The Happiest Medium » Fringe Overall Excellence Award Winner

Ampersand’s Rockstar – A Chat With Lauren Hennessy

Karen Tortora-Lee — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 13:59:48 +0000

Lauren Hennessy (photo by Cathryn Lynne / WWW.CATHRYNLYNNEPHOTO.COM)

It’s no secret that Mariah MacCarthy’s beautiful Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story struck a deep chord with me; I loved so many things about it. For me it was one of the highlights of this season’s Fringe Festival. So when the wonderful Lauren Hennessy was the recipient of an award for overall excellence for her work as Romeo I was thrilled that this talented woman was being recognized for her remarkable skills as not only an actress but as an overall performer. In MacCarthy’s Ampersand Romeo is a rock singer with a devoted following … and the minute Hennessy takes the stage there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that she’s got the goods to pull it off.

The Fringe dust has settled, and I was able to chat with Lauren to find out how much of Romeo is really Lauren, how she feels about working with the talent Mariah MacCarthy … and just which role she’d love to play if anything were possible. Read on …

Lauren! First of all, congratulations on winning the FringeNYC 2011 Overall Excellence Award for Performance! I was lucky enough to see your show and I was captivated by your performance – so I know how well deserved this award is. I’d love to know a little more about your character and the journey that you, as an actor, took.

Ampersand is “A Romeo & Juliet Story” … and you embodied the character of Romeo. Tell me who this updated Romeo is to you personally.

LH: It’s funny you ask…This Romeo is essentially me if I were driven solely on emotional reaction alone. You’ve heard of id, ego and superego? Romeo is the personification of my id. From wearing her heart on her sleeve, to being carried away by romantic distractions, to murdering in a flash of anger, to feeling and living out the extremities of love, hatred, anger, rage, sex and joy. Some filters are good and I have to work every day to keep my impulses under control as not to affect other people negatively. For as we saw with Romeo, it could be detrimental to my life. So yeah, Romeo hits home with me and was not a tough suit to try on.

Lauren Hennessy and Brigitte Choura. Photo by Kacey Anisa

Romeo is a singer – and obviously so are you … Romeo is charismatic, charming and it would seem (by the way you adlibbed) so are you. You see where I’m going with this. How much of Romeo is pure Lauren and how much was already on the page?

Hahaaaaaaa I suppose I answered this question above. When I was a kid, I always wanted to be the Fonz. Mariah just helped me live my dream. I know that sounds douchey. I just loved the charisma and charm of James Dean, Marlon Brando and 50′s era cool-cats. In some way I identified with them at a very young age. Romeo reminds me of these guys very much so. Mariah has a weird way of writing me.

You’ve worked with writer Mariah MacCarthy and Purple Rep before. How important is it as an actor to create a dynamic with a playwright? What does it wind up doing for the character?

Mariah and I have found each other. Thats how I see it. She writes characters very relatable to me in terms of speaking and personality but also in terms of parallel lives. Many experiences that my characters have had, I’ve had. The characters that I’ve played in Mariah’s work always have a mental and emotional struggle with themselves. I constantly am thinking too much and putting too much pressure on myself to do what I think is the right thing. So does Romeo, Devon and Cindy (all characters I’ve played in Mariah’s plays). These characters, like me, are their own best friends and their own worst enemy.

Because I’m able to embody and portray Mariah’s characters so comfortably, we’ve developed a trust to a point where she lets me take some artistic license with the character’s choices, lines and development. This is a gift I’ve never experienced before. I can’t say I’ve even met most of the playwrights whose work I’ve done. This is a true artistic partnership and we’ve vowed to make each other famous.

Of all the roles in the world, written or unwritten, what would be your next dream role?

Damn this question is like: what’s your favorite song or book? … I’d love to play Nancy in a Broadway revival of Oliver! Probably not my dream role but it’s the first thing that popped into my head just now. Oh, I know! Whatever role gets me a TONY. Can I say Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar…? I’m thinking of other roles now. You said just one. Nevermind. Skip?? I’ll get back to you!!

You just won an award … I think you can give me two. And if there’s anyone who can play Nancy AND Stanley Kowalski, dang – Lauren … it’s you.

Bonus question – no holds barred! Feel free to tell me anything at all … More about Ampersand, tell me a joke, give me the lyrics of your favorite song, explain what you’re most passionate about, plug a project (or a friend’s project!) The Mic is yours!

Ok selfish moment…GO: I won an Icelandic Academy Award [for the movie 'Clean'] this year and an ‘Overall excellence in performance’ from NYC Fringe…I am currently seeking representation!!! LaurenHennessy.com.

C’mon! Someone represent this chick already!

Lauren … it was great to find out more about you, and I hope as your star keeps rising we can keep checking in with you. Again, congratulations on all this wonderful (and well deserved!) success. You’re a rockstar.

