, even under the worst of circumstances.

I’m also of the Larry David school of comedy – that anyone, anything, or any circumstance can be used for comedy. I think sometimes this clashes with the aesthetic of the current climate in theatre today, but I won’t let this affect my work. Comedy is life, and there’s comedy in everyone and everything on the planet.

I’ll be blunt: your main characters are very fun and interesting on the page, but they definitely come with a lot of issues! Frankly, I think if I was friends with Roberta, let’s say, I’d want to pull my hair out. And yet the play is fantastic. What’s the key to making a character likable on the stage even as you know that in person they’d be unlikable?
Natalie: Really? I feel like all of my friends, including myself, have BEEN Roberta (well maybe not to that degree!).  But sure, at one point or another … I think maybe it’s about heightening the reality — I seriously have never gotten this obsession with ‘likable’ characters — sort of like what David Mamet says about the ‘polemic’ play – BORING! (Despite disagreeing with him politically, I LOVE his writing).

I love creating characters who are deeply flawed, bad examples, crazy, self-involved, etc. That’s why it’s theatre! When I am in an audience and a play has a character who ‘represents’ goodness, morality, nobility, etc. I feel so bored I want to slash my wrists. (Okay –that’s a tad dramatic– I just want to go to the restroom and never return.) Bring on the crazy! That’s entertainment. That’s theatre!

And on that note, (and this may seem obvious but you’d be surprised) just because my character is saying something does not mean I agree with it. As an example, in my solo show i-POD, the character at one point says “No coincidence I’ve never met a poor vegan”.  A playwright approached me after the show and informed me that he was offended and knew many poor vegans. But of course! It’s this character’s view!

I think I may have digressed. Back to your question. I think people are responding to the uncensored truth. I try to create characters that are always speaking from their truth. Unpleasant or not. I try to avoid ‘flowery’ dialogue intended to make the character look like ‘a good person’. And I think people crave the truth. The truth of that particular character and their life.

You make a good point, Natalie.  Flawed characters are speaking from a place of their own truth – and letting the audience go along for the ride means bringing them on a specific journey.  Getting inside the head of someone who thinks a particular way is what innovative and audacious theatre is all about!

Now that you’ve got three published works and they can be accessed by other people, what would be your biggest dream for these shows?
Natalie: To have audience members say “That hit me. That made me laugh. That made me think differently“. That’s all. That’s nirvana.

Well, Natalie, based on what I’ve read, you’re well on your way to nirvana already!  Here’s to more truth, more flaws and more productions!

~~~

For information on how to purchase any (or all!) of these plays by Natalie Menna, simply click here for more information.

~~~

NATALIE MENNA is an award-winning playwright and actress living in downtown Brooklyn. A native New Yorker, she recently won Outstanding Overall Production of a Play and Best Actor for her full-length drama Committed at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2015. Committed, produced by Ego Actus, received six nominations, including Outstanding Production of a Staged Reading, Outstanding Playwright For A New Play in a Reading, Best Director, Best Actress, and Two Nominations for Best Actor.

She was nominated for Outstanding Writer for her full-length comedy Zen A.M. in Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2014. Her solo show Roberta! was featured in United Solo Theatre Festival, Theatre Row, in November 2014. Select previous awards include The Nettie Award for Best Solo Show for her play I-pod in the Network One-Act Festival, and Best Actress for I-pod in The Midtown International Theatre Festival. Her play Hiroshi-Me, Me, Me was a finalist in both The Strawberry Festival and The Network One-Act Festival, with two nominations for Best Actress and Winner for Best Supporting Actress.

Her work has been developed with Casey Childs, Andrew Leynse and David Caudle at Primary Stages, and Nicky Silver at The Vineyard Theatre.

~~~

INDIE THEATRE NOW is an engine for discovering new American drama — one that enables teachers, students, actors, directors, producers, and artists of every stripe, as well as those not involved in the theater, to experience the brilliance of contemporary indie theater as close to first-hand as possible.

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A woman from Alabama had a spark of a thought. So she started a Facebook page which grew exponentially. It was about women writing about women. The spark grew till women all over the world started to join her.

I’m talking about 365 WOMEN A YEAR: A PLAYWRIGHTING PROJECT which involves hundreds of women who have written one-act plays about extraordinary women. The project’s goal is to write women back into the social consciousness with all the plays written and directed by women.

365 WOMEN A YEAR was founded by Jess Eisenberg and Gina Scanlon. This international playwriting project involves over 200 playwrights who have signed on to write plays about women in both past and present history.

One of the first champions of the project in New York was friend of The Happiest Medium, playwright Robin Rice.  I’m lucky to be able to speak with both Robin as well as co-founder Jess Eisenberg about this wonderful Project.

Robin, tell me about your personal experience with the 365 Women a Year Project. When and how did your involvement start?
Robin Rice: In 2014 I noticed a new group forming on Facebook called 365 Women a Year: A Playwriting Project. Jess Eisenberg had started the page. She put a call out to women playwrights — a challenge really. She wanted plays about real women (past or present) who had affected our world. Real women with real stories in all walks of life. The goal was to write these women back into history, to raise consciousness about the contributions women have made. I had a short play that had just been produced in New York about Vanessa Bell (the painter) and her sister Virginia Woolf. I also had a full-length play about early environmentalist Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, one about the first woman photo-journalist Alice Austen, and shorts that involved Martha Stewart and Sasha Montenegro (a B movie actor married to a notorious former president of Mexico). So I signed onto the project.

Little did I dream how it would explode! None of us had any idea.

That’s wonderful synergy – and it looks like just as it was happening to you, many women around the country were having the same experience! Jess – is this what was hoped for/envisioned?  And speak about how different regions – including NYC – are helping 365 Women a Year to expand.
Jess Eisenberg: We have been so thankful to have playwrights that are beyond dedicated and are not just writing pieces for the project, but are also organizing festivals around the world. It is beyond what I envisioned. Some of our playwrights are artistic directors as well, and have put a slot for a 365 festival into their season each year. Our European chair, Beatriz Cabur, has organized festivals in Spain and is now relocated to England. She is such a lightning rod that we went from a few UK participants to dozens signing up to write this year.

There are so many of our playwrights in NYC that we’ve had multiple festivals there and we all stay in touch via our Facebook group and twitter. Any time one of our playwrights is having a 365 show produced (or one of their other pieces) I tweet. The NYC playwrights definitely set a powerful example and inspired more playwrights to want to do the same thing in their region.

Robin, as a busy playwright, what excites you about this project? What makes THIS something you’re interested in, given that there are so many things going on in your life?
Robin: Not only do I know that the mission is very important, the energy of this purely female-driven movement (which is what it has become) can’t be ignored. Plus, I love challenges. Finding out about women who have made contributions to our world and yet have been buried by time has always interested me, and here was a reason to do some digging. Plus, it’s really not a big commitment. I contributed more plays in 2015, but most were already written and all I did was create monologues for the women or shape short plays from material in a full-length play that I had already written.

My plays for the project in 2015 were about (1) three pacifist Dominican nuns, (2) newscaster Paula Zahn and Mary Tyler Moore, and (3) the only play I’ve written specifically for the project, a monologue by an ancestor of mine, Alice Chase, who had the first baby born in Cornish, NH, back in the pioneering days of our country. This year I’m going to use material in LUST & LIES, a full-length based on the true story of Lucretia Winthrop Chapman who was one of the first educators with a school for young women, back in the early 1800s. Lucretia may or may not have murdered her husband.

ENCORE first meeting April 20 2015

Take me through a typical NYC run-through from conception to completion so readers can feel the energy of the project.
Robin: This is the part where I really got excited. I kept an eye on the Facebook page back when the Project first began. More and more women playwrights “claimed” their subjects (you can’t write about someone if another writer is already writing about that woman) — playwrights all over the country. I saw quite a few New Yorkers joining in, so on a whim I posed a question on the Facebook page: Anybody in New York or nearby want to get together and organize a public reading of our 365 plays? I named a time and date maybe a week away and said to just show up at my apartment. That night, 15 women playwrights showed up. We were strangers for the most part, but not for long!

Fifteen plays was a lot to handle, but we did it. Everyone took different jobs — finding a venue, looking for a producer, making the program, doing publicity, etc. We didn’t want to charge admission, and nobody had much money, so this was a huge challenge, especially in expensive New York City. But we did it. A couple of months later our event was held at The Sheen Center and it was a roaring success. We called ourselves 365-NYC-1. On the Facebook page I encouraged other groups to have readings. Two more groups formed in New York City in 2015, and many others popped up all over the country. This year I see that there is a lot of international activity. Obviously this Project had been waiting to happen!

A few months ago I got together with Barbara Kahn from the NYC-1 group and strategized. She was having a play produced at Theater for the New City and we could use the stage on the dark night. Yay! I emailed the NYC-1 writers and said the first 6 who got back to me with interest in doing this again would be part of NYC-4 (continuing the NYC numbering from last year). Within two minutes my inbox was overflowing. I wish it didn’t have to have a limited number, but 15 was really unweildy. On March 23, eight of us will have 365 plays read at Theater for the New City.

Jess, it must be incredible to hear that in NYC alone the numbers are “unweildy”.  And it must be astonishing to see the orders of magnitude by which this has grown internationally.  If you can keep dreaming big, what would you want? 
Jess: Next on my dream list is to have a digital brochure that we can send to every theatre around the world to promote gender parity in their seasons through producing 365 plays. The first two years we accepted one acts only, this year plays can be any length. My first goal is representing as many historical women as possible, and that’s why we do not yet take duplicates. We write about 365 different women each year. I make sure that we are representing women of different religions, ethnicities, and cultures. I want to have women from every country in the world represented.

The second goal is getting more female playwrights produced and more female directors at the helm. We’ve definitely gone beyond what I envisioned in a very short time and we have our incredible playwrights to thank for that.

I would love at some point to upgrade our web site to having an actual search field for playwrights, historical women, and plays. Right now, I’ve done it all manually, so you can search by time period, keyword, alphabetically, etc. It would be lovely if it could be more streamlined. I think it would be incredible on our ten year anniversary to have a 365 Gala and honor all of our playwrights and get to all meet each other in person from around the world. Every time a list of plays get selected for a theatre’s festival, I recognize most of the female playwrights names. It makes the big theatre world seem much smaller and now when my name isn’t on the list, I’m not as bummed as I would have been, because I am filled with such joy to see a playwright I know on the list. It’s incredible to have such a supportive community of playwrights. The sky’s the limit dream, would be to actually have 365 theaters around the world where the plays are produced all season long with female directors at the helm.

I love these dreams!  They’re amazing and lovely – and I wouldn’t be surprised if you cross half of them off your list sooner than you ever expected!

Robin and Jess – I’m going to ask the obvious question.  Have you had anyone say “Why not a 365 MEN a Year Project”?  If so, how do you speak to that?
Robin: That’s easy. Less than 20% of the plays produced in the U.S. are written by women, and that’s climbed in recent years because of a groundswell of activism on the part of women playwrights. It’s been a big movement. A lot of pressure has been applied to theaters with all-male seasons, to competitions and contests that have given awards to only male writers for decades, to short play festivals that produce lineups of only male-written plays. The guys have been running things forever. We women are pushing forward. This Project enables us to not only make our voices heard, the subject we are writing about is in league with our mission. I’m sure that’s part of why it’s exploded like it has.

Jess:We haven’t had any push back like that. We did get asked on a podcast if we think the reason less female playwrights get produced is because their plays just aren’t as strong. Mostly, we have has such amazing support. We have a handful of male playwrights that write with us as well. I have had it cross my mind to start a 365 Men of Color a year project, because I think there are many men of color’s stories that are lost and need to be heard. I’m just not sure I can take that on and my passion has always been women in history. It’s the lost women who have always haunted me. But no, no one has attacked us in that way. Most likely, because we are such a niche and the people who end up hearing about us are like minded individuals.

Jess, Robin – I want to thank you both for speaking to me about 365 Woman A Year.  I’m excited to hear how this Project, and these international festivals, continue to grow!

