Hip
By Nora Woolley
Directed by Raquel Cion
Produced by Eat a Radish Productions in association with IRT Theater
Nominations: Nora Woolley is nominated for Outstanding Original Short Script as well as for Outstanding Solo Performance
Photo by Sarah Rogers
About this Production
Hip is set in the early aughts, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, ground zero for the modern hipster movement. Wythe, a struggling musician, is convinced his songs have been co-opted by the increasingly popular buzz-band, The Strokes. His single-minded quest for fame is diverted by three women who are also longing for their own brand of recognition. In an increasingly self-aggrandizing community, Wythe must decide what is lasting and what is simply–hip. A story for anyone who has ever wanted it so bad, they could practically fake it.
Writer Performer Nora Woolley and Director
Raquel Coin talk about creating this work set in hipster Williamsburg
about a musician struggling for recognition.
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What attracted you to this project?
Nora: I wrote this piece in an attempt to express the longing for recognition that so many artists feel.
Raquel: When Nora approached me to direct Hip there was no way I could say no. Nora and I worked together in 2009 for her and Christine Witmer's play Selling Splitsville presented at PS 122 as part of the undergroundzero Festival. Working with Nora is a complete joy. We challenge each other, share a sense of humor and she is not afraid to dive deep into places that transcend humor to a deliciously 'should I laugh or weep' place. The subject matter of the piece was also, perhaps sadly, very resonant for me. That yearning to live life as an artist and feeling that life is just running you over.
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Nora: Over a two year rehearsal process, I often rehearsed with Kim Katzberg (also a nominee for the Outstanding Solo Performance category) as she was simultaneously rehearsing her own piece. This process pushed me to be accountable for my work and in many ways encouraged me to move beyond my comfort zone. Kim is a very special performer and I knew that sharing a rehearsal practice with her would push me in very specific directions I had not yet allowed myself to venture. Kim is an extremely hard worker and has a brutal, raw, challenging, and moving aesthetic that opened up a new permission in me. I've learned so much about timing from Kim.
Hip was my first solo piece and I set out to make a work that included a number of narrative, physical, and emotional elements I had never previously tried on stage (i.e. slow overdose, be a young man, be sexy). Additionally, I was interested in being challenged by director Raquel Cion, who I knew would not let me get away with anything sub-par in terms of comedic and tragic elements. Raquel is an exceptionally intelligent and open person (a powerful combo), who is able to respectfully step into a multitude of diverse worlds with ease, fascination, and a specific sense of craft. I have worked with Raquel as a director on previous original projects and feel grateful that she continues to humor and mold my work.
Raquel: Nora came to the first rehearsal with such a clear vision of the work. She had developed incredibly funny and heartbreaking characters that were profound without being heavy handed. Since the piece was stepping onto the boards for the first time we really allowed ourselves to play while honing the text. It's a short piece (for which Nora is also nominated for Outstanding Original Short Script) so, we really needed to be incredibly specific with the text and find the ways into the meat of the show with immediacy. Nora is such a facile actress and brought such emotional range, risk, outlandishness and reality to each of her characters. Seeing these characters really come to life was beyond satisfying.
What was the most challenging part of working on this production?
Raquel: Hip ran side by side with Kim Katzberg's Darkling (Kim is also nominated for Outstanding Solo Performance) and both shows needed to aesthetically stand on their own. Though they do share certain themes they are very different shows. With our shoe-string budget we needed to find ways to give each show its own look and feel. Hip due to its length had to be incredibly tight technically because of the sound and video components as well. The play itself feels very much like a film in its approach. The challenge was how to establish place, character, time, without pandering or getting lost in exposition. I believe we were very successful in creating this within a half hour running time. As Nora said our technical team, Josh Iacovelli (who designed our sets and lights) and Laura Detkin our stage manager did wonders.
Kim and Nora were also so incredibly supportive and available for each other in both the process and in performance. Their dedication to the work and generosity toward each other was simply astounding. They ran each other's shows; were willing to do whatever it took to bring both their visions to life. As we all know putting up one's own work is a vulnerable, challenging experience. Nora, Kim and the whole team faced those challenges with graceful ferocity.
Nora: Hip was a demanding piece physically, vocally, and emotionally as it was only thirty minutes but included four distinct characters. But more than those acting demands (which I relish!), it was a tough evening to figure out technically in rep with Darkling (additional props to Josh Iacovelli, Designer and Laurel Detkin, SM) during a brutal winter, amidst all of our team's demanding day jobs/schedules. Hey, welcome to NYC.
What made Hip so unique?
