Ever been in a dead end job and it seemed like you were going nowhere?  Everyday the same routine?  Well the title characters of the play Ye Elizabeths have been doing just that for the last several years – and they couldn’t be happier.  They work as reenactors for the Old Salem Township Living History Museum, and are very content  (at least in a superficial way) with the set routines and repetitive but amusing dialogue they have as historical figures.  They also find comfort in the predictable ways their friendship plays out.  But what happens when the perfect job (dead-end or not) goes away?  Who will they be then? 

As the lights dim and then the spot lights come up again, we are launched suddenly into the world of Ye Elizabeths with a fun musical number outlining the premise of the story.  The two heroines (both named Elizabeth) introduce themselves and their world with expert piano accompaniment by Evan Gregory.

We’re reenacting history
From the 17th century
Through our characters we live vicariously
Because we don’t have lives of our own …

They have adventures (like the time when blood from the chicken slaughterers got in their eye and didn’t go away for a month), and gossip about the newbies.  They endure the curse of Wilawamat, and drool over (or disparage) the popular “Pilgrim Plantation” (a reality show about reenactors of the Pilgrim era which we get to see snippets of via a multimedia component of the show expertly and entertainingly done by Jeremy Mather). They also have numerous competitive verbal jousting matches about who is more desperate in one way or another.  Oh and there’s running. “Running’s our favorite”.

Mockucomedramady should be a term made especially for this show.  It quite successfully walks the fine line between slapstick and broad humor, highlighting the special tension between the two Elizabeths played by  Erin Leigh Schmoyer and Alicia Barnatchez.   One such moment is captured perfectly in the song Break-up which they perform in the climactic scene of the show.  With belting power ballad performed by Alicia  interlaced with the beating drum of Erin eviscerating her with rapid staccato in between her notes, we all hold our breath waiting to see how long the spell of their banishment from each other will take to weave. This is a really fun piece showcasing the talent of all three performers – Schmoyer,  Barnatchez and Gregory.

There are at least 3 strong threads weaving through this play.  There is the musical, which in and of itself is very catchy.  Then there is the mockumentary aspect which follows the same vein as Christopher Guest films.  The final and most thoughtful thread is the actual theme: What does it mean to have “a life”?  If you are feeling trapped, maybe you are.  It’s good to be good at what you do and be comfortable, but sometimes you just need to try something else if you’re going to get anywhere.

Alicia Barnatchez and Erin Leigh Schmoyer (Photo by Mike Gregoreksm)

One of the duo is dubbed “Elizasmith” for her aptitude for historical re-enactment of copper smithing and other tinkering, and the other is called “Elizabox” since she is an oxen interpreter who stands upon  a wood box  for the tourists who come through the stations each day.  She relays what the oxen are trying to communicate (“They don’t speak English”).

Elizasmith (Schmoyer) was born into the job being a “duo” with her mom since she was a baby.  In a way, Elizasmith is the more bitter of the two, but also sharper in many ways usually winning the verbal jousting matches the Elizabeths have with each other.  However, she is definitely much less worldly.

Elizabox (Barnatchez) is passionate for her work, and just wants to be the best at it what she is doing.  She wants to stay happy and stable with her friend who seems even more lost than she is.

One humorous meta-comic joke that recurs is simply the style of acting.  Even though the characters are in love with the idea of living in the times of the Pilgrims, in many ways they would fit more in the times of Vaudeville, what with their slapstick antics. It is almost a neo-Vaudvillian style taking the best of slapstick and inserting other more modern improv techniques.  Director Leah Bonvissuto’s hand is well played as she seamlessly moves from one form of story telling or multimedia expression to another while never missing a beat.

In terms of multi-media, the film clips range in style from that of reality show to classic silent movie which illustrates the duo transitioning from the world of Old Salem Township to the more alien outside world of imaginary motel rooms.  The two co-musical directors, Sarah Gregory and Evan  Gregory incorporate a diverse score – one that includes everything from the classic show tune to a smoky jazz song sung by the piano player during a scene change to a power ballad or two.

Erin Leigh Schmoyer and Alicia Barnatchez (Photo by Mike Gregorek)

Though there were a few rough edges in the production Barnatchez and Schmoyer do a great job showcasing the fun of this show, and Evan and Sarah Gregory have written some charming and amusing songs.