~~~

If you’re in NYC and you’re interested in seeing the evening of readings:
March 23rd, 2016
Theater for the New City, Cino Theater
155 1st Avenue at 10th Street
(By subway: L to 1st Avenue; 6 to Astor Place)
The readings are free, but reservations are highly suggested. CLICK HERE TO RESERVE

~~~

JESS EISENBERG is a teacher, singer, actress, composer, and playwright. She has taught children’s theatre and music across the continent with Missoula Children’s Theatre, Pied Piper Players, and Piano Lessons in Your Home. She currently teaches voice and piano with Mason Music and loves getting to teach with Red Mountain Theater. Jess co-founded Prologue Theatre in Chicago and is the founder of 365 Women a Year, an international playwriting project.

-  -  -  -

ROBIN RICE is a playwright whose work can be seen internationally.  Select productions 2010-15 – New York City: PLAY NICE! (Off-Broadway), THE POWER OF BIRDS, NOT STILL LIFE, IN THE BEGINNING… BURYING ELEPHANTS, HAPPIWY EVER AFTER, ALLIE’S APPENDIX, EVERYDAY EDNAMAE (1-act), LOLA AND THE PLANET OF GLORIOUS DIVERSITY, THE OTHERSHOE. ALICE IN BLACK AND WHITE (Louisville); LISTEN! THE RIVER (Edinburgh Fringe/London/South Africa); BLOOD SISTERS (CA); SECRETS ON A CHINESE BED (MA/South Korea). Hollywood: world premiere WOMEN w/o WALLS, 2015.

Most notably: *publication of PLAY NICE! by Original Works Publishing  *premiere of WOMEN w/o WALLS in Hollywood with Broad’s Word Theatre last November-December; *upcoming Off-Broadway production of ALICE IN BLACK AND WHITE with Looking for Lilith Theatre Company in August

Find out more at the Robin Rice website  or follow on twitter: @RobinRiceWrites

Related Posts:

• Kathleen Warnock Goes To The Lilly Awards
• Hardware Dreams – Hard Won
• Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels?
• Catching Up With The Divine Carl Andress

K

In 2014 Hold On To Your Butts (Recent Cutbacks’ parody of Jurrasic Park) left me so impressed that I actually advised “If you’ve never seen Jurassic Park (anyone?) then let this be your introduction to the work. Trust me, see this first and you’ll never see the movie the same way again.”

I loved how they took a CGI heavy movie and did a shot-for-shot parody in a small theatre with nothing but creative props and a crap ton of innovation. When I saw the show it had a limited engagement, but went on to have a (much deserved) year-long sold out run.

This amazing team is back again taking on Lord of The Rings with Fly, You Fools!   The show starts next month, but I couldn’t wait to chat with Recent Cutbacks to find out what they’ll have in store for their audiences.  Read on to find out how the team settled on what to keep and what to toss, how they came up with the fantastic title, and what they think Peter Jackson would appreciate about Fly, You Fools!

Here we go!

How did a year of Hold On To Your Butts bring you to the notion that you could tackle another CGI heavy movie like Lord of the Rings?

KYLE SCHAEFER

Kyle Schaefer (Writer/Performer): Nick really led the charge on LOTR. We haven’t talked that much about the CGI, actually. It’s a fantasy and it’s EPIC. I feel like that’s what we were drawn to. It feels even bigger than HOTYB, and that’s exciting. We added a player, but the show almost feels more sparse than HOTYB. It’s just such a big story and a big world. Mythic. And we like the challenge of attempting to create what seems impossible.

Nick Abeel (Writer/Performer): You can pretty much do anything with CGI in movies anymore. And with that, I think there’s something lost – we’re desensitized to it – it doesn’t ask as much of our imagination. So I think what we realized with HOTYB is that there’s great joy in simplicity. We’re never going to recreate the movie exactly. That’s impossible. And it allowed us to focus more on how the movie makes you feel. If you capture that, the simple but potent execution reminds people of how much they remember from the movie. They have the experience of watching us but also watching the movie in their own minds. Sounds cheesy, but CGI ain’t got nothin’ on good ol’ imagination.

Kristin McCarthy Parker (Director): We’ve been wanting to do another project for a very long time. This movie was always on the back burner, but life, work, and other commitments prevented us from diving in sooner. HOTYB was so fast and sudden, we made a lot of decisions in the room that felt right at the time, but we also didn’t have any sense of how the show would be received while we were creating it. We literally only anticipated a single performance, so certain elements of the show were created without a mind towards longevity or resources. We’re approaching FYF with a slightly different sensibility … We have a more solid sense of what works and what doesn’t, we know what we’re interested in exploring this time, and we’re aiming for something that not only builds upon but diverges from HOTYB. It’s really exciting!

Matt Zambrano (Writer/Performer): Well, I actually wasn’t apart of HOTYB, but I did see it three times! One of the things that made it such a special show was that element of creative interpretation: How do you take an epic movie and put it on a stage with just three performers? With a ton of energy, enthusiasm and innovation. I think with FYF, we’re really relying on the imagination of audience to fill in the pieces we could never create on stage…which, I believe, is true for most good pieces of art; it is always more engaging when not all the dots are connected, and not all the answers are in plain sight.

Allyson Morgan (Producer): We knew that our follow up piece from HOTYB had to keep the company and the work moving forward – LOTR seemed like both a hard and exciting challenge! Also, HOTYB taught us a lot about what was able to be accomplished with creativity and imagination, which meant that nothing was really off-limits in terms of what we could parody.

Blair Busbee (Sound/Foley): I wasn’t a part of the original creators for HOTYB. I remember seeing the show in its early days and loved it! So I came back. And then I brought my mother who cackled loudly the whole way through. And then I devilishly plotted to take over Kelsey’s foley role, and somehow that magically happened. As far as tackling CGI movies. I actually kind of find it overwhelming–but that’s when you take a step back and breathe and figure out how to simply tell a story and just try things. It’s just serious play… Dame Judi Dench says it best,”I think the trick is to take your work seriously, but not yourself seriously at all.”

One thing that was really evident was how much you all really needed to trust each other during Hold On To Your Butts. There were so many things that relied on exact timing, teamwork, and precision. Talk to me about how that makes these shows work.

Kyle: Neither show is anything if not a team effort. Everyone puts ideas into the room, everyone builds on them, and everyone chooses what to take and leave. It’s a constant process of throwing stuff out and editing, and very quickly into the process it’s hard to claim ownership of any given piece. It feels entirely created by the group mind. The trust is inherent because everyone in the group is incredibly talented and good at what they do. Everyone really cares about the process and each other. We all show up to play and takes risks equally. There’s no room for ego, and we’re all exploring together…like a Fellowship, but guided by silliness!

NICK ABEEL

Nick: Working in this collaborative way is liberating if you have the right team. It allows you to put an idea out there and let the idea sink or swim, without attaching personal stake to it. In that way, it compels us to be egoless artists, listening to each other and deciding as a group what is best for the show, rather than just what is a good idea or who had it. I have no idea who came up with what in HOTYB because we made it as a group. The writing credit is all of us, including Kristin as director. That type of room starts with trust. So in assembling the team for FYF, we chose folks that we knew could work in this way and most importantly, just have fun and play.

Kristin: Trust is huge. On a fundamental level, we trust each other as artists, which means that we value everyone’s voice and contributions in the rehearsal room. We’ve chosen each other because of our unique talents and sensibilities, so we entrust each other with our ideas and criticisms. It’s essential to this sort of ensemble show. Moreover, once the show has a chance to exist onstage, that trust allows the show to continue growing, since each actor trusts that he/she can experiment with new ideas and everyone will be there to catch them. It allows the show to be both consistent and dynamic, which matters when you’re performing it for as long as we ran HOTYB.

Matt: Working with talented people who share a common goal and vision is essential to the success of any creative venture, however I think what’s more important to us as a group is maintaining a sense of play. We as adults don’t always allow ourselves the time or space to get silly, which is unfortunate because that sense of play is vital to theater, especially comedies.

Allyson: Recent Cutbacks is truly a group effort – everyone pitches in on everything from creative decisions in the rehearsal room to how we want our marketing and branding to work. I personally have been a part of a few different theatre companies, and the success of a company always comes back to respecting one another’s opinions and intuition, and being able to listen to everyone’s point of view. We’re very lucky that in this group we communicate well with one another.

When you say “shot for shot parody” – yet the production comes in at around 1 hour, it’s clear you’re not doing EVERY shot. If you’ve removed/condensed anything how did you make that choice? Was it based on things too technically difficult to recreate, or things that just simply weren’t fun?

Kyle: We actually play a drinking game that decides what stays in. That’s what we mean by shot-for-shot. :) I think we’re more concerned with essence. What needs to stay in to tell the story, particularly the story that you remember from the film. We’re trying to put up a live version of someone’s recollection of the film. Part of that is very visual, so there is more of a focus on how to recreate certain film shots in a live format. Theater is obviously a very different way of directing attention and telling story than film. Going iconic moment to iconic moment is the fun of these little ditties.

