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)

I met Paul Hutcheson during the New York Frigid Fest a few years ago and, as most people do, immediately fell in love with him – as a person and as a performer. Just take a look at that face and you can see why! If you don’t already know Paul you have a great chance to see him perform – one night only – this weekend at the Duplex. Here’s a special 10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SHOW BEFORE YOU GO so you can plan your weekend around this and make sure you’re STUPEFIED.

Stupefied
Saturday April 23rd at 4:30 pm
The Duplex, 61 Christopher Street $10/15

Answers provided by: Writer & performer Paul Hutcheson

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Paul: This is the show where I discuss all things that ‘stupefy’ me! From gay men &  a drinking study, to teaching teenagers, to the anus and love, I am constantly ‘Stupefied’ by life!

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink. What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Paul: I hope they are discussing how their cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing.

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Paul: The theme drives the stories and life experiences that I vividly bring to life on stage.

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Paul: That their cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing!

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Paul: I want to ‘stupefy’ the audience by flying around the stage and swooping into the audience in a custom made Wonder Woman outfit.

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to as your show opens?
Paul: Getting to premiere the show in NYC! (This is a dream for a Canadian artist.)

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Paul: Scolding people for not being able to talk about oral sex and masturbation but watching shows like ‘The Bachelorette’ & ‘Breaking Bad.’

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Paul: “Stupefying, isn’t it?”

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Paul: Stretch.

