Tu parles français or predictions?

MUSIC HALL 

by Jean-Luc Lagarce

The French play MUSIC HALL by Diffractions Theater Company is about the inner life of a vagabond female artist (and her two show boys.) It was written in 1988 and has only been performed in France… until now.

Things I liked:

Subtitles: Thankfully I speak French, but it has been awhile. The ‘sous-titres’ were very easy to follow and weren’t too distracting. I found after a couple of minutes I could easily follow the show because the main actress is American and pronounced all the French lentement (slowly). 

Length: I appreciate that the show was kept to 90 minutes. 

Play’s topic matter: A struggling artist, who always feels mocked and ridiculed… Artists make themselves vulnerable on-stage (or through whatever medium) but it is a universal human emotion. 

Things I didn’t like:

Direct address: It was unclear if the actors were talking directly to the audience or some ‘figurative’ audience, because they never engaged us in conversation. Was the time period now or the 1920s? (Meta? Self aware?)

Structure: Maybe I’m realizing I don’t like absurdist theatre…The actor’s struggle is interesting for 10 minutes, but after while the ‘parfois’ and ‘au début’ got a bit redundant.

Hesitancy: In a small venue you like this, everything is visible. So when an actor does a motion halfway, the audience sees it... 

I’m glad I was able to engage in French culture. Heads up the show is only running this week. 

For more info and tickets visit www.diffractions.org

May 13-17, 2014 | 8pm

Location: Roy Arias Studio - Theater 2

300 W 43rd St, 4th floor

New York, NY 10036

These are my pretty confident Tony Predictions:

Best Musical Revival- Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Best Play Revival- Twelfth Night

Best Play- All the Way

Best New Musical- A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (I guess?…)

Best Actor Musical- Andy Karl in Rocky

Best Actress Musical- Jessie Mueller in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical 

Best Actor Play- Bryan Cranston in All the Way

Best Actress Play- … NO IDEA

Best Direction of Play- John Tiffany, Glass Menagerie

Best Choreography Musical- Steven Hoggett & Kelly Devine, Rocky

i, object

ok. yes. i'm in this. but it's going to be different from anything you've ever seen before. definitely a SHOW YOUR MAMA WOULDN'T KNOW ABOUT...

i, object is a socio-political roving (move around with the performer 'Sleep No More' style) interactive piece. Created and devised by five women; Rachel Berger, Madeline Kolker, Ella Metuki, and Mariella Mosthof and with the specific director's eye by Roxy Schoenfeld.

I've learned so much from our process since we are literally making a piece out of nothing. I've become super conscious of my word choices. I've become more aware of how I define myself and how it changes depending on my setting. I've realized how pertinent our material has become, for example the viral article of the Princeton freshman claiming his 'male privilege'  (http://time.com/85933/why-ill-never-apologize-for-my-white-male-privilege/) to Shailene Woodley using the 'F' word (http://time.com/87967/shailene-woodley-feminism-fault-in-our-stars/).

I'm really proud of the work we've created and I hope to share it with you this weekend. 

What: i (,) object

When: May 9th & 10th 

Time: 8 pm

Where: Prince Street Project Space: 127-B Prince Street, NY NY 10012 (At Prince & Wooster down the steps under Wink)

How to go: More info & buy tickets here! http://iobject.brownpapertickets.com

 Plays on my radar:

- Music Hall by Jean-Luc Lagacre at Roy Arias Studios (Stage 2)  

- Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at SOHO REP

- Red Eye by Thaddeus Phillips, Jeremy Wilhelm, Geoff Sobelle, David Wilhelm and Sophie Bortolussi with Ean Sheehy for Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental at NYTW

- The Mysteries by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar featuring the BATS at the Flea Theatre

Notes on Zarathustra

Zara Notes Review

Zara Notes conceived and created by Patrick Scheid is an engaging exploration of Nietzsche’s "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." My experience with Nietzsche is very limited, college east and west philosophy class, so I went in with an open mind and understanding that I'm not going to understand everything. The installation is all the way out on Ave C so make sure you don’t have to rush off because it is not an easily accessible area, but there’s a great bar across the street called ABC Beer Co. I digress… 

(Colin Hooker-Haring, Patrick Scheid and Phil Lakin)

To be honest I fear in this reviewing this piece will give aw too much of what you’ll experience. Instead, I want to encourage you to support my friend, who has put in his blood, sweat, brain, time and emotion into a very immersing piece of theatre. He creates a small living museum dedicated to Nietzsche. Explore it with child like curiosity. 

