Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Death, It Happens (Photo by Cathryn Lynne) Pictured from left to right; Maureen Van Trease, Lori Kee, Bricken Sparacino and Rebecca Chiappone)
Death, it happens: A girl’s guide to death
Company: Bricken and Birch Productions
Directed by: Lori Kee
4 different women lost 4 different fathers. Hear their true, diverse, moving and sometimes funny stories. Learn what happened, what they did to cope (or not cope) with death and what to wear to a funeral.
Show Times:
Sat 2/25 @ 8:30pm
Mon 2/27 @ 9pm
Tues 2/28 @ 7:30pm
Sat 3/3 @ 1:30pm
Sun 3/4 @ 4pm
Answers by Bricken Sparacino
(conceiver, producer, performer and co-writer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean? Bricken: Well, our show is about Death, I didn’t want to sugar coat it, but I also wanted there to be a little humor in it as well. Our show is honest, sometimes sad – but we also use a lot of gallows humor. I hoped to reflect that in the title. I wanted the word “Death” to stand out and the rest to follow a little smaller. Almost as if to say “Do I have your attention now?”
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
I MARRIED A NUN! Dyan Forest
I Married A Nun!
A one-woman show that dramatically depicts D’yan’s search for love and meaning in life, finding the answers—at age 77—in the smoldering cabarets and demimonde of Paris. With humor, art and her ukulele, she reveals the truth that’s valid for all of us.
Show Times:
Wed. 2/22 @ 9:00 PM
Thurs. 2/23 @ 6:00 PM
Sun. 2/26 @ 1:00 PM
Thurs. 3/1 @ 7:30 PM
Sat. 3/3 @ 8:30 PM
Answers by D’yan Forest
(Playwright & Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean? D’yan: It’s the truth, and the reason I wrote the show.
Five Questions. Five Answers. And one big decision: Rock, Paper, or Scissors?
Nicole Pandolfo
Love In The Time Of Chlamydia
Company: Hard Sparks
Love In The Time Of Chlamydia is one woman’s search for love in a world full of absent dads, dirtbag boyfriends, and premature ejaculators. Your first time wasn’t weirder – and your best time wasn’t wilder – than writer-performer Nicole Pandolfo’s.
Show Times:
Thur. 2/23 @ 10:30 PM
Sat. 2/25 @ 4:00 PM
Sun. 2/26 @ 4:00 PM
Wed. 2/29 @ 6:00 PM
Sun 3/4 @ 5:30 PM
Answers by Nicole Pandolfo
(Writer, Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean? Nicole: Well, it started out originally as monologues from the perspective of prostitutes who had seen really weird stuff go down on the job, and it was called Five Fucked Up Fetishes. Then I realized I was using a lot of back story from my own real life – God that sounds bad – and then I was like ‘ok, this is actually going to be a one person show based on my life.’ And then, because there is a vignette with venereal disease, I came up with Sex in the Time of Chlamydia. I came up with that very quickly and it was obviously inspired in its form by the title Love in the Time of Cholera. And then when I was really getting into writing the first draft I realized that even though there was a lot of sex in the piece it was really about love. And it took me a minute for that to sink in. But once it did I decided to stick with Love In The Time Of Chlamydia, and it made it even closer to Marquez’s title, but it just felt right so that’s how it came to be. I think it hints at the way sex is presented in this piece specifically, which is kind of funny, and kind of weird, and it’s sexy but not in a conventional way.
Five Questions. Five Answers. And one big decision: Rock, Paper, or Scissors?
Suzen Murakoshi
BREATHE LOVE REPEAT:a near-life experience
Produced by: The Mustique Projects
A samurai super daughter struggles with her mother at the crossroads between east and west to affirm life between this world and the next.
Show Times:
Wed. 2/22 @ 10:30pm
Fri. 2/24 @ 7:30pm
Mon. 2/27 @ 7:30pm
Fri. 3/2 @ 10:30pm
Sun. 3/4 @ 7:00pm
Answers by Suzen Murakoshi
(Playwright, Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean? Suzen: THANKS! It’s the mantra I was wrestling with at one of the lowest points in my life. The ‘repeat’ part is the hardest, because it’s like, “you mean, I have to do it again? And, again?”
If you’ve ever seen Mike Milazzo play the guitar then you already know what an amazing experience it is to watch him – his fingers fly effortlessly over the strings producing almost unbelievably complex sounds that are not only beautiful and powerful but raw and real. As a songwriter Mike has the ability to find the core of what connects us all and finesse it into thoughtful words and haunting melodies. As a singer, Mike’s voice is earnest and true; evocative and filled with emotion. He takes you on a journey with every line he sings, and it’s not until he’s strummed his last note that you’re able to break the hypnotic spell which his music has cast over you. You only have to sit through one of Mike’s performances to know that he is one of the best musicians around.