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Paul: I scan and see John Cameron Mitchell. I am shocked because – how did he find out? And I hope he’s looking to manage a queer comedic performer!

~~~

Paul, my sweet, I know you’ll be stupefying that Duplex audience like crazy.  The rest of you – get your butts over to the Duplex … one of my favorite New York places to hang and have fun.  To purchase tickets CLICK HERE.

THE DUPLEX
INFORMATION: (212) 255-5438
61 CHRISTOPHER STREET @ 7TH AVE
NYC, NY 10014

Related Posts:

• Acute…Girl: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• So Amazing: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• It’s A Triple Play For Natalie Menna!
• Dandy Darkly’s Trigger Happy!: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The BYU/Berkeley Plot: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

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

Related Posts:

• Get STUPEFIED By Paul Hutcheson
• It’s A Triple Play For Natalie Menna!
• Dandy Darkly’s Trigger Happy!: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The BYU/Berkeley Plot: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Acute…Girl: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

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

Related Posts:

• Hold On To Your Butts …
• What The F* Is Going On? F*It Club’s Spring Fling!
• CSI: Mayberry – An Unauthorized Parody: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Gleeam (Fringe Festival 2011)
• The Momentum – Riding The Shimmering Dolphin Through The Gaping Hole To Your Perfect Destiny

Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …

Set Yet in Motion 

Set Yet in Motion presents ancient Greeks who must contend with the Judeo-Christian God. Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche address the intellectual and romantic tension between them. Also, there’s onstage sex!* (*Verbal, metaphorical. Some would say that’s the sexiest kind of sex.) A good time will be had by philosophers, artists, and geeks from all walks of life.

Show  Info:

• Thu Feb 18, 2016 | 10:30PM
• Sat Feb 20, 2016 | 2:10PM
• Mon Feb 22, 2016 | 10:30PM
• Sat Feb 27, 2016 | 5:30PM
• Fri Mar 04, 2016 | 8:50PM

UNDER St. Marks New York, NY $15/$18

Answers by Michael Bordwell
(Director)

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Michael: God sends the great philosophers to kill Greek gods. That says it all. Plus there’s sex, drugs and…well…

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink.  What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Michael: What happens in the woods…stays in the woods ;)

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Michael: All of the above. At first reading, I would have said the plot – but – given the amazing work the actors have done, their characters add an amazing level to drive the show with the plot.

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Michael: “This is so much fun. I haven’t done theatre in three years and I am thrilled THIS is what I am returning in.” – said by one of the performers.

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Michael: Hover chair, an elaborate, real woods set complete with hacksawed tree trunks, and Greg Nicotero to design ALL my special effects.

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself?
Michael: Probably seeing friends I haven’t seen in a while. That’s what’s great festivals like this – they’re the best homecoming parties/reunions with people you actually want to catch up with after 10+ years.

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Michael: Friedrich Nietzsche…that is all.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Michael: My favorite line, without spoiling the plot… “I bumped into Jesus and he gave me booze.”

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Michael: Ummm….take my seat. :)

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Michael: My boss…how did they find out about this…hope I keep my day job.

Well, here’s hoping your boss isn’t reading this … but trust me, I won’t tell!  Still, I bet no matter who that person is, they’d be really excited to see this show, and really impress with what you do in your “other” life.

Thanks so much for answering our questions, Michael!

The rest of you – don’t forget to check out Set Yet in Motion 

 -*-*-

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.info/  

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts

Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …

Dandy Darkly’s Trigger Happy! 

“All American Tales of Sex and Death!”

Show  Info:

• Tue Feb 16, 2016 | 7:10PM
• Sat Feb 20, 2016 | 8:50PM
• Tue Feb 23, 2016 | 5:30PM
• Fri Mar 4, 2016 | 10:30PM
• Sun Mar 6, 2016 | 1:50PM

UNDER St. Marks New York, NY $10/$15

Answers by Dandy Darkly
(poet, playwright, performer, pervert)

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Dandy: Dandy Darkly typically explains his shows to friends via crude ransom letters. Really helps to encourage attendance!

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink.  What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Dandy: I pack my storytelling performances with so much to mull over — costumes, original music, social satire. But I hope people are discussing the way I bend words around one another to spit out these perplexing paragraphs of profane (yet still incredibly pretty) poetry.

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Dandy: Dandy Darkly drives his show. The nonstop pace of the spoken words set against a beautiful, hauntingly-immersive, musical soundscape pulls the audience into another world.

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Dandy: I’m proudest of my work when audience members offer a stunned, “I had no idea that’s what you do.” Expect the absolute unexpected.