(Patrick Scheid and Andrew Clark)

To be fair I must do the list. 

Things I didn’t like:

• Inaccessible writing: I believe that he uses direct passages from Zarathustra, which are very hard for me to wrap my head around. They are almost like poetry.
• The Location: I think Patrick is going to have a hard time getting people to come out of their dungeon apartments. 

Things I liked:

• Presentation of space: Artful and tasteful placements of found objects and useful props... you'll have to go to know what I'm talking about 
• Patrick’s subtle acknowledgement that we we are still in the 21st century in NYC: hearing the sirens, welcoming new guests and laughing with the audience 

Check out this fun, adventurous, immersive performance:

ZARA NOTES runs Wed-Friday 4-8pm and Saturday 12-6pm NOW until May 3rd

@ The Michael Mut Project 

• 97 Ave C Between 6E and 7E street.
• New York, New York 10009

Key term definition:

Zarathustra  -  Zarathustra was a Persian prophet (called "Zoroaster" by the Greeks, and most of the Western world) who lived and preached in the fifth century B.C.E. He was the first philosopher to conceive of a universe that is fundamentally defined by a struggle between good and evil. Nietzsche uses him as his protagonist, since, Nietzsche supposes, the first prophet to preach about good and evil should also be the first to move beyond good and evil. In the book, Zarathustra preaches about the overman who has moved beyond the concepts of good and evil, and has embraced the eternal recurrence. It is unclear whether or not Nietzsche means Zarathustra himself to be an overman, though if this is the case, he only becomes so in the fourth part of the book, when he finally embraces the eternal recurrence. (taken from Sparknotes)

Rude Mech's Lincoln Center Debut

STOP HITTING YOURSELF

A hilariously inventive new show, presented by the Austin, TX's devised theatre group called Rude Mechanicals. I highly recommend checking out their website to read up on the cool things they've done!

http://www.rudemechs.com/

Things I liked:

• Set made of gold, plus a three tier Fountain of Queso!
• Random tap dancing routine 
• Breaking the 4th wall (Actors talk directly to the audience)
• Handing out a $20 bill, then $1 bills for a small challenge like ‘show belly button.’ The challenges got progressively got weirder and weirder, until the audience stop raising their hands
• Close-Open game (where the audience has to ‘close’ their eyes and after 5 seconds will be told to ‘open’ revealing the cast in a new position on stage) 
• A phone placed under an audience member’s chair. When the Queen calls to talk to someone she is in fact talking to an audience member. It’s a riot!)
• Actors standing directly in front of audience revealing a truth about themselves as a person, not the character they are playing
• Linctix prices- 30 & under receive $20 dollar tickets if you sign up for their membership (which is FREE)

Things I didn’t like… (this one’s hard)

• I had a hard time grasping the structure of the piece because it was so different. The narrative was broken up between random songs,dances, and improv games. Rude Mech definitely gambles their success by putting the audience in a very unusual new situation with all the interactive improv games. I saw the show on a Sunday matinee, which is notoriously known for having a lot of blue hairs in the audience. There was a definite sense of skepticism lurking in the air. I was squeezed between a couple of young somethings and I could tell they were enjoying the new structure. 

NYTimes critic, Charles Isherwood, gives the show a 2.5 stars out of 5. He complains that there is no linear story. That is the beauty of this piece. We are always distracted today between, phone, computer, Facebook, work, and so on, why wouldn’t we acknowledge our jumbled lives in the kind of theatre we create today!

What this show did so beautifully was prove to me that devise theatre can be ironic and tasteful and hilarious. I’ve found my generation of theatre makers are very ironic. We are hipsters. But I’ve seen a handful of my gen’s work and it always leaves me feeling unsatisfied and sad. I can’t quite pinpoint why... To some extent it makes fun of what we do (creating art) in a malicious way rather than celebrating it and identifying the problems with how we are positioned in society. Rude Mech has been around for 20 years, so I have a feeling they started out exactly where we are, grappling with how to make art relevant and entertaining.

