2019 NY Innovative Theatre Awards Ceremony

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Alex & Eugene

Produced by Isle of Shoals Productions, Inc.
Written by Bryan Williams
Directed by Justy Kosek

Nominations: Outstanding Choreography/Movement – Alex Johnson, Outstanding Lighting Design – Asa Lipton, Outstanding Ensemble: Aja Downing, Reggie Herold, Katherine Leidlein, Joseph M. Mace, Rori Nogee, Noah Pyzik, Jae Shin, Anna Stefanic, Brittany Zeinstra

About Isle of Shoals Productions:
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. Isle of Shoals has invested deeply over the years in developing pieces that defy the commercial theatre tropes of “straight plays” and “musicals.” Mindful that the earliest dramas were in fact chanted, and the earliest operas placed more emphasis on words than on music, we strive to find unique and adventurous ways to bring the two together.

About Alex & Eugene:
A world premiere musical suggested by Alexander Pushkin’s "Eugene Onegin," but set in contemporary New York among a group of theatre kids valiantly trying to hang on to friendship, love and idealism while trying to make it in a cutthroat business. A thoroughly modern tale of young artists struggling to find themselves in a world where their bond with each other is often the only refuge from despair


What first attracted you to this project?

Reggie: I had just graduated from college, and it was a piece about a group of overconfident artists graduating college, finding solace and a tribe in one another; there was a message there that I loved.

Katherine: My character. I love getting to play the comic relief.

Joseph: The sides!

Rori: It was a world premiere musical in NYC

Anna: I’d had a great experience working with Isle Of Shoals before, and was excited to work with Justy and Bryan again!

Alex: Isle of Shoals doing a musical!

Asa: The combination of drama and comedy in the writing and the lighting opportunities that go with the high theatricality of the piece.

Bryan: It's a multi-leveled story of love and friendship that is funny and heartfelt, and ultimately tragic.

What was your favorite part of working on Alex & Eugene?

Asa: My favorite part was programming the lights for the various musical numbers. I really loved working out the timing of the cues to work with and support the music.

Bryan: The unbridled enthusiasm and creativity of the entire company.

Reggie: It was my first show in Manhattan, and as an introduction to the city and the acting community - it couldn’t have been a warmer or more welcoming experience. Additionally, the role itself was dialogue heavy, so I had a chance to really play as an actor in addition to doing my musical theater thing.

Katherine: Being able to collaborate on a new piece with so many talented actors was a dream!

Joseph: The ensemble!

Jae: The other castmembers!

Rori: Being surrounded by a company of unique and amazing artists

Anna: The fun, friendly and supportive cast!

Alex: The ensemble for sure. Every ensemble that works well together is so rich and rewarding.

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

Bryan: Because it ends in the suicide of a young man, the temptation was to make that the subject of the play, when in actuality it was about both the power and the limitations of friendship

Katherine: Dealing with such a heavy topic like suicide.

Reggie: The singing! My degree is in acting, and while I did musicals in college, I hadn’t taken voice lessons in years, I started with Matt Farnsworth and Mike Maixner during that rehearsal process.

Joseph: The moving set pieces and keeping the scene changes in order!

Asa: The most challenging part was making a well-rounded product with the time and resources we had for tech. Musicals are difficult to program lights for in general because they are usually more cue-heavy and have lots of tech-heavy moments. Therefore, it was difficult to give each scene and each lighting moment the time it needed to make the show well-rounded and keep it visually interesting throughout.

Rori: Figuring out how to give humanity to an unlikable character

Anna: I’m not the most confident singer and certainly not the most confident dancer, so it was challenging to push my boundaries and try to live up to the musical!

Alex: Choreographing for characters who don’t really dance.

What was the funniest part of your experience working on this production?

Bryan: We had a brilliant set built around a group of seesaws that the cast would often move to change the scene. Sometimes these changes were fairly elaborate and took longer than we would have liked. We encouraged the cast to fill in the silences, and they ran with that so some of the changes became mini-improvisations that were enjoyable scenes in themselves

Reggie: I almost didn’t get the role! I got viciously sick right before the callback, and when I went in I could barely speak. They had to ask the accompanist to play more quietly so they could hear me sing. Luckily, the reads themselves went really well, and they called me in for a special callback on my own once I had healed up a few days later to make sure I could actually sing the part.

