The Gun Show

The Gun Show (part of the Women in Theatre Festival)

Written by EM Lewis
Directed by Shelly Butler
Produced by Project Y Theatre Company 

Nominations: Outstanding Solo Performance, Andrew W. Smith

About the Company: Project Y produces new and innovative theatre with a focus on social issues by diverse voices, women, and LGBTQ artists. We support new plays and playwrights that appeal to an audience interested in such themes as race, feminism, technology, and community.

About the Production: From a farming community in rural Oregon to the big cities of Los Angeles and New York, playwright EM Lewis takes aim at her own relationship with firearms in The Gun Show. Actor Andrew William Smith shares Ms. Lewis’s unique perspective and true stories about America’s most dangerous pastime as if they were his own, with brutal honesty and poignant humor. Leaning neither right nor left, “The Gun Show” jumps into the middle of the gun control debate, and asks “Can we have a conversation about this?”


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What first attracted you to this project?

Andrew: This play tackles the issue of gun violence in this country from the middle. It is neither left nor right leaning, and instead allows you to have a glimpse into what the other side is thinking, and perhaps begin to see a human being on the other side of a polarizing issue.

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

Andrew: It was incredible working on a piece of theatre that resonated so strongly with the social issues currently plaguing our country. Also, since this story approached the issue from the center as a means to bring people together, the audience was constantly begin taken off guard by the humanity within the arguments of the "other side." Also, as an actor, it was my honor to present these true stories with the playwright in the room, which dramatically amplified the power of the storytelling. With Ellen Lewis in the room each night, there was nowhere for the audience and performer to hide -- we were all in the mix together.

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

Andrew: The emotional content of this story was extremely difficult to work through without letting it overtake me. The stories in the play are brutal and 100% true -- and this demanded an emotional honestly that sometimes was a challenge to keep myself honed and on target.

What did you want the audience to walk away this after watching The Gun Show?

Andrew:No matter how strongly you believe in something, those that disagree with you have honest, true, and good reasons for doing so. We need to see the humanity in the other side, and allow the demonetization of the other side to dissipate.

What was the most unique aspect of this production for you?

Andrew:For an audience member to realize that 1) the brutal stories in the play are 100% true and 2) the playwright is in the room was a magical moment only possible in the theatre-- it turned the play on its head and each night there was a shudder of truth that infected each audience member when these two facts were revealed.

What is it like working with Project Y Theatre Company?

Andrew:No one was doing this for personal attention. We all care deeply about the issue, and strove to tell the story in a way that allowed for the greatest sense of discovery for the audience. It wasn't about impressing or entertaining an audience. It was about challenging them to challenge themselves.

Make sure to follow Project Y Theatre Company on Twitter @ProjectYTheatre


 

Connected

Written by Lia Romeo
Directed by Michole Biancosino
Produced by Project Y Theatre 

Nominated for: Outstanding Ensemble: Gus Birney, Joachim Boyle, Robby Clater, Ella Dershowitz, Midori Francis, Dana Jacks, Thomas Muccioli, Aria Shahghasemi; Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role, Midori Francis; Outstanding Original Full-Length Script, Lia Romeo; and Outstanding Revival of a Play
 

Photo by Hunter Canning

About the Production
Project Y is an “outside-the-box theatre company” that experiments with mixed media storytelling.  Their production of Connected by Lia Romeo explores how we build relationships through social media. “A young girl’s most embarrassing moment goes viral; a high school student must choose between real life and role-playing games; two girls spend Saturday night endlessly searching for the ‘perfect party;’ and a teacher is accidentally seduced by her student on an internet dating site.”

Director Michole Biancosino, Playwright Lia Romeo, and Ensemble Members Robby Clater, Ella Dershowitz, Midori Francis, Thomas Muccioli, and Aria Shahghasemi share what is was like to explore how we engage and disengage from social media.

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What attracted you to this production?