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Dandy: A pointless and luxurious prop I’d like for a show would be a massive, diamond encrusted, rocket propelled dildo that Dandy Darkly would ride side-saddle on to the stage. That would do nicely!

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself?
Dandy: Of the international festivals I’ve performed in, I really love the FRIGID Festival. For me, this festival epitomizes the soul of what it means to be an outsider fringe artist. This is a festival where truly emerging voices are given an opportunity to flourish. Not to mention 100% of ticket sales are paid back to the artist. There’s nothing else like it in the city. Frigid is truly a throw back to an era of “art for art’s sake” that’s sorely missing from the Downtown NYC scene. I’m thrilled to see such artists express themselves and proud to be keeping St. Marks weird!

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Dandy: There’s a pointed political call to action near the end of the show. It will be fun seeing how it plays out considering our presently passionately charged “Bernie versus Hillary” slap fight.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Dandy: “Disco roller skates on a towering Grace Joneses!”

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Dandy: One last lipstick touch up before I scare my adoring public!

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Dandy: I’d be shocked to recognize anyone in the audience. Little known showbiz secret: Dandy Darkly is blind as Helen Keller lost in a coal mine!

Well, Dandy Darkly – that explains your last name!  ”Through a Theatre Darkly” — hahaha!  Well, seeing as how you won’t recognize anyone in the audience, make sure you have someone tell you if anyone amazing was out there!

Thanks so much for answering our questions, Dandy Darkly!

The rest of you – don’t forget to check out Dandy Darkly’s Trigger Happy!   

 -*-*-

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.info/  

Related Posts:

• Eighth Grade: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The BYU/Berkeley Plot: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The Gospel of Sherilyn Fenn: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Acute…Girl: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Don’t Move To Toronto: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …

The Extraordinary Fall of the Four-Legged Woman

produced by Flights of Fantasy East

Step right up and witness a fantastical circus sideshow! In the dusty desert of Arizona, Myrtle Corbin, The Four-Legged Woman, meets her match. This experimental musical reveals the wonders of performing and navigates what it means to be “other.”

Show  Info:

• Thu Feb 18, 2016 | 7:10PM
• Sat Feb 20, 2016 | 6:40PM
• Mon Feb 22, 2016 | 8:50PM
• Sat Feb 27, 2016 | 1:40PM
• Wed Mar 02, 2016 | 8:50PM

Kraine Theater New York, NY $10/$12

Answers by Madeline Wall (Director)
Lily Ali-Oshatz (Book, Music, and Lyrics)

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Maddie: I have always wanted to direct a project about different kinds of bodies, and this show really hits all the bases. It’s my favorite thing.
Lily: It’s the love story of Myrtle Corbin, the one and only four-legged woman, so it’s bound to be different, weird, and extraordinary!

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink.  What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Maddie: Honestly, I hope they’re talking about the sweeter moments. It’s a very dark show, but there’s also a lot of joy and I hope that people leave remembering the beautiful parts. Also the music. I know that’s what will be with people after they’ve left.
Lily: I want people to be questioning how they view bodies, in terms of race, gender, and size. This show is all about the performance and presentation of identities. I hope that people are forced to think more deeply about how these identities intersect, both for the characters and for themselves. Oswald’s final scene with Myrtle really encapsulates this idea.

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Maddie: Character. But maybe theme. Dammit, Lily! The characters are so influenced by the actors. But if we had to do this with a whole different cast, the show would still be about love and bodies.
Lily: Definitely character. We had a very extensive casting process and I did a lot of rewrites once we found our troupe of actors.

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Maddie: One of the panelists at Musical Theatre Factory in New York when we workshopped there last October said that the work of the team was “like honey, complex and sweet.” I love that this show is a challenge because of the way it’s written as well as the subject matter. It’s about something very complicated.
Lily: People leave remembering the music which is so crazy to me because it’s an a cappella musical! For a long time I was afraid that everyone would hate that it doesn’t use any instruments besides voices, but I felt very encouraged after the Musical Theatre Factory workshop because everyone was really onboard.

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Maddie: Ugh. Well I went to school for film so even when I’m blocking for a black box theatre, I’m visualizing a three ring circus in the desert of Arizona. I think one of the key elements of the show is actually the large setting. The cast should be able to hear coyotes howling in the distance. So yes. I guess coyotes.
Lily: A real circus tent and midway!!! And a rotating stage because we have a whole onstage/offstage element to the blocking. And smell-o-vision! The audience should smell the “air heavy with carmel treats” that the ringmaster sings about.

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself (seeing other shows?  meeting other folks)?
