Q&A INTERVIEWS WITH THE ARTISTS
BELLA'S DREAM
Jessica Ammirati and Dana Boll, Producer/Director and Playwright/Choreographer: "Jessica: When I’m not working on theatre I’m a doula, a non-medical birth assistant. It’s an equally dramatic experience. Similar to theatre, my birth work can be physically taxing, requires me to think on my feet, and encompasses huge swings of emotions as each new baby enters the world. When Dana’s not working on theatre, she’s an arts administrator, crusading to help bring other people’s artistic work into the world."
GEPPETTO
Carlo Adinolfi, Co-Creator, Performer, Designer: "I was born in Udine, Italy in 1960 and was raised in London, England from 1961 to 1978. I attended Warwick University, 1979-1981 and majored in Pure Mathematics. While at University, I started taking dance classes off campus. I came to NYC to study Modern Dance. In NYC, I performed with many different choreographers including Sara Pearson, Patrik Widrig and Dancers. At that time, I made a living as a cabinetmaker, then as a Stage Master Carpenter and then as a Technical Director. As TD at Sarah Lawrence College, I took theatre classes and studied puppetry with Dan Hurlin. I’ve been choreographing, designing and performing all that time (30+ years)."
THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING (NOT ME)
Anthony Wills Jr., Artistic Director/Performer: "I refuse to do theatre that has no purpose or meaning. I think the purpose of art is do something. Whether it be as simple as a feel good show that makes you a happier person or art that inspires, engages, educates, challenges, or even enrages. Art should be active. But don't get me wrong, I will do a meaningless broadway show in a heartbeat but then the purpose becomes a selfish one of wanting to experience the illustrious Great White Way and attain the ever sought after Broadway credit. "
THE PENALTY
Gregg Mozgala, Artistic Director, Actor, Producer: "The late playwright, John Belluso once said, 'that to be disabled, was to always be on stage.' As a person with a disability (I was born with spastic cerebral palsy), I am constantly dealing with people's gazes in my every day life and managing that negotiation between seeing and being seen. For me, the awareness of how that could translate to acting was in 7th grade when for the first assignment in my Speech & Drama class, I chose to perform Mark Antony's, "Friends, Romans, Countrymen..." speech from Julius Caesar. Suddenly, people were looking at me differently and I realized that through performance I could to some extent control my audience. That was how I entered this world but my reasons for staying have since evolved."
LAMENESS OF A HORSE
Joe White, Composer/Musician: "I was born in a large Connecticut hospital, and raised in Atlanta-a town I don't especially like. I went to school in Wisconsin, amidst dairy farms, brat stands, and ruddy-cheeked honest folk."
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Nancy Robillard, Director: "More than anything I like working on new plays. It's exciting to work side by side with a playwright to bring something in front of an audience for the first time. I love scripts that are highly theatrical with rich language. I have to say, though, my tastes are eclectic and I like to work in a wide range of styles--from lyrical dramas to screwball comedies."
DANTE’S INFERNO
Michael Feld, Director, Sound Designer: "It's important to me that I work on theater that incites social change, whether that is personal and internal or a shift in group consciousness. This can mean difficult and challenging theatre, but also profoundly rewarding. It's also great to collaborate with artists of many different backgrounds and combine every art form into something entirely new."
SHARON'S SHORTS
Sharon E. Cooper, playwright: "When I was sixteen, living in Chesterfield, Virginia, my mom handed me an ad from a local paper. It was an audition notice for “New Voices for the Theatre” program. This program, which was then at TheatreVirginia and is now at the School of the Performing Arts in Richmond, Virginia, produces staged readings of high school work in the summer. I auditioned and ended up getting a few parts. That summer, I thought, this is fun but the writers at this thing get to live on a college campus for several weeks and work with theatre professionals? As soon as the program ended, I had this idea for a play. The voice of the main character started to come to me in a monologue. For nine consecutive nights, I wrote my first full-length play called For Camille. I was fearless at the time and didn’t know enough to have any doubting voice in my head. Writing dialogue felt easy. The more I just listened, the more the characters revealed what would happen. When I wrote the play, I had only seen a dozen plays in my life. When the play was one of five in the state of Virginia chosen for the program, I was thrilled. I had no idea, though, that this couple of weeks of professional guidance and being immersed in the world of theatre would be the start of a long playwriting path. Here I am exactly twenty years later and this summer, a few days after Sharon’s Shorts closes, I’m heading to Richmond to be the Playwright in Residence at the New Voices program and mentor high school students to rewrite their plays and help them prepare for their own staged reading."
