Author Archives: robby

Sanaz Ghajarrahimi, Ben Hobbs, and Vincent Van Santvoord of “Red Wednesday”

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Built for Collapse 1-Red Wednesday-pThe Ice Factory festival continues, and Go See a Show! continues to follow the new work showcased at The New Ohio with this week’s production, Red Wednesday, by the Brooklyn collective Built for Collapse.

The Artistic Directors of Built for Collapse — Sanaz Ghajarrahimi, who directed the show, Ben Hobbs, who choreographed, and Vincent Van Santvoord, who is acting in the show — joined me after the first public presentation of Red Wednesday, which is still in development. Described by Sanaz as a “multimedia ballad about revolution, past, present, and future,” Red Wednesday grew from Sanaz’s personal connection to the overthrow of the Iranian shah in the 1970s, and starts to dig into the connections between family and politics, and past and present history.

Listen in as Sanaz, Vincent, and Ben discuss searching for structure, revolution & theatre’s role in it, creating movement from images, and personalizing politics by mixing world history with being a 20-something in 2013.

“A political family drama about the politics of family.”

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Mac Rogers, Rebecca Comtois, and Sean Williams of “Ligature Marks”

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"Game Play" festival at The Brick TheaterMac Rogers is a playwright I seemed to keep missing — for example, I got back into town just late enough to miss the last performance of Advance Man, for which I had a ticket, and I was completely out of town for the entire run of Frankenstein Upstairs. And yet, I kept hearing great things about his work.

Turns out those things were dead on. Now I’m even more disappointed I missed those previous two shows.

His latest play, which he also stars in, is Ligature Marks, a noir story embedded in a domestic drama with an MMORPG backdrop. It’s not as confusing as I just made it sound. And it’s well-worth your 75 minutes in the theater.

Mac and his co-star Rebecca Comtois, along with Gideon Productions producer Sean Williams, sat down with me after a performance last weekend over a beer in the Alligator Lounge for a long conversation that covered a whole lot of super-interesting ground — and, included a beautifully-worded segment about why and how one can become an effective producer. Essential listening for those of you who want to make your own work.

Listen in as Mac, Rebecca, and Sean discuss playing damaged people onstage, stage names vs. who we actually are, why one shouldn’t hate on what other people like (even if it’s the Twilight series), how to talk down playwrights & directors when they’re freaking out, and creating theatre (and podcasts) as part of the long-term cultural conversation.

“…as a producer…your whole life is storytelling. Your whole life is inventing narratives, your whole life is acting, your whole life is playing characters, so I think for people who don’t like producing, but do like to act and do like to write, I think it’s possible that they’re looking at producing the wrong way…”

(seriously, one of the coolest pieces of advice we’ve gotten on the podcast) Continue reading →

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Justin Plowman, Nicole Lee Aiossa, and Amy Overman of “Final Defenders”

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Dysfunctional Theatre Company presents "Final Defenders"I love returning guests. The conversation can be nice and free and candid, and it’s just plain fun — but then again, all of my experiences with the good folks at Dysfunctional Theatre Company have been fun. Maybe it just gets fun-ner?

That’s not a word.

Either way, welcome, Justin Plowman & Amy Overman, back to the podcast — and welcome Nicole Lee Aiossa for the first time. Nicole & Justin co-directed, and Nicole & Amy co-star in this new play by Patrick Storck (writer of the Brew of the Dead plays, featured on one of the earliest GSAS! episodes with Amy & Justin), about a team of time-traveling game-masters who battle an evil interstellar queen, playing now as part of The Brick Theater‘s Game Play Festival.

Listen in as Justin, Nicole, and Amy discuss Google Doc dramaturgy, 1980s montage-style dance-breaks, letting the audience in on the joke, and the cup-and-ball.

“You don’t know who Karnov is? Fire-breathing communist from 1980? Ok. All right. That’s fine.”

