Falsettos Original Cast Reunites for Benefit

This is written by Chris Leidenfrost-Wilson:

Broadway stars Chip Zien and Jonathan C. Kaplan will be joining the group of original “Marvin Trilogy” cast members appearing at a benefit dinner supporting Long Island Crisis Center, Long Island’s oldest suicide prevention and crisis intervention agency, and its LGBT youth initiative, Pride for Youth. The dinner also will feature appearances by original In Trousers, March of the Falsettos, and Falsettos stars Michael Rupert, Alison Fraser, and Stephen Bogardus.

The event is being produced by Off Sides Entertainment, Inc., in conjunction with their limited Equity Showcase run of William Finn and James Lapine’s award-winning musical Falsettos.  Off Sides is hoping to raise over $5,000 for Long Island Crisis Center, and will be hosting the pre-show dinner on June 2 at Le Pain Quotidien, sponsored by MELLOHAWK Logistics, Inc. The evening will also include an auction of rare Falsettos memorabilia including a signed copy of Stephen Bogardus’ original script, an original costume from March of the Falsettos, and Michael Rupert’s own “Falsettos” Broadway show jacket! The production will play at Manhattan’s The Theaters At 45 Bleecker Street from May 30 to June 15, after its critically acclaimed run on Long Island at Lantern Theatre.  Falsettos will appear as a part of Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, New York’s premiere eco-friendly and socially-conscious theater festival.

The Planet Connections production will be directed by Rick Leidenfrost-Wilson. Watch for one the plays he wrote, The Declaration, coming soon to Indie Theater Now’s Planet Connections Collection.

League of Independent Theater — Annual Meeting on April 28

The League of Independent Theater, Inc. will have its Annual Meeting this Saturday, April 28, at 5:00pm, at The Living Theatre, 21 Clinton Street.

If you’re a member of the League, please do attend if you can. And if you’re not a member yet, you are absolutely invited to come and learn about what the organization is doing. This past year has been one of great transformation and revitalization for the League and I encourage everyone who is actively working in the world of indie theater in NYC to be part of it.

Membership in the League is now free. (You do need to be qualified for membership by demonstrating some experience working in the indie sector.)

(I am on the League’s Board of Directors.)

The website www.litny.org has some info what the latest projects being pursued by the League.

I hope to see many of you there on Saturday!

 

Paul Hufker’s New Plays: Reading on April 24

From nytheatre.com reviewer Paul Hufker:

I’m having a reading on April 24th of two plays of mine. The reading starts at 7:00pm and ends at 9:30. Its location is The Drilling Company, 236 w. 78th st, 3rd floor.

The first piece is entitled Small Pox in the Blankets and features the wonderfully talented Jennifer Laine Williams, Susan Quinn, and Scott Baker.

Synopsis: A pathetic clown has lost his way. His young daughter resents the hell out of him. Like any addict, his need for applause has alienated the precocious youngster and enraged her. To make matters worse, along comes a step-mommy which tortures and patronizes the bright, broken girl. Suddenly, ultimatums, threats, violence. Sure, the clown is a performer, but what does he owe his audience? His daughter? What does the daughter owe him and what in the world is this woman doing here? Come find out. It’s good. I promise.

The second piece in the evening is a coming-of-age full-length that is both touching and tenuous, affectionate and edgy. It’s entitled The Wet Woods and stars immensely talented actors Josh Bywater and Max Davis.

Synopsis: Paul and Anthony have been friends since birth. Paul said his first word in Anthony’s kitchen. But screw Missouri. Screw high school. Screw freshman year. They wanna live in this really cool patch of woods Paul found. Girls are coming! With f-ing beer! This is going to be a very good night. Paul is eager to touch the goodies. He’s seen lots of stuf. Porn. Starting at age eight? Yikes. Where the hell are the girls? What’s keeping them? Anthony’s room is always clean. Paul’s tired of his filthy house. He’ll have Anthony rake and get the leaves up and keep the dirt in straight lines like Paul wants. Paul will hunt the food. Anthony is pretty f-ing nervous. What happens when the girls get here? Paul wants Anthony to do to the girls what the guys do to the girls in the Hustler he brought. It involves lots of things. Fingers. Fists. Anthony cries. He likes animals. He’d rather talk about the rabbits he keeps in his mom’s garden. Paul is having serious troubles with his digestive tract. There’s blood when he wipes. It won’t stop. Will his older friend Rob show? He’s great with girls. Will he bring his dad’s gun? Paul’s seen him shoot it.

Suddenly, the sounds of the woods are electronic. Suddenly they are older. They’re coming back here. What has life done to each of them? Rob was wounded in Iraq. His wife took the kids. PTSD, they think. Works the night shift at the Mobil on Lindbergh. Anthony’s wife is having their second child. He’s an activiist? Who would have thought? He was such a docile kid. Vegetarian? Yea, we saw that coming. Paul? What about Paul? He says he’s got a nice set up somewhere with a friend, but. Does he? And. There’s still blood. Only much more this time.

“Anthony? Help. Please”

Will he?