A MAN'S WORLD
Melissa Crespo, Director: "I most enjoy collaborating with playwrights on new work. I love being a part of the development process and serving the playwright in the rehearsal room."
ELE↓↑TOR
Patrice Miller, Director: "The short answer is probably "experimental", but I don't think any of us can say what that means, just what it doesn't mean (Annie, Spider-Man, and Mamet). Genre is for wusses. The work I love to do often plays with structure, form, and/or language. Most of it is inspired by or deals directly with history, especially 20th century history, and almost all of it involves some kind of multi-disciplinary collaboration.
I'm interested in narratives that come to us through a certain construction or set of ideas or do not come to us at all, and in finding unique forms with which to give life to those narratives. "
Q&A INTERVIEWS - UPCOMING SHOWS
4: Nancy Robillard (begins Jun 5, 2013)
ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE: Scott Kesselman (begins May 29, 2013)
BELLA'S DREAM: Jessica Ammirati and Dana Boll (begins Jun 16, 2013)
BIRDS ON A WIRE: Jordan Feltner (begins Jun 13, 2013)
BIRTHRIGHT: David Lawson (begins May 31, 2013)
BOOTSTRAPS: Artem Yatsunov (begins Jun 13, 2013)
BRILLIANT TRACES: Mary Catherine Wilson (begins Jun 7, 2013)
BUREAU OF MISSING PERSONS: Lila Rose Kaplan (begins Jun 14, 2013)
CATCH THE SPIDER: Joe Raik (begins May 30, 2013)
DANTE’S INFERNO: Michael Feld (begins Jun 8, 2013)
DOS MUJERES: Desi Moreno-Penson (begins May 24, 2013)
DRAGON: Jenny Connell Davis (begins May 29, 2013)
ELE↓↑TOR: Patrice Miller (begins Jun 8, 2013)
EVOLUTIONARY TALES: A HIP-HOP THEATRE CYCLE: Baba Brinkman (begins May 31, 2013)
FAREWELL TO SANITY AND OTHER IRRATIONAL CONSTRUCTS: Tom Slot (begins Jun 1, 2013)
FIX NUMBER SIX: Jerry Polner (begins May 29, 2013)
GEPPETTO: Carlo Adinolfi (begins Jun 13, 2013)
GHOST ON A STICK: Jara Jones (begins Jun 8, 2013)
HAMLET (WHAT DREAMS MAY CO.): Nicole Schalmo (begins May 24, 2013)
HIT AND MATCH: Michael Hagins (begins Jun 7, 2013)
HOW TO DO A ONE PERSON SHOW: Kelly Kinsella (begins May 23, 2013)
I AM MY OWN WIFE: Jen Forcino (begins May 23, 2013)
IN SCENA! ITALIAN THEATER FESTIVAL NY: Laura Caparrotti (begins Jun 10, 2013)
KILL THE MESSENGER: Andrew Greer (begins May 25, 2013)
LAMENESS OF A HORSE: Joe White (begins Jun 22, 2013)
LAST LAUGH: Eric Lockley (begins May 29, 2013)
LIGHTHOUSE TRIPTYCH: Stephanie Lane (begins Jun 8, 2013)
MANNA-HATA: Barry Rowell (begins Jun 7, 2013)
MARCELLUS SHALE: Paul Zimet (begins May 24, 2013)
