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Eileen Tull (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary theatremaker, poet, educator, and one-woman show person based in Chicago. Her work has been seen throughout the country in United Solo Festival, Minnesota Fringe, Dallas Solo Festival, San Francisco Fringe, Cincy Fringe, and Tampa’s New Seeds Festival. In Chicago, she has worked with The Factory Theatre, Stage Left Theatre, Theatre Wit, and Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, among others. Eileen recently founded Fat Theatre Project, a creative collective committed to telling stories by/about/for/with fat artists. Coming up in 2025, she'll be directing "Funny, Like An Abortion," with FTP, co-produced by Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Theatre Directing from Randolph College. www.eileentull.com The First Time is a live lit and music series recorded at Martyrs in Chicago's North Center neighborhood. Each reader tells a true first tale, followed by any cover of the storyteller's choosing, performed by our house band, The First Time Three. The First Time is hosted by Jenn Sodini. Production by Andy Vasoyan and Executive Producer Bobby Evers. Podcast produced by Andy Vasoyan. Recorded by Tony Baker.
Jerrell L. Henderson is a Theatre Director, Puppeteer, and African American Theatre Historian and Archivist. Through the mediums of theatre and/or puppetry and film, Jerrell seeks to disrupt generational curses of self-hate (i.e. racism, homophobia, religious intolerance, etc.). Intellectually curious and emotionally dexterous, Jerrell is at home in a number of wide-ranging genres including, but not limited to, American Realism, Magical Realism, Traditional and Contemporary Musical Theatre, Poetic Black-Queer Narratives, and Live Spectacle Events. Upcoming projects include directing Ragtime at Metropolis Arts Center this Spring. A recipient of a 2023 Henson Foundation Workshop Grant and the 2022 League of Chicago Theatre's Samuel G. Roberson Fellowship, Jerrell will present an original shadow play titled, AmericanMYTH: Crossroads with Free Street Theatre this Fall. Recent projects include directing Reverie by James Ijames (2022 Pulitzer Prize recipient for Fat Ham) with Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia, co-directing Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury with Griffin Theatre in Chicago, and collaborating with The Classical Theatre of Harlem and St. Ann's Warehouse on: When The World Sounds Like A Prayer (https://www.cthnyc.org, walkwithamal.org) in Bryant Park in NYC. Other credits include Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award nomination for Direction and Best Play), The River with BoHo Theatre, and Untitled with Inis Nua (Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play). Puppet short films include a filmed version of his signature puppetry piece, I Am The Bear with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival. Other puppet short films include, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams and Diamond's Dream with Chicago Children's Theatre. His Juneteenth Puppet Protest: The Welcome Table was featured in the New York Times (June 2020) and his Fall 2020 puppetry celebration of the lives of John Lewis and C.T. Vivian titled, Black Butterfly was later expanded into an educational performance piece with Tria Smith of Guild Row and a student collective working with Urban Growers Collective on Chicago's South Side. He received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University (2015), is an artistic associate with Black Lives, Black Words, is a member of Lincoln Center's Directors Lab (2012), and was a Henson Foundation sponsored participant at the Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference (2020). He is on the board of Directors Gathering. (DG) is a national organization based in Philadelphia, PA which offers theatre directors consistent community, resources, and elevation. As a theatre historian and archivist, Jerrell contributed to Fifty Key Musicals (Routledge Press). He authored the chapter on Shuffle Along (1921) and co-authored the chapter on The Wiz (1975). He also serves as the creator and curator of black_theatre_vinyl_archive on Instagram. black_theatre_vinyl_archive is an extensive collection of vinyl albums which highlight the contributions of members of the African Diaspora in Theatre/Musical Theatre History.
Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard talks with Stephen Burdman, founder of New York Classical Theatre about producing and directoring Shakespeare's problematic play The Taming of the Shrew. STEPHENS'S BIO Stephen Burdman founded New York Classical Theatre in 2000 and is the vision behind the creation of Panoramic Theatre. Originally from Los Angeles, he earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and planned to become a doctor. During college, Stephen auditioned for a production of Hamlet, and discovered his passion for Shakespeare. That experience completely changed the course of his life. Stephen founded NY Classical to give all people the chance to discover classical masterpieces as he did. Stephen has directed nearly half of Shakespeare canon. To date, he has directed 38 productions for NY Classical. Some of his favorites include: Cymbeline (performed by 7 actors), The Importance of Being Earnest (Two-Ways), Romeo & Juliet (6 actors), The Rivals, The Winter's Tale, Measure for Measure, The Seagull, A {15-Min!} Christmas Carol, Playing Moliere, Henry V (in The Battery and, via ferry boat, Governors Island), Hamlet, King Lear, Misalliance, Mary Stuart, Scapin, and The Triumph of Love. Stephen attended the National Theatre Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and later received an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of California, Irvine. In 1989, he was selected to participate in the first young theatre artist exchange with the (former) Soviet Union and has been a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society since 1994. Stephen received the 2022 Sidney Berger award from the Shakespeare Theatre Association for outstanding talent and commitment to the works of William Shakespeare. He has also been a panelist with the National Endowment for the Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. He lives in Central Harlem with his wife, Adena, and son, Zeke. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thinking-cap-theatre/support
Hello listeners! This week on the show, we had the one and only David Hanzal on the show! David is a Minneapolis-based director, puppeteer, and teaching artist. We first met David in our first year of graduate school in Iowa. We had an amazing time speaking with David and catching up! There's so much pearls of wisdom packed in this episode. PLEASE ENJOY! David Hanzal (they/he) is a Minneapolis-based director, puppeteer, and teaching artist. They were the Artistic Director of Collective Unconscious Performance from 2014-2020. Previously, their stage direction and design has received awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre National Festival and the University of Iowa. They completed their Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Directing at the University of Iowa, where they regularly developed and directed premieres of new plays and devised work with writers from the nationally recognized Iowa Playwrights' Workshop. David has also trained with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, Kari Margolis and the Margolis Brown Adaptors Company, Czech master puppeteer Miroslav Trejtnar, the Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theatre Institute, and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. To learn more about David, check out his work on: https://davidhanzaltheatre.carbonmade.com/ Instagram: @lavender_scented_nostalgia GLISTEN Cho - Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS Sam - bears David - Save the Cat book, Once upon a Disney podcast ________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode with your friends, or follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting, and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com Theme Music: "Live Like the Kids" by Samuel Johnson, Laura Robertson, Luke O'Dea (APRA) ________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode with your friends, or follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting, and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com Theme Music: "Live Like the Kids" by Samuel Johnson, Laura Robertson, Luke O'Dea (APRA) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beckettsbabies/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beckettsbabies/support
A theatre director, puppeteer, and African American theatre historian and archivist that seeks to disrupt generational curses of self-hate, racism, homophobia, and religious intolerance. Intellectually curious and emotionally dexterous, Jerrell is at home in a wide range of genres including, but not limited to, American Realism, Magical Realism, Traditional and Contemporary Musical Theatre, Poetic Black-Queer Narratives, and Live Spectacle Events. He is the recipient of a 2023 Henson Foundation Workshop Grant and the 2022 League of Chicago Theatre's Samuel G. Roberson Fellowship. Recent projects include directing Reverie by James Ijames (2022 Pulitzer Prize recipient for Fat Ham) with Azuka Theatre in Philadelphia, co-directing Marys Seacole by Jackie Sibblies Drury with Griffin Theatre in Chicago, and collaborating with The Classical Theatre of Harlem and St. Ann's Warehouse on: When The World Sounds Like A Prayer in Bryant Park in NYC. Other credits include Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award nomination for Direction and Best Play), The River with BoHo Theatre, and Untitled with Inis Nua (Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Play). His puppet short films include a filmed version of his signature puppetry piece, I Am The Bear with The Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival. His other puppet short films include, Hamlin: La Revue Sombre with Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams and Diamond's Dream with Chicago Children's Theatre. His Juneteenth Puppet Protest: The Welcome Table was featured in the New York Times and his Fall 2020 puppetry celebration of the lives of John Lewis and C.T. Vivian titled, Black Butterfly was later expanded into an educational performance piece with Tria Smith of Guild Row and a student collective working with Urban Growers Collective on Chicago's South Side. He received his MFA in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University, is an artistic associate with Black Lives, Black Words, is a member of Lincoln Center's Directors Lab, and was a Henson Foundation sponsored participant at the Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference. As a theatre historian and archivist, Jerrell contributed to Fifty Key Musicals (Routledge Press). He authored the chapter on Shuffle Along (1921) and co-authored the chapter on The Wiz (1975).
