A woman from Alabama had a spark of a thought. So she started a Facebook page which grew exponentially. It was about women writing about women. The spark grew till women all over the world started to join her.

I’m talking about 365 WOMEN A YEAR: A PLAYWRIGHTING PROJECT which involves hundreds of women who have written one-act plays about extraordinary women. The project’s goal is to write women back into the social consciousness with all the plays written and directed by women.

365 WOMEN A YEAR was founded by Jess Eisenberg and Gina Scanlon. This international playwriting project involves over 200 playwrights who have signed on to write plays about women in both past and present history.

One of the first champions of the project in New York was friend of The Happiest Medium, playwright Robin Rice.  I’m lucky to be able to speak with both Robin as well as co-founder Jess Eisenberg about this wonderful Project.

Robin, tell me about your personal experience with the 365 Women a Year Project. When and how did your involvement start?
Robin Rice: In 2014 I noticed a new group forming on Facebook called 365 Women a Year: A Playwriting Project. Jess Eisenberg had started the page. She put a call out to women playwrights — a challenge really. She wanted plays about real women (past or present) who had affected our world. Real women with real stories in all walks of life. The goal was to write these women back into history, to raise consciousness about the contributions women have made. I had a short play that had just been produced in New York about Vanessa Bell (the painter) and her sister Virginia Woolf. I also had a full-length play about early environmentalist Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, one about the first woman photo-journalist Alice Austen, and shorts that involved Martha Stewart and Sasha Montenegro (a B movie actor married to a notorious former president of Mexico). So I signed onto the project.

Little did I dream how it would explode! None of us had any idea.

That’s wonderful synergy – and it looks like just as it was happening to you, many women around the country were having the same experience! Jess – is this what was hoped for/envisioned?  And speak about how different regions – including NYC – are helping 365 Women a Year to expand.
Jess Eisenberg: We have been so thankful to have playwrights that are beyond dedicated and are not just writing pieces for the project, but are also organizing festivals around the world. It is beyond what I envisioned. Some of our playwrights are artistic directors as well, and have put a slot for a 365 festival into their season each year. Our European chair, Beatriz Cabur, has organized festivals in Spain and is now relocated to England. She is such a lightning rod that we went from a few UK participants to dozens signing up to write this year.

There are so many of our playwrights in NYC that we’ve had multiple festivals there and we all stay in touch via our Facebook group and twitter. Any time one of our playwrights is having a 365 show produced (or one of their other pieces) I tweet. The NYC playwrights definitely set a powerful example and inspired more playwrights to want to do the same thing in their region.

Robin, as a busy playwright, what excites you about this project? What makes THIS something you’re interested in, given that there are so many things going on in your life?
Robin: Not only do I know that the mission is very important, the energy of this purely female-driven movement (which is what it has become) can’t be ignored. Plus, I love challenges. Finding out about women who have made contributions to our world and yet have been buried by time has always interested me, and here was a reason to do some digging. Plus, it’s really not a big commitment. I contributed more plays in 2015, but most were already written and all I did was create monologues for the women or shape short plays from material in a full-length play that I had already written.

My plays for the project in 2015 were about (1) three pacifist Dominican nuns, (2) newscaster Paula Zahn and Mary Tyler Moore, and (3) the only play I’ve written specifically for the project, a monologue by an ancestor of mine, Alice Chase, who had the first baby born in Cornish, NH, back in the pioneering days of our country. This year I’m going to use material in LUST & LIES, a full-length based on the true story of Lucretia Winthrop Chapman who was one of the first educators with a school for young women, back in the early 1800s. Lucretia may or may not have murdered her husband.

