Baby Mama: One Woman's Quest to Give Her Child to Gay People

Written by Mariah MacCarthy
Directed by Sara Lyons
Produced by Caps Lock Theatre 

Nominations: Outstanding Original Full-Length Script: Mariah MacCarthy; Outstanding Solo Performance: Mariah MacCarthy


About the Production
Producer, writer, and performer Mariah MacCarthy talks to us about her show, including her motivation for doing it, its impact on audience, and other revealing insights.

Mariah MacCarthy (Photo credit: Kacey Stamats)



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What attracted you to this project?
Mariah: I'd had a unique and incredibly intense experience (placing my baby in an open adoption), and I didn't know anyone else who had gone through this. So I decided to be the role model I didn't have at the time.
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Mariah: Looking each member of the audience in the eye at the beginning of the show, and eliminating any distance between them and me. Holding audience members in my arms afterwards and hearing their stories.


What was the most challenging part of working on this production?
Mariah: I hadn't acted in nearly a decade. I had rapped and done stand-up and burlesque, but I hadn't been in a show since college — let alone one where I was the only performer. I had to learn how to keep my energy up, how to dance with an audience, and how to not blow out my voice.


What was the quirkiest part of the production?
Mariah: The day of the inauguration, during the first break in the show, I asked the audience from the stage, "How you guys doing? Anyone need to scream into the void?" No one took me up on the offer, but I just needed to do something to acknowledge the elephant in the room, and the very real possibility that the world was ending. Mercifully, the world didn't end that day, and I did the rest of the show as usual.


What was it like working with this group of artists?
Mariah: This show is about the year that I was pregnant with my son. That was the same year that I started Caps Lock Theatre. I'm so glad, in retrospect, that I didn't let my pregnancy and adoption experience stop me from producing my own work. Self-producing has led to everything good in my career. I can't tell you how freeing it is to know that you don't need to wait for a gatekeeper. You don't need permission to do your work. Just find a time and place, and do the thing.

Mariah MacCarthy (Photo credit: Kacey Stamats)

What will you take away from your experience working on?
Mariah: I learned that even if your entire first row of audience has resting bitch face, the back rows might be getting a phenomenal show, and you're not allowed to give up just because you're not getting anything back in the moment.

 

Please follow Caps Lock Theatre:
Twitter: @CapsLockTheatre

 

One Way To Pluto!

Written and Directed by Seanie Sugrue
Produced by Locked In The Attic Productions

Nominated for: Outstanding Original Full-Length Script, Seanie Sugrue; and Outstanding Premier Production of a Play

About the Production
One Way To Pluto!, is an existential journey through the life of Peter Cooper, a hostile persona struggling to make sense of his transgender dysphoria. Falling out of grace with everyone around him, Peter plunges from shared housing to homelessness, seldom user to heroin junkie and from punk rock drummer to pathetic, washed-up rock star. Destroyed by his ego, comfort comes through a psychedelic journey to Pluto and back with Dwight, a chronic vagabond, and from an act of criminal desperateness, he befriends one of Pluto’s moons. This story is a restless exploration of one man’s search to find meaning and delves into the fight against personal delusion, addiction, and the trepidation of inferiority.


Playwright Seanie Sugrue and Company Manager, Amanda Martin share their thoughts on creating this challenging "punk theatre" piece.

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What was your favorite part of working on this production?

Seanie: Getting to work with Dan Sweeney and Bret Koheart of Acquiesce (the band), two guys who I've hung out with in the village for over a decade, were kind enough to let us use their music to soundtrack the play.

What did you want the audience to come away with after watching One Way to Pluto!?

Amanda: We wanted to offer them a time out from their financial insecurity. We believe in the pursuit of happiness and that money, materialism and capitalism shouldn't be the answers to what they are looking for.

What was the biggest challenge of working on this production?