When first I was introduced to our guest it was courtesy of our producer. At that time I was not acquainted with her work and career. Purvis is interesting in the theatre for a number of reasons, not the least of which is her equal proficiency in performance and direction as well as serious theoretical work, a breadth that is less common. Her work in the theatre takes diversity most seriously as much more than a buzzword and some of her work consists in the translations and movements between and among different cultures from around the world, one example of which is the Chaepani intercultural performance project. I found that we had an enormous amount in common intellectually and artistically and it was good to have conviviality with her on this episode. Rosalie's Bio Rosalie Purvis holds a BA in Literature and Dance from Bard College and an MFA in Theatre Directing from Brooklyn College and a Phd in Performing and Media Arts from Cornell University where her dissertation “Intimate Acts of Translation” focused on intercultural performance methods and translation and border studies in performance. Since 2000, she has worked as a freelance director/performer in New York City where work has been featured at, among others, the Atlantic Theatre's Second Stage, Theatre for the New City, the Brick Theatre, Dixon Place, the Estrogenius Festival, Teatro la Teo, the Culture Project, Teatro Circulo, 59 East 59, the Puerto Rican Traveling Company, Dance New Amsterdam, 78th Street Theatre Lab and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She also creates site specific works, globally. Most recently, she joined a Kolkata-based performing arts collective and together they have performed at various national borders. She has taught courses in performance, literature and writing most recently at Cornell University, Ithaca College, Presidency College (Kolkata) Jadavpur University (Kolkata), the City University of New York, Mercy College in the Bronx, Pace University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Marlboro College. She is currently serving as Libra Assistant Professor of Theatre and English at the University of Maine. Links to Rosalie's beautiful work https://www.rosalietpurvis.com/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mitch-hampton/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mitch-hampton/support
Broadway stars Mandy Gonzalez & Javier Muñoz join the podcast! Mandy is highly known for starring as Angelica Schuyler on the hit show Hamilton and Nina Rosario on In the Heights. Javier is equally as known for starring as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton after Lin-Manuel Miranda departed the show. Javier is currently on Broadway starring in the pre-Broadway run of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA: A NEW MUSICAL. He plays Miranda Priestley's right-hand man, “Nigel”. Listen in as Jacqueline Thornell, a Theatre Directing major at Pepperdine interviews them about their acting journey, advice for the next generation of theatre & entertainment professionals, and why they believe the arts are important. Ticket link: https://arts.pepperdine.edu/events/2022-2023-season/pepperdine-opera-hms-pinafore.htm More info about the Center for the Arts can be found: https://arts.pepperdine.edu/ Music by Nolan Harvel
In the Season 3 Premeire Russell sits down with UNCG's musical theatre professor and director Erin Speer as they discuss the similarities as well as differences between directing musical theatre compared to theatre itself and the impact it has on artists and audiences alike.Brought to you by Real Creative Heart. Like, Review, Share & Subscribe.Erin Farrell Speer – Erin is a musical theatre director, educator and filmmaker. She serves as an Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre and Director of Undergraduate Studies – School of Theatre at UNC Greensboro. She earned her MFA in Directing for the Musical Theatre from Penn State where she studied under the mentorship of veteran Broadway director, Susan H. Schulman. Erin is also a proud graduate of The University of Michigan, holding a BFA in Acting. Erin made her Broadway debut in 2018 serving as the Assistant to Tony winning director Christopher Ashley on Escape to Margaritaville, the Jimmy Buffett musical. She also served in that capacity on the pre-Broadway tour. She made her off-Broadway debut in 2022 as the Associate Director for Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust Road at the York Theatre. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Erin's creative work has taken her all around the United States. Regionally, Erin has worked at Center Theatre Group/the Mark Taper Forum, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, Heritage Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre and the North Carolina Theatre among others. In 2022, Erin directed both The Spongebob Musical and The Scarlet Pimpernel. In Spring of 2023, she will direct The Bridges of Madison County at Elon University and Rock of Ages at UNCG. Favorite Direction credits include: The Spongebob Musical, Pippin, American Idiot, Sweet Charity, and many, many more.
This episode's guest is Katie Cross! Katie has spent over 25 years in the theatrical industry as a performer, designer, and director and then 10 years as a theatre educator. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre from Texas State University and Master of Arts in Theatre Directing from the Chicago College of Performing Arts. She spends her free time as a director, performer, and designer in the Houston theatrical community. Social: @KatieAtCovenant Covenant Site: www.covenantcommunications.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tim-heller/support
In this episode, Adam speaks with performance makers Gregory Bonsignore & Basma BaydounGregory Bonsignore is a vagabond Playwright, director, actor, & writer for stage & screen who works & travels between LA, NYC, & abroad. He has a degree in Storytelling from NYU, trained at the BBC in London, was Playwright in Residence at The Library of Alexandria, Egypt, and is a graduate of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop (his musical The Talented Mr. Ripley was selected by Steven Schwartz for the ASCAP Workshop). He's lectured at Universities, NY Public Library, and is Guest Faculty at the O'Neill Center. He has been in the writer's rooms of Homeland, Three Rivers, My Little Pony, and many others. His feature film “Can You Tell Me How” about Sesame Street, was written for a script deal with HARPO productions (Oprah Winfrey). His newest critically-acclaimed debut illustrated book "That's Betty: The Story of Betty White" was recently released.Basma Baydoun is an Acting graduate of the Lebanese University in Beirut, & Theatre Design at Concordia University in Montréal, and currently completing her Master's in Theatre Directing at Saint Joseph's University in Beirut. Basma splits her time between performance & production work, as well as being a program manager with Ettijahat - Independent Culture, (a cultural institution that designs, implements, & supports artistic and cultural research, education, capacity-building, and production, in response to the needs of independent artistic and cultural practitioners in the Arab Region). She's collaborated with artists between Lebanon and Canada such as Sahar Assaf, Robert Reid, Mo Sabbah, and Doyle Avant, & coordinated the first & fourth editions of Director's Lab Mediterranean. Other passions revolve around food, dying houseplants, & cats. All the cats. Mentioned in this episode-AUBLiz McCannTyler PerryOussama GhanamOssama HallalHammana Artist HouseJohnBengal TigerThe Lives of OthersWerkmeister HarmoniesSupport the showIf you enjoyed this week´s podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. To submit a question: Voice- http://www.speakpipe.com/theatreofothers Email- podcast@theatreofothers.com Show Credits Co-Hosts: Adam Marple & Budi MillerProducer: Jack BurmeisterMusic: https://www.purpl...
