Have you ever had one of those dreams? Where you’re having one crazy twist after another, and you can’t wait to see what will happen next… and then you wake up confused not sure what it meant and it even might fade away soon after waking, but it leaves these potentialities of ideas buzzing in your head the rest of the day? The Shorebound Swim With a One Click Kick: A Tragedy of Reason (Written by Markus Paminger & Directed by Alison Carroll) is an awful lot like that. Very enticing, but left intentionally vague, I think, so that you can believe whichever ending you’d hope for.
Goodnight Lovin' Trail Featuring Nic Mevoli & Olivia Rorick (Photo by David Anthony)
Have you ever stupidly misplaced something that was really important to you? Just walked away from it, not realizing it was out of your hands until it was too late? Remember that panic that gripped you to the very core? How your blood turned to ice in your veins and your heart pounded so loud you could hear it in your ears? In John Patrick Bray’s One-Act, Goodnight Lovin’ Trail, this is the moment we meet a traveler who’s just realized he’s left behind the most important thing he owns – Della: his guitar. Without Della this stranger feels like ”a wave of the ocean hung out to dry.”
Go into The Mysterious Mystery of Mystery Street at the Kraine Theatre expecting a hard boiled detective story full of tersely delivered dialogue, dames and dicks and that’s what you’ll get, in a manner of speaking. It’s your typical setup: two hard talking detectives (Sergio Lodolce and Adam Brome) are behind a desk in some seedy joint down town when a hapless dame (Maggie McGuire) walks in. She’s leggy, lovely and looking for her brother; a few tears, a little exposition, some wisecracks and the dicks are soon hoofing it all over town on a random chase that leads them down the path of innuendo, wisecracks, double entendres and mistaken meaning, all culminating with a big shootout in a warehouse. Sounds like all the elements are there for the perfect noir send-up, yes? Well, yes. And . . . no.
Theatre magic doesn’t happen every day or in every show. Those instances when time stops and you are transported from every day life into the world of a writer or a performer are happening right now at the FRIGID New York festival in a basement theater called Under St. Marks. The mastermind behind all this power brought to the stage is Tania Katan with Saving Tania’s Privates. A personal, witty, no-nonsense recount of a Jewish lesbian’s challenge with cancer since the age of 21. Continue Reading…
In poker terms an inside straight means you have everything you need to get all the cards in your hand in order except you’re missing the one in the middle. In actor/writer George Ridgeway’s Inside Straight the play/docudrama/solo show illustrates that as we progress through the second decade of the 21st century, we as individuals, may be reaching out into realms of information security just so we might stay a step ahead of being played ourselves. As the internet moves from 2.0 to 3.0 and New York and other megacities such as London are moving toward becoming Panopticon-ready, and RFID’s are being used for tracking our pets or even ourselves, Johnny Ace (George Ridgeway) enters the scene.
Kevin J Thornton stars in I Love You (We're F*#ked) Photo by Chris Wage
Kevin J. Thornton nimbly takes the stage at 4 in the afternoon for another performance of his one-man show, I Love You (We’re F*#ked). “It’s early in the day, isn’t it?” he asks. “I feel like I’ve just gotten up.” And looking at him, with a slight rawness around the eyes and a gracefully rumpled quality to his stage ensemble, you could quite believe it. But there’s nothing of the grouch, morning or otherwise, about Kevin. His speaking voice is low, calm, almost velvety; the sort of voice that could induce a tranquil confidence even as it asks you to ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your table tops are stowed, and your seats are in an upright position, as the captain will shortly be attempting a crash landing. Standby.
Way, way back before the dawn of the internet, in the days when Microsoft was DOS (not Windows) and PCs were called by their full name (Personal Computers) and learning institutions were oufitted with Apple IIe’s, there was a game that infiltrated homes and schools across America. A game that put you in the role of the leader of a group of interpid pioneers trudging across more than 2,000 miles from Independence, Missouri to the fabled land of Oregon in the year 1848 along the Oregon Trail. The game of Oregon Trail was one of the few educational games true to the claim of being “fun as well as educational” (at least in my school in the 1980′s), and has become extremely popular over the years. So popular that it has insprired a a great new musical by No.11 Productions for the Frigid Festival calledOregon Trail: The Quest For the West!
