New Stage Theatre receives Donn Russell Fund Grant

Under the direction of Artistic Director Ildiko Nemeth, New Stage Theatre Company creates some of the most visceral and visually evocative work currently gracing OOB stages. By bringing together artists from around the world, their goal is to employ a universal expression of art that overcomes the limitations of language, customs or theatrical conventions. The results are often stunning and garner raves from critics and audiences alike. 

"Ildiko Nemeth, in helming New Stage Theater Company’s current production of the work, infuses it with a warmth and groundedness that brilliantly compliment its absurd, intellectual elements; her insightful and precise direction elicit from the actors dynamic and nuanced performances." 
              ~ Dmitry Zvonkov, Stage and Cinema (reviewing Garden of Delights)

New Stage Theatre Company receives 2015 Outstanding Performance Art Production Award

In 2015 New Stage was presented with the Outstanding Performance Art Production Award for Night by Charles Mee. As a part of that award, they received a grant from the Donn Russell Fund. The grant was used to support their current creation, Electronic City by Falk Richter which is playing from March 18th until April 3rd at Theater for the New City. Make sure to check out NSTC's signature style in this new complex and striking production.

New Stage Theatre Compnay's production of Night

 "Working with the NSTC is like working in a family, everybody knows everybody and it is always a great pleasure, every year, to get back together and build something together."
                                         ~ Isabelle Duverger

"I always enjoy working with New Stage. They are very adventurous, amazing theatre makers and the greatest bunch of people." ~ Federico Restrepo

"Working with New Stage allows me to explore new ways of using space and visual imagery as a tool for narrative storytelling. It is always a great experience and journey with some extraordinary artists." ~ Laia Carera

Congratulations to New Stage Theatre Company for receiving a Donn Russell Fund grant! 

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Astoria Performing Arts Center receives Donn Russell Fund Grant

Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) was founded in 2001 and is celebrating its 15 Year Anniversary on March 21st. 

APAC receives the 2012 Caffe Cino Fellowship Award. Photo by Anton Nickely

During its 15 years, APAC has received many awards including the New York Innovative Theatre Awards the Caffe  Cino Fellowship Award in 2012 and the Outstanding Production of a Musical Award in 2015 for Merrily We Roll Along. As part of the Outstanding Production Award, APAC is also the recipient of a grant from the Donn Russell Fund.

These funds will be used to support APAC's comprehensive repertoire which includes revivals and premieres of plays and musicals, as well as developing new works through readings and workshops.

They use theatre to engage with and contribute to their community by offering free annual community programs, including: a summer performance camp for children, an after school playwriting program for middle school students, and a performance program for Queens residents over the age of 60. They are one of the most diverse and respected companies working Off-Off-Broadway and a company that truly knows the meaning of the word “community”. However, they aren’t just a part of the community; they create community, attracting theatre artists and enthusiasts from throughout the city and growing a loyal audience following.

   * See photo captions below

APAC has become an integral part of the Indie Theatre scene; working with hundreds of theatre artists, and participating in community organizations and events. This adventurous company pushes the limit of what theater can achieve, and consistently produces thrilling and outstanding work.

“I adored working with the entire team of In the Bones at APAC -- everyone brought something beautiful and profound to the process!” ~ Mel House

“I loved getting to work at APAC. They are so giving and smart and fun, that every rehearsal was a joy to be a part of.” ~ Emily Koch

“I have worked for the Astoria Performing Arts Center and know the high quality of work that they produce. Dev Bondarin is a spectacular director, she is smart and collaborative, she challenges you to get outside of your comfort zone, but also makes sure you feel safe.” ~ Rachel Rhodes-Deve

Congratulations to Astoria Performing Arts Center for receiving a Donn Russell Fund grant!

Learn more about Donn Russell...

* Photos of APAC's productions of Merrily We Roll Along and In The Bones (Photos by Michael Dekker) and Photo from 2015 IT Awards Nominee Announcement (Photo by Meredith Jones)

Donn Russell Fund Reipients

In 2015 the Innovative Theatre Foundation was blessed to receive an endowment from an incredible champion for OOB, Mr. Donn Russell. With this money we have created the Donn Russell Fund. We are so excited that through the fund, we are able to support some of the incredible artists and companies working in Indie Theatre.