Maddie: All of the above! I’m just so excited that I’m getting to do exactly what I want. The fact that I’m in New York making theatre is such a crazy reality. It feels like I’ve won something.
Lily: The glass of wine after we open. No! Kidding. I want to hear from everyone about how this show affects them. We are definitely using this as a learning opportunity. And I’m very excited to meet the other artists at the festival and see how they’re using their experience at Frigid.

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Maddie: OH YEAH. Let’s just say it’s the fall of the “Four-Legged” woman.
Lily: For sure. The legs. That moment can go so many ways.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Maddie: I just love all of them so much! When Myrtle and the whole cast sing about being “Born as someone special.”
Lily: “The light was dark one night in Arizona. The brittle stardust sunk down low.” Those are the first lyrics I wrote for the show and it all springs from that first moment of stillness.

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Maddie: I get really calm because it’s out of my hands at that point.
Lily: I look at the cast, smile and play the first pitch.

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Maddie: Zefferelli, because he never responded to my emails.
Lily: Oskar Eustis? Artistic Director of The Public?! Why yes, I am surprised that you and your team would like to bring Extraordinary Fall to the Public. No no, drinks tonight would be fine.

Maddie, Lily, you may not have smell-o-vision in your show but this interview made me smell the midway! I can already feel the vibe of the show – sounds like this is something that would make Franco Zeffirelli and Oskar Eustis crave the front row seat of the center ring!

Thanks for answering our questions, Maddie and Lily!

The rest of you – don’t forget to check out The Extraordinary Fall of the Four-Legged Woman.

 -*-*-

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.info/  

Related Posts:

• Lil’ Women: a rap musical: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• CHALK: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• All is Fine in Sunny Florida: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Sprucehaven B: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Thank You for Waiting: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …

CHALK

produced by Playpen Theatre

CHALK is a hilarious and unexpected one-man show guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages. Chalk invites audiences into a hand-drawn world where imagination is made real and anything can happen. Charlie Chaplin meets Harold and the Purple Crayon in this feel-good romantic romp sure to “Draw You In.”

Show  Info:

• Tue Feb 16, 2016 | 8:50PM
• Sat Feb 20, 2016 | 1:40PM
• Wed Feb 24, 2016 | 8:50PM
• Tue Mar 01, 2016 | 5:30PM
• Fri Mar 04, 2016 | 6:50PM

Kraine Theater New York, NY $5/$12/$15

Answers by Alex Curtis
(Performer & Creator)

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Alex: I always struggle with this. I tell them it’s about moving on and finding your happiness. The truth is that I made this show after a breakup of a serious relationship and a few failed less serious relationships after that. So, when I was making the show I was really drawing from my own experience in the dating scene. After that breakup, I was really, really lonely. So as I started meeting new people, I kept looking for them to solve my loneliness – and that just doesn’t work. No one wants that kind of responsibility. Eventually I realized that the only person who could solve my loneliness was me. I needed to be happy with myself first, then I could meet other people. Shel Silverstein’s The Missing Piece and the Big O has a really similar message. So, anyway, I took that journey and then translated it into a one-man silent clown play. Because it’s silent and because it’s clown, all of this isn’t in there literally. Actually, I hope that it hits different people in different ways and that everyone who comes takes something from it that makes sense to them and their lives. But this is what the show is for me.

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink.  What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Alex: The last third of the show. To give the quick and dirty version of the plot – the play starts with a clown, alone. Then he meets this woman (she’s invisible) who comes into his world, and really rocks it. He falls in love with her, but then she leaves. And then he has to deal with that. And it’s all the stuff after that I hope that really touches people. There’s a dance, some puppetry work. Things I think express the theme in a really lovely way. And then the ending. That’s been really hard to pin down in this new version of the play – so if people fell in love with the ending particularly – it would be hugely gratifying.

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Alex: I’d say plot. As much as for me the play has a strong thematic element – since I don’t have words to just say it all outright, it gets put into the story. That makes continuously moving the story forward really important and hopefully the thematic stuff comes naturally out of that.

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Alex: There have been a lot of things…
After the first performance, a good friend of mine who had been going through a hard time rushed up to me to say how much CHALK had moved her. She was so happy. That moment, and others where my goofy clown play really connects with people, has been incredible.
Another moment, I was asking friends who’d seen it if they might write testimonials about CHALK that I could use for publicity material. One friend wrote, “…if you’ve ever had your heart strings pulled by a Pixar short, you’ll fall in love with CHALK.” I love Pixar. I think they’re really smart, and I love what they do. It’s such a magical balance of play and heart. To have something I made mentioned in the same sentence as my idols – that made me really proud.