The ending might have been a little too pat, but for Ye Elisabeths it actually worked.  It drove home the message that maybe we can’t expect a perfect happily-ever-after for ourselves like we see in Ye Elizabeths, but we can sure try.

If you’re feeling down, this show is just the thing to perk you up.  It’s definitely funny and energizing, and it’s a little like hiding spinach in brownies: you get something good for you in what you though was just something basic and sweet.

~~~

Ye Elizabeths
Benefiting: Girls, Inc.
Produced by Easter Punny Productions
Written & Performed by Alicia Barnatchez and Erin Leigh Schmoyer
Directed by Leah Bonvissuto

$18 General Admission
$9.00 for Film/Music Participants
FREE for Theatre Festivity Participants

Saturday 6/2/12 – 5:00pm = Performance #1
Thursday 6/7/12 – 7:00pm = Performance #2
Friday 6/15/12 – 8:30pm = Performance #3
Saturday 6/16/12 – 3:00pm = Performance #4
Tuesday 6/19/12 – 8pm = Performance #5

50 minutes

At Bleecker Street Theatre (Upstairs)
45 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012
Conveniently located near:
Bleecker St (4 & 6)
Broadway – Lafayette St (B, D, F, M)
Prince St (N, R)
click here to purchase tickets

Related Posts:

• Ye Elizabeths – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Pageant Princess – Music, Make-Up And Meltdowns (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Cake: When All Else Fails, Eat It (Planet Connections 2010)
• What The F* Is Going On? F*It Club’s Spring Fling!
• The Extraordinary Fall of the Four-Legged Woman: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

If you weren’t one of the lucky ones who was able to get to Planet Connections to experience Made For Each Other- take heart!  It’s coming around again as part of an evening of theatre entitle BALLS: the Testosterone Plays of Monica Bauer.  In order to be able to get this production off the ground some very talented, inspirational writers are gathering on Saturday, September 11th for a one-night-only fundraiser entitled “WOMEN WITH BALLS” short plays by women about men.

This news makes me very happy becuase 1)  Made for Each Other is a terrific show which I’m excited to have a chance to see again  2) this gives me an opportunity to interview playwright Monica Bauer - a talented, funny, smart woman.  Monica took some time out of her really busy schedule to tell me a little bit about the great women who will be sharing the bill with her on 9/11,  how she convincingly channeled the spirit of  war veterans, and what it means to be a woman with balls . . .

Monica! First of all – I love the title of your fundraiser Women With Balls . . . how were you able to gather all these strong-voiced female playwrights together?

Monica Bauer

I’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with several of these terrific playwrights in other places. Robin Rice Lichtig became my Internet pal as we both posted on the International Centre for Women Playwright’s site. Turns out that Robin and I both had plays in an evening titled Women for Women at the HERE Arts Center in 2004, which is where I first saw her powerful monologue Stand Strong, which we are featuring on September 11th! We didn’t know each other then, but realized this after she submitted Stand Strong to Women With Balls! It’s a very small playwriting world off-off Broadway! Robin sent a call for scripts to a list of women playwrights in New York, so Robin is responsible for some of these great women being on board.

Richey Nash as journalist Michael Apres and Jeremy Gabriel as photojournalist Jack Velazquez in the world premiere production of HEADS -- written by EM Lewis, directed by Darin Anthony, and produced at the Blank Theater in Hollywood, CA. Photo by Rick Baumgartner

EM Lewis is bringing a scene from her multiple award winning Iraq war play, Heads, which premiered in Los Angeles two years ago. I first saw Heads in 2007 at the Great Plains Theater Conference. Ellen Lewis and I had become friends on another Internet list for playwrights, called the Binge (which is not about binge eating, it’s about binge-submitting, sending plays all over the country). That’s how we realized we had both been accepted at the same Conference. So we split the cost of a hotel room, and have been referring to each other as” roomies” ever since.
One of our Honorary Co-Chairs is Kathleen Warnock, whose great work is seen all over the place, and is active in gay and lesbian theater at TOSOS II. She approached folks she knew whowere good writers. And the rest came to us from a call for scripts passed around at a meeting of “50/50 in 2020”!

The first half of  your event is devoted to plays that center around 9/11 as this will fall on the Anniversary of 9/11. I’ve seen two 9/11 plays in the past year – one was based in magical realism, one was more about conspiracy theory and politics. Where do the Women With Balls plays fall on the spectrum?

Heads is a realistic suspense story with twists and turns, about three Americans and a Brit who are waiting to die in an insurgent dungeon during the worst of the Iraqi insurgency.  Stand Strong is the story of a young elementary school teacher whose students get too close a view of the attack; it has a strong poetic streak and some magical realism. The other two 9/11 plays are mine. Two Men Walked Into a Bar has been produced in Boston and New York, and it uses a lot of black humor to tell the story of an Iraq war vet’s meeting a Vietnam war vet at 3 a.m. in a seedy Alabama bar. It’s so realistic in its portrayal of Marines, I’ve attended talk-backs where audiences were shocked to discover a woman wrote it, even though my name was right there on the playbill! The Most Important Thing was a hit at the Boston Theater Marathon in 2004, and it’s a two-hander, a character study of a man who comes to a video dating service two weeks after 9/11, desperate to find the love of his life as fast as possible.

What they all have in common is a focus on character, not politics. I find a lot of overtly political 9/11 plays don’t interest me, because I know the story, and they just preach to the choir. If I want to learn about the politics of 9/11, I read books.

As a female – and proclaimed Feminist – playwright you’re bringing home the point that women can write theatre for, and about men just as well as a man can. Because, of course, for years men have been giving us our most treasured (as well as reviled) female characters. So, turning the tables a little –  what are some themes that men write about women that you feel they get right, and what do you think they get completely wrong?

I’m not comfortable calling any playwright’s work “wrong.” I think any playwright who pays attention to human behavior will get characters of any gender “right.” There used to be controversy in the 1940’s and 50’s about gay men writing plays, at a time when gay men could not write openly about relationships between men, that perhaps plawrights such as Tennessee Williams were really writing about gay men disguised as women. Williams thought that was ridiculous, and I agree.

