Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?

A Date for the Evening

Produced by Celestial Zenith

A Date for the Evening written and performed by Celestial Zenith, directed and choreographed by Shannon Stowe. One woman in the course of an evening takes on speed dating, struggling to connect with anyone to mend her broken past.

Show Times:

• Sat. 2/22 @ 8:25pm
• Wed. 2/26 @ 10:15pm
• Sat. 3/1 @ 2:05pm
• Mon. 3/3 @ 8:40pm
• Sun. 3/9 @ 2:05pm

Answers by Celestial Zenith
(writer/producer/actor)

1. Your tag line is out there on postcards and press releases so we know the PR version of what this play is about.  But when you talk to your family and friends, how do you explain the show to them?

CZ: It’s about a past “me”, in a sense dramatized comedically, experiencing some very heightened moments in life and dancing them out, yelling them out, just getting them out a bit. Reading all of that now put it in the context of a speed dating event, your outcome is absurd circumstances with honest and genuine emotion. Well, I think that’s pretty raw and real.

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?

CZ: The first entrance and monologue, the movement found to interpret one of the core themes of the show is rather breathtaking and that first monologue to me is insanely serious and real and yet completely and utterly hilarious.

3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?

CZ: I had to ponder this one. Theme, it’s definitely theme.

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?

CZ: Shannon, the director, said simply “This line is extremely powerful” (“my heart screamed at me when I agreed to this”) and as a writer that made me extremely proud.

5. Let’s fantasize for a moment. Let’s take the “off-off” off. Imagine this show is on Broadway. Would that change the production itself?

CZ: I adore simplicity and staying true to merely having actor and story onstage. I think we may be able to embellish a little more in some of the moments we have incorporated movement and set the stage up as if it were an actual speed dating event rather then just one table and chair. But having the solitary one woman on stage, that wouldn’t change.

6. Taking that one step further – after paying everyone what they’re worth of course, what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless thing you would spend money on if there was no constraints?

CZ: Oh jeez, after all this talk of simplicity. I would spend money on the lighting, we have a few transitional moments where we are no longer in the speed dating world and it would be wonderful to use lighting in a way to help define those moments and enhance them.

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?

CZ: There are a few moments that the words could be considered very dramatic but the delivery is either sarcastic, hilarious, or just delivered in a way you would not expect. People might get it or they might get it later who knows – it’ll be cool to hear peoples response and reactions though.

8. What’s your favorite line from the show?

CZ: “And you know what? You know what? I am such a powerful woman, SUCH a powerful woman and yet I still crumble. – like a cookie on a dry day – CRUMBLE. Because of a past? Well, let me tell you. I got nothing”

9. Is the world of this play sustainable outside a theatre? In other words … do you think people live the way the characters do? Would you want a world where they do?

CZ: Definitely sustainable. I think it’s an extreme but an extreme we have all lived in, I could see this happening right now today and I hope it does because it’s so raw and full of truth and honesty with the hilarity not being lost. It’s real life and that’s beautiful.

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?

CZ: Oh well. Alright you’re going to go there huh? My since childhood friend Hallie, because she is beautiful – supportive – amazing – and lives half way across the world on Maui, I’d be shocked to see her beautiful face smiling back at me from the audience that I would probably cry.

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH

In the THM virtual Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH which FRIGID Show do you take on? And what do you throw?

CHALLENGES:  Almost A Genius

THROWS: I go for scissors!

CHALLENGED BY:
~ East in Red who threw SCISSORS – that’s a DRAW!
~ THE CANUCK CABARET who threw ROCK – that’s a LOSS!

AWWWW!  It looks like you struck out on this DATE with your Rock Paper Scissors competitors!  A DRAW and a LOSS!  We’ll see how you do with Almost A Genius - so check back in a few days to see how that goes!

Thanks A Date for the Evening for participating in The Happiest Medium’s FRIGID New York Festival 2014 Q&A. And for playing our game! You’re officially ROCK in any and all challenges.  You may win, you may lose – who knows! This is how it works in the crazy world of the Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH!

For the rest of you don’t forget to check out A Date for the Evening !

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Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 8th 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 19-March 9. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling 212-868-4444. 

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