Shadows, a dance musical

Produced by Go Joe Enterprises
Book by Randall David Cook
Music by Edison Woods, Maxim Moston and Karen Bishko
Directed by Joey McKneely

Nominations: Outstanding Choreography / Movement - Joey McKneely; Outstanding Original Music: Karen Bishko, Maxim Moston, & Edison Woods


About Shadows, a dance musical
When a married woman starts an affair in her NYC pied-à-terre, she discovers it is haunted by spirits. Trapped by their own violent past, the spirits try to stop this affair from escalating. Past informs the present as the cycle repeats itself to a dramatic conclusion.

How far will you go to keep the one you love?

Photos by Jay Michaels

The nominees and producer Jay Michaels discuss their experience of creating this new concept musical.

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What first attracted you to this work?

Joey: The show was an opportunity to create a new form of a musical. Trying to create something fresh using dance as a major form of narrative was the big attraction.

Karen: I was attracted to this show because it's a script about a passionate affair between two unhappily married people. I remember hearing an interview with Sting once where he talked about how love triangles are brilliant for songwriting. I thought I could get stuck into this.

Maxim: My writing partner Julia Frodhal came to me with this project and I loved the idea of melding dance and drama.

Jay: Joey McKneely and Randall David Cook created the project

What was your favorite part of working on Shadows...?

Joey: My favorite part was collaborating not only with my fellow creatives, but with our extraordinary cast of actors and dancers. To see how passionate they all were from the get go was a real treat to experience.

Karen: The people. What a wonderful team.

Maxim: Seeing the actors and dancers put it all together after years of looking at a page or a sound file.

Jay: Watching it come to life

What was the most challenging aspect of this experience for you?

Joey: The most challenging part was trying to get it right. Once an audience comes into the theater, they let you know what's working and what's not. With the limited time we had, it was really a push to try to make the changes to the show and discover how we could improve our show.

Karen: Being sent home to write a song overnight. There was a hole in the script, which I pointed out and then got nominated to fill. By then I knew the amazing actor and voice that I was writing it for (John Arthur Greene) so it was a different and better experience. Also rewarding because John loved the song when I took it to him the next day.

Maxim: Multiple directions were explored, which meant multiple cues and some brilliant cues needed to be discarded.

Jay: Producing it. Independent theater is far more "hands-on" than Broadway (which McKneely is used to) and needed a lot more care and attention. It became that much more satisfying as all facets could have your signature.

What do you think the funniest or most ironic part of the production for you?

Joey: Wow...being the producer, director, choreographer, conceiver, set/tech supervisor, delivery driver, janitor and anything else that needed to get done during this process was the most exhausting yet inspiring thing I have ever attempted to do.

Karen: Our dress rehearsal was a disaster. Everything went wrong. Ballerina Irina Dvorovenko, possibly the most graceful woman I've ever met, couldn't shut the french doors on the set. She ended up slamming them so hard that the whole set nearly fell over. Randall David Cook (the book writer) and I nearly died laughing. I still laugh every time I think about it.

Maxim: Melding of "high art" and comedy reminded me of On The Town.

Jay: The musical is a Gothic ghost story that took place in a 100 year old building and the theatre is over a century old (which McKneely didn't know when acquiring it) so the whole picture was "supernatural."

What was the best part of working with this company of artists?

Joey: The best thing about these artist is that they all believed in the show. They gave they're all every day. I am so grateful for their time and commitment to the show.

Karen: No egos! Everyone was just a team.

Maxim: Their total dedication.

Jay: Brilliance and mind-reading. Amazing talent and knowing what "works"

Did you gain any insight or learn anything new from this experience?

Joey: Yes, I discovered being a producer is way harder than directing/choreographing a show!

Karen: I learned so much, especially from Joey McNeely. He worked so hard and he pushes everyone and they respond. I also really learnt, quite simply, to work from someone else's script. Randall would give me extra notes about exactly what he thought the song should say, I'd put my twist on it and somehow it worked.

Maxim: I actually like dance.

What does receiving this nomination mean to you?

Joey: It is a huge honor to get this nomination. For all the hard work and sacrifice I made just to get the show on stage, it feels like a little slice of heaven is saying "don't give up, keep going!" It is an enormous gift.

Karen: I'm over the moon to be nominated for this award because I knew this show was different and special and I've worked hard on the songs for years. They're not traditional musical theatre songs at all and it's lovely to be recognized for them.

Maxim: A true honor.

Jay: Validation for the work; acceptance by the community; an honor.