Lia: I was initially commissioned to write the play by a theater in St. Louis. They wanted me to write something that dealt with social media. So I did a lot of thinking about social media and its effects on society. I ended up realizing that it's not a simple thing - it's not just positive or negative; like most technologies, it has really different effects depending on the circumstances it's used in and the people who are using it. That's what inspired the four-part structure of the play. It had a great production in St. Louis, and then a reading with Project Y as part of their TechnoPlays reading series in 2014. When Michole Biancosino told me she wanted to do a full production in New York I was thrilled; Project Y is a fantastic company and I knew the play would be in such good hands.

Aria: It started with the script. The characters were fun to read, the story was fun to follow so I thought I'd have fun being in the production.

Ella: I love, love, love Lia's writing and Michole's direction. From the moment I walked into the audition room, everyone was so open to playing and figuring things out and having fun. I felt like they didn't have preconceived notions, and really wanted to see our versions of these characters, which I loved. I have also always been fascinated by coming of age stories, and stories about the high school years. I was not such a fan of high school when I was actually a student, so I really loved the idea of getting to go back and do it again, especially as two characters that had such different places in the high school ecosystem. I also love that, because there are so many different characters - all of whom are complicated and unique - everyone would identify with this play in some way.

Midori: I was intrigued by exploring the theme of technology and its influence on how we relate to one another and how it is changing our ideas of connection.

Thomas:  The influence of technology on our society. This new generation grappling with identity and societal pressures.

Robby: I felt like the Book was strong, and that's very important to me. It was written very naturally so it was easy to sympathize with all of the characters. It also allowed the piece to get its points across without needing to "push".

Michole: Connected is all about technology and social media and how it makes us feel more lonely even though it is supposed to bring us together as humans. Playwright Lia Romeo poses the question, "If we are now all more connected than ever, why do many of us feel so alone?"

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

Michole: Connected was a hugely popular hit, with almost every one of our 20 shows at 59E59 Theaters sold out. We loved watching the ensemble of 8 actors get to play different characters in each vignette, and how the audience responded to that. We also had a bunch of very young actors in the play - many of them were playing high school students - and so the energy of the production was incredible. This show was also laugh out loud funny - the audience loved these outsider characters, each of them struggling to fit in, find love, find a friend, and be "normal."

Lia Romeo is my favorite playwright writing for the theatre. Her writing is so unique - you feel like it is just how people talk, and yet it isn't that. She writes poetically but it feels raw and real. Her work is also dark - so dark - but unexpectedly so, as the audience is laughing, having such an entertaining time, that they have no idea what they are in for.

Aria: The people. My castmates are some of the most interesting and entertaining people I've met since moving to New York. The crew was incredibly good at their jobs and it was pretty cool to get to work with what they gave us.

Ella: I LOVED playing three really, really different characters. This is the first time I've ever played more than one person in a play, so that was just incredibly fun. I've always loved the part of acting that is about make believe and transformation and imagination, and this show was the perfect playground for that.

Lia: It was wonderful to be able to be involved with the rehearsal process from the beginning. When the play was done in St. Louis, I just showed up on opening night, and so it was great to get to see the New York cast work through the play over time. I was able to make some changes and polish the script in rehearsal, and it was inspiring - and also a lot of fun - to be able to spend time with such a great cast and director and see them bring this world to life.

Midori: My cast! They were all so talented and wonderful. It was truly a joy to hang out with them every day.

Robby: I loved the rest of the cast. They were all so talented and kind so it was easy for us to trust each other and let the piece flow.   

Thomas: Being a World of Warcraft dwarf and the research involved. Trying to understand why these gamers choose fantasy over IRL.

Photo by Hunter Canning

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

Ella: Quick changes. Not even kidding. I had about 10 seconds to go from a drunk party girl with lots of makeup to a scraggly gamer in sweatpants. At the same time, my friend was a foot away going from a drunk party girl to a World of Warcraft night elf. I'm surprised nobody accidentally gave anyone else a black eye.

Michole: There were so many moving parts - including a set that moved around as well as projections and videos - so putting all the pieces of the giant interconnected puzzle together was fascinating. We also had an entire scene that was based on World of Warcraft - full cosplay costumes and staging - so it was a tricky balance of what to put onstage versus what to have as multimedia.

Lia: Honestly, I didn't find anything about the process particularly challenging. I was really happy with the cast and had a great working relationship with the director, and so I was just enjoying the ride.

