by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 20, 2010
Carl Andress
One of the first interviews I ever did as an “official” theatre reviewer was with Carl Andress who was not only charming and lovely but also heaps of fun to chat with. Back then he was directing Charles Busch and Kathleen Turner in The Third Story which was a show that highlighted the talent of everyone involved. I have nothing but enormous respect for Carl as a director.
Well, I’m happy that I have another reason to interview this wonderful gentleman because Carl Andress is at it again, teaming up with Charles Busch to do The Divine Sister. We recently sat down to talk about the fun of doing an homage to some of Hollywood’s best nuns, and the great actresses who played them.
Along the way, Carl also explains what it’s like to do theatre for the pure joy of it, he give some advice to the Fringe crowd on the smartest way to get a show produced these days, and he enlightens me about a simple little device that has changed his life . . .
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by Stephen Tortora-Lee on August 20, 2010
What’s Beat? The Beat is Beat? Do you dig? (snap,snap).
The story we have is the story we were, twirling and twisting about in a blur whose end and beginning is a boy and a girl. That story – two ends – are tender and sweet . . . But what we got in the middle is what we call the Beat. (roll of tom-toms).
Jerry'Chip' Scuderi, Maureen Duke
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 19, 2010
1001 Nights
Sometimes you just need a break from all the Fringe going on all around you. Alternately, maybe you’re just looking for some good guacamole and chips with a side of laughs. Or you just want to hang out with your friends at the bar downing some beers with the cozy feeling of a room full of happy people laughing their butts off in the next room at something you can’t quite hear. Whatever you’re into, I suggest you find the answer at The Creek and The Cave – a surprising find (for me, at least) in the shadow of the Pulaski Bridge in Long Island City, Queens.
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by Stephen Tortora-Lee on August 19, 2010
What do you do when you’re waiting….And waiting….AND WAITING….
At Gate B23 (written and directed by Debbie Slevin) we watch as 7 people try to figure out what to do when they are forced to look more deeply into their lives – because this time they’re not allowed to just gloss over all the situations as they normally would. The escalating tension turns to transformation again and again, as being forced to actually talk with those you’re with pushes everyone to make decisions they never would have otherwise. Whether new bonds are forged, burst asunder or reinforced to stay the same, the play is always moving along as it focuses on the different people who are waiting – so it’s really like several small plays wrapped into one.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 18, 2010
If you’re looking for a simple little story, told in a simple little way, but one which deceptively leaves you with the feeling that you’ve just seen a full scale production, The Nightmare Story is the show for you.
Taking a cue from old folk tales, the men of PigPen begin to weave a tale that begins in the dark and is brought out from the shadows.
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by Anne Jordanova on August 18, 2010
I don’t ordinarily feature films in the ‘De Profil’ section on THM, but I figured this is a grand exception. As I walked past the Aneglika today in Manhattan, I saw a film poster for “The Concert” starring a wonderful French actress named Melanie Laurent. I decided to check it out, and was blown away by this amazing, little film that came out of nowhere!
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by Lina Zeldovich on August 17, 2010
Pictured: Kristen Rozanski, Michelle Glavan, Zack Gold, JR Davidson, Jacob Crumbine, Janice Lynde (Photographer: Carly Kennelly)
Dressed in leather, excited and nearly flying around her house, Elizabeth (Janice Lynde) is setting up her living room with candles and flowers in preparations for her fifty-fifth birthday date, when her college-age daughter Olivia (Michelle Glavan) unexpectedly shows up. She has flown in to celebrate Mom’s special day, only Mom’s not excited one single bit! On the contrary, she’s shocked, constantly checking the time, and suggests her daughter spends the evening at her friend’s place.
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by Lina Zeldovich on August 17, 2010
Jayne Amelia Larson (Photographer: Eric Swarz)
“The worst job I ever had,” is how writer and actress Jayne Amelia Larsen describes her staggering experience of being a driver for a Saudi family on their Beverly Hills vacation. The family (along with their entourage) took up several floors in a luxury hotel, keeping one room as a tea room, and embarked on their escapade of shopping and plastic surgeries.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 16, 2010
Get seated early to see Classically Trained, Practically Broke (Franca Vercelloni’s solo show, directed by Myrna E. Duarte and John David West) and you’ll get an earful of what Franca is subject to on a nightly basis – the caterwauling of half drunk patrons who gather around her piano at the bar she works at and who beg for show tunes - blithely singing in their own key and verbally abusing her at will as if she’s worth nothing.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 16, 2010
I hadn’t intended to see Ruby Wilder, but boy am I glad that I mistakenly stood in front of the wrong theatre for 20 minutes waiting for my show to begin; it gave me an opportunity to meet and chat with a terrific new talent – Eric Hoff – who I hope I can interview in the future. Turns out, missing my show was fortuitous because it led me right to the unique, eerie, funny, sleazy, rip-roaring world of Ruby Wilder. And what a world that is.
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