The Cast & Director of “The Drunken City”

Posted on September 26, 2014 by robby

New on the scene Battalion Theatre presents their second production, where a night of excessive partying and drunken carousing with handsome strangers leads to unavoidable confrontations with the realities of the relationships between a young bachelorette and her circle of friends—Adam Bock’s The Drunken City. It’s a premise that could easily devolve into cliche, but wisely starts at cliche before delving into the humanity underneath.

Listen in as director Emma Johnson, and actors Christine Spang, Conrad LeBron, Dan Gonon, Elena Kritter, Gadi Rubin, and Kullan Sinclair Edberg, discuss starting your theatre company at CraftBar, how your interviewer looks like Rocket Raccoon, love & magic, and taking a cold hard look at your own relationships. Oh, and there’s an on-air selfie.

“The play is a comedy on the surface, but for me it’s a tragedy, it’s about the lies that we call truths in the battle against loneliness…those lies, when called truths, build up and become the foundations upon which we build our lives…”

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Matthew Foster, Andrew H. Lyons, & David Sedgwick of “The Club”

Posted on September 23, 2014 by robby

This episode serves as both a “welcome back!” and a fond “farewell” to the excellent company Australian Made Entertainment (previously heard on the podcast with their wonderful shows Speaking in Tongues and Once We Lived Here), who are presenting their last show in NYC before founders Kathleen & Matthew Foster bring their family & work to Los Angeles. West Coast, our loss is your gain.

Fittingly for their final NYC bow, AME is presenting an Aussie classic, David Williamson’s The Club, about the back-room negotiations and maneuverings of a football club in the 1970s, directed by Andrew H. Lyons. As noted in the interview, it feels like this play occupies an interesting spot between Glengarry Glen Ross and Moneyball—and don’t worry, you don’t have to know a thing about business, or Australian football, to enjoy the brilliant work going on right now at Urban Stages.

Listen in as Matthew, Andrew, and actor David Sedgwick discuss the struggles between tradition and business, moustaches, and how a contemporary Australian classic resonates in modern-day U.S.A.

“…what I saw getting into it was this tipping point of tradition vs. business, bottom-line vs. tradition…that’s where we were, we were right there at ‘do we hang on to tradition, do we keep America moving forward to help ourselves, or do we cut our losses, cut all that stuff, and go for the money‘…it’s the moment of the tipping point…”

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Barry Rowell, Ralph Lewis, Catherine Porter, Donald Warfield, and Ben Nemser of “3Christs”

Posted on September 17, 2014 by robby

Students of the sordid history of psychological treatment might be aware of social psychologist Milton Rokeach’s experiment, chronicled in his book The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, to lessen the delusions of three paranoid schizophrenic patients who all believed themselves to be Jesus Christ—by putting them in close contact and encouraging them to confront their conflicting statuses as the Christ.

Ethically questionable, to say the least, but it proves fascinating source material for Peculiar Works Project to mine for their new site-specific show 3Christs, presented, appropriately, at Judson Memorial Church.

Listen in as co-creators Barry Rowell & Ralph Lewis, actors Catherine Porter & Donald Warfield, and magic consultant Ben Nemser, discuss belief, site-specificity, the messy history of treating mental illness, magic tricks, and how to play crazy without stepping on everyone else’s crazy.

“…this is not a play about religion at all, it’s a play about belief, and what we believe in…”

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Lori Wolter Hudson, adapter/director, and David Hudson, actor, of “Drunkle Vanya”

Posted on September 15, 2014 by robby

Take one part Chekhov, two parts drinking game, one part party, add a dash of improv, and you’ve got a recipe for fun, boozy theatre in a bar the way only Three Day Hangover can do it.

When you love Chekhov the way adapter/director Lori Wolter Hudson does, contemporizing Uncle Vanya for a New York bar audience must be equally thrilling and daunting; if the experience of this podcaster (who typically loathes Chekhov) is any indication, she’s got a hell of a lot to be proud of. The podcast doesn’t editorialize, as I always say — but you’d do well to take this episode at its word, and go see this show.

