Tag Archives: The Kraine Theater

Kelsey Hercs & Drew Bolander of “Romeo & Juliet”

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William Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET, directed by Drew Bowlander, at The Kraine TheaterListen in as co-producers of Romeo & Juliet, Kelsey Hercs (“Juliet”) and Drew Bolander (adaptor/director) discuss undermining romanticism, logic-ing your way through your feelings, finding the kernel of the play we all think we know so well, making limitations into opportunities, love overflowing into hysteria and violence, and what we’re willing to do for the people and things we care about.

“…all of the violence comes from a place of love…it’s coming from a place of trying to protect what’s ‘theirs’…I think it’s interesting, because then we can apply that to ourselves, and our own groups, and kind of see where other people are coming from, even if their actions are wrong, and bad…”

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Rob Neill, Ayun Halliday, Eevin Hartsough, & Daniel Mirsky of “Wind-Up Variations”

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New York Neo-Futurists present WIND-UP VARIATIONS, created, written, and directed by Rob NeillListen in as Wind-Up Variations creator/writer/director Rob Neill, along with performer Ayun Halliday, Eevin Hartsough, and Daniel Mirsky, discuss the Neo-Futurist aesthetic, following a monkey across a waste-land, dialogue-mining, finding your mechanical avatar, inviting the audience, and having a plan through the chaos of live performance.

“…that’s an opportunity, and not everybody will take it. And that’s part of the magic; ‘let’s see what happens next…'”

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Manning Jordan, Alice Cash, Ashley Underwood, and Ellie MacPherson of “Dooley”

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DOOLEY by Manning Jordan, directed by Alice Cash, at FRIGID 2018Listen in as playwright/performer Manning Jordan, director Alice Cash, and performers Ashley Underwood & Ellie MacPherson of Dooley, performed as part of FRIGID 2018, discuss inspiration from disturbing 1960s board games, plunging psychological depths, collaboratively re-writing, re-naming in the interest of financial considerations, “sneaking around outside of classrooms” to meet your new collaborators, the benefits of inconsistent performance times, and sharing your most vulnerable self onstage.

“…my friends wouldn’t play it, they said ‘it’s all too heavy, we don’t want to get into it.’ So then I went home, and I wrote the play as if we had played it…”

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Christie Perfetti Williams & Charmaine Broad of “The Werewolf of Washington Heights”

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Carnival Girls Productions presents THE WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, written by Christie Perfetti Williams, directed by Charmaine BroadListen in as The Werewolf of Washington Heights playwright Christie Perfetti Williams and director Charmaine Broad discuss adapting your own work to the stage, why you should put “awesome, talented, and kind” people in your cast, the importance of putting women onstage (and in the producer’s chair), doing your job vs. doing what’s right for the world, swapping the genders of your characters, what’s next for Carnival Girls, and what happens to a family when tragedy strikes in a dystopian near-future U.S.A.

“…Imogene says, ‘we all, all of us as humans just want to be heard, our stories want to be told.’ I think that goes across the board, for every person on the planet, we just want to know […] that our voices have been heard. And I think for women, we haven’t been. So this play was hopefully a small little piece of what’s missing in the puzzle…”

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Chris Harcum & Aimee Todoroff of “Martin Denton, Martin Denton”

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Elephant Run District and FRIGID at Horse Trade present MARTIN DENTON, MARTIN DENTON, written by Chris Harcum, directed by Aimee TodoroffListen in as the Elephant Run District team of Chris Harcum, playwright & performer, and Aimee Todoroff, director, of the company’s new show Martin Denton, Martin Denton, discuss finding safety and meaning in a community, “love,” the validity of our work, the ways in which our productions can live forever, how and why we do this thing called “indie theatre,” and more about this love letter to the scene.

“…what we’re doing is creating life, and then giving life back. And for me, one of the people who was there, and kind of charted what I was doing—and for whom I felt this very deep connection, and this person who, if he didn’t see my show, it felt like it did not happen—needed his story told.”

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Ashley J. Jacobson, Elizabeth Sarkady, Faith Sandberg, Jenna D’Angelo, & Brandon Ferraro of “How to Be Safe”

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The Dirty Blondes present HOW TO BE SAFE, written by Ashley J. Jacobson, directed by Cezar WilliamsListen in as The Dirty Blondes, Elizabeth Sarkady and Ashley J. Jacobson (whom you’ll remember from past podcasts on The Miracle Play and The Tunnel Play), along with the full cast—Faith Sandberg, Jenna D’Angelo, and Brandon Ferraro—discuss the company’s new play How to Be Safe, finding relevance in the present moment, the “low hum of anxiety,” the draw of terrible true crime shows, the incredible experience of having a theatrical home-base, being a sponge (then wringing yourself out), and finding safety & solace in the theater.

