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

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

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

Amanda Jones

When did you know you wanted to be an actress?

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

Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh

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

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

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

The Importance of Being Earnest

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

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

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

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

Cyrano

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

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

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

For more information visit www.SinkorSwimRep.org

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marielle DeLuna

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

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

~~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

When did you know you wanted to be a director?

Ignacio Garcia-Bustelo

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

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

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

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

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

Josh Hecht

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~~

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

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If you haven’t heard Eden and John’s East River String Band yet, then you are in for a treat! Based in the East Village in NYC, Eden Brower and John Heneghan have been entertaining audiences in America, Canada, and Europe for the past several years with their versions of 1920s pre-war blues, jazz, pop, and country songs, recreating and reviving a new world of “Old Time” music.

Their unique sound and authentic vibe are a fresh breath of air in contemporary music. By bringing to light this world of old music, they bring us back to a time where the love of playing is as important as technical skill, as they share a catalog of old time songs infused with feeling, emotion, and energy.

Eden Brower and John Heneghan

Since 2006, the band has released four albums: Sweet East River, Some Cold Rainy Day, Be Kind To A Man When He’s Down, and Drunken Barrel House Blues.

While Eden Brower (vocals, ukulele, guitar & kazoo) and John Heneghan (vocals, guitar, mandolin & kazoo) make up the backbone of the band, the duo has guest musicians play with them at gigs and on recordings. They’ve played with some amazing musicians including Terri Waldo, Dom Flemons, Eli Smith, R. Crumb, and Pat Conte. Artwork by R. Crumb has graced their last several LP/CD covers, and their first album features cover art by Sophie Crumb. Their CDs and LPs are sold through Red Eye Distribution and on eBay. They are recording their fifth album, Take A Look At That Baby, which they plan on finishing in the South of France this summer.

Read on as I interview Eden Brower and John Heneghan, the dynamic duo behind Eden and John’s East River String Band!

Michelle Augello-Page: What was it like to discover a new world of old music? And then further on, to not only to discover, but to recreate and revive some of these songs?

JH: I found a reissue of a Charley Patton record by the company Yazoo in a used bin at a record store. The thing that struck me about it was that all the song titles had the word “blues” in it. By the bad photo on the cover, you couldn’t tell if the guy was white or black and the dates on it were from the 20′s. It hadn’t occurred to me that blues was being recorded that long ago. It was all brand new to me. My whole life I collected records but I wasn’t like a typical collector. I tried punk, jazz, classical, everything. Funny, I wasn’t even sure if I liked the music at first. It was so weird to me. So foreign. I had never heard anything like it. But after a few minutes of listening to these old records I knew immediately that I had found what I was looking for.

EB: Covering these old songs makes us feel like we are preserving a part of history. We tried to play note for note at first. There had been a long history in America of people passing these songs down from generation to generation. They would alter them and do their own thing with them. So, while they are covers, we do our own interpretation of them and are happy with the reception we have been getting lately. Not everyone knows what they are listening to – some think we wrote the songs or ask where we heard a song from. When we explain they are songs from the 20′s, people who have never heard that kind of music are surprised and interested in learning more.

Where do you draw your inspiration? What are some of your favorite pre-war musicians? How has this music have helped shape not only how you play, but your mindset as well?

EB: For old pre-war blues some of my favorites range from Memphis Minnie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, and the Mississippi Sheiks, as well as some lesser known artists like Geeshie Wiley, Two Poor Boys, Robert Wilkins, and Hattie Hart. The list is endless really. There is simply nothing like this music in the world for me, in terms of the emotion, fun, and energy that comes with it.

JH: My favorite musicians right now tend to be of the rural tradition and genre. Charley Patton, Hayes Shepherd, Joseph and Cleoma Falcon. I also really like songsters and minstrel style musicians like Chubby Parker and Gus Cannon. My mindset right now towards music is to play these old songs that were passed down from generation to generation, and try to render them in a personal way, which was kind of the standard way that musicians played in this country up until the 1940′s and 50′s.