Katherine: My role was really a two person role and it would be nothing without Noah!

Rori: We all had a laugh when the announcements told the audience it was a two hour and 45 minute production. Inevitably, someone in the audience would get vocally cranky after hearing that.

Alex: We did an awesome number with sock puppets!

Asa: One of the quirkiest things about the production was that there is a musical number where all the actors are using sock puppets while singing. We had to keep re-teching that scene and re-focusing the lights for it because the puppets weren't landing properly in their lights. In very few other industries are your recurring work problems/aggravations caused by puppets. Also, we had a decent budget for this show (as far as independent theatre goes), but in order to get all the lighting equipment we needed we still had to rent from three different companies, including another independent theatre company (Flux Theatre Ensemble), so that we could get the best prices for all the gear we needed.

Did you gain any insights or learn anything new from your work on this production?

Rori: It was fascinating to watch the writer make edits and cuts during the process. Sometimes you have to "kill your darlings!"

Alex: The importance of intimacy directors, AND the value of a movement director as well as choreographer.

Asa: I learned some new strategies for how to economically place a limited number of lights to effectively cover a large playing space.

Reggie: New York is a lovely place to be an actor! I had heard so much negativity and had so much fear instilled in me by my college professors about what moving to New York would mean, but I’m a year in and I’m still having a great time. It all started with Alex & Eugene!

What did you want the audience to come away with after watching Alex & Eugene?

Bryan: What an inspiring group of struggling young people, I know them (or would like to)

What was it like to work with Isle of Shoals?

Reggie: The friendships that were built was really the best thing about this company! Cliche answer, but truly, the people I met doing this show have become lovely friends, and we still have a little group chat going a year later. Bryan (our writer/composer extraordinaire) gave us so much freedom to improvise and play with the script, and the result was that our characters became so individualized and wedded to who we are as artists.

Katherine: Everyone was just so talented and kind and full of ideas it made the process very special.

Rori: Getting to follow their the careers of the people who worked on the show has been really fun. One girl went straight to her Broadway debut after we closed!

Alex: Very supportive, forward thinkers at this company.

Asa: Their fun, collaborative attitudes and respect for the technical aspects of their productions.

Why are the artists nominated for Alex & Eugene so awesome?

Bryan: The whole project was truly an ensemble effort with everyone supporting and collaborating with each other

What does receiving this nomination mean to you?

Bryan: A validation that all the work and passion we put into the show did manage to reach and was appreciated by the audience

Reggie: So much! I didn’t expect a thing, but it’s lovely for the work we did to be recognized.

Joseph: It is very special that our team was recognized, it was a true ensemble effort.

Alex: That I can hold my own at a big kid job.

Asa: Receiving this nomination is huge for me. I've been hearing about and watching the IT Awards since I first moved to the city about 6 years ago. I've seen people that I looked up to and (eventually) colleagues, get nominated for and win them. Therefore, it's truly thrilling to consider myself of the same caliber of those designers that I looked up to when I first moved here.

Rori: That my hard work isn't falling on deaf ears. Someone is paying attention!

Check out Isle of Shoals on Instagram @isleofshoalsproductions

Whirlwind

Whirlwind
Produced by Jordan's Play Lab in association with Rebecca Crigler & Barn Owl, LLC
Written by Jordan Jaffe
Directed by Dan Amboyer

Nominations: Outstanding Set Design - Gabriel Firestone, Outstanding Innovative Design – Sarah George &  Sonya Plenefisch, and Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play

About Whirlwind
Whirlwind centers around Bethany, a health and safety manager for wind developer Arrow Energy, as she is tasked with distracting and diverting the efforts of Michael, a wildlife advocate, from challenging the expansion of their wind farm—an assignment that becomes all the more complicated when the two become romantically entangled, while Bethany also dodges inappropriate courting from her boss, Cooper. Darkly comedic and unpredictable, Whirlwind explores the precarious intersection of business, science, and sexual politics involved when “going green.”

What first attracted you to the subject matter and this project?