 

League of Independent Theater Wants to Hear from You

As many of you know, I sit on the Board of Directors of the League of Independent Theater. This group is getting ready to launch (in August) an ambitious and commendable new undertaking — a fund that will be for the benefit of the indie theater community in NYC, with the money coming from a tiny percentage of ticket sales (a nickel per ticket sold, donated by indie companies and supporters).

Initial plans for this fund are available on LIT’s website.

To ensure that this fund works to the benefit of our community, LIT has devised a very brief survey that I invite you to fill out. This is a great way for your voice to be heard as this new program is shaped and developed. Here’s an official request from LIT Executive Director John Clancy:

Greetings!

We need to hear what you want to do.

To the Independent theater community and its supporters,

As most of you know, The League of Independent Theater is working on a new project, The LIT Fund.  The LIT Fund will be a pool of money that will be collected and then made available to the Indie theater community in the form of grants.

We recognize the importance of obtaining feedback and input directly from the independent artists, companies and venues that we serve.  We have created a brief survey that will help us prioritize how the collected money for the Fund will be distributed.  Please take a minute to fill out the survey by clicking on the link below.  If you have any additional thoughts, feel free to comment in the noted section or to email us at fund@litny.org

Thank you for your time and your great work.

LIT Fund Survey

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to fill out the one-screen survey. I’ll post about the results when they’re available.

nytheatre.com is different

On Monday, we implemented a new version of nytheatre.com. Today I want to write about the changes we’ve made to the site, and why we made them.

We had two goals in developing nytheatre.com 4.0: streamline and modernize. We’re trying to buck a couple of trends on the web that disturb us:

• we don’t want to make you have to click through page after page to read what you want (the main reason sites do that is to make you look at more advertising)
• we don’t want you to have to wade through a distracting maze of media, boxes, ads, etc. all vying for your attention–we want you to see what you came to see

So the new nytheatre.com has fewer menu choices and content is presented as compactly as possible. We’re using JavaScript extensively for the first time, mostly in the form of a tabbed interface that appears on many of the main pages of the site. (See an example here.)

We’ve eliminated some features. The listings of what’s playing today and tomorrow have been taken down, along with the separate venue pages and seating charts and a few of the Now Playing listing categories. We’ve not done this capriciously. The new design of nytheatre.com reflects both long-term trends in our readership and the genuinely transformative changes that have occurred on the internet during the past several years.

When we started nytheatre.com in 1996, there were few alternative sources on the internet for the content we provided. For example, individual venues, productions and theater companies didn’t have their own websites 15 years ago. Now they all do, along with strong presences on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere in the social networking world. So the need for us to tell readers about venues and how to get to them or to include extensive details about current shows–which was highly necessary when we made nytheatre.com 1.0–is simply not there anymore. Our approach at nytheatre.com has always been to focus on what’s needed rather than offering something that duplicates another service. That’s why today we include more and more links to ticketing sites, company and show websites, Facebook, YouTube, etc., on our show pages.

One challenge we’re addressing in our site redesign is the strange but true fact that gathering data from producers, publicists and ticketing companies has become more, rather than less, cumbersome in the past several years. Schedules, ticket prices and other items related to individual shows are much more fluid than they used to be (for example, when we launched nytheatre.com, you could pretty much depend on Broadway shows all having the same schedule; now there’s enormous variation not just between shows but even week to week for a single show). We’ve become increasingly aware that some of the detailed info our readers get from our site may not be accurate, and that’s distressing. So we’ve decided to omit some features from nytheatre.com and, again with lots of hyperlinks, enable our readers to get up-to-date info from the source rather than post something that’s misleading or incorrect.

We monitor how our site is used thoroughly. None of the decisions we made about changing what’s on nytheatre.com has been taken lightly. We understand that every page on nytheatre.com has probably been useful to some people, but our commitment has to be to providing the features that are most useful to the largest portion of our readership on a regular basis.

Which brings me to my final and most important point. The key outcome of streamlining and modernizing nytheatre.com is to give us–a tiny organization with just one paid full-time employee (yours truly)–more time to provide valuable and innovative services to our community. Our latest project, Indie Theater Now, is an important part of our strategy to do just that. Over the next few months, as we continue growing Indie Theater Now, we’ll also be integrating it more tightly with nytheatre.com, to create a nexus for discovery and exploration of contemporary American drama and performance.

nytheatre.com, a program of a nonprofit corporation, is a free public service and it’s important for us to hear from the public about what we’re doing. The intent of this blog post has been to provide complete transparency to our constituencies–the theatre community in NYC and beyond, especially independent theater artists; and people who love, care about, attend and support theater. Your feedback and comments are not only welcome but necessary. Please take some time to look at our new version of nytheatre.com, and let me know what you think!

Ten Reasons to Love the FRIGID New York Festival

Just when the winter doldrums threaten to kick in, along comes FRIGID New York to bring a jolt of energy and excitement to the NYC theater landscape. A production of Horse Trade Theater Group, FRIGID occupies the three Horse Trade spaces—Under St. Marks, the Kraine, and the Red Room—for the two weeks right after President’s Day, packing in a surprising variety of performance in a truly festive environment. FRIGID 2012—the sixth annual edition–runs from February 22 until March 4. I love FRIGID and I’m about to tell you why you should too.