This is where I part company with some feminists, who feel that we need women’s voices in the theater, because only women writers can write about strong women, or women’s issues, and get it “right.” What I do find interesting, is the kinds of prejudices we bring unconsciously to our work. Often, if a man writes a character who is an executive, the default position is male, and a woman is only an executive if they want to write specifically about the issue of “women executives.” The same problem happens in terms of race.

This fundraiser is for 2 of your shows – one which I saw – and loved – Made For Each Other . . . and the other is Two Men Walked Into A Bar. Tell our readers a little about each show – and why these are the two you’ve decided to showcase in an evening together.

John Fico, star of "Made for Each Other" (Photo by Ellis Gaskell)

In Two Men Walked Into a Bar, I’ve also got a young man and an older man, in a high-stakes situation. I’ve had military men who just couldn’t figure out how I could get it so “right”, in terms of the code of honor in the Marine Corps. It helps that I served in the National Guard many years ago, and I’ve had a family friend who was (and always will be, in some way) a Marine.  We liberals don’t often get the military “right,” so it’s important to me that I give these two Marines the respect they deserve. But I also deliver an unexpected shift, and a surprise at the end.  That’s one more thing these two plays they have in common, but if I told you, it would spoil the surprise; and it’s not what you think!

You’re active in the 50-50 in 2020 movement, dedicated to increasing the production of women playwrights. I’d love to know a little more about that movement and also how people who are interested can help the cause.

Please come to the Facebook page, “Female Playwrights”, where you can click on a link to a fuller description of how this group first became organized. Here’s a link to the New York Times story last year about the disparity between productions of male and female playwrights. This study, and the controversy that followed in terms of interpreting the data, kicked this movement into high gear last year.

Okay last question – bonus question . . . the point where you can tell me anything you want. Leave us with a joke, a secret, tell a favorite story from the past, give me your favorite quote . . . fill me in on anything I might have missed. The mic is yours . . .

I was recently attending a reading at a bookstore in New Haven, Connecticut, home to Yale and the most over-educated group of bookstore-browsers on the planet. A friend of mine was reading her short fiction. We were chatting afterwards with a bunch of writers, and a man I had not met before asked me what kind of writing I did. I told him. Then he asked if I had a play that he could attend, and I told him I had a play about two Marines coming up on September 11th. He smiled and said, “Wow, a play about lady Marines! I bet that’s interesting!” ‘Nuff said!
_____
‘Nuff Said indeed!  Well, I’m grateful that Monica Bauer could give us so many tantalizing bits of what we can expect – not only from the event on September 11th “WOMEN WITH BALLS” short plays by women about men but also the actual plays which will be showcased in BALLS: the Testosterone Plays of Monica Bauer.

If you can’t attend the fundraiser but wish to contribute to helping the production play you may make a tax-deductible donation in support of Women With Balls by clicking this link to Monica Bauer’s account as a Sponsored Artist of Fractured Atlas.

Related Posts:

• BALLS! – Come See What Goes On In The Minds Of Men
• It’s A Double Header Of Our Favorites – BALLS! And KILL THE BAND!
• Made For Each Other – ‘Til Death (Or Something Like It) Do Us Part (Planet Connections 2010)
• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Open Mic Night And Post-Irene PARTY!

For you youngsters who get all your music electronically: a liner note is as foreign to you as a 45 rpm adapter so let me break it down for you – liner notes were like mini blog entries that came with an album and often were the first thing some people went for when they got their hands on a record.  Back in the day  (when you had to Buy a Record at a Store and wait to get it home) before you could listen to the music there was always a little thrill on the car (or bus or subway) ride home – coaxing that vinyl in its paper sleeve out of the album cover and reading the liner notes in anticipation of getting that baby home and slapping it on the turntable.  It was here where, like a novelette, the experience of the album, the anecdotes, (the written dvd extras, if you will) were all there in sweet little teaspoon heaping, just the right size to tantalize you and make you want to dive into the album.

But what if liner notes were the only thing you had to go on in order to truly know who your recently-deceased father was?  This is the question that Liner Notes (written by Written by John Patrick Bray directed by Erin Smiley and now playing at the Robert Moss Theatre) asks.

When the Larger-Than-Life rock legend dies he leaves behind a grieving widow, a daughter, Alice (Kathryn Elisabeth Lawson) with a knapsack full of mysteries, and little else – - except for the shadows of his old band, namely George (Michael Bertolini) who wasn’t exactly speaking him when he was alive and some how couldn’t make peace with him enough even after his death in order to come and pay his last respects.   George now spends a heck of a lot of time in his bathrobe eating Hungry Man dinners and working to intentionally forget The Good Old Days.

Alice makes the journey from home to him and arrives on her “uncle’s” doorstep tired, wired, and stubbornly unwilling to leave until she gets more than just the “liner notes” version of the man who has left this earth for good.

In their crazy time together Alice and George fill in the blanks for each other, helping to explain to each other what was true and what was just a good story, and eventually arrive at the truth together.  During their emotional journey they laugh a little, sing a little, flirt a little, and open up . . . maybe more than just a little.   Alice also convices George to do a little strumming at an open mic night which is nice, as Bertolini  holds that guitar like someone who once made his living by coaxing a melody out of it on a daily basis.

Liner Notes is a touching two-person play that relies heavily on investing in these characters in two ways – both separately as well as together.  Michael Bertolini and Kathryn Elisabeth Lawson are both terrific actors  and they allow their on-stage chemistry to evolve naturally and evenly, director Erin Smiley understands just how to unfold this story so that we believe in it.  She neither rushes nor draws out the pacing, and so it falls about you in a sincere way without jagged edges or skips in the record.

It may be a simple story, but this one  strikes all the right chords.