Raquel: The films created by Nora and Marieclare Lawson really elevated Hip. What could have been a sketch or ironic nod to Williamsburg in the early aughts was turned on its head due to the quality of the work visually, the novella like quality of the script and Nora's nuanced characters. Again, the show felt very cinematic. Within IRT Theater's black box we managed to bring a breadth of the city, the sorrow and ridiculousness of its inhabitants and had beautiful close-ups of how we all yearn to make a mark or connection.
Nora: The film component was huge-- Mariclare Lawson did wonderful work creating original music videos circa 2000 in a way that would read onstage, sans any sense of cliché. I have known Mariclare since NYU days and she has an exquisite eye for detail and an innate sense of slick editing. We have collaborated a lot and I very much relate to her aesthetic view of NYC, both past and present.
During the rehearsal process, before Hip was a play per se, my brother (George Woolley) and I made a couple of short films centered around early versions of Gloria and Wythe (two characters featured in the piece). We labeled them, monologues-on-film, and have continued that work as a series. Currently we are in the process of creating more. The series is called "Les Petites Tristesses (The Little Sadnesses)". Our Dad described Wythe and Gloria as tristesse, and we thought that was apt. These early monologues-on-film enabled me to deepen my approach some of Hip's characters on stage. Both Mariclare and George changed my view of film on stage.
Hip allowed me to depict the mundane in all its complexity. Longing is a very human feeling, one that is simultaneously numbing and manic-- a feeling that is rampant and normal in NYC. I think longing is a hard feeling to express in a compelling way because it is essentially a selfish sensation. I hope Hip pulled that off.
Darkling
Written and Performed by Kim Katzberg
Directed by Raquel Cion
Produced by Eat a Radish Productions in association with IRT Theater
Nomination Kim Katzberg is nominated for Outstanding Solo Performance
Photos by Sarah Rogers
About this Production
Set in the late 1980’s, Darkling follows Trinity, a thirteen-year-old wanna-be Goth girl from a suburban, affluent family who worships an older sister who escapes from a lock-up boarding school for troubled teens. After a failed first romance, Trinity journeys to find her fugitive sister, who is living on the streets. Trinity makes many life choices based on the idealized vision she has of her older sister, but when she finally finds her, Trinity discovers her idol isn’t the person she thought she was. When Trinity learns the truth about her sister, she must choose: follow her role model into fantasy and insanity, or stay in the world and fight to make an impact. But is making an impact even possible?
Writer and Performer Kim Katzberg and Director Raquel Cion talk about their work on this piece that looks at a thirteen-year-old girl’s artistic expressions of subversive feminism.
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What attracted you to this project/subject matter?
Kim: Darkling, a semi-autobiographical solo play in which I play multiple characters, is dedicated to my sister, Jenna. One of the characters I embody is a heightened version of myself at thirteen. I began working on this show because as a girl I idolized my incredibly cool, punk older sister. Now she is missing from my life. The process of writing and then performing Darkling allowed me to live out the fantasy of being back in the late '80's, early '90's when my sister and I were very close.
Like Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill talks about in the Punk Singer, there is something radical and feminist about a girl making art in her bedroom. Girls’ bedrooms are a safe space for creativity and self-expression. Much of the creation of the characters for Darkling happened in the safety of my little bedroom of my Brooklyn apartment, and the narrative of Darkling springs from the thirteen-year-old girl, Trinity’s, bedroom. As a girl, I definitely isolated in my room and that’s when I felt like I could finally just be me.
Raquel: The answer to this is crazy easy for me, Kim Katzberg! Kim and I worked together while she was still an undergraduate at NYU's ETW, my alma mater as well, and I was always blown away by her brilliance and commitment to her work. For years we had been trying to work together again. Luckily the schedules aligned as did the material. I was a teenage punk rock/alt girl in the 80's and the work resonated deeply with me. That said, Kim's vision was both so specific and brave. Though based on her own life experience Darkling reached beyond that realistic place. Through her video work and spot on characterizations this was no ordinary teen angst story. We were able to touch on the supernatural, the ridiculous, create real relationships within a solo show, multiple narrative lines, travel and arrive at such freedom and poignant moments that, I felt, it transcended her own story. Well, that's the goal, right? To be specific, tell your story and truth and hopefully touch on things universal. I fully believe Darkling grabs that brass ring.
