A Theasy Interview with Brooklyn Repertory Theatre
1/29/16
By Artem Yatsunov
Theasy chatted with Elisabeth Ng of Brooklyn Repertory Theatre to learn more about the company and their upcoming production of Three Sisters, playing February 4-7 at the 4th Street Theatre, 83 East 4th Street. Tickets are $15-$25 and can be purchased at eventbrite.com. For more info about the company, visit brooklynrepertory.com.
THEASY: What is Brooklyn Repertory Theatre all about? When was the company formed and what’s the mission?
ELISABETH NG: I started Brooklyn Repertory in early 2015 a couple of months after graduating from acting school, so we're just wrapping up our inaugural season. Having my own theatre company was a way for me to take creative control over my career, keep productive between auditions and find my 'family'.
Our company's mission—to build an inclusive, post-racial theatre company—evolved out of my personal beliefs. There are a lot of great theatre companies out there doing diverse, 'color conscious' works that explore their community's stories, which I find important. But I think it's equally important to find opportunities to come together and transcend our skin color to realize we are all human. Brooklyn Repertory is a safe space where we want to leave behind divides and focus on working together.
At the end of the day, I think both 'color conscious' and 'color blind' are allies in diversity and represent the full spectrum of what it means to be diverse. They're complementary, not antagonistic.
THEASY: I love that in your website bio you mention that you want to “change the way race is being portrayed on stage.” How does Brooklyn Rep’s work intend to reflect that goal?
EN: By getting rid of racial barriers. In deliberately making every show 'colorblind' and casting a multiracial company, I'm trying to create a post-racial world where we are all just humans telling human stories and not limited by our race. I want people to come in to our show and be blown away by our multiracial presentation, and then on leaving to think only about the story and forget that siblings don't look alike and etc.
THEASY: Tells us about your collaboration with the director of Three Sisters, Victor Cervantes Jr.
EN: Victor is amazing, hands down the best director I've ever worked with. And he's still incredibly young! You could never tell his age from his demeanor, he's always 100% professional, together and on top of his game. A director needs to be able to do two things simultaneously: 1. have a solid creative vision and 2. run a company and Victor accomplishes both. We knew he was going to be amazing, but I don't think we realized quite how lucky we were to get him to direct our show.
Since most of the company and our director trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, we've all been able to work together in a way that harmonizes well. Victor comes in with a clear vision on how to utilize space, and then let's us play and try things out. He's also primarily an actor's director - we get to start each session playing actor 'games' that help us warm up, get into our bodies and explore our character's physicality. We explore the space of the world we inhabit for the play, marking out our favourite spots and where we are reluctant to be. Victor will push you to confront the messy emotions behind the high flown, polite text of classical plays. Under his direction we're not polite actors waiting for our cues, we're all living in this space together and fighting to be heard.
THEASY: What kind of work does Brooklyn Rep like to make, ie. period and style influences?
EN: We focus primarily on naturalistic and realism plays, both contemporary and classical. As the artistic director I choose the pieces and I'll give the director two conditions - 1. it has to include a multiracial cast and 2. be truthful to the text. It doesn't matter how you choose to tell the story but it has to be faithful to the playwright's story. It's like adapting a novel into a play, film or television series - they're all different story telling mediums so the technique could be different, but they all tell the same story. You can use an all female cast, make it contemporary and silent, but Macbeth still has to convey ambition and guilt.To quote my favourite dramaturg Tessa LaNeve "don't layer your own s***!" But apart from that I give directors full creative control to play around in the narration of the story. As a creative person I don't believe in stifling fellow creatives.
THEASY: Your upcoming production is Chekhov’s Three Sisters. What do you find exciting working on this timeless classic play?
EN: It's been really fun for us, because Chekhov was all about reflecting contemporary life for him, and we look around our rehearsal room and realize we reflect contemporary life today. We're every size, shape & colour, but at the end of the day, we're still telling Chekhov's story. It's a story about people who are stuck because of their own choices and inabilities. It's a tragedy, it's a farce, it's the story of everyone's lives. By taking away the 19th century costumes and wigs and using a modern diverse cast, we hope modern audiences will realize how contemporary and insightful Chekhov's play remains. He wasn't commenting on 19th century Russia—he was commenting on the human condition.
THEASY: I’m definitely looking forward to the show! What else is happening at Brooklyn Rep this season?
EN: It's a wrap on our first season! It's been a wild ride for my co-founder and managing director, Ilinca Tuvene, and I as we built this company from duct tape and naive gutsiness. We've put on three full length plays, gone from a two person team to a full company and still remained best friends...We're going to take a break for a bit and plan for the next season in summer 2016. Our not-for-profit status just got approved, so we're working on the financial structure and how to keep it sustainable.
THEASY: Where would you like to see Brooklyn Rep company in a year? What about 5 years? Oh snap – how about in 10 years?!
EN: I'd love to see us grow bigger as an ensemble company, get to a place where we could potentially dramaturg and produce new work and most importantly to be able to work in partnership with some of the great off-Broadway theaters and bring our concept to a wider audience, like Fiasco theater [has done]. But baby steps for now!