~~~

Related Posts:

• Planet Connections Q&A: I Don’t Want To Hurt Your Feelings / Liner Notes
• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Keeping Her Balls In The Air – Monica Bauer Tells Us How She Does It
• 11 Seconds Of Ecstasy!: 3,600 Seconds Of Agony (Planet Connections 2010)
• Planet Connections Q&A: 4 1/2 Hours: Across the Stones of Fire / Another Place

Art is hard.  If an artist wants to articulate something about boredom, he or she cannot simply write and produce a deliberately boring play.  Audience members could instead go sit in a Starbucks for an hour and save twenty bucks.  Similarly, if an artist wants to articulate something about the absurd, he or she cannot simply formulate a scatterbrained pageant of pastiche and call it existentially profound. 11 seconds of ecstasy!, created, written and directed by Roi Escudero, purports to be based in “realismo magico, transformation art, the theatre of cruelty’s awareness, and the irreverent humor of the absurd.”  But the play isn’t so much based in magical realism as it is in surrealism.  And where it further describes itself as an “eco-musical embodied in a performance art piece,” this seems to mean a collage of grotesque space aliens from a planet called Utopia, occasional attempts to retell the story of Genesis in Earth’s post-apocalyptic era, an actress in a tutu sometimes referred to as an “orgasm,” a predictable sexual reference here and there complete with thrusting into the air in case the references were unclear, and, to top it off, a mock bowel movement accompanied by the astute and subtle explication of the symbolism of this action, “I shit all over the world!”

Anyone who has ever taken a writing class has heard this bit of advice: “Show, don’t tell.”  For all the showmanship of the production, complete with masks, capes, papier-mache heads, dance numbers, show tunes, video clips, etc., there was very little of substance actually shown.  “Greed,” “money,” “war,” “oil,” “death,” and other abstractions were the go-to words in a script that was platitudinous and preachy where it attempted to be profound.  (At one point, in case we missed it, the word GREED was flatly projected in large red letters on the wall.)  The perhaps well-meaning environmental and political messages of the play were obscured by its shoddily thought-through production—often, the actor’s lines couldn’t even be heard over the music playing on the loudspeakers—and if the medium is the message, then the entire play begs the question, “Come again?”