In this episode, Adam speaks with directors Paolo Costantini, Maria Varnakkidou, and Marta Mari. Berlin-based Italian director Paolo Costantini is a graduate of the Silvio d'Amico National Dramatic Academy. He joined the Interkulturelles Theaterzentrum, a Fabulamundi partner, in Berlin, before collaborating with Italian-German company Barletti/Waas. He is a trusted Assistant Director to Antonio Latella whose current production of Hamlet won the Ubu Award for best show of the year. In 2021, Paolo won the Venice Biennale Teatro's Under 30 Directors competition with the project "Uno Sguardo Estraneo", still touring across Italy today. He was recently selected for a project “Il Fondo” led by the Santarcangelo Festival, supporting non-conventional artistic research. Maria Varnakkidou is a Cypriot theatre director who studied at Brunel University and completed her master's degree in Theatre Directing at Royal Holloway University in the UK. She has worked in the theatre and film world for the past ten years across various projects. Her interests include devised, immersive, and community theatre, creating work for social change and critical thinking. She was a creative director of the Buffer Fringe Festival 2020-21, and this year she is one of the artistic curators. Edinburgh-based Polish director Marta Mari, is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, & has an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Marta is a director, producer, & teacher and was an artistic director of Asylon Theatre for 9 years creating new writing, site-specific, devised as well as classic works. Her work as a director for young audiences and as a producer and arts manager has been presented at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Science Festival, Puppet Animation Festival, Edinburgh Mela Festival, and Universal Arts.Mentioned in this episode-HamletAntonioniTarkovskyBela TarrThom LuzFranko BForced EntertainmentApitchatpongBoal Sheldon PatinkinMrozekSupport the show
Welcome Back Guys, to the Season Premiere of Season 2!!! It's been a long time coming.For the second season Russell sits down with some of his fellow classmates and teachers down at UNC Greensboro where he was finishing up his MFA.Up first on the list is directing student Karen Sabo. Karen and Russell discuss a little bit about the theatre directing process as a student as well as the importance of theatre education not only in the theatre but in everyday life also.Brought to you by Real Creative Heart. Like, Share, Review & Subscribe.Karen Sabo (she/her) is a director, teacher, writer, and actor. She has been a member of three resident acting companies, including the Barter Theater in Virginia where she was also a resident director, dialect coach, and eventually, director of education. Karen studied with the American Conservatory Theatre, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Saratoga International Theatre Institute, and Shakespeare & Company. She has a B.A. from Hampshire College, an M.A. from East Tennessee State University, and an MFA in Directing at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Her plays have been produced in New York, New Mexico, Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, and she has had dozens of articles published in regional publications in the Southeast, including American Theatre and Southern Theatre Magazine. She is a 25-year member of Actors' Equity, and belongs to SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers Society), and to VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association). She is grateful to currently teach in the wonderful theatre program at Missouri State University. www.karensabo.com Instagram: @kabbasabesFacebook: @Karen Sabo
We're excited to launch the FuturePerfect Podcast where we talk with compelling people breaking new ground in art, media, and entertainment. The podcast is produced by FuturePerfect Studio, an extended reality studio creating immersive experiences for global audiences. Episodes are released every two weeks, visit our website futureperfect.studio for more details.The text version of this interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Find the audio version above or in your favorite podcast app.This week Wayne Ashley interviews Krzysztof Garbaczewski, a theater director from Poland and founder of the Dream Adoption Society. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Theatre Directing and Dramaturgy at the Ludwik Solski State Theatre School in Kraków.He uses the medium of theater to touch upon existential issues and search for the limits of human experience. Since 2017, Krzysztof has been developing a new theatrical language using 3D virtual environments, avatars, physical scenography, and live actors. He combines these into carefully crafted mixed reality experiences for both online platforms and theatrical audiences.What was the impetus for your shift from classical physical theater training into a focus on the virtual?Krzysztof Garbaczewski: Theater has this ability of being a very experimental field for human interactions, and from the beginning, that's been important for me. From this approach I became very interested in playing with the audience's expectations and I began to use live streaming techniques. For example, when the audience comes to the theater they suddenly see a screen in front of them completely covering the stage and see that there are people behind the screen. Almost like in Plato's cave with the performers moving like shadows. It's also important for me that all the footage we are using is made live. Even if it is happening in virtual reality, my work is still live. I think there's some amazing energy around being with the audience in the same room in this process.Theater has come to an end for you in some way. Theater has failed or it's no longer a site for experimentation and innovation. Something about that is thrilling to me.KG: There is something about reaching this end especially in the work of Grotowski. He reduced theater to the basic elements of the actor and the spectator. At some point he crossed this division into some kind of form that starts to be ritual. Grotowski was looking for ritual in theater. I'm looking for it in this digital form of theater. Ritual is something that connects us.Grotowski had this term art as vehicle. For me it became really interesting to interpret that as digital art as vehicle. He was trying to show the boundary between the spectator and the actor. The actor is in the process of reaching some higher energies through gathering the energy of the spectator and performing some very codified movements and songs to transcend his condition. Somehow I saw that that is exactly what is happening for us when we are using VR headsets. But through technology we can reach this state in a very special way and practice much more quickly.All of Grotowski's writings are very inspiring for me. At some point he was unsatisfied with conventional theater and was in search of a form of theater that was alive. I think this aliveness is maybe not found in the conventional stage of the theater. (Laughing) Suddenly I am recognizing myself as someone who is making similar choices, but maybe in the opposite direction. But this direction is so opposite that I still feel very close to Grotowski. If he was alive today maybe he also would have also made VR.There's this spiritual and philosophical dimension that underlies your use and understanding of technology. You speak of transcendence and mysticism. You've talked about Plato and about the world as a simulation. You've brought up all kinds of transcendent ideas about technology. Tell me about those mystical ideas that you see in technology. How does that effect that way you work?KG: Since I studied philosophy years ago, it was always very tempting for me to stage The Symposium by Plato. It's one of the most significant philosophical pieces in the whole of human history and it's also a dialogue. It has parts, people are talking to each other, and in a kind of naive way that seemed to be perfect for theater. We did Symposium in Warsaw a few years ago. It was very successful and is still playing today, seven years later, to a full house. I find it kind of funny, you know, that people come and listen to Plato for two hours.All the Plato categories are also very inspiring for VR. With Plato's cave there's this feeling that there's something behind the reality. Something behind our matrix that we live in. I have this intuition that technology is not something that is getting us farther from this essence, but actually can get us closer to it.It is similar with nature, which is a problematic term because all of the nature in the world has become culture or agriculture. There are no white spots on the maps anymore. Technology reveals to us new fields of research that we can apply to human consciousness. Tools like virtual reality or artificial intelligence allow us to recognize ourselves more. For me, this process of working with the virtual is like an alchemic process—where we bind some elements that are surprising and new—like new creations, creatures, avatars and all other digital entities that are starting to populate our world and we can interact with them.There's a whole new set of tools for theatrical composition, dramaturgy, and audience experience. You not only have the theater, but you also have the VR space, live film, and the possibility for another remote audience to connect through VR to the work. Give us a sense of what it's like to enter a theater and experience one of your works.KG: It's something that works on my consciousness and the consciousness of the audience. We use all those tools to discover some new field for this consciousness to come together. Actors perform on the stage in VR headsets and then their avatar is transmitted to a screen onstage and we can see the actor