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by The Happiest Medium on February 15, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Scratch & Pitz Burlesque and Variety Hour
Company: Heroics in Hotpants
Directed by: Cyndi Freeman and Brad Lawrence
Cherry Pitz (Cyndi Freeman) and Scratch (Brad Lawrence) present a burlesque melodrama & variety show. Cherry wants to do a duet act like Sonny & Cher, Burns & Allen, or Captain & Tennille! In exchange Scratch wants Cherry’s soul.
Show Times:
- Thu 2/23 @ 10:30pm
- Sun 2/26 @ 7:00pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 10:30pm
- Fri 3/2 @ 4:00pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 8:30pm
- Sun 3/4 @ 2:30pm
Answers by Cyndi Freeman
(Writer/Performer/Director/Producer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Cyndi: The Scratch & Pitz Burlesque and Variety Hour is a show about how the Devll “Scratch” offers Cherry Pitz her wildest dream in exchange for her soul. Cherry’s dream is to have a Variety show Like Sonny and Cher, Captain & Tennille. And this is the show!
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by The Happiest Medium on February 14, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Big Plastic Heroes
Company: Plastic Thunder
What happens when you try to be your idol? Award-winning PBS special storyteller, Slash Coleman, and SexyNurd writer and performer, auGi, share the answer in their comical and painfully true double feature, Big Plastic Heroes.
Show Times:
- Fri 2/24 @ 6:00pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 2:30pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 10:30pm
- Thu 3/1 @ 10:30pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 5:30pm
- Sun 3/4 @ 2:30pm
Answers by Slash Coleman
(Writer/Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Slash: I think most of us Gen X-ers have reached a nostalgic point in our lives. Now, instead of being embarrassed by the things that populated our childhood worlds, we’ve come to accept them as cool (probably because the rest of the world has embraced these things too). With my little miniature Evel Knievel figurine and his plastic motorcycle I spent hours alone in my room emulating my real-life hero. Hence the title – Big Plastic Heroes.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 9, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
The Terrible Manpain of Umberto MacDougal
Written by and starring Emleigh Wolf
Directed by Bricken Sparacino
Also starring Mike Ogletree
Umberto MacDougal allows you to look through the window of his tragic manpain. With a beard full of tears and a melancholy guitarist playing a sorrowful tune, Umberto reveals the pain that men feel.
Show Times:
- Thu 2/23 @ 9:00pm
- Sun 2/26 @ 7:00pm
- Mon 2/27 @ 6:00pm
- Fri 3/2 @ 7:30pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 2:30pm
Answers by Emleigh Wolf
(Writer / Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Emleigh: Umberto MacDougal’s mission in life is to educate people about manpain, the pain that men feel. To do this, he must relate his own personal manpain to the audience, and it is, indeed, terrible.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 8, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
BLIND TO HAPPINESS
Company: Better to Burn Out Productions
BLIND TO HAPPINESS is a drama/comedy about Couks, a quirky and socially awkward dishwasher, who is struggling to get by. He is helped by his co-workers Mike, a Psychology PhD student, and Bliss, a hapless lovelorn poet. Couks is also helped by his cat, some beer, S Club 7, and (perhaps) life’s most important question – is happiness a choice?
Show Times:
- Wed 2/22 @ 7:30pm
- Fri 2/24 @ 9:00pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 5:30pm
- Tue 2/28 @ 6:00pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 7:30pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 10:00pm
Answers by Tim C. Murphy
(Creator/Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Tim: The title was inspired by a visual experiment in Daniel Gilbert’s book Stumbling on Happiness that one of my characters, Mike (PhD. Positive Psychology student), performs in the play. My play explores the question “Is happiness a choice?” through the three different characters, each struggling to find their own way towards happiness.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 8, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Coosje
Company: No.11 Productions
Coosje is the story of two artists, husband and wife, finding their playful aesthetic together and attempting to escape death. Meanwhile, the singing Pear embarks on a heroic quest to achieve immortality. Their journeys intertwine in this fantastical love story.
Show Times:
- Thu 2/23 @ 7:30pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 10:00pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 9:00pm
- Fri 3/2 @ 6:00pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 7:00pm
Answers by Ryan Emmons
(Co-Artistic Director of No.11 Productions)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Ryan: Coosje refers to the Dutch artist, art historian and critic, Coosje van Bruggen. The play is inspired by (and a celebration of) the relationship she had with her husband/collaborator Claes Oldenburg. She influences everything in Claes’ life…so it seemed appropriate that the title be influenced by her.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 7, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
The Stranger To Kindness
Company: D&A Productions
Directed by: Heather Cohn
Years of routine bind Lena and Nance, two lonely senior women from the Upper West Side. When Nance no longer answers her door, Lena takes it on herself to call the police and her friend’s family. What arrives is a strange dose of animosity and generousness from unlikely places.