ENCORE first meeting April 20 2015

Take me through a typical NYC run-through from conception to completion so readers can feel the energy of the project.
Robin: This is the part where I really got excited. I kept an eye on the Facebook page back when the Project first began. More and more women playwrights “claimed” their subjects (you can’t write about someone if another writer is already writing about that woman) — playwrights all over the country. I saw quite a few New Yorkers joining in, so on a whim I posed a question on the Facebook page: Anybody in New York or nearby want to get together and organize a public reading of our 365 plays? I named a time and date maybe a week away and said to just show up at my apartment. That night, 15 women playwrights showed up. We were strangers for the most part, but not for long!

Fifteen plays was a lot to handle, but we did it. Everyone took different jobs — finding a venue, looking for a producer, making the program, doing publicity, etc. We didn’t want to charge admission, and nobody had much money, so this was a huge challenge, especially in expensive New York City. But we did it. A couple of months later our event was held at The Sheen Center and it was a roaring success. We called ourselves 365-NYC-1. On the Facebook page I encouraged other groups to have readings. Two more groups formed in New York City in 2015, and many others popped up all over the country. This year I see that there is a lot of international activity. Obviously this Project had been waiting to happen!

A few months ago I got together with Barbara Kahn from the NYC-1 group and strategized. She was having a play produced at Theater for the New City and we could use the stage on the dark night. Yay! I emailed the NYC-1 writers and said the first 6 who got back to me with interest in doing this again would be part of NYC-4 (continuing the NYC numbering from last year). Within two minutes my inbox was overflowing. I wish it didn’t have to have a limited number, but 15 was really unweildy. On March 23, eight of us will have 365 plays read at Theater for the New City.

Jess, it must be incredible to hear that in NYC alone the numbers are “unweildy”.  And it must be astonishing to see the orders of magnitude by which this has grown internationally.  If you can keep dreaming big, what would you want? 
Jess: Next on my dream list is to have a digital brochure that we can send to every theatre around the world to promote gender parity in their seasons through producing 365 plays. The first two years we accepted one acts only, this year plays can be any length. My first goal is representing as many historical women as possible, and that’s why we do not yet take duplicates. We write about 365 different women each year. I make sure that we are representing women of different religions, ethnicities, and cultures. I want to have women from every country in the world represented.

The second goal is getting more female playwrights produced and more female directors at the helm. We’ve definitely gone beyond what I envisioned in a very short time and we have our incredible playwrights to thank for that.

I would love at some point to upgrade our web site to having an actual search field for playwrights, historical women, and plays. Right now, I’ve done it all manually, so you can search by time period, keyword, alphabetically, etc. It would be lovely if it could be more streamlined. I think it would be incredible on our ten year anniversary to have a 365 Gala and honor all of our playwrights and get to all meet each other in person from around the world. Every time a list of plays get selected for a theatre’s festival, I recognize most of the female playwrights names. It makes the big theatre world seem much smaller and now when my name isn’t on the list, I’m not as bummed as I would have been, because I am filled with such joy to see a playwright I know on the list. It’s incredible to have such a supportive community of playwrights. The sky’s the limit dream, would be to actually have 365 theaters around the world where the plays are produced all season long with female directors at the helm.

I love these dreams!  They’re amazing and lovely – and I wouldn’t be surprised if you cross half of them off your list sooner than you ever expected!

Robin and Jess – I’m going to ask the obvious question.  Have you had anyone say “Why not a 365 MEN a Year Project”?  If so, how do you speak to that?
Robin: That’s easy. Less than 20% of the plays produced in the U.S. are written by women, and that’s climbed in recent years because of a groundswell of activism on the part of women playwrights. It’s been a big movement. A lot of pressure has been applied to theaters with all-male seasons, to competitions and contests that have given awards to only male writers for decades, to short play festivals that produce lineups of only male-written plays. The guys have been running things forever. We women are pushing forward. This Project enables us to not only make our voices heard, the subject we are writing about is in league with our mission. I’m sure that’s part of why it’s exploded like it has.