Nicole Pandolfo in "Love In The Time Of Chlamydia," one of the 30 shows in the 2012 FRIGID New York Festival

1. FRIGID IS EASY ON THE POCKETBOOK. All of the shows cost between $10 and $16. You could see everything in the festival (which would keep you very entertained—there are 30 shows altogether!) for about the price of 3 Broadway theatre tickets.

2. FRIGID IS ARTIST-FRIENDLY. 100% of box office receipts goes to the individual shows. I don’t know of another theatre festival in town that operates in this fashion.

3. FRIGID IS NOT CURATED. That means that there’s a degree of randomness in what shows end up in the festival. Randomness breeds diversity, and diversity is good. I can honestly say that in five years of FRIGID-going I have only seen one show that I really was sorry to have spent time with.

4. FRIGID IS A BREEDING GROUND FOR EMERGING TALENT. One example: No.11 Productions has been in FRIGID three times. Their first show was a rare revival of Antonin Artaud’s supposedly unproducible Jet of Blood. They followed that with a Medea. Then last year they hit pay dirt with an original musical called Quest for the West: The Oregon Trail!, a show that has gone on to runs at the Capitol Fringe and Kentucky Repertory Theatre. It’s been exciting watching these young artists grow and learn. So I’m looking forward to their 2012 FRIGID offering, Coosje, about two modern-day artists…and a singing pear.

5. FRIGID EQUALS GOOD PLAYS. Lots of shows in the festival are of the comedy/variety/burlesque type, but just as many are authentically fine dramatic literature. We’re celebrating this fact on Indie Theater Now—the website I founded and curate that is best described as “iTunes for plays”—with a FRIGID New York collection that features 16 of the best scripts from the past years’ FRIGID festivals, including works by Chris Harcum, Bricken Sparacino, and Una Aya Osato, all of whom will have new shows in 2012. (Check out their previous work to get an idea of their styles.)

6. FRIGID IS WHERE I DISCOVER AT LEAST ONE GREAT NEW THEATRE ARTIST EVERY YEAR. Honest: and often I find the gems where I least expect them. Best example: Conversation Storm/Great Hymn of Thanksgiving, in FRIGID 2008, was the show that introduced Rick Burkhardt to New York.  Rick went on to win an Obie for Three Pianos (at New York Theatre Workshop) last year. But FRIGID fans saw him first.

7. FRIGID FEATURES TOP-NOTCH TALENT STRETCHING THEIR WINGS. Mac Rogers, stellar award-winning playwright, is starring in a one-man play (not written by him) called Judge, Yuri and Executioner at this year’s FRIGID. Actress Ching Valdes-Aran, whose credits span decades at La MaMa, Ma-Yi Theatre, and other venerable companies, is directing Breathe, Love, Repeat. And former Blue Man Group performer John Grady is doing a one-man play called Fear Factor: Canine Edition.

8. FRIGID IS NOT JUST A BUNCH OF SOLO SHOWS. There are plenty of one-person entertainments in the festival, to be sure, but just as many multi-cast efforts. This year, look for: Initium Finis by Theatre Reverb, Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical, Missed Connections (based on Craigslist ads), and Stripper Lesbians from Rising Sun Performance Company, among others.

9. FRIGID IS LIKE A VAUDEVILLE BILL YOU PROGRAM YOURSELF, WITH DRINKS IN BETWEEN. Everything in FRIGID is an hour long or less. Shows start right after work on weekdays and around 1pm on weekends, and run until midnight or thereabouts. The Red Room and the Kraine are housed in the same building on East 4^th Street; Under St. Marks, four blocks north and one block east, is a leisurely ten-minute stroll. So you can easily pack in two, three, or even four shows in a single day/evening. And the East Village location means that there are plenty of pubs, taverns, saloons, and eating establishments of every stripe nearby. Do a 6pm show at the Red Room, have dinner, catch a 9pm show at Under St Marks, grab a quick drink, and wrap up your night with the late show at the Kraine at 10:30.

10. FRIGID IS FUN. The most important reason of all! The nights I’ve spent floating from one FRIGID show to another are some of the most enjoyable I’ve spent in my years covering NYC theatre. This is a festival with an easy, relaxed vibe. And the array of offerings is eclectic and delightful, from a teeny-weeny tabletop show inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe (Poe-Dunk: A Matchbook Entertainment) to a two-person clown/acrobatics show (Aerial Allusions) to no fewer than three burlesque programs. Something for everybody, as they say.

Get info about FRIGID New York at the official website, www.frigidnewyork.info. And check for reviews of FRIGID shows at nytheatre.com throughout the festival–our plan is to cover all 30 of this year’s shows!

Announcing The LIT Independent Theater Fund

This is from John Clancy, executive director of the League of Independent Theater. (Note: I serve on the Board of LIT.)

For over sixty years, Off-Off Broadway (now known as Independent Theater) has provided a haven for New York City theater artists and served as a cauldron and cradle for new and innovative American theater.  This sector has grown beyond a “starting place” for many artists and now provides the artistic home for over 10,000 individuals and 300 companies.

