William Steinberger, Marisa Brau, Andreas Damm, Michael Calciano, and Melissa Cesarano of “Gregor”

InVersion Theatre Company presents Gregor, freely adapted from Kafka's The Metamorphosis, directed by William SteinbergerWe’ve all felt like an outsider at some point. But imagine how much more divorced from the world you’d feel if you woke up one day to discover you’ve turned into an insect.

That is, of course, the premise of Franz Kafka’s century-old absurd novella on alienation, The Metamorphosis. For GregorInVersion Theatre‘s stage adaptation of the story, the company adds theatrical movement and storytelling to give it a contemporary spin.

Plus, they add inter-dimensional actor-bureaucrats to tell us the story. And it totally works.

Listen in as director William Steinberger, along with the full cast, Marisa Brau, Andreas Damm, Michael Calciano, and Melissa Cesarano, discuss hearing Bond villains in your head, the inability to speak linearly, what happens when you lose language, and Kafka’s character of Gregor as a “proto-millennial.”

“…there’s this really fascinating triad: there’s Kafka who wrote it, there’s the speaker of The Metamorphosis, and then there’s Gregor…and I felt as though the novella was incredibly ripe for theatrical adaptation, because…a good way to [recreate that triad] was through breaking the fourth wall…I thought theatre could do it really well.”

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Emily Claire Schmitt, Ria T. DiLullo, Miranda Poett, Claire Buckingham, Charlotte Pines, and Courtney McClellan of “Whatchamacallit: A Play About Jesus”

Whatchamacallit A Play About Jesus, written by Emily Claire Schmitt, directed by Ria T. DiLulloNuns & prophets. Lost faith & lost love. A virgin conception & a horde of condoms.

And, observing it all, a bemused Jesus.

If that doesn’t intrigue you to check out Emily Claire Schmitt‘s excellent play Whatchamacallit: A Play About Jesus, then this interview certainly will.

Listen in as Emily, along with director Ria T. DiLullo, and cast members Miranda Poett, Claire Buckingham, Charlotte Pines, and Courtney McClellan, discuss the hero’s journey, embodying third wave feminism, Catholic education, a play and rehearsal process mostly free from the male gaze, and how songs can sometimes sing you.

“…when I wrote the script, one of the intentions was, ‘how are we going to deal with issues that people don’t like talking about, but in a way that’s fun and comfortable…can we talk about religion, and can we talk about women, without judging religion…can we actually deal with these things in a human way, without destroying ourselves…”

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Cave Theatre Company’s “Gruesome Playground Injuries”

Cave Theatre Company presents Rajiv Joseph's GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIESLove hurts.

In Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries, it hurts a whole lot. Like face-split-open, teeth-knocked-out, razor-blade-cut, horrible-fireworks-accident maims. And the scars it leaves aren’t only on the bodies of protagonists Doug & Kayleen.

Cave Theatre Company, rounding out their first year of productions, is staging Joseph’s dark relationship dramedy at Under St. Mark’s as part of their residency with Frigid New York; listen in as director James Masciovecchio, actors Kiley Caughey and Alex Etling, and their fellow Cave crew, co-producers Josh Triplett and Cassie Wood, discuss getting rights to your favorite play in a nail-biting photo-finish, inspiration from podcasts (really!), leaning into theatricality, making bad Tinder dating stories into theatre, and why you should just get your friends together and make something.

…we want to see real stories on stage. We want to see honest stories, and try not to sugar-coat things, and try not to show things for what they aren’t…

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Katie Palmer and Paul Bedard of “The Debates”

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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Recent Cutbacks’ “Fly, You Fools!”

Recent Cutbacks presents FLY, YOU FOOLS! at The PITThe brilliant comedic team of Recent Cutbacks didn’t exist, at least not in name, when they were last on the podcast with their incredible Hold on to Your Butts.

But luckily for all of us, they’re back, and this time, instead of dinosaurs, they’re taking on elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards, eagles, and, of course, hobbits, with Fly, You Fools!

On the mic are the show’s producer Allyson Morgan, as well as returning guests, director Kristin McCarthy Parker and performers Nick Abeel and Kyle Schaefer; and now, added to the team are performer Matt Zambrano, and foley artist Blair Busbee, all of whom sat in for a chat about their wonderful new show.

Listen in as the Recent Cutbacks team discusses why they moved to The Fellowship of the Ring from Jurassic Park, dancey, movementy, mimey things, the danger of inciting a nerd riot, finding the sound of your show as it continues to change, and how to deal with prop mishaps in real time.

“…in the rehearsal process, we sort of found that the more epic the film was, the less props we needed. We could get away with more, with less…actually, we don’t need these hundred wigs, or these extra props, when we can tell the story just through physicality. Which I think is actually more joyful for the audience…” Continue reading

Lauren Swan-Potras, Jon Riddleberger, and John Kurzynowski of “Rhinbecca, NY”

Theater Reconstruction Ensemble presents Rhinbecca, NY at The BrickDark yet humorous, absurd but vaguely political, Theatre Reconstruction Ensemble‘s Rhinbecca, NY occupies a strange place between the source material of the films of Alfred Hitchcock and the plays of Eugene Ionesco, letting the audience draw their own conclusions from the action onstage.

GSAS! correspondent Tara Gadomski took a trip out to The Brick in Brooklyn to check out a performance; listen in as she and director John Kurzynowski, who also conceived the piece, and two members of the ensemble who performed and created the show, Lauren Swan-Potras and Jon Riddleberger, discuss TRE’s mode for devising, theatrical moments as questions, the balance between source material and the entirely new, and “the strange middle ground between suspense and the absurd.”

