I Guess I'm Bad at Blogging

It’s been …. what? like two months since I posted on this thing? Did you think I’ve just been hanging around, doing nothing since the last time I posted? Well, let me tell you that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Back in early October I got the chance to see one of the most moving pieces of theater coming out of our contemporary canon, Fireflies by the one and only Donja R. Love at the Atlantic Theater Company. Donja was the Princess Grace fellow last year and with that honor he is given the opportunity to workshop some of his pieces at New Dramatists. That’s where I met him and was first introduced to his work. Back in April I was fortunate enough to stage manage a reading of Fireflies at New Dramatists ON MY BIRTHDAY! It was the best birthday present ever, honestly. All this to say I went into the show knowing a great deal about it’s content, it's plot, it’s characters. Regardless of how prepared I was for the performance it still ripped my heart out and shredded it into a thousand pieces. Fireflies is part of Donja’s Love Trilogy, three plays that show queer black love over the course of American history. This piece is the second in the trilogy and takes place during the civil rights movement. Donja’s poetic, powerful prose (sorry I had to spring for the alliteration there) weaves the stories of beautifully complex characters together in ways that I haven’t seen in any other writing. His voice is so strong and there’s no doubt in my mind he is one of, if not the best playwright of our current moment. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that the one and only Daniel Mulligan paid for my ticket and I could not be more grateful for the gift he gave me in being able to see this play come to life.

In early October I also got to see a reading of Kirkwood Bromley’s Dazl at New Dramatists. Described as “Shakespeare on Shrooms” Bromley’s work is always very, very out there and his work is probably exactly what you think it is. Yup. He does write modern plays COMPLETELY in verse. And they are …. crazy. He makes up words, throws in extraneous plot lines and really messes with your head. Bromley was the first playwright I ever stage managed for at New Dramatists and his work really fascinates me in a way that I don’t completely understand yet. Dazl was a really interesting piece, dedicated to his daughter and comprised almost entirely of poop jokes and innuendos, that I really enjoyed watching. There’s a lot of subversion in his work, distorting norms we take for granted. The structure of the piece makes total sense for what it is. I’m hoping I’ll be able to see more of his work in the future, maybe even in production!

I also got the AMAZING opportunity to direct TWO pieces for The Barrington Collective’s Night of Fright, part of their ongoing holiday reading series. I directed a piece by Ashley Hutton, Baby It’s Cold Outside, and a play by Kathryn Funkhouser, JumpScare. Both pieces dealt with fear, as per their theme of the evening, but they approached it in two completely different ways and it was exciting to be able to work on both! They were also very comedic pieces and I haven’t really gotten a chance to sink my teeth into some funny work again. If you’re in New York you should absolutely try to make it out the BarCo’s next holiday reading! They’re so much fun, pretty short, cheap ticket AND you can drink at these events! It’s literally a win-win-win. Plus the women that run it are some of the kindest, generous, most incredible people I’ve ever met and they deserve your support.

On October 30th En Garde Arts hosted an INCREDIBLE Gala that I got to participate in as the current intern. I organized and ran the silent auction at the gala and it was SUCH a crazy awesome, hectic and exciting learning experience. I’ve never been given a project of that size as an intern and the feeling of accomplishment I had after raising all that money was really worthwhile. It made me wonder why I haven’t considered going into development? We’ll see how long that feeling lasts. My small accomplishments aside the evening was an INCREDIBLE success and I was so honored to even be a part of it. We honored Joan D. Firestone and Alberta Arthurs, two women who truly deserve recognition for the contributions that they’ve made to the American Theater. It was such a fun event with an eclectic dinner and exciting stories shared by five extraordinary women and a musical performance by THE Christian McBride. I know my Jazz Musician of a father was majorly jealous, as he should be because it was INCREDIBLE. Anne Hamburger is such a light in this industry and her commitment to creating dialogue with people who are not normally in communication is truly laudable and I’m so, so happy that I’ve been given this opportunity to learn under her. It looks like I may be staying on with En Garde Arts longer than I initially thought I would and I’m so excited to keep growing with this company!

You thought that was all the theater I’ve seen in the past two months? WELL YOU’RE WRONG! With my internship at Soho Rep. I got a pair of tickets to see their current production, THUNDERBODIES. Wow. Wow. This play. I think I’m still processing it weeks later if I’m being completely honest. This show broke me in the best possible way. The performances by these actors were so full and lived in and the text is absolutely BONKERS. I have literally never in my life seen female characters on stage that were so unapologetically LOUD, proud and confident in physical space as well as their bodies. The absurdist satire was such a joy to watch, I had a smile on my face from start to finish and I left feeling like my brain had been cracked like an egg. It was so much fun and helped me to laugh at the legitimate tragedy that our nation is quickly spiraling into. The show got butchered in the Times by a reviewer who clearly had no interest in understanding the piece and didn’t let himself enjoy what he couldn’t immediately understand. All I can say is I enjoyed every minute of this gut busting show and I hope you got the chance to see it since it’s closing this weekend.

The promotional photos taken for the show are pictures of the cast with their faces pressed up against pexi-glass looking wildly distorted. The marketing manager had this great idea to bring in a small piece of plexi so that patrons could make their own interpretations and post them on social media! Check mine out, they’re pretty funny!

I’ve had the smallest amount of free time over the past couple weeks and, with that time, I’ve been volunteer ushering at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater for their current production of Lewiston/Clarkston by Samuel Hunter. Their set up for this (or should I say these) show(s) is FASCINATING to me. Lewiston and Clarkston are two separate plays written by Hunter that are being performed in rep at Rattlestick right now. Instead of performing one show some nights and the other show on the other nights ticket buyers get to see TWO shows in one night, Lewiston followed by a 30 minute dinner, followed by Clarkston. The players really share their space with the audience and, with only three people in each cast, the sense of intimacy and immediacy in each piece was so evident and palpable it was really shocking to me. I really enjoyed both pieces, but I did enjoy Clarkston more. The direction of this piece seemed clearer and every part of the production and every layer of each performance served to tell the story. Lewiston was really, incredibly intriguing to me, but next to Clarkston it just didn’t compare. Not that the point of the evening was to compare the two pieces, but hey! If you weren’t looking for my opinion what are you doing on my blog?

As I’m sure some of you know I’ve been serving as the rehearsal stage manager for Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant and their holiday show that will be going to Cleveland in two weeks! I’m actually currently sitting in a rehearsal for them! Any and all of my friends in Ohio need to see this show. It’s wild, immersive, crazy fun, stupid ridiculous 2 hour piece where they serve you A FIVE COURSE MEAL! I’ve had such a blast working with these beautiful avant garde-ists and I couldn’t be more excited to head to Cleveland with them next week. I’ll only be there for tech through opening, but words really can’t describe how excited I am for this trip.