Too Soon Festival Interview - Ian W. Hill of The Wedding of Berit Johnson & Ian W. Hill

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Ian W. Hill
Play: The Wedding of Berit Johnson & Ian W. Hill: A Theatre Study by Ian W. Hill & Berit Johnson
Relationship to production: Playwright, director, co-designer, performer, groom.
Websites: For the show; for the company and the company blog.

How long have you been involved in theatre?

Well, professionally? I mean, I've been doing theatre-type performing stuff as long as I can remember, in school or with friends. My first "professional" indie theatre show out in the real world in front of a paying audience would have been in 1990, so 20 years now. Whoa.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

Probably the 1984 restaging of Robert Wilson & Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Or Richard Foreman's production of his Samuel's Major Problems at the Ontological.

What is your show about?

It's the actual wedding of my partner in life and work, Berit Johnson, and myself, done as a theatre piece examining our relationship, past, present, and future, placing it in the context of our lives and work, and searching for an honest way to publicly affirm our love in a way that means something to us.

What led you to write it?

Feeling we would have to do a public wedding, whether we wanted to or not (and in Berit's case, NOT), and as any wedding would mean less to us (if done traditionally) than one of our own theatre productions, I decided to MAKE it one of our theatre productions so it would at least have that much meaning to us.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

Once we knew we wanted to do our wedding as part of this year's Summer Festival at The Brick, it was up to us as co-technical directors of The Brick to try and influence the staff to pick a theme that would work for our wedding. We think we, and they, succeeded.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

Our regular August repertory season, this year including Devils by John Whiting (provisionally, provided we get the rights) and an original play by myself, Spacemen From Space, a pastiche on B-movie serials of the 1930s and 40s. One dark nasty play, and one silly, light, fun play. A good rep season.

The Wedding of Berit Johnson & Ian W. Hill: A Theatre Study by Ian W. Hill & Berit Johnson
Written, directed and designed by Ian W. Hill
75 minutes

Sat 6/19, 4:45pm
Sun 6/20, 3pm
Tue 6/22, 8:45pm
Sat 6/26, 4:30pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Kasia Nikhamina of Redbeard & Domicella

By Byrne Harrison
Postcard by Ilya Nikhamin
Photo by Kat Cheng

Name: Kasia Nikhamina
Play: Redbeard & Domicella
Relationship to production: Playwright (and producer)
Website: www.TheMayorsHotel.com

How long have you been involved in theatre?

This is my first play!

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

La casa de Bernarda Alba and Bodas de Sangre by Federico Garcia Lorca, which we read in high school - I have always been obsessed with forbidden love. In more recent years, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl at Second Stage. I also love Tchaikovsky's opera, Evgenii Onegin, which has such thrilling lines as, "Hush now, or I'll kill you!" (and no one shuts up), and "I've been given to another," when Onegin returns to find Tatiana married and he spectacularly tries to convince her to run away with him.

What is your show about?

In Redbeard & Domicella, two high school sweethearts deliver a bold retrospective of their young marriage in “he said, she said” fashion. The witty, irrepressible Redbeard works in a bicycle shop near Brighton Beach; the slightly-built, titanic-hearted Domicella splits her time between a desk at the District Attorney’s Office, and the kitchen table where she writes. The play speaks (too soon?) about instances of loss as disparate as September 11th and Michael Jackson’s death, as well as Domicella’s own close scrape on the wild streets of New York.

Redbeard & Domicella is a true story. “If I were to write a book about us,” the real Redbeard told the real Domicella, “I would call it, The Old Man and the Noise.” And so the noise set out to write the story of the old man and the noise, using things they said and things they overheard. This is an ode between man and wife, a collage of quotes, iconic objects and memories. It is also a celebration of the bicycle, a symbol of survival in a city that suffers hard but laughs harder.

What led you to create it?