Worse Than Tigers

Produced by The Mill in association with New Ohio Theatre
Written by Mark Chrisler
Directed by Jaclyn Biskup

Nominations: Outstanding Set Design - Matthew Carlin; Outstanding Sound Design - AJ Surasky-Ysasi; Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role - Braeson Herold; Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role - Shannon Marie Sullivan; Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play

About The Mill
The Mill makes artistically adventurous, boldly theatrical, and politically aware theatre.

About Worse Than Tigers
Olivia and Humphry have a safe, comfortable, enviable life. Their condo is well-adorned with fancy knick-knacks, their social media presence is meticulously groomed, and they never fight. Or laugh. Or kiss. Or talk very much. Unexpectedly, Olivia’s lover-- id-driven Officer Kirk Patrick --shows up, trailing a man-eating tiger which takes up residence right outside, threatening to devour anyone who opens the door. Tigers may be dangerous, but there might be something worse inside.


What first attracted you to Worse Than Tigers?

Jaclyn: Mark's writing is brilliant. The first act feels like Ionesco and the second like Albee.

Braeson: The complexity of the role brought out a fear in me I hadn't experienced in a while. I felt a personal obligation to explore that.

Shannon: I had worked with Jaclyn Biskup before (director of Worse Than Tigers) and was excited to get back in the room with her. I was particularly interested by the relationship of Olivia and Humphrey: their history, their secrecy, and ultimately the expelling of their deepest truths.

Matthew: I had worked with Jaclyn before and she had reached out about bringing me on board as a designer. After reading the script I really liked the style of the piece and its absurdist nature.

AJ: The whole conceit of the "tiger" in the show was really interesting, knowing that given the constraints we were facing, the sound design was going to play a big role in helping to define that character in the show and how the actors would interact with it.

What was your favorite part of working on this Project?

Jaclyn: Wonderful team!

Braeson: My favorite part would have to be the creative partnership with my co-star, Shannon Marie Sullivan. She never wavered, in rehearsal or performance.

Shannon: My favorite part of this production was getting to play with Braeson Herold. Getting to know him, trust him, and riding the absurd and deeply emotional wave created by Mark alongside him.

Matthew: Our design palette was tight and specific, so it was challenging, but overall it really helped to drive the themes of the piece home to the audience.

AJ: For most of the show, the tiger is just outside of the playing space (just behind one of the doors onstage), so the sound is fairly one-dimensional, and we just get to hear the tiger prowling outside for the most part, but the tiger enters into the house where the main characters live in the middle of Act II. When the tiger comes in, all hell breaks loose, and we're in blackout while we hear these sounds of destruction coming from all sides as we introduce sounds through the surround speakers for the first time in the production. It was a big sequence to build and get everything place spatially in the system, but I think was really effective once we got there.

What was the most challenging part of this experience for you?

Braeson: The text was the most challenging, because it veered from farce to realism within moments. The play explores the chaos within a failing marriage... and it's a comedy! It was a process to connect the dots, for sure.

Shannon: Worse Than Tigers is a buffet of theatrical genres. It all comes together in the end (when, in fact, everything falls apart) but justifying the moves from one world into the next was a challenge, especially in the beginning. But it was the kind of challenge that thrills and drives an actor.

Matthew: Getting everything done with a tight budget and small staff

AJ: Probably the transitions. I feel like transitions always tend to be tricky since you're trying to provide some of the glue to bring together the different scenes and weave the stories, but with this one we went through a number of iterations of the transitions until we landed on things that worked for us.

What was the funniest thing that happened during this production?

Braeson: The play is called Worse Than Tigers... throughout the show we hear several roars. One night, we had a roar that scared an audience member, she screamed as loud as the tiger!

Did you gain any insight or learn anything new throughout this process?

Braeson: I learned that instincts can get you far, but trust is what truly creates a memorable experience.

What was it like to work with this company of artists?

AJ: There's just a lot of heart between all these folks. What I mean is as we were going through rehearsals, and got into tech, everybody was always game to try things, and we could have conversations between departments where we working through difficult moments in the show. Things weren't always easy, but it felt like there were people in the room you could talk to and have conversations with to try and figure things out when we got stuck, and that was really invaluable through the process.

Jaclyn: They are just an incredible group of talented people!

What does receiving this nomination mean to you?
Jaclyn: We are honored to be included in this amazing group of artists.

Braeson: It means the world, honestly. What I set out to create with Humphrey was so personal to me. Knowing others were able to witness that, in a memorable way, will stay with me for a long time.

Shannon: To be recognized for my work by other performers and theatrical artists is a great honor. This play dug deep in to my bones. We all gave our time and hearts to this production because we love the theatre and I am very proud to have been part of it.

Matthew: This is extremely exciting for me, as it's my first nomination of any kind for my work since graduating from Undergrad!

