#quick theatre

[quicktheatre]

Sunday, September 11th, 2016, The PIT NYC

Anthony Franqui (Allen) Eric Lockley (GREG) Tristan Griffin (CHARLES) Ryan Johnson (PETE) Temesgen Tocruray (WISE JANITOR / CASTING DIRECTOR 1) Richard "Big Rich" Armstead (TOOTH BLOODREX / CASTING DIRECTOR 2) Tom Powers (DIRECTOR / CASTING ASSISTANT) Alejandro Kolleeny (WHITE ACTOR / DETECTIVE)

Marina & Nicco (Creators)

Room 4 begins with a scene many auditioning actors would recognize. Four young men gather in a waiting room, waiting for their names to be called by the casting assistant. These young men all know each other. They know the same people; their friends are all on stage in The Lion King. All four men are auditioning for the same role: Friend of Drug Dealer.

It quickly becomes something else, a hilarious and charmingly pointed tale of relevant self-realization and as these four young men fight back against the system that got them stuck in a time loop of the same audition, over and over and over.

The structure of Room 4 is fascinating, a creative brilliantly chosen trope to illustrate a problem that continues to run rampant throughout casting rooms across the world. Room 4 trusts the audience to keep up with the story. It doesn't stop to catch anyone up or explain, and the minor side character that show up throughout the twists and turns serve to highlight the tropes that this pointed play skewers. It’s very funny; the audience would not stop laughing, but every so often, a muttered "Yes!" or "I know that!" broke through sounds of enjoyment. I could see the nods of understanding among the members of the audience.

By the end of the show, the audience assumes that the time loop is broken, but was it? With the popularity of cable TV through the 2000’s, and more recently the addition of streaming services such as Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, fully realized and diverse characters seem to be flooding the mainstream, but despite the gloss of diversity, the problem still exists, more deeply rooted and not something that can be solved by a few new tv series featuring non-white actors.

Room 4 through October 7th at The Pit. You can find more information here.

[quicktheatre]

Saturday, May 2nd, 2016

Talya Chalef’s Port Cities NYC holds a mirror up to the history of New York City, highlighting the economic and social systems of oppression that still haunt public consciousness. It is a lot to unpack.

The experience begins aboard a ferry at Pier 11 on the southern tip of Manhattan. An audio file, downloaded in advance, is the soundtrack for your voyage across the East River. New Yorkers that frequent nontraditional theater may be familiar with these conceits— This is Not a Theatre Company brought their own headphone-guided Ferry Play to the Fringe Festival in Summer 2015, and iPod Artist Zachary Grady’s immersive multi-track performances have been presented by Ars Nova, Broadway Bares, and the Spring Street Social Society.

Port Cities’ audio experience is more filler than feature— a short narrative interlude, followed by 20 minutes of haunting melodies and rolling waves by sound designer Cameron Orr. It was a beautiful palate cleanser, but perhaps a missed opportunity to bring the show’s themes into focus.

Touching down in Red Hook, we were asked wait for a second ferry with stragglers, then escorted to the Waterfront Museum & Showboat Barge for a more proscenium-style performance. The space is perfect for theater, and Port Cities’ design team excelled at activating it with lights, projection, and milk crates (a scenic motif).

Swaddled in Port Cities’ freewheeling narrative were precious few salient moments— introducing Colonial New Amsterdam as a cutthroat game of Settlers of Catan; a slam-poetry diatribe against institutional racism then and now, delivered masterfully by Nathaniel Ryan; and a wistful call to worship story shared with one’s lover. Leah Barker, Marcus Crawford Guy, and Elizabeth Gray joined Ryan as cast, each offering nuanced interpretations of Chalef’s text and choreography.

Though each element of Port Cities was executed with care, it never became more than the sum of its parts. After more than an hour waiting for the show proper to begin (at the pier, on the ferry, on the dock) the 45 minutes of dense socio-political banter never found a satisfying end.

Port Cities NYC is the first of five installations linking cities along 17th Century Dutch trade routes. Perhaps the structure of this piece will make more sense in that context.

Pro Tips: Bring your own headphones. Make sure the F and G are running back to Manhattan, or you may be stranded.