There's this crazy wonderful reading series called Hearth Gods, run by Michael Yates Crowley and Michael Rau, at Jimmy's No. 43 in the East Village, where actors first read my prose at Crowley's suggestion. Once I'd decided to experiment with performance, the play came together quite naturally. It was born out of the episodes or aphorisms which - since graduating from college in 2007 - I've been crafting in the small hours between office and sleep and posting on my blog, The Mayor's Hotel. I deal in quotes: I collect and arrange, fatten and pare.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

So I had this play clamoring for an audience - an early version had been well-received at Hearth Gods. Michael Rau (who directs Redbeard & Domicella) told me about the Brick Theater. When I saw the Too Soon Festival advertised on their website, I knew it could not be more perfect.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

For those of you who have been reading The Mayor's Hotel, there's a gent named Nixon who works in an office - he's the hero of my next work, which may or may not be a play. Keep your eye on the Hotel!

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours out of every day, what would you do with them?

I would probably sleep a bit more and then ride my bike to work so that I wouldn't have to be pent up in the subway. I would linger in Prospect Park longer - eat my dinner there every night with friends.

Redbeard & Domicella
Written by Kasia Nikhamina
Directed by Michael Rau
60 minutes

Sat 6/5, 6pm
Tue 6/8, 7pm
Sat 6/12, 7pm
Sun 6/13, 4:30pm
Wed 6/16, 9pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Andy Hadaway of Dandilion and the Amazing Bicycle Powered Cloud Plane

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Andy Hadaway, on behalf of the tiny black hearts productions
Play: Dandilion and the Amazing Bicycle Powered Cloud Plane
Relationship to production: Production team. By the time it gets to the stage everyone involved will have been involved in everything!
Website: thetinyblackhearts@gmail.com

How long have you been involved in theatre?

The tiny black hearts productions has been in existence for three years. Members are required to forget everything that came before (as they must promise to never do anything else ever again if they leave the family... At risk of severe punishment). This is sixth performance in that time. The previous include three plays, a circus/cabaret, and a street initiative. We have also participated in and curated several parades. We are based in Texas but have recently opened a cell in New York City. This performance will be the first bi-coastal endeavor. In fact many of the performers and production staff will meet for the first time the day before the premiere!

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

We would say the production of "Six Feet Under" highlights put on by a prototype company in an Eastside Austin Warehouse that took the entire series and boiled it down to thirty minutes of psychedelic madness. Or the H2Hoes second performance at the Elks lodge. Syncronized swimmers, pirates, sea monsters and a ziggy stardust style rock band... Need we say more?

What is your show about?

It is hard to answer that question without hearing the tone in your voice... It's about thirty minutes. The plot involves a boy named Dandilion who builds an Amazing Bicycle Powered Cloud Plane to rescue his sister Stawberry from the Pig People. The theme involves something more. It's about imagination and ingenuity and daring-do. Dandilion is a boy who thinks he has enormous obstacles to overcome and puts everything he has... and can get into overcoming said obstacles. That everything becomes the Amazing Bicycle Powered Cloud Plane. When all is said and done his hard work becomes an instrument for joy instead of war, and it is quite a relief.

What led you to perform it?

We choose the piece that will be performed at any given time based on a number of factors. We all work on everything we do in whatever facility we are most able to at the time. This story seemed fitting to do as the first to be performed in New York City as it was conceived on an air plane flying from Austin to New York City. That being said, it has been on the table for a year and other performances that were newer were put on first. Our next may be one of the many that we have in pre-production now or it may be something that sprouts from this experience. Or we might just love this one so much we only want to perform it from now on! We just pick what feels right at the moment and run with it.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

We decided we wanted to work on Dandilion and the Amazing Bicycle Powered Cloud Plane and we decided we wanted to perform it in New York. One of our members had attended some performances at the Brick theater and subscribes to their mailing list. A call for entries to the Too Soon Festival was in one of the emails. We thought we would be a good match for what they were trying to do.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

We have a number of ideas on the table. We would like to do more in New York and Austin. Probably one performance in the fall one in the spring in either or both. Next summer we plan to do summer festivals in Europe. As far as content goes... We have a lot to chose from... The Wizard and the Pirate, Tortoise and the Hare 2: the Aftermath, the Shoemaker's Apprentice, Home Home : Meeter Peeter and his Cavern of Wishes, The Name Which Breaks Jaws to Pronounce, Smoking Jim Morrison, The Patel Show... Who knows?