But this civic treasure is threatened.  The economic realities of New York City have forced many artists and companies to leave New York.  Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Des Moines and many other cities are poised to replace New York as the center of new American theater.

We refuse to cede the ground to these other cities.  New York has an historical and cultural claim as the birthplace of great American theater and the League of Independent Theater is committed to protecting that birthright.

We are beginning an annual, reliable funding pool for the independent theater territory.

And it only costs a nickel.

Horse Trade Theater Group, Clancy Productions, Present Company (producers of the New York International Fringe Festival), The Vampire Cowboys, the Amoralists, Parallel Exit, Mind the Gap Theatre, Stolen Chair Theater Company, Rabbit Hole Ensemble, Jewish Plays Project, wreckio ensemble, Elephant Run District, the Living Theater and other companies will contribute five cents from every ticket sold this year as seed money for the Independent Theater Fund.  We call on all independent theater companies, artists and venues to join us in this effort.  As always, we recognize that we are strongest and most effective when we work together and while our individual bank accounts may be small, our collective resources are substantial.

Elena Holy, Producing Artistic Director of FringeNYC says

“The Present Company is always proud to be a part of anything that involves indie theatre artists supporting each other. The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) was forged on our collective indie traditions of self-sufficiency, creativity, and working together. This new fund builds on that idea and puts it into action across our entire community – its potential impact is extraordinarily exciting.”

This is the first phase of this funding initiative.

We call on the League of American Theaters and Producers to join the cause and help us to support, sustain and strengthen the independent theater community in New York City.

The Broadway League has a long history of supporting charitable efforts that benefit the theatrical community and with this initiative they have taken the lead in addressing the exodus of young theater professionals and companies from New York City as well as recognizing the national cultural treasure that is the Off-Off Broadway territory.

With a five cent surcharge on each ticket sold to a Broadway show, (which is .0057 of the average ticket price or about five hundredths of a percent) we can create an immediate, annual fund for small theater in New York.

In 2010, Broadway attendance was 12,106,105.  If the Independent Theater Fund was in effect in 2010, the independent theater community would have just over $605,000.00 to maintain and upgrade venues, provide scholarships for promising writers, directors, designers and performers and mount a high-visibility city-wide marketing campaign for all of the independent theater productions in the city.

The allocation of funds will be divided into three areas:

Real Estate Fund – money for venue renovation and repair, equipment upgrade, etc.  Also, a Seed Money Fund will be created for real estate purchase.

Project Grants – money to create shows.

Individual Grants – money for independent theater artists and practitioners.

We call on all theaters and companies in New York to join the Fund.

NYTE fully supports this initiative. We’ll be donating five cents to the Fund for each copy of any of our print anthologies that we sell.

Join the conversation about the LIT Independent Theater Fund on Facebook.

nytheatre.com’s 2011 People of the Year

Today I’m very pleased to announce the names of nytheatre.com’s 2011 People of the Year. Here they are, in this photo collage:

Top row: Crystal Skillman, Chris Harcum, Stephanie Cox-Williams, Joan Kane, Gemini CollisionWorks (scene from ObJect)
Middle row: Temar Underwood, Dominic D’Andrea, Calla Videt, Kelley Nicole Girod, Jon Hoche
Bottom row: Lesser America (Nate Miller, Jonathan Blitstein, Daniel Abeles, Laura Ramadei), Nat Cassidy, The Nerve Tank (Chance Muehleck and Melanie Armer), Bobby Moreno, Ashlin Halfnight

This marks the eighth year that nytheatre.com has recognized a group of theater artists in this manner. Our list of People of the Year celebrates individuals and companies who have made a significant contribution to the landscape of indie theater in NYC and the world. The list is based on nominations made by nytheatre.com’s staff of contributors, and then selected by the board of our parent organization, The New York Theatre Experience, Inc. Information about prior winners is online: 2004-2009 and 2010.

* * * * *

Let me now introduce you to our People of the Year for 2011, and share with you some of their plans for 2012.

NAT CASSIDY is an actor, director, and playwright of surprising range and depth.
One Memorable Thing He Did in 2011: Wrote and starred in I Am Providence or, All I Really Needed to Know about the Stygian Nightmare into Which Mankind Will Inevitably Be Devoured, Its Fruitless Screams of Agony Resounding in the Unending Chasm of Indifferent Space as It Is Digested by Squamous and Eldritch Horrors beyond Comprehension for All of Eternity, I Learned from Howard Phillips Lovecraft, for which he received the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.
Plans for 2012: “I’ve got a boatload of new scripts that I’m dying to write and/or produce as soon as possible, including two spec sitcoms that I’m just starting to draft out. I’m working towards putting up my evening of short plays and original music (the first in a series), entitled Songs of Love: A Theatrical Mixtape, sometime in the first half of 2012, and then perhaps I can finally scrounge up the capital to produce my antebellum presidential ghost story, Pierce, sometime in the fall. And, of course, I’ll take whatever acting work comes my way – I ain’t proud.”
Learn more at: Nat’s website and Indie Theater Now