Nick: “Shot for shot” helps people understand what we’re doing. In the room, we worked to boil down each scene down to its most essential parts and leave the rest. We wanted the show to move at a very fast pace and just under an hour felt right. We wanted to get in and get out without overstaying our welcome.

KRISTIN MCCARTHY PARKER

Kristin: Mostly we cut based on what’s not fun. We actually welcome those challenging sequences, since they’re usually what the audience wants to see us tackle. (My personal fave was the helicopter shot from HOTYB). But, yes, we’ve consciously eliminated the redundant, inactive, and non-iconic parts of the movies to hit the highlights, and trust that the audience’s internal sense of the film will carry them through the rest.

Matt: It really just sort of comes down to the essential story you’re trying to tell. I’m a huge fan of the trilogy, and I remember in one of the bonus discs Peter Jackson was discussing why they didn’t include The Scouring of the Shire in ROTK (Sorry, going to geek out for a second), or Tom Bombadil in the first film. His reasoning, which I agree with, is that ultimately this is a story about the finding and eventual destruction of the ring. It’s the same with our show; there is so much great material, but ultimately you’ve got to whittle it down to it’s most important scenes. In the slam poetry world we call it “Killing Puppies” : meaning when you write a 3:00 minute poem with someone, you’re inevitably going to have to cut some lines. And they’re probably great lines that you love, but you’ve got to come in under time. No one wants to kill puppies…

Allyson: I’ll defer to Nick, Kyle, and Kristin on most of those decisions, but ultimately it’s a combination of what do we think we can effectively communicate and what do we think the audience will get a kick out off.

Talk a little about what each one of you does, and some challenges of this production that you’re really proud of.  

Kyle: It’s still very early on and we’re figuring a lot out. We all do everything. Much more in this show than the last. I can tend to be Professor Serious Poopy Pants with the “but what is the HEART of this moment” type pretentious comments at times. But otherwise it’s pretty much all hands on deck. Something people probably aren’t going to see (because we took it out of the trailer) that I really enjoyed was the forced perspective shot at the beginning where Frodo is riding in the cart with Gandalf who’s so much bigger than him. I did some nice “horse work”. My Acting MFA class and teachers would have been so proud.

Nick: I tend to be the guy who comes in every day with 20 new ideas. Kristin and I have worked together for a long long time and she is very good at sifting out the great ideas from the rest. I’m also in a Mime theater company. Mime? Yes mime. Broken Box Mime Theater. Check us out. We’re bringin’ it back. Anyways, I bring a background in physical theater that obviously shaped the way we executed HOTYB and will execute FYF.

Especially in the early part of the process, I try to push us to explore the extreme limits of what the show could be. We considered doing HOTYB entirely with puppets at one point. We’ve already scrapped some grand ideas I had for FYF involving projections, as it didn’t feel right for this show. But I think it’s important to go explore those grand visions, because often those ideas come back around. We have an extensive “maybe file” to rifle through. It looks like we’re really interested in FYF in exploring foley and music in a more full way and going even simpler with the visuals. But we’ll see! Who knows where it will go.

I think the challenging thing this time is the amount of characters that are in this story. It’s probably triple the amount from HOTYB. And the scope. The story in HOTYB exists entirely on one island. For FYF, we’ll have to create an entire world.

Kristin: As the director I keep an eye on tone, pacing, shape, and how a brilliant seed of an idea translates into something that reads clearly for the audience. We’re still building the show, so there isn’t too much to give away just yet, but I think we’ve made some interesting choices already in terms of how we’re going to further explore our lo-fi, ridiculous, and inventive aesthetic. We’ve always wanted to go full-bore with foley, even more so than we did on HOTYB, so that is something I’m excited to be exploring this time around.

MATT ZAMBRANO

Matt: I was tasked with making a sort of living draft of the script, and after we watched the film for inspiration, I went away and wrote what I thought would be a concise, comedic re-telling. I was worried that it was too long (get ready to kill those puppies), but wanted to keep everything in as it all seemed necessary. I was overjoyed when we did a read through and found not only was it not too long, it needed some scenes added!

Allyson: As the producer, I’m generally in charge of overseeing the administrative and organizational details – everything from helping to keep the budget streamlined, to running the comp list, to designing the program, to sending the press release, etc. Also, I give creative input towards the end of the process as an outside pair of eyes.

Blair: I’m tasked with mustering my best Cate Blanchett voice.

How did you settle on LOTR? Did you throw around other ideas?  And in a perfect world could we expect to see those shows brought to life too?

Kyle: We have several things in our minds. This one was the most ready to go. It also feels like a good follow-up to HOTYB. Building on what we learned last time, but it’s a totally different jam. Very different movie. Much more music and epic looks. HOTYB was like, “we’re some characters…OH NO, RUN FROM THE DINOSAURS!!”

Nick: I’ve seen these movies like a million times so it helps to have a “shot for shot” memory of it in my head! That does a lot of the work of knowing what the most necessary and ‘iconic’ parts are, the things the audience will go “ah man I can’t wait to see how they do this or that sequence”. Kristin and I devised a live trailer for Game of Thrones a few years ago for a monthly 5-minute play festival called Shotz! We really loved the style we came up with for that piece and thought it could really work well for this fantasy trilogy. So it’s been at the top of my list for a while, as it is the movie I could see the clearest how we’d execute it.

Other movies: The Matrix looms pretty large for me, as I love the physical challenges it poses. I’m also really really interested to devise more trailers. We loved that even-shorter format.

Kristin: It’s been towards the top of our list for a year now, but we’ve heavily considered other iconic movies… Independence Day, Home Alone, and The Matrix, to name a few. I can’t tell you how many conversations with friends after a show have devolved into “which movie should Recent Cutbacks take on next?” We try to choose material that is fun, challenging, and that we have some sort of connection to or nostalgia for. It wouldn’t really work, I don’t think, to take on a movie that we weren’t at least a little obsessed with (or wished we had been in). I’m super-excited for FYF because the movie literally changed my life when I first saw it in theaters. My friends and I all assigned ourselves different characters in the movie and used those names as nicknames for years… We still do!

ALLYSON MORGAN

Matt: Before the gang approached me about FYF I suggested they should do Forrest Gump. Don’t know if that will every happen….

Allyson: I know other members of our team have shared additional titles we considered, that will hopefully be a part of our future canon! Kristin and Nick seemed particularly excited about this concept, so we moved forward with it.

Blair: I think it’s mostly Nick’s fault.

If Peter Jackson came to see this – what part of your show do you think he’d get the biggest kick out of?

Kyle: Single. Tear.

Nick: I think he would appreciate the reverence for for the source material with which we created the show. Like HOTYB, FYF will be part-parody, part-love letter to this wonderful movie that had such an impact on our visual and imaginative development.

Kristin: He’d probably get a kick out of watching a group of adults pay tribute to his film by running around onstage doing impressions with a bunch of household items. I think he’s got more than a bit of nerd in him, and taking on a project like this feels like the ultimate fantasy nerd endeavor.

Matt: I think he would love what we’re doing with the prologue!

Allyson: I think just the fact that we’re attempting to do something in this way should be exciting to any director/creator who values innovation!

Blair: I think he would be the most tickled in the first few moments of the show! The opening sequence is lovely.

Finally – Fly, You Fools! Great line from the movie. And a much debated issue among fans of the book and the movie (“Why didn’t Frodo just fly to Mount Doom???”) So it’s a great title for the show. What’s the story behind how you came to settle on it?

BLAIR BUSBEE

Kyle: When Nick came to my Twenty-Elevensies Birthday party he found a ring I had dropped right by the pizza oven behind the PIT bar, and though it should have burnt him it was cool to the touch. As Kristin stroked her beard nearby, he noticed the inscription that appeared only to him and it read: “Fly, You Fools!“ (Nick picked it) :p

Nick: I pushed hard for this title. First of all, we loved having the word “fools” in the title, similarly to having the word “butts” in our first title. It lets you know what kind of show to expect. Secondly, Hold On To Your Butts sounded like a tongue in cheek way to say “get ready for this silly ride”. “Fly, You Fools!” sounds like a command to do the impossible, which is in a lot of ways what we are attempting – to take (metaphorical) flight with nothing but a few props, foley, and a lot of earnest, foolish, physical play.

Kristin: The “why didn’t they take the eagles” debate is not forgotten in our show ;) We felt like the line captured the goofy, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants energy of our productions. It also is iconic enough to let people know exactly what we’re doing.

Matt: Don’t get me started on the conspiracy theories. I think it works great as a title, because it’s instantly recognizable to anyone who is familiar with the story, and it’s short and sweet. It’s also a command of action, much like “Hold On To Your Butts”, so it sounds exciting. “They Have a Cave Troll” was my 2nd favorite title choice …