Show Times:
- Thu 2/23 @ 6:00pm
- Sun 2/26 @ 2:30pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 9:00pm
- Thu 3/1 @ 7:30pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 4:00pm
Answers by Antonio Miniño
(Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Antonio: The title is a play on words from the famous final lines of A Streetcar Named Desire, “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers”. The characters in The Stranger to Kindness are all figuring out what kindness means, how to give it and how to accept it from others, especially strangers.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 7, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Tali Brady, Afternoon Tea With Jane Austen (Photo by Karin Benedict)
Afternoon Tea With Jane Austen
Orange Wine Productions
Meet English novelist Jane Austen (the woman behind such beloved books as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice) in this solo show about the creator of some of the most popular stories and characters in the English language.
Show Times:
- Fri 2/24 @ 6:30 pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 3:30 pm
- Mon 2/27 @ 9:30 pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 6:30 pm
- Fri 3/2 @ 9:30 pm
- Sun 3/4 @ 3:30 pm
Answers by Tali Brady
(Playwright / Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Tali: I first came up with the title “Tea With Jane Austen” because I was creating an intimate show about a woman telling us about her life and I loved the mental image of telling one’s story over a cup of tea. (On the more mercenary side, I put in “Afternoon” at the beginning of the title to make sure it shows up higher in alphabetical listings!)
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by The Happiest Medium on February 6, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Poe-Dunk, "Annabel Lee"
Poe-Dunk – A Matchbox Entertainment
Company: Playlab NYC
Beyond the tales of terror! On a tabletop lies the quaint and curious work of Edgar Allan Poe. Newspaperman. Playwright. Critic. Humorist. An itty-bitty puppet repertoire of obscure curios, marginalia, and even a couple popular classics from America’s most versatile writer.
Show Times:
- Wed 2/22 @ 6:30 pm
- Fri 2/24 @ 9:30 pm
- Mon 2/27 @ 8:00 pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 11:00 pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 12:30 pm
Answers by Kevin P. Hale
(Creator / Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Kevin: A podunk is a small place that is regarded as unimportant. Cast members don’t get much smaller than the pair of three-quarter inch lovers in my version of “Annabel Lee.” Additionally, it was my goal to shine a light on some of Poe’s lesser-known works, seemingly unimportant stories like “The Scythe of Time” and “The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion.” And finally Edgar Allan Poe loved puns, so Poe-Dunk seemed inevitable.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 2, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Rabbit Island
Company: Elephant Run District
Directed by: Aimee Todoroff
Alex zigzags irregular relationships with an erratic therapist, his off-again/on-again girlfriend, and an untamed burlesque dancer. What more will it take to become a Real New Yorker? “When life sucks as bad as your mental health, go to Rabbit Island.”
Show Times:
- Thur 2/23 @ 9:00pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 8:30pm
- Mon 2/27 @ 7:30pm
- Thur 3/01 @ 6:00pm
- Sat 3/03 @ 5:30pm
Answers by Chris Harcum
(Playwright)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Chris: Oh, I bet you say that to all the Frigid Festival shows.
My friend, and brilliant costume designer, Kathryn Rohe, suggested I develop a character named Alex from my solo show Gotham Standards for a full play. He’s a Canadian in New York City and always slightly out of place, which is my default setting. I was looking at a Not For Tourists Guide and saw that Coney Island came from the Dutch “Konijn Eiland.” In English, that’s “Rabbit Island.” I also found out that Coney Island isn’t actually an island, it’s a peninsula. Something about that is fitting for the characters in this play who are freakshows on the inside and not all they seem on the outside. Plus, come on, rabbits. (You should ask me sometime how we came up with the company’s name, Elephant Run District. It’s a far more entertaining answer.)
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by The Happiest Medium on February 2, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
Mac Rogers (photo by Lauren Arneson)
Judge, Yuri & Executioner
Company: Temerity Theatre Company
Directed by: DeLisa White
Zack is an 85-year-old masochist who prefers older women. His girlfriend just left him. Where can he find a kinky senior citizen now? Time to tell his darkly funny life story!
Show Times:
- Thu 2/23 @ 8:00pm
- Fri 2/24 @ 11:00pm
- Sun 2/26 @ 12:30pm
- Thu 3/01 @ 9:30pm
- Sat 3/03 @ 8:00pm
Answers by Ed Malin
(Playwright)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Ed: The title is a pun on several episodes from the main character’s life. He is 85 years old, has seen a lot, and is a very happy masochist. As such, he finds himself identifying with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
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