AJ: It's really exciting to be nominated. You know, there's a lot of shows where you burn the midnight oil, and you stress, you tweak, and you try to get things just right, and so to have that work be recognized in some way is really quite special

2019 NY Innovative Theatre Awards Ceremony

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Catch the Sparrow

Produced by Isle of Shoals Productions, Inc.
Written & Directed by Alex Mace

Nominated for: Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role, Meredith M. Sweeney

 About Isleof Shoals

The Isle of Shoals motto is “Theatre for Discovery.” Since its founding, Isle of Shoals has maintained a commitment to developing and producing pieces (from brand new to ancient), which might otherwise never or seldom get to see the light of day in our present theater ecosystem. The works Isle of Shoals gravitates towards are those which celebrate the human spirit and enrich the artistry of early and mid-career theater professionals of every stripe and creed. We pride ourselves on being the inclusive theater company that says “yes” to brilliant new ideas that are elsewhere met with echoing “no”s.

About Catch the Sparrow
A gripping drama about a rebellious son and his dying father trying to reach out to each other before it's too late. In this powerful and resonant new play, written and directed by Alex Mace, a family, torn apart by grief and blame, is forced to settle their differences and learn the true worth of family and, whats more, what it means to forgive and let go.

Photos by @Studio5Q

 Meredith Sweeney and producer Bryan Williams shared some insights into the process of presenting this new script.

What first attracted you to this project?

Meredith: Based on the audition notice, I knew it was an original work that seemed to be a small but mighty character-driven family drama in an intimate setting. And who wouldn't want to do that?

Bryan: The complexity of the family situation is both universal and specific.

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

Meredith: I loved being a part of the first production of an original play. The script shines light on the tough and ugly parts of being a family (of being a human) and I got to work with a company of humans who jumped fully into this challenge with such joy and love. Together, we created something brand new and moving that had never been done before and I will always carry that with me.

Bryan:  Watching the growth of the actors as they took the naturalistic dialogue and elevated it to the realm of poetry. Also when the audience learns at the end of the first act that one of the characters died years ago, I loved listening to them explaining to each other their own interpretations of what it mean.

What was the biggest challenged you faced while working on Catch the Sparrow?

Meredith: I found the most challenging part to be the same as the most exciting part- bringing this character to life for the first time with the writer always in the room. I have a profound respect for writers and felt a great responsibility to honor his story. It's exciting to be able to collaborate with a director/writer who is so giving of his time and open to other perspectives... But it's challenging because there are no rules or guidelines to creating something new and you don't want to get carried away and step on toes, cross a line, or completely miss the mark and disappoint the person who is there with you at rehearsals, trusting you with these words.

Bryan: As in any new production, there are changes to the text and these, particularly if they come late in the game, created challenges for some of the actors.

What did you want the audience to walk away with after watching Catch the Sparrow?

Bryan: How richly complex and happy-sad is the story of any family.

What was it like to work with Meredith?

Bryan: Meredith lit up the stage whenever she came on. She is not just a wondrous actor, but a joy to work with. Though she had fewer scenes than the others, her patience and enthusiasm never failed.

What was it like to work with this company of artists?

Meredith: We became our own little dysfunctional/functional family unit during this process. For example, my birthday fell on one of the tech rehearsals. Earlier that morning, I had totally bombed an audition and had just had kind of a rough day, so I wasn't feeling great when the Stage Manager called the cast to the stage for last minute notes. To my complete surprise, the "notes" turned out to be the cast and crew singing happy birthday to me while the director held a candle-lit birthday pie (who needs cake??) Because of the kindness of that group of people, I was able to reboot, refocus, and feel loved in the process. And that's pretty noteworthy.

What does receiving this nomination mean to you?

Bryan: Giving a young playwright a chance he might otherwise not have had in the immediate future.

Meredith: You know the expression "It's an honor just to be nominated"? Well it is. I mean, I was completely floored. It's very easy to feel disconnected and alone as an artist and actor in this city. For me, receiving this nomination is a reminder that there is a greater and great community out there, that we're all apart of it, that I am a part it. And that is truly an honor.

Check out Isle of Shoals on Instagram @isleofshoalsproductions

#yourmemorial

Produced by Pigeonholed  @pigeonholedco
Written by Emily J. Daly
Directed by Emily Lyon

Nomination: Outstanding Original Full-Length Script - Emily J. Daly

About Pigeonholed: Pigeonholed gives theater artists the chance to make the work they want to make, not the work the industry tells them they should be making.

