by Karen Tortora-Lee on April 8, 2011
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.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on April 4, 2011
If you’ve never directed a show you probably don’t have any idea how many things need to be juggled, handled, addressed, discussed, solved, finessed, smoothed out, put in order … it boggles the mind. I asked my beloved friend Antonio Minino to tell me what a random day is like for him as he directs David Stallings’ The Family Shakespeare for MT Works. I need a nap just reading his answers!
The Family Shakespeare is a magical and dark fictional look into the dangers and consequences of caging innocence. It is inspired by the true story of the Bowdler family and delves into the psyche of a family who thinks it has the right to cross out and modify words with the supposed aim to protect youth and purity.
As the director of this ambitious tale Antonio is busy from (early) morning till night (or … would that be even earlier morning?). Here is a breakdown of how he spent his Saturday …
UP AND AT ‘EM
When did you wake up?
Around 8am today.
The amount of times you hit the snooze button
I actually don’t hit the snooze button, I just check my phone (which is my alarm clock) every 2 minutes to see how many minutes I can get away with – I should probably start embracing the snooze.
The cups of coffee you need to wake up
Two cups will do it! Normally I brew it at home but with rehearsals I’ve been buying it at the closest deli or Starbucks to wherever we are rehearsing that day.
The time you REALLY feel awake
Lately around 11am - I’m normally a good morning person, when I hit the gym I like doing it at 6am – last time that routine happened it was 1985… no just kidding, it was a couple of months ago. The show has changed all my routines and added back the 10 pounds I had successfully lost.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on April 4, 2011
Gay Plays for Straight People (and also gay people) is comprised of two plays which will play in rep brought to you by the new theatre company Purple Rep founded by playwrights Larry Kunofsky and Mariah MacCarthy. The plays - Kunofsky’s The Un-Marrying Project and MacCarthy’s The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret – will run from April 8-30 at The Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery).
Larry and Mariah took some time to answer my questions and give me some straight answers (and also some not-just-straight answers) about what they’re passionate about, how they explore the fuckupedness of both genders, what it means, exactly, to be “un-married”, and how they intend to keep blending it all up in an effort to keep it Purple. Read on …
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on April 4, 2011
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.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on April 2, 2011
On the last day of March Women’s History Month came to a close but today we have one final curtain call – with two amazing women from the world of opera: Brooke Bryant and Minou Arjomand.
Yes, March is officially over. But, like I said in the title, it’s over when *I* say it’s over … and I say it’s over when the Phat Ladies sing. (Yeah, yeah. I know. No one really uses “Phat” any more. But in this case it was really funny).
I’m fortunate that, in my business (the business of show) I don’t just interact, experience and enjoy a variety of talented people from a range of genres, but my virtual cup runneth over within each of those categories. Take opera for instance. I’ve mentioned often enough that I’ve been a dedicated devotee since my early childhood but I’m thrilled that now, in my role as editor and founder of The Happiest Medium I have been able to truly know so many talent people.
Earlier in this series I showcased Brett Umlauf who is one third of the amazing trio Charites. Today, soprano Brooke Bryant tells us more about this all female group; specifically what their challenges are and who inspires them.
Earlier Brett also mentioned a recent production of Morningside Opera’s Handel pastiche ATRA: Ossia, L’amore Ricordato which was cast “as a lesbian love triangle, the powerful castrato role being sung by a woman and *played* as a woman, i.e., not dressed in pants and a painted on moustache. The director, Minou Arjomand, will be telling you more about that process hopefully very soon.” Well, we’re grateful that “very soon” is now … Minou will be speaking with us from a director’s perspective about how she is reinventing the stereotypical “bland” women’s roles.
And now, for our grand finale – take it away, ladies! Continue Reading…
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on April 2, 2011
Do you love giving your opinion? Do you like free stuff? Well THM is going through a re-design … not huge … but significant. And in the next few weeks we’ll be working behind the scenes so that we can debut a brand new site.
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We’d need a few beta-testers to preview the site before it goes live. If you’d like to be part of this, please email karen@thehappiestmedium.com and put BETA TESTING in the subject line. We’ll respond to you directly with more information on what you’ll need to do.
As a token of our thanks you’ll receive a lovely THM bag and our eternal gratitude – as well as mention as one of our special testers when we debut the site.
So, join our team of testers! You want to be our best friend, don’t you?
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on April 1, 2011
I had seen Rabbit Hole Ensemble’s The Tragic Story of Doctor Frankenstein (written by Stanton Wood and directed by Edward Elefterion) just a few short months ago and was so deeply impressed with the way it was presented that I was eagerly anticipating the second of the series Doctor Frankenstein’s Magical Creature. Another joint venture between Wood and Elefterion, Magical Creature tells both the same tale as Tragic Story as well as a completely different one; in a Rashomon type undertaking it retells the events from the perspective of the creature. Fear not – while you’ll recognize the bones of the original story (if you saw it) you most certainly are in for an entertaining evening as you watch the events unfold from the other side.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 30, 2011
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 Jenn Boehm.
The first time I saw Jenn she was standing on the stage at the Planet Connections Festivity Awards Ceremony receiving thunderous applause from the Off-Off Broadway community along with hoots and hollers that filled the theatre that night. She graciously accepted the love. Right away I thought “Gosh, I have no idea who this woman is … but I better get to know her!”
Luckily, I was able to make that “gosh” a reality and while I’m sure there’s much more to learn about Jenn, I’m pleased to say that I’m in a position to do just that. What I can say is that Jenn is many things to many people, but seemingly an endless inspiration to most. Currently she’s the c0-artistic director and managing director of Looking Glass Theatre and has a hand in everything they do from the internship program to each season’s productions.
Well, that’s no small potatoes. Or wait … is it? You see - little did I know Jenn’s story starts not on the boards but in the barns … Jenn came to theatre by way of the farm. Oh, with a stop in pro football along the way. (What?) I better let her explain. Take it away, Jenn -
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 28, 2011
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.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 27, 2011
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 Diánna Martin.
Of course you’ve heard of Diánna Martin – she’s one of our contributors! But her connection to The Happiest Medium started in a much different place … back with The Oath: I was a reviewer for Neighborbee, and I was left emotionally drained by her performance as Deck. I later met her socially at a few of the Off Off Broadway industry events before I was lucky enough to snag her as one of our writers here.
Now she is a dear friend, but in terms of the acting community she is so much more … She is the name and the face behind Martin Acting Studios – a legacy handed down from her father, Ernie Martin. Today, we celebrate Diánna the actress, and the acting coach who is carrying on the tradition she was born into. Here is her story.
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