Jess:We haven’t had any push back like that. We did get asked on a podcast if we think the reason less female playwrights get produced is because their plays just aren’t as strong. Mostly, we have has such amazing support. We have a handful of male playwrights that write with us as well. I have had it cross my mind to start a 365 Men of Color a year project, because I think there are many men of color’s stories that are lost and need to be heard. I’m just not sure I can take that on and my passion has always been women in history. It’s the lost women who have always haunted me. But no, no one has attacked us in that way. Most likely, because we are such a niche and the people who end up hearing about us are like minded individuals.

Jess, Robin – I want to thank you both for speaking to me about 365 Woman A Year.  I’m excited to hear how this Project, and these international festivals, continue to grow!

~~~

If you’re in NYC and you’re interested in seeing the evening of readings:
March 23rd, 2016
Theater for the New City, Cino Theater
155 1st Avenue at 10th Street
(By subway: L to 1st Avenue; 6 to Astor Place)
The readings are free, but reservations are highly suggested. CLICK HERE TO RESERVE

~~~

JESS EISENBERG is a teacher, singer, actress, composer, and playwright. She has taught children’s theatre and music across the continent with Missoula Children’s Theatre, Pied Piper Players, and Piano Lessons in Your Home. She currently teaches voice and piano with Mason Music and loves getting to teach with Red Mountain Theater. Jess co-founded Prologue Theatre in Chicago and is the founder of 365 Women a Year, an international playwriting project.

-  -  -  -

ROBIN RICE is a playwright whose work can be seen internationally.  Select productions 2010-15 – New York City: PLAY NICE! (Off-Broadway), THE POWER OF BIRDS, NOT STILL LIFE, IN THE BEGINNING… BURYING ELEPHANTS, HAPPIWY EVER AFTER, ALLIE’S APPENDIX, EVERYDAY EDNAMAE (1-act), LOLA AND THE PLANET OF GLORIOUS DIVERSITY, THE OTHERSHOE. ALICE IN BLACK AND WHITE (Louisville); LISTEN! THE RIVER (Edinburgh Fringe/London/South Africa); BLOOD SISTERS (CA); SECRETS ON A CHINESE BED (MA/South Korea). Hollywood: world premiere WOMEN w/o WALLS, 2015.

Most notably: *publication of PLAY NICE! by Original Works Publishing  *premiere of WOMEN w/o WALLS in Hollywood with Broad’s Word Theatre last November-December; *upcoming Off-Broadway production of ALICE IN BLACK AND WHITE with Looking for Lilith Theatre Company in August

Find out more at the Robin Rice website  or follow on twitter: @RobinRiceWrites

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• Hardware Dreams – Hard Won
• Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels?
• Catching Up With The Divine Carl Andress

Within seconds of meeting Sunilda Caraballo you’re smiling back at her – because besides greeting you with a long rambling hello, she’s turned on a thousand watt smile that’s impossible to not return.  Bubbly, energetic and easy to be with, Sunilda welcomes you into the mess of her apartment that can’t seems to stay clean now that she’s had a baby.  What starts as idle chatter about how her life has changed – no sleep, a 3 minute shower once a week, and never feeling like she’s going to catch up – slowly evolves into a memoir of her young life: Hardware Dreams.  Written by Caraballo and directed by Joe Ricci, this young girl’s journey from the town of Santurce, Puerto Rico to New York City is served up like a dish of plantains – some sweet, some savory, but all deliciously satisfying.

Caraballo’s accent is thick, but from the onset she makes it work for her in an amusing skit where she recreates a moment when she’s asked to audition for a Telemundo spot and it’s clear that the casting director can’t understand a word of what she’s saying.  From that moment on it’s okay if a few words don’t quite make it through – the gist is explained powerfully in the many characters Caraballo takes on to bring her childhood alive for you.  So many characters, in fact, that I lost count – but each and every one of them well carved and distinctly unique.  Included in this troupe is all the members of her overflowing family  (Mother, Father, Aunt, siblings and dogs), her classmates and teachers, and the many customers who frequent her family’s Hardware Store (or, as she so charmingly puts it . . .The Hardware).