About #yourmemorial: Lottie has always been that all-star student who’s everyone best friend. Fresh out of college, she’s determined to change the world and make a difference. But when she dies at her internship in Afghanistan, the internet threatens to tear her memory apart. As fangirls, rubberneckers, pseudo-friends, trolls and her own social media fuel the digital storm, Lottie's friends will struggle over how and who gets to tell her story, and what her legacy should be. #yourmemorial is a play about what we choose to remember, what we refuse to see, and what it means to be real in the Facebook age.

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What first attracted you to this subject matter?

Emily: #yourmemorial is a play about what we choose to remember, what we refuse to see, and what it means to be real in the Facebook age. Looking back, I think the heart of this story was born during the times of the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq following 9/11. I remember thinking very clearly at the time “I’m only fourteen and even I know this is some horrifying bullshit going down.” Ever since then, I’ve been surprised again and again by how little Americans (myself included!) notice or even think about the military actions that America is waging around the world, in the name of our supposed safety. At the same time, I’ve always been fascinated by our relationship to trauma through social media. In my very humble opinion, social media allows us to flirt with the sexiness of political action and others’ trauma - then conveniently dismiss that with a scroll. Again - that’s some horrifying bullshit. They say that for a person with a hammer, everything becomes a nail. Playwriting is the biggest hammer I have. I wanted to tell a story in a super theatrical way that forced us to confront the ways we choose to forget or remember with social media, and the hubris and hope of “making a difference”. You know. Kitchen Sink Drama stuff.

What was your favorite part of working on #yourmemorial?

Emily: Getting to work on any production feels like it’s your birthday every day of rehearsal. Using the rehearsal process to actively workshop the script by trying things out in the room was such a joy, even during those stressful moments that come with any process (hey, joy can be stressful).

Justin Cimino (Producer): Emily Daly's  play is awesome and getting to workshop the play with her over the course of a year was the best part of this experience.

What was the most challenging part of working on this production?

Emily: In a very basic sense, #yourmemorial is a digital ghost story - featuring a social media account come to life, speaking through posts, comments and photos. I always knew that our greatest challenge in this production was going to be translating that digital haunting into a theatrical vocabulary. Thankfully, I had a team of incredible collaborators, including director Emily Lyon, costume designer Sera Bourgeau, set/props/projection designer Susannah Hyde, lighting designer Sammy Jelinek, and sound designer Carsen Joenk. We also talked a lot about how this play takes place in 2013, which in social media terms means its a period piece. Remember what the old Facebook interface looked like back then? We do.

What was the coolest part about your experience?

Emily: I sat in the back row of the theater for every show, so I could watch the audience watch the performance. (Yes, Audience. We playwrights are always watching you. We’re creepy like that.) There was one night where I watched a woman in the front row who, to my eyes, spent the whole-time sighing, squirming, and looking around the room. At the end, she spoke intensely with all the audience members around her before leaving. I assumed she had just had the worst night of theater in her life and was telling everyone how much she hated it. I found out later that I had it totally backwards - she had loved it, she had been so excited and provoked by the story, and had just been telling everyone how moved she was. That felt pretty cool.

What is the best thing about working with Pigeonholed?

Emily: Dude, they are so smart. There were so many changes to the script, and I brought in a lot of new pages. By a lot, I mean A LOT. Pigeonholed producer Justin Cimino was always supportive, and the actors John Dewey, Sasha Lazare, Esmeralda Garza and Meredith Starkman were theater warriors 100% ready to play. Also, my director Emily Lyon and stage manager Lindsey Zinbarg deserve gold medals for gently taking the script out of my hands a week before we opened and saying “Sweet Playwright, we love you, but you have to stop writing entirely new scenes, dammit.”

Did you discover anything new while writing #yourmemorial?

Emily: David Van Asselt, the founding Artistic Director of Rattlestick Playwrights, told me way back when I started writing that the best way for playwrights to learn is to see their work fully up on its feet in production. This process showed me just how true that is. By getting to see this story fully realized onstage, I learned so much not just about this play, but about my own artistic process - what it means to rewrite, what it means to collaborate, and what it means to let a story fly on its own.

What does receiving this nomination mean to you?

Emily: So often in the theater, especially as a writer, it feels like you’re throwing stuff into the void. This nomination is a wonderful reminder that I’m writing for real people, who generously listen to the stories I have to tell. Thank you!

Justin Cimino: This will be the first awards recognition our fairly young company has gotten, and for our first time producing an original work. It makes it that much more special that we nursed the piece over the course of the year with Emily.

 Follow Pigeonholed on Twitter: @pigeonholedco

Founder's Award

In honor of it's fifteenth year, the the New York Innovative Theatre Awards presented a very special award, the Founders Award.

This award, which is bestowed in recognition of significant contributions to the Innovative Theatre Foundation, is not given out every year. In fact it has only previously been presented three times.