[quicktheatre]

Friday, April 8th, 2016, Studio Theater at Theatre Row

Jack Utrata (Billy, Petie, Eddie) Andrew Sellon (Lockett, Socialist, Sidney) Sarah Sirota (Pauline, Charlotte, Bessie) Rachel Mewbron (Louisa) Michael Zlabinger (Sully) Annalisa Loefler (Dorothy, Suffragist, Mrs. Wisteria, Smith’s Mother) Richard Vernon (McRee, Man of Peace)

Jerry Polner (Writer) Shana Solomon (Director) Joe Napolitano (Set Design) Chris D’Angelo (Lighting Design) Joseph Blaha (Costume Design) Harrison Adams (Sound Design) Danielle Marivette Hernandez (Stage Manager) Cristina Ayon-Viesca (Assistant Stage Manager) Sean Leehan (Board Operator) Larry Napolitano (Production Assistant) Lisa Calandriello (House Manager)

When seeing a new work, I try to enter the theater with as little pre-knowledge about the show and the production as possible. This way, I get to form my own opinion of the piece without letting myself be affected by any preconceived notions I may hold. Even studying the description lets my brain work hard enough to come up with ideas and opinions that I may later find to be wrong as I’m sitting and watching the work itself.

What I found at the Studio Theater at Theatre Row surprised me right from the get go. Like Money in the Bank is reminiscent of the early soundless era of film from the beginning of the 20th century, a callback straight to the time period the play is set. Transitions between scenes are marked by intertitles carried between scenes. Characters find themselves in dramatic and somewhat outlandish dramatic situations, and react with big emotions and gestures that would be at home on the big screen but made no less sense in this small off-off-Broadway theater.

This historical play, with a dash of romance and a whole lot of heart, is charming and earnest to the core. Polner’s cleverly constructed script draws the audience in to a story some might call dry and boring. The history of money and banks in the United States might carry the stigma of being boring and dry; it can be hard to keep up with the banking jargon, historical plot points, and the explanation of just WHY these changes should be made (government should control the money, central bank should be created, etc) but surrounding this story of the founding of the federal reserve with an understated love story, more quips than can be found on episodes of Gillmore Girls or Brooklyn 99, and the inclusion of the beginnings of the progressive movement in politics jazzes up the explanatory narrative up enough to keep you intrigued. Each time I found myself lost in historical names, places, and events, writer Polner, director Solomon, and the cast brings the audience back into the scene with a funny line, a well-delivered quip, or an amusing facial expression and I was drawn back to the stage once again.

The cast is made up of bold, brassy actors, perfectly suited to a period piece. There was no weak link amongst the lot, but Andrew Sellon’s three character’s particularly stood out to me. His understated facial expressions reminded me of David Hyde Pierce’s own worriedly comedic expressions and movements quite a lot.

Like Money in the Bank runs until April 22nd, 2016 at Theatre Row’s Studio Theatre. For more information, visit Theatre Row’s website here. 

[quicktheatre]

Wednesday, December 9th, 2015

I had the extreme pleasure to attend Broadway Up Close’ Act I walking tour this past December and I absolutely adored it. Broadway Up Close provides a wonderful overview of the history of Broadway for everyone, from theatre buffs who think they know it all, to new fans of the de-facto capital of the theatre industry, and even to those who have never seen a musical on stage, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

What it is: a walking tour which starts with the early history of Broadway and moves forward in time to a Broadway that becomes more recognizable to today’s audiences. The Act I tour, created over five years ago by founder Tim Dolan, lets audiences hear about the titans and legends who helped found the New York City theatre scene, who helped moved the Broadway theatre district from its early beginnings in Herald Square in the 19thcentury to its current location north of 42nd Street. The tour starts at the southern end of the Broadway theatre district in front of the Nederlander Theater on 41st street, crisscrosses uptown through lower Times Square, and end in front of the Belasco on 45th. Highlights of the tour include the rise of 42nd Street and the old theaters still located on that famous street but which are not necessarily in use as Broadway stage theaters any more, Roof Top Gardens as a precursor to Roof Top Bars, one of the few actual ghost stories in a Broadway theater, in addition to the personal stories told by your guide.