Though we never leave Caraballo’s living room, she is so animated a storyteller that it becomes easy to envision the neighborhood she creates around her – like the Chicken and Candy Store (where you can watch your live chicken be killed, and plucked . . . and then buy some candy too!).  A star turn by far is the Multiplication Rapping Contest she re-creates (No cursing or Lambada steps! her ancient teacher warns) where she literally stops the show cold with an amazing dance rap combo about – yes – the multiplication tables.

Interweaving moments of dance, song, comedy, and even sadness, Caraballo’s world beings to take form so clearly that by the end it’s worth giving a standing ovation.

With only a very short run that’s already half over, you’ll want to get to it as soon as you can.  I promise, you’ll leave with a smile on your face, and a tear in your eye.

~~~

Related Posts:

• A Woman For Every Day- 365 Women A Year: A Playwriting Project
• The Panic Diaries (Fringe Festival 2011)
• Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels?
• Catching Up With The Divine Carl Andress

Seeing Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels last night made me a little nostalgic for my high school days, when a group of people – talented actors, great dancers, good performers – would get together and put on a show.  Back then, there was an earnestness, a lot of heart, a lot of energy, a lot of capability, but somehow  . . . you just weren’t going to get around the fact that it was a high school play.

Similarly Whatever Happenend To Beverly Daniels is a very earnest play with the seeds of what could – with a little more work-shopping - become a good show.  Somehow though, it just doesn’t get off the ground.  It bends under overly ambitious production numbers and scenes that would have made a better impact on a smaller level.  Again, like watching a high school ensemble trying to recreate the big production values of a Broadway spectacle some of the scenes were grander than they needed to be as vignettes of Hollywood, Las Vegas (two production numbers - both lip synched) and Washington DC swept past Beverly Daniels (Judy Bruno-Bennett).

Bennett does a great job with the material she has to work with, slathering on a honey dripping southern accent with a ladle.  She’s funny, likable, and does her level best to lead you by the hand through this story of a gal who started life in a trailer park, graduated to beauty pageants, found her way to Hollywood by way of Vegas, wooed and wiped out a Senator and  . . . just when she thought she was washed up, found herself the Queen of the Queen Scene as the Drag set donned costumes in homage to her.

It’s a good story, but it’s told a bit too quickly (and I’m talking about pacing here . . . though the show itself does clock in at under an hour) and everyone’s part is more caricature than character, leaving very little room to connect with any of the characters.

Here’s what I’d like to see Frank Dunham Jr (aka franco) do with this show: take this story back to the drawing board – flesh out some of the characters a bit more, get your amazing background dancers out of those neon wigs, don’t use pre-recorded vocals that, at best, look fake and, at worst, can ruin your dance number when the track skips, and dial up the intimacy level of the script.  Show (don’t tell) the drag queen scene at the end  . . . (a missed opportunity!) and then approach it all with the same energy, heart and joy that was undoubtedly in abundance during this run.

I guarantee what you’ve started here will have the opportunity to flower – even blossom – into a much stronger production.

~~~

Whatever Happened To Beverly Daniels

Part of the Dream Up Festival

Written, Directed and Music Composed by Frank Dunham Jr (aka franco)
Producer : MKii Production

Theater for the New City
Saturday- Sept 4 – 2pm
Sunday- Sept 5 – 5pm

Cast
Briana Packen – Kitty Campbell
Eva Kata – Young Beverly
Judy Bruno-Bennett – Beverly Daniels
Patrick Duggan – Filmore Campbell
Paula Schoppe – Moma
Ralph Coppola – Gary Gosset
Toni L. Stanton – Reporter

Related Posts:

• A Woman For Every Day- 365 Women A Year: A Playwriting Project
• Hardware Dreams – Hard Won
• Catching Up With The Divine Carl Andress

Carl Andress

One of the first interviews I ever did as an “official” theatre reviewer was with Carl Andress who was not only charming and lovely but also heaps of fun to chat with.  Back then he was directing Charles Busch and Kathleen Turner in The Third Story which was a show that highlighted the talent of everyone involved.  I have nothing but enormous respect for Carl as a director.