~~~
Okay, so without even seeing this show I can pretty much guarantee that this will be an amazing ride … and any fan of the original LOTR will definitely want to go see this.  So, what are you waiting for?  Scroll down!  Get your tickets! 

~~~

FLY, YOU FOOLS

THE PEOPLES IMPROV THEATER
123 E 24TH ST
NEW YORK, NY 10010

Tickets: $20

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE  

Recent Cutbacks is a theatrical playground co-founded by Nick Abeel. Kelsey Didion, Kristin McCarthy Parker, Allyson Morgan, and Kyle Schaefer inspired by irreverence, pop culture, and high theatricality. For more information check out www.recentcutbacks.com

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Brooklyn Gypsies is proud to present the first annual One Catches Light Festival, celebrating the new work of extraordinary NYC-based solo performers. For three nights — starting tonight — three solo artists in the Brooklyn Gypsies family will share a bill: Colie McClellan with Arethusa Speaks, Bay Bryan with Growing Into My Beard and Nick E Finn with Last Hipster in Brooklyn.

I got a chance to chat with Artem Yatsunov who is the Director and Producer of Growing Into My Beard. He’s also the General Manager of the Brooklyn Gypsies, so it’s great to be able to talk with him about this festival!

I first saw Artem’s work at UNDER St. Marks when he directed The Virology back in 2012. I was immediately drawn to his directing style and impressed with his talents. A few years later in 2014 I reviewed Basic Help which wowed me again. Artem is a Ukrainian-born, Brooklyn-based theatre director and storyteller who has been directing non-stop since graduating from Montclair State University in 2008. For Growing Into My Beard he’s collaborating with writer, performer and composer Bay Bryan. Bay is a Colorado-born, Scotland-trained, and Manhattan-based storyteller and singer-songwriter. Currently Bay is splitting his time between touring, Growing into My Beard, and recording his debut album, “Varied Shapes and Sharp Angles.”

Growing Into My Beard is the coming out and coming of age story of a ginger kid from Colorado, growing into his own and falling in love – real love – for the first time. A hilarious and partially improvised evening, the show is told through stories, live music, and Beyoncé dance. Throughout the evening Bay addresses his long distance, long-time committed relationship. He isn’t married, yet but in light of the new Marriage Equality Bill, marriage is now some actual, real shit that Bay will possibly have to consider. Growing Into My Beard is a timely celebration of all things queer.

Sounds great!  Let’s get this interview going!!

Hi Artem! Tonight the  One Catches Light Festival will be kicking off for 3 days in Brooklyn. What’s this festival all about?
Artem: Hi Karen! One Catches Light Festival is a celebration of NYC solo works! This is the first annual festival for the Brooklyn Gypsies who are about to start touring around the country. So this is a very home-based homage to the voices of NY and to the local artists who inspire the company. The three featured solo-works showcase a wide variety of topics: gentrification and hipsters, domestic violence against women, and then of course we have our coming-out story celebrating all things queer. (With explicit ginger content! Leave Nana at home!)

Growing Into My Beard  is “written, performed and lived by my dear pal and collaborator Bay Bryan”. Tell me about the experience of actually directing someone performing a recreation of their own life.
Artem: Ha! It’s very very amusing, and Bay and I have been working on this since last April – from inception, through the writing, and now through five different productions of this show. So we have a very deep commitment to the story. But it never fails to be really funny, and weird, for me to have to say things like, “Oh, that thing that really happened to you, that moment in your life you just described – yeah, that’s not really all that interesting. Let’s skip it!” Bay is a trooper, bless him.

Growing Into MyBeard has been making the rounds – Queerly Fest at Horse Trade, Minnesota Fringe, FringeArts in Philly. Are you getting different reactions in different cities?
Artem: It’s been awesome to bring Growing Into My Beard to so many different crowds. In NYC there is always a lot of friends and fans in the audience who instantly get the inside jokes and the snarky asides. So we were curious how people would react on tour, we wanted to know if it could earn that sense of kinship with strangers. It’s been a humbling response! In Minneapolis people just wanted to keep talking and talking about the show after, and they wept and got really into the performance! Philly was just like a party, every day. I cannot say enough great things about the LGBTQ scene is in Philadelphia – TABU Bar and Philly AIDS Thrift Store were our fave venues to play! It felt like in Philly people really wanted to witness queer stories and to share them.

Has the show changed much as it travels along? Or has the script been pretty much set since day one?
Artem: Yes – a ton. I feel like it changes a little every night. However, in Philly we had this like audience story-telling concept in the show where Bay would turn to the spectators at certain points to ask about their stories of love and coming out. And those were true “WOAH” moments! Because people wanted to share. I think that the coming-out narratives are so incredible and are such a unique part of queer identity and culture. I can’t think of a better way to put it than I feel privileged to be doing this show and to be witness to how it sparks a dialogue about queer acceptance.

You’ve directed some great ensemble work, you’re very good at rhythm and pacing. What’s the difference between directing a cast vs. directing a solo-show?
Artem: A solo show really is always an act of ultimate exposure – the entire time the audience is asking themselves the question, “Do I like being in the same room with this person for an hour?” That’s a strange pressure for a performer. It forces an artist to reconsider what kind of a story teller they are at the core. It’s like in clowning they teach you to discover your essence – are you a sarcastic clown that splats pies in people’s faces, or are you the sad clown who gets pie-faced? Solo shows are like that, too: there’s no hiding your authentic self. With this show, I felt that sense of exposure immediately because this is Bay’s real life and we’re creating a fantasy around real events of his life. This play is equal parts a vibrant live experience and an intimate search for closure.

Where do you hope to take this show next? Do you see it going on and on?
Artem: I’ve got some plans to take it to a cabaret space, but I’m not sure where, yet. We’re thinking of taking it to Bay’s home town of Golden, Colorado at some point. I’d love to do it in the back room of a bar: some joint with a whiskey stained creaky old piano that Bay could play, and then do a pirouette on top of.

There are solo shows aplenty in this community. What makes the solo shows of the One Catches Light Festival different, special, worth seeing?
Artem: Each show in the line-up is spectacular and totally different. Brooklyn Gypsies have curated this festival specifically to speak to some of this community’ issues: gentrification is terrible real and present and happening right now all over Brooklyn; domestic violence and sexual attacks on women are right now on the forefront of every American individual; and queer acceptance and the Marriage Equality bill are perhaps the most revolutionary American cultural milestones of this century – and gosh darn in, I think we ought to celebrate it!

Bonus question! Tell me something unrelated to this show. The mic is yours!
Artem: Do this at a party, or – wherever: pretend you’re chewing gum, make eye contact with a total stranger across the room, and without taking your eyes off that person, just start twerking. HARD. See where that takes your night. If you need a crash-course on how to execute that maneuver correctly come see Growing Into My Beard at Brooklyn Gypsies’ One Catches Light Festival! Let the ginger-swan Bay Bryan school ya!

Ahh, Artem, as always – such a joy to be able to chat with you.  The festival sounds amazing and I know you’ll have butts in all the seats!

For the rest of you – get yourself down to the One Catches Light Festival — starting TONIGHT FOLKS!!!