There is a quote sometimes attributed to a letter written by Blaise Pascal, other times to one written by Mark Twain.  “I am sorry this is so long,” it says, “I didn’t have time to make it shorter.”  11 seconds of ecstasy! was about 3,589 seconds too long.

~~~

Related Posts:

• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Keeping Her Balls In The Air – Monica Bauer Tells Us How She Does It
• Liner Notes – That’s All He Wrote (Planet Connections 2010)
• Planet Connections Q&A: 4 1/2 Hours: Across the Stones of Fire / Another Place
• It’s Totally Easy Being Green: The Green Knight (Planet Connections 2010)

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is New York City’s premiere eco-friendly theatre festival, connecting artists and audiences with diverse dynamic charitable organizations. The Planet Connections experience entertains, enlightens and informs.

The Happiest Medium (proud sponsors of The Planet Connections Festival), will be running Q&A throughout the festival.

Today we ask one question each of 4 1/2 Hours: Across the Stones of Fire author Jeff Biggers and Melissa F. Moschitto, writer and director of Another Place.  These two strong plays really show what Planet Connections is all about – both plays raise some tough questions about how we live on this planet and how we interact with our resources  . . .

4 1/2 Hours: Across the Stones of Fire

answers by Jeff Biggers

Here’s Antonio’s question -

If you would have to single out a quality between dialogue, plot or character, which one is the strongest in your play/piece, and why?

As a love story set on the coalfield front lines, “4 1/2 Hours: Across the Stones of Fire” unfolds with the relentless pace of 200-year-old clashes. The two lead characters, Marie and Hovie (performed by Stephanie Pistello and Ben Evans), whose 150-year-old homestead is slated for destruction by a strip mine, stand out in this veritable war zone with their unblinking trials to understand their love and commitment to each other, and their land.

Here’s Karen’s question -

What has been the most surprising or unexpected thing that’s happened during this play? Did that wind up taking the play in a new direction?

The faux “clean coal” commercials that lace through the play, forever flickering from the TV, underscore the laugh-out-loud absurdity of an industry that has sought to dispel the truth with bogus marketing for decades.

Here’s Anne’s question -

What do you think is the central theme and reason this play was conceived?

Taken from a real-life tragedy of strip-mining, mountaintop removal and the forced removal of American citizens still unfolding today across the country, our play ultimately asks: What are you willing to do to defend your love for your family, and your land?.

Here’s Stephen’s Question -

Why should the audience (we) go to your play? What will the audience learn about the “human condition” by going to your play?

When the neon marquee signs light up Broadway’s theatres every night, a signal is sent to a nearby coal-fired plant, using coal strip-mined from Appalachia and other parts of the country–in effect, New York theatre goers will participate in one of the most egregious environmental and human rights disasters in American history. “4 1/2 Hours: Across the Stones of Fire” is one of the first theatre productions to bring the stories of the human cost of that disaster to the stage.

Here’s Sarah’s Question -

What is your favorite line from the play?

From Hovie, the young strip-miner, whose wife is pregnant: “Baby, let’s get out of here. This holler is cursed. I feel it. We have no idea how much lead or arsenic has been in our water. What are we going to put in the baby’s bottle? I’ll tell you the truth. I know those coal slurry ponds leak. I built them.”

Here’s Diánna’s Question -

What about this play do you feel most drawn to personally, and because of that, what message do you hope the audience walks away with?

Adapted loosely from my memoir, Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland(Nation Books), about the strip-mining of my family’s centuries-old historic community and diverse forests, our play–which has toured across the country– is part of a national movement to use the arts and theatre to showcase stories from the frontlines of the coalfields, and galvanize action for a clean energy future.

* * *

Another Place

answers by Melissa F. Moschitto

Here’s Antonio’s question -

If you would have to single out a quality between dialogue, plot or character, which one is the strongest in your play/piece, and why?

Our defining characteristic is being anachronistic. The topics and emotions included in global warming and climate change are so huge and diverse we’ve embraced those whole-heartedly and encouraged ourselves to thinking beyond the scope of time and place. In other words, it’s entirely possible to have Christopher Columbus discussing economics with contemporary Danish economist Bjorn Lomborg.

Here’s Karen’s question -

What has been the most surprising or unexpected thing that’s happened during this play? Did that wind up taking the play in a new direction?

