Brett Epstein, Brittany Taylor Visser, and Sean Kleier of “Based On Your True Story”

Based On Your True Story, by Brett EpsteinWhat do you get when you put a playwright/director, an actress/singer, a comedian/actor, and a podcaster around a chess table in Washington Square Park late on a Sunday night?

This episode of Go See a Show!, obviously.

Listen in as I speak with Brett Epstein, Brittany Taylor Visser, and Sean Kleier about Brett’s new show, inspired by 30 interviews with friends, acquaintances, and random strangers. It’s called Based On Your True Story, it’ll premiere this week at The Tank, and you can get a sneak peek here on the podcast: tales of klonopin, awkward interviews, arrests in 3D, $7 sandwiches, interrupted interviews, and Sean not playing Hawkeye await.

“Hulk smash.”


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Based On Your True Story
Six short plays PLUS a documentary short film
The Tank
151 W. 46th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY
Wednesday, 05/16/2012 – 7:00pm
Saturday, 05/19/2012 – 9:30pm
Tickets: $7, available via Brown Paper Tickets

Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell, playwright & actor, from “The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos”

Collaboration Town's The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of PathosGo See a Show! was back at The New Ohio last weekend for some deep, epic thoughts, provided by The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos.

Playwright & actor Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell joined me for an interview on his dinner break between shows — that’s him in the first photo below, red-eyed & blue-mouthed, with his arm outstretched next to the puppet & puppeteer of Mephistopheles.

Listen in as Geo discusses acting in a show he’s still revising, loving & lampooning Brecht, and what’s next for the company he co-founded & leads, Collaboration Town — and I curse Jad Abumrad (not seriously, of course).

Obligatory Shakespeare reference this time? The Winter’s Tale. It never fails to come back to the Bard!

(…sorry for the background noise — it seems Collaboration Town has a big population!…)


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The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos
by Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell
music by Michael Wells
lyrics by Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell, Jordan Seavey and Michael Wells
directed by Lee Sunday Evans and Jordan Seavey

The New Ohio Theatre
154 Christopher Street, 1E
Tickets available via SmartTix

Wednesday, March 14th @ 7:30 – Opening Night!
Thursday, March 15th @ 7:30
Friday, March 16th @ 7:30
Saturday, March 17th @ 5:00
Saturday, March 17th @ 9:00 (WEAR GREEN AND PAY WHAT YOU CAN!)
Sunday, March 18th @ 7:30
Monday, March 19th @ 7:30
Wednesday, March 21st @ 7:30

Thursday, March 22nd @ 7:30
Friday, March 23rd @ 7:30
Saturday, March 24th @ 5:00 & 9:00

Collaboration Town's The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos

Collaboration Town's The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos

photos by Colin D. Young

Martin Dockery & Vanessa Quesnelle of “Oh, That Wily Snake!”

Oh, That Wily Snake!On this episode of Go See a Show!, we’ve got our first returning guest: actor & playwright Martin Dockery, who is joined onstage by actress Vanessa Quesnelle for his show Oh, That Wily Snake! (it’s nice to see another title with an “!” in it).

Oh, That Wily Snake! is, on its face, an often surreal one-act play about a man trying to convince a woman to take a trip with him on his flying bed to Aruba (and, to get her to eat brussel sprouts). But there’s a lot more going on, too — listen in as Martin and Vanessa discuss this “allegory of an allegory.”

And sorry for the clanging.

Oh, That Wily Snake!
thru February 10th
Under St. Mark’s (St. Mark’s & 1st Ave.)
Thurs, Fri, and Sat. 8pm
$18/$15 Student and Senior

Steven Carl McCasland and Mallory Berlin, of “A Doll’s Life”

Nora in Rep, by The Beautiful Soup Theater CollectiveWe all know the story of Nora & Torvald from Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House (wasn’t it the first thing every directing student worked on in class?). But have you ever wondered what happened to Nora after she shut the door?

Betty Comden & Adolph Green, who wrote the book & lyrics to the musical (yes — musical) A Doll’s Life, wondered just that — and the result was one of the better-known Broadway flops of the 20th Century, running for only 5 performances.

Steven Carl McCasland, Artistic Director of The Beautiful Soup Theatre Collective, has brought the musical back to NYC with a production at The New Ohio Theatre, running it in rep with the original Ibsen. In this episode of Go See a Show!, I interview McCasland along with Mallory Berlin, who portrays Nora in A Doll’s Life.

Producer’s Note: Very sorry for the lateness of this episode! Had some uploading difficulty; hope everyone can catch one of the remaining two performances!