Listen in as Lori, along with fellow Hangover-er (and portrayer of Astrov in the show) David Hudson, discuss the element of randomness, playing games, the difference between original scripts and what actually ends up on stage, structure around improv, and how to make Chekhov fun (in a bar).

Будем здоровы!

“Hell yeah, I wanna do Chekhov in a bar on the Upper West Side!”

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Stephen Brackett, Laura Ramadei, Jake Choi, Danelle Eliav, Max Jenkins, and Randall Newsome of “Carnival Kids”

Posted on June 13, 2014 by robby

Times is tough all over. If you listen to NPR regularly (as this radio nerd does), you’ve probably caught a story or two just in the past week about young adults living with their parents because of economic pressures.

In Lucas Kavner’s new play Carnival Kids, directed by Stephen Brackett, Mark is living with his dad Dale again; but, the situation is reversed, and it’s broke, former rockstar Dale who’s crashing Mark’s New York law-student bachelor pad. As Dale befriends Mark’s illegal-smartphone-app mogul roommate, and attempts to profit from courting a woman seeking a green-card marriage, Mark attempts to open up to an old friend from high school — and his porcelain-smooth existence begins to crack.

My description can’t do it justice, so don’t let my ham-fisted-ness scare you off — this is a really interesting play in a production that deserves your attention.

Listen in as Stephen and the wonderful cast of Laura Ramadei, Jake Choi, Danelle Eliav, Max Jenkins, and Randall Newsome discuss hiding, breaking expectations, when casting director suggestions go wonderfully right, casting yourself (graciously), and how to invite the audience into the intense, bizarrely-close moments of the play.

“…we’re just naked up here on this stark white, thin set…I feel like I’m working on my poker face, trying not to lose it…”

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Aliza Shane, playwright and director of “Mein Uncle: An absurdist fairytale about the seeds of inhumanity”

Posted on June 2, 2014 by robby

The Brothers Grimm collected German folk stories which, through their efforts, have spread and become what many people will remember as classic fairy tales (like those re-imagined by StrangeDog in their show Enchanted Arms, which you may remember from the previous episode of this very podcast).

In this episode, playwright/director Aliza Shane, one of the co-founders of 3 Voices Theatre, takes the notion of the fairy tale back to Germany, and back in time to between the World Wars, on the eve of that nation’s darkest moment, in Mein Uncle: An absurdist fairytale about the seeds of inhumanity.

Listen in as Aliza discusses accidental inspiration via The History Channel, bad love, and what happens when you start a play with a girl in a cage.

“…with the absurdist fairytale, we get to divert from the history, we get to add a little oddness and bizarre twists and a little fairytale magic to an otherwise stiff, upsetting story…”

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Brian Gillespie, director, and actors Gina LeMoine and Luke Wise, of “Virus Attacks Heart”

Posted on May 22, 2014 by robby

Summer’s almost here, which means festival season is getting underway. This is a great time to catch brand-new OOB plays, and GSAS! got started at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity with the world premiere of Virus Attacks Heart, written by Shannon Murdoch and directed by Brian Gillespie.

In this two-hander, we see the complexities of a one-night-stand between the lonely, word-loving 18-year-old Jamie (Luke Wise) and the lonely, almost-twice-his-age “12-drink” Beatrice (Gina LeMoine), both of whom are “running away from things in their lives, and then they run into each other and, though meeting, have to face those things, whether they though that was going to happen or not.”

Listen in as Brian, Gina, and Luke discuss “drunken fever-dreams,” taking the time to search text through movement, and finding the right interesting, challenging play in a stack of open submissions.