We really let our process be as open as possible and had two months of very fruitful exploratory rehearsals as we worked to devise this (still in progress!) play. We found ourselves drawn to the myth of Christopher Columbus, a story that we explored more than two years ago but only in a workshop format. I guess we had some unfinished business! But it’s helped us to see some issues in a radically different light and likewise has been an extremely challenging subject matter to wrestle with.

Here’s Anne’s question -

What do you think is the central theme and reason this play was conceived?

Our central question is, what is the gap between responsibility and ability? We have all this knowledge about how to protect or improve the environment, yet we are collectively so slow to change as a culture. How do we motivate change individually, locally and globally?

Here’s Stephen’s Question -

Why should the audience (we) go to your play? What will the audience learn about the “human condition” by going to your play?

The play is all about grappling with the human capacity for change. Specifically, we’ll be looking at our own accountability and responsibility when it comes to the environment, but on a greater scope, it’s about all forms of change and awareness.

Here’s Sarah’s Question -

What is your favorite line from the play?

“This story is very simple, but ends in heartache that is so complex that no one will take the blame.”

Here’s Diánna’s Question -

What about this play do you feel most drawn to personally, and because of that, what message do you hope the audience walks away with?

We are all capable of making the earth a cleaner and kinder place!

Related Posts:

• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Keeping Her Balls In The Air – Monica Bauer Tells Us How She Does It
• Liner Notes – That’s All He Wrote (Planet Connections 2010)
• 11 Seconds Of Ecstasy!: 3,600 Seconds Of Agony (Planet Connections 2010)
• It’s Totally Easy Being Green: The Green Knight (Planet Connections 2010)

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is a quirky Arthurian romance penned in alliterative Middle English in the 14th-century by the anonymous Pearl Poet.  Because it is one of my favorite stories, of all the Planet Connections productions I was slated to see, my hopes were highest for this adaptation of the legend, The Green Knight, written by Brian Rady and directed by Jeremy Bloom.

The legend is about a knight who–you guessed it–is entirely green: armor, horse, skin, the works.  On Christmas Day, this verdant villain rides into King Arthur’s court to challenge one of his famous knights.  Sir Gawain, Arthur’s nephew, steps up to the challenge and embarks on a year-long journey, whose trials are infused with dark magic and temptation, to prove his chivalry and settle the score with the Green Knight.

The Green Knight sort of begins at the top of the stairs leading to 45 Bleecker’s downstairs theater, The Green Room.  The usher taking tickets at the door lapses suddenly into a brokenly scripted Arthurian diatribe before the audience is permitted to enter.  When we finally make our way down the stairwell to the theater this character breaks her soliloquy to inform us that the emergency exits lie beyond the narrow stairway by which we entered the dungeon.  For better or for worse, there is no getting out of this trial now.

As the audience settles into their seats, a gaggle of imbeciles dressed entirely in makeshift pink outfits is dancing off stage in the corner of the room to live drumming.  Audience members are offered complimentary cups of red wine, and soon, the twirling imbeciles, take their places on stage: King Arthur, Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, Sir Gawain, Sir Gawain’s horse, and members of court–the whole pink posse is there.

The imbeciles-turned-actors, as it turns out, are fantastic.  They at once mock the deliberately quirky and shoddy costumes and set design while completely enrapturing the audience in an Arthurian legend gone postmodern.  They meet the challenge of an updated, edgy and highly alliterative script and spin off these ceaselessly tongue-twisting lines with ease.

As the Green Knight interrupts the yuletide feast at King Arthur’s court, the scene succeeds in being at once engaging and funny.  We are rooting for this goofy Gawain, even as he rides off on his horse–piggy-backed on an actor wearing a horse head.  We watch as Sir Gawain becomes deterred on his journey to challenge the Green Knight at a debaucherous castle belonging to Lord and Lady Bertilak.  We watch the climactic scene, awash in green lighting, when Sir Gawain finally meets again the infamous Green Knight.  And the whole deliberately overacted and under-designed production comes together with aplomb to make a must-see whirl of wild wonderment and haughty hilarity.

The Green Knight was absolutely the most entertaining, hilarious, seamless performance I’ve seen in a long time.  My only criticism?  Lose the preface at the precipice.  We don’t need the usher’s diatribe as intro, and the language didn’t quite match the purply-pink parlance we’d be presented with during the bulk of the play; it merely felt like an unnecessary delay to seeing a play that would bring this legend to life, utterly delight us, and hardly be a dud.

Cast:

Scott Morse, Thomas Crawford, Veracity Butcher, Kareem Lucas, Amanda Bloom, Holly Chou, Laura Siszkin-Fernandez, Catherine LeFrere, Joel Sinensky, Joyce Miller, Brett Aresco