Seanie: When I wrote the play, I wrote the part of Johnny for our dear friend James Anthony Tropeano III (Jimmie), who had worked on our last two productions. This past December, weeks before rehearsals were set to begin, he was killed in a tragic accident. The most challenging part was replacing him and rehearsing knowing that Jimmy wasn't playing his role. Most of the actors were friends with Jimmie so we had a pretty rough time with it, but we knew the show had to go on.

What was it like working with Locked in the Attic Production?

Seanie: Their commitment is remarkable. We have worked with a very brilliant and committed group of people. Many of the actors in One Way to Pluto! have been with us for the last 5 productions, including 4 original plays within a year.

What was it like working with Seanie?

Amanda: Seanie is amazing, because you can’t teach what he does.

Late With Lance!

Produced by PM2 Entertainment

Nominated for: Outstanding Solo Performance, Peter Michael Marino

Photo by Alicia Levy

About the Production
Failed cruise ship entertainer, celebrity stalker and musical theatre fanatic Lance is docked in town for one night only, so he’s hosting a variety-talk show with special guests Liza Minnelli, Hugh Jackman and musical sensation Miami Sound Machine. But who’ll show up? Lance has suffered for his art. Now it’s your turn!


Performer Peter Michael Marino talks about this funny, warm, and insightful one-man show.

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What attracted you to this subject matter?

Peter: I was interested in spoofing the solo show genre, and managed to do that, while also poking fun at talk shows and celebrities. I was fascinated with the idea of a "regular person" being a guest on a talk show - but treated like a celebrity. I did a bunch of research on classic talk show hosts and discovered that many of them created personas as their on-air personality. This concept led to me having my old 90s character Lance come out of retirement to be the host of the show. And then that led to me creating a bigger backstory as well as interstitial bits to do in between the guests.

What did you want the audience to come away with after watching this production?

Peter: I wanted audiences to come away with a good feeling. I wanted to make people forget their troubles for an hour and to believe in the struggle of the character and to hopefully see parts of themselves in the character. It's a show about being optimistic...even when the chips are down. And for Lance, they are always down.

What was your favorite part of this production?

Peter: I love improvising with audience members who "Lance" treated like real celebrities. I did the show in NY, Orlando, Hollywood, London and a month-long run in Edinburgh. I met all kinds of people from all over the world with such diverse backgrounds and observing how they responded to Lance as if he was a real person was a real treat.

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

Peter: It was tough to find the heart and the "why" at first; but after doing the show at a few fringe fests, it became clear that Lance just wanted to be loved and recognized. It was then a challenge for me to realize that Lance was essentially me. Beyond that, the character is very high energy and it was a real workout as far as singing and dancing and keeping up with the variety of people who Lance chatted with.

What is the noteworthy thing that happened during the production?

Peter: I was fortunate enough to book and interview actual stars near the end of the run. These stars included FAME & Broadway star Laura Dean; FAME star Antonia Franceschi; Chanteuse Extraordinaire Tammy Faye; and YouTube/Off-Broadway Impressionist sensation Christina Bianco! And I always enjoy hearing people GASP when Lance's wig came off at the end of the show. It  always warmed my heart. I called it the "Santa Claus" moment --- like, "Hey! That guy isn't real! But I want him to be!"

You can follow Peter Michael Marino on Twitter - @blackoutpete

Nord Hausen Fly Robot: (Invisible Republic #3)

Adapted & Directed by Ian W. Hill
Produced by Gemini CollisionWorks

Nominated for: Outstanding Performance Art Production

 Photo by Mark Veltman

About the Production
A paranoid rant? A schizophrenic’s tragic delusion? An internet troll’s computer-generated word salad? An underground history of the battle between pop culture and the military-industrial complex? All of the above? Nord Hausen Fly Robot is an investigation by Gemini CollisionWorks into a 55-page anonymous online comment left on a political website that first seems nothing more than an incomprehensible tirade, but on repeated examination suggests a poetic summary of US History post-WWII from a marginalized voice.

Artistic Director Ian W. Hill talks about tackling this stream-of-consciousness offering and finding the beauty in it.


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What attracted you to this project?

