The Happiest Medium » Shakespeare

Romeo And Juliet, Empirical Rogue Productions

Geoffrey Paddy Johnson — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:03:23 +0000

The first thing you can’t fail to notice upon entering the performance space for Empirical Rogue‘s production of Romeo and Juliet, is the spectacular environment chashama have provided for the company. Formerly a taxi service garage on Jackson Avenue, LIC, the space retains the character of its previous functionalism, but the translation of the environment for its theatrical purpose is all but awe inspiring. This is immersive theatre space at its most captivating. Three very simple arrangements of double rowed seats place the audience right at the edge of the action. Behind them floor to ceiling drapes of canvas enclose the space and focus attention on one corner of the performance area, where a raised office hutch serves as the play’s famous balcony setting. The raw cinder block walls are spectrally painted with fading murals and decorative effects that describe location and contribute atmosphere almost slyly – “Verona” the largest declares boldly, like some pageant-styled vermouth advertisement of the Forties. A raw building scaffold sits easily in the space, spotlights glow in constellation behind canvas walls, and a wide grill metal gate recalls you to the actuality of the location. Before the drama has begun you want to take your hat off to production designer, Dante Olivia Smith, muralist, Adam Fujita, and producer/director, Tim Eliot. This is one of the most intelligent and graceful set designs I have come across.

Susannah Hoffman and Doug Chapman.

And very happily, all of its cleverness and lightness of touch is nimbly echoed in the performance that follows of Shakespeare’s most famous story of the tragic, young, star-crossed lovers. Eliot has honed down the play to use just four actors, each necessarily playing several roles. The choreographing of characters to scenes requires rapid-fire role changes, asking both performers and audience to stay alert and keep their wits in order to follow the action. Rudimentary costume changes are effected in seconds behind the scenes, and on this first night of performance all ran effectively as actors disappeared through narrow gaps in the scenery to emerge moments later in alternate character from another partition. Timing is precise and impressive. Having the same actors portray different genders and different generations is engrossing to watch, but also throws into relief contrasts in the story’s culturally imposed roles and restrictions. Jacob Martin takes both the role of the impassioned and reckless Romeo, as well as that of the socially constrained and conservative Lady Capulet, Juliet’s mother. All of the actors can be commended on the stamina which they bring to bear in sustaining the charged atmosphere, and it is a special note of success that I found myself, while watching the four actors in scene together, expectant of the arrival of yet another. The sense that another character was waiting in the wings was proof of the effectiveness of the illusion they were working so hard to create.

This is a physical production and swordplay (Shad Ramsey) is vigorous and convincing. Creating the sense of a factional melee can be understandably difficult with just four, sometimes three, actors at a time. Eliot’s direction is equal to the challenge and he gives us a delightful note of chaotic confrontation at one point, when a van pulls up outside the garage, headlights blazing, the gate rolls noisily upward, and sword-wielding actors rush in. The illusions of a masqued ball and of populated public space are similarly creatively suggested with a minimum of effects and participants.

If there is a villain in the production then it is undoubtedly the acoustics in this raw space. Intimate exchanges between characters can get lost and, as there is much active space in use, the same may be said when actors are turned away from the audience. As Romeo, Martin projects the most effectively, conjuring youthful vitality and a character who is touchingly over-taken by new passions and the will to be an honorable man. There were moments though when I wished he would modulate his delivery more; not everything the young lover says is an exclamation. Susannah Hoffman as Juliet gets it right, marrying the charge to the lines. This is a full throttle performance with great range, taking us from girlish excitement all the way to womanly anguish. Her Mercutio is equally impressive, startling even as she projects a complex braggart and hot head who seems to be masking a woundedness at Romeo’s attentions towards women. Sarah Baskin gets great play out of the Nurse, driven by sympathy to imprudence, she is all attentiveness and want of wisdom. To Doug Chapman fall the less meaty roles of Benvolio and Friar Laurence, well-intentioned voices of temperance, and he dithers and agonizes leanly. As an ensemble these actors come together most effectively and in moments of pitch, the language and acting engender a white hot intensity that melts your sense of time and place, all the poise and cleverness, any need of a suspension of disbelief. It’s powerful.

Fine touches abound. Live music is featured in the form of Becca Bernard, a solo cellist, sitting all-but-not-quite out of sight behind wooden pallets in one corner. The wardrobe (Summer Lee Jack) is a hybrid of contemporary wear and historical costume notes, lithely at play with a notion of dress-up and realism. In a similar vein, features of the scene-setting mural decoration archly confess to their own artificiality, their recently applied theatricality. But there is a lyricism amidst this self-consciousness. In the one instance when the space is plunged into complete darkness, a small, plastic night light that has been glowing unnoticed throughout the action, becomes the sole point of light. Keen-eyed observers might note it is a figure of the Virgin, the mother of all sorrows, herself a complex symbol of themes that underscore the drama. Utterly thoughtful, innovative, bold and tempered, Empirical Rogue and Tim Eliot have produced a memorable version of this much played Shakespearean favorite, itself the mother of all tragic romances. All one can say is Bravo! Bravo!

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Romeo and Juliet

Directed by Tim Eliot

chashama

26-15 Jackson Avenue

New York, NY 11101

United States

May 19, 2012 – Jun 10, 2012 8:00 PM

Tickets: $15.00 – $18.00

Click Here to purchase

Drowning Ophelia: She Gets On Swimmingly (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

The Happiest Medium — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:14:22 +0000

The Happiest Medium Review by guest contributor Linnea Covington

The term “rock musical” can mean a variety of things, most of them not very good. But in Zack Powell and JD Cannady’s Drowning Ophelia, the musical aspect is all part of the story and the story rocks on its own. Cannady, who wrote the book, manages to create a convincing drama surrounding Ophelia, Shakespeare’s forlorn noblewoman who has the bad luck of loving Hamlet. She also drowns herself, which is exactly how she ended up in purgatory, singing away the time with her band the Clowns and waiting for the day Hamlet shows up.