MARINA / MATA HARI: Ivette Dumeng (begins Jun 15, 2013)
MERCY KILLERS: Michael Milligan (begins May 23, 2013)
MRS. MAYFIELD'S FIFTH-GRADE CLASS OF '93 20-YEAR REUNION: Leta Tremblay (begins May 31, 2013)
MRS. MAYFIELD'S FIFTH-GRADE CLASS OF '93 20-YEAR REUNION: Mariah MacCarthy (begins May 31, 2013)
NAKED DARROW: Gary Anderson (begins Jun 5, 2013)
NOT WITHOUT MY GALL BLADDER: Sean Daniels and Eric Mercado (begins May 29, 2013)
NOTHING'S GOING TO HAPPEN: Justin Cornell (begins May 29, 2013)
OCCUPATION: Joe Jung (begins Jun 6, 2013)
PETER/WENDY: Jeremy Bloom (begins May 30, 2013)
RAGS: Anna Kirkland (begins May 29, 2013)
SHARON'S SHORTS: Sharon E. Cooper (begins Jun 1, 2013)
STRAIGHT FACED LIES: Mark Jason Williams (begins Jun 2, 2013)
SUBJECT 62: Lenny Schwartz (begins Jun 14, 2013)
TAPE: Vasile Flutur (begins May 24, 2013)
TELL THEM NOTHING: Julianna Rusakiewicz (begins May 23, 2013)
TESLA: James Lee Taylor (begins May 23, 2013)
TEST-DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW? ARE YOU POSITIVE?: William LoCasto (begins Jun 18, 2013)
THE BLONDE BOMBSHELL PROJECT: Jen Danby (begins Jun 1, 2013)
THE EYE WHICH WE DO NOT HAVE: Kate Brehm (begins May 24, 2013)
THE F**KING WORLD ACCORDING TO MOLLY: Molly Equality Dykeman (begins May 25, 2013)
THE GIRL WHO FORGOT TO SING BADLY: Louis Lovett, Actor and Joint Artistic Director Director of Theatre Lovett (begins May 31, 2013)
THE GOLDEN YEAR: Daniel Damiano (begins Jun 6, 2013)
THE GREATEST PIRATE STORY (N)EVER TOLD!: Christopher Leidenfrost (begins Jun 10, 2013)
THE HOLY COWS OF CREDENCE, SOUTH DAKOTA: A NEW MOO-SICAL: The Holy Cows Team (begins Jun 2, 2013)
THE LAST CYCLIST : Edward Einhorn (begins May 25, 2013)
THE PENALTY: Gregg Mozgala (begins Jun 13, 2013)
THE PIANO HAS BEEN DRINKING (NOT ME) : Anthony Wills Jr. (begins Jun 3, 2013)
THE TROUBADOUR STRUCK BY LIGHTNING: Ed Malin (begins May 25, 2013)
THE WORLD IS MY HOME: THE LIFE & TIMES OF PAUL ROBESON: Stogie Kenyatta (begins May 24, 2013)
THERE’S A LIGHT ON YONDER MOUNTAIN : Kate MacCluggage (begins May 23, 2013)
UNBIRTH: Charles Gershman (begins Jun 4, 2013)
UNSCRIPTED NEW YORK IMPROVISED THEATRE FESTIVAL : Dion Flynn (begins May 29, 2013)
VELVET ROPE: Celestine Rae (begins Jun 12, 2013)
VULTURE-WALLY: Jillian Sweeney and Jeffrey Cranor (begins May 31, 2013)
WALDEN: Katherine Brann Fredricks (begins May 29, 2013)
WHAT DO YOU MEAN: Bruce A! Kraemer (begins Jun 15, 2013)
WHITE NOISE: Tom Block (begins Jun 27, 2013)
WIGGERLOVER [WHITEBOY+BLACKDAD=GREYAREAS]: James Anthony Zoccoli (aka JAZ) (begins May 29, 2013)