Ian: I was obsessed with the original anonymous text found online, and I believed that the time and place were right for it to be shared with the world in this form.

What was your favorite part of this production?

Ian: The close collaboration with an exceptional group of actors who were willing to trust in a very singular and often inexplicable vision for the piece, and not afraid to work very hard to polish a rough stone into multifaceted, gleaming clarity.

What was the most challenging aspect of this production?

Ian: Delving into the words of a mentally-ill person, and pulling from their beauty and pain a pure theatrical experience.

What is the strangest thing that happened during this production?

Ian: There are almost too many strange things to mention -- the cast and crew still speak to each other in a shorthand of phrases from the text that will have no meaning to anyone who didn't spend months working on it. Our own in-joke patois.

What did you want the audience to walk away with after watching Nord Hausen...?

Ian: A combined sense of despair and hope at the past present and future of our country -- a sense that things have gone horribly wrong, but there is still beauty, and ideals, and people who care, even in the midst of madness.

What was it like working with this company of artists?

Ian: We made a remarkable piece of theater out of a madman's beautiful but difficult online rant, and continued our quest to make theater that is both basically indefinable/indescribable except by the production itself, and deeply satisfying to audiences of all kinds.

You can follow Gemini Collision Works on Twitter - @geminicollision

Dvorak In America

Conceived & Directed by Vit Horejs
Produced by GOH Productions


Nominated for: Outstanding Original Music, James Brandon Lewis

About the Production
Dvorak In America depicts Antonin Dvorak's life during his tenure as the first Director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in NYC, and his three-year stay in the US (1892-1895). This musical play uses objects and puppets to depict the characters as we follow Dvorak’s quest to discover the true American sound.

Composer James Brandon Lewis and Executive Director Bonnie Sue Stein talk about creating a biographical play with music based on an historical figure.
 

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What attracted you to this subject?

James: What attracted me most about Dvorak in America is the courage Antonin Dvorak had in the Late 1800's to make the statement that the source material for American Symphony can be found in the folk melodies of African and Native Americans .

Bonnie: Vit Horejs, Artistic Director of Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre, has always been intrigued by the years that the renowned composer, Antonin Dvorak spent in the USA from 1893-1895, and the ideas that the composer had about the music of “Negroes” and “Indians”, being quintessentially American. Vit wanted to tell this little known story, of how Dvorak was brought to the USA to serve in the National Conservatory of American Music and was so impressed with spirituals and other types of music that already existed. 

Growing up in Detroit in the 1950s, I was exposed to the immense Black-American culture that paved the way for so many new genres of music. I was attracted to this project as much as Vit, and I wanted to do it to learn more about the history and how we could tell this story with a contemporary twist.

What did you want the audience to come away with after watching Dvorak in America?

Bonnie: I want the audience to have questions – to want to know more about Dvorak and his influences and to understand that the train of musical history in the USA was based on many of his ideas in the 19th century. I want the audience to come away with the suspended belief that a violin case can be a character in a play, and to believe in the power of objects as puppets and characters.

I also want audience to question the issues of race and equality as it has developed and not developed through the history of the USA in terms of culture.

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

James: Favorite part of working on the is production was composing for it of course .I enjoyed the process of researching Antonin Dvorak music , and then assimilating my compositions as well as arrangements to the actual production of Dvorak in America . The parring my compositions with script was very insightful and cue based process of which i gained new insight into another world of compositional form .

Bonnie: I love this play and the way the objects and puppets are used to create ambiance and various scenes. The music is a particularly vital part of the show, since the play is based on a famous composer, and we wanted to show both his music and how his music influenced generations to follow. I am fond of the discreet use of the various blatantly racist stereotypes of the time to echo our own 21st Century world. The costumes, scenery, acting, music and the whole gestalt of the play are wonderful…I loved watching the set designer Tom Lee, develop his incredible backdrops with real Dvorak sheet music, and I am very fond of the use of the music instrument cases as part of the scenery.

What was the biggest challenge of working on this production?