Eliza Morris as Ophelia

Eliza Morris takes the reigns of the title roll and does so with a finesse that makes you believe she could be Ophelia. As she sings her heart out, her powerful voice carries out the emotional impact of the songs while clearly conveying the lyrics. No stranger to the works of the bard, Zack Powell is responsible for writing such catchy tunes as “Dead and Gone,” “My Dear Ophelia,” and “What You Need.” While they do prove a bit kitschy, the tunes communicate not only Ophelia’s passion for Hamlet, but clever lines from the original play dots the lyrics like in the first ditty, “Wash Over Me,” when she belts out, “tell me what to be—or not to be.”

Powell also takes up an instrument as band member Touchstone along with Tommy Malouf as Feste and Patrick Boylan as Puck. All three do an excellent job as Morris’ backup, offering her relationship advice and threatening to beat up a tweaked out Hamlet (played by Micky O’Sullivan) when he finally makes an appearance. Hamlet, for all he is worth, gets excited to see the charismatic, sexy Ophelia and while she waxes poetically about their past, he ogles her charming figure. Morris plays the part of smoldering temptress with just the right about of cockiness and flirtation to make it believable. The audience, like her band mates, fall in love before the first song even finishes, a pretty good trick for a 400-year-old dead girl.

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Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical

Company: RIFF Collective

Directed by: JD Cannady

Mar 01, 6:00PM

Mar 02, 9:00PM

Mar 04, 1:00PM

$15.00

UNDER St.Marks

~~~

The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

The Happiest Medium — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:43:02 +0000

Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?

Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical

Company: The RIFF Collective

In Drowning Ophelia, we see one girl with a microphone and the story of Hamlet told through an exciting theatrical concert of sex, drowning, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Show Times:

Sat 2/25 @ 7pm
Sun 2/26 @ 2:30pm
Mon 2/27 @ 10:30pm
Thu 3/1 @ 6pm
Fri 3/2 @ 9pm
Sun 3/4 @ 1pm

Answers by JD Cannady

(Director and Book Writer)

Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
JD: Drowning Ophelia is an homage and riff off of the classic Hamlet story. After her self-proclaimed “tragic” drowning, Ophelia finds herself in purgatory with nothing to do. When the story comes back to her, four hundred years later, will she drown in the details over again or rise above?

Diánna Martin’s Question
If you were going to invite five people, anyone from past and present, to see your FRIGID show – who would you invite and why?
JD: Who would I invite? Tough one!

We’d invite Bill Shakespeare first to see the show- just to see if he’d approve. I’m sure if Bill was alive today he’d love guitars and mics… at least we hope so.

I’d love to invite Richard Burbage and the unidentified original actor that played Ophelia to the performance as well. Two actors that created these iconic roles, we’re sure would love to see their original creations in a much different light.

John Cameron Mitchell would be next for showing us that rock musicals really can rock and inspiring stories in the musical theatre world that take risks.

Lastly? I’m sure Sylvia Plath would have fun. No real reason other than having another whiny suicidal girl in the room, I guess.

Antonio Minino’s Question
What is the biggest sacrifice you’ve ever made for your Art and was it worth it?
JD: [editor's note: this question was left mysteriously blank. I can only assume that JD's sacrifice was 1) so enormous it's too big to talk about and 2) well worth it. Or, you know ... not.]

Geoffrey Paddy Johnson’s Question
Was there any unexpected discovery made during the development of this production and, if so, can you share it?
JD: The biggest discovery made over the course of our process has been the amazing, and undeniable realization that not only can new theatre transform the human experience but also effectively transform an worn story into something equally as moving in its own distinct way.

Michelle Augello-Page’s Question
What do you hope the audience receives from the experience of seeing this show?
JD: At RIFF, we hope that our audiences take home the experience of seeing a story in a completely different way. By providing this to you, our audience, we’re inviting you to make a new decision about a character, a new discovery about that moment that always confused you, or a new dilemma to walk into the next production of the classic with. All in all, we hope to stimulate old stories to stimulate your mind today.

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH

THM Bonus Question – We’re serious this year!
In the THM virtual Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH which FRIGID Show do you take on? And what do you throw?
JD: Paper. Nothing but paper.

And who do you challenge?
JD: Pick for us!

Okay, JD … we’re going to The Randomizer now. Flippity Flip … your random opponent is I Married A Nun! which is very fitting what with the whole “get thee to a nunnery” and all … but totally random – promise!

Nun threw PAPER … so what started out very exciting actually ended in a tie. But wait! You were also challenged by Love In The Time Of Chlamydia who threw ROCK at everyone. That’s a WIN! And following in Love‘s footsteps was Initium/Finis who also threw ROCK at everyone. Another WIN! And finally, you were directly challenged by Poe-Dunk, A Matchbox Entertainment who threw PAPER resulting in another tie. Congratulations! Ophelia may have drowned but you certainly escaped DEAAAAATH in this RPS Tournament!

Thanks Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical for participating in The Happiest Medium’s FRIGID New York Festival 2012 Q&A. And for playing our game! You’re officially PAPER in any and all challenges. You may win again, you may not – who knows! This is how it works in the crazy world of the Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH!

For the rest of you don’t forget to check out Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical!