Well, I’m happy that I have another reason to interview this wonderful gentleman because Carl Andress is at it again, teaming up with Charles Busch to do The Divine Sister.  We recently sat down to talk about the fun of doing an homage to some of Hollywood’s best nuns, and the great actresses who played them.

Along the way, Carl also explains what it’s like to do theatre for the pure joy of it, he give some advice to the Fringe crowd on the smartest way to get a show produced these days, and he enlightens me about a simple little device that has changed his life . . .

Carl, Once again, you’ve collaborated with Charles Busch, this time for his new comedy, The Divine Sister, which will be coming to The Soho Playhouse in September.  Tell me a little bit about what The Divine Sister is all about.

The Divine Sister is a comic celebration of almost every Hollywood movie ever made having to do with nuns. Sort of an homage to what we call Tinseltown’s Religiosity. Turns out that Charles was fascinated by so many of these movies as a kid.  He grew up Jewish, but he saw all the Biblical Hollywood movies of the 1940’s and 50’s on TV and he loved The Song of Bernadette and Come to the Stable, Going my Way; The Bells of St. Mary’s and Ben Hur.  And then of course in the 1960’s movies like The Trouble with Angels starring Rosalind Russell or The Singing Nun. And this became a genre that he had a lot of affection for, because of their uplifting stories but also because they had their campy elements. He and I laugh, for instance, that in The Singing Nun, even though it has its serious story elements, Debbie Reynolds is wearing more eye makeup than Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra.  So writing a play based on this genre was an idea that he had a long time ago.  ”Me and Julie Halston in nun’s habits . . . wouldn’t that be funny!” But it took him a while to get around to it.

After we did his play The Third Story with Kathleen Turner, he was working on some television script projects and he got lots of notes from the developers and producers. A lot of back and forth – for almost a year! And as he tells it, the networks finally cut him loose, saying ” There’s a problem with the tone  - it’s too ‘Charles Busch’ “ and he thought “And that’s bad??” So there was some frustration there as you can imagine! So as therapy for himself, he started writing a real old-fashioned ‘Charles Busch’ play –one that would hearken back to his days in the East Village and he decided “Now’s the time to bring out the nun play.” So he started reacquainting himself with all the old movies, and got me to do the same, so that we could speak in a sort of shorthand about them, as we do for all of our projects together.

He came up with a story that takes place in Pittsburgh, 1966, a moment in history of great social change and upheaval in this country.  In it he plays an embattled Mother Superior at St. Veronica’s Convent and School who has to deal with sexual hysteria among her nuns, a young postulant who has “visions,” a mysterious nun visiting from the Mother House in Berlin, as well as a former love who’s intent on luring her away from her vows.  It’s a wacky story in which Mother Superior is also desperately trying to get a new school built while being thwarted by a dangerous fringe sect. And the result is what I think of as the best of Charles Busch.  There’s five or six good belly laughs on each page. A jam-packed 90 minutes of fun and laughter.

Wow, that really sounds fantastic!  How did it all come together?

Charles had written the script and we did a reading in his apartment with five actors who we thought would be a lot of fun to spend the afternoon with. These were people who he also kept in mind as he was writing. Friends who we have worked with previously like Alison Fraser, Jonathan Walker, Jennifer Van Dyck, Amy Rutberg and his muse, Julie Halston. After that reading, we thought, “We should do this! Great! But how?”