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Dysfunctional Theatre Company presents

Final Defenders

by Patrick Storck
directed by Nicole Lee Aiossa & Justin Plowman

part of Game Play, at The Brick
thru July 26, 2013

tickets & showtimes available via OvationTix

Dysfunctional Theatre Company presents "Final Defenders," photo by Flaviu NasarimbaDysfunctional Theatre Company presents "Final Defenders," photo by Flaviu NasarimbaDysfunctional Theatre Company presents "Final Defenders," photo by Justin Plowman

photos 1 & 2 by Flaviu Nasarimba; final image by Justin Plowman

Catya McMullen, Kate Middleton, and Scott Klopfenstein of “Rubber Ducks and Sunsets”

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"Rubber Ducks and Sunsets," by Catya McMullen, directed by Kate Middleton, presented by Ground Up ProductionsRegular listeners might have noticed that Go See a Show! was on a short hiatus until a couple weeks ago, as I was out playing trumpet & more in a regional show.

And as a trumpet player, and rock music nerd, I was stoked to see that Scott Klopfenstein, former trumpet player for Reel Big Fish, was composing original music for Ground UP Productions’ Rubber Ducks and Sunsets, running now at The Gene Frankel Theater. So naturally (or selfishly, rather) I had to check this show out, if only to geek out about my love of this guy’s old band.

Turns out I got to catch a great show, too.

Thankfully, I don’t think I gushed to the point of embarrassment—and it turns out the compositions figured prominently into the show, and helped guide the narrative in a beautiful way.

But the show’s a lot more than some nice music, as you can feel (and hear) in my interview with Scott, along with playwright Catya McMullen and director Kate Middleton.

You’ll hear lots of references to “concerts” and a “lullaby,” and while it might sound really cryptic if you haven’t seen the show, I don’t think I’m giving too much away to say that, yes, there is indeed a lullaby written by one of the characters, and concerts seen throughout the show—and both are lovely inventions discovered through the collaboration of the Ground UP artists.

Listen in as Catya, Kate, and Scott discuss leaving space in your script for other artists to fill, giving yourself a title as a way to make it true, why you’d throw out 92% of a script, and the magic of theatre, deadlines, and Vermont.

“A play about people that had grown up too fast…but also had incredible light…and also were really smart but unaware of the level of their emotional incapacity their journey through the grief together…about the way that friends become family…

“With jokes.”

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Jordan Seavey, co-creator & co-playwright of “Help Me to Make It”

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Collaboration Town presents a workshop production of "Help Me to Make It"

Collaboration Town returns to the podcast for their third episode (check out the The Deepest Play Ever and All Girls podcasts for interviews with Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell & Lee Sunday Evans, also co-creators on this project), with the workshop production of their new (apropos of their name) collaboratively-created show, Help Me to Make It, part of the 2013 Ice Factory Festival ahead of its full production in April 2014.

Listen in as co-creator & co-playwright Jordan Seavey talks about how to get from 12 hours of written material down to a one-act workshop performance (hint: “killing textual babies”), the relationship between his life as a playwright and his life as a performer, and how Collaboration Town defines their namesake—collaboration.

“We have that kind of tension, as well, that siblings have, and we have that kind of forthrightness…where we can say, ‘this is really what I want,’…we’re very blunt, in a loving way…”

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Aimee Todoroff, director of “Brecht in the Park”

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Elephant Run District presents "Brecht in the Park"Birds chirping. Children playing. Sun. Grass. Epic theatre?

Yep.

In case you’ve never listened to the podcast (or met me), I love Brecht’s work. And I love performances that are out in the open, and free to the public.

In my humble opinion, today’s guest, director Aimee Todoroff, is right—Brecht is indeed perfect for being done outside. Free & open to the public.

…and no purchased seats posing as “subscriber tickets,” taking seats away from the actual “public” (yes, I’m looking at you, oh-other-producer-of-plays-in-Central-Park).

For their first ever Brecht in the Park performance, Elephant Run District presents three of the master’s short plays—The Elephant Calf, In Search of Justice, and The Exception and the Rule—all of which have very strong connections to our current state of affairs.

Listen in as Aimee talks about her inspiration—text-wise & space-wise—for bringing Brecht to Central Park, what’s next for Elephant Run District, and how these plays written in Weimar-era Germany are eerily resonant with New York, NY, USA in 2013.

“How can we put the audience’s experience first, and make them have an experience that they’re going to talk about for the rest of the day?”

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Crawford M. Collins, actress

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Crawford M. CollinsCrawford M. Collins is a friend of mine, and a heck of an actress.

So for a different sort of Go See a Show! episode, I thought it would be fun to sit down and get an actor’s perspective on navigating the wilds of the theatre scene in our fair city of New York.

