Charles Gershman (photo credit: Tina Howe)

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

SHOOTING ABE

Production Company: Proletarian Productions

Brothers Abe and Shlomi know less about each other than they think. When Abe arrives at Shlomi’s apartment during a nude male photo shoot, his desire to reason with his brother results in a strange and unexpected outcome. Part comedy, part drama, over the course of 50 minutes SHOOTING ABE follows the wild course Abe charts in trying to rein Shlomi back into the fold.

Show Times:

• Sat 2/22 @ 2:05 pm
• Thurs 2/27 @ 8:40 pm
• Sat 3/1 @ 6:50 pm
• Tues 3/4 @ 10:15 pm
• Sun 3/9 @ 3:40 pm

Answers by Charles Gershman (Playwright)

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?

CG: This is a play about two brothers and the lives they want to lead vs. the lives they lead. In wrestling with each other, they’re really wrestling with themselves, and the tradition that informs their sense of self. Things in the play that should make you want to see it: prayers. art. tears. an engagement. shame. laughter. baseball. a rabbi. and A TON OF NUDITY.

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?

CG: I hope they’re discussing what drove Abe to behave why he did.

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

CG: It’s a combination of plot and 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?

CG: “I didn’t exhale until it ended.”

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?

CG: Yes. We’d have a realistic set, and the play might become a little longer.

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?

CG: A set that looks like a Brooklyn studio apartment!

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?

CG: Yes. We have full frontal nudity from two actors, so the audience’s reaction is totally unpredictable.

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

CG: “That’s why you won’t photograph me. I have no foreskin.”

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?

CG: I have a hard time imagining this scenario occurs, as written, in the real world. I wish it did.

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?

CG: I don’t know!

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:  I’ll take on Chicken Fried Ciccone, by J. Stephen Brantley

THROWS: Scissors!
Thanks SHOOTING ABE 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 SHOOTING ABE !

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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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