performing live on stage but also performing in the virtual world to a virtual audience.I somehow feel that all these things are there on the stage, not always physically, but in a mediated form. This opens up philosophical questions like what is this reality? What is time? How do we experience this time when, suddenly, an actor is performing somewhere far away, but also very close? And this effects us and gives us very different sensations, so I'm looking for those sensations and trying to make poetry out of it.Here, Faust is important for me as a poetic language. All these things we are using are like words and poetry. They combine into very paradoxical meanings and sometimes work against our common sense and understanding of reality. For the audience, I think it's sometimes pretty shocking to experience this, but it's like a good shock, you know. It takes us out of this normal state of just participating in this reality without questioning it. We need to question this reality to somehow make this world a bit different.In Goethe, this is very special for me right now. A lot of freaky stuff is happening during the rehearsals. Goethe somehow becomes this spiritual experience of gathering different ghosts. Faust is calling those ghosts in the beginning of the drama and we are in a similar process of calling those ghosts. Sometimes I feel that Goethe is somehow present with us and guiding us through this process that is also a very hallucinogenic experience.There's this part where Faust is drinking this potion—the witches potion that is making him younger—and there's a guy who made the potion himself in the 1950s. He was drinking this potion with his friend and they both had a very intense experience. And I feel it's like a trip somehow, this poetry, but described in a very mystical and philosophical language.You talk about the importance of theater as a space to explore boundaries. What kinds of boundaries do you think technologies enable us to cross?KG: Boundaries of time and space and boundaries of our understanding of being together, these are the main boundaries that we are crossing.For example you mentioned earlier that you watched my piece Exegesis that we did together with La MaMa in New York and CultureHub. It's inspired by the novel by Philip K. Dick, this amazing diary of transcendent experiences he had. He then describes that he spent the rest of his life trying to understand what happened to him.We were meeting for our rehearsals and recordings in virtual reality. We were spending all our time together in VR together with Jim Fletcher, Danusia Trevino, 3D artists like Anastasia Vorobiova, composers, and actors. And it was amazing to create this utopian digital community that is making theater and suddenly crossing boundaries. We were crossing this fact that at the time we couldn't just meet together and it was opening some new possibilities.I like that you are sharing the very positive and productive aspects of virtual production, because some of my colleagues would say you can't make live performance unless the bodies are in the same space and time. So I'm very excited to hear you talk and actually promote a different way of working with new results when you can't meet in the same space and time.I think here there is no opposition between those two fields. Of course, it's very funny to go to theater and it's also very funny to go to digital theater. I think both forms have their reason for existence. But for me it was, just recently, more mind blowing to experience all these virtual pieces because of the possibilities that it creates. With all the possibilities of creating things that are really not possible to experience in reality. This is in a sense hallucinogenic, but it's like hallucinating without drugs, just through technology you can reach those levels. I feel that presence is still present, but maybe you need to spend a bit more time for your consciousness to really adapt to it.In theater, after finishing a performance, we hug each other when we do it live. We were doing the same after playing digital performances. It was maybe a bit awkward to hug someone and suddenly experience that you had just touched a bunch of scattered polygons, but the feeling was still with us. With the development of technology this will become something really powerful for performance.In this piece The Artist is (all but) Present (the title is a joke on the Marina Abramović performance, but it also was maybe the most Grotowski piece that I made) the theatrical situation was really reduced. The spectator was wearing HoloLens glasses and was seeing the hologram of the actor on the empty stage. It was really amazing visually. The performer and spectator were creating poems together and everything the spectator was saying was appearing in the room, flying as words in space. It's really something you cannot experience any other way. You're participating in this poetic conversation and this creation is somehow automatically appearing. These are the kinds of moments that makes this work really new.I'm remembering this moment in our first encounter on Zoom, where you said that you have a distaste for the idea of story and that we should stop using the word storytelling. I'm very attracted to that. In the past few years the whole discourse, from marketing to theater and performance venues, has been that everyone is going to be telling their story and that storytelling is the most important thing that human beings do. So I was taken by your distaste for that. Do you remember what you were communicating to me when you said that?I would maybe make the supposition that experience is something more significant than storytelling and that not everything can be put into storytelling. Storytelling is something that is happening in time and experience is something you can have immediately like enlightenment. Enlightenment is of course a very big thing, but it doesn't always have to be this big thing. It's also those moments where you understand something in one second and you grasp all the meaning. When you try to tell a story out of that or try to describe that meaning it is suddenly all lost. You have to spend another week and write and essay and a lot of sweat to bring it back.I feel we are losing something by storytelling. We are losing some potential of the art by just putting everything into a story. We are closing ourselves on this much deeper experience. Like the fact that an art piece can leave you speechless. What then about storytelling? Of course if you expand the meaning of storytelling into some other realities or meanings, maybe then both make sense again. But I feel some possibility of art, metaphors, and abstract art can just go directly to your mind and your soul and change you.Change for us is some kind of mystery. I don't want to say that I'm a mystic here, and some psychologist could put it in better words, but this change is very rapid it's just happening. One day you wake up and you're someone else. It's the same with art, you experience something and you don't exactly know why it's so important. But then it comes back to you and becomes this very significant moment in life. It's like falling in love, it's more like a process than storytelling.This last image of you before we stop—this image that you sent to me of you in your boat. The boat is a very powerful symbol. It's not stable, it's not on land, it's in the process of going somewhere else. There's a journey and potential threats and crises. It's also about leaving somewhere to go somewhere else. Tell me where you are with your boat right now.I call it liquid modernity. It's like surfing on liquid modernity, a term by Zygmunt Bauman, a philosopher based in England. (Laughing) Even today I was just thinking, my god, I chose the most unstable home I could imagine. We started by talking about the war that is happening right now. And we see that all these things that we think are stable are shifting and becoming at times dangerous. But of course this idea appeared to me before that. I'm not yet a refugee escaping on a boat. I'm more like Odysseus going for a moment to another island and then turning it into a trip for 10 years now. We'll see.I also wonder how to make digital art on a boat using, as much as I can, sustainable energy from the sun and wind and traveling by those means of the wind and water. I like the knowledge that is necessary. The weather and the navigation and the stars and how you can use it for setting the point where you are like in those old times. Somehow for me it's a very modern experience in a way, of trying to see the changing points, and not being in a stable position, and always in some kind of movement.So when is your next trip?I just have to finish this Faust piece and then I'm going on the sea.Where are you going?I have the boat in Poland right now. So I will probably go to Norway or Denmark or Germany. Or somewhere farther, hopefully reaching the Mediterranean or Iceland. Iceland is cold, but still very fascinating.I think this is a good place to stop to imagine you on this boat, leaving Poland to Iceland. And your journey with all of its stabilities and instabilities. and tools for locating directions and points of references. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit futureperfect.substack.com
This week Ciaran is joined on the 'In Lockdown With...' podcast by playwright and performer Tabby Lamb. Tabby studied Theatre Directing at Dartington College, before breaking into the industry. Their play 'Since U Been Gone' is an autobiographical account of queerness, loss and growing up in the noughties. Tabby is also the founder of 'Theatre Queers' a regular meetup for queer people working in the theatre industry in London. They were a part of WildChild's 'Oli Lansley Mentoring Scheme for Writers,' developing work for TV and Theatre. Here Ciaran finds out more about Tabby's career so far!