For those not lucky enough to be able to see Mike perform in person, he’s working on getting a new album out called “The Show”. Mike Milazzo took some time in between gigs to chat with us about what inspired him to write these songs, what the differences are between collaborating and going solo, and he finally solves the mystery of who, exactly, “Mr. Barry” is. Read on …
Bricken Sparacino sure has been licked a lot in her life … but not exactly the way you’d expect from a show titled I’m Not Sure I Like The Way You Licked Me!. I mean, of course, there is the requisite anecdote about the guy who french kissed her in a way that was more akin to a barbecue pit chef mopping ribs with secret sauce, leaving her face covered in saliva and in need of a good rinsing … but this solo show (directed by Lori Kee) has a few more licks in it – the kind of licks that could also be called bummers, hard knocks, and just plain disappointments. Continue Reading…
Linda Evangelista is the source of the oft-quoted line “I won’t get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.” I’ve often paraphrased and said that I won’t get out of bed before six a.m. unless a number like that is mentioned. Yeah, well … how about a number like over 5 million?
Let me explain …
Horse Trade Theater Group (Erez Ziv, Managing Director, Heidi Grumelot, Artistic Director) learned today [March 30th] that 94. St. Marks Place, home to UNDER St. Marks Theater has been put up for sale at the market rate of $5,750,000.
Regular readers of The Happiest Medium know that UNDER St. Marks Theater is one of the theatres that I return to time and time again. It’s where I first laid eyes on Killy Dwyer and Kill The Band, it’s where Alex Bond did her staged reading of Late Nights With The Boys, it’s where Penny Pollak holds Penny’s Open Mic and where Gigi LaFemme holds Revealed Burlesque. It’s where I saw Heidi Grumelot make a sock puppet into something much more in Donnie and the Monsters. UNDER St. Marks is home to not only an army of downtown theatre artists but also to countless people who sit in the audience and shower them with love. People like … me.
Bricken Sparacino is an award winning/nominated performer, writer and director. She is also a bright, confident woman who has been involved in theatre for most of her life. To watch her work is to watch an artist with a powerful command of her talents. I have seen her ability to transform a space, as well as her own persona, as she captivates and connects intimately with an audience, provoking a wide range of meaningful responses to her performances.
These women of the arts hail from different disciplines, but they all have an indomitable spirit and a luminescent spark that makes them amazing human beings who are out there every day, doing amazing work.
Today we continue our series with GiGi La Femme. The first time I saw Ms. La Femme it was December during the Burlesque Blitz and she was completely naked. I then watched, mesmerized, as she did the most seductive reverse strip tease I’d ever seen in my life. After Blitzing my way through the Burlesque offerings I though I understood what it meant to sit and watch a gal take her clothes off. Some do it with charm. Some do it with flair. Some do it with lights. Some do it with humor. Some do it with a touch of rage. Some do it better than others. Some do it better than most.
But Gigi? She does it with a breathtaking, hypnotic vamp that’s covered in a type of voodoo that has been living in the veins of women like her since the dawn of time. Women with names like Delilah, Jezebel, Aphrodite, and Cleopatra.She is a temptress whose power reaches like a vapor right out to each member of the audience and tickles them under the chin before, winking, it slinks back around her where it lives.
However behind all this glitter, glamour, sequins and feathers beats the heart of a businesswoman who has been able to take her show and transform it into a very successful monthly feature called Revealed Burlesque which runs at UNDER St. Marks.
I’ve been wanting to interview her for months, and this series gives me the perfect opportunity to celebrate a woman who is beautiful, smart, powerful, dynamic and amazing. Ladies and gentlemen – I give you – Gigi La Femme.
These women of the arts hail from different disciplines, but they all have an indomitable spirit and a luminescent spark that makes them amazing human beings who are out there every day, doing amazing work.
Today we continue our series with Heidi G. Grumelot.
Heidi Grumelot is the Artistic Director of Horse Trade Theater Group. Horse Trade is comprised of three theatres that are like second homes to me: UNDER St. Marks, The Kraine and The Red Room. I had the pleasure of getting to know her after we sat on a panel together during FRIGID NewYork 2011 discussing Self Producing Artists. Honestly, I”m surpirsed it took me this long to actually meet her considering what a fan I am of Horse Trade and how much of my time is spent there.
Heidi is also a talented director; she was responsible for the extremely enjoyable Donnie and the Monsterswhich was held over last year. I’m happy to see someone so cool, so together and so strong being responsible for so much of the NYC downtown theatre scene. I can’t wait to continue working with her in the years to come. Now here’s Heidi’s story …