This year we have provided grants to seven theatre companies. Over the next few weeks, we will tell you a little bit more about this deserving artists.

 Donn Russell 1972


Learn more about Donn Russell...

The Ghost

Produced by Bottoms Dream
Directed by Nat Angstrom

What happens when you take two of Shakespeare’s best known tragedies and weave their plots and characters together? As a part of their “Weaving Series” the theatre company Bottoms Dream explores this intricate and intriguing process.


“Beginning with lines ‘to die, to sleep no more’ (from Hamlet) and ‘methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more!' (from Macbeth), we wove the two plays into a single storyline, allowing characters and plots from each world to reflect and affect one another,” explains producer and actress Caitlin White. “Through this process, each play's story and relationships took on new depth and complexity.” In The Ghost, King Duncan Macduff's country is at war. While leading his brother's army in battle, Claudius Macbeth experiences a supernatural event that promises his ascension to the throne. He and his brother's wife, Gertrude, plot to murder the king and marry each other. Disenfranchised, Prince Hamlet and his wife Ophelia work together to uncover the truth, unaware that their friends, soldiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, have sworn service to the new king, Macbeth.“Our hope was to present two of Shakespeare's best-known works in an original format, with his lines woven together in an unfamiliar way. We wanted the audience to hear and see these characters as if for the first time and to imagine a brand-new way of revisiting Shakespeare's canon,” explains White.

Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role nominee, John Hardin, who played Rosencratz was enthusiastic about the experiment. “I love the text of Hamlet, so I was excited to get an opportunity to work on some of my favorite material with some of my favorite people in a totally new way.” The project also reunited old friends “I have been friends with Nat and Caitlin, the creators of the show, for quite a while. And my favorite part was being paired with Matt Castleman as Guildenstern. He's an old and great friend, and we had a fantastic time playing off each other,” says Hardin.
 

Because the story and characters were shaped specifically for the actors portraying them, Hardin found himself utilizing new skills. “This show was the first time I've ever played the harmonica onstage,” says Hardin. “It was also the first time I ever pretended to drown someone in a bathtub. I'm curious to see which one happens again first.”

Weaving two such epic stories requires a great deal of editing and discipline. It is not surprising that new dimensions or character facets would be discovered through the process. “As we revealed more of Claudius Macbeth's choices, the character began to skew towards the sympathetic. Inversely, Rosencrantz became more embittered and disillusioned after returning from war and failing to reintegrate into his old life. The character surprised us in its complexity and we are so glad that actor John Hardin has been nominated for his dark and haunting portrayal,” say White.

Congratulations to John Hardin and the cast and crew of The Ghost for your bravery to tackle such an complex concept in the endeavor of creating something new and exciting.


Follow this blog to learn more about other innovative Off-Off Broadway productions! Join us as we celebrate all the dynamic and unique voices of the 2015 season!

Breathing New Life: Outstanding Revival of A Play

Contributed by Conor O'Brien


To breathe new life into an established script comes with its own set of unique challenges. While upholding the text of the playwright, an artist must allow their creativity to operate outside of the set parameters previous productions have set. To accomplish this with outstanding results truly shows an innovative approach to theater! The IT Awards are proud to recongize the 2015 Nominees for Oustanding Revival of a Play:

The Butter and Egg Man, Retro Productions
Fiction, Play.Sing.Give.
Much Ado About Nothing, Smith Street Stage, Inc.
R & J & Z, Hard Sparks
Talk Radio, Variations Theatre Group
Within the Law, Metropolitan Playhouse

Before these outstanding revivals were staged brave artistic souls had to decide to offer their talents to give new life to established scripts.

We asked each of the nominated shows producers what attracted them to the productions?

