FRIGID New York Interview - Mark Bentley Cohen of "Bi, Hung, Fit… and Married"

By Byrne Harrison

Show: Bi, Hung, Fit… and Married
Website: www.bihungfit.ca
Production stills: Sean Cummings
Standing in the Alley: Rita Ivanauskis

Mark Bentley Cohen is a writer, performer, counsellor, workshop facilitator, public presenter, and outdoor enthusiast living in Vancouver.  “Bi, Hung, Fit … and Married” is based on his revealing autobiographical book, “Confessions of a Bisexual Husband”. 

Mark has always been interested in sexual identity issues. He began experimenting with bisexuality at the age of 13, and continues to this day. Mark believes there is an inherent need for continued sexual growth and exploration throughout one's life, and modern partnerships are slowly evolving to accommodate those needs. After speaking with and meeting hundreds of bisexual men and women, Mark has discovered that the vast majority of them are deep within the closet, living secret double lives. 

He hopes that his work and ground-breaking relationship with Lianna Walden, his partner of over 20 years, will help them - and others - to take the first small steps toward accepting themselves and their unique sexuality. 

Tell me a little about Bi, Hung, Fit… and Married.

The show is about my process of coming to terms with being bisexual within the confines of marriage and fatherhood, and the changes my partner and I made to our marriage after coming out to her. 

The truth is we were in a bad place before I came out. What the show demonstrates is that we needed something new. In our case it was my need to be authentic about my sexuality, but in other cases it's a matter of finding ways to revitalize your relationship. Quite often this revolves around issues of sex and sexuality. 

Long-term monogamous unions tend to stagnate because the two people involved are not allowed to grow, change, and express desire outside of their monogamy. This can become stifling in many ways. Allowing for dialogue and exploration around sex and sexuality often brings fresh energy into the people, and therefore their relationship. 

What we've come to learn is, this is a good thing, and far better than the "dangers" espoused by partaking in these activities. 

What inspired you to create it?

Once my wife and I could see that this sexual exploration and newly-found openness in our relationship

was actually very salubrious, we knew we had to tell everyone about our findings, which fly smack in the face of conventional "wisdom". 

The show is my way of discussing issues around sex, relationships, authenticity, which is why the focus of it is sex. So many other stories leave the sex out, because it's sex, and therefore personal/dirty/not important/secondary, etc. 

What we've found is that many others also want to discuss these things – as no one else seems to want to. The personal voice of the play makes the material honest, and therefore powerful. You may not agree with what I'm saying, but you will at the very least acknowledge that this has been our experience, and as such needs to be recognized as valid, if for no one else than us, although most people can relate to the work, regardless of orientation or relationship status. 

Who else is helping you bring the show to FRIGID?

I could not do this without my partner, Lianna Walden. When we met over 20 years ago she was to be the producer in our company and I was to be the writer. We've never strayed from that paradigm, and it still works for us to this day. 

We're also running an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds necessary to pay for the production, so all those who have contributed are also a part of this. Thanks to all who have shown their support!

Who would be your dream audience for this show?

Besides highly influential theatre people who can take this show on a world tour, I'd like to see potential publishers for my book too, upon which the play is based. It's currently being shopped around the city by my literary agent, Lucas Hunt. 

As for non-industry people, the surprising thing is that straight, married people get the most from this show. There are very few other works out there which portray couples successfully crossing the monogamy boundary. Pretty much every other song, TV show, movie, play, book, advertisement speaks of the utter and immediate death to any relationship when people cross the monogamy line. 

As a theatre artist, who are your biggest influences?

I love David Mammet. I'm a bit of a "Glengarry Glen Ross" groupie, asking everyone I meet if they've ever seen it. I also love Spalding Gray. He's been a big influence, and I was deeply disturbed by his suicide years ago. I also love Michelle Tremblay's work. 

What shows are you planning to see at FRIGID?

All of them! We're huge Fringe fans. Lianna has run the Vancouver Fringe for a few years, has been a board member for many years, and we're both regular attendees at the festival. 

What is next for you in 2015?

Vancouver is the kind of city where you have to leave to make it, and then come back to show everyone how well you've done. When we return from New York we're planning a run of the show at a local club called "8x6". We're hoping the cachet of coming from New York will grab peoples' attention. It already has. When we tell people we're going to New York, they all get glass-eyed and mesmerized by the idea. 

Lightning round

Favorite theatre professional? David Mammet

Your best theatre experience? Performing my show at UC Berkeley as part of their "International Conference on the Future of Monogamy and Nonmonogamy". This audience really got my work, and showed their overwhelming appreciation for it afterward. It was a very special moment. They were all so moved to have seen "their story" being told for the first time. 

Person you’d most like to thank for getting you where you are today? My life-partner, Lianna Walden. There is no doubt in my mind I would not be doing this without her, in every way you can imagine. 


To find out more about Bi, Hung, Fit… and Married, visit the FRIGID New York website.

FRIGID New York Interview - Dandy Darkly of "Dandy Darkly's Pussy Panic!"

By Byrne Harrison

Show: Dandy Darkly’s Pussy Panic!

Website: www.dandydarkly.com

Photo credit: Laura Pardo 2014

Dandy Darkly is an internationally acclaimed cabaret showman and ribald raconteur of supernatural, sentimental, sleazy ghost stories. He’s a Southern gothic sissy with a penchant for pop culture and the paranormal. “How ghost stories should be told.” The Stage “A decidedly wicked storyteller.” The New York Times Dandy Darkly is the new painted face of New York storytelling.

Tell me a little about your show.

“Dandy Darkly’s Pussy Panic!” is a delightful, frightful fistful of fables with a focus on the classical interpretations of womanhood, the maiden, the mother, the crone, and also homosexual misogyny – how some gay men build women up, only to tear them back down. My style of storytelling is poetic and lyrical, also chilling and hilarious. Time Out called it - “Unlike anything else at the Fringe, or indeed elsewhere.”