STEPHANIE COX-WILLIAMS is the go-to person in NYC’s indie theater community for creating gore and special effects; also an actor and Company Manager for Nosedive Productions.
One Memorable Thing She Did in 2011: Made a whole passel of zombies spurt large quantities of blood in Anti-Matter Collective’s zombie western, Death Valley.
Plans for 2012: “I will continue working with Nosedive Productions to help produce their upcoming 12th season/year.  Working with Pete Boisvert on a prop/puppet for one of the pieces he is directing in the “Dark Night” reading series.  I will be working with Gideon Productions on props and other fun creations for their upcoming The Honeycomb Trilogy.  And, I will keep working on perfecting good looking, yet affordable gore effects for the stage.”
Learn more at: Nosedive’s website and Stephanie’s blog

DOMINIC D’ANDREA master-minded and produces the One-Minute Play Festival; to date, OMPF has commissioned, developed, and produced over 1,000 brand new one-minute plays by 300+ famous and emerging playwrights across the country.
One Memorable Thing He Did in 2011:  Single Servings: A One-Minute Play Festival On The Topic Of Hunger in L.A., presented in collaboration with Cornerstone Theatre Company.
Plans for 2012: “Dominic D’Andrea’s One-Minute Play Festival is working in partnership with theatres who either have playwright or community-specific missions all over the country in 2012 including: Primary Stages (NYC), Cornerstone Theatre Company (LA), Playwrights Foundation (SF), Victory Gardens (Chi), Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (Bos), The New Brunswick Theatre Festival at Rutgers (NJ), Actor’s Express (Atl), South Florida Theatre League (Mia), and others.”
Learn more at: OMPF’s blog and the Indie Theater Companion

GEMINI COLLISIONWORKS is Ian W. Hill and Berit Johnson, who operate a vital and vibrant theater production company that has been a seminal part of NYC’s indie scene for more than a decade.
One Memorable Thing They Did in 2011: In August, they produced three new plays in repertory at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg: ObJects and a double bill called Antrobus/Gone.
Plans for 2012: Ian says: “Our definite projects for 2012 — as usual, in our regular August “CollisionWorks” season — are 3 pieces.  A new play I’m writing called Removal, which, like my other 2-act originals Spell (2008) and ObJects (2011), will begin rehearsals as soon as I can get a cast and some dialogue and vague notions together, and I will write it around the cast and what strikes me as we go.  Also, I’ll be making INVISIBLE REPUBLIC #3 with a group of actor/dancers — my third dance-theatre piece in this series after That’s What We’re Here For in 2006 and Everything Must Go in 2008 (which, as they go, are getting more “dance” and less “theatre”).  And finally, I will be doing a long-planned solo performance of Mac Wellman’s Terminal Hip, which was originally planned for this past year, but had to be canceled due to lack of time. As usual, that’s our main focus for the year, as well as our regular duties as Technical Directors for The Brick, so we’re always in and out making sure the place runs fairly smoothly.  I also have been the curator/line producer of the yearly Tiny Theater Festival, which has been passed on to us fully by Shannon Sindelar at the Incubator/Ontological, so I expect to be running that again this coming year.”
Learn more at: GCW’s Facebook page and GCW’s blog

KELLEY NICOLE GIROD is the founder of The Fire This Time Festival, an annual festival of original short plays by African American writers.
One Memorable Thing She Did in 2011: Co-produced this year’s festival at The Red Room (read about it on nytheatre.com)
Plans for 2012: “Through the continued staging of new works in our Fire This Time Festival (Jan 16-25, 2012) and now full productions of the playwrights who have come through the festival (Pia Wilson’s The Flower Thief will be fully produced in August 2012), I hope to continue to impress upon people that there is no one way to tell a story and to show the diversity, beauty, and complexity of the African and African American community.”
Learn more at: Fire This Time’s website and Horse Trade Theater Group’s website

ASHLIN HALFNIGHT is an accomplished playwright whose works cover a broad range of subjects yet share a deep and rich humanism.
One Memorable Thing He Did in 2011: Co-produced a month-long repertory featuring three of his plays: a revival of the award-winning God’s Waiting Room along with two premieres, Lathem Prince and Laws of Motion.
Plans for 2012: “I will begin the year in early January casting the film version of my play Survival Box, which will be directed by William Scoular, and shooting in Toronto in March. I will be finishing three plays that I’ve been working on, finally!  Elias, A Postscript, School of Touch, and New Hampshire, New York. And… that’s it…”
Learn more at: Ashlin’s website and Indie Theater Now

CHRIS HARCUM is an actor, playwright, teacher, and accomplished solo performer; he’s also a founder of the new company Elephant Run District and a member of the Board of the League of Independent Theater.
One Memorable Thing He Did in 2011: Wrote and starred in Green, a one-man, 21-character sci-fi action thriller with strong environmental and political themes.
Plans for 2012: “I’ll be playing the title role in The Return of Ragged Dick by Dan Evans for Metropolitan Playhouse’s Horatio Alger Festival at PS 122 in January. Then Elephant Run District is doing my comedy Rabbit Island in the Frigid Festival in February and March. I will be completing my first feature-length screenplay with Jason Cusato of Park Slope Films. I’m seeking opportunities to take on challenging roles and to get some of my full-length plays produced. I’ll be continuing to work with the League of Independent Theater to help improve things in our territory.”
Learn more at: Chris’s website and Indie Theater Now