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours out of every day, what would you do with them?

Something that makes us smile!

Dandilion and the Amazing Bicycle Powered Cloud Plane
Written by Heather Coffey and Andy Hadaway
Directed by Heather Coffey
45 minutes

Tue 6/15, 7pm
Sat 6/19, 1:30pm
Sun 6/20, 7pm
Fri 6/25, 11:15pm
Sun 6/27, 2pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Crystal Skillman of HACK! an I.T. Spaghetti Western

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Crystal Skillman
Play: HACK! an I.T. Spaghetti Western
Relationship to production (playwright/director/actor/etc.): playwright
Website: www.impetuoustheater.org and
www.google.com/profiles/crystalskillman

How long have you been involved in theatre?

10 years professionally.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

Oddly enough, it’s a play I saw as a teenager in Woodstock. I had driven up there in my Chevy Nova from Wappingers Falls – I’m not sure what made me go but it was Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitmore. It told the story of Alan Turing, the cryptanalyst, completely out of order, but I totally understood it and knew the audience did too. The production was in the round and one minute Alan was in his 20s, then 6, then sixteen. I loved how inventive the play was, not only with the story, which is fascinating, but in terms of how the story was told. It’s something I strive for in my own plays – to tell the story in a theatrically truthful, and personal, way.


What is your show about?

When Hedge fund I.T. employees, Cal, Dash, and Jay, discover that they’ve been hacked – and that the hack is one of them – they scramble to pin it on each other in order to snag the gold in this ultimate showdown of the Good, the Bad and the Geek. Staged as episodes from a T.V office melodrama with the underbelly of a spaghetti western, HACK! is a “ Live DVD Cut” of the first season acted out in front of you.

What led you to write it?

I’d just gotten laid off from a dayjob so I was figuring out what to do about that. But at the same time there was this new idea for a play I couldn’t get out of my head! My friend, a hacker who leads an I.T team, missed a play of mine last spring because he had to stay up all night “fighting a virus” that was attacking his company. There was something about this story that meant even more to me after seeing so many of my friends being laid off, and me eventually with them. When I started to research, it popped into my head – the tension of those office politics, the struggle to understand what you’re a part of and why, and especially the hacker world is kinda like a western! From handles like “Gunslinger”, to the idea of hacking a hedge fund being like stealing the gold, to the idea of spurs being the sound of your boss flicking his keys coming down the hall - the concept emerged of a play set in the real world that exposed this underlying tension through the lens of a Spaghetti Western feel to the play/direction. When the very awesome Qui Nguyen asked me to write for the Vampire Cowboys Saloon Series this past season, I saw this as the perfect opportunity to write this play to be shown in episodes and instantly director John Hurley (12th Night of the Living Dead, After Darwin) popped into my head as the perfect director for the project. I love how grounded and real his work feels but there’s such a heightened quality/tone to it. Really brilliant stuff and it’s such a joy working with him. And – he loves westerns! We had a real blast developing the material together, which has continued in our other collaborations (we recently worked together on my play The Vigil or the Guided Cradle). We’re so happy to be diving back in and hanging with our amazing cast again as we rehearse, which only grows more and more zany as it goes - beanie babies, drugs and now DVD credits...? Such fun.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

I love, love, love The Brick. I’ve always wanted to be involved with them and this festival. I saw James Comtois’s Infectious Opportunity there last summer and got to see Matthew Freeman’s Glee Club (originally in last year’s summer festival), when it was remounted by Blue Coyote this spring. Both pieces rocked my world. I was lucky to get to really know Jeff Lewonczyk and Hope Cartelli at the Vampire Cowboy’s Saloon Series (where they do Lady Crypto which rocks my universe just as much as Craven Monkey! If you can’t tell I’m a fan … :) and they were really supportive of my work. They encouraged me to submit Vigil and luckily they, as well as Michael Gardner and Robert Honeywell, really dug the play. We were in rehearsal when I found out about HACK! which I had also submitted for the summer festival. I’m so glad they picked it – John and I, as well as our lovely producer Amanda Feldman, and the wonderful Impetuous Theater Group who’ve returned to play with us again after Vigil, really thought the festival would be a great next step for the play as we explore the material further. We’re honored to be a part of it and excited to see all the shows!