~~~

~~~

Artem Yatsunov is currently working on a solo show about Americanized immigrants dealing with conflicts in their native lands. If you’re interested in collaborating, Artem is always looking for new artists, actors and playwrights to work with – contact Artem at artem.yatsunov@gmail.com

Bay Bryan is very excited to share Growing into My Beard with you, after having toured it at the Queerly, Minnesota Fringe, and Philly Fringe Festivals! For more info check out Bay’s website www.baybryan.com

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Full Frontal … does the phrase alone make you curious?  Are you wondering what could possibly be going on here? Two simple words which can conjure up so many things. Does “full frontal” always need to be about nudity? In the case of Eddie Antar’s new work FULL FRONTAL – A Naked Exploration of Sex and Sexuality the answer is quite possibly no.  In this group of five short plays “that lay bare our most primal desire” Antar is more interested in exposing people’s feelings, motivations, and inner intuitions about sex and sexuality.  Settle in with this concept for a minute and it doesn’t take long to understand that sometimes it’s easier to bare your body than it is to bare your emotions.

“It’s a vertical journey through the stages of maturity,” says Antar. “It starts with two late teen fumbling through the awkwardness of “First Time” and ends with a middle aged Jewish woman musing about why she was transfixed by the site a young Latino on the subway platform.

“But it also moves horizontally: Two young office workers who kiss on impulse but refuse to be labeled, a young man who can’t sustain a marriage working overtime to cover up the real object of his desire and a sexually free bodhisattva rambling explicitly in the car back seat while a middle aged couple whose sex life has grinded to a halt sit in the front.”

I had to know more!

So, Eddie Antar – you’ve got five short plays all about sex seen through some very different eyes. Were all of these conceived of as short plays as we’ll see them at The Workshop or were some of these originally intended to be longer shows?

EA: No. All were conceived as short plays. When I get an idea I almost immediately decide whether it will be a short play or a full length.

The five scenes take us from a fumbling first time couple all the way though to an older woman who experiences sex in a new way after she’s long past menopause. In between there are a few different scenarios that deal with the fluidity of sexuality. How personal are these stories? Or are they simply universal?

EA:  Wow. I guess you’re asking me to go Full Frontal. Well, both. My own first few sexual encounters were filled with awkward scenes that included ”missing the target”, “what does this do?” and even failure to launch. I was the last of my friends to be “made” and all of them talked like sexpert Valentinos who hit it out of the park first at bat. It took years (and some therapy) to understand that they were probably stretching the truth, to say the least. As for the other stories, I think they do send universal messages in a sense because they deal with the dilemmas we encounter in the sexual arena… same sex attraction from (or to) a buddy, the friend who has no verbal filter, fear of being outed (outing having many variations) and so on.

Two of the plays deal with same-sex attraction – one male, one female. Each gender reacts quite differently to the realization that their sexuality may be more elastic than they would have others believe. Talk a little about highlighting each side of that spectrum – and do you think your plays would have worked if the genders were reversed?

EA: I think they would be very different plays if I reversed the genders of those two plays. Two dudes has a quality, a bro energy that, according to the accepted boundaries, never cross into romantic attraction. As a writer, I get aroused by those possibilities. (Yes, word chosen intentionally.)

I believe that the women deal with that fluidity easier. Same sex experimentation is more common. So I just took it beyond something fleeting to the possibility of choosing it as a life style.

With the girls’ story, I also wanted to deal with “Impulse Attraction”, straights that suddenly find themselves turned on by a same- gendered person. They’re not gay, but they’re not sure what to call it. So they refuse to label it.

As you assembled your team of actors was there any trepidation on their part to embrace their roles? Any moments of hesitation or confusion?

EA: Yes! Totally. First, trepidation on my part, especially in the first story. And especially in a very intimate space like the Jewel Box. In fact the actress we wound up casting asked “How are you going to stage this?!?” And waited for my reply before she would audition. B.T.dubs, no worries from the guys. Typical, right? Yet, I’ve seen guys freeze up with the material as well when asked to bare that much soul. (Yes, word bare chosen intentionally.)

Leslie, my director and I had many conversation about how to keep the actors safe and feeling respected, BUT also adhering to the truth of the moment. We didn’t want to pan away. Especially emotionally.

Out of the five plays, what do you like best about each one?

EA: For the kids in the car, I like how it shows a side of that act we hardly see, mixed with the expectations we tend to have.

With the two woman on the roof, the courage it takes to refuse to be labeled.

With the free spirit in the back seat, the unforeseen balm that can occur from an innocent, unplanned, unwelcomed event.

With the two guys on the train, the private moment in a public space. And, the mystery of a stranger who can read truth into a situation that those involved can’t see.

With the middle aged woman, the mental collage effect of jumping from one trajectory to another, yet ending up at the same destination by the end.

As a reviewer I often see shows where there’s flat out gratuitous nudity. Sometimes it serves the plot, other times it’s merely a device to get bigger audiences. In your plays, however, it’s obvious that your characters are getting a lot more naked – but it’s all emotional. Tell me, if done correctly, what emotions will be out there – bare – on the stage the night of your show?

EA:  Courage, awkwardness, embarrassment, fear, bravado, and balls… to name a few.

 In a similar vein, while you were putting together a show about sexuality was there any thought about writing one of the scenes as a full-frontal nude scene? Just a “let’s get this over with” kind of tactic?

EA: I wrote the pieces separately thinking that they might show up in some one act festival (which, by the way, this is not) which usually means small venues. I just wouldn’t want to do that to an actor in that setting unless it was totally justified.

Now a days there are so many more sexualities that are being discussed – even “bi-sexual” doesn’t cover it all in a world where there are those who identify as pan-sexual, gender queer and even finer gradations such as Sapiosexual and Demisexual. Do you think as you continue to write plays will you perhaps focus on these areas as well?

EA: Yes. Not that I’m aware of all the terms you’ve listed, but I do see Full Frontal growing to include more subjects. I’m currently toying with a transgender piece.

In fact, when published, the collection will contain stories not included in the current show.

Even as your characters are exploring or questioning their sexual emotions, identities and natures, overall these five plays give a rather positive message. We know that when dealing with sexuality this is not always the case – not even if the battle is within oneself. So I’m wondering – was there a play that had a darker message that didn’t make the final cut? Or do you think it would have felt out of place among these five stories?

I have one short play that is about a major league baseball star that sexually abused a mentally challenged boy when they were teenagers. It’s a play a love but it didn’t quite fit the evening format. I have other ideas that might lead to darker places, but for now I wanted to deal with stuff general public might relate to.

If you were doing an interview on a morning talk show and could magically bring one of your characters to life from the play to come sit with you and field questions, which character would you take with you – and why?

Wow. I think I would pick Ellenore, the middle aged Jewish woman who had the courage to follow her impulses without knowing why.

–

Thanks, Eddie Antar!  We can’t wait to see this fantastic set of short plays.  For the rest of you – see below for more details.  See you at the show!