JON HOCHE is an actor known for his versatility and talents in comedic and physical theater; he wrote his first play, Galactic Girl in: Attack of the Starbarians, for the 2011 Comic Book Festival at the Brick Theater.
One Memorable Thing He Did in 2011: Stole the show right out from under 2009 Person of the Year Paco Tolson (and others) in a tour-de-force turn in Qui Nguyen’s The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G.
Plans for 2012: “2012 kicks off with the remounting of The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G off-Broadway by Ma-Yi Theater & Vampire Cowboys Theater Company.  I also hope to mount a full run of Galactic Girl in: Attack of the Starbarians. And I just found out that I’ve been cast in the 1st National Tour of War Horse as one of the Horse puppeteers.”
Learn more at: Jon’s website and Galactic Girl’s website

JOAN KANE, in partnership with Bruce A. Kraemer, is  artistic director of Ego Actus, an indie theatre company creating art for art’s sake. She directs and produces plays, and works with authors to create new plays.
One Memorable Thing She Did in 2011: Directed a revival of Saviana Stanescu’s Aliens With Extraordinary Skills that realized the play’s insights and ideas in genuinely unexpected ways.
Plans for 2012: “I’m directing an updated version of Pizza Man (Darlene Craviotto) at The Bridge Theatre, January 18;  Altered Texts  (Penny Jackson) at Turtle Shell Theatre in March; Belinda, a devised, mixed media with puppets production based on the last year of Kafka’s life when he helped a young girl cope with the loss of her doll by creating an imaginary world which enabled the pains of the real world to disappear, in September. We hope to take Aliens With Extraordinary Skills to the  Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania in June. I am a firm believer in play development and in the next 12 months I am working with playwrights Penny Jackson, Carol Berman, George Dickerson, and Maria Micheles to develop their plays in a series of staged readings.”
Learn more at: Ego Actus website

LESSER AMERICA is a new indie theater company co-founded by Jonathan Blistein, Laura Ramadei, Daniel Abeles, and Nathan Miller. They formed the company right after collaborating on Jonathan’s play Keep Your Baggage With You At All Times, which won the 2011 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length Script.
One Memorable Thing They Did in 2011: Produced Squealer, a new play written by Blitstein and starring Abeles, Miller, and Ramadei.
Plans for 2012: “Lesser America will be continuing its inaugural season residency at Theater for the New City in the spring of 2012 with an original full length premiere yet to be announced. We also plan on continuing the tradition of Too Little Too Late and Too Much Too Soon, with another evening of short play commissions by daring new writers, and we’re in the midst of collaboration with Rising Phoenix Rep and Neighborhood Productions on a major NY premiere.”
Learn more at: Lesser America’s website and Indie Theater Now

BOBBY MORENO is one of the most sought-after young actors in New York, regularly appearing at indie/off-Broadway venues with a variety of leading companies.
One Memorable Thing He Did in 2011: Hopped from one hit play to another in two months this fall (Invasion! at the Flea in September; Hand to God at EST in October).
Plans for 2012: “First off, we’re pushing for a commercial run for Hand to God (any producers who want to be involved in the next big thing in 2012, come down to EST before Dec. 18th). Also, I’ve been developing a new show with Josh Koenigsberg titled The Mnemonist of Dutchess County, starring myself and Will Rogers. I plan on telling more stories, and keeping politically active – one of my favorite theatrical experiences of 2011 has been the Occupy Wall St movement, and I’m very much looking forward to the second act next year.”
Learn more at: EST’s website

THE NERVE TANK was founded about five years ago by Chance D. Muehleck (a writer) and Melanie S. Armer (a director) They present nontraditional theatrical work that crosses genres and breaks down barriers and challenges its audience to move beyond conventional mores.
One Memorable Thing They Did in 2011:  Took over large areas of the World Financial Center in May to present an interactive performance exhibit called The Attendants.
Plans for 2012: “Arts World Financial Center, which programmed The Attendants, has invited us to submit a proposal for one of their outdoor spaces. That project is called Glory Road, and it’s inspired by the myth of Sisyphus. There may also be a gallery component that runs concurrently, which is a collection of visual art and interactive exhibits. Our next mainstage show is 10% Nation, an assembly about celebrity culture that features multimedia in ways we haven’t used before. We are currently seeking a home for it.”
Learn more at: The Nerve Tank’s website and on Facebook