Honor. Legacy. Pride. Taking his place out front as the choir leader at an elite all-boys, all-Black prep school, Pharus Young is determined to make his mark by challenging expectations in a world steeped in deep-rooted traditions. Can Pharus find harmony among his peers while staying true to his own voice? From Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Academy Award®-winning writer of Moonlight, Choir Boy electrified Broadway with its soaring gospel, spiritual, and R&B performances.ABOUT JEFFREY L. PAGEJeffrey L. Page is an opera and theatre director of both classical and contemporary works. As director and choreographer, he spearheaded the Tokyo production of Memphis, which received four Yomiuri Award nominations, including Best Musical. The first African American to be named the Marcus Institute Fellow for Opera Directing at the Juilliard School, he has also been nominated for an Emmy Award, and won an MTV Video Music Award for his work with Beyoncé. His work was featured on Beyoncé's “The Formation World Tour,” in her historic Coachella performance, and in two of her HBO specials. Page was the associate creative director for Mariah Carey's “Sweet, Sweet Fantasy” European Tour, and has been a featured choreographer on Fox's “So You Think You Can Dance.” He recently directed MAKING MICHEAUX (Book and lyrics by JESSE L. KEARNEY, JR. Music by ALPHONSO HORNE) for Prospect Theatre in NYC.As a performer, Page was in the original Broadway cast of Fela! and choreographed the Broadway musical Violet starring Sutton Foster. At the Barrington Theatre Company, Page won a Berkshire Theater Award for Joe Iconis' Broadway Bounty Hunter. In 2016, he established Movin' Legacy as an Indianapolis-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the ethnology and documentation of contemporary and traditional dance from Africa and the African diaspora. He holds a Master's of Fine Arts degree, (Theatre Directing) from Columbia University in New York City, and has been awarded the Chuck Davis Emerging Choreographer Fellowship from the Brooklyn Academy of Music.Jeffrey joined Harvard University as a Lecturer in Theater, Dance and Media. Currently, he is preparing to choreograph and co-direct, with Diane Paulus, the upcoming Broadway production of 1776, after premiering at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University.FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION: https://philadelphiatheatrecompany.org/choir-boy/
In this episode we are joined by Marina Zurita, Acadia Barrengos, and Mollye Maxner, talking all things theatre directing. Acadia Barrengos is a theatre director hailing from New England. She found her home in directing through molecular genetic study of pregnancy and childbirth poetry and dance which brought her to North Carolina University of the Arts. Inspired by the research and study of epigenetics, Acadia is driven by stories that wrestle with inheritance, and is fascinated by the discovery that we can adapt how our bodies read our DNA coding to evolve through and beyond intergenerational trauma. Marina Zurita is a theatre director born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and she likes to think of theatre as a powerful gap between translations, home for lost voices and interpretations. She moved to the USA in 2016, and is currently pursuing a BFA in directing as UNCSA. Living in a foreign location fuelled her passion for anthropological research in linguistics, inspiring her to develop her upcoming project ‘Mother Tongue', to be performed in the spring of 2022. Mollye Maxner is an educator, director, choreographer and maker of original performance work. Her movement theatre work has been performed in the USA, Taiwan, Germany, Georgia, and throughout Turkey. Mollye is on the faculty at UNC school of the Arts, where she is director and co-creator of the studio for creative practice, a laboratory for transdisciplinary art and inquiry. https://www.acadiabarrengos.com https://www.marinazurita.com We want to hear from YOU and provide a forum where you can put in requests for future episodes. What are you interested in listening to? Please fill out the form for future guest suggestions here and if you have suggestions or requests for future themes and topics, let us know here! @theatreartlife Thanks to David Zieher who composed our music.
Episode CreditsProduced by Nicholas PilapilEdited by Nicholas PilapilTheme song by Eloise Wong
Prepare yourself Scripties for an episode containing all of the most amazing pop culture references ever! We're bringing you copious Kelly Clarkson, tons of Top Model, a bountiful supply of Broadway's Legally Blonde and unparalleled amounts of Ursula the Sea Witch. All will become clear as we discuss Since U Been Gone, with Special Guest, Playwright Tabby LambCo Hosted by Lexie Ward and Meg Robinson.Music By Connor Barton (Sethera Sound Design)Find SCRIPT IN HAND on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook - Give us a like/follow to keep up to date with episode information and extra content.If you're enjoying the podcast, you can also buy us a virtual Ko-Fi now at https://ko-fi.com/scriptinhandpodTabby Lamb is a non-binary writer and performer based in East London and a graduate of the Theatre Directing course at Dartington College of Arts. Similarly inspired by Carly Rae Jepson and Tennessee Williams, she strives to tell stories that explore the intersections between popular culture and politics. Their debut solo show SINCE U BEEN GONE, which Tabby wrote and performed, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019, after previewing at the Gate Theatre. The show was spectacularly received by audiences and garnered a glowing 4* write up from the Guardian who called the play “bold, honest and swollen with love”.Tabby is an associate writer with Middle Child, she's on attachment at the Oxford Playhouse via their Playhouse Playmaker scheme 2021 and she's developing new work on the Wild Child's Oli Lansley mentor scheme, mentored by Sarah Sol-eh-mar-ni. She has previously been part of the Soho Theatre Writers Lab and the LGBTQ Arts Review #RaisingOurVoices scheme for queer and trans writers. Current commissions include the Unicorn Theatre, The Place, Kilter and Pentabus. Alongside their passion for writing, Tabby is a facilitator and runs creative arts projects for young people from the LGBTQ+ community. She is developing various stage and TV projects including a new trans musical.EPISODE BIBLIOGRAPHYTabby Huffington Post Article “Non-Binary People Like Me Won't Fit In Until We Change Our Exclusionary Language”https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/non-binary-pronouns-language_uk_5f7c94dcc5b61229a057f53fNorthern Stage Scroll Project; Love Letter To Us by Tabby Lambwww.youtube.com/watch?v=M45IDECkezs&t=12sGuardian Review from Edinburgh Fringe 2019https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/aug/19/since-u-been-gone-review-edinburgh-2019Guardian 12 Shows to see at Vault Festival 2020https://bit.ly/35fgFp0Broadway Baby Reviewhttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/aug/19/since-u-been-gone-review-edinburgh-2019Trailer for Edinburgh Fringe Productionwww.youtube.com/watch?v=my61vCrsz-ILove Letter to Uswww.youtube.com/watch?v=M45IDECkezsKelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone music videowww.youtube.com/watch?v=R7UrFYvl5TE
