...And Then She DIES at the End!
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Christina Brosman & Elizabeth Kerin
July 20, 2012
What is your job on this show?
Writer/Directors.
Who are your heroes?
CHRISTINA: I blame all of this writing nonsense on Joss Whedon by way of my babysitter watching Buffy all the time. Mix that with a very well loved SNL: Best of Dan Aykroyd VHS and I was done for. From there it's been a whole lot of Tina Fey, the lady writer patron saint, and others of that ilk: Mindy Kaling, Liz Meriwether, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. Amy freakin' Poehler. The Stella guys. John Mulaney. And I listen to Marc Maron's podcast on the way to and from work far, far too often. You're welcome, people on the subway who have to watch me bizarrely giggling to myself.
LIZ: I've got a lot of venn diagramming going on here with Christina and rightfully so, considering we're writing partners! Where indeed would we be without the Tinas and Kristens and Amy freakin' Poehlers of the world? So they too are obviously quite high on my list! I came from a pretty heavy theatre background as a kid (I tap danced. We don't talk about it), so I was exposed early to directors like Mike Nichols and Kenneth Branagh who switched seamlessly between theatre and screen, comedy and drama, Death of a Salesman and Thor...you get the drift. Range is what that is! And I admire range more than anything. And then there are forces o' nature like Mindy Kaling and Liz Meriwether who also have roots in theatre and have proven themselves to be formidable TV voices. I really look up to them (said in my most adorable 5th grader voice as I stare wistfully at the high school kids!). Wow. Was this assignment to pick just one? I failed at this horribly if so.
Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
...will make you think twice the next time you tune into The Notebook on ABCFamily, will give you a new appreciation for Hootie and The Blowfish and the complexity of exorcisms. And it references the 90s family drama "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" a total of nine times. Maybe more if the actors are feeling feisty on any given night.
What was the most memorable/funny/unusual thing that has happened during the development and rehearsal process for this show?
Two of our cast members, Alan Starzinski and Brennan Lee Mulligan, hail from UCB where they are established company members and used to doing a whole lot of improv. We obviously had to take advantage! We started having the cast do an improv run-through at the end of each rehearsal. Strange and fantastic tangents ensued, and they're such an awesome way for us to get a fresh take on a script that we've been staring at by ourselves for months.
Groucho, Chico, Harpo, or Zeppo?
Groucho, hands down. If only just for "Hello, I Must Be Going." Or the fact that he could walk off the G train into Greenpoint right now and totally fit in. True story. We've all seen it.
If you had ten million dollars that you had to spend on theatrical endeavors, how would you use the money?
Industrial sized fog machine! REAL SNOW FALLING DELICATELY IN EVERY SCENE! THE AVENGERS: THE MUSICAL!!! Nah, we would probably put that money into the development of new work and maybe establish some sort of comedy writing/improv retreat and production house. A grant for exceptionally amazing folks who are just starting out. Anything to help people do what they do and build on it and all that cheesy (read: awesome) stuff that we love. And we'd would totally usher in a revival of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. That show was simply too awesome for Broadway. Sighs.