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Alex: That’s hard, since so much of the charm of clown comes from its simplicity and the room that leaves for the audiences imagination. BUT! Oh, oh, I got something…
If the invisible woman could be a hologram of Jessica Rabbit, that would be amazing. She saunters into the space… One of the big tasks of this newest draft of CHALK has been to specify this invisible person’s physical life so she stands on her own more as a character, and we can really get her place in the story. But if we could SEE that, see HER, through some kind of 3D projection, problem solved. And so cool. Things could appear as she interacts with them…which would make the world of the play even bigger… I’m spinning with ideas for what I’d do with that production… It would be really exciting.

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself?
Alex: I’m looking forward to meeting the audience. Clown isn’t a 4th wall style; in the show, I look out and connect with the audience constantly. I’ve been really fortunate to have friends coming in to watch rehearsals and I’ve been able to bounce off them in the rehearsal process. But clowns are really great at inspiring community, I think. Which is why it’s so wonderful to have programs out there like Clowns Without Borders, where clowning can bring a sense of joy and companionship to people in really difficult circumstances. I’m looking forward to sharing a theater with a bunch of strangers, and then hopefully meeting some of them at a bar and talking like we know one another.

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Alex: There’s this bit in the middle of the show where I keep trying to hang things up on my coat rack, but then everything keeps falling down. I can imagine that landing really differently depending on the audience. I’ve done this show a few times and one of my best audiences was when I performed for a kids camp. The room was two-thirds kids between six and eight, and then the other third was a mix of adults. The camp counselors were in there teens and then the camp admin people were thirties and up. That show was magic. The kids ate up all the silly parts of the play, and then the adults got the parts that were more emotional. By themselves grown ups can be sort of uptight sometimes, but kids are so free in their reactions. That’s a part of the play that’s pretty silly, so I think it will depend on how loose the audience is. (Or how young at heart!)

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Alex: The play itself doesn’t have any dialogue. But I think the curtain speech is pretty good. I like to know where the fire exits are…

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Alex: Triple check my props. If I start the show and don’t have something, there’s no going back and I’m screwed. Also, for this run my girlfriend (we’ve been together a year – she’s wonderful!) will be helping backstage. So we’ll probably have a moment for a kiss and “break legs!” before we start, which will be a great way to get the show started.

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Alex: My first thought was the ex-girlfriend I mentioned who broke my heart years ago. It wasn’t a good break up, and we don’t speak anymore. To see her in the audience would be a shock for sure.
My next thought was Harrison Ford. I love Star Wars and Indiana Jones has been a hero of mine forever. Then for him to be watching my clown show, c’mon, that’d be incredible.
I’ve also invited Bill Irwin and David Shiner, who are the famous clowns performing Old Hats at the Signature Theater right now. I love their work, and I know it’s a long shot, but I really hope they come.

Well, Alex, you never know – even a long shot is a shot!  So be it Bill Irwin and David Shiner … or even Harrison Ford … there’s a chance they’ll make it out to FRIGID to see what you’ve created with CHALK.
Thanks so much for answering our questions, Alex!

The rest of you – don’t forget to check out CHALK.

 -*-*-

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.info/  

Related Posts:

• Dandy Darkly’s Trigger Happy!: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• All is Fine in Sunny Florida: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The BYU/Berkeley Plot: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Sprucehaven B: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Thank You for Waiting: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …

All is Fine in Sunny Florida 

produced by Hub Theatricals

Florida is a crazy state. This play stages TRUE “#FloridaMan” stories and shows you why you should avoid it. Also 98% of this play is fully true….seriously and some have happened to the author.

Show  Info:

• Fri Feb 19, 2016 | 5:10PM
• Mon Feb 22, 2016 | 10:30PM
• Sat Feb 27, 2016 | 5:00PM
• Sun Feb 28, 2016 | 1:50PM
• Sat Mar 05, 2016 | 6:40PM

Kraine Theater New York, NY $18

Answers by Mark Levy
(Writer and Actor)

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Mark: I always talk about how insane Florida is, this is true stories and it’s dark, honest and funny as hell.

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink.  What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Mark: The Turkey and what is real (Honestly 98% is true).

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Mark: This is complicated. As the play is all based off of true stories plot is huge and so is Character. They are all hyper specific to Florida, ALL OF FLORIDA.

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Mark: “You must’ve really combed Twitter, reddit and Buzz feed for this information”.

