Jason Sofge, Dustin Charles, Kristin Wetherington, Dereks Thomas, and Tony Del Bono of “Anonymous, Anonymous”

Pogue Mahone Productions presents ANONYMOUS, ANONYMOUS by Jason Sofge, part of FringeNYC 2016This episode’s going up on a Saturday, which is a little weird, I know, but it’s Fringe-time, y’all, and I wanted to be sure you had a couple chances to catch this lovely show.

Jason Sofge, last heard on the podcast while performing in the excellent Fatty Fatty No Friends, presents his first full-length play, Anonymous, Anonymous, which he wrote, co-directed, and produced. Time in the play shifts a lot, and the structure is unusual (the playwright himself describes it as “metaphysical”), but as the story unfolds and reveals itself, there’s a ton of humor, heart, and truth to the piece.

Listen in as Jason and several members of the cast—Dustin Charles, Kristin Wetherington, Dereks Thomas, and Tony Del Bono—discuss developing your first play, “the one that got away,” breaking the rules to “defy the commercial construct of the modern theatre,” surprising your audience, and why we do this crazy theatre thing at all.

“…I think, as artists, when we have to deal with something that’s really painful, we have to use it, we have to make something productive out of it…”

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Jason Sofge, Serrana Gay, and Christian De Gré of “Fatty Fatty No Friends”

Mind the Art Entertainment presents Fatty Fatty No FriendsOpera tends to be pretty tragic.

And even though Mind the Art Entertainment‘s operetta Fatty Fatty No Friends is about a group of kids, it doesn’t shy away from the dark and grisly themes and action that usually goes along with the form.

But the show also grapples with some very deep, and even distressing issues that our society has been dealing with for a long time. Composer and director Christian De Gré and author Serrana Gay have done the magic of put those themes into a gorgeous, entertaining show—and Jason Sofge, who plays Tommy, leads a brilliant cast that sings and plays it to life.

Listen in as Jason, Serrana, and Christian discuss why the show was set up like a kid’s book, entertaining work with social messages, inspiration from a late-night meal, and choosing between venue-director money or actor money (please note, neither is a good get-rich-quick scheme).

“…I think it’s really interesting that it can have such a stark, different perspective: are we watching a monster piece, or are we watching a piece about a fallen hero that never was understood? Maybe it’s one and the same. I think it’s very important that people see this piece of theatre…I really think this is a conversation that we need to have right now…”

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