It’s A Sunshine Day For Stephen Garvey, Writer Of “The Bardy Bunch”

Karen Tortora-Lee — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:30:10 +0000

Earlier this week FringeNYC announced the 2011 Overall Excellence Award Winners and we at THM couldn’t have been happier to celebrate with the winners and congratulate them on their success. One standout for me was The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady which was definitely one of my favorites this year. I was lucky enough to get a moment with Stephen Garvey – writer of this fantastic show which takes one part Brady, one part Partidge, one part Shakespeare, and all parts groovy and mixes it together in a crazy plot worthy of Sherwood Schwartz on his best day. Read on to find out if Garvey is Team Brady or Team Partridge … see how creativity can spring in the most unlikeliest of places, and learn what the secret to a great mash-up really is …

Stephen Garvey!!! First of all, congratulations on winning the Ensemble Award! You’re in great company. It was clear from the first five minutes that your show was destined to win recognition, but did you see this award coming?

SG: Didn’t see it coming but so happy it came. We really lucked out with this cast. Director Jay Stern and I had to hold our auditions very late in the game, and we were nervous. Not only did we need to fill 18 roles, we needed actors who could sing, dance, be funny and manage to capture the spirit of the iconic characters they were playing. How we went 18 for 18 is nothing short of miraculous!

Mash ups are all the rage right now. There is a right way and a wrong way to do them — you obviously know the right way. What would you say your formula for success was when it came to putting together The Bardy Bunch?

I think it begins with knowing your material, and I did, thanks to NYU (Shakespeare) and a wasted childhood (The Brady Bunch and Partridge Family). With mash-ups, it’s easy to get laughs just by folding contrasting genres together, but I think the richer laughs come when you go deeper and find the surprising amount of similarities these opposing forms of storytelling share.

Okay – be honest. Of the two families, who had the kids you’d most want to hang out with and why? Brady or Partridge? And did that play a part in how you put this show’s script together?

I’ll admit it. I grew up Team Brady, but as far as hanging out with a family, I would lean Team Partridge. I loved Laurie and always wanted to ride on that awesome bus. The coolest thing about our show is that it actually felt like I was hanging out with both families while writing the script, which was a childhood fantasy come true…and yes, I realize how pitiful that sounds.

One of the great things about The Bardy Bunch is how perfectly it utilizes so many of the Shakespearean themes we all know so well. Was that an easy thing to do? Do you think that essentially all drama at this point is a bit derivative of The Bard?

It wasn’t that hard to write, because I was having so much fun with it, and as you said, the Bard offers so many plotlines to choose from. Honestly, the whole thing was a thought exercise at first. I was doing laundry one day and thinking about what a great couple Keith Partridge and Marcia Brady would make (as one does when doing laundry). It felt very Romeo and Juliet to me, and that began a game in my head of assigning different Shakespearean characters to different Bradys and Partridges. I sometimes wonder if there was something in the fabric softener I was using that day.

Speaking of Shakespeare … were there any other great plays you’d have wanted to work into the story line but found you couldn’t make fit?

The original draft of this script was about 2½ hours long and had a lot of King Lear and Twelfth Night elements. I needed to keep this thing lean and mean though. I’m saving the other great plays for my Love Boat/Fantasy Island mash-up.

Love Boat / Fantasy Island! Two more childhood obsessions! I’ll say it now: if you can bring that one to life with even a fraction of the creativity you brought to The Bardy Bunch I think you’ll have another runaway hit on your hands.

Now that you’ve won the Excellence Award, what’s next for Bardy Bunch?

We feel we have a great piece that we’re eager to share with audiences who grew up loving the Bradys, the Partridges and the Bard. We’re ready to “Keep On’ Movin’,” and are talking to venues right now!

That’s fantastic news! I would love to know that New Yorkers are getting another chance to see this show — Fringe goes by in a flash … Bardy should get a chance to stick around for a loooong time!

Bonus question – no holds barred. Feel free to tell me anything at all … More about The Bardy Bunch, tell me a joke, give me the lyrics of your favorite song, explain what your most passionate about, plug a project (or a friend’s project!) The Mic is yours!

I wish I had something really juicy for you. “No holds barred” almost mandates it. I just want to proclaim my love for the whole Fringe experience. The friendships that came out of this are legion. People bust on The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family for being corny and unrealistic, but our cast and crew embodied a very loving, nurturing spirit throughout, and none of us want to let go of it!

Steve, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. Again, congratulations on your well deserved award – to you and the entire talented cast and production team. We’re waiting anxiously to see what happens next! Check back in with us again – we’d love to do a follow up!

The Happiest Medium » Fringe Overall Excellence Award Winner

Ampersand’s Rockstar – A Chat With Lauren Hennessy

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