What's next for you after Too Soon?

This summer I’ll be writing two new full length plays – one is a commission for Vampire Cowboys, which I can’t wait to start. The other is totally written in my head from start to finish. It’s called Another Kind of Love and is about three fucked up sisters in a failed rock band from the '80s that have a chance to re-record their one hit wonder in Woodstock. Really looking forward to hunkering down and getting these babies out on paper! Production wise, this summer my ghost story play The Telling will be staged by director Heidi Handelsman site specifically with a great cast in a backyard in Brooklyn at dusk on June 13th; I’ve written a new short play for the Women’s Project Lab that will be directed by Alice Regan as part of an evening that will feature our work at the Julia Miles Theater on July 15th; also I’m one of the writers for the 48 Hour Musicals going on this August in Chicago at the Music Theater Company. And keep your fingers crossed – That’s Andy, the musical I’ve written book/lyrics for about a boy who wants to play “Annie”, is a finalist for the NAMT festival of new musicals this fall.

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours out of every day, what would you do with them?

This is a great question! Want to just keep exploring more – from trips overseas to the nooks and crannies of our own awesome city boroughs with Fred, my wonderful husband and fellow writer.

Hack! an I.T. Spaghetti Western
Written by Crystal Skillman
Directed by John Hurley
75 minutes

Thu 6/10, 7pm
Sat 6/12, 8:45pm
Sun 6/13, 2pm
Wed 6/16, 7pm
Sat 6/19, 7pm
Sun 6/20, 8:45pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Danny Bowes and Jillian Tully of Chemistry

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Danny Bowes and Jillian Tully
Play: Chemistry
Relationship to production: Danny: co-author, actor, director; Jillian: (takes a deep breath) I am one of the two playwrights. I am also playing the male lead, designing the costumes and sound cues, and assisting the director. You know, now that I think of it, I'm kind of a co-producer, too. How's that for a relationship? Maybe we need to start thinking about giving each other some space, taking a break, possibly even seeing other people...
Website: The official Facebook event invitation page for Chemistry

How long have you been involved in theatre?

Danny: I wrote my first play in high school, and started acting in college, so about 15 and 13 years respectively.

Jillian: Consciously? Since about 4th grade... but one could argue that I've been giving acting choices as far back as when they were merely compensation for being too young to write my own name or form coherent sentences. Oh wow, that sounds terrible. Let's just stick with 4th grade, then.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

Danny: Betrayal by Harold Pinter, for the use of what appears to be a gimmick at first---the backward structure---but what actually turns out to be an essential part of the play being as emotionally powerful as it is.

Jillian: Hands down - Pippin. I was taken to see a high school production of it when I was about 9 years old. I'd always liked musicals and dance, coming from a theatrical family and all, but this was the first show I had seen that looked, sounded and felt like what I wanted to be doing. The face paint, the folky, pop-informed music, the costumes - there was this sort of DIY, punk rock playfulness to this awesome show about a guy trying to find his place in the world that gobsmacked me then and still stays with me now. I actually have a tattoo of a Pippin Apple; I got it to celebrate my first full year of making theatre my career, you know, finding my "corner of the sky" and what have you.

What is your show about?

Danny: As Marlo Stanfield once mumbled malignantly "You want it to be one way . . . but it's the other way." More specifically, it's about a relationship where one party is at the beginning and the other is at the end. And, in that sense, it's about the different way men and women view relationships, and since Jillian and I are playing each other, about each trying to understand the other.

Jillian: ...How awesome Mexican pop music is. No, that's not right - it's a boy-meets-girl story, only, of course, gender-switched. Which I guess makes it a girl-as-boy-meets-boy-as-girl story, then?

What led you to create it?

Danny: The initial idea was Jillian and I writing the story of how we met together, which was soon followed by the idea of each other in drag. It's kind of hard to say what led us to that, though whiskey and insomnia are probably high up on my list.