What you get: A wildly entertaining, personal, funny, meaningful tour of the beginnings of what has become the peak of the theatre industry in the United States. I went on a chill and gray weird autumnal day in the middle of December. Two ladies from Boston and three from Long Island joined me on the day I attended, a pleasantly small but friendly crew. We wandered our way up and across town with tour guide and founder Tim, on a tour that felt more like a pleasant midday stroll with friends rather than an educational walking tour. Each guide is knowledgeable and personable and gives just the right amount of personal history. Guides are also required to be working members of the theatre industry in NYC, so not only do you receive information about theatre history, but you receive stories about the theatre world of today and are treated to a guide that can answer any question you can put to them. Along with their own knowledge of the theatre biz, each guide also brings along with them an iPad fully stocked with hundreds of historical pictures of the places you see, helping you to visualize just how these places looked 100 years ago or more. To cap it all off, you take a group picture as a memento to after travels through the hustle and bustle of Times Square to remember your tour by, a perfect finale to a perfect time spent.

What to keep your ears and eyes out for: the theater that is not quite a theater on 42nd street, Olive Thomas and her ghost, and David Belasco’s casting pew.

For more information about this and to take a look at the other wonderfully informative things that Broadway Up Close has to offer, visit their website here.

[quicktheatre]

Women Count 2015 | Here you will find information about the programs we offer, the awards we give, the history of our organization, the membership process and how you can support the work of the League of Professional Theatre Women.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW), as part of a larger initiative called Women Count, has issued findings from its second annual analysis of the status of women employed in New York City theatres off-stage and outside the Broadway district. A number of efforts to count, study, analyze and report on the status of women in theatre in recent years have focused on playwrights and directors. This second report from the ongoing study looks at a broader range of professional roles with a deep focus on the hiring patterns of productions in a set of non-Broadway theatres for five consecutive seasons.

The 2015 study, conducted by LPTW members Martha Wade Steketee and Judith Binus, analyzes employment in 13 professional roles (including playwrights, directors, and designers) in 455 Off- and Off-Off-Broadway productions in 22 theatre companies for five complete seasons, 2010-2011 through 2014-2015.

On the whole, the study finds that men still outnumber women in theatrical positions, but organizations such as the League of Professional Theatre Women continue to push for equality, equity, and parity on and off stage. Studies like this help the theatre community understand areas in which they need to improve. As a woman working in the theatre industry in NYC, this is a cause which is near and dear to my heart and one that should receive more recognition from the community all around.

Click the link above for more information about the ongoing study, or click here to read the 2015 report on its own.

[quicktheatre]

Quick, help!

I need an avatar!

Suggestions?

[quicktheatre]

Hey! I have a question. I don't know if you answer these kind of questions so if you don't, that's fine. I'm a teenage girl and I need to sing a showstoppper for a music class. The last girl who went sang "Everything I Know" from In The Heights and I'd like to do something with that kind of feel. Do you know of any songs?

Ack, sorry this is such a late reply! If this is too late, I hope you found a good song in time. If not, here’s what I have to say on the subject!

Any song can be showstopper. It all depends on your own voice type, your age and experience, and your abilities as an actor and performer. Based on what you’ve told me, I don’t feel like I have the experience to fully give advice on what songs you should perform. You’d be better off asking someone who knows you and knows your voice, maybe a voice teacher, professor, or even a fellow musical theatre fan.

That said, here’s a few songs that I think are along the same lines as ‘Everything I Know’ or are more recent ballads that I like. For a given value of ‘recent.’

I love ‘Your Daddy’s Son” from Ragtime, ‘Hold On’ from The Secret Garden, and ‘Stars and the Moon’ from Songs from a New World. Maybe even ‘Someone Else’s Story’ from Chess.

I haven’t heard the soundtrack yet, but something from Once might fit what you’re looking for. This may be a little older than you’re looking for, but I love “So In Love” from Kiss Me, Kate. You can never go wrong with Cole Porter, never.

(Honorable mention to ‘Sailing’ from A New Brain, which can sound beautiful coming from female singers depending on your voice and is one of my favorite musicals ever.)

I hope this helps!

[quicktheatre]

Just curious. You find it hard to "buy" the idea that Katharine McPhee could succeed on Broadway, but you have no problem with Hilty being made out to be a genius, when Hilty can't perform some numbers as good as McPhee does - generally the ones that involve dancing. Not to mention the fact that McPhee is essentially miles better than someone like Krysta Rodriguez, who has actually starred in Broadway shows.

Hey, we all have our own opinions! You’re welcome to your own and I to mine.

Mine just happens to be backed up by 99.9% of the reviewers and critics.