~~~

Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical

Company: RIFF Collective

Directed by: JD Cannady

Feb 25, 7:00PM

Feb 26, 2:30PM

Feb 27, 10:30PM

Mar 01, 6:00PM

Mar 02, 9:00PM

Mar 04, 1:00PM

$15.00

UNDER St.Marks

~~~

The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

My Left Hand Man: Antonia Bogdanovich Explains What It Means To Be A Family

Karen Tortora-Lee — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:47:12 +0000

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the new short film by Antonia Bogdanovich — MY LEFT HAND MAN — starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Nanny McPhee, Love Actually), Andrew Howard (Limitless, upcoming “Hatfields and McCoys”), Kevin Bigley (“The Chicago Code,” “CSI: Miami”) and Erich Wildpret, who is a Latin American star. The 18-minute dramatic short screens as part of the NJ Film Fest at Rutgers on January 28th. Although the film clocks in at under half an hour I was captivated by the beautiful mosaic of emotions Bogdanovich was able to create both as writer and director in this film. The story is told in a straightforward, simple manner however the situation is anything but conventional.

The Emersons are a theatrical family, of sorts – one son is a street performer who recites Shakespeare while his older brother picks pockets in the crowd. Their father, a has-been thespian, spends the take on booze and ponies. But Samuel wants to make like his comic book hero The Cardinal Comet and split; and a visit from a loan shark gives Samuel a chance at freedom.

Ms. Bogdanovich graciously allowed me to pepper her with questions, both about this amazing film and the process of making it, as well as how her impressive lineage played a part in making her who she is today. Read on as she tells me about the challenges of creating a short film, how her own rebellious youth helped her created the character of Samuel, and exactly what a “left hand man” means to her …

Antonia Bogdanovich

Antonia! I just saw your short film, MY LEFT HAND MAN, and found it incredibly compelling. In 18 minutes you manage to tell a story which provides so much back-story yet takes place in a very short span of time.

You not only directed MY LEFT HAND MAN, but wrote it as well. Where did this idea of the story come from?

Antonia Bogdanovich: The idea came from a few places. I love Shakespeare – as an actor, I studied it a bit at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London (summer program). And I have seen quite a few very good productions on stage, as well as some of or most of the films. I really relate to his work, it has such depth yet it is so accessible. The crime elements are from my own experiences….ahem… I was a bit of a juvenile delinquent – rebelling pretty hard against my upbringing. So I basically hung out with kids that stole cause they had to (their parents didn’t have enough to finance their extracurricular activities) or because they just liked the thrill of getting away with it or both.

The comic book comes from my son – who loves superheroes – but I chose comic books because I wanted it to be clear that my character couldn’t really afford cell phones or cable TV. Then it became even more important to show that their father wouldn’t really allow it even it they could afford it.

I also really wanted to write about two brothers. And what it would be like if they had to fend for themselves. My parents were away a lot working when I was growing up, and I had to figure out a lot of stuff on my own. And I love the dynamic of brothers. It’s really fascinating how close they can be, but don’t necessarily interact the way sisters do. (I have 2 sisters).

What does the title mean to you personally? And further, what do you think the title would mean to your characters – something different?

AB: The title, as you probably gathered, is a play on “my right hand man.” So the title means having someone you can depend on, but in a real backwards kind of way. You can depend on them, but you really shouldn’t. So the father depends on his kids, but he shouldn’t. The brothers depend on themselves, but they shouldn’t have to at such a young age. And in the end, they all encounter great losses because of this. So I guess the title is really about enabling and co-dependence, familiar themes I think all families contend with, but this one worse than some others.

I think to my characters the title might mean something different for each one. The father would deny it completely. The older brother would say that no one was or is his right or left hand man. And the youngest brother, Samuel (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), would probably feel the same way I do about the title. Samuel’s brother is his left hand man. He depends on him because he really doesn’t have a choice. But in the end, he only has himself to depend on. So in a way, he’s free.

MY LEFT HAND MAN will be screening as part of the New Jersey Film Fest at Rutgers. How did you become a part of that?

AB: I submitted to the New Jersey Film Festival and they accepted the film. I really thought festivals in New York and New Jersey would respond to this story so I searched festivals in that area. Fingers crossed I get into a few more!

Thomas Brodie Sangster in a scene from "My Left Hand Man"

Thomas Brodie-Sangster is utterly amazing in this film. How did he come to this role?

AB: Thomas Brodie-Sangster is unbelievable. He made me tear up a number of times on the set. And I don’t usually cry in front of people I barely know, but one time I had to literally go outside. I was so overwhelmed with his sheer, natural talent. We would really like to work together again so I pray that happens in the future. The way I found him was I called my dear friend Sean Valla to ask if he would edit my short. He was in Louisiana at the time working on a feature film, The Baytown Disco. I told him about the script and described the main character. He said, “you should check out Sangster” – who was actually working on The Baytown Disco. I asked if he were British and if he could do an American accent to which the answers were both “yes”. Then I looked him up on IMDB and almost died because he was perfect. Then, of course, I recognized him from Love Actually and Nowhere Boy. Then I got really lucky because I sent him the script and he liked it! Sean Valla did end up being my editor so I got 2 great people with one lucky phone call.

Short films can sometimes be more challenging that full-length movies which is something most people would never consider. I’m sure you had to juggle a lot of moving parts to make this film. What’s a story you could share with our readers that’s a good example of this?