~~~

Related Posts:

• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Keeping Her Balls In The Air – Monica Bauer Tells Us How She Does It
• Liner Notes – That’s All He Wrote (Planet Connections 2010)
• 11 Seconds Of Ecstasy!: 3,600 Seconds Of Agony (Planet Connections 2010)
• Planet Connections Q&A: 4 1/2 Hours: Across the Stones of Fire / Another Place

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is New York City’s premiere eco-friendly theatre festival, connecting artists and audiences with diverse dynamic charitable organizations. The Planet Connections experience entertains, enlightens and informs.

The Happiest Medium (proud sponsors of The Planet Connections Festival), continues the Q&A which we’ll be running every day until the festival begins on June 3rd.  We’ll highlight 2 different shows each day, so make sure to come back and check daily!

Today we ask one question each of Glory Bowen, director and adaptor of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Duncan Pflaster, writer of  The Thyme of the Season.  One is an adaptation of a classic story written by Oscar Wilde, the other is a sequel to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Let’s see what new twists were brought to these old classics . . .

The Picture of Dorian Gray

answers by Glory Bowen

Here’s Antonio’s question -

If you would have to single out a quality between dialogue, plot or character, which one is the strongest in your play/piece, and why?

Probably the plot – although there’s definitely something to be said for Oscar Wilde’s dialogue and characters.

Here’s Karen’s question -

What has been the most surprising or unexpected thing that’s happened during this play? Did that wind up taking the play in a new direction?

Nothing that surprising has really occurred …. I mean I’m completely surprised at myself but I don’t think anyone else is really. So I would have to say that there really is nothing surprising. Oh, except for that time we got those water balloons and threw them at the actors rehearsing for Cake. But really – they were surprised – we weren’t.

Here’s Anne’s question -

What do you think is the central theme and reason this play was conceived?

There are several central themes: The value society places on youth and beauty; the purpose of art, the superficial nature of society, the search for pleasure above happiness, and the isolation and pitfalls that come from an extremities such as being extremely good looking, wealthy, or talented/intelligent.