EB: This music sucked me in with it’s pure honesty and raw emotions. I can listen to a song John has on a scratchy old 78 and get chills from how much it moves me. Some songs have actually made me tear up and I will feel emotional and in a dream state for the rest of the day, just from being so deeply moved from something. Good music and art to me is anything that makes you deeply feel something. Even if it is sadness. Actually I prefer the sad songs myself. I like the depressing blues stuff – raw, pure emotion laid bare.

Many people are very interested in John’s 78 collection – I’m thinking that you pull a lot of your material from this collection? David Fricke observed that the band has “a natural flair that suggests loving study and a respect for the hard lives and fight for joy on the original records” What do you think it is about these sounds and original recordings that resonate with you, and continue to resonate with other people?

JH: As for my 78′s, there is something about this music that is just 100% sincere. People then were not manipulated by the media or marketing or image, and all the other things that seem to be what music is about today. Popular music today is solely determined by how much money can be made from it. Music from the period that we listen to existed for the sole purpose of entertainment and for people to tell personal stories. It really had very little to do with making money, compared to today.

We definitely pull much of the stuff we cover from my 78 collection. Other then a few reissued CD’s, everything we do comes from my collection. We were very pleased when Fricke reviewed us and chose us at a pick of the month in Rolling Stone. I think a lot of people like the music we are doing because maybe they haven’t heard this type of music before. They connect with the honesty and emotion of it – it’s genuine and not commercialized. There is just something real about it.

ERSB Eden and John with R. Crumb playing “So Sorry Dear” off the last album … recorded in their apartment live for WFMU.

Since 2006, you’ve released four albums and each one seems to be getting bigger. You’ve played with Terri Waldo, Dom Flemons, Eli Smith, Pat Conte, and R. Crumb. What was it like playing and recording with these musicians?

EB: When ERSB first started it was five musicians, then it became John and I and guest musicians sitting in from time to time. Pat Conte is an amazing player who played in the Otis Brothers and The Canebreak Rattlers – he also has art done by Crumb on one of his albums too and they are friends. Eli Smith is from the Dust Busters who performs and records with John Cohen and are doing really well. Terry has played with tons of people including Leon Redbone and Woody Allen’s jazz band. Dom is in The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who won a well deserved Grammy last year and are constantly on tour. Recording sessions are really just fun for us. John records it all live so if someone messes up we have to start over, so it’s a challenge, and when we are done we all go out and celebrate with dinner or something.

R. Crumb also did the cover art for most of your albums, besides playing on the last two. What was it like to collaborate artistically and musically with such an icon?

EB: Crumb has always loved and been very supportive of our music. When we first met Robert, it was really a great honor that he liked us because he is such an expert on old music. Crumb had been jamming with us just for fun and it sounded good and natural so it was an easy step to ask him to play on the albums … he is very modest and asked, “Are you sure you want me?” He plays left handed mandolin upside down and plays by ear. He has been playing for a long time and sounds amazing. We were like, “Uh, YES we want you to play! Are you nuts? You sound great!”

Now he’s just such a pal to us it’s just like playing with any other guy in our band. Him doing the artwork seemed a natural step. He has done the artwork for three so far starting with Some Cold Rainy Day and up to our last release Be Kind to a Man When He’s Down which is the album that he plays mandolin on. He is also going to play on the one we are recording right now which we plan to call Take A Look At That Baby.

Recording with Crumb was so much fun. We did it in France last year and had one day of practice and used the entire next day to do about 8 songs. We recorded in his drawing studio, closed the door and windows and just didn’t leave for hours, then we listened to some of Robert’s incredible collection of 78′s and talked about what we would record next time. The songs we like are just never ending and we kept coming up with more and more and saying, “DAMN! We forgot that one! We HAVE to do that one next time!”

This year we will be in Europe touring, so we will have over two months to practice with Crumb and will be able to take our time and really get some great tracks. So I expect when we go back in June the recording will be a fun, exciting project and our choices will change daily until we are all satisfied!

You play a lot of gigs and festivals, both in and out of the states. What were some of the unexpected reactions to your music outside of an American audience?

EB: In New York, We love playing at Jalopy Theater which is THE place for old timey music, and a wonderful space where they also repair and build instruments and have classes – all in the old time genre. They even have their own record label now.