In this episode, I chat with Weronika Kuśmider, a Polish student of theatre directing who spent a year abroad studying at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle. During her time in Paris, she directed a bilingual short play and actively saw theater throughout Paris. She is the founder of Coaching for Artists and co-founder of Atelier Entre – Deux.✩ Where to find Weronika ✩➫ Instagram @weronikamariakusmiderSupport the show (https://paypal.me/pools/c/8AMn73M6IO)
In episode 153 of Relate, we speak with Rose Burnett Bonczek and Mike Flanagan, who both just co-authored the book All The Classroom's A Stage. We talk about the value of applying theater skills to the classroom as a means to engage deeper with students, how theater skills are human skills, why we must collaborate to build more meaningful relationships, and why teachers must prioritize self-care. For any of you teachers tuning in, this is the episode for you! You can learn more about Rose and Mike by visiting https://www.roseburnettbonczek.com/ and @mflanny1124. You can purchase their book at your local bookstore. Rose Burnett Bonczek is a theater director, consultant, educator and author who has directed over 100 productions including Off and Off-off Broadway, regional and community theater, international festivals, and in education. For the past 17 years, she has been festival director of Gi60 (Gone in 60 Seconds) International One Minute Theatre Festival: US. www.gi60.blogspot.com. Gi60 annually produces 100 original one minute plays, streams and films each event, with plays available for viewing on the Gi60 YouTube Channel. Because live events were cancelled in 2020, Gi60 produced Gi60 Theatre Festival on Film, currently available On Demand at the Obie Award winning theater The Tank NYC, on their Cybertank platform. Ms. Bonczek served as director of the BFA Acting Program at Brooklyn College for over 20 years, and in 2018 she received the Excellence in Teaching Theatre in Higher Education Award from the national Association for Theater in Higher Education. She has co-authored Turn That Thing Off! Collaboration and Technology in 21 st Century Actor Training with Roger Manix and David Storck, Ensemble Theatre Making: A Practical Guide with David Storck, and One Minute Plays: A Practical Guide to Tiny Theatre with Steve Ansell, all for Routledge Press. Michael Flanagan is a theatre director and Instructor of Drama at Houston Community College. He is Associate Producer of Gi60 Live US Edition, the international one-minute play festival where, over the years, he's directed over 100 short plays. Michael has taught theatre and directed for colleges and universities such as The College of Mount Saint Vincent, Brooklyn College, Iona College, and Fordham University. Michael has directed productions Off-Off Broadway, for community theaters and at theatre festivals, as well as adjudicating performing arts competitions. He was the founding Artistic Director for the Roosevelt Island Shakespeare Festival and assisted in the development of The City Island Theatre Shakespeare Festival. As Assistant Director of Student Success and Assistant Chair of General Education at The College of Westchester, he used applied theater concepts and techniques to develop the curriculum of freshman seminar and other core curriculum classes. He also applied improvisation and theatrical concepts to the Student Success Coach Program. He holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Brooklyn College. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/relate-patrick-mcandrew/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/relate-patrick-mcandrew/support
Queer performance is one space that queer identifying people will go to to be with their tribe, says Alyson Campbell, Associate Professor in Theatre (Directing and Dramaturgy) at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne. “Theatre is a way of collectively thinking through the world. We’re actually in a space together and something is in front of us and we’re kind of working our way through it together. “It’s actually trying to work in different ways from normative theatre. It’s about the processes of making and that is largely around collaboration and who else is in that team and is this being driven by this kind of commitment to challenging normative forms and structures as well as perhaps, say, telling gay stories.” In 2021, Alyson and Steve Farrier will lead a hybrid digital/face-to-face version of their Feral Queer Camp, hosting activities about what makes performance queer, and how we might develop a network of queer thinkers, all stemming from the performances in the Midsumma Festival in Melbourne. “Performance can teach us things about queerness and that we can speak back or have a dialogue with theory. It’s not that one has a hierarchical position above the others.” “I will just really strongly emphasise here that Steve and I might be facilitators, but we are learning as much from everybody who comes to the Feral Queer Camp as they are learning from us.” For more information, go to Feral Queer Camp. Episode recorded: March 22, 2021. Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath. Producer, audio engineer, editor: Chris Hatzis. Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath. Banner: Getty Images.
Queer performance is one space that queer identifying people will go to to be with their tribe, says Alyson Campbell, Associate Professor in Theatre (Directing and Dramaturgy) at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne. “Theatre is a way of collectively thinking through the world. We're actually in a space together and something is in front of us and we're kind of working our way through it together. “It's actually trying to work in different ways from normative theatre. It's about the processes of making and that is largely around collaboration and who else is in that team and is this being driven by this kind of commitment to challenging normative forms and structures as well as perhaps, say, telling gay stories.” In 2021, Alyson and Steve Farrier will lead a hybrid digital/face-to-face version of their Feral Queer Camp, hosting activities about what makes performance queer, and how we might develop a network of queer thinkers, all stemming from the performances in the Midsumma Festival in Melbourne. “Performance can teach us things about queerness and that we can speak back or have a dialogue with theory. It's not that one has a hierarchical position above the others.” “I will just really strongly emphasise here that Steve and I might be facilitators, but we are learning as much from everybody who comes to the Feral Queer Camp as they are learning from us.” For more information, go to Feral Queer Camp. Episode recorded: March 22, 2021. Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath. Producer, audio engineer, editor: Chris Hatzis. Co-producers: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath. Banner: Getty Images.