~~~

FULL FRONTAL
A Naked Exploration of Sex and Sexuality
Written by: Eddie Antar
Directed by: Leslie Kincaid Burby

April 3, 2014 – April 12, 2014

WorkShop Theater Company – Jewel Box Theater
312 W. 36th Street
4th floor
New York, NY 10018

Click HERE to purchase tickets

PARENTAL ADVISORY: FULL FRONTAL contains sexually explicit language and is not recommended for anyone under 16 years of age.

~~~

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In two weeks MTWorks will be producing the world premiere of David Stallings’ DARK WATER, directed by one of my favorite directors, Heather Cohn.  DARK WATER is about the ramifications of the Gulf oil spill, which began on April 20, 2010 and caused extensive damage to wildlife and marine habitats.  Although the accidental marine oil spill was eventually capped by mid September of that same year, detrimental ramifications continue to exist along the shoreline of Louisiana and as far as the Florida panhandle.

Stallings’ DARK WATER uses poetry, allegory, music, puppetry and movement to create this magical world as the animals of Louisiana face the ultimate threat to their lives. Diánna Martin plays Barnacle, an old sea turtle, who is fighting against man’s destruction, nature’s wrath, and her enemies of the wild to save her children trapped in the spill.  We were thrilled to be able to chat with her about DARK WATER.  Read on as she tells us about the challenges of transforming into a turtle, the ways this play takes her out of her comfort zone, and the ways in which preparing to play Barnacle affected her.

Diánna Martin, you’re currently preparing for your lead role in David Stallings’ DARK WATER, a contemporary fable about the Louisiana oil spill. Tell me a little about the play.

DM: Dark Water is a beautiful tale about a mother trying to save her children during one of the darkest times in our history on an environmental scale (and basically, in my opinion, on any scale). In the play, the oil has spilled, it’s headed toward all the marine life in the area as well as the land, and I am trying to get my children to safety. Barnacle encounters all different types of people (animals) as she tries to make her way to her kids, some of whom are not very nice. It brings together a myriad of characters that we may recognize for whom they represent but their story is unique.

We discover things about the spill as well as these characters, while showing the day in the life of what it must have been to try to live through this. Empathy is one of the greatest gifts we have been given as a species, if we care to use it, in my opinion, and it is my belief that this production engages the audience in a way that will provoke discussion and indeed empathy for creatures whose desires in life may not be so different from our own as a species.

All of the characters are animals. As an actress, how do you work to find that sweet spot which blends animal characteristics with human expression? How do you find that truth in order to bring BARNACLE to life in the purest way?

DM: Well, regarding general physicality, it’s been a group effort in finding what are some mannerisms that are human, but that seem appropriate for the particular animal, at least in way of greetings and whatnot.

However I find the majority of it is in focusing on my journey, which is very human: to save my children. Add in that I’m a loving mother who has lived a long, long time and seen a lot in this world; and keeping in mind what my creature is (a lumbering, much older turtle who can go slow on land, fast in the water, and who is also very grounded and powerful). Also bringing in location and the lovely dialogue that has been provided gives me a way to go forward.

My boyfriend teased me that I was going to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for his first time seeing me on stage, and I laughed because that is so NOT what one will see in this production. We are seeing characters who are animals in a set of given circumstances within a parameter that we as humans can understand. And as we work on characters we realize more and more their lives and live their plights and their joys. I think people will be surprised and delighted at what they see.

This play is very multi-dynamic filled with music, dance, puppetry, projections and song. Do you find this taking you out of your comfort zone? 

DM: Indeed! I am very much out of my comfort zone, but that’s a good thing…it’s the only way one grows. I am singing in the play, which is new to me. Although I have sung once before in a play, it’s not something I am used to at all. I used to do choir in college, used to do back-up vocals playing out in NYC for a singer/songwriter, and I can do a mean karaoke when among friends. It’s actually very scary for me. People don’t realize this but I’m really shy about a lot. That’s one of those things.

Even though my uber dream is to rock out in a chick rock band.

Has this role brought up any discussions – either with other cast members or with friends and family – about the oil spill that were deeper, richer, or more heartfelt than what was sparked by the original incident? 

DM: Well, I won’t go into conversations, since they sometimes ended up with me yelling at someone using language not appropriate for this interview. ;) However, I can tell you that I have learned so much from doing this play.

As you know, I am an animal person and have always considered myself a champion for the environment. However, I have to be honest that originally the reality of all the marine and avian life that were affected by this crisis for a long while was more of a concept or idea. A concept that I saw but didn’t feel as deeply

I mean, do folks know that they set the oil on the water on fire to try to burn it up to “get rid of it” and hide their tracks? Think about that for a minute…any animals caught up in the water that might have actually survived suddenly just set on fire. If we put ourselves in their shoes…well, that must have been even more terrifying.

When doing research for the play, I started looking up the different animals with whom Barnacle comes into contact in the show. Of course I grew up with channel 13 animal specials and have seen these creatures, but as I began to really look into them, I felt for them more and more.

Then one day I was looking up the Sheepshead fish, of course kind of blown away by the teeth on the critter. But as I searched YouTube desperately trying to find imagery of the fish in its natural habitat, all I could find was one video after another of: how to cook it, how to catch it, how to kill it; lengthy videos of a fisherman holding the poor thing out of water to show to the camera the teeth and laughing, while the animal is suffering. Drowning on air, basically.

I was aghast at the casual cruelty and inability for me to even see what this animal looks like living it’s life because all that was available were vids of people killing it. That kind of hit home. I eat fish, but I eat them, I don’t torture them.

On top of it, in this production we are all actors who are animals – but they appear as humans in this play. They have the same needs and desires as we do – to live, to eat, to love, to endure. Being able to play it on that level also really made their plight all the more real for me.

What are some moments of the play that are your favorites to perform?

DM:  Well, I would tell you, but that would give it away…

Suffice to say that for the most part it is anything having to do with either being a devoted mother…or taking to task those who get in my way.

There’s an extraordinary team being brought together for this production. It’s clear that a lot of thought is going into the set design, the costumes, etc. Share with us some of your impressions of what we’ll see, and what kind of world this team has created for DARK WATER.

DM: I am truly amazed at the level of ingenuity and talent that has lent itself to this production. Some of the artists I have worked with before, some I have not, but I am thrilled to be a part of what is happening here. We have seen renderings, and I can’t wait to see what they bring for us to work with. The fact that we are being transported under the ocean as well as on land is just amazing. It’s going to be like a playground for the actors.

My costume is going to be great, too. I’m really just so excited, I can’t wait until we can get into tech and play.

Finally, Diánna - anyone who knows you knows you’re a big animal lover. For other animal lovers who may want to know, will this play leave them broken hearted, galvanized or uplifted?

DM:  Oh, man – I hope it’s a combination of all three. That’s what the play does for me.

I hope it’s a wake-up call to those who are desensitized to what the reality of this oil spill meant and means to the thousands of creatures who died slow and painful deaths, the animals that continue to be born with defects, and to the pollutants that effected the ecosystem, the plants, ocean, and humans as well.

It is an uplifting play that will break your heart while calling you to action. ;)

–

Thanks so much for hanging out with us, Diánna, and for giving us so much to think about!  For the rest of you, don’t forget to check out DARK WATER – info below.