On a different note:

• Run to Pig Iron's TWELFTH NIGHT at Abrons Arts Center. Only 'til Feb 23rd. During the week the tickets are $30.
• If you're in the biz. Go see STAGE KISS at Playwrights Horizon. It's by one of my favorite playwrights, Sarah Ruhl! They have a deal for 30 and under.
• A brand new Caryl Churchill play called LOVE AND INFORMATION. It's presented by New York Theatre Workshop. You can get $20 tickets on Sunday evening performances if you buy them in advance at the box office. 

Was this a feminist day of art or just art?

Machinal

Rebecca Hall and Michael Cumpsty in Machinal

“It’s (Machinal's) about how chaotic isolation can be.” Michael Cumpsty plays the HUSBAND

This Saturday I saw Machinal at the Roundabout Theatre, for $20 using HIPTIX.  I had never read this play in college, but I remember hearing about it as a historical must-read. Before going, I did a little research: Machinal

* Written by Sophie Treadwell and premiered on B’way in 1928

* Inspired by the real life case of convicted Ruth Synder who killed her husband 

* This is the second time it’s ever been performed on B’way 

* Considered to be Expressionist theatre

The play: How daring of the Roundabout to produce such an avant-garde piece of theatre on Broadway. Hats off to them! This highly stylized work did not feel anachronistic. What’s interesting is I feel like the play had to walk a fine line. The main character played by Rebecca Hall is named Helen. She is the murderer/ the everywoman who could have lived in two different worlds: The VICTIM, where all men and machines are evil or The DEMON, where everyone else besides her is a victim. I believe that Lyndsey Turner, the director, does an amazing job of guiding the audience through Helen’s chaotic world in search of her own human freedom.  

I was really struck by how modern the language sounded even though it was written almost 90 years ago. The topics brought up in the play are so relevant as well: women in the workplace, expectations of childbirth, the justice system and the media. These may sound like broad sweeping brushstrokes of society, but the play is full of the mundane: a panic attack on the subway, washing the dishes, a salesman wanting a Swiss watch. As a modern day 20 something, all of these things resonate with me. 

For a straight show on Broadway, it has a huge ensemble cast of 18 people. That’s wonderful, more jobs for actors! Also it has a range of generations, maybe not as diverse as it could be, but definitely taking baby steps towards the idea. Rebecca Hall, is plain but as she should be. She is sweet, sincere, confused and completely relatable as the every woman.  I think what makes the play so jarring is that everyone is trying to do their best within the confounds of the machine. No one knows better than the system of order they were born into, but when you start to question your unhappiness, like Helen, she dreams of rest. 

I was particularly impressed by the set design: a creatively structured box, that rotates clockwise from scene to scene, as a different place. For example one side was a subway station, the next was office, jumping to a hospital room and it was seamlessly done. Magic. 

Later that Saturday evening, I took advantage of New York’s culture scene and went to the Brooklyn Museum's free first Saturday of the Month. Highly recommend it! The museum is beautiful and is manageably sized. What linked the play to the museum was an exhibit in the feminist wing by a visiting artist named, Wangechi Mutu. She was born in Nairobi, Kenya, but is now based in Brooklyn. Her work combines found materials, magazine cut-outs, painting and photography. She speaks out about gender, race, war, colonization, exoticization of the black female body. At the exhibit, her collage depicted female figures that were part human, animal, plant, and machine, in fantastical landscapes. These creations reminded me of Machinal because they created a mood that was unnerving, shocking and identifiable with a piece of myself within in each work.

Wangechi Mutu (Kenyan, b. 1972). Misguided Little Unforgivable Hierarchies

Links: 

Roundabout Hiptix: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Shows-Events/HipTix.aspx

Brooklyn Museum: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/visit/first_saturdays.php

Natasha, Pierre... This title is way too long

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

First off, I think this title is way too long. Try selling it to a friend, “Yes you should go see Natasha, Pierre… Shoot I forget the rest of it, but yea it’s a cool show about War and Peace.” Catch my drift? I never had to read this Tolstoy’s dense novel. BUT, the show, written by Dave Malloy does a good job of clearly explaining the silly Russian love triangle. Here are my thoughts about the play:

 

Likes:

• Creation of ambiance=Impeccable. As the host led me to my table, I was flabbergasted by the awesome decor. The show takes place in a TENT on B’Way. Set designer Mimi Lien transformed the white walls by draping them in red curtains, hanging elaborate Russian paintings, filling the room with tiny tables and  Tiffany lamps and a wrap-around stage that can be viewed from all corners of the tent.
• Costumes had a great steam-punk vibe that I really dug. The cut up corsets, layered gloves, multiple rings, curly cue up dos and beautiful dresses gave me something to admire when the songs were lacking. (Disclaimer: I was frustrated that the opening number I saw a couple of actors fidgeting with their costumes. Maybe this is a pet peeve of mine, but it definitely brought me out of the ‘experience.’)
• Innocence to Magic: I liked the way Rachel Chavkin, director, seamlessly had the actors enter and exit from all sides of the tent. Phillipa Soo never lost the mystical innocence of coming to a new city, Moscow and the imagination of undying love. The help of the set and costume design aided the enchantment of evening

Dislikes:

• Music variety: Overwhelmed by the different types of music used to portray the story of WAR AND PEACE. It ranged from Rock, classical, folk, techno, to absurd ‘ha-has’.
• Passé ensemble members: What the heck were these guys doing in this play? They looked super unenthusiastic and bored to be a part of this show. I mean come on... Friday night, and y’all are doing a B’WAY show in a tent. GET PUMPED!
• Deception by the food and the time: On the internet it looks like you get a meal with the purchase of your extremely overpriced ticket. BUT no, you can purchase perogies for 20 dollars. (Note: You only get 4) Or how about cocktail, straight up Vodka for 16 dollars. I understand you’ve got to pay the crazy amount of employees you have that need to get the orders in the 30 minutes before the start of the show, but this was just a bit obscene. The show was almost 3 hours. (longer) From the time you stand in line around 7:45 to the time you get out 10:50, the show exhausts you, instead of invigorating you.

 

I was excited for some SITE SPECIFIC IMMERSIVE THEATRE but this is really just a DINNER THEATRE in the middle of Times Square. Save your money. Buy some Vladimirs at your local liquor store and go see Marie Antoinette at Soho Rep starring Marin Ireland for some HEIGHTENED PERIOD DRAMA.  (I saw it at Yale Rep, highly recommend it.)
 

Looking forward to seeing:

 
è  The Goddess, Starring my friends Tricia Alexandro, Rick Busser and Michael Kingsbaker

è  SALESMEN: A mediation on Masculinity and American Real!, Featuring my friends Patrick Schied, Hugh Trimble and Nick Smerkanich

è  DANI GIRL by EPBB (YAY free dinner and theatre, cough cough)
 

Shout-outs:

è  Other Desert Cities, Starring lovely Jessica O’Hara-Baker

è  Ms.Bovary, Produced by dear Katie Lindsay

 
è  The Rest of Your Life, Featuring Mackenize Lansing

 

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE

Kurt Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE at FringeNYC Encore Series 

 

Shamless self promotion = Can't write a critique about this one... 'cause I'm in it.

Here are some stills from the production: We open tonight at Players Theatre (115 Macdougal Street)

 

Thursday, October 10 @ 7:00 pm

Friday, October 11 @ 7:00 pm

Saturday, October 12 @ 8:00 pm

Saturday, October 12 @ 10:00 pm

Sunday, October 13 @9:00 pm

 

Ticket info: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/927913/1380672321869

 

Meet the cast: http://www.truefalsetheatre.org/2013/09/24/meet-the-cast-of-slaughterhouse-five-off-broadway/

(Quinn Coughlin and Jamie Effros- Eye doctor scene)

(Jamie Effros and Rachel Berger- Honeymoon scene)

(Lena Hudson and Jamie Effros- Learning about Kilagore Trout scene)

 

(Zane Roberts, Christopher Travlos and Quinn Coughlin- Cinderella scene)

(Bruce Bluett- Blue Fairy Godmother scene)

(Jamie Effros, Anni Weisband, Zane Roberts, Rachel Berger and Christopher Travlos- Party scene)

 

(Jamie Effros and Anni Weisband- Montana's pregnant scene)

 

Coming up. I will be seeing NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 next Friday. Looking forward to a Russian Site-Specific Tent Party about the novel War and Peace! The following week, I got my free ticket to see Exit Pursued by Bear's production of DANI GIRL (Synopsis: When Dani, a precocious nine year old, loses her hair to leukemia, she embarks on a magical journey in order to get it back. Simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking, DANI GIRL is a tale of life in the face of death, hope in the face of despair, and the indomitable power of the human imagination.)