RJ Vaillancourt, Jenna Grossano, James Presson, and Patrick Dooley of “How Less Than Rent Stole Christmas!”

How Less Than Rent Stole Christmas!Less Than Rent was last on the podcast with a provocative take on a theatre company’s provocative take on Beckett’s Endgame (listen to it here).

Now, the company sets their sights on the holidays, with three distinct evenings of theatrical cheer. The podcast was there on night one, when RJ Vaillancourt hosted a Christmas variety show a la his hero, Bing Crosby (see the photo below), under the direction of Jenna Grossano.

Listen in as Jenna & RJ, along with LTR members (and the masterminds of the series) James Presson and Patrick Dooley, discuss reflecting reality back from the stage, how you find the glue to hold a variety show together, and why the company would do not one, but three different holiday shows over three weeks. Continue reading

Billy Carter, Ruairi Conaghan, Trevor Cooper, Catherine Cusack, Frank Grimes, and James Hayes of “All That Fall”

Samuel Beckett's "All That Fall" at 59E59As my friends, and regular listeners to the podcast know — I love Samuel Beckett.

[Pro-tip: produce a Beckett show off-off-Broadway, or anything even related to his work, and Go See a Show! will be there if at all possible.]

All That Fall, one of the master’s radio plays, is seldom-produced, and one that I’d actually never heard. So when I saw that Trevor Nunn‘s production from the Jermyn Street Theatre in London would be coming to 59E59, even though it’s not technically off-off-Broadway…well, I had to go and see what was up.

And notice I said “see” what was up, because even though the Beckett estate keeps a tight reign on productions of his works, they’ve permitted the folks behind this production to stage it live — almost like you’re watching a live recording of the radio play, but with some light, simple, highly effective choreography.

Listen in as (much of) the cast & I discuss watching radio drama (something that’s ubiquitous for our English-speaking friends across the Atlantic, but not too prevalent Stateside), Beckett as road-movie, the destruction of great classical plays by modern concepts, where you find the laughter in the bleak, and what it’s like playing Beckett for the first time.

“You gotta laugh at it all. Otherwise, it would be terrible.”

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Meredith Burns, Carl Holder, and playwright Paul Cameron Hardy of “feeling.”

GB_feeling_FINAL_for_webJust what does a 20-something ABD PhD candidate with a broken heart have in common with a notorious serial killer?

According to Glass Bandits Theater Company‘s production of Paul Cameron Hardy‘s feeling. — a whole lot.

In this world premiere, the aforementioned student (played by Glass Bandits Managing Director Meredith Burns) falls into a deep depression when her 9-year relationship suddenly ends. And despite the encouragement and support of her enthusiastic younger brother (GB Producing Director Carl Holder) and her dissertation adviser’s push to focus on her work, she can’t seem to escape the darkness that she finds herself in. A darkness that manifests in a hallucination of Jeffrey Dahmer.

Listen in as Meredith, Carl, and Paul discuss the excitement of hearing “that play” for the first time, learning that your company would be producing “that play” via a nationally-circulated article, acting with mononucleosis, and exploring the lengths to which some people will go to keep a relationship.

“That’s why we need more companies doing what they love.”

“Preach. I’m here for the cookies.”

“…and the sword fights.”

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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…”

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Robert Honeywell, actor, and David Cote, director of “Something Something Über Alles (Das Jackpot)”

"Something Something Über Alles (Das Jackpot)" by Assurbanipal Babilla, performed by Robert Honeywell, directed by David Cote We all want to belong.

And, as the great poet Zimmerman has said, you gotta serve somebody.

Something Something Über Alles (Das Jackpot) is a complex & horrifying exploration into those very basic human needs, told through the recounting of a tale of a man who looks a lot like Adolf Hitler that becomes the center of a secret cult. While there’s only one actor onstage for this 90-minute piece, it’s a thrill-ride of a show.

Listen in as director David Cote and the sole actor, Robert Honeywell, recount the history of their relationship with the playwright, their friend Assurbanipal’s (Bani’s) work, herd mentality, feedback, how sex, politics, and religion collide in celebrity, and the leap from there to our social media obsession.

…oh, and happy 15th birthday, Horse Trade!

“Bani’s text has it’s own velocity somehow…it just moves, and it’s beautiful text, and the emotions and the imagery that he paints just surges. It’s really just full of life…”

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The Cast & Director of “Once We Lived Here”

Australian Made Entertainment presents "Once We Lived Here"When last we saw Australian Made Entertainment, Artistic Directors Matthew and Kathleen Foster were onstage in the drama Speaking in Tongues.

This time around, Matthew is in the director’s chair, and Kathleen is showcasing her beautiful singing voice with the company’s new show, a musical imported from Melbourne. Set on a rural sheep station, Once We Lived Here is about a family is fighting for the future—of the family farm, of their personal lives, and of their shared history.

