by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 8, 2010
A few weeks ago I was honored to be able to sit on a panel of women brought together by Monica Bauer to discuss the specific challenges (and joys!) of being a woman in the Off-Off Broadway community. My fellow panelists were from many different paths, but we all came together with the same spirit and goal – to color an area of the larger picture with our own story in order to present a richer canvas to the audience.
Our discussion was lively, energetic, informative and surprisingly fun. Since I was the only one of the bunch with an actual tool to preserve what had happened that evening (this website you see before you) I offered to turn our discussion into a web series for posterity. Over the next few weeks I’ll feature a different, amazing Woman of Off-Off Broadway who will share her journey with us all.
Kicking us off this week is playwright Robin Rice Lichtig. The author of over 40 plays, including 12 full lengths, Lichtig’s plays have been produced worldwide. She is currently working on an autobiographical play (SUKI LIVINGSTON OPENS LIKE A PARACHUTE), a play about the Victorian photographer Alice Austen, and a puppet theatrical to be produced in a Manhattan park next summer. PLAY NICE! will have a New York premiere in May. SEARCHING FOR A NEW SUN will have a New York workshop and/or premiere next spring following a reading in Berlin.
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 7, 2010
*All photos in this article courtesy of Stevyn Llewellyn.
What do you get when you mix up a bunch of people who can sing karaoke better than the average bar crowd, background tracks that runs the gamut from Bizet’s Carmen to Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, with a smattering of Rogers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin and Handel thrown in, and a gorgeous gal who strips down to her pasties? Not to mention – well, actually – do you need more than that?
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 30, 2010
One of the very cool things about this series is that each month they randomly pick an audience member to star in a film to be shown the following month at Iron Mule. So if you’ve been sitting around waiting for your star turn, your odds will be significantly increased just by sitting in this audience. What else do you have to do on December 4th?
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 29, 2010
Come to DIVA SEARCH!
What is DIVA SEARCH? It’s open mike opera karaoke! And I say it’s about time!
On Thursday December 2, break out your inner diva and join Morningside Opera for an evening of music and revelry. Besides an opera karoake contest starring YOU, the party will also feature burlesque performances by Medianoche, and danceable electronic beats courtesy of DJ King Ludd.
Just come to Royal Oak, at 594 Union Ave at Richardson, Williamsburg (L to Bedford or Lorimer; G to Lorimer) on Thursday December 2, from 8pm-midnight.
Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door, and include a free specialty cocktail! Click Here to purchase.
Proceeds benefit Morningside Opera’s 2010-11 season project, ATRA, a new multimedia Handel opera.
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 27, 2010
If you weren’t familiar with the body of work playwright Monica Bauer has produced, upon hearing the title of her latest show, BALLS! The Testosterone Plays, it would be very easy to mistakenly dismiss this as a night of 2 one-act plays that do nothing more than skewer fifty percent of the population. Delve a littler deeper, and examine the titles of the shorts – Two Men Walked Into A Bar and Made For Each Other and this notion might be even further cemented. After all, Two Men Walked Into A Bar is as ubiquitous a set up as “How Many Actors Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb?” (Answer: Two. One to stand on a chair and change it and one to say “I wish I was up there!”)
If you ARE familiar with playwright Monica Bauer, however, you know that an evening of fluffy, mindless confection is the last thing you’re going to get from her testosterone plays. For while she’s got a breezy way with humor and can evenly lace it throughout her stories, this is a woman whose plays about men pack as strong a punch as anything done by Mamet or Labute. If you want to sip on a cocktail that’s sweet and full of empty calories, you’re clearly walking into the wrong bar.
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 20, 2010
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.
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 20, 2010
Usually when THM has a giveaway we run a contest and only one very lucky winner gets a pair of free tickets to a show. But, because Monica Bauer and her team are such fans of the site, and because they had such a wonderful time participating in our 1 year anniversary party they would like to continue to spread the love!
TODAY ONLY at 2pm and 8pm come to the box office WorkShop Theatre 312 W.36th St. NYC (between 8th and 9th Aves.) and mention THE HAPPIEST MEDIUM and get a pair of FREE tickets to BALLS! The Testosterone Plays of Monica Bauer.
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 19, 2010
We’re still coming down from the amazing party that was held (in 3-D!) on Monday night – celebrating The Happiest Medium’s first year. If you were lucky enough to be at the party you saw some wonderful performances. If you missed it – I’ve got some great news for you.
This weekend you can get you fill of BALLS! The Testosterone Plays of Monica Bauer . . . and afterward you can get your Girl Balls fix with Killy Dwyer and Kill The Band as they open and close ALTER EGO with their avant garde comedic punk rock performance art and antics!! If you don’t have enough balls in your life, this is the weekend to get your fill . . .
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 9, 2010
It may not make sense to celebrate the past five years of your relationship with a performance of The Last Five Years – the musical. After all, for 50 percent of the show your job as an audience member is to painfully watch this fledgling relationship between Cathy and Jamie disintegrate while trying not to openly cry. (That’s right, tough guy. I saw you.)
However, just as Cathy belts out to Jamie - “I have been waiting for you . . .” similarly I have been waiting to see a production of The Last Five Years for a REALLY long time now. Strangely, while this amazing musical has been performed ’round the world in countries as varied as Mexico, Greece and Hungary (even being translated into German and Dutch) and even though it made its off-Broadway debut at the Minetta Lane Theatre (Right there! Minetta Lane!) it still has remained strangely elusive to me. So, in our little corner of the world, it actually made perfect sense for my husband and me to mark the 5th anniversary of our 1st date – our Last Five Years – with a viewing of Stage Left Productions The Last Five Years. But wait - it meant we had to travel all the way to Southern New Jersey. ONE HUNDRED miles and TWO hours away from the off-off Broadway community that I know so well.
So . . . was it worth it? Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
by Karen Tortora-Lee on November 8, 2010
There is a very good reason why some stories are told under the cover of darkness – hidden from the world and everything that takes place during the mundane trivialities of the day. Because some stories aren’t meant for the daylight. Only a blanket of blackest night will give some words that extra visceral thrill, only the the anonymity of the night can help create that tension that starts racing along every nerve ending – only darkness will give some stories the ability to make your heart race . . . will draw your lips together – will make you believe that the words are true.
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