In the first year of the awards, it was presented to Paul Adams, Artistic Director of Emerging Artists Theatre Company; in the fifth year, it was handed to Akia Squiteri, the Company Manger of the It Awards and Artistic Director of Rising Sun Performance Company; and in the tenth year, it was presented to arts advocate and patron Donn Russell.

This year the award was presented to two people who have been stalwart members of the Indie Theatre community and an important part of the development of the organization: Publicist and Founder of Kampfire PR, Katie Rosin Green and actor and writer, Christopher Borg.

"Both Katie and Christopher have been dedicated members of the Indie Theatre community. For the past 15 years we have been incredibly lucky that they have shared their passion and skills with our organization. We were honored to be able to recognize their contributions to the It Awards and to the community as a whole," stated Nick Micozzi, Co-Executive Director of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards.

Katie has been a wonderful and thoughtful partner and we are so grateful to her for her many contributions to the It Awards. She has worked with a slew of incredible artists and helped promote so many Indie Productions including: IT Award recipient Children of Eden; GLAAD Award Winner, She Like Girls; IT Award recipient Elizabeth Rex; and Drama Desk Nominee, (mis)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: The Hattie McDaniel Story. She was also instrumental in the launch of the Broadway musical Brooklyn and the National Tour of Mother Load. She was on the publicity team for the comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, and his movie Comedian. Check out her website: www.kampfirefilmspr.com

If you have met Christopher, you will not forget him. He has a huge personality and an even bigger heart. He is a performance artist, writer and director, who has shared his talents with many Indie Theatre companies including: Emerging Artists & TOSOS with whom he received 2 OOBR Awards, and nominations for a GLAAD Media Award and an HX Award for directing the celebrated Bernadette & The Butcher of Broadway. Borg, (as he is affectionately known) was also a member of the NY Neo-Futurists where he co-created the autobiographical (NOT) Just A Day Like Any Other which received the 2009 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Ensemble as well as the critically acclaimed experimental docutheatre piece Locker #4173b.

The New York Innovative Theatre Awards has has benefited many times over because of their generous and steadfast contributions. Thank you Katie and Christopher for your years of dedication and all you do to help elevate our community.

Pregnant Pause

Produced by Good Pilgrim 
Written by Kathleen Jones
Directed by Maureen Monterubio
Performed by Amie Cazel

Nominations: Outstanding Solo Performer, Outstanding Original Short Script

About the Company: Good Pilgrim likes art that thinks of life as a great pilgrimage; dramatic, funny, in desperate need praying hands and joyful spirits.

About the Production: Although Essie has mixed feelings about being pregnant — she’s a successful New York actress with a happy marriage — she warms to the idea, until she learns the baby has a genetic disorder. Haunted by her past, Essie examines her life’s work, worth, and the future of her family.

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What drew you to this project?

Kathleen: I wrote this play for my friend Amie Cazel to perform. Amie and I became thick as thieves when she got pregnant and gave birth during our last year of grad school. As I watched her baby while she was in class, I thought about how hard it is for performers with families. We talked more and more about it, and this play was born.

Amie: Essie's story is meant to help facilitate the conversation that is so difficult to have across the usual lines of religion or politics. Pregnant Pause capitalizes on what theatre does best by creating space for dialogue and allowing for questions that might not have clear and simple answers. Our audiences have included Catholic monks and Planned Parenthood supporters, both of whom identified with Essie's struggle. This work is a collaboration between theatre makers with varying opinions of abortion. The play was written with a sincere desire to collaborate on how best to support women who are in the crux of these choices. As theatre makers and storytellers, our team is committed to bringing women's stories into the spotlight.

What was your favorite part of working on Pregnant Pause?

Kathleen: My favorite part was working with my buddies! Amie and Maureen (Monterubio, our director) are stellar artists and badass women, and working with them every day was a blast.

Amie: Our favorite part was working with a talented team of committed and thoughtful women! For our production at Planet Connections, we were grateful to have the most amazing collaborators: director Maureen Monterubio (who directed the premiere at United Solo in 2016), stage manager Ashley J. Nickas and lighting designer Darielle Shandler. When working on a piece that requires such sensitivity and empathy, these women were true artistic companions.

What was the most challenging part?

Kathleen: The most challenging part was toeing the line in this play about abortion; keeping the focus not on "abortion" but on Essie, on this one woman, on her one journey.

Amie: Performing a solo show can feel lonesome. This is one reason why having a strong and supportive production team is so necessary. One can miss the camaraderie that comes with working alongside other actors. Instead, it's as if the audience gets cast in the show. For the solo actor, this is both daunting and thrilling.

What was the funniest thing about this production?