J.Stephen Brantley (of R & J & Z)
Melody Bates' new play is both a love letter to the Bard and a fierce rebuke to all that is wrong with Shakespeare. In her supernatural sequel to Romeo And Juliet, the women are warriors. It's not the men who ultimately save Verona from the zombie apocalypse. For all the blood - and there was loads of blood in this show - the piece is ultimately about personal freedom, cultural transformation, and love so true that even death falls down before it. Melody has some magic, and director Joan Jubett is one of the most sensitive and incisive directors I've ever known.                                   

Alex Roe (of Within The Law)
Exploring questions of justice and criminal process through a year old play is a remarkable opportunity to cast a new light on a system we criticize, fear, or take for granted and question its inequities from a distance that helps us see them more clearly.  Plus it's a great melodramatic nailbiter.
                                    

Stacy Lynn Gould (of Fiction)
We are interested in pieces that require very little other than the connection between people and fantastic writing. Fiction was so clever and the chemistry was practically built in between the characters. We wanted to do a piece that was intimate and made the audience unsure as to who to root for. It was a piece involving beautifully flaw filled people.
                                        

Heather Cunningham (of The Butter & Egg Man) 
Since we produce 20th Century period work I'd been looking for a 1920's set play for some time. When it was time to chose a production for our 10th Anniversary season I thought of this play, set in the 20's, about producing a play and thought that it would be a wonderful way to celebrate our 10th year of producing plays.
                                       

Greg Cicchino (of Talk Radio)
It's a 90 minute nonstop rollercoaster that drills deep into a man's place in society and the universe.


For more coverage of the 2015 IT awards season be sure to follow this blog!

Miss Julie

Produced by August Strindberg Repertory Theatre
Directed by Robert Greer

In Ed Chishom’s adaption of Miss Julie, director Robert Greer moves the classic from Midsummer in Sweden to Mardi Gras in Louisiana. Miss Julie (a countess or in this case the planation owner’s daughter) and her father's butler John engage in a mutual seduction. However, John's fiancée Christine (the cook) finds out their plans to flee. 

 
Transporting the play to a post-civil war South creates a charged environment of class relations and seduction. “The sheer intensity that the actors created in all three relationships, Reginald Wilson and Eboni Flowers as an engaged couple, Ivette Dumeng and Reggie as master and servant as well as lovers, and not least Eboni and Ivette as servant and mistress, made for an intense rehearsal process. All three were always ready to raise the stakes,” says Greer.

“I've always been a huge fan of classics, re-imagined, so I naturally connected with this adaptation of Miss Julie, set in Antebellum Louisiana. It's a very different exploration of the story,” said Eboni Flowers who is nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role for her portrayal of Christine.

We asked Eboni about preparing for the role:

“After reading the Ed Chisholm's adaptation of the play, I felt I knew who she was: a person, a woman, with wants, needs, dreams & hopes...and obstacles. The play was set just about 20 years after slavery was abolished, so Christine was not only dealing with being Black in that in that place and time, but also, with being a woman, and in that sense, she was like a 3rd class citizen. She witnessed a lot that she didn't approve of, and which she was unable to express with a certain candor, to either Miss Julie or John. She had to use the Bible as her weapon and her solace. And yet, I didn't want to make the easy choice and sanitize her, just because she's a Christian. I wanted her to have something to repent for at night when she got on her knees to pray. I wanted to show her as Strindberg wrote her: a sinner saved by GRACE. A real person, not a walking Bible.

I most enjoyed turning a conceivably ‘small’ role into a MASSIVE person with intricate feelings. Christine is woman who has a huge spiritual foundation, but is also, naturally, flawed. I was very interested in showing both sides of her, and making sure she was just as full and fleshed-out a character as John and Julie were.”

Eboni’s work resonated with theatre goers. “She built Christine with incredible attention to detail and a magnificent arc to the character,” says Greer.

Congratulations to Eboni Flowers and the entire cast and crew of Miss Julie for creating such an engaging and beautiful work.

Follow this blog to learn more about other innovative Off-Off Broadway productions! Join us as we celebrate all the dynamic and unique voices of the 2015 season!