Thomas: The scenes set IRL (in real life) were probably the most challenging. The video game scenes were a piece of the cake, though the quick change was always stressful. Gay teen one minute and a bearded dwarf the next. The reality scenes were difficult because they required a sensitivity that these characters rarley engage in. They are constantly engaged with their phones, games and apps rather than the people sitting in front of them.

What was the weirdest thing about working on this production?

Aria:  The integration of World of Warcraft. Having a game like that used in a professional production I got to be a part of was awesome.

Thomas: I mean I mentioned it already but the vignette I was in by far was the most innovative. The Cosplay was on point: Night Elves, Dwarfs, and Warriors of World of Warcraft. Also, swinging a flail weapon every night was fun and a little violent.

Ella: Yes! I played a World of Warcraft addict, and another actress played my avatar. The Warcraft scenes came to life! There were awesome projections, lighting, costumes, and weapons, and the coolest part was the actors playing avatars incorporated the physical vocabulary of the game into their blocking. And I mouthed my avatar's lines in sync with her. I wish I'd gotten to see those scene (well, the whole play actually!) from the audience because I bet it looked pretty trippy and awesome.

Michole: The audience loved the actors so much. They would all in unison say "awwww!" or "oh no!" as they rooted for each of them. People told me afterwards that they had "fallen in love" with this or that actor.

Lia: Since the play deals with social media, we wanted to integrate social media into the audience experience, so we used kind of an innovative technique - there are four parts of the play, and then the company had me write a fifth part which existed only online - we filmed the scene and it was available on Project Y's website during the show, so the audience could go online and continue their experience of the play outside of the theater.

What was it like working with Project Y Theater?

Ella: It literally never felt like work. We all were - and still are - kind of obsessed with each other. The fact that the show is so fun allowed us to have so much fun, and the fact that our characters are in those vulnerable high school years and are all so honest and complicated and weird allowed us to be our strange and crazy selves from day one. Also, Michole and Lia both gave us so much creative independence with our characters, and let us take all sorts of risks and do weird things and make these people our own. And yet, every single direction or note they gave ended up being the perfect solution / the key to it all.Aria:  Project Y is good because they're driven by what they want to see. They produce what they'd be interested in so it's always interesting to audiences.

Lia: I love working with Project Y. They produced another one of my plays four years ago, and I've also been working as the literary manager of the company for the past two and a half years. It's hard to pick one "best thing" - Project Y has given me a theatrical home in New York, and I'm so grateful. But if I had to pick one thing, I guess I'd say that I always know I'm going to get a really high-quality reading or production. Being a playwright means trusting your work to others - often strangers - which can be really nervewracking, but when I work with Project Y there are no nerves involved - I know they're going to bring my play to life in a way that's true to my vision for it (and often even better than my vision for it), and so I feel really comfortable and secure.

Robby: There was a lot of freedom in the rehearsals, or at least it felt like there was. It's one of the advantages of working with a strong Director, great writer, and intelligent actors. We could all feed off of each other to create something meaningful and organic.

Thomas: Project Y and the folks at 59E59 take care of their performers. Both artistically and logistically they ensure the actors can fully delve into the work.

Midori: Project Y supports new works! Project Y supports women! Project Y is awesome.

You can follow these artists on Twitter
Project Y Theatre - @ProjectYTheatre
Midori Francis - @midorifrancis 
Thomas Muccioli - @ThomasMuccioli

Project Y Theatre Company

Project Y Theatre Company is a transplant from Washington, DC. Since 2009 they have been producing new works here in the Big Apple.

We asked Artistic Director Michole Biancosino to tell us about their process of developing new works.

What are the origins of Project Y Theatre Company?