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Mark: I reference my area of the stage as a porch many times in the play. I’d want a porch and a rocking chair. Also, part of the play takes place in a carnival, would really love a dunk tank because It’s a dunk tank….they are fun.

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself?
Mark: FRIGID is known for bold and I look forward to seeing these shows. And the Mayberry show sounds funny too.

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Mark: The end of the radio station scene.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Mark: “Florida gives you lemons, and you take those lemons and you make Orange juice.”

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Mark: I tell everyone I got their back. I have a background in improv, it’s good form.

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Mark: The unfrozen head of Walt Disney because he’s dead and the show has some dangerous Disney talk.

Wow, Mark, many people have mentioned being shocked to see a full person, but you’re the first to just get shocked by a head!  Of course, since we all know the Walt-Disney-Frozen-Head story, it makes sense.  THAT would make a funny #floridaman story though, right?  Florida Man Attends FRIGID Show With Head Of Walt Disney!

Thanks so much for answering our questions, Mark!

The rest of you – don’t forget to check out All is Fine in Sunny Florida.

 -*-*-

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.info/  

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Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …

The BYU/Berkeley Plot

“Brigham Young University and UC Berkeley couldn’t be more different. They’re the crispy ends of the higher education banana, and Ben Abbott went to both. But while trading Book of Mormon classes for angry protest rallies, he may have stumbled upon a shocking conspiracy linking the two! (Spoiler: It’s aliens.)”

Show  Info:

• Mon Feb 22, 2016 | 5:30PM
• Thu Feb 25, 2016 | 10:30PM
• Sat Feb 27, 2016 | 7:10PM
• Wed Mar 02, 2016 | 7:10PM
• Fri Mar 04, 2016 | 5:30PM
• Sun Mar 06, 2016 | 12:10PM

Under St. Marks New York, NY $10/$15

Answers by Ben Abbott
(writer and performer)

1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Ben: I started school at BYU, but finished at UC Berkeley. They are both just such amazingly weird places that are so different from each other but with surprising similarities. I’ve always known I wanted to write a show about that transition from one kind of crazy to another. Also there’s a thing about aliens and how the two schools are caught up in a conspiracy to fool the public and protect the world from invasion, so I guess I can only say the show is semi-autobiographical.

2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink.  What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Ben: I want them to not know what was true and what wasn’t. There are some things that will be obvious but I’d love for them to be trying to dissect when exactly it went off the rails. And laughing!

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Ben: Well, “plot” is in the title, but I think it’s at least a combination of plot and character. There are some great stories, but you wouldn’t care about the crazy things happening (both real and imagined) if you weren’t invested in the character.

4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Ben: I think “you actually had me convinced about the fake conspiracy” is the best. Also, someone said “there are parts of this that remind of stand-up,” which is a huge compliment for me because I admire good stand-up comedians to the moon.

5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Ben: Well, I think special effects to take the audience through the inter-dimensional vortex would be vital. I also think the aliens should make an appearance, flying saucer and all.

6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself?
Ben: This is my third time at FRIGID, and second as a performer. Without a doubt, the most exciting thing to me is the people. Being around so much active creative energy is hugely inspiring. I always not only get ideas for shows I want to write while I’m around them but this huge boost of excitement to make them happen.

7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Ben: Anyone who’s gone to either of these schools will have a particularly unique experience. Talking about (and maybe making a little fun of) BYU or Berkeley to people who don’t know anything about it is totally different from reminiscing about a shared experience. Either way it’ll be fun.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Ben: “It was intimate! It was passionate! We never kissed with tongue.”

9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Ben: Review the whole thing in my head as fast as I can. Getting lost in your own one-man show is a special kind of hell.

10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Ben: The ex-girlfriend I talk about in the show. I haven’t seen her in 10 years, but that would be paralyzing because I’d only be able to hear it through her ears. Also that whole section is only like, 85% factual, so I’m not sure how that would go.

You’re not the first to say that, Ben!  Seems like a lot of FRIGID folks are either hoping like heck that their exes are NOT there, or kinda hoping they are.  Maybe it should be a  theme one year, “bring back the exes”.  But for your sake, and the sake of your show, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that she doesn’t show up.

Thanks so much for answering our questions, Ben!

The rest of you – don’t forget to check out The BYU/Berkeley Plot.

 -*-*-

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4^th Street between 2^nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1^st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.info/  

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