Blake Habermann & Jae Woo of “Take Shape”

Broken Box Mime Theater presents TAKE SHAPE at the Gural TheatreListen in as Blake Habermann & Jae Woo, performers in Broken Box Mime Theater‘s newest show Take Shape, discuss being prepared, music for mime, outbursts from toddlers, the benefits and difficulties of being a mime when masked, making some last-minute adjustments pre-show, breaking through language barriers, and making theatre accessible to as many people as possible.

“…we’ve been working on accessibility as part of our approach for all of our productions…being more inviting to different kinds of populations, people with different kinds of needs to come into the theater…”

Continue reading

Marissa Molnar & Joél Perez of “Skin”

Broken Box Mime Theater presents SKIN at The Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theater at A.R.T./New YorkListen in as Broken Box Mime Theater‘s Marissa Molnar and Joél Perez discuss creation of the company’s new show Skin, the freedom that comes from restrictions, “the spark,” leaning on the audience’s imagination, the power of reveal, and introducing future generations to the distilled theatrical power of mime.

“…what we’re really interested in is, not just performing for a small group. We want to open up the conversation to include as many people as possible…our work […] should be really accessible to anyone…”

Continue reading

Becky Baumwoll & David Jenkins of “See Reverse”

Broken Box Mime Theater presents SEE REVERSEListen in as performers Becky Baumwoll and David Jenkins of Broken Box Mime Theater discuss working in the brand-new Gural Theatre in midtown, starting from naturalistic acting, how the company makes an evening from a series of smaller pieces, mime as free jazz, paring down your gestures to streamline a story through movement, wearing matching shoes, when giving line readings is ok (and preferred), and why you might want to rehearse with an audience.

“…something about the efficiency unlocks a huge amount of possibility for us as storytellers…there’s something about not having words that invites the audience to really immerse themselves in what’s happening. And, when you are building invisible objects, or interacting with an invisible costume, or a prop, the audience, in order to understand, has to fill in that blank…We’re using your imagination as our palette to create the story…”

Continue reading

Nick Abeel and Becky Baumwoll of “Above/Below”

Broken Box Mime Theater presents ABOVE/BELOW at HERE Arts CenterThink of a mime.

Now go see Broken Box Mime Theater, and let them explode whatever preconceived notions you have.

Their new show is called Above/Below, a series of vignettes about what’s on the surface, and what’s hidden underneath, all done in mime.

Listen in as troupe members Nick Abeel and Becky Baumwoll discuss how mimes mess around, mime-versity, and what they’re keeping in their hearts.

…and even theatre-people [think] it’s boxes and ropes, ‘stop being stuck in a box, and climbing a rope.’ But in that way, we are able to really blow peoples’ minds, because we take it so much farther than that. People are surprised to find how playful, and profound, and accessible, and funny, and deep the form can be…”

“…we all happen to come to this medium because we love theatre, and mime is the most distilled version of theatre, in our opinion. It lets us get at the heart of the work the most efficiently and effectively…”

Continue reading

Rob Hille, Jenna Panther, and Justin Yorio, Artistic Directors of Amios, on “Seven Deadly Shotz”

Amios presents Seven Deadly Shotz

As the producer of Go See a Show!, I’m going to take off my “objectivity” hat for this episode. I already do so in the interview, as you’ll hear, so why not go whole hog?

I’m happy to report that the “want to make theatre? then throw down and make some f*cking theatre” mentality is alive and well in this town. And Amios is at the front of that charge, in the best of ways.

Frankly, this episode is about what I thought downtown theatre was going to be when I arrived in New York. Amios is making theatre the way I want to make theatre (and often do make theatre, sometimes with them — but they just do it a lot more often), with the kind of people I love to make theatre with. Amios says, “we’re not going to wait for an opportunity—we’re going to make an opportunity.” And they do it as friends.

The greatest parts of it are, they consistently do it with a high level of quality, and always while having a heck of a lot of fun.

The company is kicking off their 5th season with the return of their monthly Shotz series (you may remember it from episode 13 of this very podcast). Shotz always works around a theme, and this month, it’s the 7 deadly sins; so naturally, the show on October 7 will be, Seven Deadly Shotz. Full disclosure: I’m directing the one on “greed.”

Listen in as Artistic Directors Rob Hille, Jenna Panther, and Justin Yorio discuss how you draw a crowd to your off-off-Broadway show (beer helps, they say — who’d have thought?), how to give your collaborators a sense of ownership, sin, and wanting to watch your artist friends “work out.”

“…people are like, ‘how do you guys do all this stuff?’…and the reason that we can do it is because of our badass team of folks…it is a collective, as opposed to a typical theatre company, and more, ‘everybody’s in the trenches together, making stuff happen.’ It’s more sustainable that way…”

Continue reading