Writer: Rom WatsonRom Watson is the author of the full-length plays Image and Likeness, Manifesto of Silence, Pickle Juice, The Norma Conquests: The Three Faces of Norma, My Fair Norma, The Importance of Being Norma; Lying Beneath the Surface and Pinocchio in The Bronx; the 10-minute plays A Twin Out of Time, The Test, Three Syllables of Shame, Celebrity Death Watch, Performance Anxiety, Mead and Stu go Caroling and Mr. Cuddles; and the libretto for Chamber Music for Bonsai Trees, which is based upon a short novel in the public domain. Twelve of his 30 short plays have been produced, and others have had readings at The Road Theatre, Moving Arts, The MET Theatre, Fierce Backbone, Alliance Repertory Company, Unknown Theatre, The Laura Henry Studio, Celebration Theatre, Neo Ensemble Theatre and the ALAP festivals Dramapalooza, Dramapocalypto and Dramakaze. He is a member of The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and has been a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. since 1996. More at http://www.romwatson.com/Director: Jan SwankJan Swank has produced and directed over 300 theatre productions and appeared in over 100 in his professional career. He was Managing Artistic Director of three different theatres over 35 years. His production of The Diviners won four awards, including Best Producer (Director) and the Audience Award at the International Festival in Dundalk, Ireland. He attended Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne, Southern Oregon University, and the University of South Dakota. He holds a BFA in Classical Theatre, an MA in Theatre, and an MFA in Theatre Directing. He is a South Dakota Arts Fellow, a member of Actors' Equity Association, and a decorated veteran of the U.S. Army. He and his wife Jill live in Rapid City, South Dakota.CAST David Trice as RandallDavid Trice is pleased to have worked with Bernadette Armstrong a second time. The first was in her one-act play "Joan." He is very glad to be back. He has numerous Film and Television credits. He has been on "Big Bang Theory" "Mom" "Criminal Minds" and "Parks and Recs." His most recent was "Homecoming 2" ep 4 on Amazon PrimValerian Ruminski as WardValerian is the founder and Artistic Director of the Nickel City Opera, Buffalo NY., and is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He is the recipient of many prestigious grants and awards including the Lincoln Center Martin Segal Award, a Richard Tucker Grant, a William Mattheus Sullivan Foundation Grant, a Gerda Lissner Foundation Grant, the 2000 MacAllister Award, winner of the NJ Verismo Competition, the NYSTA Coloratura Competition and the Marcella Sembrich Vocal Competition sponsored by the Kosciuszko Foundation.Sound Production: Recorded at ES Audio Services in Glendale, CA. Recorded and Mixed by: Hall CantrellSound Editor: Hall CantrellSound Effects: Ryan MarshSupport the show (https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/open-door-playhouse)
ABOUT: Dizzy is a seventy-year-old woman hell-bent on getting her tattoo removed. She and her friends end up in a Tattoo Parlor where she meets the much younger Char, a non-binary tattoo artist. Dizzy and Char spend some time in verbal sparring but end up finding common ground as they recognize the pain that formed each other's SCARS.WRITER: Pamela KingsleyPamela Kingsley is an actress and director with more than 200 productions to her credit. A playwright, Pamela's work has been selected by theatres in cities across the U.S. including Buffalo, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New Haven, N. ... She is a member of The Dramatists Guild.DIRECTOR: Jan SwankJan Swank has produced and directed over 300 theatre productions and appeared in over 100 in his professional career. He was Managing Artistic Director of three different theatres over 35 years. His production of The Diviners won four awards, including Best Producer (Director) and the Audience Award at the International Festival in Dundalk, Ireland. He attended Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne, Southern Oregon University, and the University of South Dakota. He holds a BFA in Classical Theatre, an MA in Theatre, and an MFA in Theatre Directing. He is a South Dakota Arts Fellow, a member of Actors' Equity Association, and a decorated veteran of the U.S. Army. He and his wife Jill live in Rapid City, South Dakota.ACTORS:Noelle Evangelisti - As Lindy Noelle received her MFA in Acting from the California Institute of the Arts. She was cast in the following major motion pictures: Terminator Two, LA Confidential, and Pacific Heights. Noelle has performed in numerous theaters in Los Angeles and one of her favorite and most memorable roles as Liz in The Philadelphia Story. She loves working on commercials and voice-overs and had a great time doing a radio play pre-Covid with the Screen Actors Guild. Enjoy and stay safe and healthy everyone!Joanne McGee - As BabsJoanne McGee has been a professional actor since 1977 and has work in Union and Non-Union theaters around the country includingThe Florida Rep., Utah Shakespeare Festival, Nevada Shakespeare in the Park, Detroit Rep., and Sonora Rep. To name a few. She’s been seen in Jag, General Hospital, America’s Most Wanted, West Wing, and others. She finally had a dream come true and performed at the Mark Taper Forum as, Sladjana, in the world premiere of, Archduke, with Center Theater Group. She has done voice-over and commercials but this is her very first PodCast. Bonnie Bailey-Reed - As DizzyBONNIE BAILEY-REED Bonnie’s career began in NYC with touring with two Musical Theatre First National Tours. In L.A., she has appeared in award-winning roles including Mags in the World Premiere of THE SUPER VARIETY MATCH BONUS ROUND at The Rogue Machine Theatre, Mrs. Brummett in the World Premiere of Arlene Hutton's GULF VIEW DRIVE (LA Weekly Award, Supporting Actress). Sue Gisser - As CharSue trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Steppenwolf West, the Groundlings, iOWest, Second City, Antaeus Academy, Theatricum Botanicum, and holds a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers. In her professional career, Sue is blessed to seldom work with a director, show, or theatre company only once. SOUND PRODUCTIONRecorded at Clear Lake Studios in North Hollywood and mixed at Avant Sound Recorded and Mixed by Hall CantrellSound Editor: Hall CantrellSound Effects: Ryan MarshSupport the show (https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/open-door-playhouse)
ABOUTMead & Stud learn how to talk about sex from penguins.DIRECTORJan Swank has produced and directed over 300 theatre productions and appeared in over 100 in his professional career. He was Managing Artistic Director of three different theatres over 35 years. His production of The Diviners won four awards, including Best Producer (Director) and the Audience Award at the International Festival in Dundalk, Ireland. He attended Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne, Southern Oregon University, and the University of South Dakota. He holds a BFA in Classical Theatre, an MA in Theatre, and an MFA in Theatre Directing. He is a South Dakota Arts Fellow, a member of Actors' Equity Association, and a decorated veteran of the U.S. Army. He and his wife Jill live in Rapid City, South Dakota.WRITERRom Watson is the author of numerous full-length plays. Twelve of his 28 short plays have been produced, and others have had readings at The Road Theatre, Moving Arts, The MET Theatre, Fierce Backbone, Alliance Repertory Company, Unknown Theatre, The Laura Henry Studio, Celebration Theatre, Neo Ensemble Theatre, and the ALAP festivals Dramapalooza, Dramapocalypto and Dramakaze. He is a member of The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights and has been a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. since 1996.ACTORSDavid Trice is pleased to have worked with Bernadette Armstrong a second time. The first was in her one-act play "Joan." He is very glad to be back. He has numerous film and television credits. He has been on "Big Bang Theory" "Mom" "Criminal Minds" and "Parks and Recs." His most recent was "Homecoming 2" ep 4 on Amazon Prime. One last thing. Please vote!Daamen Krall has worked as a professional actor/voice-over artist in films and television for the past 38 years. Some of the recent film credits include THE POST, CARS III, AMERICAN PASTORAL, UNBROKEN 2, and, for television, SLEEPY HOLLOW and MADMEN. One of his favorite projects was starring in the title role of the award-winning remake of THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI. He also produced the award-winning short film HIDE. Under the banner of MIDNIGHT SCREAM PRODUCTIONS with partner Robert Shelby, he is currently in post-production for the web series THE LISTENER. Daamen is also the host and sometimes cast member of the return of radio’s theatre of thrills, SUSPENSE, which is ha gained fans around the world and was nominated twice for a Peabody Award.Matthew Scott Montgomery For his portrayal as Kendall Parker in Del Shores' Yellow, Matthew Scott Montgomery won "Best Featured Performance in a Play" at the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards in 2011, nominated against actors such as Harry Groener and Chris Pine. He was also awarded "Best Featured Actor in a Play" at the 2010 Backstage Garland Awards and "Comedic/Dramatic Performance of the Year" for the 2010 Stage Scene LA Awards and was nominated for "Best Featured Performance in a Play" at the 2010 LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards for the same performance.SOUND PRODUCTIONMercury Sound Studios Recorded and Mixed by Paul Ratajczak and Hall CantrellSOUND EFFECTSRyan MarshSOUND EDITORHall CantrellMUSICAudio JungleSupport the show (https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/open-door-playhouse)
The award-winning Belarus Free Theatre was founded 15 years ago to create drama around issues of human rights and creative freedom in a country which has been called Europe’s last surviving dictatorship. It creates provocative physical shows attended by audiences in secret locations around Minsk and has achieved international recognition and support. BFT’s founding artistic directors Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin cannot rehearse the actors face to face because they are now political refugees living in the United Kingdom. So, for the past nine years they have been using a Skype line to connect with the performers hundreds of miles away. Natalia and Nicolai have been rehearsing the actors in a new play called Dogs of Europe, based on the novel by the contemporary Belarusian author Alhierd Bacharevic, which depicts life in a dystopian super state where individual freedoms are taken away. As well as performing in Minsk, the actors were also set to come to London and perform at the Barbican Theatre. But Covid-19 has put an end to that plan. So what will the company do instead? The BBC’s Olga Smirnova follows Natalia and Nikolai during the process of rehearsal and performance and hears from them and the actors about the techniques of directing from a distance. She also talks to the British actor and writer Stephen Fry who is taking part in BFT’s newest venture.