“…the election happened, and that made me question what I was going to be putting out into the world. It needed to be relevant, it needed to speak to something. And so I figured, ‘let me just create the most honest, emotional show that I could, because that felt like my own personal safety, and that felt like my own personal contribution, to talk about how afraid I feel, and how afraid I think other people feel…”

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Genny Yosco, Zachary Millard, and Chris Weigandt of “A Fifth Dimension”

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Sour Grapes Productions presents A FIFTH DIMENSION, An Unauthorized Twilight Zone Parody, written by Genny Yosco, presented as part of FRIGID Festival 2017Listen in as playwright, director, and performer Genny Yosco of A Fifth Dimension: An Unauthorized Twilight Zone Parody, along with fellow actors Zachary Millard and Chris Weigandt, discuss overacting the overacted, casting young actors, making your own opportunities, producing out of bitterness and hatred, and finding the horrifying contemporary relevance of your parody show.

“…it really took on a life of its own…each show that we do, we add our own lifeblood to it, it’s new every time…”

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The Playwrights & Directors of “The Refugee Plays”

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THE REFUGEE PLAYS in The Frigid Festival 2017Listen in as playwrights Charles Gershman (also the Artistic Director of the producing company, Snowy Owl), Callie Kimball, Carlos Castro, and Sean E. Cunningham, as well as directors Rachel Dart, Logan Reed, and Dan Dinero, discuss the influence of current events, tragedy in timeless stories, superficial logic, how the outside world seeps into the rehearsal room, ethical casting, how to unite a series of short plays, and what theatre is supposed to do in difficult times.

“…I don’t think any of us want to have to write plays about topics like these, but things are pretty bad right now, and so I think we all responded to the sort of global call to draw attention to an issue that we think is important right now…”

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Dan Bianchi and R. Patrick Alberty of RadioTheatre’s 8th Annual H. P. Lovecraft Festival

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RadioTheatre presents The 8th Annual H. P. Lovecraft Festival at The Kraine TheaterThis is now the fourth time I’ve done a podcast about RadioTheatre‘s annual H. P. Lovecraft Festival (now in its 8th year!)—and as long as they keep doing Lovecraft, I’m going to keep going to see their shows.

Fans of radio drama and/or horror fiction will definitely find something to love, as creator/director Dan Bianchi dramatizes 8 different stories from Lovecraft’s deep catalogue of weird tales, enlisting the vocal talents of actors like R. Patrick Alberty to bring them to life for your ears, live, onstage.

Listen in as Dan and Patrick discuss the company’s adaptation process, how the festival has changed through 8 editions, what can happen when you exceed audience expectations, why we need horror tales, and how this is the kind of experience only RadioTheatre can bring you.

“…we’re asking the audience to participate, to use your imagination…back in the days of radio, everyone sat around the radio in the living room in the dark…and they had to use their imagination to provide the visuals. And here we are, going back to that, the simplest form of theatre there was, sitting around the campfire in the dark, telling stories…” Continue reading →

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Katie Palmer and Paul Bedard of “The Debates”

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Theater in Asylum presents The DebatesTheater = Politics = Theater = Politics

If you’ve seen that equation on a t-shirt around the independent theatre world in NYC of late, then you’ve seen someone who’s worked on or seen Theater in Asylum‘s ever-changing The Debates.

It’s the perfect slogan for a project theatricalizing the Democratic Presidential Primary debates, with the intent to bring theatre people to the political process, and political people into the theater—and it sounds like the project is doing its intended work.

GSAS! sat down with the show’s director, Paul Bedard, and choreographer, Katie Palmer, to discuss how they trained their team, how to balance a scene, how to handle material that’s moving so quickly, why they’re focusing on only the Democratic Party, the actual differences between Hillary and Bernie (and how to present them fairly), and “who am I, who are you, who are we.”

I think one of the reasons people stay out is that it seems like such a big thing, that if, “I’m not in it already, it’s just too much to learn, and I don’t want to get involved.” And I think people stay away from theaters for the same reason…”I couldn’t possibly understand what’s happening in this theater”…and I think we’ve tried to take the fear and the elitism out of both of those avenues, saying that, “you can engage in both things, here’s some helpful tools…”

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