Project Y started as the dream of two recent college graduates, me and my co-Artistic Director, Andrew W. Smith, who moved to Washington, DC and saved up money to rent a small space in Adams Morgan and put up two plays over the course of a year.  After that immediate critical and personal success we agreed to a project-based company - we were choosing plays that were new or unseen and that spoke to our younger generation - and set a life limit of 5 years on the company to avoid any pressure to "get big" or plan seasons.  After those 5 amazing years were up, we parted ways and went to grad schools, got married, moved abroad, lived life. Then in 2007 we were both pulled back to Project Y, to the passion we had for producing new work together, this time in NYC.  We started up again in our new home, first with a reading and then with the world premiere of Karl Gadjusek's FUBAR. We have been doing exciting work with Project Y ever since - we have a new team of awesome producing partners who go above and beyond to support the work - and we're still staying true to our project-based philosophy of focusing on the development of new work and artists.

LoveSick is a collection of humorous love-gone-awry stories incorporating music. What was the inspiration for LoveSick?

LoveSick in its current form was really a three-separate-parts inspiration.  Lia Romeo, the playwright, was inspired by her fascination with romantic comedies, and she wrote all these stories about screwed up love happening to screwed up people - she focused on the funny fact that most people search and hope to find love.  Tony Biancosino, the songwriter, was inspired by breakups, relationships, and all the misery that comes along with being in love when a relationship is either doomed or done - and he found a sick humor in the heartache.  The combination of those two parts - plays and songs - was just a crazy idea I had to make a musical all about screwed up love - to stage it as an event and let theme be the force behind the musical.  I had directed a reading of Lia's plays and I had been listening to my brother's songs on my computer and they just started to fuse in my mind as a perfect combination, so we put it together in a workshop production in 2010 to see if there was something to this. That was the birth of the current musical, LoveSick or THINGS THAT DON'T HAPPEN.

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

The choice to use actor/musicians was the best decision we made, because not only did it get the actors intimately involved with every aspect of the production (if they weren't acting, they were playing guitar, or dancing in a spotlight, or singing or shaking a tambourine), but it got them to fully support each other both on and off stage.  Watching the audience scream with laughter after our boy band-type number, then seeing one of the lead singers hop on stage, take off his tuxedo jacket, and play a full drumset, illustrates how dedicated and ego-less our cast was.  It was a unified effort and the audience could sense how all the actors were in sync with each other.   

Do you think musical theatre is still important and why?

I actually think musical theatre has the potential to be the most important theatre because it is seen by so many people. Audiences pour into town everyday and want to see the latest musicals, and later the biggest hits will be performed and seen at high schools, colleges, and small theatres across the country.  So musicals reach people. LoveSick is not your grandmom's musical - in style, tone, and structure it breaks all the rules - yet we still wanted people to leave the theatre humming the songs.

Your process for developing new work includes; readings, online video projects, workshop productions and full productions. How do each of those elements help the production progress?

We have developed this amazing three-tiered approach to working with new playwrights on new work.  Our online projects have introduced us to so many writers and actors, who become life long collaborators. The yearly themed reading series are the backbone of our company - LoveSick started in our reading series, last June we did a Workshop Production of Sean Christopher Lewis' "Goodness" at Under St. Marks that started in our reading series, and our next full production also came from this year's "Holy Cow!" series: plays about religion, faith, and Life after death.  Workshop productions have allowed us to develop a new work with the playwright and then put it up before audience without the stress of money or reviewers. We mount a full production every 12-18 months because we normally work with the writer for at least 18 months to develop the piece and because we wrangle every ounce of man-power and fundraising available to have high production values and amazing casting. By the time we open a production, every producing and creative team member is fully immersed in the play.  Its actually a pretty unique way to run a company - focus on the development process and get everyone involved in and excited about the play from the first reading, through a development process, then a workshop production, and culminating in a fully realized show.  

What is next for Project Y Theatre?

We are thrilled to announce we will be producing the world premiere of "User's Guide to Hell, featuring Bernard Madoff," by Tony- and Pulitzer nominee, Lee Blessing.  Lee is a huge supporter of Project Y - he has been one of our Champions (our version of an Advisory Board) for years and comes to everything we do.  We were excited to have his play as part of this year's reading series; it was a huge hit. This play is so smart but also laugh-out-loud funny.  The reading went so well, we all kind of thought, "Let's do this again!"  We are once again on the furious search for the "right" space, which is always a huge hurdle for us, since we pick each theatre for the needs of the play itself.  We're putting those pieces together right now.