Personally, I really enjoyed playing the game as well as seeing the musical, but a question I was asked, adds an interesting texture to this discussion, “Do you have to have played the game before in order to enjoy the play?” It definitely helped that by being in the audience I got to relive the joy of playing Oregon Trail in more ways than one, but the play is entertaining and even moving at times in ways that take this now age-old story to whole new heights. Besides, if you wanted to try your hand at the original game it is available to play just like it was back in 1985 … Continue Reading…
F*#king Girls featuring Ben Thompson & Carolyn Gilliam (Photo by Andrew Bisdale)
The Bromance has come into its own and is now permeating black box theatre – behold F*#cking Girls the new Bromantic Comedy brought to you by Ben Thompson and Bro. I mean, and Co. Well, both really. Written by Thompson and directed by Paul Leopold this short, sweet, easy-to-digest play doesn’t cover new ground, but it sure does repave the familiar road admirably.
Set up like every typical comedy of its type F*#cking Girls is comprised of one good guy and one bad guy – or rather one faithful (borderline emotionally pathetic) guy and one cool (that would mean promiscuous) dude. James (Jon Bass) hails from Column A; as the lights come up we find James drowning his sorrows over the demise of his long-term relationship. Quick to step in is his best Bro Mike (Brendan McCarthy) who offers up a simple plan full of the hi-jinks that make for a laugh-packed short play: James needs to sleep his way through all the ex girlfriends who didn’t give it up to him the first time around.
We’re already planning ahead for after-FRIGID and what better way to face the non-festival lull than with a good ole Duncan Pflaster nekkid play? That’s right- you heard right. But why should I blather on when I’ve got the playwright of Six Silences In Three Movements right here?
What’s it all about, Duncan? (I’m humming, are you?)
Well, the story is about a straight couple and a gay couple who are best friends, but the straight guy is having a clandestine affair with one of the gay guys (unbeknownst to their partners).
It’s a long one-act piece which is experimental in form- each scene is broken up into three “movements”, analogous to those in music. There is a poem in a traditional form, then a scene where lovers talk but nothing of importance is said, then a section where, nude, the performers spout non-sequiturs at each other. It’s inspired in part by an Edward Gorey piece called L’Heure Bleu, and has to do with communication, how even when we’re as intimate as we can be with someone, we still might be holding something back.
FABULOUS! I love Edward Gorey and I love that concept. I completely agree – we’re always holding something back.
Your show contains nudity AND poetry. What’s more controversial?
Though the poetry is unusual these days (all of it is in antiquated classical forms: a Villanelle, a Triolet, a Wyleian Sonnet, a Rondeau Redouble), I think it’s probably still the nudity. There’s a whole lot of it in this piece, and the theatre space is quite small, so the audience will be getting up close and personal views of the performers. The show is part of Manhattan Rep’s WinterFest 2011, and it’s usually in their Festival Contract that they don’t allow nudity, but they’re making an exception for this piece because they liked my play so much.
Wow, you made someone break a contract, Mr. Pflaster! Color me impressed. And a little tingly.
Give me six unrelated words that describe your show.
Natural, Love, Silence, Perfection, Desire, Penguin.
Well, I’ve nothing to add there! Always a pleasure, Duncan Pflaster, writer of Six Silences In Three Movements. Roll tape!
Only 3 Performances -
March 19th @ 9PM
March 20th @ 6PM
March 24th @ 9PM
Christel Bartelse in ONEymoon (photo by Shawn McPerson)
The road to self can be a very bumpy one – even bumpier is the road to finding your other half – unless that other half is yourself? The need for that special someone is the favorite topic of most of our happiest mediums, being the center crux in hundreds of books, movies and theatre. Written by Jimmy Hogg & the bubbly Christel Bartelse, ONEymoon is an entertaining if sometimes convoluted look into finding solitary happiness and going all the way – so far as to marrying oneself and taking oneself to a lush tropical “all you can drink” Caribbean honeymoon – with sexy bartender included!
