Hometown:
Daphne Gardner: Baltimore, MD
Carl Holder: Gainesville, FL.
DG: We could be welcome at either a cotillion or a fish fry!
CH: We would be asked to leave both.
Education:
DG: BFA in Acting and BA in Filmmaking with an emphasis on American Pop Culture and Women's Studies from University of Maryland Baltimore County
CH: BFA in Acting with an emphasis on waitressing from SUNY Purchase College Acting Conservatory
Favorite Credits:
DG: Being compared to Laura Palmer at a party where I was not dressed like her. Note sure if they meant dead or alive, but I'll take either!
CH: World's Greatest Mom, or Best Sound
Why theater?:
CH: It's pretty much my favorite thing in the whole world.
DG: I just like standing in front of a lot of people and talking. But for real, theater and film are the two ways I feel I can best communicate with people and have the most fun doing it. I mean, I think in the long term we do want to create more filmed material together. Right?
CH: Sure! If for no other reason, it reaches more people beyond your immediate geographic location. But I would never want to stop writing plays for the stage.
DG: Oh definitely not!
CH: Nothing can replace the feeling of something happening live in front of you, and no other medium offers you the same opportunities to reach people as directly. There are so many different ways to engage a room of living, breathing people that aren't relevant when you're making something on camera. The catholic in me also loves the complications that come from having to repeat a performance night to night. Keeps you honest.
DG: Totally agreed. But we are making more films.
CH: ...and plays.
Tell us about Who Are You? Who Are We? What Is This?:
CH: It's a three-part, interactive, and immersive theatrical experience. Topics we cover? Questionnaires, mothers, being gay, getting dumped, getting nachos, having a dream, a terrible day job, and a best friend. Hopefully, if you join us, you'll have a laugh, a cry, and maybe a drink or five.
DG: We can guarantee surprises with a reasonable degree of certainty.
CH: ...and also some most enjoyable confusion.
DG: Did you mention the bar?
What inspired you to write Who Are You? Who Are We? What is This?:
CH: There're two versions of this story: the sprawling, atmospheric, campfire-version, or the short one.
DG: Short one!
CH: Daph and I have known each other for some years, and always seemed to be working on someone else's project together.
DG: So one time we were talking-
CH: Side by side, onstage, behind a flat I believe, yes?
DG: Details are for campfires!
CH: Sorry, anyway-
DG: One of us said to the other, I can't remember who it was-
CH: Me. I said "I feel like we both have something to say, do you want to actually make something together?"
DG: ...and I said yes, sooooo...
CH: So I got on one knee and, yeah! It really just clicked. We knew right way we had more going on that would fit in one show.
DG: We've kept going from there.
CH: That's the short version.
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?:
DG: Dark and funny! Also anything with a badass female lead. I like women in charge.
CH: Anything, really. I like daring plays, that dare to be plays. As long as it's alive, authentic, and has some spirit behind it, I'll watch anything..
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?:
DG: Reese Witherspoon, “Freeway”
CH: Ruth Gordon, “Harold and Maude”
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?:
DG: Etsy k-holes and mexican food. I just had to talk myself down from almost buying an 80 dollar Joan Jett t-shirt, jesus.
CH: Discussing guilty pleasures, I'd best refrain.
What’s the most played song on your iTunes?:
CH: According to my iPod it's “He Doesn't Know Why” by Fleet Foxes but I can't remember playing that album recently so I guess I don't really know why...
DG: Fleetwood Mac “Sara” or Le Tigre “The The Empty”.
If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?:
CH: Dead.
DG: Sleeping regularly and going to the movies more.
What’s up next?:
DG: More filmed content online and our next full-length stage show!
CH: Yes and YAZ! I'd also like to see us regularly presenting more short works at various spaces around the city like Dixon Place and Ars Nova.
For more, visit http://www.godcx.com/