What inspired you to create it? 

At the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe I had a post-show encounter with a young woman, an audience member, who accused me of misogyny and “celebrating the murder of women” in one of my highly wrought, satiric stories. I explained to her that I, actually, celebrate the murder of everyone – men, women, children, even pets – but she was unconvinced and we left it at that. However her accusation lingered with me, so I began to explore the notion of “Pussy Panic!” – the irrational fear gay men have of the vagina – and the show developed from there.

Who else is helping you bring the show to FRIGID?

"Dandy Darkly’s Pussy Panic!" was written initially for the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe, but I’d be amiss not to thank Dixon Place HOT! Festival and The Celebration of Whimsy Theater where the show had two incredible NYC runs. Ian Bjorklund is my wonderful director. He’s been so helpful in guiding my focus. And I’m also blessed to work with some amazing musicians on this show: Adam Tendler (88x50), Rachel Blumberg (Arch Cape, Death Vessel) and Bryce Edwards (Boy Crazy, The Isotoners). And Laura Pardo for her exquisite photographs.

Who would be your dream audience for this show?

Apart from a room of Broadway producers, fighting over me like feral cats for a can of tuna – I suppose Dandy Darkly’s ideal audience is one with a love of truly immersive story telling – an audience eager to have their expectations absolutely turned upside down. I think contemporary audiences have a pre-conceived idea of “storytelling” as this sort of Moth-style anecdotal navel gazing. I’m ready to lead the storytelling revolution.

As a theatre artist, who are your biggest influences?

Elvira Mistress of the Dark. Wayland Flowers and Madame. William Castle. Bret Somers. Leslie Jordan. Alf.

What shows are you planning to see at FRIGID?

I’m very eager to see “300 to 1” starring Matt Panesh. He’s a phenomenal UK storyteller who I know from the Edinburgh Fringe. Likewise “Cootie Catcher” is such a great show. Its written by and stars the talented Lucas Brooks and directed by David Drake. Other shows on my list include “ERIK”, “The ChristmApocalypse” and “An Evening of Not-So-Quiet Despair with Satan.” I enjoy work that's both horrific and comedic.

What is next for you in 2015?

After the Frigid Festival I’m putting “Pussy Panic!” to bed for a while and I’m returning to the Edinburgh Fringe with a brand new show. It’s called “Dandy Darkly’s Trigger Happy!” and themes will explore hypersensitivity, PTSD, gun violence and the good ole U. S. of A. Can’t wait!

Lightning round

Favorite theatre professional? John Cameron Mitchell

Current show you would love to be involved with? La Soirée

Your dream show to be involved with? Broadway debut of Showgirls

Who would you most like to have a chance to work with? Peaches Christ

Your best theatre experience? Fun Home

Your worst theatre experience? High school senior year... The Crucible

Person you’d most like to thank for getting you where you are today? Grandpappy Darkly who told me my first Georgia ghost stories. I sure miss him.

To find out more about Dandy Darkly's Pussy Panic!, visit the FRIGID New York website.

FRIGID New York Interview - Cristina M. Ramos of "Heart of Oak"

By Byrne Harrison

Show: Heart of Oak
Website:  http://www.everydayinferno.com/HeartofOak/
Photo credit: Anais Koivisto

Cristina M. Ramos, alumna of Columbia University and The Lee Strasberg Institute, is an acting, singing, dancing, directing, fight enthusiast who also writes plays in her "spare" time. Favorite performance credits include: Tales of the Perpetually Single But Eternally Optimistic, Real | Crazy, and Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, as well as dance-theater pieces at The Latin Billboard Awards and Latino Night at Madison Square Garden. She is certified with recommendation in unarmed and sword & shield stage combat with the SAFD, and is currently working on two original plays and an adaptation of a Spanish play. She's also a Company Collaborator with Everyday Inferno! Resume, photos, videos and more at www.cristinamramos.com.

Tell me a little about your show.

Heart of Oak is a (literally) legendary tale of a princess who becomes a pirate to avoid an arranged marriage. She wrangles together a crew consisting of a laundry woman, seamstress, lady's maid, farm girl, cook, and scullery maid (that's me!). As her betrothed hears stories of this princess-turned-brutal-pirate he was meant to marry, he falls in love and sets out on a quest to find the woman behind the myth. But this is not your childhood fairytale… This woman is dark, complicated, and more than a little dangerous. There are raids and mutinies, shanties and sword fights, betrayals and love triangles... It's pretty jam-packed!

How did you become involved with it?

I auditioned and prayed my little heart out! I've worked with Everyday Inferno before - I'm actually a Company Collaborator – and I've auditioned for them before, but this is my first time getting cast in one of their full productions. I couldn't be happier that it happens to be a play about some really remarkable women.

Who else is helping you bring the show to FRIGID?

We've got an exceptionally devoted and talented creative team (our producer doubles as our stage manager… yeah, that devoted), a hugely supportive group of company members (I think our Director of Social Media is more excited than I am!), and an astonishingly broad list of donors that includes family, friends, past Everyday Inferno artists, and total strangers who just love the work this company does. Not to mention a cast that's gonna knock everyone's socks off.

Who would be your dream audience for this show?

Some combination of bi-curious artsy multi-racial women, nerdy teenage girls, and alpha-men. I feel like the first group would totally appreciate the show for its many layered-ness (let's just say it passes the Bechdel test with flying colors), the second group would find some women they could be excited to look up to, and the third group would simply have to admit (like our male lead does!) that these are some very real, imperfect women who are bewitchingly badass in a wide variety of ways. 

As a theatre artist, who are your biggest influences?

Oh gosh… would it be weird to say Wagner? Putting his politics and anti-semitism aside for a moment… He was all about the "Gesamtkunstwerk " – a concept that I worked into an independent study in college and thrills me to this day. It's the idea of a true masterwork, an art that encompasses all the arts. Every time I perform or create theatre I try to keep that concept in mind. Is this as full as it can be? Does this character paint, sing, sew, fight? What does she touch, smell, hear?