AB: On the challenges of short films, three days before we started shooting we lost the actor that was supposed to play the father, Warren. He got a recurring role on a TV show so I totally understood at that time because mine was a short with no real money. Needless to say, I was panicked. We needed an English actor, etc and as you could probably tell from the quality of the acting, I wasn’t about to use a mediocre actor. So I knew if I didn’t end up recasting it with a really talented actor, I would end up cancelling the shoot. I basically “called in” my first big favor. I actually had to call a few people I knew before I really got the favor…lol. The 1st few people I called were like….”ahhh, you say it’s for a short….yeah can’t really help there.” Then someone put me in touch with Andrew Howard, who was literally between projects in Los Angeles for one week and agreed to do it. I will never forget what he did for me or for this film. He was incredible! He is so funny too, that he had everyone on set in stitches!

The film has a beautiful aesthetic – every frame carries an emotion with it. Was that intentional? Or do you just do that intuitively?

AB: As far as the aesthetic (thanks so much for the incredible compliment), I do it intuitively. But I was an amateur photographer and also dabbled in oil painting. My grandfather was a fine artist, my father has an incredible eye, and my mother was an amazing production designer so I guess you could say it’s in the genes. However, I’ve always been an extremely visual learner. So I have to give some of the credit to myself. And when I write scripts I do see every shot in my head and every location before I write it.

Antonia on set

How hard was it for you to switch between your writing persona and your directing persona to complete this film? Was there ever a moment, directing it, that you were tempted to re-write something in order to make something flow better?

AB: Funny you ask about the writing/directing persona. I actually re-wrote up until three days before we were going to shoot. I only stopped because my 1st AD was like, “we need a shooting script now so I can send it out to the crew so stop sending me new drafts!” But on set, my actors improvised a bit – mostly the foul language and some English slang. I only actually wrote one “fuck” in the script. But as I’m sure you noticed there were many many more than that, which was perfectly fine with me because it was completely authentic to the story we were telling.

You are the product of two very talented parents whose combined success in the industry is estimable. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you were going to follow in their footsteps. My dad’s an accountant and that’s the last career I would choose. Even though you are obviously talented as a writer and filmmaker you easily could have decided to do something else to be rebellious. So, my question is – taking all that into account – was this career inevitable? Or could you see yourself doing something else just as easily?

AB: My parents…yes… are a tough act to follow. Well, I started out at a very young age wanting to be a singer. I was quite good, but I had terrible stage fright so I got as far as back-up singing and a demo tape. I also worked in production right out of high school for a number of years, but never knew quite what I wanted to end up doing. At that time, I never ever considered directing. It was too much pressure, and I didn’t have the confidence. I also studied acting and booked quite a few acting gigs. But after one really bad experience – I left acting and the business for good, swearing that it wasn’t for me and decided to become a scientist – as far removed as possible

But within a year of college, I took up writing – poems, short stories, and journalism. I kept telling myself that this was a hobby and I wasn’t an artist, dammit. Even when I wrote my second screenplay, I was still telling myself the same thing. I was in complete denial. But now, I would have to say that this was truly inevitable. Though I tried very hard at other things, none of them stuck. It’s quite a relief for me to not fight it anymore. I’m truly at peace with it. I wanted so badly to do something different than my parents. I was such a rebel. But I realized at some point that I can be different than them, but still make pictures. And now I’m so proud of their accomplishments where as when I was younger, I was intimidated. I am so thankful for everything they taught me about film-making even though when I was younger I often would roll my eyes at them when they would try to teach me something. My mother knew so very much about every aspect of film-making it still boggles my mind.

As far as directing, it was much easier for me to be a writer than to admit I wanted to be a film director. After directing some theater, I actually did the short to make sure that what I really wanted to do. And, by the second day I was so sure and so comfortable being a director it was unreal. It was a true “ahh” moment. It also felt so real and so perfect for my personality. I really feel at home on a movie set – probably because I spent more time with my parents on movie sets than I did at home. Sad as that may sound, it’s true. When I see lights and cable laid across the ground it actually reminds me of the good parts of my childhood every time. And we all know how that feels when we see something from our childhood that just makes us feel comfortable. Well, that’s how it feels like for me on a movie set.

Final question – the film ends on an open-ended note of confusion, but hope too. What do you think that says about you, as a writer?

AB: Every opportunity in life brings another challenge, not necessarily an obstacle, but another choice. So Brodie-Sangster’s character, Samuel, is not quite sure where he’s going to go next. But I do have him leave the house so the audience would know he’s not going to stay “in there” figuratively or physically. I think that traumatic events are so confusing. I’ve had a few bad ones, and some of them were at a pretty young age. But if you experience tragedy, you also have to have hope that things will improve otherwise you would literally die from grief. You actually learn that things get better after going through something difficult for the first time. In other words, you learn to have “hope” that things will get better with time and space from the actual event.

So I think as a writer I will always want to leave my audience with some hope, but also with the understanding that life can be pretty confusing with its fair share of ups and downs. And when we are first confronted with something I think there is always a time where we are confused by it or don’t quite understand what is happening to us or the people around us.