James: The most challenging part of working on this production was just being new to working on a theater production , Lots to learn and it was a little overwhelming at first but then i settled in and got to work .

Bonnie: Challenging was the scale of the show. A large theater like the Ellen Stewart at La MaMa needs to be used in a smart way to encompass and transform the space. I have been working on various productions in this theater since the 1980s and am very happy how we were able to transform it for DVORAK IN AMERICA, thanks also to Tom Lee and his smart spatial design, and to the music and puppets.

It was also a challenge to know which part of the history to tell and what to leave out, to be able to really convey the story and the time period in a theatrical play with objects and puppets!

What was the strangest thing that happened during this production?

James: I ended up acting a small role, completely not what I thought I would be doing. Of course but very rewarding, and insightful .

What is it like working with GOH Productions?

James: It's truly a family. Very helpful and encouraging you to push yourself and ask of yourself the things that may expose what you may not feel confident doing at first but then you discover another layer and drive that helps shape new insight and gives you courage to push and touch the intimate place to then give all of who you are to the piece and to your fellow cast members. Truly a family.

What was it like working with James?

Bonnie: James Brandon Lewis is one of the most awesome composers and sax players that I have ever met in my life – and I have worked with countless famous and not so famous musicians. James is the real deal. He is dedicated, disciplined and destined for greatness. This was his first theatrical endeavor and I am certain he has the skill and insight to work on more plays and visual presentations, as well as music-only performances.

The ensemble of this show was stellar to work with, and I am thrilled that we were able to create such a gorgeous, meaningful show together. Vit Horejs is a visionary director, puppeteer, story-teller and playwright.

David Carl's Celebrity One Man Hamlet

Written by David Carl & William Shakespeare
Directed by Michole Biancosino
Produced by Project Y Theatre, PM2 Entertainment and Richard Jordan Productions

Nominated for: Outstanding Solo Performance, David Carl

Photo by Jeanette Sears

About the Production
Having triumphed in Celebrity Big Brother, survived Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, taken on Meatloaf and Donald Trump, Keanu Reeves’ favorite costar now undertakes his biggest challenge yet: performing all the parts in Hamlet with outrageous songs and homemade puppets. Carl channels the ultimate Hamlet-ized Busey .

Writer and performer David Carl and director Michole Biancosino talk about creating this offbeat and hilarious one-man show.


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What attracted you to this project?

David: I have been a fan of Gary Busey since I was 10 and Hamlet since I was 15. I started making solo shows 5 years ago and 3 years I got this idea and I knew that I had to do it because it made me laugh every time I thought about it.

Michole: David Carl's Celebrity One Man Hamlet was a crazy idea that came from David Carl's infatuation with Hamlet and a certain off-kilter celebrity. The show is born out of an obsession with Shakespeare and the way celebrities will often be cast in the leading role of a show to sell tickets, so it becomes "their" version of whatever play. The project started as a one-time showing at SOLOCOM (at the PIT) created by two old friends - Michole Biancosino and David Carl - and then grew from NY Fringe to Edinburgh Fringe to a current run at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. It has taken on a life of its own.

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

David: Working with my director Michole Biancosino is a true joy. She is passionate, hilarious, brilliant and one of my best friends. I also loved building all the puppets, and really getting to play Gary Busey is one of the great joys of my life. I play him with pure, aggressive positivity and that is extremely fun.

Michole: It is an insanely funny show. We love doing it for people. We love doing it for ourselves. It is actually a remarkably accurate reading of Hamlet and yet it is a Hamlet turned on its head. We love that people have an unforgettable night at the theatre.

What was the biggest challenge of working on this production?

 

David: We've done over 45 our shows at festivals or comedy theaters where you have to get on and off stage in 15 minutes due to a high volume of programing. The few times that we got to set up and take down without rushing were pure bliss.

Michole: It was hard to stop laughing. It was also hard to cut the show down. We have about 30 more minutes of material that we don't use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the oddest aspect of this production?