Playing in Europe, like Italy or France, is so different from playing in the states! We played in Italy at blues fests a bunch of times and at the first time we did we were worried a little. The other bands booked spoke the language and were electric. You have to really not talk when we are playing as we don’t plug in. It’s very hard to hear us, even with mics, if there is a lot of talking going on. The crowd at this one festival in Italy were drunk and boisterous … Then as soon as John started picking, they went dead silent! We looked up after the song and they were applauding and going nuts.

They are just very polite and respectful in other countries towards artists and musicians. Even at airports when they see we are carrying instrument cases they flip and are so impressed we are traveling to play music. Security in Dublin wanted us to stay there and play shows one time when we got stuck there for a night! Here, if you are in a band or try to make a living playing, you are a bum. There, you are looked at with admiration and respect. I really liked that!

What are some questions or comments that you often hear from fans? Do you have any stories to share that made you realize how your music affects other people?

EB: Fans always ask about R Crumb of course … how we know him, how he came to play with us, can we pass along their etching so he can say if they are good or not … haha! We get that A LOT! But the nicest comments are when fans say we sounded “authentic” or that our cover of a particularly hard or well-loved song came out great.

We did “Last Kind Words” by Geeshie Wiley on one of our albums and that song is just so moving, it rips my heart out every time. Whenever we do it people react to it, “I have NEVER heard ANYONE do that song!” “I can’t believe you played that one!” They always say we did it justice which makes me happy. It is an intimidating song to cover – it is just such a wonderful masterpiece – in our minds and in so many others’ minds too!

Lately, we have been getting fan mail asking will we please com to their city, state, country to play. I love those too. We write back “Send along some places we can email with our press kit and we may come!” It’s so nice to be asked to play somewhere from a total stranger who emails out of nowhere saying they love our stuff.

How have you seen the reception to your music change over the past several years? How have you grown/changed as musicians? What have you learned?

EB: John’s playing is beyond great and he has grown a lot in terms of playing more loosely and gaining a better feel for the music. This music relies a lot on the feeling of the song, as well as the technical finger picking, which is very difficult on some songs we do. You have to get the hard stuff down while at the same time sounding loose and laid back.

As a singer, I have really grown to love being on stage and belting out these songs. Nothing makes me happier than playing a gig. I like when the audience is a challenge and you have to win them over. It’s really fun and challenging to pick out a song you want to do then go about interpreting it your own way while not losing the emotion and power it had to make you want to cover it in the first place.

We got asked to play the Chicago Blues Fest a few years ago. We were on the “Old Time” stage with Dom Flemons and our friend Blind Boy Paxton. Other stages had electric music while we didn’t. We had a big audience – hundreds of people came over to hear us. We decided to have fun and play round robin style. At the end we all played together and we were a huge hit.

I think each album we do gets better and better. They are all different from each other. The first one had piano. The second and third we added bones, fiddle and banjo. The new one will have our friend Ernesto Gomez on harmonica … He is a great, great player. I have moved on to trying to play guitar now, along with the uke and kazoo. We are maturing with each recording.

The reviews we’ve gotten are very flattering and many say what Rolling Stone said – that we sound “natural” and not “put on”, forcing the old time vibe out – that we just naturally have that vibe. That is truly the best compliment  – that we sound exactly like an old time string band. The fact that we are white and do a lot of old black blues and that we look weird, covered in tattoos while donning old time clothes for when we play and in everyday life, just adds to the character of our duo.

With Crumb playing with us, we get to play bigger shows than usual and the crowd we get in can be overwhelming. Robert does not like the spotlight and we try to play in mellow places where he will not be surrounded by crazed autograph hounds. I am the only person in the band who is thrilled to sign autographs!!! John is shy about that stuff but I enjoy it.

We are in the middle of recording Take A Look at that Baby, our new album, and will finish it up in France over the summer. We have shows booked in France where we will be playing with Crumb, and we also have booked some in Italy and in the surrounding countries. We will be in Europe for two and a half months starting June15th and we expect that more festivals will contact us to play as that always happens when we go to Europe. We book a show or two then someone asks us to play a festival in their village or at a cafe somewhere. It’s going to a be a fun and productive experience!