Jillian: These questions! Doozies, they are. This play was born out of the very true events contained within it. I can't speak for anyone else, but sometimes life can feel scripted... so, why the hell not write one? The progression from off-the-cuff idea to the actual production has been crazy; I have had the thought during this process that this must be what the editors of reality TV feel like. No... I think Danny and I are way cooler than any reality show "personalities", if only because we listen to Mexican pop music.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

Danny: Our entire show is about things being too soon. It's that simple. And we came up with it before they announced the festival theme!

Jillian: Well, both Danny and I are part of the lovely little Island of Misfit Toys that orbit The Brick... and serendipity? Happenstance? We had a story on our hands that could easily be a business meeting presentation on the concept of "too soon". In fact, even our submission went in before the real-life story's conclusion had happened. The amount of meta is making my eyes cross. I love it.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

Danny: Getting my movie production company, Seedy Kay Films, off the ground, and working on a couple scripts I want to film.

Jillian: I have started work on designing costumes for the play Father Of Lies, written and directed by Jose Zayas, which will be going up in July as part of PS122's Undergroundzero Festival, as well as returning to the handful of musical theatre projects in development that have me on their cast list, recording my next EP with my band, rainy day assembly, singing in the subway and of course, continuing my campaign to convince my cats to let me pick them up and hug them.

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours out of every day, what would you do with them?

Danny: Probably spend most of the two hours trying to scheme a way to squeeze another two out of the deal, and the last minute or so pondering the notions of futility and irony.

Jillian: Check Facebook. I wish you could see my lack of ability to keep a straight face there. My usual shift as a subway musician is two hours - I'd do that. Or, you know... play with my cats.

Chemistry
Written by Danny Bowes and Jillian Tully
Directed by Danny Bowes
75 minutes

Sun 6/6, 5pm
Fri 6/11, 7:30pm
Sat 6/12, 10:45pm
Tue 6/15, 8:45pm
Thu 6/17, 7pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Eric Bland of Jeannine's Abortion

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Eric Bland
Play: Jeannine’s Abortion: A Play in One Trimester
Relationship to production: Playwright
Website: Old Kent Road Theater; for the Director Hope Cartelli’s company, Piper McKenzie.

How long have you been involved in theatre?

12 years maybe. Though I’ve “known” about it for longer.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

Um...reading, probably Woyzeck by Georg Buchner. Seeing, probably the
Polish company TR Warszawa’s Krum at BAM in 2007. Both expanded the
possibilities of performance for me. Tossing in a movie, because it
all punches together — Pedro Almodovar’s "All About My Mother."

What is your show about?

People like us, today, in New York City. One of whom has an abortion.

What led you to write it?

The title was inspired by the festival. And I’m very interested in
this topic — abortion has become an easy target lately. It’s still
rarely spoken of in sensible or sensitive terms.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

The Brick is heaven. I’ve worked there a lot. I love them. And then
the title and the idea of the festival and the play just clicked.

What’s next for you after Too Soon?

I want to mount a big contemporary theatrical ecstasy called
Emancipatory Politics in the near future.

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours
out of every day, what would you do with them?

Ask a girl out and be nervous. Though I’d probably spend it sleeping
or on Hulu or trying to understand what Alain Badiou is talking about
when he says “the one does not exist” in his philosophical ruckus
"Being and Event" that I’m desperately trying to fathom my way through.
Or perhaps I’d watch "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" again while chomping a
baguette. Or maybe I’d call my mother who is a masterpiece.
Possibilities!

Jeanine's Abortion: A Play in One Trimester
Written by Eric Bland
Directed by Hope Cartelli
70 minutes

Thu 6/24, 8:45pm
Fri 6/25, 7pm
Sat 6/26, 2:30pm
Sun 6/27, 6:30pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Erin Austin and Ross Evans of RIP JD

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Erin Austin and Ross Evans
Play: RIP JD: A Celebration of Death
Relationship to production: Playwrights, Ross-Director and Erin-Actor
Website: www.plasticflamingo.org

How long have you been involved in theatre?