Listen in as Matt and Kathleen, along with actors Morgan Cowling, Adam Rennie, Sean Cleary, and Renee Claire Bergeron discuss family drama as universal story, singing in your own accent (and learning someone else’s), selling up, and the cultural conversation made possible by producing an Australian musical in New York City.

“Home is where you are.”

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Jaclyn Backhaus, playwright, Andrew Neisler, director, and Ben Otto, actor, of “Shoot the Freak”

not just 3 new playsJaclyn Backhaus‘s new play, Shoot the Freak, is currently playing at Tom Noonan’s Paradise Factory on East 4th Street, as part of a unique theatrical event taking place through the month of September.

A triple-threat of playwrights including Backhaus,  Kevin Armento and Jerry Lieblich have joined forces & shared resources to turn the Paradise Factory into a curated artistic laboratory for a month, with full productions of new plays by each of them as the centerpiece(s). It’s called (not just) 3 New Plays, and it’s their attempt to build “an artistic ecosystem” — an exciting proposition.

And as you’ll hear in the interview, it’s a model that I (and Jaclyn) invite you to steal.

Listen in as Jaclyn, along with Shoot the Freak director Andrew Neisler and actor Ben Otto, discuss the freaks of New York, figuring out what a new play is actually about, peeling away layers of characters and Coney Island, what is lost to the ether, and how this pop-up theatre event is like calling Captain Planet.

“…recapture the magic…”

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Ashley Jacobson, Clare Hammoor, Remy Bennett, and Hannah Wolfe of “The Miracle Play”

The Dirty Blondes present "The Miracle Play" at The Secret TheatreThe podcast returns to The Secret Theatre for the second episode in a row, this time for the new offering from young-ish company The Dirty Blondes.

The work is called The Miracle Play, and it’s…well, it’s hard to say what it is, as you’ll surmise when you hear me try to do this interview. It’s a dense, challenging piece of theatre — and that’s not meant as a negative. My head was swimming after seeing it, so easing into an interview about it proved more difficult than I would have guessed.

Like the play, though, I think the discussion got to an interesting place.

So take a listen as playwright Ashley Jacobson, director Clare Hammoor, and actors Remy Bennett and Hannah Wolfe, discuss faith, the sound of plastic, writing a play during Hurricane Sandy, un-natural movement, and what it means (and looks like) to exist underwater. Continue reading

Playwright Duncan Pflaster and the cast of “Fourteen Hundred and Sixty Sketches of Your Left Hand”

"Fourteen Hundred and Sixty Sketches of Your Left Hand" by Duncan Pflaster, part of the 2013 UnFringed Festival at The Secret TheatreIf you’ve spent some time around the off-off-Broadway scene, chances are you’ve run into Duncan Pflaster — maybe you saw one of his shows, or read one of his reviews.

Or, maybe you didn’t even know you were standing next to him. In my experience, dude’s always at a show.

His new play, Fourteen Hundred and Sixty Sketches of Your Left Hand, is a modern riff on the friendship between Van Gogh and Gauguin (a theme this season, perhaps?), and features strange incentives to treat brain disorders, art, sex, deception, and, sadly, violence — all stemming from a lovely bromance between two artist pals on retreat in the desert.

Listen in as Duncan, along with the cast of Roberto Alexander, W. Derek Jorden, Neysa Lozano, and Emilio Paul Tirado, discuss getting naked onstage, the playwright as director, characters retreating into their own fantasies, and how to use Cards Against Humanity to kickstart your rehearsal process.

And there’s the sound of the 7 train. What up, Queens? Continue reading

Nora McNally, Ben Diserens, Rachel B. Joyce, Sean Patrick Monahan, & Patrick Dooley of “Beckett in Benghazi”

Less Than Rent presents "Beckett in Benghazi" by Ben DiserensBeing drawn to the classics, Less Than Rent has taken to integrating the work of the masters into their creations; as associate producer Sean Patrick Monahan notes in this interview, it’s like how painters try to imitate the iconic works of their predecessors to understand the process. By digging in and trying to understand what came before, we can come to appreciate the genius that preceded our work — and, possibly, see where it fits into our current cultural landscape.

In the company’s new show, Beckett in Benghazi, a young troupe of actors about to stage Samuel Beckett’s Endgame changes the show’s concept just days before opening in an attempt to integrate — or, perhaps, capitalize on — the major news of the day: the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Sean is joined on the mic by LTR’s Executive Director Nora McNally, Beckett in Benghazi‘s playwright Ben Diserens, and actors from the show Rachel B. Joyce and Patrick Dooley — listen in as they discuss world events becoming buzz-words, asking questions, and the cyclical nature of life, Beckett, and this play — as well as what sort of work a play can do.

“‘I can’t go on, I’ll go on.’ Exactly.”

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