~~~

Thank you, Antonia Bogdanovich, for giving us so much background on your wonderful film!

For those of you who are interested in seeing My Left Hand Man at the festival, please click here for more information. The screening will be held January 28th starting at 7:00pm and Antonia will be making an appearance so if you read something here that you’d like to know more about, or if something about the film brings up your own questions – get yourself over there and ask away!

It’s A Sunshine Day For Stephen Garvey, Writer Of “The Bardy Bunch”

Karen Tortora-Lee — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:30:10 +0000

Earlier this week FringeNYC announced the 2011 Overall Excellence Award Winners and we at THM couldn’t have been happier to celebrate with the winners and congratulate them on their success. One standout for me was The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady which was definitely one of my favorites this year. I was lucky enough to get a moment with Stephen Garvey – writer of this fantastic show which takes one part Brady, one part Partidge, one part Shakespeare, and all parts groovy and mixes it together in a crazy plot worthy of Sherwood Schwartz on his best day. Read on to find out if Garvey is Team Brady or Team Partridge … see how creativity can spring in the most unlikeliest of places, and learn what the secret to a great mash-up really is …

Stephen Garvey!!! First of all, congratulations on winning the Ensemble Award! You’re in great company. It was clear from the first five minutes that your show was destined to win recognition, but did you see this award coming?

SG: Didn’t see it coming but so happy it came. We really lucked out with this cast. Director Jay Stern and I had to hold our auditions very late in the game, and we were nervous. Not only did we need to fill 18 roles, we needed actors who could sing, dance, be funny and manage to capture the spirit of the iconic characters they were playing. How we went 18 for 18 is nothing short of miraculous!

Mash ups are all the rage right now. There is a right way and a wrong way to do them — you obviously know the right way. What would you say your formula for success was when it came to putting together The Bardy Bunch?

I think it begins with knowing your material, and I did, thanks to NYU (Shakespeare) and a wasted childhood (The Brady Bunch and Partridge Family). With mash-ups, it’s easy to get laughs just by folding contrasting genres together, but I think the richer laughs come when you go deeper and find the surprising amount of similarities these opposing forms of storytelling share.

Okay – be honest. Of the two families, who had the kids you’d most want to hang out with and why? Brady or Partridge? And did that play a part in how you put this show’s script together?

I’ll admit it. I grew up Team Brady, but as far as hanging out with a family, I would lean Team Partridge. I loved Laurie and always wanted to ride on that awesome bus. The coolest thing about our show is that it actually felt like I was hanging out with both families while writing the script, which was a childhood fantasy come true…and yes, I realize how pitiful that sounds.

One of the great things about The Bardy Bunch is how perfectly it utilizes so many of the Shakespearean themes we all know so well. Was that an easy thing to do? Do you think that essentially all drama at this point is a bit derivative of The Bard?

It wasn’t that hard to write, because I was having so much fun with it, and as you said, the Bard offers so many plotlines to choose from. Honestly, the whole thing was a thought exercise at first. I was doing laundry one day and thinking about what a great couple Keith Partridge and Marcia Brady would make (as one does when doing laundry). It felt very Romeo and Juliet to me, and that began a game in my head of assigning different Shakespearean characters to different Bradys and Partridges. I sometimes wonder if there was something in the fabric softener I was using that day.

Speaking of Shakespeare … were there any other great plays you’d have wanted to work into the story line but found you couldn’t make fit?

The original draft of this script was about 2½ hours long and had a lot of King Lear and Twelfth Night elements. I needed to keep this thing lean and mean though. I’m saving the other great plays for my Love Boat/Fantasy Island mash-up.

Love Boat / Fantasy Island! Two more childhood obsessions! I’ll say it now: if you can bring that one to life with even a fraction of the creativity you brought to The Bardy Bunch I think you’ll have another runaway hit on your hands.

Now that you’ve won the Excellence Award, what’s next for Bardy Bunch?

We feel we have a great piece that we’re eager to share with audiences who grew up loving the Bradys, the Partridges and the Bard. We’re ready to “Keep On’ Movin’,” and are talking to venues right now!

That’s fantastic news! I would love to know that New Yorkers are getting another chance to see this show — Fringe goes by in a flash … Bardy should get a chance to stick around for a loooong time!

Bonus question – no holds barred. Feel free to tell me anything at all … More about The Bardy Bunch, tell me a joke, give me the lyrics of your favorite song, explain what your most passionate about, plug a project (or a friend’s project!) The Mic is yours!

I wish I had something really juicy for you. “No holds barred” almost mandates it. I just want to proclaim my love for the whole Fringe experience. The friendships that came out of this are legion. People bust on The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family for being corny and unrealistic, but our cast and crew embodied a very loving, nurturing spirit throughout, and none of us want to let go of it!

Steve, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us. Again, congratulations on your well deserved award – to you and the entire talented cast and production team. We’re waiting anxiously to see what happens next! Check back in with us again – we’d love to do a follow up!

Salamander Stew (Fringe Festival 2011)

Lina Zeldovich — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 18:47:23 +0000

So What Really Is Salamander Stew?

Shakespeare meets The Nightmare Before Christmas in Salamander Stew, a Romeo and Juliet musical powered by love and a mighty joint, currently playing at The 4th Street Theater as part of the New York International Fringe Festival. There aren’t too many international productions in Fringe this year, but a lost-in-time enchanted forest does the trick to make this one feel far removed from New York. The only verse-play in the festival, Salamander Stew takes you into a phantasmagorical world of slithering creatures, hungry spirits, and deceptive rather than deciduous trees. Everything we always read about the deep dark woods but were afraid to experience unfolds before our eyes in its native wickedness. If you are a Harry Potter fan, a Tolkien geek or if Beetlejuice was one of your favorite movies, Salamander Stew is a must.

‘Tis the premise – classically simple: Young, naïve and lovesick Steven stumbles upon beautiful woodlands. It’s hard to tell whether the spell descends on him from the evil powers of the trees or the sinful potency of the grass he smokes, but once he takes a respite in the welcoming shade, the thicket takes him. His inflamed mind takes him on a psychedelic trip: he meets his love, he loses her, he wakes up in the lizards’ lair exhausted and hungry, but all he is offered to eat is a nauseating salamander stew.