CRYSTAL SKILLMAN is an astonishingly versatile and prolific playwright whose work is being seen at companies all around NYC and the world.
One Memorable Thing She Did in 2011: Played herself in a hilarious comedy by Gus Schulenburg that ran for one night as a fundraiser for Nosedive Productions (her participation attests to the depth of her commitment to the indie theater community and the vastness of her personal and professional networks).
Plans for 2012: “Crystal is currently a finalist with two plays for Louisville’s Heideman Award. Her play Cut, produced by The Management earlier this year, will be coming out from Samuel French this winter and debut in Boston next year. Her short play commission for Drama of Works, a piece based on Dian Fossey, is a part of the theatrical event Leaky’s Ladies (which features the work of playwrights Erin Courtney and Rachel Hoeffel) opening January 13th at Dixon Place, running through February 4th 2012. Other upcoming plays include: Sex and Death in London (Rising Phoenix Rep’s Cino Night Series, February 12th 2012 at Jimmy’s No. 43); Another Kind of Love (Overturn Theatre Ensemble Residency at IRT March 26 and 27th); 4 Edges (TerraNOVA Collective’s Groundbreakers Presentation Spring 2012); Wild (Debuting in Chicago with Kid Brooklyn Productions June 14th – July 1st 2012 under the direction of Evan Caccippoli); and The Sleeping World (Upcoming Member’s Workshop at Ensemble Studio Theater directed by Daniel Talbott).”
Learn more at: Crystal’s website

TEMAR UNDERWOOD is an actor and playwright who continues to stretch and challenge himself with each new artistic endeavor.
One Memorable Thing He Did in 2011: Gave a gorgeous, glowing performance as the transsexual lesbian Resean in a revival of Stephen Svoboda’s Odysseus DOA at both Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts and Theatre Row in NYC.
Plans for 2012: “Temar is currently finishing up a run in one of his dream roles as Lion in The Wiz at The Red House Art Center in Syracuse. You can expect his new play Breaking Kayfabe to be mounted this summer. The specific venue and dates will be announced at a later date. And he just learned that he will be in the upcoming production of The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G.”
Learn more at: Temar’s website and Indie Theater Now

CALLA VIDET is a visionary director and creator of nontraditional, movement- and music-based work for theater.
One Memorable Thing She Did in 2011: Co-wrote (with B. Walker Sampson) and directed Hold Music, a highlight of The Culture Project’s Women Center Stage Festival.
Plans for 2012: “As Creative Director of Sightline, Calla brings together artists and thinkers across disciplines to generate original performance works exploring science, language, and memory. This year, in collaboration with Theater C, Sightline is creating a new dance theater piece exploring the choreographic history of Rite of Spring in addition to developing and touring existing works. Calla is also working to bring her undergraduate physics and performance thesis–a quantum and relativistic retelling of the Orpheus myth and the story of the Manhattan Project–to the New York stage.”
Learn more at: Calla’s website and Sightline’s website

TeatroStageFest Partners with La Strada for Talkback

TeatroStageFest, one of my favorite of NYC’s annual theater festivals, is working with the folks at the new Spanish-language adaptation of Fellini’s La Strada to present a post-show discussion. Here’s info from the official press release:

“Adapting Fellini to the Stage”
Post-performance discussion set for LA STRADA
Saturday, Nov. 5 following matinee performance

La Strada Theater Company partners with TeatroStageFest, the Latino International Theater Festival of New York, for a post-show discussion with the directors and cast of award-winning stage production of
Fellini’s LA STRADA and featured guest MARIO FRATTI, playwright of Nine,  the Broadway musical based on Fellini’s film 8 ½

LA STRADA performances are October 22 to December 4 Off-Broadway at TBG Theater (312 W. 36 St.) in Manhattan

La Strada Theater Company partners with TeatroStageFest, the Latino International Theater Festival of New York, to present “Adapting Fellini to the Stage,” a post-performance discussion with the cast and directors of LA STRADA, an award-winning stage adaptation of Fellini’s film of the same name. The TalkBack with the audience will take place on November 5, 2011, immediately after the 3PM matinee performance at TBG Theater (312 W. 36 St.).

The TalkBack will feature: LA STRADA directors Rene Buch (Repertorio Español) and Jorge Merced (Pregones Theatre), cast members: Nanda Abella, Israel Ruiz, and Luis Carlos de La Lombana, who doubles as Executive Producer of LA STRADA, along with  guest playwright Mario Fratti, author of Nine, the Broadway musical based on Fellini’s film 8 ½.

The TalkBack (conducted in English), is part of a series of Artist Dialogues moderated by Susana Tubert, Producing Executive Director of TeatroStageFest, which continues its 5th anniversary celebrations in 2011 by showcasing theater, dance, music and puppetry productions and events by New York based Latino theater companies side by side with visiting artists from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain. Following the TalkBack, the audience will also have the opportunity to meet and mingle with the artists in an intimate
TeatroStageLounge reception. The event is included in the price of admission to the matinee performance of LA STRADA.

A Spanish-language adaptation of La Strada — the legendary 1954 Italian film by Federico Fellini — will be presented Off-Broadway for 6 weeks from October 22 to December 4, at TBG Theater (312 W. 36 St.) in Manhattan. The production is co-directed by award-winning director Rene Busch, Artistic Director of Repertorio Español, and Jorge Merced, Artistic Director of Pregones Theatre in New York City. The play will be performed in Spanish with English super-titles.

Presented by La Strada Company– a new Spanish theater company in NYC under the artistic direction of Luis Carlos de la Lombana — the Spanish-language adaptation of LA STRADA is written by Gerard Vázquez. The film LA STRADA — winner of the first ever Oscar for Best Foreign film in 1956 — was written by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano.

This fall production marks a return engagement for LA STRADA: La Strada Company, which has been developing the production for two years, presented a two-week sold-out run of the play last winter at IATI Theater in the East Village.

