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by The Happiest Medium on February 2, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Rabbit Island
Company: Elephant Run District
Directed by: Aimee Todoroff
Alex zigzags irregular relationships with an erratic therapist, his off-again/on-again girlfriend, and an untamed burlesque dancer. What more will it take to become a Real New Yorker? “When life sucks as bad as your mental health, go to Rabbit Island.”
Show Times:
- Thur 2/23 @ 9:00pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 8:30pm
- Mon 2/27, @ 7:30pm
- Thur 3/01 @ 6:00pm
- Sat 3/03 @ 5:30pm
Answers by Chris Harcum
(Playwright)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Chris: Oh, I bet you say that to all the Frigid Festival shows.
My friend, and brilliant costume designer, Kathryn Rohe, suggested I develop a character named Alex from my solo show Gotham Standards for a full play. He’s a Canadian in New York City and always slightly out of place, which is my default setting. I was looking at a Not For Tourists Guide and saw that Coney Island came from the Dutch “Konijn Eiland.” In English, that’s “Rabbit Island.” I also found out that Coney Island isn’t actually an island, it’s a peninsula. Something about that is fitting for the characters in this play who are freakshows on the inside and not all they seem on the outside. Plus, come on, rabbits. (You should ask me sometime how we came up with the company’s name, Elephant Run District. It’s a far more entertaining answer.)
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by The Happiest Medium on February 2, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Mac Rogers (photo by Lauren Arneson)
Judge, Yuri & Executioner
Company: Temerity Theatre Company
Directed by: DeLisa White
Zack is an 85-year-old masochist who prefers older women. His girlfriend just left him. Where can he find a kinky senior citizen now? Time to tell his darkly funny life story!
Show Times:
- Thur 2/23 @ 8:00pm
- Fri 2/24 @ 11:00pm
- Sun 2/26, @ 12:30pm
- Thur 2/01 @ 9:30pm
- Sat 2/03 @ 8:00pm
Answers by Ed Malin
(Playwright)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Ed: The title is a pun on several episodes from the main character’s life. He is 85 years old, has seen a lot, and is a very happy masochist. As such, he finds himself identifying with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
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by The Happiest Medium on January 31, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
I MARRIED A NUN! Dyan Forest
I Married A Nun!
A one-woman show that dramatically depicts D’yan’s search for love and meaning in life, finding the answers—at age 77—in the smoldering cabarets and demimonde of Paris. With humor, art and her ukulele, she reveals the truth that’s valid for all of us.
Show Times:
- Wed. 2/22 @ 9:00 PM
- Thurs. 2/23 @ 6:00 PM
- Sun. 2/26 @ 1:00 PM
- Thurs. 3/1 @ 7:30 PM
- Sat. 3/3 @ 8:30 PM
Answers by D’yan Forest
(Playwright & Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
D’yan: It’s the truth, and the reason I wrote the show.
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by The Happiest Medium on January 31, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And one big decision: Rock, Paper, or Scissors?
Nicole Pandolfo
Love In The Time Of Chlamydia
Company: Hard Sparks
Love In The Time Of Chlamydia is one woman’s search for love in a world full of absent dads, dirtbag boyfriends, and premature ejaculators. Your first time wasn’t weirder – and your best time wasn’t wilder – than writer-performer Nicole Pandolfo’s.
Show Times:
- Thur. 2/23 @ 10:30 PM
- Sat. 2/25 @ 4:00 PM
- Sun. 2/26 @ 4:00 PM
- Wed. 2/29 @ 6:00 PM
- Sun 3/4 @ 5:30 PM
Answers by Nicole Pandolfo
(Writer, Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Nicole: Well, it started out originally as monologues from the perspective of prostitutes who had seen really weird stuff go down on the job, and it was called Five Fucked Up Fetishes. Then I realized I was using a lot of back story from my own real life – God that sounds bad – and then I was like ‘ok, this is actually going to be a one person show based on my life.’ And then, because there is a vignette with venereal disease, I came up with Sex in the Time of Chlamydia. I came up with that very quickly and it was obviously inspired in its form by the title Love in the Time of Cholera. And then when I was really getting into writing the first draft I realized that even though there was a lot of sex in the piece it was really about love. And it took me a minute for that to sink in. But once it did I decided to stick with Love In The Time Of Chlamydia, and it made it even closer to Marquez’s title, but it just felt right so that’s how it came to be. I think it hints at the way sex is presented in this piece specifically, which is kind of funny, and kind of weird, and it’s sexy but not in a conventional way.
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by The Happiest Medium on January 30, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And one big decision: Rock, Paper, or Scissors?
Suzen Murakoshi
BREATHE LOVE REPEAT:a near-life experience
Produced by: The Mustique Projects
A samurai super daughter struggles with her mother at the crossroads between east and west to affirm life between this world and the next.
Show Times:
- Wed. 2/22 @ 10:30pm
- Fri. 2/24 @ 7:30pm
- Mon. 2/27 @ 7:30pm
- Fri. 3/2 @ 10:30pm
- Sun. 3/4 @ 7:00pm
Answers by Suzen Murakoshi
(Playwright, Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Suzen: THANKS! It’s the mantra I was wrestling with at one of the lowest points in my life. The ‘repeat’ part is the hardest, because it’s like, “you mean, I have to do it again? And, again?”