So we put an Equity showcase production together with the help of some trusted and cherished colleagues.  We thought we’d do it on a very small level; not get too ambitious at first. Just do this for the sheer joy of putting on a play. So we talked to Crystal Field at Theater for the New City on First Avenue, where we do our annual Christmas show, Times Square Angel – and she was happy to have us.  We did 24 performances. We got our friends to design and work on it and be in it.  We sold the whole thing out in two days on Facebook and we had ourselves a ball! Then our dear friend Daryl Roth, the wonderful producer who produced Die Mommie Die! with us off-Broadway as well as our movie A Very Serious Person, came to see the show, had a great time and asked “What do you want to do with this?”

We told her that “We loved what we were doing at Theater for the New City and that we wanted to find a way to continue sharing that fun with a broader audience off-Broadway.” Well, Daryl is a huge proponent of off-Broadway theater and she liked that we wanted to maintain the old-fashioned off-Broadway, downtown, spirit of what we had created. So she decided to work with us to transfer our “Divine Family” to a new run, and shortly thereafter, Bob Boyett who co-produced  Die, Mommie, Die! with Daryl in 2007 came on board as well. We’ll be at the Soho Playhouse on Vandam Street in Greenwich Village.  It’s an intimate, adorable and historic off-Broadway theater and there’s a bar in the basement so it’s also a party!  I can’t wait.  We go into rehearsal August 30th.

In my opinion the Nun Comedy is a very underutilized genre.  All the funny nuns that I can recall (like Whoopi for instance) are really nuns in disguise.   Why do you think that is?   Is it because it’s particularly challenging to make a nun comedy come alive?

Oh not at all! Nuns are multi-faceted, fascinating creatures! In Sister Act Whoopi Goldberg is a lounge singer hiding out in a convent where zany hijinks then occur. But the inspiration for The Divine Sister comes from all those movies in the 40s, 50s, 60s about real nuns themselves and not necessarily the interlopers. Most of these stories were meant to be taken very seriously, like Audrey Hepburn in The Nun’s Story or Deborah Kerr in Black Narcissus. And there is humor to be found in the seriousness of it all. Contrarily, one can’t really spoof a satire, so that is one reason why we don’t necessarily evoke any nun comedies like Sister Act. Charles said he always enjoyed these movies because so many of them made being a nun seem like great fun – like the convent was a wacky sorority where all the gals were having a great time. I love that image!

Our story is also inspired by other “religious” Hollywood movies like Agnes of God and The DaVinci Code. Our Sisters of St. Versonica’s may be amusing but underneath, the story is extremely serious and holds great spiritual importance. (He says with a wink!)

Did you draw upon any personal nun stories from your own life that added to the texture of The Divine Sister and helped you create this world?

Well I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic School during the 1970’s from first through twelfth grade, when there were a lot more lay teachers – and more modern nuns who wore simple dresses with modern veils and their hair showing.  I also went to an all-boys Catholic College Prep High School run by an order of monks called the Brothers of the Sacred Heart who wore a traditional brown monk’s robe. I had one female teacher there who I loved. She was a former nun. She left the convent just like Audrey Hepburn in The Nun’s Story and talked to me about how accurate the ending of that movie was. I think she decided she could no longer remain a nun when she was told she could not allow her students to read “The Last Temptation of Christ,” by Nikos Kazantzakis, for one of her classes. There was probably a lot more to it than that, but yes, I do have many memories of growing up around nuns. Come to think of it, one of my father’s second cousins also left a convent. Hmm…seems I knew my share of ex-nuns!

In comedy, though, you really must balance the truth of a situation or a lifestyle very honestly with the mirth you are attempting to present. Otherwise it probably won’t be very funny. Thus balancing Hollywood’s often pompous idea of a religious order with the truth as well as one’s own knowledge, research and experience is key. A favorite moment of mine from the play was inspired by several actresses who have played a Mother Superior, such as Greer Garson or Rosalind Russell or Loretta Young, who can be seen winking up at the Lord in her own key light, as if she’s having there own private conversation with Jesus. Those moments just slay me.