The thing that we have learned mainly over the years as we have gotten a bit more well known is just to keep making sure you have fun. And practice a lot! But always love what you are doing or what’s the point really?

~~~

For more about Eden and John’s East River String Band, check out their website and keep up with them via facebook!

More about Eden and John:

John Heneghan has an online show, Old Time Radio Show, which features music from his 78 collection. John also has a comp on Dust-to-Digital called Baby How can It B? Songs of Love, Lust and Discontent. It is a 3-cd disc set of songs from his 78 collection dealing with those topics, available on ebay and through the label Dust-to-Digital. He is currently working on a comp called Wait For Me, which will feature love themed songs from his 78 collection, and will be put out by East River Records. It will be at least a 2 disc cd set with lengthy liner notes explaining the history of each song.

***

Eden Brower has a blog (http://slumgoddess.blogspot.com/) where she writes about her life and her neighborhood (the East Village and LES). She is also an actor and enjoys doing sketch comedy. She loves writing and has had some interest from publishers about turning her blog into a book. From touring with the Grateful Dead  to squatting in the Lower East Side for almost 12 years, to hopping freight trains across country to being in an old time string band and playing music around the world, Eden has had many unique adventures and many a tale to tell!

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Today The Happiest Medium shines the spotlight Somewhere in The Dark, in this interview with Danish filmmaker Mads Jeppesen.

“Somewhere in the Dark is an insightful cinema verite documentary that encompasses the raw undiscovered talents within a plethora of individuals and their hunt for somewhere to create and express their art through the dark and underground of New York City.  This documentary depicts the essence as to why people are drawn to this capital of the world and conveys a deep, rich and compelling insight into the people that work to realise their dreams and their passions. To strive for a destiny, or find fulfillment in the dark, this piece captures the journey and the struggle it takes to find a way when you’re somewhere in the dark.” ~ Mads Jeppesen

Mads Jeppesen

In November 2010, you came from Denmark to New York City and started filming the underground arts scene. What first brought you to the U.S.?

MJ: I came to America to work for a well-known Danish film producer. I spent much time on that project, but I ended up having some free time, and then my film project really began to grow. It started just like a little film meant for the Internet. That all changed somewhat when I met Tony Kaye, who said that my idea was brilliant! (laughs)

How is the underground arts scene in NYC different from that in Denmark?

I must admit that my curiosity for the artistic underground occurred in the U.S. We have underground artists in Denmark, but not in the same way. The widely accepted artists are paid by the state to make art. Then we have all the others. I think the biggest difference between U.S. and Denmark is that, in the U.S., if a guy wanted to make playing music a way of life, but had to work on the side, he would still call himself a musician … I just saw something here that I had to shoot. It’s crazy here. It’s truly amazing.

Tell us about your artistic vision for Somewhere in The Dark.

Well, Somewhere in The Dark is actually my first serious film project. After I got curious for the arts in NYC, I decided that I simply had to document it.

The film reflects the talent going around New York’s underground and the people who try to fight their way to the limelight, for money or just a better life. The film is also a reflection of the tendencies we see in our society where people are looking to become famous just for the fact of being famous. I would like to try to portray that as people who bring art to a different level and really have something to say.

For me the film represents something very special. It shows a very special passion and that’s the reason I have fallen in love with the environment and the city. People really pursue  it here! I love it and think it’s cool. It’s very rare we see this kind of passion in Denmark. Here we all are guaranteed an education and it is more usual to focus on that and get a 9 to 4 job afterwards.