David: Everything about playing Gary Busey doing Hamlet by himself is odd. My personal favorite is when school groups come who have recently read Hamlet. They laugh harder than anyone and there's no sound in the world like the cathartic laughter of someone who was recently forced to read Hamlet.

Michole: Yes! It is still happening. Still running. Still going. Hopefully it will have a long life.

What was it like working with Project Y Theatre

David: Michole Biancosino is a powerhouse. I compare everything else that I do to my experiences working with her.

What is it like working with David Carl?

Michole: David Carl rocks. He just does. He is an insane performer. He does an improvised talkback at the end of each show with audience. He is so talented and slays every show. He also made all his own puppets for this show.

You can follow these artists on Twitter
Project Y Theatre - @ProjectYTheatre
David Carl - @dcorreycarl

Fawnbook

Written by Ayun Halliday
Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory
Produced by Gemini CollisionWorks

Nominated for: Outstanding Original Short Script, Ayun Halliday

Photo by Schecter Lee

About the Production
“An agrarian, post-digital settlement of middle-aged women and teenage boys fixate on the fruits of their garden and unexpected encounters with wildlife as catastrophes both natural and manmade lay waste to the surrounding communities. The script is entirely composed of social media posts and comments re-contextualized into a meditation on calamity and grief, as poetic as it is funny and weird.

Farming. Fawns. Food. Doom.  Like. Like. Heart emoticon. Like.”

Playwright Ayun Halliday and Gemini CollisionWorks Artistic Director, Ian W. Hill talk about this intriguing work that provides a new perspective to our usage of social media.

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What attracted you this idea?

Ayun: Some friends and I - including Fawnbook cast members Nick Balaban and Marjorie Duffield - were getting together weekly to fool around with improv. One day, we agreed to bring interesting social media posts to our next rehearsal, just to see where they would lead. One guy brought in something about a woman finding a newborn fawn in her suburban backyard. The outpouring of over-the-top love and support she received in response was really quite astonishing, especially when tempered with the occasional sour comment on order of “Good work, now that you’ve touched it, the mother will reject it.” When we put it on its feet, we started gravitating to this weird, agrarian settlement in which everyone was constantly working, hoeing and washing clothes by hand in a river - a Little House on the Prairie type of situation that predated social media. I was smitten. Eventually, I gained their permission to develop it into a script, prowling around Facebook for the dialogue, and transferring the time period to a dystopian near future.

Ian: I have had a long-time admiration for Ayun Halliday and her work. I really wanted to produce -- for the first time -- something through Gemini CollisionWorks that was not actually created by the company itself. I also thought the piece would bring teenage actors and audience to The Brick.

Photo by Schecter Lee

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

Ayun: Hearing the platitudes and self-aggrandizement of social media spoken aloud with ritual seriousness by members of our strange little post-digital, pre-apocalyptic community. It was also very gratifying to hear the audience's horrified response to certain highly recognizable tropes... like when the community dismissed an earthquake survivor whose entire world has just been destroyed with a cheerful, "Hugs!"

Ian: Having a group of newcomers work with our company and with The Brick, especially a group including teenagers -- who brought plenty of their friends in to see the show.

What was the biggest challenge of working on this production?

Ayun: Schlepping rakes, buckets, a record player and a giant cart of shredded brown fabric dirt back and forth to our various donated and low cost rehearsal spaces...on the subway. The lion's share of our prop budget went toward the purchase of cucumbers and carrots ... which I, author, performer, publicist and prop mistress was always forgetting to replenish, though I did become quite friendly with the guy who operated the vegetable cart outside my local Trader Joe's.

Ian: Balancing it in repertory with the in-house CollisionWorks play, which was something we're not used to, as we usually take over The Brick ourselves entirely for the weeks of our season every year.

What was the oddest part of the production for you?

Ayun: There were a number of things that really made this experience unique. We hosted a Fawnbook sketch night, where audience members were invited to live-draw the performance. One of those sketches has a place of honor in my living room.