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Kim: Working intensively with my director and friend, Raquel Cion, and my colleague and friend, Nora Woolley was game-changing. Years ago I saw a play that Nora Woolley wrote and acted in at PS 122 that was directed by Raquel. The piece was dark, risky, hilarious, tragic and highly original. I dreamed of one day working with Nora and Raquel because I thought their sense of humor, over-the-top tragicomic sense of characters and daring aesthetic was similar to what I was attempting in my work. Nora and I were in the same class at ETW, NYU but we weren’t in the same friend circles. In fact, Nora was a superstar at ETW and I had transferred in my junior year and was very insecure and not such a good actor then. Raquel also attended ETW, NYU some years earlier than Nora and I and had assistant directed us in Raina Von Waldenburg’s Das Kaspar Theater. Eventually, Nora and Raquel saw the first solo show that I wrote and performed and after that Nora reached out and asked if I wanted to get together in a studio to just bounce work off of each other. I was beyond thrilled! That began the creation process for Darkling and Hip. Nora and I had a shared residency at IRT Theater where we co-produced both our shows, shared director Raquel Cion, and performed our shows back to back each night of the run. Nora’s writing and acting is at such a high level that it pushed me further than I could have ever gone in my acting and writing if I were going it alone. I had to be able to hold my own if I was going to be performing right after Nora each night! Raquel’s work ethic is unmatched and the way that she deeply understood being a punk girl in the late ’80’s, coupled with her sheer brilliance as a highly innovative director, drove Darkling to a level that was beyond my wildest dreams.
I feel like Raquel and Nora are now my sisters after having gone through the insane, exhausting, gut wrenching journey that we endured to put on our plays. Nora was also nominated for "Outstanding Solo Performance" and “Outstanding Original Short Script.” Again, we are going through another part of the amazing journey together! All the intensive work was totally worth it for BOTH of our pieces to be recognized.
Raquel: Directing Kim and Nora Woolley's Hip (Nora is also nominated for Outstanding Solo Show and Outstanding Short Script) was a complete joy. These women very simply rock my world. We challenged each other, were intrinsically supportive of each other and found a shared language and way of working that well, worked. It was such an honor to share in the process and production. As we all know doing creating work here in NY, hell, anywhere isn't easy. There are those times though when even with extreme challenges, and there were some, you feel at home. A good home. A happy home. A functional home and wow, that's a rare gift.
What was the most challenging part of working on this production?
Kim: The most challenging part of working on the production was the physical, psychological and emotional rigor that it required. There were many moments when I had overwhelming self-doubt and was physically and emotionally exhausted during the creation process, rehearsals, and not to mention the three week run of the show. The whole deal spanned two years and there were unrelenting highs and lows. I just hung on, pushed through and showed up, which I could not have done without the immense support I received from my wife and the team.
Raquel: Kim and I had done a workshop production in July 2013 at IRT and naturally after that there had been some rewrites. There was one line, one little line of not even ten words that was added to the end of a pivotal scene, my favorite scene, in the show. Oh, even writing about it now my heart begins to race. Basically we butted heads over this line for weeks.
Understandably we both dug our heels in on whether or not it should be included. It was painful. There were many heated, emotionally charged conversations in rehearsal about it. Phone calls. Both of us saying, "trust me on this." We were like two bucks with their antlers locked. One line! One line but such an important fulcrum to the story we were telling. Luckily, one night at a rehearsal where we ran both shows back to back as they were to be presented Nora, in her incredible clarity and grace managed to very simply untangle the issue. We were able to finally agree and it all flew from there. I think it was so intense because the work was so risky and personal and Kim and I have the utmost respect for each other. Getting to the other side of that busted through many things for both of us and the show.
What was the craziest thing that happened during this production?
Kim: We had a few matinees where random families including adolescent kids came. I think it was because the main character in Darkling is thirteen and it was advertised as a coming of age story. However, there is an intense and fairly graphic scene where Trinity loses her virginity. It must have been really embarrassing for parents and adolescents to see together.
Raquel: Well, I ended up running the box office which felt like an I Love Lucy episode. Not my forte. So, there's that. Also, the first couple weekends we kept getting families, teen and sometimes pre-teen kids with their parents. Now, both shows are coming of age stories but I don't know if they're family friendly per se. That was a bit awkward.
What did you want the audience to come away with after watching your production?
Kim: I don’t really know what I want the audience to come away with after watching Darkling. I tried to write and perform it as if no one would ever see it. That’s the only way that I can trick myself into writing and performing honestly. I guess I want the audience to feel as if they touched a hidden part of their thirteen year old selves and are able to laugh about, celebrate and feel compassion for those inner, secret, dark parts.
Raquel: When I was studying in Paris I had a wonderful mask teacher from Le Théâtre du Soleil, Erhard Stiefel. When scenes weren't working he'd stop the actors and often say something to the effect of, "Start again. Go on a journey." Simple. Well, not always. I feel that Darkling is an epic journey for Trinity its main character. If the audience gave itself over to its wild ride then whatever they come away with is theirs and well earned. I believe we achieved that. A journey that allowed the audience to both reflect and re-experience their own awkward journeys through adolescence and to experience Kim's whirlwind tour of her experience, fantasies and huge heart.