~~~

DARK WATER plays the following schedule through Saturday, March 29: 

Week 1:
Friday, March 14th at 8pm
Saturday, March 15th at 8pm
Sunday, March 16th at 2pm

Week 2:
OPENING NIGHT :: Monday, March 17th at 7pm
Thursday, March 20th at 8pm (followed by panel discussion)
Friday, March 21st at 8pm
Saturday, March 22nd at 8pm
Sunday, March 23rd at 2pm

Week 3:
Thursday, March 27th at 8pm
Friday, March 28th at 8pm
Saturday, March 29th at 8pm

Opening Night performance followed by short reception.

Advance tickets are $18 ($15 Students/$12 Seniors) and are available online or by calling 866-811-4111. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater ½ hour prior to performance.

Running Time: 90 min. One intermission.

The Theater at the 14th Street Y is located on 344 East 14th Street (at 1st Avenue)

By Subway: L to 1st Avenue
By Bus: M14 or M15 to 14th and 1st

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You’ve read part one.  You clamored for another round!  What could be more fun that sitting in on a conversation between me and brilliant playwright Larry Kunofsky as we discuss the road that led to his upcoming production of Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary?

Last time Larry explained how everyone has an imaginary component (in a way) … and he explained how his main character, Marci, spends a Saturday evening running from party to party in New York City looking for the man she’s dating — only to discover she possibly didn’t know him as well as she thought she did.  We also got into what lies at the heart of Larry’s writing. Good stuff!

Today we’re talking about how Larry and The Management came to partner up for Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary,  Larry references Tolstoy AND Voltaire (in the same answer!) and gives us a little taste of what your dinner conversation will be like after you see his play.  So, grab your drink, settle in, and enjoy … Larry Kunofsky, Part 2:

Let’s talk for a minute about finding the right company to produce your work. Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary is being produced by The Management. What are some of the great things about having another company produce your work as opposed to doing it through your own company, Purple Rep?

Well don’t get me wrong, I am committed to Purple Rep and have grown to love producing, even though I know that I’m not anywhere near the kind of producer that I want to become just yet. But having someone else produce my play – which is something that hasn’t happened in a while on my own home turf here in NYC – that ROCKS!

I feels so decadent! I can be Just The Playwright! I feel like a Roman Emperor! Where are the slave girls to dangle grapes over my gaping mouth?!

And if you knew The Management’s budget, you’d be laughing at me here, not with me (which you might have been doing already). This is not a decadent company. They are workers, and they have a guerrilla approach to doing more with less (in terms of budget, at least), and this is inspiring to me. When Purple Rep grows up, I want it to be just like The Management. But also different.

I have been Just The Playwright in the room at other times in my career and have felt a weird compulsion to get up and apologize for being there. But not with The Management. They were excited about me and by my work from the beginning, and their sincerity and warmth in making me feel welcome in their “home” has never wavered – just as the rigor of their talents has never seemed to diminish.

Purple Rep is still evolving (and is designed to have an ever-floating repertory of theatre artists on board), and everyone who takes part in a Purple Rep project is in our home because I opened the door and asked them to come in. With The Management, there was already a family in this home, and I’m the guest. But I love this family. I’m very familiar with Josh’s work as a playwright and with Megan Hill’s work as an actor. And to have them involved in the production of my play is deeply meaningful to me.

Working with The Management has allowed me to collaborate with director Meg Sturiano and to get to know her as an artist and human being. This has been among the very most satisfying aspects of this experience for me. Meg is an amazing director. Her process is so active, kinetic, muscular, and her approach and her spirit and her enthusiasm has been so nurturing and empowering.

But the whole family thing means more to me than the relief of not having to produce my play myself. Nicole & Josh Beerman just had a baby boy. And we looked at pictures during rehearsal the other day, and we were kvelling! Maybe I’ve been the curmudgeon-in-residence at other times in my life, but it has been so lovely to get to know this family and to be a guest in their home.

It seems that every off off Broadway production company I know of has some sort of mission statement that goes beyond “we do great plays” and fine tunes it down to: “We do plays centered on promoting XYZ” or “We produce plays that take place in a certain part of the world” or “a certain time in history” or “come from the perspective of X” As both a playwright – who looks to work with other companies – as well as someone who started his own production company, what are your thoughts about that? And did it make finding a company for Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary easier or more difficult?

Well the second part of this question is easier to answer, so I’ll start there:

The Management was actively looking for new plays by other playwrights. The first show of The Management that I saw was MilkMilk Lemonade by company member Josh Conkel (of whom I’ve already proclaimed my love), but starting last year with Crystal Skillman (if I say I love her, too, does this make me seem like I love everybody? [a little bit ... yes] Because I don’t, but when I do love somebody, and/or their work, I shout it from the rooftops, and I really do love Crystal) [Well then that's just necessary, I would say ...], and her play CUT, The Management was clearly looking beyond Josh and his work.

But I didn’t approach them, they approached me. Actually, they approached me after they approached Adam Szymkowicz.

Well, that’s quite an honor!  Like being the one Brad Pitt chose after he chose Jennifer Aniston …  That makes you Angelina.

Adam Szymkowicz is one of the finest playwrights I know, whose work is always elegant, funny, inventive, and heartbreaking. He also has a blog on which he interviews playwrights – and this blog has become an amazing resource, and a way to validate lots of lesser-known playwrights, as well as a way of informing the public about the inner workings of some better-known playwrights, too.

He also happens to be among my very favorite people in the world. I was the Best Man at his wedding, a fact that I never tire of informing people about.

I think originally, The Management asked Adam if he’d send them one of his own plays, but somehow that didn’t work out (I think the dude has, like, FIVE off-Off Broadway plays lined up, which has got to be a record!), and then I think he suggested his wife, Kristen Palmer’s play The Heart In Your Chest, which I think The Management is strongly interested in, but it might have been too daunting for this season. And so then Adam suggested that they read Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary.

I don’t think that The Management knew back then what a close friend I am to Adam, and so they figured, wow, this dude Adam’s interviewed hundreds of playwrights, and then he just throws the name Larry Kunofsky out there, so this dude Kunofsky must be the fanciest playwright in town.

I know that’s what I would think!

Which, of course, is hilarious, because I am so not fancy.

Well, a little bit.  Some times you’re a little bit fancy.  But I’m sorry … go on …

And so then, Meg Sturiano, Management company member and director-in-residence emailed me, asking for the script.

Now, I have a personal ethic about rapid response to all communications, both personal and professional. If you contact me, whoever you are, I will get back to you within a day, or I will commit Seppuku or something.

Damn, Larry.  That’s hardcore.

There must be something Calvinist hidden within my Modern Orthodox Jewish upbringing.

Oh, wait … you said “seppuku”.  I thought you said … ah … never-mind.  Keep going …

However, when Meg first wrote to me, I was in rehearsals for The Un-Marrying Project during the first season of Purple Rep. And I was trying to wear all these hats on my one head: playwright, Artistic Director, “Producer,” money-borrower, favor-caller-in-er, plumber, etc., that I actually took a couple days to get back to Meg, whom I hadn’t even met, and, really, this goes against the very core of my belief system, but Meg didn’t know that, so she must have figured, wow, this dude is so fancy that he doesn’t even want me to read his work, which is hilarious because I used to spend way too much time BEGGING for directors and producers to read my work.

