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

Posted on September 1, 2013 by robby

"Fourteen Hundred and Sixty Sketches of Your Left Hand" by Duncan Pflaster, part of the 2013 UnFringed Festival at The Secret Theatre If 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 →

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James Rutherford and Elliot B. Quick, adaptors & directors of “The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway”

Posted on August 30, 2013 by robby

M-34 presents "The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway" at The Access Theater To drastically, drastically oversimplify his play—this what happens when an easy pun is chased down to the point where it becomes a complex theatrical statement.

If they all turn out like this, a strong case can be made that we should all chase such simple puns more often.

Listen in as the adaptors/directors of The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway, James Rutherford and Elliot B. Quick, discuss the complexity of Oscar Wilde’s puns, what it really means to be earnest, and how even when things work out just perfectly, there can still be hurt & pain.

“It did actually start from a pun — and then we started working on it, and were really shocked and appalled that it was really fruitful territory, and that these two writers actually have a great deal to say to one another…”

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Kristin McCarthy Parker, director of “kumrads won’t”

Posted on August 15, 2013 by robby

On this episode, the fabulous director Kristin McCarthy Parker returns to the podcast — and this time, I’m posting our interview in time for you to hear it and then see her show (unlike when I covered her show Bears).

Kristen, along with producer Nick Abeel, playwright Christina Michelle Watkins, & other committed artists, knew they wanted to see kumrads won’t in a real production — so they decided to produce it themselves, submitting it to the New York International Fringe Festival. Self-producing is something I’m all in favor of, but I also know it’s a daunting proposition. So of course one of my biggest questions for the interview were, “why would you do this to yourself?” And in a festival, nonetheless!

Must be a really special show to them. As you’ll hear in the interview, indeed it is.

Listen in as Kristin discusses how she came to fall in love with this play, the stuggles of being vulnerable, and what it means to be successful within your means.

“I found it really intriguing, and funny, and heartbreaking, and sad, but also just a really poignant look at a relationship between two people who are very different, and who we don’t normally envision having any sort of connection, but who are struggling to connect with each other nonetheless.”

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

Posted on August 2, 2013 by robby

Being 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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Liz Davito, Lucy Smith, Eamonn Farrell, & Jessica Weinstein of “I Land”

Posted on August 2, 2013 by robby

Anonymous Ensemble present "I Land," part of the Ice Factory festival 2013 The Ice Factory festival of new works at The New Ohio comes to a close with Anonymous Ensemble‘s I Land, and while all the works have been creative & adventurous, this, in my humble opinion, might be the most innovative.

Because when you sit in this show, you’re co-creating the show with Anonymous. Despite their name, you, as an audience member, are not anonymous in this production; you help to write it, in a very real way. I’ll stop there, I don’t want to give too much away…but I think it helps to know at least that much about the show before listening to this episode.

On the mic are the performers: Liz Davito, Lucy Smith, Eamonn Farrell, and Jessica Weinstein. I’m going to let them carry this episode from here. To say any more here would take away from the experience you get when you walk into a performance of I Land, and I certainly wouldn’t want to do that.

Listen in as Liz, Lucy, Jessica & Eamonn discuss extraordinary stories, the fine line between “playing with” and “mocking,” theatre as an event, and what happens when the last element you add to your show is a script.

“I felt like I existed. And it was so fantastic.”

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

Posted on July 26, 2013 by robby

The 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”

Posted on July 25, 2013 by robby

Mac 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”

Posted on July 25, 2013 by robby

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 Nasarimba

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

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

Posted on July 23, 2013 by robby

Regular 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”

Posted on July 19, 2013 by robby

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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