“…it’s theatre, and the audience should be engaging their imaginations…[they have] to lean in, and do a little work of filling in the gaps…”

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August Schulenburg, Kelly O’Donnell, Will Lowry, & the cast of “Jane the Plain”

Posted on May 16, 2014 by robby

The great folks of Flux Theatre Ensemble are no strangers to the podcast (see their three past episodes for more great stuff), with each unique production linked by the ensemble’s players and production team, and the high quality that marks a Flux show.

That said, I was a bit surprised when I heard the company’s latest offering would be set in high school, and feature characters with names like “Scotty the Hotty” and “Betty the Pretty” — but, of course, this isn’t your typical high school dramedy. It’s like John Hughes meets…well, you should listen to the interview. Gus tells that joke way better than I could.

Listen in as director Kelly O’Donnell, scenic designer Will Lowry, playwright August Schulenburg, and the cast discuss tightening your aesthetic vocabulary, transformation, and getting in touch with your teenage emotions, where moments of magnitude are ever-present.

“We didn’t quite know what the genre was completely, but in the rehearsal room we really worked as a team to develop it together, really devising a lot of the movement and a lot of the rules and the vocabulary of the stage…”

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DeLisa White, director, and Heather Cunningham, actor, of “An Appeal to the Woman of the House”

Posted on May 14, 2014 by robby

Retro Productions makes theatre about where we came from, and how far we’ve come — and it’s theatre that reminds us that sometimes, we’ve still got a ways to go.

For director DeLisa White and actress/Retro Artistic Director Heather Cunningham, the personal stories from the past that we tell, live, in the theater, can be the kinds of stories that have a real impact on the way we live in the world today. Christie Perfetti Williams’ An Appeal to the Woman of the House is that kind of story.

Listen in as DeLisa, Heather and I discuss how to make change in your community, vigilance through theatre and storytelling, and how complex even the smallest impacts can be.

“…it’s not just the big actions that impact change, it’s the people who are either invested in, or complicit with, the change that occurs. It’s not just the person on the bus, but all the reactions around them…”

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Nolan Kennedy, playwright/actor, and Welland H. Scripps, actor, of “Bully Me Down”

Posted on May 13, 2014 by robby

Yo ho ho, and a bottle of rum…

…and a whistleblower, a high-school anti-bullying activist, an assassin, a Scottish sea captain, a U.S. president, Barbara Walters…

All these characters (and more) collide in various bars across the borough of Brooklyn as part of Letter of Marque Theater Company‘s traveling play Bully Me Down, written by Nolan Kennedy and performed by Welland H. Scripps, Jason Tottenham, Scarlet Rivera, and Kennedy himself.

Listen in as Nolan, Welland and I hang out on the street-corner outside Hank’s Saloon after a performance to discuss putting theatre in a bar, a play as your company’s “self-titled album,” bullying, and shooting for the stars.

“We kind of wanted to do a ‘self-titled-album’ kind of show, so it’s trying on these piratical, privateer stories and ideas, and it also is dealing with what’s happening around us…this idea of what’s private and what’s not private…”

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Category Archives: Artistic Directors

The Cast & Director of “The Drunken City”

Matthew Foster, Andrew H. Lyons, & David Sedgwick of “The Club”

Barry Rowell, Ralph Lewis, Catherine Porter, Donald Warfield, and Ben Nemser of “3Christs”

Lori Wolter Hudson, adapter/director, and David Hudson, actor, of “Drunkle Vanya”

Stephen Brackett, Laura Ramadei, Jake Choi, Danelle Eliav, Max Jenkins, and Randall Newsome of “Carnival Kids”

Aliza Shane, playwright and director of “Mein Uncle: An absurdist fairytale about the seeds of inhumanity”

Brian Gillespie, director, and actors Gina LeMoine and Luke Wise, of “Virus Attacks Heart”

August Schulenburg, Kelly O’Donnell, Will Lowry, & the cast of “Jane the Plain”

DeLisa White, director, and Heather Cunningham, actor, of “An Appeal to the Woman of the House”

Nolan Kennedy, playwright/actor, and Welland H. Scripps, actor, of “Bully Me Down”