Here’s Stephen’s Question -

Why should the audience (we) go to your play? What will the audience learn about the “human condition” by going to your play?

Oscar Wilde, who wrote the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, was arrested, tried, and convicted for his sexual preference; he was a homosexual. Besides being one of history’s great playwrights, he was also one of the first activists who made achievements for the homosexual community – even though those achievements took a toll on his personal life and on his art. In his honor, we have selected an organization that continues the fight that Mr. Wilde began.

At his trial, under cross examination Wilde was at first hesitant, then spoke eloquently:

Charles Gill (prosecuting): What is “the love that dare not speak its name?”

Wilde: “The love that dare not speak its name” in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as “the love that dare not speak its name,” and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an older and a younger man, when the older man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope, and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it.”

We hope you will join us for the LGBT night of Planet Connections Theatre Festivity which will be held at the Bleecker Street Theater in honor of Oscar Wilde, benefiting GLAAD.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) amplifies the voice of the LGBT community by empowering real people to share their stories, holding the media accountable for the words and images they present, and helping grassroots organizations communicate effectively. By ensuring that the stories of LGBT people are heard through the media, GLAAD promotes understanding, increases acceptance, and advances equality

Here’s Sarah’s Question -

What is your favorite line from the play?

“It is not good for ones morals to see bad acting.”

Here’s Diánna’s Question -

What about this play do you feel most drawn to personally, and because of that, what message do you hope the audience walks away with?

The play is about love – and all of its beauty and tragic delusions. But, it’s also about the value society places on youth and appearance. The tragedy of Dorian Gray of course  is that he was a very loved person – perhaps he wasn’t loved for the right reasons exactly – but he was loved. Yet, he never appreciated that or understood it exactly. Perhaps we all could learn to appreciate the generosity of others in our own individual lives – and recognize it.

* * *

The Thyme of the Season

answers by Duncan Pflaster

Here’s Antonio’s question -

If you would have to single out a quality between dialogue, plot or character, which one is the strongest in your play/piece, and why?

Though The Thyme of the Season has a more structured, fairy-tale like plot than most of my plays, I’m going to have to go with dialogue; a lot of it is in verse, which gives a wonderfully stylized, magical feel to everything.

Here’s Karen’s question -

What has been the most surprising or unexpected thing that’s happened during this play? Did that wind up taking the play in a new direction?

A number of the performers I’d intended to use (who appeared in a reading of the play I did with Katherine and Friends a couple of years ago) had to drop out; one lives far away now, one was having money troubles, one has a slipped disc, and one showed up to his first rehearsal after having been hit by a car and fracturing his arm the night before. So re-castings (of other great performers) have brought new interpretations of the characters.

Here’s Anne’s question -

What do you think is the central theme and reason this play was conceived?

The play is a sequel to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and was conceived (by myself and actress Clara Barton Green, who plays Puck) as a deconstruction and response to that play (much like the second act of The Fantasticks or Into the Woods). The theme is that happy endings fall apart if you don’t work at them, and that living an authentic real life is better than a false enchanted one.

Here’s Stephen’s Question -

Why should the audience (we) go to your play? What will the audience learn about the “human condition” by going to your play?

Because it’s awesome. uh…. “People are basically good at heart”?

Here’s Sarah’s Question -

What is your favorite line from the play?

I have it, Helen! We’ll disguise ourselves!

O, Bottom, you do have the actor’s gift:

A closet full of cast-off doublets, used,

No doubt, for some great tyrant, or perhaps

A lover, that did tread the boards of a

Noble stage, with you as their avatar?

Here’s Diánna’s Question -

What about this play do you feel most drawn to personally, and because of that, what message do you hope the audience walks away with?

I wrote it, so I’m drawn to it all; there’s a little part of me in all the characters. I’m not really into messages, but I guess “live your life sincerely”.

Related Posts:

• Clandestine: It’s A Secret {But Tell Your Friends} . . . (Planet Connections 2010)
• Dorian Gray – A Picture’s Worth A Thousand Sins (Planet Connections 2010)
• The Thyme Of The Season: Even Better The Second Thyme Around (Planet Connections 2010)
• The Taint Of Equality Or, I Want Your Sex (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• The Empress of Sex (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)