We started writing together and formed The Plastic Flamingo Theatre Company our senior year of college at the University of Miami in 2007. Separately, we’ve been involved in theatre for as long as we can remember.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

How could we pick? We see hundreds of shows a year in the city. Each one inspired our work in a unique fashion.

What is your show about?

RIP JD: A Celebration of Death is an exploration of cult figure and author JD Salinger. We probe the mystery associated with the man and his art through fast paced ensemble driven comedy. Using homage, meditation, and mockery, this collage asks who really owns art- its creator or its audience?


What led you to write it?

We wrote RIP JD immediately after Salinger’s death. We both live in Brooklyn and noticed especially in our ‘hoods, but throughout the city, the resurrection of the author’s popularity. His death and his reader’s reaction felt ripe for theatrical interpretation, comedy, and discussion.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

The Too Soon Festival inspired us. As patrons of The Brick, we were eager to get involved, creatively. A festival inspired by themes that feel too fresh and too inappropriate paired well with our Salinger scrutinizing.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

Plastic Flamingo Theatre Company will present readings of both Ross and Erin works, Team Awesome, and Fit, respectively. Also, look out for revivals of our FringeNYC hit Finger Paint and Eggs and Edamame.

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours
out of every day, what would you do with them?

Ross would watch his DVRed Cubs games and Erin would clean her room. Maybe.

RIP JD
Written by Erin Austin and Ross Evans
Directed by Ross Evans
90 minutes

Sat 6/5, 3pm
Sun 6/6, 7pm
Sat 6/12, 4:30pm
Sat 6/19, 9:15pm
Fri 6/25, 9pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Mateo Moreno of Happily After Tonight

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Mateo Moreno
Play: Happily After Tonight
Relationship to production: Playwright/Director, Actor
Website: Facebook Page

How long have you been involved in theatre?

Acting: I've been involved since high school. Directing: I directed by first play my senior year in high school. Writing: I wrote a short play in 2005, and this is my first feature length play.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

Jonathan Larson is my continued inspiration. What he created in Rent has not only influenced my writing and inspired me, but has literally changed the way I view the world, opened my mind and my heart, and has touched me like no other show ever has.

What is your show about?

It's a modern day, fractured fairy tale that takes the classic stories of Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, and more, and tells what happened after their "happily ever afters."

What led you to write it?

I wrote it originally as a ten minute play for a friend of mine Eva Gil to perform in Chicago a few years ago. It never was produced and just sort of sat on my shelf. Then early this year, another friend of mine Bryan Enk told me I should make my own version of "Alice in Wonderland." Which got me to take this off the shelf and make it into a full length play. And I always had in mind the part I would like to play, so I'm very happy I was able to do that as well.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

I've worked with The Brick Theatre several times, and during the recent extension of The Brick's own Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury, I began speaking to Festival director Hope Cartelli about the upcoming festival. She told me the title of it, and it just seemed like too good of a fit to pass up.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

Hopefully more staging of Happily After Tonight. I'd like to have it produced in other theatres and see what life it has. I'm also interested in producing a version of Romeo & Juliet that I adapted, as well as completing the filming of "falling..." a feature length romantic comedy that I wrote and am directing. I'd also like to stage an updated version of The Shadow Box.

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours out of every day, what would you do with them?

I'd use them to work more on the pre-production of Happily After Tonight! And MAN could I use two more hours a day... :)

Happily After Tonight
Written and directed by Mateo Moreno

60 minutes

Wed 6/9, 7pm
Sun 6/13, 8pm
Fri 6/18, 8:45pm
Tue 6/22, 7pm
Thu 6/24, 7pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Matthew Freeman of That Old Soft Shoe

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Matthew Freeman
Play: That Old Soft Shoe
Relationship to production: Playwright
Website: matthewfreeman.blogspot.com

How long have you been involved in theatre?

Depends on when you start counting. If you count high school...half my life.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

Endgame. It’s what made me see what theater could be. That isn’t to say I write like Beckett. I don’t really. But that play is to blame for what I do now.

What is That Old Soft Shoe about?