Kathleen: Half of our production team was pregnant! Thankfully Ashley (Nickas, our SM) and I held down the non-pregnant fort. Very glad Maureen waited to give birth until after our final dress rehearsal; and her baby was here for opening night!

Amie: I played Essie, a 19-week pregnant woman, while I was actually pregnant! When production plans began, there was no anticipation of a pregnancy, but once rehearsals were underway, more was revealed. Also, director Maureen Monterubio was 8-months pregnant during rehearsals. She went into labor soon after the final dress rehearsal.

What lesson did you take away from this experience?

Kathleen: Just write what's on your heart. Write into the unknown, into the fear. I didn't know how this play was going to turn out, I had a lot of anxiety about writing about such a challenging subject. But it turns out, that's where the good stuff is.

What does receiving this nomination mean to you?

Kathleen: It means that Amie and I will have something to brag about, when we go door-to-door for our next project! That's a joke, but also the reality. Good Pilgrim was born out of the friendship Amie and I have, and our desire to produce the same kind of quirky-yet-meaningful work. It's nice to know that other people responded to the work too.

Amie:This nomination means that there's still a place in people's hearts to talk about hard subjects with grace. Pregnant Pause is a play about abortion, which is crucial to talk about, but hard to do so without polarizing viewpoints. We were so proud to have a diverse audience: One show had pro-life nuns and activists for NARAL in attendance! We are proud that we were able to bring different voices together to listen to and honor women and their stories.

What did you want the audience to come away with after watching Pregnant Pause?

Amie: The play is meant to be a conversation starter, not a statement. Women and men find themselves somewhere in the story. Post show, when we hear audience members sharing about their own experiences and listening openly to others, that feels like a huge win!

What is it like working with Good Pilgrim?

Kathleen: The women we worked with have a lot of compassion, a lot of heart. That goes so far when you're working on delicate material.

Why are the nominees from this production awesome?

Amie: Kathleen and I are true collaborators! We became fast friends during graduate school and Kathleen was my closets confidante when I had a surprise pregnancy mid-way through their MFA program. When we moved to New York and Kathleen had the idea to write a play about an actress experiencing a difficult pregnancy, Pregnant Pause became the perfect project to workshop together. We have found grace and joy in our creative collaborations, and in particular for these nominations, we wouldn't be one without the other.

Follow Good Pilgrim on Twitter @goodpilgrimnyc

On the Importance of a Feminist Community

By Ashley Jacobson

My whole life, I’ve been surrounded by strong, powerful and generous women. My mother, my sisters, my friends, my teachers, and even my bosses have all been strong, self-sufficient and badass women. I have always had a strong sense of sisterhood/community and been encouraged to view my own womanhood as a source of strength. As a child, it never occurred to me that anyone would ever expect anything less than me because of my girl-ness.

Now, as an adult, I don’t take for granted this community because it has fortified me against an unrelenting and sexist reality. Because of the strength these women instilled in me as a girl - the moments of degradation, objectification and reduction can be just that–moments. I can be fearless when I need to be–because the world that I have built for myself is safe and unabashedly feminist.


The American Play at the Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre.
Photo by Melissa Balan. 2015.

When I had my first success as a playwright with THE AMERICAN PLAY, it infuriated me how differently I was treated because I was a woman, because the show was produced by women, but it dared to talk about men, and masculinity and sexual violence. The show was cut-throat and disturbing and even though bloggers and audiences alike seemed to love it, they would still come up to me and say “YOU did that? But it’s so sophisticated….” People seemed offended that I was the writer–that they couldn’t look at me and predict what kind of artist I would be. “How did THAT come out of that pretty little head of yours?” (a direct quote). Their incredulity was insulting, but I knew I was still very lucky to have my voice out there. I still had the privilege of producing my own work in such a visible way that people HAD to respond to it.

So I turned to that strong sense of community to help deal with this insipid sexism, and that's when my best friend and co-producer/co-badass Elizabeth Sarkady and I founded THE DIRTY BLONDES (TDB)–an unapologetic theater company intent on producing more works of theater that stir passionate responses, and more importantly, works that will hopefully bring new and underestimated voices to the table.

What started as a revenge project has blossomed, for me, into a compelling life’s mission to build this theater company that will not only continue to engage and progress my most favorite art form (theater), but could also be a transformative opportunity and community for other daring and unapologetic artists. This personal mission is fueled by a stubborn naiveté, a childish “you’ll see!” that I possess because of the strength and courage of all the women in my life and the community that I was blessed with from birth. That is why representation is so important, visibility is so important, supporting others when you have the opportunity to is so important.

The Miracle Play at The Secret Theater.
Photo by Ashley Lauren Hamilton. 2013.