A life is a thing that is full of art. And theatre can be such a wildly liberating way to express life. So for me, every piece, and every character within it, should be full of art.

What shows are you planning to see at FRIGID?

I'm really excited about Erik – it looks dark and hilarious and therefore right up my alley! I also plan to check out Whiskeypants: The Mayor of Williamsburg, because, come on, that title! And Post Traumatic Super Delightful was honestly super delightful at Snapshots… I think I'm going to be seeing a lot of shows.

What is next for you in 2015?

I plan to get certified in small sword with the SAFD by May and hopefully another weapon or two before the year's out. I'm also going to Universal Orlando for a long weekend because, well, Harry Potter. A friend and I are working on a night of two-person one-acts together (including the gorgeous and terrifying Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen by Tennessee Williams). And I'm really hoping to get some readings and/or full productions of my own original works up and running before the clock strikes 2016 (hopefully with Everyday Inferno or even next year's FRIGID!). Not to mention the grand old audition grind and the exciting works and relationships that can come out of it!

Lightning round

Favorite theatre professional? Currently, Lin-Manuel Miranda

Current show you would love to be involved with? Cabaret

Your dream show to be involved with? Venus in Fur

Who would you most like to have a chance to work with? Geoffrey Rush

Your best theatre experience? Starring in a staged reading of my first original play

Your worst theatre experience? Seeing Bye Bye Birdie on Broadway. It was bad. And I played Rosie Alvarez in high school so I sort of wanted to stomp on stage and take over the part or just leave.


Person you’d most like to thank for getting you where you are today? People, not person. My family. They're everything.


For more about Heart of Oak, visit the FRIGID New York website.

Signature’s Serves up an Original Hit: You’ll Want Seconds at This "Diner"

By Mark A. Newman
Photo by Christopher Mueller

Admittedly, the number of rock stars who have made the jump from the iPod to the stage has been a mixed bag. For every Kinky Boots by Cyndi Lauper there’s a half dozen Hands on a Hardbody by Phish frontman Trey Anastasio. Not to say Hands on a Hardbody was bad (in fact, I enjoyed it more than Kinky Boots), but it didn’t stick around for long.

Thankfully, the world premiere of Diner at the Signature Theater in Arlington, Virginia, with a score by Sheryl Crow based on the Barry Levinson film from 1982, has the chops to be a hit. No doubt it’s a risky endeavor to turn an extremely beloved film that is quoted by a generation into a musical, but if it worked for those crazy Pythons with The Holy Grail (which begat Spamalot, another rollicking hit), then good golly, Miss Molly, why not Diner, a film that launched the careers of a handful of Hollywood household names (Kevin Bacon, Mickey Rourke, Steve Gutenberg…well, depends on the household I suppose).  

Knowing that the songs would reflect the show’s time period – 1959 – I was a bit apprehensive; doo-wop and crooners are not spilling from my ear buds, bud. Boy was I pleasantly surprised by Crow’s enigmatic score. Yes, it did reflect the last year of Dwight Eisenhower’s administration but it also had the hallmark of a contemporary songwriter in her prime. The songs are, in a word, gorgeous, and probably one of the best original score’s I’ve heard from a pop star since David Byrne’s collaboration with Fatboy Slim for the amazing Here Lies Love. It would take too long to go down the list but “Please Be There,” “Tear Down This House,” “Don’t,” and “Last Man Standing” are just a few of the standouts. This is one of those scores that needs to be preserved by the original cast as soon as possible!

Levinson’s book is lovingly faithful to his screenplay of the film, however there have been some welcomed – and frankly, needed – changes made, most notably recognizing that women of the 1950s actually had thoughts, feelings, opinions, desires, and personalities all their own even though – as it is stressed in the show – it was not the best time to be a woman (or black, or gay, or…well anything not straight and male). Levinson essentially used his remarkable movie as a guide for what was created on stage and it’s easily one of the most seamless movie-to-stage adaptations I have ever seen. The spirit of the film is alive and well in Levinson’s book.

Broadway legend Kathleen Marshall is overseeing the direction and choreography duties for Diner and the staging is perfect. Set among the confines of the eponymous eatery – sumptuously rendered by Derek McLane – the actors, singers, dancers all move fluidly from scene to scene. Considering the Signature’s space limitations and further limitations by a diner sitting amidst the action throughout the show, Marshall’s direction is key to really keeping the action moving and flowing like a well-oiled singing and dancing machine. From big numbers to intimate moments, Marshall’s direction was vital to Diner’s appetizing production.

Aside from McLane’s sets, Peter Kaczorowski’s lighting, Paul Tazewell’s costumes, Lane Elms’ sound, and especially Charles LaPointe’s wigs brought the Baltimore denizens of another era to life on stage. The look and feel of the show was authentic without looking dated; rather than looking back the audience was made to feel like it was collectively time traveling. While some period shows have the effect of “let’s see what’s in the old trunk” and come off as dusty reruns, the show’s design team immersed the audience into another time with remarkable ease.

And then there’s the cast. Holy cow, what a cast! Easily the best cast that has trod the boards at Signature, at least in the time I’ve been attending shows there. That’s not to say other casts were not up to the job. It’s just that this cast was so amazing that they have left an indelible standard that will be impossible to match, much less surpass, in the future.

The show is framed by the narration of Older Boogie (John Schiappa) as he looks back on “those crazy times.” While it comes awfully close to the tired tropes employed by many a one-person show – “And there’s me…why, look at me. I was so wild back then. And then there’s…” – the conceit is used sparingly enough to actually inform the audience while providing the occasional update. For example, through Older Boogie we learn that one of our boys will be dead shortly after the curtain falls while one will be a multi-millionaire in a couple of decades. It works and it works quite well.

If life was fair, Derek Klena as Younger Boogie would not be in this show; he would still be in The Bridges of Madison County on Broadway which closed way too soon last season. However, here he is, and he’s the closest the show has to a leading man even though the duties are fairly equally shared by the six actors portraying our diner inhabitants. As Billy, Aaron C. Finley gets one of the sweetest songs (“Please Be There”) and he has the charisma and vocal chops to boot. Plus, of all the actors, he looks the most like his movie counterpart, Timothy Daly. Trust me, if you’re a fan of the movie, you’ll spend the first scene matching the actors to their movie counterparts. For the record, as Modell, Bryan Fenkart almost channels movie Modell Paul Reiser’s tempo word for word and he’s hilarious and natural in what could’ve been a thankless role (Modell is the only of the diner boys without a solo or a duet).

Adam Kantor is perfectly cast as Eddie (Steve Gutenburg in the film), the sports-loving groom-to-be with cold feet and there could not have been a better actor to portray Shrevie, the music-obsessed wise guy, than Josh Grisetti. However, if the show were to be stolen, it would be by Matthew James Thomas as Fenwick, the hard-drinking, slacker who is a better Peter Pan than Mary Martin. He really cuts loose in “Last Man Standing” that ends with him clad only in his boxer shorts, and in the mournful “Letting Go,” where we see the real pain behind the party. Truly a standout tour de force performance in a show full of astounding performances.

Unlike the movie, the female characters move front and center somewhat to fully show how life was for the ladies back in 1959. Yeah, it wasn’t great but the women of the cast prove they’re up for the challenge. As Elyse, Eddie’s bride-to-be..maybe, Tess Soltau is charming which is especially noteworthy since the character was only alluded to in the movie. Whitney Bashor’s Barbara – Billy’s almost girlfriend – gets a wonderful moment to lament her life’s choices in “Don’t.” But the performance that brings down the house is in a number called, well, “Tear Down This House,” where Erika Henningsen as Beth, Shrevie’s neglected wife, rattles the rafters as she laments her station in life. This is easily the standout song and performance in the entire show.

Damn the hyperbole, but if you plan to see only one show for the rest of your life at Signature, this is the one! I’m going back for seconds!

Diner
Signature Theatre
4200 Campbell Avenue
Arlington, VA 22206

Book: Barry Levinson
Music & Lyrics: Sheryl Crow
Director & Choreographer: Kathleen Marshall
Assistant Director: Paige Kiliany
Associate Choreographer: David Eggers
Music Director: Lon Hoyt
Orchestrator: Mitchell Froom
Set Designer: Derek McLane
Scenery: Adapted by James Kronzer
Costume Designer: Paul Tazewell
Wig Designer: Charles LaPointe
Lighting Designer: Peter Kaczorowski
Sound Designer: Lane Elms
Production Stage Manager: Kerry Epstein
Assistant Stage Manager: Allie Roy
Tickets: 703-820-9771; ticketmaster: 703-573-SEAT tickets@signature-theatre.org

Information: http://www.signature-theatre.org/

"Lives of the Saints" - A Mixed Bag of Tricks

By Judd Hollander
Photo by James Leynse

Playwright David Ives looks beyond the surface of what seems normal in Lives of the Saints, his latest batch of one act works. Presented by Primary Stages, this collection of tales can now be seen at The Duke on 42nd Street. However unlike All in the Timing, Ives' previous offering which hit the mark on almost every level, this time out things are much more incomplete, providing some very interesting high points but also a great many more low ones.

Things start off with the two-hander The Goodness of Your Heart, about the bonds of friendship and what happens when it comes with a price tag. Long time friends Del (Arnie Burton) and Marsh (Rick Holmes) are sitting in Del's backyard, drinking beers when Marsh suddenly asks Del for a new television set.

Nicely written, the story is slanted in such a way that Del keeps finding himself at fault for trying to understand or even question the nature of such a request. Marsh's line of reasoning being that if one friend asks another for a favor, the other should do it with no questions asked; and with no expectations in return, including the need for the receiver of the favor to say "thank you". That last being understood as a given, rather than having to be said aloud. 

This is a play that could easily go in many different directions and also be expanded into a full-length work. Burton is hilarious as Del, doing one slow burn after another as he tries to figure out what to do; while at the same time being continually stunned by Marsh's seemingly straightforward reasoning. As for Holmes, he gives off a sort of honest naivety, to which he later adds an aggrieved air; offended that Del is even questioning his motives by seemingly trying to put a limit on their decades long friendship. Unfortunately the piece ends too abruptly, with the final result not all that satisfying. 

Conversely, the next piece, Soap Opera, suffers from being far too long in length. Manny (Carson Elrod), a Maypole Repairman – a riff on the classic Maytag Repairman commercials - has fallen in love with a Washing Machine (Liv Rooth). This attraction stemming from childhood incidents involving his mother (Kelly Hutchinson), who continually berated young Manny for always getting his clothes dirty. At least until the Maypole Washer made everything sparkling clean. Love eventually bloomed between the unlikely twosome, with Manny's fixation eventually threatening to destroy any chance he has for a relationship with Mabel (Hutchinson), his high school sweetheart. 

Certainly an unusual premise, the work is played far too broadly for the audience to really care about any of the characters involved. Another problem is the blatant overuse of bad puns--"...the Tide has turned....I gave it my All....so be of good Cheer", all of which quickly become more annoying than anything else. Also in the cast are Rick Holmes and Arnie Burton.

Next up is Enigma Variations. Feeling that everything in her life has happened before, Bebe 1 (Rooth) goes to Bill 1 (Burton), a psychiatrist of some sort. As Bebe I starts explaining her situation, Bill 2 (Holmes) and Bebe 2 (Hutchinson) emerge and start mimicking the words and gestures of Bill 1 and Bebe 1. Eventually the scene shifts from end to beginning, with different combinations of these four characters taking turns repeating the comments Bebe 1 and Bill I have made previously. The pace of each succeeding sequence continually increases, as does the speed of the words delivered and the movements of the actors, but the piece itself never really develops. Ives seems to be trying to talk about the infinite variety of the universes, with occasional bleeding between the different realities, but the work itself simply isn't all that interesting. Coming off as the weakest of all the one acts presented, it was probably a poor choice to put this one right before the intermission. Also in the cast is Carson Elrod.

Fortunately things start off much better in Act Two with Life Signs, by far the best offering in the group. Helen (Hutchinson), a rich, sixty-something woman has just passed away in her Park Avenue home, with her son Toby (Elrod), his wife Meredith (Rooth), and family physician Dr. Brinkman (Burton) in attendance. While Toby is left alone with the body, his wife seeing the Doctor out, Helen suddenly starts to talk, a situation the initially disbelieving Meredith soon sees for herself, in an absolutely hilarious sequence. Helen, unfettered from earthly obligations of social position and protocol, can finally afford to let her thoughts and opinions flow freely, and she proceeds to do just that. Most of said comments concerning sex, love and how she felt her just ended life was so unfulfilled and empty.

Somewhat course in language, one wonders how Hutchinson can speak her words with a straight face, or indeed with no expression at all as she delivers the funniest lines of the production while playing a basically lifeless corpse. Elrod does well as increasingly flummoxed Toby, doing one double take after another as he realizes the person he thought he knew so well he didn't really know at all. Most interesting of all here is the character of Meredith. Someone who never really got along with Helen when she was alive, yet who is clearly bonding with her now that she's dead. Though underneath all the humor is the very real warning that each of us only go around once and that you have to make your choices in live count before it's too late. Filled with excellent moments of comic time and strongly directed by John Rando, doing his best work in the production here, Life Signs alone is worth the price of admission.

Things go from the simply hilarious to the painfully wistful in It’s All Good. Stephen (Holmes), a successful writer now living in New York with his lovely wife Leah (Hutchinson), decides while in Chicago on business, to look in on the working class neighborhood where he grew up. On the way there, he meets and strikes up a conversation with Steve (Elrod) who invites him to join him and his wife Amy (Rooth) for dinner. Amy just happening to be the girl Stephen left behind when he went off to become a writer. What follows is a journey into The Twilight Zone as Stephen realizes he's somehow seeing how his own life would have turned out if he had not left all those years ago.

Poignant and powerful, this is one piece in which the acting firmly takes center stage. Elrod is able to convincingly project a working class persona of someone content in his life, while wondering what would have happened had he made different choices in the past. Holmes on the other hand, comes off as a man in torment. Someone who thought he had everything he ever wanted, only to come face to face with what he gave up in the process. Rooth works well as Amy, a hardscrabble woman who has had a good but certainly not easy life, while Hutchinson is nicely supportive as Leah. However, just as with earlier The Goodness of Your Heart, this play also ends too abruptly; with not enough time allowed to explore more of the possibilities presented.

Things wind up with Lives of the Saints, where Edna (Hutchinson) and Flo (Rooth), two elderly Polish women are working in a church kitchen, putting together a funeral breakfast for a neighbor they both knew. A situation most people can identify with - having food present in the wake of a death - regardless of their background, it's an enjoyable enough tale and Hutchinson and Rooth play off each other well. However an extra bit in regards to sound effects is either unnecessary or simply hints at there being something more to this world than what we knew, but after setting up the premise, the play drops it just as quickly. Also in the cast are Arnie Burton, Carson Elrod and Rick Holmes.

Costumes by Anita Yavich are fun, especially those in the Soap Opera segment. Lighting by Jason Lyons, as well as sound design & original music by John Gromada are fine. Special mention must also go to the excellent work of wig designer Tom Watson.

Cute sometimes, funny at others, Lives of the Saints is a pleasant enough diversion but never really comes together when everything is taken into account.

Featuring Rick Holmes (Loudspeaker Voice, Friend, Marsh, Bill 2, Stephen, Stagehand), Arnie Burton (French Maitre D', Madman, Del, Bill 1, Dr. Brinkman, Stagehand), Carson Elrod (Repairman, Fifi, Toby, Steve, Stagehand), Kelly Hutchinson (Mother, Mabel, Bebe 2, Helen, Leah, Edna), Liv Rooth, (Washing Machine, Bebe 1, Meredith, Amy, Flo).

Lives of the Saints 
by David Ives

Set Design: Beowulf Boritt
Costume Design: Anita Yavich
Lighting Design: Jason Lyons
Sound Design & Original Music: John Gromada
Wig Design: Tom Watson
Props Supervisor: Christine Goldman
Production Stage Manager: Robbie Kyle Peters
Casting: Calleri Casting
Press Representative: Keith Sherman & Associates
Production Management: Mind The Gap
Directed by John Rando

Presented by Primary Stages
The Duke on 42nd Street
229 West 42nd Street
Tickets: 646-22303010, www.PrimiaryStages.org or www.Dukeon42.org
Running Time: Two Hours, with one intermission

Closes: March 27, 2015

Review - "The Temple, or, Lebensraum"

By Byrne Harrison

Overall, I have been very disappointed in adaptations I've seen of H.P. Lovecraft's work.  Other than some very successful radio-theatre performances, the adaptations I've seen (mostly film) have relied on cheap shocks and middling special effects to try to catch even a hint of the horror that Lovecraft could convey with a handful of words.

This is why Nat Cassidy's adaptation of Lovecraft's "The Temple" is such a delight.  Well, as much of a delight as anything involving mutilation, suffocation, cannibalism, Nazis and the elder gods can be.  Cassidy is a strong storyteller; one who fully appreciates just how powerful the combination of excellent actors, fraught situations, and an audience's imagination can be.

The story, moved from WWI to WWII, follows the crew of a German U-boat.--a group of men of different backgrounds, some who have worked together for years, some completely green.  Sailors fighting a losing war, wary both of their hot tempered captain and a visiting Nazi officer in their midst.  In and of itself, this is a fertile ground for drama.  But adding in a mysterious stowaway, one who couldn't possibly be alive, yet somehow is, and her statues of bizarre and grotesque gods, and the madness that she brings to the ship gives the story its creepy supernatural twist.  To say nothing of the sunken city and its strange citizens….

Cassidy knows that the real drama comes, not from any monsters, but from the relationships between the characters, especially in how they react to the Nazi officer in their midst.  Much of the play focuses on these relationships, particularly between the Kommandant (Arthur Aulisi) and Oberfuhrer Heinrich (Matthew Trumbull). It is the Kommandant's ship, and he sees Trumbull's fussy Nazi officer as an annoyance.  This eventually turns to rage and he lashes out in a way that could destroy his career.  But with the arrival of the Stowaway (Adriana Jones) and her mysterious carvings, and the effect they have on Heinrich, it's just a matter of time until the whole crew is doomed.  And this is before they even arrive at the sunken city.

As I said before, the play focuses on the characters, not in trying to show the fantastical elements of the story.  There is no attempt to bring the elder gods of Lovecraft's mythology to life onstage. No attempts to show the audience a sunken city.  Just the awed whisper of Oberfuhrer Heinrich as he describes the city and its inhabitants.  And this was exactly right for this production, and made the ending of the play much more powerful than any attempt at special effects would have.

The cast is very strong, with particular praise going to Matthew Trumbull for his work as Heinrich.  Watching the character go from a bumbling PR man to a psychotic killer is amazing.  Arthur Aulisi as the Kommandant and Tristan Colton as 2nd Wachoffizier Zinner also give outstanding performances.  I should also point out that one of my favorite moments of the play was during a scene where the men were running out of air.  The actors were arranged on the floor trying to breathe.  No dialogue.  Just breathing.  The amazing thing is that the audience was rapt the entire time.

Sandy Yaklin has done an amazing job at transforming the theatre at The Brick into a submarine.  And the way she has arranged the seating makes it easy for the audience to feel like part of the action.  Morgan Zipf-Meister's lighting design and Jeanne Travis's sound design just add to the effect.  There were a number of times where I started to feel claustrophobic.

In addition to being an excellent playwright, Cassidy is a strong director, creating a taut, well-paced drama.

Unfortunately, "The Temple, or, Lebensraum" ends its nearly sold-out run tonight.  I have no doubt it will make another appearance in the future.


The Temple, or, Lebensraum
Written and directed by Nat Cassidy
Inspired by "The Temple" by H.P. Lovecraft
Stage Manager: Sarah Lahue
Produced by MozzleStead
Set Design by Sandy Yaklin
Sound Design by Jeanne Travis
Light Design by Morgan Zipf-Meister
Costume Design by Ben Philipp
Gore Effects by Stephanie Cox-Williams
Technical Direction by Ashanti Ziths
Fight Choreography by John D. Gardner
Publicity by Bunch of People Press & Publicity

Cast: Matthew Trumbull (Oberfuhrer Karl Heinrich), Arthur Aulisi (Kommandant Tod Klenze), Tristan Colton (2nd Wachoffizier Sigmund Zinner), Zac Hoogendyk (3rd Wachoffizier Erich Trauke), Ridley Parson (Funkhauptgefreiter Ahrendt), John D. Gardner (Meteorologe Bohm), John Blaylock (Bootsmann Albrecht Muller), Eric Gilde (Ingenieur Tom Raab), Adriana Jones (The Stowaway)

FRIGID New York Interview - Taryn Parrish of "Hey '90s Kids, You're Old"

By Byrne Harrison

Show: Hey ‘90s Kids, You’re Old

Website: www.hey90skids.com

Photo credit: Photo of Taryn Parrish by David Franczak

Taryn Parrish is a film graduate from Wilfrid Laurier University, Taryn has directed three short comedy shows to date and works as a freelance writer for online publications, including HelloGiggles.com

Tell me a little about your show.

Hey ‘90s Kids, You’re Old is a ‘90s nostalgia sketch comedy show that is set in the present. We have asked the question - what if our favorite ‘90s characters had to grow up, like we did? As such, you’ll see lots of familiar ‘90s characters, technologies, toys and themes in modern day situations.

What inspired you to create it?

I wasn’t inspired by one person in particular, I was moreso inspired by recent popularity of ‘90s nostalgia in pop culture, and the discussions that it provokes online (‘90s kids yearning for, “the good ol’ days” for example, as seen in the comment sections of nostalgic listicles.) I was and am totally fascinated by this discourse – how we deal with aging, how we romanticize our youth, and how we define a generation. I love that the ‘90s are thought of by some as “the last true decade” and I wanted to explore these themes in a really fun way.

Who else is helping you bring the show to FRIGID?

Literally everyone in my life is helping me bring this show to FRIGID! My employer, my siblings, my parents, my friends from elementary school all the way to university are helping either financially or with their time. My actors are, of course, also making this possible, booking  their time off work and sharing an apartment for 2 weeks. They have also helped build the show and have helped to make it the best that it can be. We are incredibly fortunate, and incredibly grateful.

Who would be your dream audience for this show?

Our show definitely has a target audience – people who consider themselves to be ‘90s kids. This generally means that you’re born between 1983-1993, but it really is a fluid definition. I suppose my dream audience would be ‘90s kids, who love to reminisce and who are pop culture junkies. That way they can appreciate all of the ‘90s pop culture we jammed into this show :)

As a theatre artist, who are your biggest influences?

Well, I would have to say that my current, biggest influence is Jimmy Fallon. Because our show is sketch comedy, I’m always looking to comedians who are creating smart, relatable, shareable content – because that’s what I would like to do as well, but on stage. Jimmy Fallon and his team are absolutely brilliant at making The Tonight Show to fresh, exciting, and enjoyable.

What shows are you planning to see at FRIGID?

I wish I could see them all! A few that caught my eye were Get Around Me, Post Traumatic Super Delightful, and I Was A Sixth Grade Big Foot.

What is next for you in 2015?

We’re taking Hey ‘90s Kids, You’re Old to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in July 2015!

Lightning round

Favorite theatre professional? Matt Murray

Current show you would love to be involved with? I haven’t seen it yet, but I feel like Bayside! The Musical is right up my alley.

Your dream show to be involved with? The 39 Steps – I love Hitchcock!

Who would you most like to have a chance to work with? Bill Watterson.

Your best theatre experience? I really loved The 39 Steps and The Book of Mormon.

Your worst theatre experience? I won’t say – I respect anyone who puts themselves out there.

Person you’d most like to thank for getting you where you are today? My family!

For more about Hey '90s Kids, You're Old, visit the FRIGID New York website.

FRIGID New York Interview - Robin Rice Lichtig of "Everyday Edna Mae"

By Byrne Harrison

Show: Everyday Edna Mae

Website: www.dramamama.net - on Facebook: Everyday Edna Mae

Photo credit: Audrey Weatherstone

Robin Rice Lichtig is the author of over 50 plays (including 19 full lengths), produced from Mongolia to South Africa, London to South Korea, New York to California. Recent productions include Alice in Black and White (Louisville), The Power of Birds (NYC), Play Nice! (Off-Broadway), and Lola and the Planet of Glorious Diversity (upcoming in March, NYC). Her short play, Squeezing Papayas, will be read at The Sheen Center on April 11 as one of 15 plays by members of the international 365 Women a Year: A Playwriting Project – plays about women throughout time. Publishers include French, Applause, Smith & Kraus, Indie Theater Now. Memberships: The Articulate Theatre Company, Dramatists Guild, League of Professional Theatre Women, International Centre for Women Playwrights, Manhattan Oracles.

Tell me a little about Everyday Edna Mae.

First there was a ten-minute play about a young woman with a terrible body image – so terrible it plagued her every step.  One day I realized that the protagonist in this play was the same woman in another short play of mine about middle-aged best friends on vacation in San Diego. I tore the plays apart and began weaving a new, longer play with a third part in which the woman was elderly.

What inspired you to create it?

I’m always interested in how place influences behavior. San Diego is a place that is filled with sunny, tropical colors and soft ocean waves. I always feel good in San Diego. I started thinking about how San Diego would feel to a woman who had never seen the ocean or palm trees, who had never felt the air of southern California. Before I began writing plays I was a fine art printmaker – so my thinking naturally went to wondering how San Diego would affect this woman if she was an artist. What if she was creatively blocked? Surely San Diego would inspire her. What if… ? And the little play grew and grew. 

Who else is helping you bring the show to FRIGID?

Director Bricken Sparacino and actors Heather McAllister and Alison Saltz presented the play (an earlier, shorter version) at Emerging ArtistsTheatre’s New Works Series in March, 2014. We all loved the experience and decided to continue working on the adventures of Edna Mae.

Who would be your dream audience for this show?

People who will get a good kick in the creative pants from Edna Mae, and people who have been there and will root for her.

As a theatre artist, who are your biggest influences?

Thornton Wilder, Maria Irene Fornes, Jose Rivera, Tennessee Williams, Impressionists, poets and The Little Prince.

What shows are you planning to see at FRIGID?

Many!

What is next for you in 2015?

My full-length play Lola and the Planet of Glorious Diversity will be onstage in a premiere workshop production directed and choreographed by Marcus Yi at The Alchemical, March 11-15. This is a large cast play with music, movement and muscle! Also, T. Schreiber Studio is producing a short play, The Other Shoe, March 16-29 with director Brian Drillinger.

Lightning round

Favorite theatre professional? Frances McDormand, Robert Duval, the Coen Brothers.

Current show you would love to be involved with? Articulate TheatreCompany’s The Skin of Our Teeth.

Your dream show to be involved with? It would be a dream to get a professional production of Lola and the Planet of Glorious Diversity.

Who would you most like to have a chance to work with? Paula Vogel.

Your best theatre experience? Teaching playwriting in Mongolia.

Your worst theatre experience? A director in London who changed a lot of my dialogue without telling me and wouldn’t communicate with the actor in a one-person show headed to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Person you’d most like to thank for getting you where you are today? Joe Lichtig.

For more about Everyday Edna Mae, visit the FRIGID New York website.

"The Artist & The Scientist" - Inventive and deeply moving

By Rob Hartmann
Photos by Jenny Anderson

The Artist & The Scientist is an inventive and deeply moving new musical currently running at CAP21. Bookwriter/lyricist Jenny Stafford and composer Brandon Anderson have together crafted a story which seeks to explore the inner drives which can both save us from an uncertain world, and trap us into familiar patterns.

Dan Kohler, Curtis Wiley, Jamilla Sabares-Klemm,

Christina DeCicco, James Penca, 

EJ Zimmerman

The core of the story is very simple: a painter (Jamila Sabares-Klemm) and an astronomer (James Penca) have fallen in love. When he proposes marriage, she hesitates. The story unspools in that moment of indecision. Both the painter and astronomer have an inner muse which at times comforts or criticizes them; his is Logic (Christina DeCicco), hers, Creativity (Curtis Wiley.) The pressure of the proposal moment acts to send all four spinning into scenes from significant episodes in the relationship — not only the relationship between the painter and the astronomer, but also the relationship each has with both Logic and Creativity.

I’ll stop to say that a synopsis cannot really capture the essence of this show. We’ve all the experience of seeing the sort of piece where actors play Abstract Concepts (“Behold, for I am Grief. I must weep, and dance, and weep again.” Audience checks watch, plans escape strategies.) Trust me, this is not that kind of piece — even with Time and Space as characters whirling through the plot like an interstellar Oberon and Titania. The Artist & The Scientist draws its characters sharply and specifically, taking familiar tropes (“She’s a free spirit! He’s tightly wound! But can they love?”) and digging into them to reveal painful-slash-hilarious truths about the way people collide as they try to understand one another. The show is smart, witty, funny, and deeply emotional — with great empathy for all its characters.