And I was right. It was indeed fun, and informative, to chat with a talented woman who’s doing some great work — and working consistently. All you aspiring actresses & actors, this episode’s for you.

Listen in as Crawford & I discuss how one gets oriented in the New York theatre scene, the difference between the worlds of theatre & film, hustling (in a good way), and the importance of relationships in our line of work.

“…if you have a really good friend, somebody that you know that you just think is really interesting…find out where they’re hanging out, and the kinds of people that they’re meeting…”

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Rachel Dart & Jenna Panther, directors of “There’s a Light on Yonder Mountain”

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Ever wanted to create a brand-new piece of theatre, from the ground up? This is a good episode of the podcast for you.

aMios and Horse Trade present "There's a Light on Yonder Mountain"aMios has always embraced new work — their Shotz series is responsible for creating six brand new plays every month (!), and their past “longer-form” work has all consisted of brand-new plays from artists in the aMios circle of collaborators. Check out a great interview about Shotz on Episode 13.

For their latest full-length, There’s a Light on Yonder Mountain, the company wanted to bring in the creative energies of many of the wonderful people they’ve worked with since their inception in 2009. So instead of asking just one playwright to write a script, they asked five (one acted as a “literary manager”). And naturally, instead of one director, they got two.

Which led me, as a director myself, to ask the first question of this interview: how?!?!?

Listen in as those directors, Rachel Dart & Jenna Panther, discuss not only how they worked together as a team, but a whole lot more, including creating an ensemble-driven devised piece, tension, desert-island people, and the only resource you can’t get more of: time.

#whoisSteve? Continue reading →

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Neilson R. Jones, Lucy Breyer, and Vivian Hwang of Confetti Stage’s “The Lesson”

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…and now for something a little different.

Summer’s coming on, and that generally means two things for off-off-Broadways theatre: breaks for some, and festivals for everyone else.

Your humble producer is taking a third path, and will be out on a regional theatre gig for five weeks. But never fear: Go See a Show! continues during my hiatus from the city, with a few episodes deviating from the podcast’s usual “here’s an off-off-Broadway show that’s happening, and an interview with the people behind said show” format. Here’s the first!

Confetti Stage presents Eugene Ionesco's "The Lesson"While we here in NYC might think of ourselves as the center of the theatre universe, there’s lots of great stuff happening outside of the five boroughs. When it’s not being done in a small house within the city limits, the kind of theatre that gets labelled “off-off-Broadway” here is often called “community theatre,” which all-too-often has negative connotations. An excellent example of why “community theatre” does not have to be deadly (in the Peter Brook sense) can be found just a short train ride from our fair city, in the state capital of Albany, with Confetti Stage.

Last year, Confetti produced one of Eugene Ionesco’s short plays, The Lesson, and on the merits of said production, Confetti has brought The Lesson to several festivals already, and are about to take the show to compete in the American Association of Community Theatre national conference. I spoke to the cast of Neilson R. Jones (also the director, and founder of Confetti), Lucy Breyer, and Vivian Hwang via Skype as they’re in the final days of their fundraising campaign to bring the show out to Indiana (help ’em out via IndieGoGo!).

Listen in as Neil, Lucy & Vivian discuss why they’re doing Ionesco’s 63-year-old play now, why Confetti’s tagline is “theatre without limits,” and what it’s like to live with a play for a year and bring it to festival competitions.

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Lawrence Lesher, director, and Todd Michael, playwright, of “Vice Girl Confidential”

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Grayce Productions presents "Vice Girl Confidential," by Todd Michael, directed by Lawrence LesherA powerful crime boss. A crusading District Attorney. A tough-as-nails madame. The corruption of a small-town girl. Stool pigeons. Vice. Drag. Dames.

With a play entitled Vice Girl Confidential, you should expect these elements.

Gracye Productions gives you the goods with the re-mounting of their Fringe Festival hit, now directed by Lawrence Lesher, with a revised script by Todd Michael (who also plays the aforementioned madame, Stella Fontaine).

Listen in as Lawrence & Todd discuss the importance of timing in physical humour, how Vice Girl Confidential changed over time, and the fun challenge of hiding the risque elements of a play (in a world where sex & violence are usually out in front). Continue reading →

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