How do you direct Charles differently when he’s playing a Nun — a woman who basically eschews her femininity?  Was it more challenging to ask him to tone down and reign in some gestures and movements that perhaps in other roles he’s had to exaggerate?  Or was it all just thrown out the window and whatever happened happened?

Well, my nuns wear false eyelashes and lipstick! This is Hollywood’s idea of nuns that we’re talking about! When we talked about how “real” we should go, Charles said, “Well, I’m not going to wear the full showgirl lashes this time around. I’ll do a more sedate lash, and more of a coral lipstick as opposed to my usual Joan Crawford red.”

That’s my kinda nun!

And what Charles is doing with this character is he is an actor playing the role of a woman with a full past life who happens to be a nun, as a great screen actress would play her.  He’s giving us an extremely accurate evocation of screen star-acting coupled with his own touch of madness and genius. This is his true and particular gift — that he is able to accomplish this so convincingly on the stage. He is able to draw a theatre audience in – so much so that one feels like you are seeing him in close-up no matter what row you are sitting in at the theatre.

When you did your showcase for The Divine Sister earlier this year you went back to Theater For the New City which is where you and Charles first presented Shanghai Moon - more than 10 years ago.  How did it feel to go back?  Any Ghosts waiting for you there?

Many ghosts! Crystal Field has been a big supporter of both Charles and mine – both together and separately – through the years. I know that she presented the first play that Charles ever wrote back in 1980, in which he played incestuous twin brothers. And a few years ago Crystal produced a 2-actor play that I wrote and acted in called  It’s Not My Fault, It Was On Fire When I Got There. About 10 years ago Charles was feeling burned out, and wanted to do a project that had didn’t have so much pressure to succeed.   So we raised some money and just put on a show for the joy of it. That was Shanghai Moon ten years ago, which we later moved to two other productions with the Drama Dept. and then out at Bay Street Theater is Sag Harbor. It’s very empowering to do something with a pure motive – like just for the joy of putting on a play and seeing where the journey takes you. There’s then a pleasure that comes out of that that audiences can feel and become a part of.

Theater For The New City is pretty a wild place – everyone who goes there has a unique experience – five theatres and the art gallery and all kinds of people roaming around at any given moment. What I like particularly like about Theater For The New City is that it’s one of the last places in New York City where young people can get their show on affordably. Young writers and new talent can get in there and get on the radar.  You can do it yourself.  It’s good when you just take the reigns in your own hands and see what happens. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

So we felt that it was time to do something like that again, this time with The Divine Sister and Crystal was our first call. She was excited for us to return to her theatre and work with her team. And everyone who got involved felt like we were one big family. When the run was ending everyone was sad that the party was seemingly over. But then Daryl became involved and said “let’s do this in the Fall.” The entire cast and design team is coming back. We’re having a wonderful time.

In this current climate where you can’t sell a book, a TV show or a movie with out a vampire in it, is there any chance of an updated Vampire Lesbians of Sodom somewhere in the works with you directing?

A few years back we did a benefit for the Actors Fund on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre and for the second half we did Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Because of this “vampire bandwagon” you mention, of course its crossed Charles’ mind to take a bite out of it  - so to speak.  I think he’s got notions of turning it into a screenplay. That would be a lot of fun if that were to happen.

We’re knee-deep in Fringe – do you have any words of advice for the young directors who are working on shows hoping to get to off-Broadway and beyond?

My assistant director on The Divine Sister, a very talented young man named James Valletti, co-wrote and co-directed Tales from the Tunnel which was very successful in last year’s Fringe Festival and went on to be a part of Fringe Encores. He and his writing partner then raised their money, kept their cast together, and are now doing performances at 45 Bleeker to rave reviews. They decided to keep their show going for the joy of it. I remember when he was in the thick of getting the 45 Bleeker version together, he asked me “Is it always all this hard?” and I said “ALWAYS”.