An example from the film, as it looks now, is the focus on the acclaimed film director Tony Kaye (American History X, Detachment) and Penny Pollak, who hosts Penny’s Open Mic (UNDER St. Marks Theater). Tony and Penny are interesting because they represent two different environments with very different backgrounds, but they are both artists, expressing themselves somewhere in the dark.

Tony is a great and world known film director who is financially secure. Yet, he throws himself into completely new areas, risking more than people would imagine. He’s actually very nice and a shy gentleman who just wants to be recognized and respected for his art. Conversely, we have Penny, who is a contrast to Tony. She is super outgoing girl and an artist who doesn’t have a lot of money. She hosts Penny’s Open Mic and from there, a huge network of artists expands who all know each other and are all trying to succeed with their art for various reasons.

There’s so many people out there expressing themselves through art. I would like to interview everyone who has something to say! But the film is far from finished, and I want to come back to the U.S. for a minimum 6-months to continue filming and finish the project.

Somewhere in The Dark – CPH:DOX trailer from Mads Jeppesen on Vimeo.

You have an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign to help finish the film…

The IndieGoGo campaign is running alongside this project, and it will help us to kick start it all. If we can raise just half of the $ 18,000 goal, we can have sent me to NYC to finish filming, and it won’t be that difficult for the production company to find money to finish the film. We just have to start it up. But there is a long way to go.

God, I really hope this film will be completed. It would mean so much to me and it would really be a movie for all the people in it, and all the underground artists who struggle to have their voices heard. I really like the idea to immortalize some of these artists. Many of them are so damn talented, but let’s be honest, only a part of them will succeed. I really feel a lot of these artists deserve to be remembered for who they are and what they do. Have you seen underground artist Mike Milazzo play? Damn! Go to Penny’s Open Mic, you can hear him every Tuesday! We hear the legendary stories about such people as Bob Dylan coming to NYC all the time. We hear how they started out and became big and famous. What about the thousands of thousands of people who are struggling somewhere in the dark? It’s them we want to hear about!

You filmed Somewhere in The Dark at several open mics in NYC (Caffé Vivaldi, Lucky Jacks, Penny’s Open Mic, Pete’s Candy Store, R-Bar, Sidewalk Café, etc). What was it like filming in the open mic environment?

Frankly, I have not really experienced anything uncomfortable while shooting. I’ve focused on a few places, but the original intention of documenting what an open mic is, is no longer the goal of the film. Now I have found myself a story and that is what I’m coming back for … Well, I guess I had to cross a limit to stick the camera up in the faces of people at first, but it actually ended up being perfectly normal. I’m sure many can’t remember my face, but they can probably remember me as a lens with a very bright light on top of it! (laughs)

In addition to working on Somewhere in The Dark, you have done a few music videos. (Heidi Mattsson, Mike Milazzo, Trine Jørck Petersen) What other projects are you currently working on?

Well I’ve made some music videos before, but it’s mainly something I do to develop myself. It is not a business for me and it is more about art. I certainly don’t do it for everyone. But I really don’t have the time anymore. I’m working a lot to raise the money for the film instead. I actually found a producer at production company who wants to help me finance the film, but everything is very uncertain yet, but I think it all looks really good. There’s a very long way to go but I have never felt so confident regarding film. This might actually end up being a dream coming true.

Right now I’ve got two short documentaries in I need to do before I come back to New York. They are both already financed. One will be sold to TV if all goes well and the other is about Danish rock band who have booked me as a director to make a short documentary about them as a band, accompanied with their debut CD. But this is just small project to keep me warm. My real baby is Somewhere in The Dark.