We’re lost in a sea of policy debates when we should be simply appalled. We are not appalled. We are curious. We discuss the relative merits of classifying human lives and doling out rights in accordance with those classifications. It’s monstrous, of course. And so, I wrote a comedy.

The rest of the answer to this question has been redacted.

What led you to write in it?

I wrote it because I wanted to entertain and enlighten and provoke. You know, those old chestnuts.

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

In the previous two summer festivals at the Brick Theater, I made appearances. This will be my third. I like the parameters of the themes. It helps me shape an impulse.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

More life. Planning my upcoming wedding, first and foremost. Finding a home for my new play. High fiber diet. Going to the movies. Writing.

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours out of every day, what would you do with them?

I’d like to say get more writing done, or cook delicious meals, but I know I would use them for PS3.

That Old Soft Shoe
Blue Coyote Theatre Group
Written by Matt Freeman
Directed by Kyle Ancowitz

90 minutes

Sun 6/6, 2:30pm
Tue 6/8, 8:45pm
Wed 6/23, 8:45pm
Sat 6/26, 7pm
Sun 6/27, 4pm

Too Soon Festival Interview - Esther Crow of Death Is A Scream

By Byrne Harrison

Name: Esther Crow
Play: Death is a Scream
Relationship to production: Playwright and Actor
Website: www.esthercrow.com

How long have you been involved in theatre?

Since the early 90's. I started with improv, then sketch comedy. Then I developed my first solo show in San Francisco, People Like Us, which had its premiere as part of the 2001 NY Fringe Fest.

What play had the biggest influence on your life?

In terms of my own writing, I'm more influenced by comedians and solo performers. Carol Burnett is my biggest influence for sure. Followed by Tracey Ullman, Eric Bogosian, Anna Deveare Smith, Sarah Jones, Bill Hicks, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Lily Tomlin, David Sedaris...and the list goes on and on.

What is your show about?

Death. Dying. The Afterlife. Near Death Experiences. All things pertaining to death. Oh, and it’s a comedy. With lots of original music.

What led you to develop it?

Over the past year, I had been contemplating writing a show about Death. I had been working on a solo show (developed mostly at PIT) for the past couple years on alcohol, called Pickled. But somehow, the subject of Death kept luring me and I found it to be much more fruitful than the subject of booze. There's only so many drunken characters you can do before it gets old!

What inspired you to apply for the Too Soon Festival?

When the theme "Too Soon" was chosen for the Brick's summer fest, I thought: "a-HA!!! A show about Death could totally fit into this!" My reasoning: its always "too soon" to broach a subject like Death. Everyone wants to shelve it, cause we're frightened of the unknown and of losing loved ones. What better ingredients to start cookin' up a comedic play than fear and tragedy? So I immediately got to work while on vacation in February and managed to meet the March deadline for submissions.

What's next for you after Too Soon?

Carnegie(the hall not the deli:)! But seriously...next is a tour to Chicago and back with my band, The Electric Mess in July!

And finally, if you could slow the world down and get two more hours out of every day, what would you do with them?

Sleep.

Death Is A Scream
Written by Esther Crow
Directed by Rabeah Ghaffari

50 minutes

Fri 6/11, 9:30pm
Fri 6/18, 7pm
Sat 6/19, 3pm
Sun 6/20, 5pm
Wed 6/23, 7pm

Watch the video promo.

Too Soon Festival Coming to the Brick Theater on June 4th

By Byrne Harrison

Tomorrow is the first day of the Too Soon Festival at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Too Soon Festival features 11 plays and runs from June 4th through the 27th.

And in an appropriate twist for a Too Soon festival, several Too Soon shows will be exposed with their pants down, unready to open, scrambling to impress audiences at the Half-Cocked Preview Cabaret and Awards Ceremony. Intercut with the performances, awards celebrating the potential achievement of each Too Soon Festival show will be prematurely handed out by The Brick, with artists giving tearful acceptance speeches thanking everyone who contributed to each show’s presumed success. Attendees and participants alike will be confused but big-hearted about the whole affair.

For tickets and a schedule of the festival, visit the Too Soon webpage.

And, as always, keep an eye out for the StageBuzz.com interviews and reviews.