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on January 27, 2012
These days, when taking a road trip of any kind — even if it’s just over the state line to New Jersey — it’s almost impossible to think about arriving safely at your destination without the use of a GPS. The technology is so ubiquitous it’s now even an easily downloadable app for your phone. Days of trying to stretch a huge AAA TripTik across your steering wheel as you drive and hoping it doesn’t fly out the window are over. Unless you like getting pulled over for driving erratically, GPS is the way to go.
But what if your GPS could tell you more than which road to take, which exit is best, or which alternate route to use when you (despite its best advice) still managed to miss the turn? What if your GPS started telling you the answers to everything ? Especially during a time when you don’t seem to have the answers to anything? This is the premise of Eddie Antar’s The Navigator – a show which originally was presented by The WorkShop Theater in 2010 as a Play in Process. It was so successful that it was nominated for multiple IT awards, won 2 (for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Lighting Design) and is now being remounted February 9-March 3 as a full production.
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by The Happiest Medium on January 20, 2012
1,934 Days
a play about longing and hope.
Isramerica Production
Conceived and Created: Sivan Hadari
Directed and Co-created: Charlotte Cohn
While sharing their own personal experiences and real life stories, ten actors haling from diverse cultural backgrounds (American, Asian, African, Israeli, Palestinian, Latin) explore the deep rooted connection they all have with “longing”.
Show Times:
- Wed 1/18 @ 10:00pm
- Sat 1/21 @ 10:00pm
- Sun 1/22 @ 6:00pm
Answers by Sivan Hadari – Creator/ Producer
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture?
Sivan Hadari: I am an Isramerican. Born in Brooklyn, raised in Israel and now back in New York. The actors in our cast are from Japan, Israel, France, The Philippines, USA, Kyrgyzstan, China and Singapore.
While sharing their own personal experiences and real life stories, twelve actors hailing from diverse cultural backgrounds explore the deep rooted connection they all have with “longing”. We will hear their tales of unrequited love, separation, heart-break, mourning, homosexuality, religion and faith while they draw inspiration from the story of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit who was held captive in Gaza by Hamas for 1,934 days.
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by The Happiest Medium on January 19, 2012
Alita the Show
Writer and Director: Freia Canals and Denise Kornitz
A bilingual show (Spanish/ English) for the entire family.
Princess Alita lives in a world of luxury amidst the walls of her palace. She is oblivious to all that surrounds her and knows little outside of her own environment. One day she is sent on a mission that will change her forever.
Show Times:
- Wed 1/18 @ 4:30pm
- Sat 1/21 @ 12:30pm
- Sun 1/22 @ 11:00pm
Answers by Freia Canals and Denise Kornitz: Writers, Directors, Producers and Performers
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture?
Freia Canals and Denise Kornitz:
We are from Barcelona (Spain) and Buenos Aires (Argentina), but we have lived in different places including Madrid, London, Oxford, Israel and finally New York.
Yes, we brought to our show all our experiences and a big part of who we are.
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by The Happiest Medium on January 19, 2012
The Knocking Within
ANIKAI Dance Theater
Texts from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, MacBeth, Titus Andronicus and Othello
Selected and compiled by Wendy Jehlen
Direction, concept: Wendy Jehlen
Choreographer: Wendy Jehlen with Pradhuman Nayak
ANIKAI Dance Theater premieres “The Knocking Within,” a new text-based work looking at insanity and a dysfunctional relationship through texts from three of Shakespeare’s tragedies – Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Titus Andronicus.
The scenes will not play out in a linear manner, but rather will be woven into each other, so that the effect is of the disorientation of unmitigated mental illness and a relationship out of control, or is it the nightmares of two lovers?
Show Times:
- Tues 1/17 @ 6:00pm
- Fri 1/20 @ 8:30pm
- Sun 1/22 @ 3:00pm
Answers by Wendy Jehlen
Artistic Director
ANIKAI Dance
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture?
Wendy Jehlen:
We are from India and the US, by birth. However, this work, and all ANIKAI works, draws on influences and deep study of traditions from throughout the world. The subjects are also universal – dreaming, the space between waking and sleeping, relationship, love, fear. I believe that our work speaks to that culture of people who do not identify themselves with any one place, but rather with a global community.
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by The Happiest Medium on January 17, 2012
GARBO
Writer: Joe Gulla
Director: Brian Rardin
This short comedy/drama tells the story of Joe, a gay New Yorker enjoying an extended holiday in Rome, Italy. Like any foreigner who visits the Eternal City, Joe’s daily life is filled with ever-changing sensorial delights – culture shock at its best! But, it is not until he happens upon the tiny, candle-lit GARBO BAR – hidden on a small cobblestoned street in the ancient quarter of Trastevere – that his emotional adventure TRULY begins! Funny and heartfelt, GARBO explores why life and love may be better lived outside the closet… even (or especially) in the shadow of the Vatican!
Show Times:
- Fri 1/20 @ 6pm
- Sat 1/21 @ 8pm
Answers by Joe Gulla (Playwright, Producer, Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture?
Joe Gulla: Roma! My play is set in a small, sexy bar hidden on a cobblestoned street in the ancient quarter of Trastevere… Rome! The name of the bar is GARBO. Experiencing GARBO is like being handed a First Class ticket to Rome’s Fiumicino Airport where a handsome Italian man greets you at baggage claim, tosses you on his vespa and drives you to the Eternal City’s coolest cocktail party!
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