~~~

Support Mads Jeppesen and the talented underground artists in NYC who are struggling to have their voices heard somewhere in the dark!

You can donate to the making of this film through IndieGoGo. Also, check out some of Mads Jeppesen’s videos on Vimeo, view the attention the film has already received on Danish television, and be sure to “like” Somewhere in The Dark on facebook, to show support for this project, receive more information, and keep up-to-date about the developments of this exciting film as it unfolds!

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

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

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

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

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

Biggest non-theatre related influence in your art?

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

Biggest achievement as an artist?

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

Biggest failure as an artist that lead to greatness?

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

How did New York Theatre Barn get started?

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

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

Scene from The Legend of Julie Taymor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s next for Joe Barros?

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

~~~

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

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

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by James Lantz

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

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

How long have you been in Burlington, VT?

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

What’s the best thing about Vermont life?

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

How did you get into play-writing?

James Lantz

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

Who is your biggest influence as a writer?

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

Tell us a bit about The Bus?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’s after 59E59 for you?

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

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• Ever Seen A “NewBorn” Play? (Part 1)

Tessa LaNeve

Tessa LaNeve is the Literary Manager and Director of The Primary Stages and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts. She was kind enough to answer some questions in the middle of auditions for their next semester and planning DETENTION, a new performance series she will speak more of.

What is ESPA? When was it formed and with what goal?

The Primary Stages Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) developed organically from a collection of in-house playwriting classes at Primary Stages to a formalized multidisciplinary institution with fully formed departments in acting, writing, and directing. Since its 2007 inception, the school has housed over 1100 students and boasted a faculty of award-winning professional artists. The school has refined actors who have been seen on and off-Broadway, developed writers whose work has won awards and received workshops and productions, and ultimately crafted emerging artists on their road to professional success. With the naming of the school in 2010, ESPA emerged as a leading educational institution, offering an extensive array of opportunities for students to collaborate and showcase themselves on the New York stage.

Are there classes for beginners as well as professional actors?

Indeed. ESPA’s curriculum offers a unique selection of classes designed for actors at any stage in their development – from scene study classes that focus on building an emerging actor’s foundation and confidence to weekend intensives that concentrate on specialty skills like mastering green screen acting or polishing a handful of new monologues. Acting is as much a sport as an art, and so we build our program a lot like a gym – drop in for a semester or for several semesters; take one class or take 10. You tell us what you want to accomplish, and we’ll help you find the right instructor.

This month you begin a series called DETENTION, talk to us about it?

Detention is a monthly performance series allowing students to collaborate and showcase their craft in front of a supportive audience. Each month a professional theater artist on the ESPA faculty will advise the students through specific dramatic structures, themes and communally-created restrictions, challenging participants to produce and perform completely innovative works in a collaborative environment. In cooperation with Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village, Detention aims to amplify the creative stakes while preserving ESPA’s constructive arts education. ESPA’s inaugural Detention on February 4^th is led by faculty member and guest director Lisa Rothe. Writing students were asked to submit ten-minute plays that adhered to the following constraints: the inclusion of a dream, an animal, a moment when the characters break into a song or dance number, the color red, and someone named Bob. Of the 26 submissions, five plays were chosen along with five student directors. All 14 actors involved were cast from the pool of Spring students. Each month’s guest director will create new constraints for the writers. We certainly look forward to what our upcoming directors (Michelle Bossy, Carl Forsman, Daniel Talbott, Jackson Gay, and Hal Brooks) have in store!

I’m sold! What are the other benefits of studying at ESPA?

Joining the ESPA family is as much about the structured classroom environment as it is about being a key player in the larger community. On the immediate level, our students benefit from safe, intimate class settings led by working professionals. Class time is only one element in the ESPA education experience, however. Students are frequently invited to performances both on and off-Broadway. They are encouraged to collaborate with one another in weekly Jam Sessions, bi-annual Playwriting Festivals, Detention, and Honor Society – our Sunday night salon for writers to hear their work aloud. ESPA is a place where everyone is on a first name basis, and students are known, celebrated, and supported in each of their projects.

How can The Happiest Medium readers become more involved with ESPA?