It was recently announced that LA STRADA is the recipient of two distinguished HOLA Awards for Excellence in Theater, international awards given annually by the Hispanic Organization of Latino Actors:  Rene Buch and Jorge Merced have received the HOLA for Outstanding Achievement in Direction, along with Israel Ruiz for Outstanding Performance by a Featured Actor for his portrayal of “The Fool” in LA STRADA.  The HOLA Awards will be presented in NYC on October 17, 2011.

LA STRADA is described, as follows: In need of help for his street entertainment, Zampano offers money to a poor woman in exchange for her daughter Gelsomina, a young woman whose innocence borders on mental retardation. Together they set out on a journey through several villages, presenting a spectacle of brute force leavened with comic interludes. In spite of Zampano’s abuses, Gelsomina starts to develop an intense devotion towards him. The pair eventually joins a traveling circus, where they meet “The Fool,” a clown who is
attracted to Gelsomina. Although several of the colorful characters Gelsomina meets along the way ask her to join them, she will prove her loyalty to Zampano to the limits of her will.

The cast of LA STRADA on stage will feature Nanda Abella, Israel Ruiz, Luis Carlos de La Lombana , María Peyramaure, Winston Estevez, Adela Maria Bolet, and the mosicians Stephamie Davis (violinist) and Jennifer Harder(trumpet player). Audrey Crabtree is clown consultant; Mike Yahn is stage choreographer; Zulema Clares is music consultant. Production design is by Jason Sturm, Lighting Design and Technical Director by Pope Jackson, costume design by Kanako Hiyama; supertitles designed by Betsy Pujols. Executive Producer:  Luis Carlos de La Lombana. Production Team: Nacho Blanco, Nanda Abella, Jazmín Blanco, Esther Higueras, Beatriz Fierro, America Blanco, Martín Fernandez Lombana and Luis Carlos de La Lombana.

Of Spanish origin, La Strada Theater Company is made up of a wide range of members, mostly from Spanish-speaking countries, but also from the U.S., Japan and elsewhere. The combination of multiculturalism and the vast presence of Spanish speakers in the U.S. is key to La Strada’s mission as it seeks to build on the cultural bridge between Spain and the U.S., especially in New York. The company will present plays by international writers, both in Spanish and English, while the priority lies with Spanish authors and the Spanish language.

Luis Carlos de la Lombana has received and ACE and Hola Award in NYC for best actor in 2009 as Segismundo in “La Vida es Sueño” (Life is a Dream). He has also starred in “The Island,” “Mick Jagger: The Devil in all of Us,” “Asi que pasen cinco años” (by Federico García Lorca), and most recently in LA STRADA earlier this year.

Tickets are $35 and are available at smarttix 212 868 4444. To purchase your tickets: https://www.smarttix.com/Show.aspx?ShowCode=LAS24. For more information, visit www.lastradacompany.com.

More First Thoughts from NYIT Winners

We’ve heard from some more winners of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards.  Here are their answers to the three questions we posed: (1)What was the absolute first thought you had when you heard them call your name? (2)Who was the first person you called/emailed to tell that you won? (3)What does this award signify or mean to you personally?

CORMAC BLUESTONE – Outstanding Original Music
The Caucasian Chalk Circle

First Thought:  Oh my god, why didn’t I prepare to speak?!

First Called: I called my Mom. She knew why I was calling when she heard the phone ring.

Award Means: I’ve been fortunate to work off off broadway for years with many different hats.  While it is always rewarding, sometimes it’s hard to feel like you’re moving forward.  I’ve been nominated by the IT Awards for music before, and receiving this honor and win this year makes me feel that yes, I am indeed moving forward.

JOEY RIZZOLO – Outstanding Performance Art Production
Locker #4173b

First Thought: I thought, “Is that the title we settled on?” And once that ridiculousness passed, I realized, after years of attending these ceremonies, that the real elation of receiving an award is the honor of being recognized by so many artists I respect.

First Called: I got a flood of text messages, all from New York Neo-Futurists who weren’t able to attend the ceremony. Clearly they were following on Twitter or watching the stream online, because they all bombarded us at once with congratulations. I don’t think we were even off the stage when it started.

Award Means: In any given year, there are shows with which I’m familiar that are not recipients in their nominated category, but are so, so deserving all the same. That the recipients themselves are no less deserving contributes to an ever-growing shaking of the head wherein I think, “Damn, they may as well just pick the recipient out of a hat.” In this regard, I am reminded that OOB is truly where the important work is being done, and that the people nominated for these awards really are making enormous artistic strides. To be chosen as a representative example of those strides – largely by a community of artists – is humbling and wonderful. It is also, I think, something of an initiation – one that only prepares us for a more  difficult challenge.

DUANE PAGANO – Outstanding Lighting Design
The Navigator

First Thought:  ”wait, what, that was my name….that’s not right, is it?”

First Called: Actually, it was a mass email and facebook announcement.

Award Means: That you like me, that you really, really, like me. or that, because this show was in such a small space, with very limited budget and equipment, that the quality of the work is what counts, and not always the “spectacles”.