The role of the little fawngirl who appears for 45 seconds at the end of the play was shared by five young actresses - just like Matilda! (There were at least three who would've happily performed every single night, but we mixed it up to make things a little easier on their parent chaperones.

My father died right before we opened - the flurry of emotional support on my Facebook wall softened my opinion of social media condolences somewhat.

Many audience members reported that Fawnbook changed the way they communicate on social media...a couple of them went so far as to pull the plug on their Facebook accounts for good!

Ian: The huge amount of people it brought to The Brick who had never been there before, for a great deal of a near sell-out run.

Photo by Schecter Lee

What was it like working with this company?

Ayun: The mix of generations - three middle-aged women and three teenage boys working as equals was very inspiring. Each group inspired the other to a high degree of accountability. There was no slagging, no moping around at rehearsals.

We also had the world's most energetic and cheerful stage manager in Thomas Pflanz. He'd greet you with a hug and then dash out in the rain to pick up whatever vegetable prop we'd forgotten to replenish for that evening's performance.

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

Ian: A sense of beauty and fragility and community. With some bittersweet laughs.

What was it like working with Ayun Halliday?

Ian: Ayun Halliday is an amazing writer/performer who has been away from the stage for too long as she's focused on her zine, book, and online writing (and raising her kids). She was an outstanding and founding member of the Neo-Futurists (originally in Chicago, then NYC) 

You can follow these artists on Twitter
Gemini CollisionWorks - @Geminicollision
Ayun Hallidy - @AyunHalliday

Crumble

Written by Mark O'Neil
Produced by MORA Theater

Nominated for: Outstanding Solo Performance, Laura Hooper


About the Production
Crumble is a dark, funny and emotionally powerful one-woman play, hosted by ‘Sylvie Cranshaw’, a baking-obsessed housewife with an unravelling private life. Set in a real kitchen, this is an innovative, interactive, site-specific play.

‘Sylvie Cranshaw’, is a quintessential northern English housewife with a passion for cooking up sauce in the kitchen, fresh meat and spicy innuendo. A woman trying to escape her monotonous existence, she mistakes fantasy for reality and loses herself somewhere in the middle. Hidden between the lines of her scrawled recipe notes and the pages of her romantic fiction collection lies a dangerous truth.


Performer, Laura Hooper talks to us about this site-specific work with a dark twist.

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What attracted you to this material?

Laura: It was organic. Mark O'Neil (the writer) and I coincidentally both relocated to NYC from London in the UK in 2011. We met up and naturally started talking about Crumble's quirky character Sylvie Cranshaw whom we developed in 2005, over a couple of drinks, naturally...! We wondered what New Yorker's would think of this character and our play, would they get it? Would they care? I have specialized in site-specific theatre for some time and thought it would be interesting to put this show in real life kitchens in real life NYC homes to deepen the audiences’ relationship with the Sylvie. It took off from there.

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

Laura: I want the audience to be aware of the magic and power of site-specific theatre and to go away wanting to see more... 

I also want to raise awareness of women's issues. Often after the play, I am left sharing wine with audience members and discussing these issues. I hope that some of them may go away and continue these conversations. There are a lot of problems that need to be addressed in society right now, let's get them out in the open.

What was your favorite part of working on this production?

Laura: Being constantly blown away by the generosity of the hosts who open up their homes and hearts to Crumble. These people are true supporters of the arts and we are honored to have been able to collaborate with them.

What was the biggest challenge of working on this production?

Laura: It is knackering to perform! I start off improvising the first half of the show so I have to be at the top of my game, whilst also hosting the audience and ensuring they are well looked after. I then go on a huge emotional journey and am left a bit of a wreck by the end of the piece. After all that, like all good hosts, I am left to clean up the kitchen!

What is the most unique aspect of Crumble?

Laura: Where to start?! I am going into people's homes all over the world...I have had a host in the Financial District offering to buy slippers for all the audience members because she wanted them to remove their shoes. I have had 20 Irish audience members dancing around their handbags, whilst singing "Private Dancer" at the top of their lungs. I have been upstaged by my own Father at a performance in Far Rockaway by coming up with a better joke than I could. The list goes on...