Welcome to Astronaut to Zookeeper Podcast where we aim to open up the imagination for young people when it comes to life after school.In this episode I had the pleasure of catching up with Philip, a former student who is now a Theatre Director! We chat about all sorts of things including how Philip didn't take Drama GCSE and yet still found his heart in the world of theatre! And of course the best day, worst day and average day of being an Theatre Director!Remember if you are interested in finding out more about the world of Theatre Directing then head on over to our Instagram account @astrozookeeper where Philip has kindly given us his follow up 3 pieces of advice!And of course, thanks to you for listening! Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/atozpodcast)
SarrSew - "Farewell, Warden.” from the 2018 album Girih: Iranian Sound Artists on Zabte Sote When Tehran-born, Paris-based artist Sara Bigdeli Shamloo isn’t recording as half of the duo 9T Antiope, she records solo under the name SarrSew. While previous SarrSew tracks were composed for theatre and film (Shamloo was studying Theatre Directing at Tehran University before she dropped out), today’s Song of the Day marks her solo debut single, a haunting, somber chant sung in English over an eerie, yet meditative lullaby until it culminates in an erratic blur of feedback. Read the full post on KEXP.org Support the show.
This story is written by Makena Metz. Makena writes plays and musicals in the styles of fantasy, sci-fi, or magical realism. She studied Playwriting & Theatre Directing at Columbia College Chicago (class of 17’) and am a proud member of DGA and ASCAP. This past year, she was chosen as an Alliance of Los Angeles … Continue reading Gateways: “The Game” by Makena Metz. Read by Kat Evans. →
In this conversation Virginia Grise & Shayok Misha Chowdhury talk about longing, Love and the Moon…migration histories…shared lineages…real time collaborations/and just doing the work. Virginia Grise is a recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, Princess Grace Award in Theatre Directing and the Yale Drama Series Award. Publications include: Your Healing is Killing Me (Plays Inverse Press), blu (Yale University Press) and The Panza Monologues co-written with Irma Mayorga (University of Texas Press). More at: http://virginiagrise.com Shayok Misha Chowdhury is a queer Bengali director, writer, and theater-maker based in Brooklyn. Misha is currently in residence at Ars Nova, Soho Rep, the Drama League, and The Flea, and was recently a Directing Fellow at New York Theater Workshop. Misha was featured on the Grammy-winning album Calling All Dawns. More at: shayokmishachowdhury.com
Ep. 69 Bethany Hughes, co-founder of Straight Edge Theatre & current Artistic Director of the Walterdale Theatre, joins us to talk about directing theatre! We suss out the ways to approach various directorial challenges one might face; we talk about our own approaches to developing a vision & directing a show; we discuss how theatre plays with vulnerability & the power of presence. Go see The Great Gatsby December 5th-15th, if you're in Edmonton, AB. You can get tickets right here. Follow this show on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook! Music credits: Intro sample: “March of the Spoons” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Outro sample: “Port Horizon” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
In this week’s episode I sit down with Cameron Carver. Cameron Carver is a theatre director, choreographer, and movement director originally from London Ontario. In our conversation today we discuss how he was introduced to theatre through the arts programs that were offered in London, his time at Sheridan College and the main lessons he took from his time in school, as well as some of his first experiences in the industry and what he learned from those experiences. We also discuss what spoke to him about directing and choreographing, his experiences getting his Masters of the Arts in Theatre Directing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK, as well as how the theatre industry in Canada differs from the theatre industry in the UK and where he sees both theatre industries headed in the future.
In this week’s episode I sit down with Cameron Carver. Cameron Carver is a theatre director, choreographer, and movement director originally from London Ontario. In our conversation today we discuss how he was introduced to theatre through the arts programs that were offered in London, his time at Sheridan College and the main lessons he took from his time in school, as well as some of his first experiences in the industry and what he learned from those experiences. We also discuss what spoke to him about directing and choreographing, his experiences getting his Masters of the Arts in Theatre Directing at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK, as well as how the theatre industry in Canada differs from the theatre industry in the UK and where he sees both theatre industries headed in the future.
Uruguayan Ximena Varela, Associate Professor and Director of Arts Management at American University, is a mother of two children, a researcher, and an educator. She lived in many places around the world with her parents before landing in the U.S. long-term as an adult. Matt Torney is the Associate Artistic Director at Studio Theatre. Born in Northern Ireland, Matt was inspired to study in the USA by the work of Professor and Director, Anne Bogart, who teaches at Colombia University where Matt graduated with a MFA in Theatre Directing. Join co-hosts Louise Puck and Anna Danielson for a candid conversation on life as an immigrant artist. Edited by Abraham Kadi.
Joanie Schultz came to WaterTower Theatre in December of 2016. Before WaterTower, Joanie served as Associate Artistic Producer at Victory Gardens Theater, as part of the Leadership U One-on-One Fellowship funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation administered through TCG, the national non-profit regional theatre service organization. She is also a freelance director, with recent productions at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Studio Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Victory Gardens Theater. She was a Drama League Fellow, The Goodman Theatre Michael Maggio Director Fellow; the SDSF Denham Fellow; and Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab participant. She is an ensemble member at Steep Theatre, Artistic Associate at Victory Gardens Theater, and artistic cabinet member at Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. She is currently on adjunct faculty in directing at Columbia College and University of Chicago. She received her B.A. in Theatre/Directing at Columbia College and her M.F.A. in Theatre Directing from Northwestern University. This interview was recorded by Mark David Noble, July 25, 2017 in the offices of WaterTower Theatre. For more information, please visit: http://www.watertowertheatre.org Intro and exit music was provided by James Vernon, from the James Vernon Trio recording, House of Jazz. Photo by Joe Mazza
Chef Yo graduated with a masters from the Theatre Directing program at Columbia University. A native of Thailand, he found himself working in Thai resturants in New York, climbing the ladder from busboy to server to manager. The hospitality industry never appealed to him-it was simply a means to an end-but when he graduated and struggled to find work in the theatre he went back to basics. Chef Yo reached out to two friends and together they opened up Pinto, a Thai restaurant in the West Village. After four years in business their head chef had to return to Thailand and with such a tight budget, Chef Yo took the mantle of head cook. He learned from repetitive practice of recipes in the French Laundry cookbook and slowly found his own identity. The real change came with perspective. The endeavor of opening a restaurant was a project to finance a play, never a career. It was only once Chef Yo accepted Pinto was an extension of him and something he would devote himself to that the restaurant began to succeed. As Exec Chef and owner of two restaurants, Pinto Garden and Pinto Brooklyn Heights, this story shows that it’s never too late to learn again. Pinto Garden in the West Village can be found on 117 w 10th St Pinto Brooklyn is located at 128 Montague St