ESPA’s Spring semester begins on February 13. Whether new students register for one class or five, they are considered an equal opportunity member of the ESPA family and are enthusiastically encouraged to get involved in the multitude of collaborative opportunities.

Learn more at www.primarystages.org/espa

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The National Newborn Festival has become, over the last four years, one of the premiere playwriting festivals in the country for emerging playwrights. A flagship program created and produced by MTWorks, an ever-growing, non-profit theatre company, Newborn allows playwrights to have a work never produced in New York be read in a festival setting.

Free and open to the public, this year’s festival is being sponsored by The City College of New York’s Psychology Club & Department and begins Thursday, February 3rd, and runs through Sunday, February 6th. This year we are showcasing the works of Duncan Pflaster, Rich Rubin, Marilynn Barner Anselmi, Riti Sachdeva, and Jacqueline Goldfinger.

David Stallings

The festival will kick off the first night with the reading of The ReEducation of Arizona by MTWorks’ Artistic Director and resident playwright David Stallings, and end the final evening with the Audience Favorite Award ceremony and a raffle, as well as an extra reading of the winning play. For 2011, in addition to the Audience Favorite Award which is selected by those who attend the readings, the MTWorks Board of Directors is presenting the first annual Excellence in Playwriting Award, to be announced prior to the festival.

I have directed a reading in the last two Newborn Festivals, and will be acting in this year’s, so I’m very excited about this brainchild that MTWorks has created…one that encourages playwrights, directors, and actors to come together and celebrate the artistic process. I asked the playwrights to talk a little bit about their work and their thoughts on said process.

How did you come to hear about The Newborn Festival?

Duncan Pflaster

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) I’ve been a fan of MTWorks for some time now, and when I saw they were accepting applications for the festival, I jumped to send in my script.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) Spotted the posting on the nyc playwrights website, probably around this time last year.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) The NewBorn Festival and MTWorks was one of many companies I discovered during my desperate internet searches for possible artistic avenues.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) A call in the Fund for Women Artists e-newsletter.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) My play, “Slip/Shot,” was in the Festival last year, and it was a fantastic experience. MTWorks also produced my drama, “The Oath,” in 2009.

Describe your play in one sentence.

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) A woman spurned in her affairs of the heart sets herself up as empress of an island where no love is allowed, only sex; all is orgies and sensual pleasure till her ex-lover comes in disguise to try to win her back.

Rich Rubin

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) A very raunchy comedy with an underpinning of great sadness.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) After the death of their son, two women attempt to find healing and acceptance in the home of their Southern family.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) In war, it is a fine line between madness and courage.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) Skin & Bone is a dark comedy about two little old ladies who detest aging because they can’t do the things they love anymore – like eating people.

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) The ReEducation of Arizona opens a discussion about the trickle down effect of politicians and media upon the smaller families in our country.

What makes your work, this play in particular, stand out from the rest?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) It’s a romantic comedy in the tradition of Marivaux and Shakespeare that doesn’t shy away from modern expressions of sexuality.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) I’m not sure that is does. I’m hoping that audiences will find Costa Rehab irreverent and off-kilter and at times even outrageous, but I suspect that description applies to just about everything in the festival.

Marilynn Anselmi

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) Maybe my willingness to portray raw grief as honestly as I’m capable.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) The woman-centerdness of the tone, the action, the impetus. The emotional urgency of compassion and determination.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) I think Skin & Bone is the only comedy in the Festival this year, and the only one that utilizes the more traditional elements of Southern Gothic storytelling (a la William Faulkner, Kate Chopin, etc…).

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) As I am the only writer that has read all of the plays (lucky me), I believe that each play uniquely shows the aesthetic of MTWorks!  I think with this play, the recent events in Arizona have made it more timely now than when it was written.

Whose work do you admire and find to be an inspiration to you as a writer?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) Charles Ludlam is the top (especially for this play); his combining traditional theatrical forms with comedy and sexuality has always been an inspiration.  Also love Israel Horovitz, Christopher Durang, Theresa Rebeck, Eric Overmyer, Paul Rudnick, Tony Kushner, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Tom Robbins…. and more and more…

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) The list goes on and on, and includes August Wilson, Martin McDonagh, Lee Blessing and Annie Baker. I’m also a big fan of Theresa Rebeck, Lynn Nottage, Tracy Letts and Rebecca Gilman. It might be easier to ask me to list the playwrights whose work I don’t admire.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) Douglas Wright, Marsha Norman, Margaret Edson and, certainly, Harper Lee.

Riti Sachdeva

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) So many – Audre Lorde, Nilo Cruz, Malcom X, Deepa Mehtha, Natacha Atlas, Mother Nature.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) Recently, I’ve been inspired by the work of Martin McDonagh, Enda Walsh, and Leo Butler.