 You can follow MORA Theatre on Twitter - @moratheater

The Pillowman

Written by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Greg Cicchino
Produced by Variations Theatre Group

Nominated for: Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role, Deven Anderson; Outstanding Innovative Design, Aaron Gonzalez and David Rey

 

About the Production
The Pillowman centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent yet surprisingly hilarious theatrical masterpiece; an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art.

What attracted you to this production?

Deven: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh was always a bucket list play for me. After seeing the Broadway production in 2005 at the Booth Theatre...I just fell in love with the play and McDonagh's style. I have always gone out of my way wherever I am to see his productions when they come to town. More specific to the style - as a trained comedic actor - The Pillowman introduced me to a whole new level of humor, something I've never tried before. Its a kind of 'uncomfortable' humor. I remember watching Jeff Goldblum onstage during the original production and thinking 'What he's saying is SO incredibly dark and ruthless' but I found myself laughing none the less.

What was your favorite part of this production?

Deven: The cast. This was an all-star cast experience. Every single cast member was an absolute joy to work with. Kirk, who has been a guiding force in my acting life was an incredible listener on stage...and since my character does most of the talking...you couldn’t ask for a better partner to be there for you. Paul Terkel played Ariel. I'd never worked with Paul prior to this show but within days we had a genuine rapport with one another. Kyle Kirkpatrick who played Michal, well we never had any scenes together which was a shame, but at the time Kyle was my roommate so I was ok with seeing him a little less.

Aaron: Creative problem solving. Little to no budget and we needed to create an interrogation room, and a jail cell. (Pillowman)

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

Deven: It was a very gutsy call for the Chain Theatre to pick this production as one of its last plays. I've seen this show done well and I've seen it bomb. So it was incredibly important to make sure we never veered towards the latter. Also, our cast was young. When you read The Pillowman, you're entered into this oblique almost dystopian world where civil liberties are constantly kept in check by this overbearing and sinister government. With this dark setting - you never really picture young faces, at least I never pictured them. Tupolski and Ariel in my head were always rough and jagged- with years of exhausting detective work chipping away at their souls. Keeping my initial perception in mind, it was a challenge to make a young blonde haired guy such as myself believable in this tempest of a character. In my opinion, we were able to piece together an intimate 'in your face' fairy tale that the audience could be a part of.

Aaron: Digital animation of the stories in Pillowman. I had never done animation like this. I'm more familiar with photoshop, and Final Cut.

What was the most unique aspect of this production?

Deven: When we began production on Pillowman, we all knew was that the Chain theatre was going to close. At the time, we couldn't say anything to anyone. We had to keep everything a big secret. We just had to press on and create a production worthy of this great theatre's last few months. After The Pillowman's opening, I remember walking out into the lobby where a few audience members remained. This older gentlemen who I had never met before approached me and congratulated me on this production. I remember seeing this true excitement beaming out of his eyes - he said things like 'I came in here skeptical of this production since I had seen the Broadway production but I was blown away by yours...I can't wait to see what you guys do next year.' And I remember thinking...'this is where my real acting skills are being displayed.'

Aaron: We shot the actors dressed in black and white and I edited the footage to look like a Frank Miller graphic novel for the story of The Writer and the Writer's Brother. Also, the table we used in the interrogation room was not able to exit the stage mid show, so I built a proscenium that could fold down to hide the table and open to reveal a sleeping pad where the brother would later be smothered.

What was it like working with this Company?

Deven: If you take the time and energy to invest in the Chain Theatre, they invest in you. When I first started working with them after they opened, I was just an actor...now Im also a writer, producer, props master, and director. They helped nurture skill sets I never knew I had. The see who you are and who you should become and they help the two meet. That in my eyes, is a company to invest in.

Aaron: They do not let lack of funding hinder their ambition, and neither do I.

You can follow this company on Twitter - @chaintheatre