A sprig of spinach.
A slice of radish.
Whiff of ginger.
Paw of rabbit.

Orange claw.
Forest thatch.
Lizard’s lungs.
Down the hatch.

There aren’t many props on the stage: a leaf-covered layer and a couple of beautifully authentic stumps adorned with fuzzy yarns is all the magic. The treacherous forest as well as the evil inhabitants it harbors, are acted by the energetic cast of seventeen. They spend hours on their make-up, transforming themselves from human into sprawling plants, slithering serpents and ghastly gnomes. On the way to the theater, they practice jungle sounds, chirping like birds and rustling like leaves. Their efforts pay-off: the moment we set foot in the door we feel that instead of a theater, we have wandered into the endless woods.

A lot happens in this one-act musical: dancing, drumming, singing — all in a quick aggressive pace that never slows down, moves the story forward and keeps our attention. So do the lighting effects, transporting us from the pitch black to the vampirish white to the soft shade of the love scenes. The cast works well together, especially when performing the Red-Eye dance in complete darkness, creating a believable illusion of dozens of hungry red eyes glowing in the infinite wilderness. A charmingly poetic old English script executed in the best traditions of Stomp, has a lot to offer, but there is only one thing is doesn’t do.

It never explains what really is Salamander Stew.

When it doubt, Google it. According to Urban Dictionary, “Salamander Stew” is a code name for sex.

~~~

Salamander Stew

Writer: Michael Fixel
Director: Juliet Fixel and Ron Shreve

1h 0m
www.facebook.com/salamanderstew
VENUE #12: 4th Street Theatre
Thu 25 @ 6:15 Fri 26 @ 2 Sat 27 @ 10 Sun 28 @ 4:30

The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady (Fringe Festival 2011)

Karen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:26:01 +0000

Here’s the story … of The Bardy Bunch: The War Of The Families Partridge And Brady.

It’s 1974 and two families, one Brady, one Partridge are at war. Their battlefield exists in cancelled sit-com land and their weapons consist of killer dance moves, cut throat ballads and production numbers meant to slay you in the aisles. Their story is a mash up of well-known Partridge and Brady references retrofitted into such Shakespearean plays as Hamlet, MacBeth, Romeo and Juliet, among others.

The result is everything Fringe has come to be celebrated for: an innovative, enjoyable, hilarious night of theatre written by Stephen Garvey and directed by Jay Stern that isn’t afraid to push the envelope.

Whether you’re a 70s sitcom fan or a passionate follower of the bard, all your favorites are here – beginning with the Brady kids decked out in their all-too-familiar blue and white matching outfits as they sing “We’re gonna keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on dancing all through the night!” The choreography by Lorna Ventura is spot on – something you only realize you know as you actually watch it happen in front of you. Ahhh, memories.

But it doesn’t all belong to the kids – when Carol Brady (Susan J. Jacks) arrives on the scene she sound so much like Florence Henderson that I heard murmurs in the audience … and same for Shirley Partridge (Michelle Mazza). So when shades of Lady MacBeth emerge in Carol while her eldest daughter Marcia is being the Juliet to Keith Partridge’s Romeo it all makes perfect sense.

What delights so thoroughly is how faithful each character remains to their Brady/Partridge origins while faithfully moving the Shakespearean plots along. This story was just waiting to be done. Thanks to the fantastic team of Garvey and Stern it has now been done perfectly.

The jokes are appropriately corny and garner good-natured groans from the audience. (I’d love to repeat some of them but would hate to spoil the punch of hearing them for the first time). This show is having a laugh at its own expense and that’s the fun of it.

But don’t expect a simple comedy. A surprisingly touching song by Jan Brady (Annie Watkins) wearing a Hawaiian lei while sitting on a dunk tank may seem the last thing you’d expect to tug at your heart, but the scene channeling Ophelia was perfectly done, and brought a note of bittersweetness to the play — before the laughter reappeared.

Music by Logan Medland, arranged by Zach Abramson is spot on, and standouts which bring the entire cast together include “I Woke Up In Love This Morning”. There’s very little here to complain about, and even at the point where you’re thinking “wait … what’s going on?” there’s a hilarious exposition scene that recaps everything up until that point. Brilliant.

This is one Fringe show I wish I could go back and see again. Tomorrow’s show is already sold out so get tickets while you can – you won’t be disappointed!

~~~

The Bardy Bunch: The War of the Families Partridge and Brady
Writer: Stephen Garvey, inspired by “The Brady Bunch,” “The Partridge Family,” and the works of William Shakespeare
Director: Jay Stern
1h 40m
www.thebardybunch.com
VENUE #9: The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ LA MAMA
Fri 19 @ 9 SOLD OUT
Sun 21 @ 8:45 Wed 24 @ 2

Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story (Fringe Festival 2011)

Karen Tortora-Lee — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 14:59:56 +0000

Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story (written by Mariah MacCarthy, directed by Amanda Thompson) is just that … “A” Romeo & Juliet story – not a 100% faithful retelling of THE Romeo and Juliet story. First of all, Romeo and Juliet are both women. So, right away, by making this a gender-issue play and bringing in questions of Juliet’s orientation – questions she must ask herself as much as we the audience must ask of the play – an entirely different layer is added to this tale which is deeper and more complex. And since this layer is deeper and complex, so is the love story. There’s an urgency that doesn’t -can’t- exist in a heterosexual telling of this story, and that adds to the thoughtfulness and despair. And the hope.