That’s because every show is like a start-up business, whether you’re doing a showcase, a Festival Show or a commercial production . . . you’re starting a new business from the ground up.  In a not-for-profit theatre . . . there’s already an office, a staff, an infrastructure in place and as an actor, writer, designer or director, you join that company for each project.  But if you’re producing your own project, you’re dealing with getting rehearsal and performance space, insurance, hiring the actors and design team, and dealing with unions.  You have to set up a bank account and you really have to have your ducks in a row because it’s like you’re suddenly a mini-corporation.  It’s daunting and you’ve got to pay attention to detail. But if you do it – there are many rewards to reap.

A dear friend of mine, Carmen Pelaez – whose solo play, “Rum & Coke” I directed at the Fringe Festival and later at the Abingdon Theater Co., is part of a group of playwrights who strive to help each other get their writing heard, seen, and produced.   They asked me to come and speak with them one afternoon to share some insights. Because everyone gets frustrated while getting their work out there, submitting your work to festivals, to theatres around the country and around town can be very daunting and more often than not you get the thank you letter saying that they’re booked up – which makes sense because they have relationships with their own stable of new and established writers/actors/directors, etc. and they only have so many slots for each season. It’s really a challenging route.  And so it occurred to me that sometimes it really is best to try to produce your work yourself. And my “aha” moment was realizing that the people you need to connect with are all these folks who are graduating from the producing and theater management programs at Columbia or NYU, etc.; people who are training to be General Mangers, Company Managers - they want to produce, that’s the side of the business they want to be in and they can be a goldmine of information, talent and opportunity.  These are the people you want to meet and befriend because they have the working knowledge of what it takes to put a show together.  And they’ll know other people.  They’re also probably savvy about social marketing.  This is a group of people who are extremely valuable to developing as well as established artists.

Okay last question – bonus question . . .  the point where you can tell me anything you want.  Leave us with a joke, a recipe, tell a favorite story from the past, hype your favorite cause or charity.  Last time I gave you a hint and asked you who would have written the soundtrack of your life.  This time – no hints!  The mic is yours  . . .

Well, Karen, since you asked, I was thinking about what I can’t live without these days and I decided it wasn’t my iPhone and it wasn’t Bravo TV, it is my new SodaStream Seltzer maker!

OH FANTASTIC! THIS IS A GOOD ONE!

Soda Stream

It’s this fantastic device, which actually belongs to my partner, Christopher. It was his birthday present. He’s a tri-athlete and he’s always training, training, training, needing to hydrate. He got tired of regular water and so developed the seltzer habit.  He loves it but he was going through bottle after bottle and not only does it get pricey after a while, but you’ve got all that plastic and he got tired of taking out the recycling.

So a friend of mine at a dinner party said “we have this counter-top seltzer maker” and we were like“Whaaat???” It was totally off our radar.

So I went to Macy’s and got the SodaStream, and they have syrups with no high fructose corn syrup . . . so it’s basically like old soda used to be . . . or they have little bottles of essence, so you can have seltzer with a little bit of lemon or orange flavor.  Or you can just make plain seltzer water. It comes with reusable plastic bottles that you refill with tap water and keep cold in the fridge. And a carbonator.  After your initial investment you’re saving money and not using so much plastic. You’re supposed to get something like 66 gallons from one cartridge and we thought, “this will last forever.” But we went through one cartridge in 2 weeks because it’s changed our lives. We LOVE it! So that’s the new thing. And it looks so nice on the counter. I suggest everyone go out and get a seltzer maker.

It’s also very Green . . .

It’s very Green!  We feel like we’re doing our bit for the environment.  Now if they could only make one that could make . . .

(Simultaneously) – BEER!!

Well thank you so much Carl, as always it’s just such a real pleasure to chat with you and let our THM readers listen in.  Can’t wait to see The Divine Sister!

_______

For all of you who want to go see this terrific new show directed by Carl Andress and starring Charles Busch check out:

www.divinesisteronstage.com or find them on Facebook!

www.facebook.com/divinesisteronstage

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