Now, The Dirty Blondes is in its fifth season, and we had our first Off-Broadway premiere last year. We have created an identity as a company as bad-ass and dark and surprising. There are so many artists out there making work that no one thinks they are capable of. As a writer, I want to create jarring and aggressive works of theater, and as a Producer with TDB, I want to empower artists to make the work that people will say ‘how did YOU do that?’



                       
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Ashley Jacobson is a Brooklyn-based playwright. A graduate of The New School, her plays have been produced at off-off Broadway theaters across New York City, including a sold-out run as part of the 2015 FringeNYC, and off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse as part of the Fringe Encore Series. In 2015 she received the Overall Excellence in Playwriting Award from FringeNYC for The American Play. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director for THE DIRTY BLONDES, a feminist theater company "with a taste for provocation." Now going into its fifth year, The Dirty Blondes have produced more than 15 live events and have featured the work of more than 180 artists. To learn more about The Dirty Blondes and to work with us, please visit http://www.thedirtyblondes.org/.

When the Art Chooses You

Contributed by Stephanie Cox-Williams

A lot of people ask if I always wanted to be a SFX artist or more commonly called, a gore designer. Well, no, not really. Or maybe?


Matt Hurley and Melody Bates in R & J & Z - Gore Design by Stephanie Cox-Williams. Photo by Hunter Canning

Going back to lil Stephanie days, each year I would choose 5 to 10 different possible careers. As I got older, I realized (after playing Sally Ride, my first role, in a 5th grade assembly) that if I couldn’t follow all 10 career paths, I could become an actor and just “play one on TV”. Or become a secret agent. I decided on actor.

Many moons later, I made it to New York. By then I had done just about every job in the theater from back and front of house and touched everything except lighting design (and gore design). Still with my dreams of being on Broadway -- or if LA came calling, a major motion picture star -- I needed all the training I could get, so I went to AMDA. I took acting classes, stage combat classes, dance classes, and eventually got my Masters in Educational Theater.

When I first moved to New York, I didn’t know about Off-Broadway, or Off-Off-Broadway. I didn’t know these were options for me to pursue in the arts. All I had done was Community Theater and I still had my eye set on Broadway. However my journey took me down a path that I didn’t even know I wanted to travel.

I remember my first experience with OOB or Independent Theater was through my friend Christopher Yustin who was doing a parody of Scooby Doo, Spooky Dog. After that, he was cast in a show, where he really connected with the company. He said, “these guys are really cool, I want to introduce you after the show.” The show was called Allston and the “guys” were Nosedive Productions.

Raw Feed in 2012. Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum

Pulp in 2007. Photo by Aaron Epstien

I have “caught the artistic bug” a few times in my life. My first role on stage in high school; the first choreography gig I did; my first directing job; and meeting Nosedive (and subsequently working with them) each was a defining artistic moment for me. And then of course was the time I ended up doing gore design -- pretty much on the fly.

During the first show of The Blood Brothers Present… series, we had a “blood lab” and a lot of friends and designers gave us tips and helped us out. However, with the second show, it was up to each director to come up with their own effects. We were scheduled to try the effects for the first time during our tech night and incorporate them into the tech run. We were working with a lot of great ideas for effects, but they just weren’t working. It was taking a lot of time and everyone was getting frustrated. I walked over to our lighting designer and said, “I think I know how to do this, but I want to run it by you.” Together we came up with a great plan, tested it and it worked. For the rest of the night, anytime an effect was not working or taking a lot of set up (even one of mine), they called on me to solve the problem. I would instinctively MacGuyver it and we moved on. The two lessons I took from this experience was: 1) do not incorporate your effects tech into your regular tech on the same night – make sure to set aside “testing” time and then if time allows, an effects que-to-que with lights and costumes 2) keep it simple. Nowadays, I come in with, two strategies; something slightly complicated and the simple plan. Nine times out of ten, simple works best.

I still love to act, direct, choreograph, write, design props and sets, run sound, you name it. And while it wasn’t what I expected, I could not be more happy with the path my artistic life has taken. And I can’t wait to see where it leads me next. All thanks to independent theatre.

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Stephanie Cox-Williams is a FX/Gore Designer, Actress, Director, Producer and Fight Choreographer for independent theater and film. Some SFX/Gore credits include: Theatre – R+J+Z (OHA/Hard Sparks), The Temple (Tin Drum Productions), Jesus Christ Superstar, Bat Boy (NJIT), Frankenstein Upstairs (Gideon Productions), The Tower, Motherboard and Death Valley (Antimatter Collective), The Blood Brother’s Present…Anthologies (Nosedive Productions); Film –They Will Out Live Us All (AGottaandTwoShearersFilms), Assistant Effects/Make-up - Zombies: A Living History (History Channel). Named "Queen of Gore" by The New York Press (2009) and the “Tom Savini of Off-Off-Broadway” by The New York Times (2011). She has received a BA in Theatre, a Musical Theatre Conservatory degree and a Masters of Art. Named A Person of the Year by nytheatre.com in 2011 and recipient of the Outstanding Innovative Design Award for R+J+Z in 2015 by the IT Awards.