Sometimes, no matter what two people do to stay apart, fate will find a way to throw them into each other’s arms. And sometimes fate will even use trickery, deception, and camouflage in order to make sure that these two people don’t miss their meeting. Take rocker Romeo Montague (Lauren Hennessy) and homecoming queen Juliet Capulet (Brigette Choura) who both hail from fair Verona, Iowa. They are currently embroiled in a bitter family feud as their mothers – mayoral candidate Claire Capulet (Jeremy Michael Lagunas) and current mayor Evelyn Montague (Matt Welsh) – sling mud at each other and expect their daughters to do the same, while still acting with a modicum of decorum. Easier said than done.

Romeo (Lauren Hennessy) & Juliet (Brigitte Choura) Photo by Kacey Anisa

Romeo – an out and proud lesbian – professes to have a crush on the presumably straight Juliet and goes about getting her attention by penning a tune called “Hey Bitch” and then letting it go viral on YouTube. This move is tantamount to a boy pulling a girl’s hair in the school yard and then running away – with much the same effect; Juliet is intrigued, but feigns annoyance. And of course, she’s straight so there’s really no underlying interest. After all, she has a fiance doesn’t she? Never mind that Paris Roberts (Nic Grelli) is somewhat wimpy, rather spineless, and altogether sexless. (They’ve agreed to wait until marriage to have sex and he doesn’t seem to push the point much).

So when Romeo does herself up in male drag in order to pursue another woman (Rosalind), and finds herself instead romancing a masked, unrecognizable Juliet, this couple truly doesn’t know what they’re about to embark on. What they do know is, they’d have more luck stopping a freight train with their fist then they would stopping this attraction they both feel.

In this version, Romeo and Juliet do not pine for each other desperately and live in a far reaching fantasy of flight, fancy and fairyland (okay, okay, I know that they died in the end. But I’m making a point …) in Verona, Iowa these two gals are living it day by day and that means dealing with what it means when one is out and one is not, when one is proud and one is not, when one is willing to do anything for the relationship and one … well, one isn’t so sure.

The only thing I found more of a distraction than anything was the blurring of gender lines in terms of casting. While I applaud the idea that anyone can play anything and I agree with the intention behind it I just couldn’t quite understand what purpose was served by having the mothers played by men in drag … and was even further confused by the grandfather being played by a woman (Anna Savant). It was strange to insert gender-bending actors in a play that dealt so strongly with a character struggling with her orientation.

Lauren Hennessy and Brigette Choura are perfectly cast as the desperate, star-crossed lovers; Hennessy in particular. Her Romeo is confounded by this deep love which twists her in knots – making her feel unconquerable one moment (“Daisy Girl”) and crushed the next (“Plastic Girl”). She is breathtakingly real … often funny, sometimes sarcastic and deeply sexy … her chemistry with Choura (not only during their intimate moments but during her moments of longing as well) can be felt all the way in the back row, and considering this show is playing at The Ellen Stewart Theatre that’s saying a lot. When she sings she seduces and bewitches everyone in the room.

The music by Brian Kirchner is very good, not only standing well on its own but remarkable at underscoring moments in the play when words are not enough. The choir – Diana Oh, Julie Ek and Lauren Weinberg – have some wonderful moments and their “How Will It Happen To You” which closes act one is positively mesmerizing.

The great thing about Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story is that it will leave you not only entertained but with a lot to think about. And that’s what important theatre is all about.

~~~

Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story
Purple Rep
Writer: Mariah MacCarthy
Director: Amanda Thompson
2h 30m
www.purplerep.com
VENUE #9: The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ LA MAMA
Thu 18 @ 2 Sat 20 @ 12 Sat 27 @ 7:45

Hamlet (Fringe Festival 2011)

Geoffrey Paddy Johnson — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 11:23:28 +0000

Perhaps director Greg Foro and the BAMA Theatre Company could not have asked for a better setting than the Connelly Center’s Connelly Theatre on East 4th Street to stage their production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. A miniature old world theatre stage, complete with grinning classical masks on a battered, gray painted proscenium, it quietly, without the use of scenery flats, and a minimum of props, establishes a subtly pointed atmosphere for this admirably pared down presentation of one of the English language’s greatest stage tragedies.

With just the presence of an old steamer trunk, from which are pulled props and costumes, the black curtained stage is almost empty, and our eyes and ears are focussed throughout on the actors and the language. The result, with this hard-working cast of just eight players to cover all the roles, is impressive. There isn’t an actor on stage who can’t sink their teeth deeply into the emotionalism of the moment and who isn’t capable of making the boards resound with anguish. And better, most refreshingly, the speech, with all its grand flourish, meter, and rhyme, is lent an almost contemporary natural rhythm, all of it brimming with conviction and detail. This is saying a lot given most people’s propensity to disengage from naturalism when faced with anything from the Bard. Historians and academics may ring their hands, but there is something significant happening around the Alabama Shakespeare Festival when it is producing actors and stagings of this calibre. If you are straining to hear a southern accent, you won’t here.

This is the company’s third annual presentation at NY Fringe and will undoubtedly uphold their reputation for showing leanly honed, emotionally fluent examples of Shakespeare’s eloquence. If the question is – can Shakespeare ever be modern? – then this – and not the trompe of putting a cast in thirties gangster tuxedoes and giving them cigarettes to smoke – must be as close as it comes. Everybody wins – the Bard, the actors, the audience; everybody, of course, but the beautiful losers of Elsinore.

At mid-performance, just after Hamlet has rigged a play to prick the conscience of his murderous uncle, Claudius, the two characters circle the stage silently for a beat, eyeing each other variously as hunter and quarry, before Claudius calls -”Give me some light!”- at which the house is plunged into darkness and we are moved to intermission. This delicious moment is a sample of the thoughtful direction and stagecraft on display here. There’s more than a hint of Beckett in the graveyard scene, gleefully played for laughs by Alison Frederick’s intoxicated gravedigger, but this section, so often a problematic episode for companies, holds fast, true to the rest of the production. Carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts indeed. As the tension mounts the bodies pile up, leading to that most notorious of final scenes that features lingering death monologues by three of the principal characters and the terrifying specter of overkill. But we are in safe hands here also. Matt Renskers’ Horatio holds the stage with passion even as the actor corpses rise about him and calmly assume their place at rear, standing silently facing the audience before final curtain.

Much credit is due to all the performers, several of whom wear crew hats also. Chris Roe is perfectly cast as the Prince of Denmark; a wiry, brooding presence with palpable intensity and an electric intelligence which plays at levity while never surrendering the character’s own self-absorption. Physically agile, vocally limber, Roe gives us a Hamlet as desperately fucked-up as the situation he finds himself in; as sticky and complex a role as ever written for the stage. Everyone really is pitch perfect, but if I was forced to mention names a nod would have to go toward Roe; to Alison Frederick, whose Ophelia is genuinely disturbing; and to Nick Lawson, whose Laertes is quite a bit more than just a hot head.

I certainly wouldn’t have a problem recommending this production to any audience, but if you’d like a chance to observe some singular actors do their thing, delivering in full-blooded form the scenery-shredding language of William Shakespeare, at the perfect venue, then this NY Fringe festival ticket is really all that; smoking hot.

~~~

Hamlet
BAMA Theatre Company
Writer: William Shakespeare
Director: Greg Foro, Assistant Director: Sarah Walker Thornton
2h 20m

www.bamatheatrecompany.org
VENUE #7: Connelly Theater
Sun 14 @ 12 Wed 17 @ 2 Mon 22 @ 4

Cymbeline: It Doth Requireth Some Work . . .

The Happiest Medium — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:32:52 +0000

The Happiest Medium Review by guest contributors Anjali Koppal and Saurabh Paranjape

Cymbeline is one of those everything-and-the-kitchen-sink Shakespeare dramedies that is very hard to ruin. Between tangled, overcrowded story-lines full of royal intrigue, mistaken identities, mysterious potions, Romans, Italians, Gods and angels, the plot has enough going on at any given point to keep the viewer hooked, even if the performance itself doesn’t always do the material justice.

Erick Gonzalez as Iachimo and Rosa Valenze Gilmore as Imogen

The plot centers around the young princess Imogen (Rosa Valenze Gilmore), daughter of Cymbeline, King of England (David Arthur Bachrach) who is deeply in love with, and has secretly married, the dashing Posthumus Leonatus (Ross Beshear), a ‘commoner’ of lowly birth. Banished from England for this impudence, Leonatus leaves for Italy, the couple promising to remain forever faithful to each other. While in Italy, Leonatus enters into a reckless bet with a Roman soldier Iachimo (Erick Gonzalez) about Imogen’s fidelity, and back in England the devious Queen (Vivien Landau) and her feckless blowhard of a son Cloten (Jonathan Marballi) hatch their own schemes to usurp the throne and bed Imogen respectively. Oh, and in a distant corner of Wales, a pair of feral brothers Guiderius (Stephen Siano) and Arviragus (Steve Mazzoccone) are about to discover that they are actually Cymbeline’s long lost sons, kidnapped at a tender age by a wronged courtier (Karen Lynn Gorney). And since this is Shakespeare after all, everything must come together neatly in the end, even if it does so in ways you never saw coming.

Cymbeline is not one of Shakespeare’s best known plays, so we didn’t really know what to expect going in. While the story, with its bizarre and unending twists and turns, kept us hooked, by and large the cast and crew seemed unequal to the challenge of bringing the Bard’s work to life for a modern audience. In this production directed by Lynnea Benson, crucial moments were ruined by strange musical choices, forgotten lines and unclear diction (It sounded like there were some beautiful lines of dialogue in there, but we’ll never know).

Not all was despair, however. Ross Beshear, brought some aptly Shakespearean overkill to his performance as the heartbroken Leonatus, and Rosa Valenze Gilmore as Imogen held her own quite well against Beshear’s unrestrained histrionics with an arresting stage presence. The stage was threadbare, but the lighting (designed by Joseph Kehoe) and stage direction made sure it never looked empty. Unfortunately, none of this was enough to distract from a generally flat overall performance.

Everyone involved in Frog and Peach Theater Company’s presentation of Cymbeline brought a refreshing level of excitement and energy to the production, but sadly, the cast just didn’t seem up to the task (maybe it was opening night jitters?). And that’s too bad, because what they are doing is important. It’s like our enthusiastic host said at the end of the play, ‘Shakespeare lives!’, just not so much in this production.

~~~

Frog & Peach Theatre Company presents

Cymbeline

Through Sunday, October 31, 2010Frog & Peach Theatre

Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.

Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

Saturdays at 7:30p.m.

Sundays at 3 p.m.

Sunday Matinees are followed by an informal talk-back with cast and Artistic Director.

Tickets are $18 and are now available online at www.smarttix.com or by calling (212) 868-4444. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater ½ hour prior to the performance.

Running Time: 2 hours 20 minutes.

The Happiest Medium » Shakespeare

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