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The Beautiful Soup Theater Collective presents
Nora in Rep
thru February 5, 2012
The New Ohio Theatre
154 Christopher Street, New York, NY
Wednesday January 25th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Thursday 26th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Friday 27th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Saturday 28th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Saturday 28th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Sunday 29th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Sunday 29th – 7:00pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Wednesday, February 1st – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE

Thursday, 2nd – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Friday, 3rd – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Saturday, 4th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Saturday, 4th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Sunday, 5th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Sunday, 5th – 7:00pm – A DOLL’S LIFE

“Into the Woods,” a fundraiser for The Sylvia Center

Into the WoodsThis episode of Go See a Show! may not be about a technically “off-off-Broadway” show, but the impulse behind this production is very much in the vein of my favorite kinds of OOB shows — a bunch of people getting together, on their own terms, for the sake of making something beautiful.

And it’s for a good cause, which makes this all the more awesome.

Director Kevin Horne and actor Joshua David Bishop (“Jack”) are two of the folks behind a special charity performance of Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Along with their fellow employees at catering company Great Performances, Kevin and Joshua are putting on this classic musical for two performances as a fundraiser for The Sylvia Center, a not-for-profit that teaches young people about food and nutrition from the farm to the kitchen. Good stuff.

Take a listen to the interview, then go help these cats out with a buck or twenty at their Kickstarter page; and follow their progress on Facebook.


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Into the Woods actors

Martin Dockery, and his new show “The Holy Land Experience”

Martin Dockery's "The Holy Land Experience"Playwright & performer Martin Dockery is one of those guys who seems, to me, to have the most interesting life — his stories are always full of wild adventures and profoundly meaningful interactions with fascinating people, all true, all from his life.

I interviewed Dockery after a performance of his new show The Holy Land Experience at The Kraine Theater, and he answers the question of “just why is your life so awesome and mine so mundane?” beautifully. That, and more, in this episode of Go See a Show!


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There’s sadly just one more chance to see this run of The Holy Land Experience — Monday, December 19, 8PM at The Kraine. Check it out if you can; watch one of his appearances at The Moth to get a sense for the kind of storytelling you’re in for, like this one below:

The Cast & Creators of “3 Ghosts” from Pipe Dream Theatre

Pipe Dream Theatre's "3 Ghosts"In this episode, Go See a Show! talks with the (very large) cast of a production of a perennial classic, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, re-imagined steampunk style as 3 Ghosts by Pipe Dream Theatre‘s Liz Muller & Collin Simon.

This was one of the most fun interviews yet for the podcast — congrats to all involved with the show!

3 Ghosts is up at Theatre Row’s Beckett Theatre until December 23; tickets are available through TeleCharge.


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…and I wasn’t kidding; this cast is huge. Here’s a photo of the actors I was onstage with for the interview; this is a little under half the full cast, I think.

Cast Members from Pipe Dream Theatre's "3 Ghosts"

Amy Overman and Justin Plowman of Dysfunctional Theatre Co., presenting “Brew of the Dead II: Oktoberflesh”

Halloween has passed, but if you didn’t get your fill of blood, gore, and zombies, you’re in luck — Dysfunctional Theatre Company puts all that and more onstage for the next two weekends with Brew of the Dead II: Oktoberflesh. And there will be beer. Oh yes. There will be beer.

This week, Go See a Show! talks to Amy Overman, DTC’s Artistic Director and star of Oktoberflesh, and Justin Plowman, director of the show and DTC’s Director of Development. Listen in for a discussion about drunken zombies, drunken F. Scott Fitzgerald, drinking in the show, sequels requiring more blood & gore, zombies getting high, and the freedom of self-producing. Y’know — downtown theatre.

And braaaaaaaains. </obligatoryterriblezombiejoke> Continue reading

Sylvia Milo, actress of “Mozart’s Sister”

Sylvia Milo in "Mozart's Sister"Today, Go See a Show! is proud to present an interview with the fabulous actress Sylvia Milo. Her new solo show Mozart’s Sister can be seen this Saturday, October 29 at the United Solo Festival, 2PM at Theatre Row’s Studio Theater.

This is the U.S. premiere of the work, and features Sylvia in an incredible, massive, entire-stage-filling dress (seen in the photo above!), as well as music from composers Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen.

Mozart’s Sister comes highly recommended; and as of now, this is the only scheduled performance, so check it out if you can! Tickets are available at the United Solo Festival’s website. Continue reading

Robert A. K. Gonyo, Nneoma Nkuku, and Ryan Victor Pierce of “Muzungu”

MuzunguIn this special episode of Go See a Show!, guest-host Ashley Marinaccio interviews actors Nneoma Nkuku and Ryan Victor Pierce, the stars of Muzungu, along with the director, GSAS!’s regular host Robert A. K. Gonyo.

Catch Muzungu at The 4th Street Theater now thru October 30, produced by Co-Op Theatre East and Mixed Phoenix Theatre Group. Continue reading