“…what we mean by reconstruction is that we take classic and canonical works and theatricalities, and we play with it, and we say, what does that mean to us now, and how do we interact with that? So when we investigate Hitchcock…it’s our idea of what Hitchcock means. It’s staying true to that, and not trying to recreate something perfectly, but say, ‘this thing exists here, we exist over here, what’s that middle ground?’ And that’s the playing space that we inhabit when we’re creating work…”

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Patricia Lynn, Annie Branson, and Lauren Lubow of “Fen”

Red Garnet Theater Company presents Caryl Churchill's FEN, directed by Patricia Lynn

“…it’s become about women, and the role that we play in what we want, and what we do to go after it. What do we feel that we’re entitled to, what are our aspirations, and what are the obstacles getting in our way?”

Caryl Churchill’s Fen follows the lives/stories/desires of several women working in the drained marshland of Fenland, England—and for the artists at Red Garnet Theater Company, it’s about that quote above, an exploration that continues now in 2016, despite the play being written over 30 years ago.

GSAS! corespondent Tara Gadomski takes you underground at IATI Theater’s Black Box for a conversation with director Patricia Lynn, associate producer/actor Annie Branson, and Red Garnet Artistic Director Lauren Lubow; listen in as they discuss why Fen now, finding performance opportunities for your company members, how to get the rights to a play by a notable living playwright, UK pop references of the ’80s, getting creative to prop your show, and why it’s so important to just be cool when you’re in this industry.

“…the imbalance that you have between men and women in this industry is huge. And I think there are so many women out there that have so much to say, and we haven’t heard it. And I think that the idea of light, which I found so fitting that Patty found that theme throughout this play, is, where can we shine the light, and what can we uncover and unearth..?”

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Catrina McHugh, Cheryl Dixon, Laura Lindow, and Jessica Johnson of “Key Change”

Open Clasp Theatre Company presents Key Change, written by Catrina McHugh, directed by Laura LindowKey Change comes to New York’s 4th Street Theatre from Northern England, after a long and interesting journey. It was created by the Newcastle-based theatre company, Open Clasp, in a collaboration with women in Her Majesty’s Prison Low Newton.

It started as a theatre devising workshop with the prisoners, then, as a show developed, it toured to male prisons in the UK. The company then took Key Change to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this past summer, where it won the prestigious Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award. The prize: a fully-funded production of Key Change in New York City.

Listen in as writer Catrina McHugh, director Laura Lindow, and actors Cheryl Dixon and Jessica Johnson discuss collaboratively creating composite characters, touring their show to prisons, working with the restrictions of their performance venues, how an environment can intimidate, keeping connections open, and building trusting relationships.

“It just felt like those voices had been flown over the razor wire, and had escaped…”

(Producer’s note: as you listen to this episode, you’ll probably realize that the dulcet, sometimes-confused, yet pleasing and sonorous baritone voice that usually does the interviewing has been replaced by someone who sounds like she knows what she’s doing. That’s because she does, for while I’m away on an out-of-town gig, radio-host, writer, actor, and fellow podcaster Tara Gadomski is more-than-ably taking over interviewing duties. Big thanks to her for keeping GSAS! going while I’m out.) Continue reading

DeLisa M. White, Heather E. Cunningham, Ryan Pater, and Rebecca Gray Davis of “Good Boys and True”

Retro Productions presents Good Boys and True, written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, directed by DeLisa M. WhiteRetro Productions is back with another revival of a 20th Century play, directly in line with their mission “to broaden our own understanding of the world we live in.” Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Good Boys and True may be set in 1988, but the issues of class, privilege, sexuality, and violence feel uncomfortably current.

Listen in as director DeLisa M. White and Producing Artistic Director of Retro Productions and actor Heather E. Cunningham, as well as fellow actors Ryan Pater and Rebecca Gray Davis, discuss high school flashbacks, the importance of punctuation, laughter from struck nerves, what happens when your mom’s in the audience, pulling from personal experience, and how this “retro” play resonates into the past, our present, and, sadly, probably into the future.

“One of the lines in the play is, ‘Everything is broken.’ That’s what happens…when you hear that headline in the news, the tentacles and roots of that problem expand far beyond what you see in the news, or even in the situation if you’re in it…”

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Jolie Curtsinger, Zachary Clark, Jake Robards, and Kim Wong of “Promising”

InProximity Theatre presents Promising, written by Michelle ElliottThe Republican presidential primary is a clown-car with the lead clown espousing fascism, Sheldon Silver’s just been found guilty of corruption, Rahm Emmanuel’s currently in hot water with the stove turned to “high”…

I wouldn’t blame anyone for being disgusted with politics at the moment.

But the mess of the political world can certainly be excellent fodder for drama in the theatre. In Michelle Elliott’s Promising, we see a City Councilperson on the edge of re-election, who is suddenly accused of sexual assault. As he’s holed up in his fancy Manhattan apartment with his campaign manager, his speechwriter/best friend, and his half-sister against the media scrum outside, truths are revealed that shake their perceptions and relationships with the “Golden Boy” they’ve all admired for years.

Listen in as the show’s four actors—Jolie Curtsinger, Zachary Clark, Jake Robards, and Kim Wong—discuss checking your judgment, drones in the theatre, rationalizing, and just what is the right thing when your loved ones are involved.

“Everyone’s got that person who’s been kryptonite to them in their past that they can’t get away from…”
“…when you’ve made a bad choice, how does it affect others?…”

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