by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 10, 2010
(Stephen Mosher Photos courtesy of Adam Magazine)
Faye Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories (directed by Jay Rogers, and featuring music written by Keith Thompson, Larry Rosen and Carol Hall – who wrote music and lyrics for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) is a powerful message disguised as a sweet lil tale about a gal who started out life sittin’ on the porch in her Pretty Plus Jeans wearin’ a Burger King crown that she re-did with sparkles and glitter . . . who somehow ended up in New York City tellin’ stories. But don’t let Faye Lane’s Southern charm, flashing eyes and brilliant smile fool you – her story is as resounding and victorious as any by Horatio Alger – with twice the pluck and half the testosterone.
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
by Antonio Miniño on December 9, 2010
Aaron Wigdor Levy is the writer of Monroe, Illinois: Over Here/Townie premiering this week at the Flea Theater, produced by On The Square Productions.
Aaron Wigdor Levy
Tell us a bit about your body of work?
My work usually is pretty naturalistic. Some people have said my plays are political, but I don’t think they’re overtly political. I think most of my plays simply deal with people trying to figure out their place in the world. I know that kind of sounds general, but that’s what I’m trying to do so I don’t see why my characters should be any different.
Continue Reading…
Related Posts:
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 Stephen Tortora-Lee on November 21, 2010
For those of you who attended the Happiest Medium’s 1st Anniversary Party (in 3-D) you may have seen these slide shows already. They feature the great performers we had there, and some of their upcoming projects. Here is the main slide show with the normal as well as 3-D-ified images that will jump out at you if you look at them with ChromaDepth 3-D glasses.
And let me thank all our performers and sponsors one last time -
Ahmond, Monica Bauer, Charites, John Fico, Jeff Grow, Paolo Javier, Kampfire PR, Kill the Band, MTWorks, Karen Tortora-Lee, and Franca Vercelloni,
Now to look at the slides… 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:
