Theater in the Now

By Michael Block

When you have a heart as big as the sky, it can fill a room, let alone a stage. Cynthia Lee Fontaine's heart is what propels Intimate CuCu Confessions at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. Making her New York solo debut, if you ask more Amore, she will absolutely deliver.

Best known as RuPaul Drag Race Season 8's Miss Congeniality winner, Cynthia Lee Fontaine comes in with genuine personality and excitement through all the nerves. Guided by pianist to the drag stars Christopher Hamblin, Cynthia Lee Fontaine, the stage name of Carlos Hernandez, showed off the talent she didn't get to showcase in her three episodes. Oh, and those infamous shorts make a cameo. Her cabaret tells intimate stories from her childhood where the discovery of her falsetto leads her to love Maria Callas and Sarah Brightman to the discover of Stage 1 liver cancer following her stint on Drag Race. Intimate CuCu Confessions is filled with love, honesty, and conviction. And a lot of improvised moments. Cynthia Lee Fontaine has a great rapport with the crowd, silencing when sharing her vulnerability, including the dedication to two friends lost in the Pulse shooting.
This may have been her first New York cabaret but it likely won't be her last. Cynthia Lee Fontaine proves just why she deserved the Miss Congeniality crown. Cynthia Lee Fontaine's Intimate CuCu Confessions is a simply stated, pleasant, intimate night amongst friends and fans.

Name: Aya Aziz

Hometown: New York City

Education: Brandeis University, Hunter College

Select Credits: Author and Composer of Sitting Regal by the Window at the Metro Al Madina theater in Beirut, Lebanon and at the New York International Fringe Festival.

Why theatre?: Life is theater! And I think the stage helps me better understand it. The stage is where I connect with people. It carries its own power and can shut down parts of my consciousness. I feel it enters me into some kind of flow where I can just “be” or “become”, and whatever happens, happens. It’s hardly perfect but oddly more honest than I can often comprehend. I also desperately want to believe that theater can create space for conversations that are difficult to have, specifically by igniting the back and forth that takes place within us.

Tell us about Eh Dah? Questions for My Father:Eh Dah follows a young woman as she tries to grow closer to her Egyptian father and his side of the family. It explores both the freedoms and the pressures associated with living in 20th century North America as an Arab American migrant. The magnificent awkwardness of teenage identities grown somewhere between “East” and “West” make the foreign familiar. Eh Dah? is a solo musical and work of “autobiographical fiction”, as a friend of mine once said. It’s an exaggeration of life moments that have been organized into a narrative arch rooted in personal truths. I’ve taken a whole lot of liberty with how I portray myself and my characters- all and nothing is real!

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: If it teaches me something, anything, it speaks to me. It’s difficult to pin point what specifically inspires me as an artist as just about everything sticks to me whether or not I’m aware of it- be it a melody, a facial expression, an interaction between strangers, the walk of a pigeon claiming his territory, the sound of a cicada in the trees, a compelling performance, a good book, it sticks. More specifically, an artist I look to for guidance as a solo performer and writer is Sarah Jones. I. love. Sarah. Jones. And Guatemalan performance artist and activist Regina Jose Galindo. Her courage and the ingenuity of her work is something I’ve thought about almost every day since seeing a video of her protest against the election of General Rios Montt.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I’ve always wanted to play Gladys Hotchkiss the witty, wacky, secretary in The Pajama Game (I know, but she’s just so fun).

What’s your favorite show tune?: Just about every song from West Side Story.

 If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: If I was in anything with Viola Davis or Tatiana Maslany my life would be made. Just to watch and learn from their craft. Oh, just the thought. <3

 Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?:"22 Down How Many More to Go?" Staring a 22 year old with an equally and uncomfortably expressive face.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: I’d see the Bernard Shaw play, Arms and the Man at the Barter Theatre circa 1950. My grandparents were actors and there in Abingdon Virginia my grandmother Virginia Mattis and my grandfather Charles Durand played across from each other.

What show have you recommended to your friends?:Bright Half Life by Tanya Barfield, the play follows a lesbian couple over 25 years. It was one of the most beautiful love stories I’d seen.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Procrastinating with Orphan Black.

What’s up next?: Hopefully an EP of my songs. Stay tuned at https://soundcloud.com/aya-aziz-music-nyc

Name: Diana Oh

Hometown: L.A., CA

Education: Smith College, National Theatre Institute, MFA from NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program,

Favorite Credits: Creator and Performer of {my lingerie play}: 10 Underground Performance Installations in my lingerie staged in an effort to provide a saner, safer, more respectful world for women to live in, being awarded the inaugural Van Lier Fellowship in Acting through the Asian American Arts Alliance, being named one of Refinery 29's Top 14 LGBTQ Influencers, New Line Cinema's How to be Single with Dakota Johnson, Playing Hye Yun Park's sister in Hey Yun, Christopher Gabriel Nunez's The Surgeon and Her Daughters, Mariah MacCarthy's Foreplay Play and Magic Trick

Why theater?: Because it's full sensory overload. Because we use our brains differently in the theatre. Because we are there to be entertained and to also be engaged.

Tell us about {my lingerie play}:{my lingerie play} is ten Underground Performance Installations in my lingerie staged in an effort to provide a saner, safer, more respectful world for women to live in. The first installation is a public street installation that was staged in Times Square. {my lingerie play} Installation 9/10: THE FINAL INSTALLATION is the culmination of the project that is an 80 minute concert-play proving the tenacity to communicate by whatever means necessary. {my lingerie play} Installation 9/10: THE FINAL INSTALLATION features my original lingerie collection and my original songwriting and takes you on a journey that proves to you why and how feminism and lingerie go hand in hand. {my lingerie play} has been featured on People.com, Upworthy, Marie Claire Netherlands among many other publications. And I'll soon be doing an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange about it! {my lingerie play} has taken on its own form and I effing love it. It's now become a cultural hub for me and the one space I preserve to express my authenticity.

What inspired you to write {my lingerie play}:{my lingerie play}: Installation 9/10: THE FINAL INSTALLATION. I wanted to present a woman on stage in her lingerie feeling very real, very human, very vulnerable emotions. I wanted to sing soulful personal songs in my lingerie to present the dichotomy. I want to change the language with which we speak about the sexual woman. I wanted to write a show about my lingerie collection for these reasons. But I performed in the street because I knew the message was also something for the masses to see and hear.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Musicians. They don't even have to be amazing musicians, as long as they are presenting authenticity and doing it fearlessly, then I'm hooked. Honest acting speaks to me. When I go to theatre, I watch the actors' eyes. If I can see them listening then I'm hooked. Anyone who is in line with their higher purpose does it for me. As long as the acting is good, I can pretty much watch anything. Oh except for things with all white casts. I won't watch anything with all white casts anymore. OH MY GOD but wait, or anything freaky--I love watching full throttle freaky shit (i.e., really really really good burlesque)

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Kathleen Hanna or Patti Smith. Patti Smith helped me make a lot of important career decisions. I have an aversion to systems that try to control or define you and so does Patti Smith and I appreciate that about her and when I find myself needing to make some hard decisions I ask myself, what would Patti Smith do?

What show have you recommended to your friends?:August Osage County because the acting was sooooooo good but that was before I stopped watching plays with all white casts. Passing Strange because that was a show that really re-invented the wheel.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: My mom would play me. And if she turned down the offer, then we'd double it and if she still said no, then I'd play me and call it "The Things We Become". (Fyi, I'm replying to these questions while tipping over an entire bag of Skinny Pop Popcorn into my mouth right now. This is what I've become.)

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: My friend Colin Summers when he was a Neo-Futurist and I missed all his shows and I'm forever sad. Roberta Colindrez in Fun Home.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Amazon Prime.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Performing in the streets with a bucket out saying please don't make me work in an office.

What’s up next?: {my lingerie play}: THE FINAL INSTALLATION at Joe's Pub on Thursday, July 14 at 7PM. Tix here: http://publictheater.org/en/tickets/calendar/playdetailscollection/joes-pub/2016/m/my-lingerie-play/?SiteTheme=JoesPub

For more on {my lingerie play}, visit www.mylingerieplay.com

by Kaila M. Stokes

Infinitely Yours, written by Darci Faye, is an hour long thriller that will leave you on a cliff. Darci Faye takes the audience through the slippery slope of an abusive relationship and ultimately makes you feel like that it could happen to you. It did the Hunker Down Initiative (the benefiting organization) proud. It opened people’s eyes to how easy it is to judge women in abusive relationships, but ultimately it can happen to anyone.
Infinitely Yours opens with all four characters on stage on stools set up for them. Each actor stays on stage the entire show whether they are in the scene or not, which I will get to. Emily, played by Deb Radloff, is getting a coffee in a Starbucks when she runs into an old friend from High School, Jason. Jason, played by Andrew Hutcheson, is super ecstatic to see her and Emily is hesitant immediately. She reluctantly agrees to sit with him and have coffee, he even persuades her to meet up for drinks later as well. There is an unsettling feeling for the audience, but we did not quit know why yet. After they meet for drinks, Emily is sloppy drunk and they hook up. In the next scene, Emily’s fiancé shows up. Derek, played by Kevin Kiler, is a well-kept man that is clearly looking to settle down with a nice woman that can hold a conversation. Emily and Derek go out to dinner and run into Jason and his wife! Tasha, played by Maria Tholl, is a timid shy woman that lacks any confidence to be pretty. Faced with this problem of Emily and Jason having hooked up, the uneasiness ensues into the next scene with Jason and his wife. Tasha is petrified of Jason and we soon find out why. Jason belittles her to the point of irreversible damage and physical attacks whenever he feels it is needed in order to discipline her. Without giving away the ending, it isn’t good and Emily fell right back into old habits.
All of the actors did a great job of working together and listening to one another. Each character was very different and had scenes written where their personalities could shine through. It wasn’t just about this abusive relationship; it was about how all of these characters connected to the abuse differently. One major thing that needed to change was all of the actors being on the stage throughout the show. Some of the scenes were so intense you ended up watching the actors that weren’t in the scenes expressions! Another aspect of this was that some scenes required the action of getting a coffee or a beer and instead of going off stage to retrieve these props they were either on the floor or in bags that the actors had to open. It took away from the reality of the show. With that said, the space was very hindering itself. There is only a simple curtain propped up for a backstage; however, it would have kept the audience in the moment if the actors had used the backstage. Another directorial and writer choice was to have a very long make-out scene between Emily and Jason. It was extremely uncomfortable for the audience with the close proximity and how long it was! When they started to get intimate that would be another moment where a backstage could have been used to imply sex. The audience doesn’t need to see it. It actually dumbs down the content of the show when a scene is so “handsy”.

The lights were simple. Again the space seemed like it hindered the show, but it would have been great to have used the lighting to feel the intensity. When Jason got scary it was a good opportunity perhaps to narrow the wash of the lights or have more of a spot light on the actors to make it seem like there is nowhere for this poor girl to run. It would have helped the audience feel even deeper for the character. And then when Jason was out in public acting completely normal the lighting could act as an opposite to fit his bi-polar abusive personality. He pretends in the light and his true colors come out in the dark, like a monster, but he is just a guy that anyone from the audience could know.
The music transitions were used to change scenes, since again, all off the actors were on stage. The music seemed to match the tone, but scene changes with loud music take the audience out of the show. The lighting and a backstage would have fixed the transitions that made the audience look at their watch or other audience members while waiting.
Overall, Infinitely Yours, was a great drama that made the reality of abuse be known. It would do well at New York Theater Workshop or Playwrights Horizons. It was hindered by the space and budget. With more financial love and cohesive directing it is a great show that I recommended for a quick reminder of how lucky you are in your relationship. Maybe see it with a friend and not a partner. Hats off to the actors who stayed true to their characters and made it real.

Eileen Meny Photography

Name: James Rutherford

Hometown: Downtown Manhattan

Education: MFA in Directing: Columbia University

Favorite Credits: The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway (Access Theater), All That Dies And Rises (IATI), 4.48 Psychosis (Magic Futurebox)

Why theater?: Because they generally discourage fart jokes, screaming and somersaults in art galleries and churches.

Tell us about Sweat & Tears: In theater you see a lot of crying (usually by women) and fighting (usually by men). There’s an extraordinary amount of work and training that goes into doing both—how to make a fight “look real” without being dangerous; how to cry convincingly on cue. And as audiences we’re always skeptical: looking for the knaps in fight choreography, judging actors (mostly actresses, sadly) for being too facile with their tears. In this piece, we’re encouraging audiences to look for the seams, to pry apart what we read as “real” or “fake” in these gendered performances of grief and pain.

What inspired you to create Sweat & Tears?: It was almost an accident. A little less than a year ago, Jess Goldschmidt and I were moving in together—painting, arguing over furniture—and at the same time we were developing our own performance pieces: mine was called This Is Going To Hurt and featured two men; hers was Tears For Fears with two women. Pretty quickly we joked that they were a woman-show about crying and a man-show about fighting, but once we attended each other’s showings, we saw that the similarities ran deeper. Both had a circus-y structure; both featured extreme acts of gendered labor; both pulled from a broad swath of performance styles and cultural practices connected to public displays of physical suffering. It became clear that we had been invisibly collaborating for months. So despite our rule to keep our art-making out of our home life, we decided to merge our disparate efforts into a single sprawling piece.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Anne Carson! Anne Carson!

What show have you recommended to your friends?: The Scandinavian double-bill of Strindberg’s The Father and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House at Theater for a New Audience. They took two (more or less) old misogynist plays and instead of apologizing for them, pointed them at each other and let them fire away.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Tilda Swinton, “How Did I Get Here and What Am I Doing?”

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Eleonora Duse’s Hamlet.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Pattern-mixing.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Quieter. Moodier.

What’s up next?: Along with composer David Skeist and choreographer Laura Butler Rivera, I’m in year two of adapting Timothy Donnelly’s panegyric on extinction Hymn to Life into a choral opera.

Name: Jess Goldschmidt

Hometown: Pennington, NJ

Education: Lots

Favorite Credits:Tall Women in Clogs in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival/Dixon Place, accommodating students with dyslexia by walking backwards and trying to make sense is the sense that’s made (chor. Millie Kapp)

Why theater?: Musicals, god help me.

Tell us about Sweat & Tears: A year or so ago I started making a dance piece about crying with two women. Half a year after that, James Rutherford started making a physical theater piece about fighting with two men. Both drew from our individual embodied histories; he trained as a black belt in karate all through high school, and I danced seriously until I was 18. Both involved feats of strength, both questioned “fake” and “real.” And we’re dating. And we talk all the time about how messed up social embodiments of gender are for pretty much everyone. So it seemed important to put these two acts of emotional labor next to each other.

What inspired you to create Sweat & Tears?: For my part, I’ve spent the last few years discovering this new relationship to crying. My glorious performers, Jing Xu and Jessica Myers, have shared similar insights; it’s something about coming into your own emotionally—your patterns of feeling are somehow set and crying isn’t this completely overwhelming, shattering thing anymore, exactly. It still hurts like crazy, and weeping wrecks you physically, but you can still see yourself as you’re crying. And it’s weird to have that ever-present videotape so many women struggle to shed, that camera outside yourself watching yourself, it’s weird to have that trained on such intense emotions. And it makes you wonder if they’re actually yours, where they come from, why you’re holding your face in your hands like this, etc. etc. etc. Who taught you how to cry.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Theater that needs to be live, that needs to be in time and particular space. Movement-based work with a sense of humor and spectacle. Somewhere between Bob Fosse and Pina Bausch, basically.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Pina Bausch. More realistically (as in living): Big Dance Theater, Young Jean Lee, Ralph Lemon, Yvonne Rainer

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Most things have too short a run to even have time to recommend them, but New Saloon’s Minor Character was a delight.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Diane Keaton, “Old Before Her Time”

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: 46-year-old Sarah Bernhardt doing Joan of Arc.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Television.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: A librarian.

What’s up next?: A play I’m trying to write about the Equal Rights Amendment.

Name: Brandon Schraml

Hometown: Lee's Summit, MO

Education: B.S. In Biology and B.A. In Theatre Performance at University of Missouri

Select Credits:“After the Outbreak” (Dean); The Deathly Ones (Kyle MacManus, Off-Broadway Elektra Theatre); Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd, Midtown Arts Center-CO); Ring of Fire (1st National Tour)

Why theater?: I love the electricity in the air with each different audience. It provides an ever changing energy that makes every performance different. It's LIVE! And anything truly can happen... Nothing gives me more of a thrill.

Who do you play in The Pillars of New York?: Jake Kelly, know-it-all psychologist

Tell us about The Pillars of New York: The Pillars of New York is a very powerful ensemble show about the strength of New Yorkers and how tragedy is not what defines us. With a talented cast and beautiful music, I believe it will get people thinking.

What is it like being a part of The Pillars of New York?: It's been a delight, from production to direction to the cast and crew. I've really enjoyed this journey.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Any theatrical experience that lets the audience go on that journey with the actors... Whether that makes you laugh, cry, change your line of thinking, or simply smile. Any production that is consistent with the reality of the world portrayed has that opportunity, and some productions are truly breathtaking. It's those productions, ranging from Curious Incident to Hand to God to Hamilton, that truly inspire me.

Any roles you’re dying to play?:Macbeth. Beast in Beauty and the Beast. Jason in Hand to God. And James Gordon's long lost brother in Gotham (ha!)

What’s your favorite showtune?:"My Friends" in Sweeney Todd

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Terrence Mann... He's been my Broadway idol since I was a youth. I've had the opportunity to chat with him a few times, and his passion,talent, and creativity is matched with kindness.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Matthew McConaughey would star in It's Always the Quiet Ones.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: It would definitely be the original Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. What an amazing spectacle that must have been!

What show have you recommended to your friends?:Fun Home. Wow... What an impact that made on me. And that's what theatre is all about.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Grey's Anatomy and soap operas in general

What’s up next?: After Pillars, I will be playing King Triton in Disney's the Little Mermaid in Ocean City, NJ with the Ocean City Pops. Come check it out and get some beach time in!

For more on Brandon, visit www.brandonschraml.com

By Michael Block

Sometimes solo shows do something unique. The author writes a story that is not their life story. They craft a play inspired by vital themes but generate a new character to tell the tale. Such is the case in Adin Lenahan’s Pilgrim Notes. Playing an array of Louisiana-tongued personas, Pilgrim Notes is the intimate tale of a young man’s correspondence with a convicted serial killer and the bond the pair find.

photo by Liz Rogers

With specificity from start to finish, Pilgrim Notes, written and performed by Aidin Lenahan, chronicles the personal story of a young gay man who’s life is shattered through the indirect murder of a former love at the hands of a cannibalistic serial killer. On a search for identity, Jasper Lange finds himself in communication with the infamous Brando Gierke. With personal relations and media views altering his perceptions, Jasper must decide whether this newfound connection is meaningful or just something he desperately desires to be real. When it comes to crafting an intriguing plot, Lenanhan has done a wondrous job. He gives each important player a brief introduction that sticks with you until they’re worked in. The complexity of storytelling allowed the pieces to fit nicely into one another like a puzzle. Just when you asked yourself what something happened to do with the overall tale, Lenahan was there to answer it. That being said, the momentum is high to start and it's fantastic but once the story gets heated, something weakens, allowing the air out. It's almost as if stamina is a factor, both contextually and via performance. Lenahan and director Caroline Kittredge Faustine allow little time between character beats to inhale and take in the information. Once you got used to the pace, it was fine. But the fact that Lenahan could morph seamlessly from character to character defines the talent of Lenahan. He is the epitome of the character actor. No matter the age or gender, he found them. Due to the regionality of the story, Lenahan didn’t have a dialect crutch to help him deviate characters. And he didn’t need to because he knew how to find difference through diction and cadence. Adin Lenahan has an inane sense of character and fluidly shifts from person to person without hiccup.
Whether it was a choice or simply how the play unfolded, director Caroline Kittredge Faustine kept Lenahan close to the secretary desk in the corner. She didn’t have him travel much. It kept the piece moving but it meant an immense amount of unused dead space between Lenahan and the audience. It’s only a tiny woe from an overall solid production.
Pilgrim Notes is one of those rare solo plays that captures the audience’s emotions in a hypnotizing way. Planet Connections is likely not the last time you’ll see Adin Lenahan or Pilgrim Notes.

Name: Michael Glavan

Hometown: Cleveland, OH

Education: Kent State University

Select Credits: Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods, Man in Neil LaBute’s Coax, Reverend Parris in The Crucible, Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees.

Why theater?: In theatre we get to celebrate and cherish the most visceral and potent aspects of our humanity. We love. We destroy. We identify and confront our flaws, and sometimes we are even victorious. It is an art that demands that we all choose death – to take life to it’s nth degree and see out the entire journey. It is a living, reactive battle and nothing could be more human – and I love that. Even in the most unrealistic of settings and circumstance, the communion of people on either side of the proscenium sharing in an experience is such a gift of intimacy and immediacy. It’s as close as I come to religion.

Who do you play in Ultimate Man!?: Ultimate Man

Tell us about Ultimate Man!: Joe Barino, a third generation comic book/graphic novel writer, struggles to find his voice and purpose in his art. He is confronted in hilariously literal means by his work, aka the a characters of the Ultimate Man saga, as they jump from their comic world into the “real” world. The plot thickens when the villain, Rex Ringer, puts into action a devious scheme of comic (and currently political) proportions. As the characters fight for the survival of their respective worlds, they discover their own heroic strengths through love, loss, and friendship.

What is it like being a part of Ultimate Man!?: It’s SUPER exciting to be a part of a new work – and especially one that is so joyful. It’s been a phenomenal privilege to collaborate on this work with this amazing creative team: Chuck Abbot, Alastair William King, and Jane Wilson. They’ve opened their work and their experience up to us and yet have been so graciously receptive to what this cast has brought to the table – to be so hands on in this work has been hugely energizing – Starbucks quad shot straight to the veins.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Theatre that is focused on story regardless of its mode I think has always been most potent to me. I think of how successfully The Woodsman moved me consisting of almost an entirely wordless script; conversely, I think about the crystal clarity of Pearl Theatre Company's production of Midsummer last year where a cast of six performed text heavy Shakespeare production playing all the characters without need for indicative set, costume, or props. Shows that explore greater expanses of the imagination to unravel the journey fully really excite me. Theatre that really trusts an audience to participate and grab for the truth as opposed to being spoon-fed is always best in my book. I also think of the Deaf West Spring Awakening - I don't think a single second of that production was wasted. There was such economy of language in - multiple forms - combined with imaginative and heightened circumstances left me in such awe of a story I was already very familiar with prior to opening curtain. I get inspiration from anything – people fascinate me. It’s all valid – we’re all human, and I think that is a necessity in theatre. Side note tho: Tom Stoppard and Caryl Churchill do things to the English language that leave me thinking I should take up smoking.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I would kill to play Lady M, but only in a time and a world where a thematic line of futility of ambition and corruption driven by thirst for power could, SOMEHOW, be conceived of as a man; and at the same time the central more conscience-led power of the story, resistant to manipulation and pressures thrust upon them, but is in various and conceivably un just ways forced to do so, could, SOMEHOW, be portrayed to be a woman. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not trying to steal any roles from women - there are a number of roles I am more indicatively type appropriate for – which is unfortunately not a universal truth for everyone. More realistically I’m dying to be either son in Death of Salesman or Nick in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
 
What’s your favorite showtune?: Who could possibly decide - always changing, but always in rotation is a song titled “I Remember” from Sondheim's Evening Primrose. It's haunting yet there's such joy and such loss. It always gets me.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Well if I was working with Lin Manuel Miranda right about now I think I'd be doing pretty well.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself, and what would it be called?: Without any text to explain or cover for the casting choice and certainly nothing to disguise their age - I would want to be portrayed by Maggie Smith - or maybe Meryl Streep playing Maggie Smith playing Michael Glavan circa birth-present. In a lot of ways I feel internally like I've been waiting to be 60 ish since I was four. I think my roommates and girlfriend could aptly attest to that. In a scene maybe Maggie/Meryl look in a mirror and see Thomas Mann from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – you know, to help clarify for the audience. And I think it would be called "Howdy." It’s my customary greeting when coming into contact with... anyone (and surely the most sensible greeting for a sarcastic Midwestern kid in his 60s).

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?:The Visit with Chita and Roger – still so sad I missed it. I would have loved to have seen Passing Strange live though have certainly watched the filmed copy dozens of times. I would have loved to been around to see Richard Burton’s Hamlet with Hume Cronyn as Polonius. Richard L. Sterne’s book documenting the process of that production was one of my first introductions to Shakespeare and I’m smitten with it.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: American Psycho till I was blue in the face - there has never been anything like it - an installation piece of artwork where set, costume, acting, choreo, direction were all so perfectly in sync bringing to the forefront a story of a powerful economic elite whose criminal actions cloaked in grotesque wealth have no consequence. Inspirational lyrics, innovative mode of story telling, and so poignant to our current state of affairs. It was just such a cohesive beast of stimuli – almost wouldn’t call it musical theatre – but what piece. Blew my mind. Also The Color Purple. Heather Headley is a masterclass - granted I missed Cynthia, but Bre Jackson crushed it as the understudy the night I saw. There was something particularly extraordinary in Ms. Headley singing to this young woman (who’s name has not been exploding all over the internet and the Tony’s etc etc.) and telling her that she is beautiful and will be recognized as such. All the levels. All the tears. Perfection. Can’t wait to see it again with Cynthia, but Ms. Jackson SLAYED.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: The off brand discounted pints of ice cream at the corner store bodegas... also...maybe ducking into multiple bodegas to get the low down on the varied selections.
 
What’s up next?: I’m temporarily covering for Stefan in Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man with Matt Murphy Productions at the 777 Theatre. I’m also writing and collaborating on a view points/movement-heavy based adaption of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

It took until "The Charity Tango" to realize that Liberty is virtually a 90s cartoon musical. Sadly what's lacking is that Disney charm. Lady Liberty gets the personification treatment in order to reach the audience about freedom. She comes to life like Pinocchio and is sent on a journey to her new home, America. With discussions of immigration, politics, and social freedom, Liberty, with book and lyrics by and Dana Leslie Goldstein and music by Jon Goldstein, Liberty is a historical musical for history buffs. But be warned, it's not Hamilton.
Playing the unique 42West, Liberty is an informative musical that hopes to teach, which gets in the way of a clean, fleshed-out story. The Goldsteins brings elements of the unreal by allowing the Statue of Liberty to virtually be human. On her search for a literal platform, Liberty encounters a changing America where immigrants come for freedom while others try block her for integrity and fear. Yes, Liberty is apropos to the time but the text never really rises. The story is so engulfed with lessons and morals that it gets repetitive. But when Goldstein and Goldstein offer those bits of musical theater fun, that's when Liberty gets exciting. Moments like "The Charity Tango." It seems that the hope is to offer varying perspectives but with a revolving door of characters, no one is fully fleshed out. Liberty has an objective but doesn't quite register a change. Emma fights for change but it's one dimensional, though she gets a split second of potential romance that never gets discussed again. Francis A. Walker is a villain set out to keep America immigrant free but disappears before he fully learns. The rest of the characters have one and done moments that simply appear to prove a point as a device. It's admirably to introduce a spectrum of diverse characters but it gets in the way of a clean story. Whether it was the canned instrumentation or the music itself, the score was very much cartoony, but not in a good way. And if that's the proper demographic, then it's a success. If you’re trying to motivate excitement within the audience, then it’s not.

Photo by Russ Rowland

Liberty has a capable company. It’s evident these performers are seasoned. It’s a shame their material didn’t match their talent. With the slight confusion over style, some actors explored big and campy while others tackled reality. Those who went bold did the best. By far, Brandon Andrus as Walker captured the essence of the villain you love to hate. Andrus was smug and perfectly stylized. Andrus made strong choices that filled the animation void. Next to him as the token character actress was Tina Stafford. Between her Schuyler granddaughter and Olga Moscowitz, the food vendor, Stafford crafted some memorable personas. Emma Rosenthal as Emma Lazarus played the strong heroine with a truthful aura. While she wasn’t a larger than life character, Rosenthal showcased her talent in a different fashion.
42West is a converted theater space that isn’t the best for a musical of this nature but director Evan Pappas did all he could with the constraints. With such a tight stage, variance wasn't in Pappas’ favor. Instead, what we got was a lot of stop and belt. And it was a tad dull. To make up for it, Pappas and his team offered an explosion of America live on stage. LED screen was a cool idea but it was grating to the eye. Even sitting toward the back of the house, it was near impossible to make out the intricacies of Colin Doyle’s projection design.
Liberty was monumentally ambitious. It sadly just was not memorable. The story of Lady Liberty is cool in concept but this musical didn’t know what it wanted to be.

Name: Lou Liberatore

Hometown: Leonia, NJ

Education: Fordham University (Lincoln Center), William Esper

Select Credits: Broadway: As Is, Burn This (TONY Award Nomination), Off Bway: Orpheus Descending, Sight Unseen, Regional: Intelligent Homosexual's Guide..., 12 Angry Men, That Championship Season; TV: "The Good Wife", "Nurse Jackie", "Sex & The City"; Film: "It's My Party", "Mary & Louise"

Why theater?: The honesty, the fear, the electricity, the evanescence... Also, the collaborative spirit of theatre has been one of many of the most inspiring and uplifting times of my life. Starting as an intern at The Circle Repertory Company to working on this current production, the collaborative ethic is paramount in creating an engaging, thoughtful, fun, exciting and (hopefully, but not always) important piece of theatre.

Who do you play in Mr. Toole?: Arthur Ducoing, Thelma's brother, Ken's Uncle. He works at The Standard Fruit Company in New Orleans, LA. My scenes are mainly w Thelma and take place in the 1970's, where he comes back into his sister's life to help her thru some tough times. He's good for her; supportive, a caretaker and a positive force in her life.

Tell us about Mr. Toole: It's a beautiful memory of an idealistic young woman and the troubled man in her life. John Kennedy Toole, the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning "A Confederacy of Dunces", was a teacher to this young woman, and an author trying to get his book published...it all comes to life beautifully through Vivian Neuwirth's words.

What is it like being a part of Mr. Toole?: Exciting to be creating a new role in a new play.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Theatre that challenges you and/or makes you see a subject from a new angle. Theatre that makes you feel something...I want to be a part of an event that you can only experience by seeing it live. I want to be in something that I'd be dying to see. And I love for it to be funny as hell, too! Love me some good ol' schtick & bits...love that! I'm a ham...gimme a spit take or 2 and I'm a very happy camper. Inspiration: Tony Kushner, Marshall W Mason, all writers...

Any roles you’re dying to play?: My next one...

What’s your favorite showtune?:"Fugue for Tinhorns" from Guys & Dolls, "Wilkommen" from Cabaret, ...too many to pick just one... "I Got Life" from Hair...got an hour?

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Stephen Adly Gurgis, Liesl Tommy, Sam Rockwell...(please check for spelling, thanks!)

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Tough. the practical side of me knows that this film would never be made...the egotistical side says there is no one who could play me!...and the idiot side of me (how many sides is that?!) says a Rottweiler. Call it "Lou" (original, huh?)

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Laurette Taylor in The Glass Menagerie.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Recently: Broadway: Fun Home, Off Bway: anything at Ensemble Studio Theatre.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: I was going to say TV, but then I realized that it's really just a plain old addiction.

What’s up next?: Currently in A Class Act, directed by Christopher Scott, at New World Stages thru 9-04. Also, a workshop in September of a great play, Visible From 4 States by Barbara Hammond. Plus, reading some scripts for consideration...and of course, sleep.

Name: Chima Chikazunga

Hometown: Amityville, NY

Education: FSU

Favorite Credits: I say playing Tom Robinson, we had a performance for a local high school and they really didn't have " theatre etiquite " and we're laughing at all the wrong moments and right as I am about to go on stage my stage manager says..." Guess it's up to you"
Long story short, I come out and there was silence and I couldn't understand it. I would later come to realize- that they were paying attention but what struck me about that performance was when I had a " brain fart" and I was sweating... And our Atticus guided me through it. It was honest and very truthful and I could move people with what I did.

Why theater?: I chose theatre because it gave me a challenge that I never really experienced in the sports I excelled at. Nonetheless, the collaborative process helped fulfill something that was installed in me early on " there is no I in team. Very similar to my experience doing " Mockingbird"

Tell us about 3 The Hard Way and The Eye of the Wake: 3 The Hard Way: After years of therapy dealing with her son's untimely death on 9/11, Ruth- a grieving mother's -newfound peace is compromised when her son's widow is introduced to his mistress almost 10years since the last time they saw him. Truths are unraveled that cannot be ignored as the mistress holds the one thing that gives the hope she needs that years of therapy unfortunately couldn't provide. After years of therapy dealing with her son's untimely death on 9/11, a grieving mother's newfound peace is compromised when her son's widow is introduced to his mistress. Truths are unraveled that cannot be ignored..
The Eye of The Wake: Following her fathers death, Elaine reflects on their time together. As a result, she confronts his and her deepest dark secrets through words that have stuck by since her Sweet 16... " Life isn't about living. life is about what you do before you die." Guilt and grief now fill this once happy home, opening Elaine's eyes to An unforeseen realm of temptation "

What inspired you to write 3 The Hard Way and The Eye of the Wake?: I was inspired by the thought of having three women in the same room at the same time whom should never meet; a mans' mother, widow and mistress post 9/11

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Contemporary... Something that so can see and resonate with because I know those people. My mother

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I don't want to name drop-- but I like those artist who are capable of multitasking and/ or multi-talented

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Anything by Guirgis, C. Lucas, Morriseau or A.Rapp

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: As I mentioned earlier, my mother was a huge inspiration and we have seen James Earl Jones twice on Broadway... If I could- I would've liked to see his Othello

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: If you weren’t working in theater, you would be? Still be an artist as it is the only thing that challenges me. I love the collaborative process. To quote Dustin Hoffman

What’s up next?: hopefully a workshop of a full length I've been working on with a company. Directing two plays at once is enough but the process has been a huge learning experience

For more, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/100934306990249/?ti=icl and www.midtownfestival.org

Name: Alicia "Lecy" Goranson

Hometown: Evanston, IL

Education: Vassar College

Select Credits: NY Theater: Poison, The Moonbath Girl (EST), Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Westside Theater), The Poor Itch (The Public), A Christmas Full Of Family Love (The Brick), The Fourth Sister (The Vineyard), An Adult Evening Of Shel Silverstein (Atlantic Theater Company), Good Thing (The New Group), Cat’s Paw (Soho Rep), Lydie Breeze, The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek (NYTW), Defying Gravity (American Place Theater). Regional Theater: Are You There, McPhee? (McCarter Theater Center, NJ), The Guys (The Lakeshore Theater, IL), King Lear (NJ Shakespeare Festival), Iphigenia and Other Daughters (Portland Stage Company, ME). Film: Weightless, The Extra Man, Love, Ludlow, Boys Don’t Cry, How To Make An American Quilt. TV: Inside Amy Schumer, Damages, Fringe, Law and Order: SVU, Sex and The City, Roseanne. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theater.

Why theater?: Money. Just kidding, Playwrights.

Who do you play in Who Mourns for Bob the Goon?: Asuka Langly Soryu, Pilot of Evangelion.

Tell us about Who Mourns for Bob the Goon?:Who Mourns Bob the Goon? is about a group of veterans who are in group therapy because they identify with comic book (and anime!) characters. It's also about PTSD and how veterans assimilate to a new, post-war existence.

What is it like being a part of Who Mourns for Bob the Goon?: It has been fun, so far. My character, Langly, is a real trip and a blast to play. I love our ensemble and the play has a great pace to it. There is also a fantasy element to the design that makes it unique.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: As an actor, I usually prefer to do new works. It's more exciting. But in terms of what speaks to me as an audience member, it really depends on how the play comes together. Collaboration is everything. Growing up, I studied at the Piven Theater Workshop in Evanston, IL, which was an incredible blessing. Byrne and Joyce Piven were the greatest teachers. Chicago-based theater, in general, is so artistically-satisfying. In New York, if Ivo Von Hove is directing something, I try to see it. I have some roots in downtown theater, so I love New York Theater Workshop, The Public, Soho Rep, Elevator Repair Service, The Wooster Group, Thomas Bradshaw, Mac Wellman, etc. And I'm a member of Ensemble Studio Theater, which consistently does solid, ensemble work. I've also been lucky enough to have worked with some amazing actors (Jefferson Mays, Estelle Parsons, Lois Smith, Laurie Metcalf, John Goodman, Elizabeth Marvel, and so many more), who continue to inspire me.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I'm sure some brilliant playwrights are writing them now! I'd love to do more Shakespeare. And it would be fun to do another period piece and get corseted. I haven't been corseted in awhile.

What’s your favorite showtune?: I'm not a big musical theater gal, but "Maybe" from Annie gets me every time.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: This is a very, very long list. But, to make it short, I am crazy for the film "The Witch" and would love to work with Robert Eggers. And Tilda Swinton, of course.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I guess I would play myself, and it would be called "Lecy: Life of A Cubs Fan."

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: It would have to be the production of Streetcar on Broadway with Brando as Stanley.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Currently running? I haven't seen Hadestown at the New York Theatre Workshop but I hear it's fantastic.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Reality television (You're better off not knowing what I watch) and US magazine. I also have a problem when it comes to going to sport events. I have a basketball game addiction.

What’s up next?: Lunch. Then, maybe a film? Also, I've been writing my own TV show.

Name: Judith Chaffee

Hometown: Newbury, MA (Plum Island)

Education: Skidmore, MS Smith in Dance/Theatre, International School of Comic Acting (Italy)

Select Credits: BCAP: production of “Good”; BU productions of “Agnes of God” (Mother Superior), Opera “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Puck); Colorado Arts Festival production of “The American Dream” (Mrs. Barker); Rasmussen Bros. film “The Inhabitants (Rose Stanton)

Why theater?: For me, theatre has the potential to inspire, move, and motivate people to dig deep inside; it helps us recognize who we are, what we’ve done, how to laugh and cry, and how to survive in this crazy world. Theatre is a way for people to see life around them: their histories, their possibilities, their strengths, struggles, vulnerabilities, and hopes for the future.

Who do you play in Good?:“Mother”, an older woman struggling with dementia and loss of sight.

Tell us about Good: A play about an ostensibly good man—intelligent and caring—getting caught up in the Nazi propaganda of justified killings. It unfortunately is relevant today: just as Hitler was an evil bully given power by the masses, Trump is rallying disgruntled white men in our society. Read David Brooks’ article in the July 12th New York Times, “Are We on the Path to National Ruin?”: The first three paragraphs sound like a description of our play:
“San Antonio — I never really understood how fascism could have come to Europe, but I think I understand better now. You start with some fundamental historical transformation, like the Great Depression or the shift to an information economy. A certain number of people are dispossessed. They lose identity, self-respect and hope.
They begin to base their sense of self-worth on their tribe, not their behavior. They become mired in their resentments, spiraling deeper into the addiction of their own victimology. They fall for politicians who lie about the source of their problems and about how they can surmount them. Facts lose their meaning. Entertainment replaces reality. Once facts are unmoored, everything else is unmoored, too. People who value humility and kindness in private life abandon those traits when they select leaders in the common sphere. Hardened by a corrosive cynicism, they fall for morally deranged little showmen.”

What is it like being a part of Good?: It is a wonderful ensemble of generous and talented young actors; Jim Petosa, the director, made all of us feel essential to the development of the story. While Michael Kaye deftly carries the play as John Halder, every character plays a part in influencing his trajectory into evil.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Theatre that makes me think and feel, that moves me, and challenges my perceptions about truth speaks to me; I am inspired as an artist by human interactions, space and shapes, sound, rhythms in life …As well as by my family: my sisters, my uncle, David Ferry, the poet, his children and their children, my friends, my colleagues, my neighbors, people on the street…not sure there isn’t anyone who does not inspire me as an artist.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: Fonsia Dorsey in The Gin Game or Thelma Cates in ’night, Mother

What’s your favorite showtune?:“Losing My Mind” from Follies

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Alan Rickman, but it’s too late for that.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Oh my, “A Lucky Life?”—

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Any of Peter Brooks’ plays…or the original West Side Story

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Ours! And shows by former BU students, and anything by Robert Lepage

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Game of Thrones and doing a ballet barre in a hot pool…

What’s up next?: Good at New Repertory Theatre Watertown, MA in October; choreographing Journey to the West at Central Square Theatre in November; Directing a devised piece for BU seniors: Women in Character in January/February; choreographing Alan Brody’s Midvale High School’s 50th Reunion at CST in May. I’m now retired from teaching at Boston University and ready to live life. I want to experience a glacier before they’ve all melted.

Even though a play can be written a time ago and about something so specific, it manages to find a way to be relevant to modern situations. Change the names and places with relevant names in our current political climate and Good becomes terrifyingly familiar. Written by C.P. Taylor and presented as part of PTP/NYC's 30th Anniversary, Good is a story of the morals and humanity of one good man through the lens of Hitler Germany.
Grappling with a musical neurosis, family woes, and the Nazi uprising, a man tries to just be good. Taylor's Good is a strikingly humorous drama that calls attention to politics, propaganda, and the problematic uprising of an egomaniacal figure into power. Directed by Jim Petosa, Good captures a specific time while forecasting a future. Petosa's vision for Good was clean and precise. His staging was fluid with a theatrical sensibility. He infused humor in order to escape being bogged down by the heaviness of the backdrop. This also allowed the weight to settle and unravel in remarkable fashion. With such a specific setting, Petosa's company could have explored dialect but instead smartly went with a neutral diction. It allowed the articulation of Taylor's text to be heard. The one blaring exception was Noah Berman's non-Hitler character, Bok. And it's a bummer as his scene with John Halder contained some of the most profound dialogue. Talk about parallels to Trumpmania!

photo by Stan Barouh

Good had a precise aesthetic in storytelling. The directorial vocabulary that Petosa brought was consistent. He slammed his scenes into one another with only a light shift. As much as you'd desire a sound cue from sound designer Seth Clayton, it would have interfered with the music from Halder's mind. The set from Mark Evancho was simply stated. The symmetrical aesthetic was rarely rearranged as the majority of the company found themselves parked on the benches on the outskirts, helping Petosa's crisp staging. At first, the giant red cube was a bit jarring with the color being so predominant and slightly blocking the piano, whose importance was minimized. It's clear why the color was what it was but had it not been as striking, it may have been a tad more visually pleasing.
PTP/NYC's season features two tour-de-force roles for the central characters. Good was lead by Michael Kaye with a boundless performance. As John Halder, Kaye eased from dialogue to direct address without missing a beat. Kaye is endearing on stage, and you truly believe him to be a good person, despite the circumstances he finds himself in. As the lone actor who must connect with every other individual, Kaye had innate chemistry. The strongest being with Tim Spears' Maurice. There were moments the pair could easily finish each other's sentences. As Maurice, Spears was colorful yet grounded in reality. The playful nature of the character and staging allowed Spears to use the set as a playground, jumping off of the blocks and piano. When it came to love, Taylor offered three perspectives through maternal in Judith Chaffee's mother, love in Valerie Leonard's Helen, and lust in Caitlin Rose Duffy's Anne. Each circumstance hit Halder in a different way yet he wanted to do right by each, even if it meant hurting himself. For those familiar with Mel Brooks’ The Producers, imagine that version of Adolf Hitler present. That’s exactly what Noah Berman delivered. It was parody yet honest.
Good was not just good, it was great. PTP/NYC continues to provide stimulating, through-provoking theater.

Name: Sam Simahk

Hometown: Ashburnham, MA

Education: BFA Musical Theatre, Emerson College

Select Credits: Lyric Opera Chicago (The King and I), Huntington Theatre Company (A Little Night Music), Speakeasy Stage Company (Big Fish), Lyric Stage Company of Boston (Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Sondheim on Sondheim, Spelling Bee)

Why theater?: I love storytelling, and I think that theatre's the best medium for an actor to move through a story--you start at the beginning and finish at the end, which doesn't happen when putting something on film. And you can't beat the connection between performer and audience. There's an energy you draw from the audience, whether they're laughing, crying, or sitting in silent attention; it all helps provide purpose to the action onstage.

Who do you play in Icon?: I play Alvaro Vigna, Princess Constance's music tutor and lover. He's passionate and fun-loving, but serious about his music and his desire to earn his place in the world.

Tell us about Icon:Icon is the story of Princess Constance of Centoluci, a fictional country in central Europe. The daughter of a wealthy American tycoon, she marries into the royal family of Centoluci, so that the economically-strained royals can take advantage of her family's money. Trying to prove her worth, and having been named the patron of the symphony, she decides to take music lessons. She meets Alvaro, who teaches her not only about music, but also how to follow her own dreams, instead of simply repeating what others have told her to say. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil anything...

What is it like being a part of Icon?: It's always fun to work on new material, and this is no exception. The music is beautiful, the cast is brilliantly talented, and our director, Paul Stancato, makes sure that we're not only telling the story to the best of our ability, but also that we're having a good time. So it's a constantly fun, collaborative environment, and you can feel that energy when you walk into the rehearsal room.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I'm a big fan of no-frills, pyrotechnic-free, drama-based theatre. I love musical theatre, and think there's a delicate line between underwhelming and overly spectacular--but if a production is able to toe that line, it's always something special. The people who inspire me most are the actors who approach musical theatre from an acting standpoint; Raúl Esparza is pretty incredible. I saw him in a bathroom once and couldn't help but geek out for a second. Sorry, Raúl.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I'd love to play Sweeney Todd, but that's at least another decade down the road (so I'm just biding my time). Bobby in Company and the Baker in Into the Woods are a little closer...I guess I just want to play every Sondheim character that I haven't yet aged out of. The non-Sondheim dream roles are Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls and Billy Bigelow in Carousel--both are really cool roles in classic shows, and I'd love to try my hand at them.

What’s your favorite showtune?: Oh man, hard one. Okay, I really like "Now You Know" from Merrily We Roll Along. Also, "Not While I'm Around" from Sweeney Todd. Then there's "Soliloquy" from Carousel, which is one of the greatest musical theatre songs of all time. I don't know if I actually have a favorite--there are too many to choose one.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: President Obama. I'm pitching my two-man stage version of Thelma and Louise, but he hasn't written back yet.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself, and what would it be called?: I'd go with John Cho, but Hollywood would probably go with somebody less ethnic and claim that it's in the interest of recouping at the box office and appealing to foreign markets. So...Joseph Gordon Levitt? I'd want it to be called something like "Simahk: The Boy Who Became a Boy", or "Who Ate the Last Eggo Waffles? (I Was Saving Those for an Ice Cream Sandwich.)"

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: I'd probably see Hamilton, back when it was at the Public and you could still get tickets.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: When it was still on Broadway, I recommended Hand to God to everybody I knew--my parents ended up coming down from Massachusetts just to see it (and maybe to visit me, as well). That play was so funny, and the cast was incredible. I'll also always recommend "Breaking Bad" to anybody who hasn't seen it in its entirety--it's a perfect piece of drama.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Late night chopped cheeses. For those who don't live in Harlem, a chopped cheese is a cheeseburger that's been chopped on the grill and served on a hero (the pizza places back home would call it a cheeseburger sub, but "chopped cheese" is so much more satisfying to say). I got one yesterday--with onions and jalapeños chopped with the patty, topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, and mayo. I highly suggest giving that combo a try.

What’s up next?: I'm very excited for the next project! I'll be singing in the ensemble for a site-specific concert of select songs from Ragtime, taking place on Ellis Island at the beginning of August.

For more on Icon, visit nymf.org

Name: Sean O’Shea

Hometown: Ithaca, NY

Education: Meisner Trained Actor & BFAs in Theater and in Music

Favorite Credits: Co-Writing & Directing The Devil Tree, and Acting as Jesus in Godspell and Tunny in American Idiot

Why theater?: Why not? I grew up performing on stage, and constantly singing. I stopped doing theater briefly during high school to pursue the sports thing, but my heart was always in performance. After graduating St. Bonaventure University, Class of ’11, I studied the Meisner Technique at the Actors Workshop of Ithaca before moving to NYC in 2013. I love theater and film (as well as music) and look to pursue these passions to their fullest. The dream is to be able to live off of my art and inspire others.

Tell us about The Devil Tree: It’s a good ol' fashioned ghost story with modern horror flair. "Friday the 13th" meets the film version of "Clue" meets "Wet Hot American Summer". A camp counselor tells his campers a ghost story with fun and scary results.

What inspired you to write The Devil Tree?: My girlfriend Samantha Kahn (Co-Writer) told me about a horror themed short play festival that was accepting submissions, and told me I should submit something. I had a couple of unfinished screenplays, but no completed theatrical scripts. I started constructing a story inspired by a legend from my summer camp, changing various details of course, and after several looks over my shoulder and offering her advice and ideas, Samantha joined me and we spent the next few nights finishing the script. It premiered at The Players Theatre on MacDougal St, and won “Best Play” of the week, by audience vote. Sam and I have plans on writing an anthology series based around The Devil Tree and its many legends, as well as a film adaptation.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: What inspires me as an artist and person is passion. Whether it’s a drama or farce, I want to see real, tangible, relatable characters. The consequences always need to be real and believed.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Adam Green (Writer/Director), Robert Englund (Actor), and Kane Hodder (Actor).

What show have you recommended to your friends?: I really loved Fun Home and Hand to God

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Someone who gives off a 90’s vibe. Someone attractive, fun, and awkward, yet cool. I really have no idea about the title, it would have to depend on the main adventure of the film. I’ve been on a few adventures in my time.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: I’d love to see the original Glass Menagerie or any of Shakespeare’s works!

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Taco Bell. Love it. No shame.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: I will be entertaining and trying to inspire others until I die.

What’s up next?: I’m currently directing a sold out musical titled Furniture: the Musical written & composed by Natalie Lifson and Jeffrey Schmelkin, about the lives the furniture items in a college freshman’s dorm lead. Think "Toy Story", but with furniture, and for adults. It’s going up as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the end of July (27th, 29th, and 31st). My first time directing a musical and such a large cast, twelve people! The Devil Tree is going up at the beginning of August (2nd, 4th, and 5th) as part of Manhattan Rep’s Summer One Act Festival Competition. After that, aside from working on the next part in the Devil Tree series, I’m looking to focus a bit more on my acting and get in front of the camera and on stage again!

For more on Sean, visit www.facebook.com/therealseanoshea and www.facebook.com/seanosheamusic. For more on The Devil Tree, visit www.facebook.com/thedeviltreeplay

Name: Whitney St. Ours

Hometown: Greater Baltimore, MD

Education: I hold a degree in English Literature from Drew University.

Favorite Credits: As a director: "That's My Time" (web series) & Good/Bad/Ugly (staged reading). As an actor: Cora in The Iceman Cometh, Carol in The Glory of Living, and Vicky in Last Night at The Carmine

Why theater?: Because it's temporal and constantly evolving. Because in it's most fundamental state theater only requires truthful human exchange and a someone to bear witness.

Tell us about Venus In Fur: David Ives script is a pas des deux of wit and will that can only be mastered by two very talented, dedicated actors who approach the script work with equal parts intensity and humor. Venus in Fur tells the story of a playwright (Thomas Novachek) who is searching for the ideal woman to play the lead in his adaptation of the 18th century novel "Venus in Fur". Without spoiling anything- let's just say he gets way more than he bargained for in Vanda- a late audition arrival who won't take no for an answer. The show is funny, sexy, and relentless. But you should come see it on July 20, 21, 22 at The Bridge Theater and decide for yourself!

What inspired you to direct Venus in Fur?: I got on board because of the actors involved, mostly. Caroline Kelly Franklin and Enzo Cellucci are both powerhouses and their chemistry is explosive. The show itself is interesting to me because it's fairly new, so there is plenty of room to reimagine it without going so far as to interrupt the original intent. Our production doesn't diverge too far from the original, but we have made some non-traditional choices that I personally believe work with the script and make our rendering unique.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: As an audience member I can go in for almost any type of theater or art as long as it is conceptually clear and thematically relevant. I am equally thrilled by seeing a Kenneth Lonergan play on Broadway as I am by having water squirted on me at The Flea. As for who inspires me, director and all around good person Jill DeArmon is high on my list. I aspire to be as creative and clear as she is in her choices as a director. Who else? Off the top of my head: Betty Davis, John Waters, Jim Jarmusch, and Lucy Roberts, my AD who is always the most intelligent, generous, and least egotistical person in any room.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Joaquin Phoenix, undoubtably.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: I recommend that if anyone has a chance to see Ty Segall on tour they must. It's not a play but he is awesome and his shows are totally theatrical. Also the Samantha show on radio WFMU. She has a way of taking you on a track by track journey that I find interesting and inspiring.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I have no idea. If I had any say in casting it would be an unknown actor. I think the title would be, "She Didn't Know When to Shut Up".

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Kevin Spacey in Iceman is the first thing I can think of.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Billy Joel.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Terrified and sad a lot.

What’s up next?: Next I'm on stage in a Fringe Festival show which is very exciting- I'll be playing Anna in You Don't Matter.

For more on Venus in Fur, visit Facebook.com/venusinfurNYC. For more on Whitney, visit www.whitneystours.com

By Michael Block

The age of censorship and freedom of speech are alive and well in Howard Barker's No End of Blame. Presented by premiere Barker connoisseurs PTP/NYC, No End of Blame comes at a prominent time in the world where expression through the arts has seen recent turmoil. Directed by Richard Romagnoli, this Barker play spans the life of an artist on his journey for freedom yet seems to be missing the spark to fight.
No End of Blame is not the easiest story to follow. It follows political cartoonist and cynic Bela Veracek who shares his observations through his pen while the world tries to tear him down. The story of censorship chronicles Bela's saga through Barker's signature twisted humor. Only there's a little more preach in his step. With so much to tackle in two acts, Richard Romagnoli's storytelling encountered some pacing problems. Each scene starts like a giant balloon that finds the air getting sucked out by the end. Intrigue to start with monotony by the end. But where No End of Blame seemed to experience a domino of woes was through one crucial element. And that was the giant projection screen. The primary use for the screen was to showcase Bela's art. It helped paint the provocative nature of his ideas. Pictures are worth a thousand words. But the mammoth screen was not used more than it was making you wonder if it was entirely necessary. Not only did it eliminate a significant chuck of playing space but its blankness hurt stage pictures. Additionally, in the growing world theatrical innovations, projection design has to go beyond the slideshow effect. Yes, No End of Blame offered a sole live feed bit, but was it enough? It needs to truly add something to the piece. Sadly, these did not. There must have been another idea to achieve the concept without damaging other elements.

photo by Stan Barouh

The lifelong journey play can be a challenge. Capturing the essence of a person while only offering snapshots, every choice must be defined. As Bela, Alex Draper lived within the character. He was smug and defiant, holding his ground despite mowing down the people he held close to his heart. Often playing the characters, Valerie Leonard, Christopher Marshall, and Jonathan Tindle adopted voices and physicality that helped them stand out in the bunch. Clear and defined described their performances.
With the projection screen nearly dictating many other design choices, there was some variety within. Lighting designer Hallie Zieselman smartly explored angles to capture mood and situation. The stylized music from Seth Clayton was in your face and matched Romagnoli's energetic transitions. Yet it was the only element that fully lived out of period.
Sometimes theater doesn't need the exuberant frills to make a piece glimmer. Sometimes all it takes is allowing the text to speak for itself. No End of Blame is not an easy play. Adding more elements into an already fulfilled piece may do more harm. I suppose you can blame the projection screen for the little things.

Name: Stephanie Janssen

Hometown: Appleton, Wisconsin

Education: BA, Middlebury College; MFA, NYU

Select Credits: Just finished a new play, All the Days at the McCarter. Some other faves: Clive at The New Group, Ivanov at CSC, Death of a Salesman on Broadway, The Umbrella Plays at the NY Fringe.

Why theater?: I love storytelling, I love the idea of live performance provoking thought and deepening empathy and growing our understanding of ourselves and our world, I love being a part of a collaborative community

Who do you play in No End of Blame?: I play an idealistic artist named Ilona who gets caught up in the people and politics around her.

Tell us about No End of Blame: Hard to summarize, I think, but ultimately it’s a play that asks questions about an artist’s responsibilities – to his/her work, to his/her society, to him/herself, to the people in his/her life. It’s made up of beautiful language, and sharp humor, and big ideas. And it’s wonderfully unexpected, I think, scene to scene always surprising, both in events and style. Keeps us all on our toes, that’s for sure.

What is it like being a part of No End of Blame?: It’s always so great to work with PTP. I get to do work that’s challenging on every level, get to work with old friends, colleagues, mentors, get to meet and work with student actors from my alma mater – it’s really special and really fun.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I like a broad range of theatre, I like that there’s room for so much diversity in the theatre, so many different voices, approaches, styles. I’m excited and inspired when I see a deep commitment to the work at hand, and if that’s there, I’m open, I’m interested, I’ll listen. It sounds general I suppose, but it’s really not a given, you know when it’s missing, you feel it. It makes all the difference.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I’m too superstitious to answer that question publicly. Like blowing out birthday candles – I keep those wishes to myself.

What’s your favorite showtune?: Probably impossible to pick a favorite, but we have been listening to an awful lot of “My Shot” around my house these days, because my 14 month-old is obsessed with it. Which reminds me of another favorite, “Children Will Listen.”

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: That list is too long! I will say that I have a deep longing to work at all those great downtown powerhouses – New York Theatre Workshop, SoHo Rep, The Public… institutions and communities I have so much admiration for, it would really be a dream to work at any of them.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: If anyone gets to play me in a movie I think it should be me, obviously! And it can be called “Wrong for the Role (The Story of My Life)”

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: The original production of A Streetcar Named Desire

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Small Mouth Sounds! Loved the first incarnation, so glad it’s back.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: I try not to mix guilt and pleasure.

What’s up next?: Auditioning, and writing the screenplay for my upcoming film, “Wrong for the Role (The Story of My Life)”

Review: Let's Have a CuCu

Spotlight On...Aya Aziz

Spotlight On...Diana Oh

Review: An Hour Long Portrayal of Abuse

Spotlight On...James Rutherford

Spotlight On...Jess Goldschmidt

Spotlight On...Brandon Schraml

Review: Lonely Love Notes

Spotlight On...Michael Glavan

Review: Lady Liberty Personified

Spotlight On...Lou Liberatore

Spotlight On...Chima Chikazunga

Spotlight On...Alicia Goranson

Spotlight On...Judith Chaffee

Review: Good Today, Terror Tomorrow

Spotlight On...Sam Simahk

Spotlight On...Sean O'Shea

Spotlight On...Whitney St. Ours

Review: Blame It On the Big Screen

Spotlight On...Stephanie Janssen