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…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Artem Yatsunov, director, and Stacie Lents, playwright, of “Enchanted Arms”

Posted on May 29, 2014 by robby

Remember your classic fairy tales?

Well, StrangeDog Theatre Company is taking the characters from those stories, and setting them up in low-rent apartments in a run-down building named, appropriately, Enchanted Arms.

And while the four tales presented here have a familiar ring…these are not the fairy tales your Grandma told you.

Listen in as director Artem Yatsunov, and one of the four playwrights featured in the evening, Stacie Lents, discuss taking the magic out of fairy-tales, throwing money around to the sounds of Whitney Houston, shit-talking Ayn Rand, and plays & stories that are actually…fun.

“No happy endings.”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Kiran Rikhye, playwright, and Jon Stancato, director, of “Potion: A Play in Three Cocktails”

Posted on May 27, 2014 by robby

Regular listeners know very well by now that I love to enjoy a drink while I’m at a show. But I don’t think I’ve been to a performance that integrates imbibing as well as this one.

In Potion: A Play in Three Cocktails, playwright Kiran Rikhye, director Jon Stancato, and the lovely troupe at Stolen Chair Theatre Company have not only created a show in a bar with booze readily available for consumption, but they grab a big swizzle stick and mix the cocktails into the drama. The very act of drinking the custom “potions” served throughout the play serves the narrative, and its premise, in a brilliant and beautiful way.

This is a fun night at the theatre, y’all. A fun night of theatre at the bar. With delicious custom cocktails. What more could you want?

Listen in as Jon & Kiran discuss crazy ways to write plays, “potion” as metaphor for the transformation of the actor, how opera is like a great night out at a bar, and scratching your play like it’s on a turntable.

“…I think it was a series of remixes…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Michael Sladek, director of “Below the Belt”

Posted on May 15, 2014 by robby

Sometimes, as a director, you run into those scripts that you know you just have to do.

For Michael Sladek, that script was Richard Dresser’s Below the Belt, an absurdist take on life and work in the corporate environment — and “absurdist,” in this case, means pretty dead-on, as both Michael and I attest to in this interview.

Listen in as Michael & I discuss putting up a show in the former boiler room of Bell Laboratories, avoiding curse words in verbal battles, wrangling in the corporate workplace, and finding the funny in the dark material.

“…it’s the whole world over, we are all apparently corporate beings now…it’s so funny how often we’re fighting for jobs that, once we have the jobs, we hate them…it’s a lot about that sort of wrangling to get up that ladder, even though you hate the ladder, but you do it anyway, because it’s what you do to survive, and it’s what you do to avoid the harder things in life…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

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…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Christopher Loar, adaptor/director of “The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, Volume 2”

Posted on May 7, 2014 by robby

The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Volume 2, directed/adapted by Christopher Loar A few years back, director, accidental Eugene O’Neill enthusiast, and TMLMTBGB actor Christopher Loar thought up a fun little sketch for that long-running, long-titled New York Neo-Futurists show (if you don’t know it from the acronym, click this link, then go see the show this weekend, or any weekend!) — strip away O’Neill’s dialogue, brilliant as it is, and just say and perform what was meant to be performed and not said: the stage directions.

If you’ve ever read an O’Neill, you probably know that such a drastic cut would still leave you with a whole lot of text. The exercise of turning that text into a staged event unto itself proved successful in TMLMTBGB, so Loar’s next step? Make an evening out of it with The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, Volume 1: Early Plays/Lost Plays, which received a Drama Desk nomination for “Unique Theatrical Experience.”

Now Loar and the Neo-Futurists are back with The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, Volume 2 — because why mess with a good thing, right?

Listen in as Christopher and I discuss the utility of stage directions, staying out of the way of your performers/collaborators/interpreters, and O’Neill’s moment vs. this 2014 moment in downtown theatre.

“I think in the stage directions there’s the intention of what the writer wants to happen onstage or happen with that character…but I guess that’s what I like so much about this…I too come from a background where I was trained to ignore all of the stage directions…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Sean Patrick Monahan, James Presson, Charlie Polinger, and Tom Sanchez of “Little Mac, Little Mac, You’re the Very Man!”

Posted on April 25, 2014 by robby

It’s been a good few seasons for Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, his adaptation of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera — Martha Clarke’s version is currently running at The Atlantic, Marvel Rep’s production of Feingold’s translation was up for a Drama Desk in 2012, Robert Wilson’s stylized take was at BAM not long ago…now, add to that a truly American adaptation — Less Than Rent’s Little Mac, Little Mac, You’re the Very Man!

In LTR’s freewheeling musical, the infamous Macheath chases the American dream through time and space, encountering everyone from Richard Nixon & Ronald Reagan, to Joe DiMaggio and Michael Jordan, to Bugs Bunny & Jessica Rabbit. It’s as wild as you think it is, and a lot of fun.

Listen in as playwrights Sean Patrick Monahan and James Presson, director Charlie Polinger, and Mac himself, Tom Sanchez, discuss free-association & post-it notes to write your play, how to make it in America, and what happens when your American History book throws up all over The Beggar’s Opera.

“They were sort of taking the audience on a ride and then kicking them out of the car…and so we started trying to find a way that we could do that…”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

TALKBACK: David Stallings & Heather Cohn of “Dark Water,” with Robin Madel & Kyle Rabin

Posted on March 26, 2014 by robby

Manhattan Theatre Works presents "Dark Water" by David Stallings, directed by Heather Cohn David Stallings‘s play Dark Water is the tale of a mother turtle as she and her son negotiate the sea along with a host of other animals — like a land-loving dolphin, a vain heron, and a gluttonous gull — to save her daughters, who have been trapped by the titular menace. Director Heather Cohn‘s production features a colorful (and largely recycled!) set, music, puppets, and inventive projections to tell the moving tale of these animals.

Don’t let that description fool you — this isn’t a kids show.

Rather, it’s a righteous statement about the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon blowout, the largest off-shore oil spill in US history. And sadly, although it comes almost four years after the initial tragedy, it can still be considered timely, because the environment is still dealing with the fallout.

At the performance on March 20, Robin Madel and Kyle Rabin of Grace Communications Foundation were on hand to lead a talkback on the environmental issues of the show. It was a great way to follow up the performance, and GSAS! was there to record it — it’s presented here in its entirety.

Don’t worry if you don’t remember just what happened in the Gulf in April of 2010; a brave audience member sums it up nicely in the discussion, before Robin & Kyle discuss the effects of this and other oil spills, what prompted David to write the play, and Heather’s fear (and ultimate triumph) of directing this “impossible to direct” play.

“Don’t eat bluefin tuna…BLACKOUT.”

Continue reading →

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Go See a Show!

The off-off-Broadway podcast

Category Archives: Directors

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

Artem Yatsunov, director, and Stacie Lents, playwright, of “Enchanted Arms”

Kiran Rikhye, playwright, and Jon Stancato, director, of “Potion: A Play in Three Cocktails”

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”

Michael Sladek, director of “Below the Belt”

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

Christopher Loar, adaptor/director of “The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill, Volume 2”

Sean Patrick Monahan, James Presson, Charlie Polinger, and Tom Sanchez of “Little Mac, Little Mac, You’re the Very Man!”

TALKBACK: David Stallings & Heather Cohn of “Dark Water,” with Robin Madel & Kyle Rabin