Mistresses of Our Own Destinies

Contributed by Tanya O'Debra

Working in theater is for crazy people. Only the truly disturbed would hear the word “no” repeatedly, but decide that what they actually heard was “yes”. That’s doubly true for the Off-Off-Broadway community, which is made up of people who don’t have commercial looks or commercial ideas and who simply refuse to stop making work that doesn’t fit into the mainstream. This is an area where women are definitely crazier than men, because plays written by women are not produced even close to the rates of their male counterparts, and there are far fewer roles available to female actors (especially if you want to wear all your clothes and not cry to make up for a playwright’s lack of character development). And yet, here we all are. I’ve been around long enough to see Off-Off-Broadway basically crumble around me a couple times over at this point. But like a mischief of rats, we just scurry to the next available building.

I wrote my first play, Fuck You or Dead Pee-holes, an American Tale in Thirteen Acts, with a couple of friends from acting school. We put it up at the now defunct Present Company Theatorium in November of 2000. After our show closed, I worked the box office on and off until fate (and the rent being too damn high, and zoning) shut that space down in 2003. My heart broke a little every time I walked past that empty theater, and I’ll never forgive the apartment building that stands in its place. Unless, of course, they put a theater in the basement.

My partners and I took that same show to my first New York International Fringe Festival in 2001. Our venue was the chop shop next door to the Theatorium. It didn’t even have four walls. The staff put up a sheet of plastic to close off the space. Even with such a challenging venue, our show won an Excellence Award in Over-All Production. We thought we had been set up to fail, but the Off-Off Broadway community doesn’t work that way. We are used to dirty basements and all manner of less than ideal situations, so we can see the theatre beyond the theater. We can see beyond the dollar.

The Kraine picked us up for a five-week run after Fringe was over. Week two of that run was September 11th. The following week, as soon as people were allowed below Houston, there was a meeting of downtown theater artists at that very same chop shop next to the Present Company Theatorium, and the agenda of that meeting was to make sure everyone was still alive. My friends and artistic partners had a separate meeting to decide whether or not theatre was even valuable thing to do in a post-9/11 world. Ultimately, we decided that, of course, it was. We just had to be gentler.

After that, my life was a mess of open mics whose venues all subsequently shut down. RIP to Surf Reality in 2003, Collective: Unconscious in 2008, and The Bowery Poetry Club, which became Duane Park in 2012. And of course there was my regular haunt Mo Pitkin’s, where I performed as a member of the house sketch team for Radical Vaudeville, which closed in 2007. After I left my open mic in 2008, I took my play Radio Star to Edinburgh, then Horse Trade picked it up for a run at The Red Room (RIP in 2013). Boy, do I love Erez Ziv, though he’s basically an enabler who needs to be stopped. From then on, Horse Trade presented whatever crazy work I put out. And even though a car accident put a bit of an unexpected hiatus on my career, I’m sure I’ll be scurrying across one of his stages before long.

This statement reads like an obituary to Off-Off-Broadway venues that have passed on, but it is actually a testament to the idea that our community is not defined by our spaces, but by our passion and by our work. It is defined by the people and by the art. Even though we’ve lost so many of our performance spaces over the years, we are still here. And new artists and audience members join us every day. We will always be here.

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TANYA O’DEBRA is a Brooklyn-based, Boston-born writer/performer/funny lady. One half of the ECNY Award-nominated comic sister duo, The O'Debra Twins, Ms. O’Debra has spread mirth and filth all over NYC. Their annual O’Debbie Awards garnered a Best of New York Award from The Village Voice. Her play Fuck You won The Excellence Award in Overall Production at Fringe NYC. Published by Original Works, her play Radio Star has been produced all over the world, receiving numerous awards and accolades. Winner of the Miss Fag Hag Pageant, other theater credits include Patrice O’Debra in Straight Up Vampire (Joe’s Pub), The Evil Queen in Snow White (The New Acting Company) and Amanda McCloud in The Ultimate Stimulus (Dixon Place). Her play, Shut UP, Emily Dickinson, was presented at the Orlando ad Cincinnati Fringe Festivals. She currently cohosts Hawaiian Nights, a comedy interview show on Radio Free Brooklyn.