Jamila Sabares-Klemm,
James Penca

James Penca and Jamila Sabares-Klemm create fully three-dimensional characters whom you believe as a scientist and an artist, and as two people who would be drawn together. Sabares-Klemm neatly sidesteps all “eccentric artist” cliché, bringing great warmth and sensitivity to the role of a person in the grip of an all-consuming need to create. Penca finds the soul of the sort of man who always has an Interesting Fact of the Day to share: someone for whom order and method are ways of survival. (The Artist, in wide eyed wonder: “You know what else I like about him? If he says he’s going to be somewhere, or do something, he does it. Every time.”)

Christina DeCicco, as Logic, is decked out in a festival of geometric prints, including grid-patterned pants that could have been fashioned from the set of Tron (evocative costuming by Amy Sutton.) She inhabits the role with dry-as-bone comic timing. (In a moment of agitation: “I don’t think I can predict other people for you! … You never needed me to predict other people before! There weren’t any!”) DeCicco also endows the role with great kindness. In a quietly devastating second act moment, we see the Scientist as a kid, left alone when no one wants to play Legos with the NASA-shirt-wearing nerd. Logic appears, to offer him a lifeline: organization, order, calm. “This helps,” she says — DeCicco nailing the simple, strong truth of the moment.

Curtis Wiley, James Penca

Curtis Wiley plays Creativity as that charismatic mentor-teacher we’ve all had — the one who wonders why you would interrupt your work for such mundane tasks as eating and sleeping. Oh, and other people. Wiley is an actor of great nuance, skillful at portraying flickering, conflicting emotion. He gives Creativity’s voice a knife-edge sharpness and power, ably negotiating the high registers of his songs.

Brandon Anderson’s score is propelled by moody, rhythmic figures which percolate under plaintive pop-folk-tinged melodies. Anderson is an accomplished performer himself: he puts his cast through their paces, exploring every inch of their vocal ranges while weaving them into intricate, soaring harmonies. Music director Kristen Lee Rosenfeld ably leads the evening from the piano, bringing nuance and sensitivity to the score (along with Craig Magnano on guitar.)

Jenny Stafford’s book is an actor’s delight: in spare, taut scenes, she creates interesting, multi-layered individuals, wrestling with their own vulnerabilities as they cautiously fumble towards connection. By smartly keeping the text emotionally restrained, she allows the actors to find deep wells of feeling. She is also a lyricist in command of her craft — in one highlight, she deftly sketches out the agony of an art-house-cinema date (the kind of disastrous evening that you are pretty sure unfolds at the Angelika on a regular basis.)

The songs delve into some heady topics. When it seems that the pair are breaking up, the Scientist finds solace in the concept of eternalism. He sings:

There’s a theory on time called eternalism.
Great scientists often debate and discuss 
the third portion of time — the future. What’s coming for us.
If the future is constantly happening, 
then it’s happening. Right now.

So leave me, it’s fine.
I know there’s a “future us,” way down the line,
And they’re happy.
We’re saying we’re sorry and making up, somewhere.
You love me again and you’re holding me, somewhere.
We can’t believe you ever left me, somewhere.
I can’t wait till time takes us there.
Where we’re happy.

It’s a gorgeous moment, set beautifully to music, and Penca delivers it with a mixture of anger and shattered despair that is mesmerizing.

Dan Kohler

Time is a significant element in the piece — we move forward and backward in time, to childhood, to possible futures, to a minute ago, to millions of years ago. As the character of Time, Dan Kohler is like your slightly maniacal friend who convinces you to jump off the roof into the swimming pool. Space is a little more no-nonsense; EJ Zimmerman finds great texture in the role, from exasperation to remorse at having flung down the comet which wiped out the dinosaurs. (Keep an eye out for the tiny dinosaurs on the glowing Earth prop toward the beginning of the show.)

Lee Savage (scenic and prop design) creates a magical, theatrical space with a few simple gestures: a curtain of hanging bare bulbs, empty picture frames which glow with intense, flickering color, a simple painter’s scaffold. Greg Solomon (lighting design) takes us effortlessly from the human world on Earth to galactic space and inner darkness. Sound designer Jacob Subotnik’s work includes bringing the sounds of singing galaxies to the stage.

Director Jessi D. Hill keeps a sure hand on the narrative flow — never losing sight of the human story at the core of the story. The staging makes inventive use of the intimate space, moving the actors fluidly in and out from every corner.

Like all new works, The Artist & The Scientist will surely transform and evolve when it goes on to other productions. The beauty of the piece, here in its initial outing, is a certain glorious messiness. Too often, new-work developmental processes sand off all the interesting edges and crunch a piece down into predictable, easily digestible forms. What is clear about CAP21 (under the leadership of artistic directors Frank and Eliza Ventura) is that they are interested in stories which have unexpected angles, stories which assume that the audience is intelligent and curious, stories which have emotional truth and authenticity.

In The Artist & The Scientist, you will see yourself, and perhaps have a flash of insight into that wonderful, maddening person in your life — the one you love but just don’t fully understand. 

The Artist & The Scientist runs through February 28 at the CAP21 Black Box Theater, 18 West 18th Street. Show times are Wednesday-Saturday at 7 PM.

Tickets are $18 and are available through OvationTix or online at www.cap21.org. 

CAP21 Theatre Company presents The Artist & The Scientist
Book and Lyrics by Jenny Stafford
Music by Brandon Anderson
Story by Jenny Stafford and Brandon Anderson
Directed by Jessi D. Hill
Musical direction by Kristen Lee Rosenfeld

Starring Christina DeCicco, Dan Kohler, James Penca, Jamila Sabares-Klemm, Curtis Wiley, and EJ Zimmerman. 

Scenic/props design by Lee Savage
Costume design by Amy Sutton
Lighting design by Greg Solomon
Sound design by Jacob Subotnik
Assistant lighting designer: Nathan Avakian
Stage manager: Cate DiGirolamo
Casting director: Geoff Josselson
Production manager: Becca Doyle