So Meg wrote back in this really humble way, apologizing for asking to read my script again, but if the very notion wasn’t too offensive to me, it would be an honor for her just to hear back from me, or something like that. And then I was just too embarrassed about the whole thing to even acknowledge how I violated my own ethics in my rapid-responsibilities. So I just emailed her the play with, I think, no comment. Which probably made me seem even more aloof and remote.

I’m on the edge of my seat  … I can’t wait to hear what happens next!

But then Meg and the company read the script, and they actually liked it, and then they met me in person, and we hung out, and they realized that I wasn’t really a jerk, it just seemed that way via email. And then we started working together.

All of that is not to suggest that one should act like a jerk on purpose, because chances are, you will be successful at coming across as a jerk that way. I was just illustrating how, despite so many conflicting factors at play, it was the right place and the right time for me to collaborate with The Management.

Wow. That was just the answer to the second part. I haven’t even gotten to the first part. I may not be fancy, but I am verbose.

And, a bit hypnotic because at this point I’m not sure I remember my question.  I think it was about how every company has a fine-tuned mission statement and how does that affect you submitting your work to other companies.  But that was just a jumping off point.  Get around to it when it makes sense to.

I’m actually very bad at submitting my work to other companies, because I’ve been writing plays for a long time and it seems that the only way to get your work seen by the right people is when they come looking for you.

The problem with this philosophy is that this particular instance is the ONLY time this has ever worked out for me.

So I’ve got to get better at submitting my work to other companies. Both as an individual playwright with a bunch of unproduced plays, and as the Artistic Director of a (VERY!) small theatre company with a tiny budget (picture me walking around clothed only in a barrel held up by suspenders, because that’s my new look for next year) that is eager to co-produce with other individual artists and producing entities, my need to collaborate more with as many other theatre companies and theatre artists as possible is essential for me to remain even a blip near the radar screen.

The Off-Off Broadway scene is really, really happening right now. There are a lot of companies doing really, really fine work. I love Flux Theatre Ensemble and The Amoralists, and Nosedive, and Packawallop, and Boomerang, and Blue Coyote, and Rising Phoenix Rep, and whatever’s happening at The Brick is always exciting, to name just the companies I didn’t have to spend even one second thinking about.

When I look back at the last sentence I just wrote, I don’t really think about the “sensibility” or the “aesthetics” of these companies, I think about how I love the plays that these people produce, the playwrights, actors, directors, designers who tend to work with these companies, and basically, I like the people who work at these companies. I dig them as people. I grok them, if you will. (I use that word in a lot of my plays. Look it up. Seriously.)

I’ll do you one better:

I think that’s really what it’s about. And yet, these companies do have a very specific sensibility and aesthetic, and my own company, Purple Rep, most emphatically does, too!

But it’s important to remember that when I become interested in a theatre company (and I think this is true for most people), it’s rare that I care first and foremost about their mission statement. If I like the plays that the company produces (and they have to produce, not just develop! Because institutionalized Play Development is the NINTH CIRCLE OF HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and I like the people involved, then I’m interested. But it’s good when a company has a very clear mission. It makes them look like they know what they’re talking about.

There’s another lovely tension between the idea that everyone working consistently Off-Off Broadway is part of (in a sense) one company, and the fact that, as it appears on the surface, different companies do different things. Another way of saying this is: the Off-Off Broadway community (in which I am deeply honored and proud to participate) is often just a bunch of tiny communities. And other times, it really is one community. And that tension gives us balance; it’s a good thing that both things are true. Sometimes the tiny company- or project-based communities are like ghettos, but their separate-ness brings diversity and richness to what we do. So sometimes I’ll work in my little Purple Rep shtetl or visit the ‘hood around the corner. As an Artistic Director, I aim towards a fidelity to the ideals on which my company was founded, but as a playwright, I have a more promiscuous attitude – I want to crawl into bed with all kinds of companies. Please Note: This last bit is a metaphor. I don’t want theatre companies considering my work to think that sleeping with me is a requirement.

Noted.

Karen, do you think anyone is still reading this at this point?

Well, I am.  You are.  Presumably Adam Szymkowicz stuck around.

I mean, it was a great question, but the answer makes War And Peace look like a novella. But to paraphrase Voltaire, I didn’t have time to give you a short answer, so I only gave you a long answer.

Look at me.

It’s come to this now.

I’m the guy who goes around paraphrasing Voltaire.

Sometimes I worry about myself.

Back to your play. I’m going to give you a scenario. A group of friends go to see your play and then go out to dinner afterwards. What do you think they will find the most interesting part of the play to chew on over dinner? What will be that one point that they all either have varying opinions on, or the one part that (hopefully) gives them the most to think about?

Well I like to personally attend all the performances (or as many as possible) of my plays in production, so since I’ll be there, I think that this group will no doubt speak, to some degree, about my play, at least at first, but then they will no doubt spend the rest of their evening remarking upon how strikingly handsome I am. Sure, the guy’s talented, I can hear them saying, but damn, he’s SO GOOD LOOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can we see that picture again?

Oh wait, does this imaginary scenario take place in something similar to reality?  Well, I wasn’t specific, but let’s go with “yes”. If so, I feel that I should revise my answer.  Not necessary, but I won’t be the one to stop you.

Honestly, I think that this is the PERFECT question for this play in particular.  Thank you.

There’s no intermission in this play, so it’s technically a full-length one-act, but there are two very separate parts of the play, both with distinct energies. It starts out pretty manic and antic and frenzied and kooky and almost dreamlike and surreal, and surreal in a way that feels almost hyper-real, and then it gets MORE manic and MORE antic and MORE frenzied and MORE kooky (or kookier) and MORE dreamlike and surreal and hyper-real, but then… after all of that… it shifts gears.

As the play winds down (after it gets to a point where you think it might run off the rails), as the play begins to prepare you to usher yourselves out into the night, the play becomes quieter and slower and softer of tone and spirit and more wistful and more somber, but also still funny, but funny in a whole different way.

And this new and different energy that the play finds in itself becomes almost like a whole second act, or perhaps even a whole other play entirely.

And I think that’s what people will be talking about later that evening. That transformation. And how… transformative…. It was. I really do!

How the play was one thing, and how it reached a fever pitch of that one thing, and how it then became another thing altogether. And how those energies affected them, these imaginary friends of yours, and, one hopes, the actual audience, as well.

Maybe some people won’t dig it, that shift. But I bet some people will. And perhaps some people will greatly prefer one of these two energies to the other. But I bet some people might connect deeply to the way that the energy went one way and then went another way. Maybe this evening of theatre and its shifting energy will remind people of the day they just had. Because some days are like that. And personally, any day when I see a play that has its own distinct energy, it changes the rhythm of my whole day. I know that theatre – really great theatre – can change your life. My simple hope is that my play will just change your day. In a good way, of course. And I want to say one more time that, yes, this is what I truly expect people to be talking about after they’ve seen my play.

But all my plays are about intimacy and tenderness and the need to connect, and how DIFFICULT all these things can be, and so if all I do with my life is to help generate the conversation of strangers towards these themes, then, despite what my teachers predicted, I won’t have been a complete and total screw-up.

Bonus Question! (but mandatory). You can answer this last one any way you want – it’s free form! Leave me with some last thoughts about the play, tell me a joke, give me a recipe, create a haiku, promote your favorite cause … tell me the best purchase you ever made. Really, the sky is the LIMIT! Anything that you feel like sharing - GO!

I’ll just say one more thing:

The last time I saw you, you told me that I was your favorite playwright.

I stopped you, and said, REALLY?! (Because I had to double-check. We had both been drinking.)

And you said, yes, you, Larry Kunofsky, are my favorite playwright.

And I responded to that by saying, I bet you say that to all the playwrights! But I think that was my way of being un-ready to handle the compliment you were giving me.

So I have a follow-up question that I will both ask of you and then answer for you:

Question: Do you know what that means to me?!

Answer: Everything. It means everything to me.

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Well, the conversation doesn’t end there, but the interview does, my lovelies!  So — now that this 2 part interview has stimulated your brain and given you all sorts of breadcrumbs about Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary don’t forget to mark your calendars and buy your tickets now.  And be sure to stop back and read the review!

~~~

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• The Myths We Need -Or- How To Begin: The Play You Need To See
• The Un-Marrying Project: Passion Is Easy – Commitment Is Hard