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) I always go back to Shakespeare and Shaw when I am lost.

What do you hope the audience will walk away with after this reading?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) I hope they have a good time.  I hope my words touch their hearts and their erogenous zones.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) A few laughs … and at least a subliminal sense of the tragic absurdity of war.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) At least a glimpse at a real life, shared experience, and the germination of healing.

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) To think about how each one of us has an opportunity and responsibility to stand up for the “other”.

Jacquelyn Goldfinger

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) I hope they’ll walk away having laughed a lot, and it might provoke some thought about what it means to age in America’s youth culture.

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) I always hope that the piece was entertaining first.  And then my goal is to open a discussion.  It is easy to say that because we are New Yorkers, the nonsense going on in Arizona with their offensive Immigration bill and laughable paroling of minority studies in schools does not affect us.  But it does.  And these measures are persecuting Americans who are most vulnerable.  In this play, I give facts that seem ridiculous and fiction that, while comic, has a darker undertone.

What other projects do you have lined up for 2011?

(Duncan Pflaster – The Empress of Sex) I’ll be doing my experimental play Six Silences in Three Movements in March as part of Manhattan Rep’s 2011 WinterFest; most likely doing something in the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity this Summer (though not confirmed yet); and I’ve just been commissioned to write my first screenplay, so that’s a new adventure.

(Rich Rubin – Costa Rehab) Assisted Living, a pretty mainstream comedy-drama about a family dealing with Alzheimer’s disease, will have a second production (in Oregon) this spring. I recently finished a full-length about the disintegration of Arthur Miller’s marriage to Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits, and I’m currently working on another full-length about a primatologist with a complicated love-life.

(Marilynn Barner Anselmi – Raising Ricci) More mad attempts to get my work out there (wherever that is).

(Riti Sachdeva – Parts of Parts & Stitches) My MFA thesis show La Fea: A FlamenChoreoMyth, bringing together two of my great  passions: theatre and flamenco. Produced by University of New Mexico, directed by Ricky Martinez of New Theatre, Miami.

(Jacqueline Goldfinger – Skin & Bone) My dark comedy, the terrible girls, is world premiering at Azuka Theatre Company in Philadelphia and being published by Playscripts this spring. You can read more about my work online: www.jacquelinegoldfinger.com

(David Stallings – The ReEducation of Arizona) I have The Family Shakespeare here in NYC with MTWorks in April.  So I am excited for that!

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The 2011 National Newborn Festival will be held at The City College of New York, North Academic Center (NAC), 138th St at Amsterdam Avenue. The admission is free but you do need to reserve your seats as the space is limited. For a complete schedule and reservation information visit www.MTWorks.org.

Next week we’ll have a chance to talk to the directors of these readings to find out what their thoughts are on the plays that have been selected for the festival. In the meantime . . . I think the following video will also whet your appetite.

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Aaron Wigdor Levy is the writer of Monroe, Illinois: Over Here/Townie premiering this week at the  Flea Theater, produced by On The Square Productions.

Aaron Wigdor Levy

Tell us a bit about your body of work?

My work usually is pretty naturalistic. Some people have said my plays are political, but I don’t think they’re overtly political. I think most of my plays simply deal with people trying to figure out their place in the world. I know that kind of sounds general, but that’s what I’m trying to do so I don’t see why my characters should be any different.

Monroe, Illinois: Over Here/Townie are actually two separate one acts. What will the audience gain from seeing them produced together?

Rachel McPhee, Doug Roland & Cyrilla Baer | photo by Ghenet Pinderhughes

I wrote Townie and Over Here around the same time so they’re connected in that way. They both deal with loss. Over Here deals with a loss that has just taken place while Townie deals with the losses that happen over a person’s life. Over Here actually takes place in real time over fifty minutes while Townie takes place over forty years or so. I think it will be very interesting to see the brief amount of time that’s covered in Over Here compared to the life span that happens in Townie.

What is a recurring theme in your plays?

Theme is always tough. I try not to have an overt theme, but looking over my plays I really think a lot of them deal with where we find ourselves in America today. I’ve always been a bit obsessed about what the American Dream is so I find that creeping into most of my work.

When auditioning for Monroe, Illinois what qualities where you and the director looking for in your actors?

We knew all the actors going into it, so there wasn’t much of an auditioning process. Usually though, I just look for actors that understand what I’m trying to write, understand the material, and can really bring a part of themselves to it.

You are a member of the 2010 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, how has that experienced been for you? Has it already been opening doors for you as a playwright?

The Emerging Writers Group at the Public is truly an amazing experience. I can’t say enough good things about it. I really can’t. I could go on and on saying how lucky I am to be apart of it, but I fear it would get a bit obnoxious.

What is the one question you really hope experiencing Monroe, Illinois inspires?

I’m not sure what the question I’d like people to come away with after seeing Monroe, Illinois. I just really hope that people empathize with the characters. I’d like them just to observe people they may not observe otherwise.

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The Flea Theater | 41 White Street | Manhattan

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