Jordan: I wanted to write a play that would draw people in to see our position in the natural world more clearly. My generation is adamant that it wants to respect and protect the natural world but then people get locked into extreme ideological positions that don't necessarily bring us the results we want. All the characters in the play believe they want the same thing, to mitigate climate change and remove the danger to our ecosystems. But then there is the reality of how our own base natural instincts - we too are just animals in the same eco-system- can make that impossible to do. I wrote a play where humor allows the audience to see ourselves more clearly and without the falsity of our social constructions. This play was inspired by the two strongest, most amazing women in my life: my mother and my sister. Both are leaders in the field of sustainability, and inspire me everyday with their tireless commitment to advocating for sound energy policy.

Sarah: I thought the script was really fun, well-crafted, and was about something seemingly unknown to most people. It seemed like a really fun challenge!

What was your favorite part of working on Whirlwind?

Sarah: I really loved the team! Everyone was a joy to work with and it truly felt like a team effort and I think that came through in the cohesiveness of the show.

Jordan: All of it. As a producer there is no greater joy than watching written words on the page brought to life by a dedicated group of talented artists. As a playwright, it is exciting to see how the work evolves as the creative team comes to absorb the layers of meaning and innovate on how to express it best to the audience.

What was the most challenging aspect of this production?

Sarah: The time (I was also an associate producer on this project), and coming up with a non-messy way to create a bunch of decomposed eagle carcasses.

Jordan: The set and properties in the production were hands down our greatest challenge, which makes our nominations in those particular categories all the more gratifying. From creation to execution everything was difficult about the process. It's a testament to talent, drive, and dedication of my producing team, director, and designers that we overcame every obstacle we were presented with - The challenge, how to give a true experience of the beauty of the natural world inside a small interior theatrical space, seemed overwhelming at first. It is so inspiring to have our vision for the production recognized with this nomination.

Did you gain any insight or learn anything new from your experience of working on Whirlwind?

Sarah: Sonya, who made the dead eagles with me, is amazing at the craft and was instrumental in that process - I learned a ton from her about the magic of liquid latex! I also learned a lot about my limitations as a person and that it's totally okay to ask for help.

Sonya: I learned, or rather realized, how important weight can be with regard to props - which, of course, I knew, but had previously only really given great consideration in importance to in regards to designing & making puppets. (You'd think it'd be obvious, but I think we've all got that built-in human ability to overlook a really simple thing for a long time. Which isn't so bad, because then you get these weirdly exciting and clarifying moments where your brain finally flips the switch)

Was there anything notable or ironic about your experience?

Sonya: The first time I met most of the rest of the team, I was crouched under the low dark ceiling of audience seating bank, hands dripping in red, surrounded by stained and scattered feathers and hastily stuffing newspaper and weights into the bloody dismembered prop bird head (a bird which, I have now found out, people did indeed find realistic). It's not particularly innovative, but it was, I'm sure, both concerning and haunting. Way back in high school, I spent a fair amount of free time browsing through various set designs and set designers, and actually remembered being inspired by a few images of work by a set designer named Gabriel Firestone...who is now currently nominated for scenic design for Whirlwind. Life comes at you fast. I DO regret first realizing why I knew his name, and simultaneously meeting him, while , as previously stated, stuffing the innards into an eagle.

Jordan: The ultimate irony is that in presenting a play about environmental compromises that I made one. In our early design conversations my ambition was to not use wood or lumber in the making of our set as a sort of environmental challenge and sacrifice as birds play a central role in the narrative and deforestation is such a big issue for birds. In the end I caved in, and we built the stunning set that was nominated for these very awards. However, I think that experience of letting go of that idea was so apropos and indicative of the great dilemmas we face as a species in terms of our environmental impact. Where do we dig in and where do we compromise? The answer to this question will define not only the future of humanity but also our natural co-inhabitants of our planet.

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

Jordan: I want the audience to come away with a greater appreciation for the creatures we share this planet with and therefore to feel more engaged to know more about the challenges we face in terms of juggling our energy needs versus our environmental impact.

Why are Gabriel, Sonya, and Sara so awesome?
Jordan: Whirlwind is an amazing play. It's funny, moving, chalked full of bird puns, and speaks to the current moment of environmentalism like no other play dares to do. Gabriel Firestone is that special kind of visionary artist who only grows stronger as the pressure mounts. He came up with the inspired concept of this award-nominated design in a very short time. Two to three weeks later it was up in the theater in all it's majesty in no small part to his two sturdy hands and many a late night at the theater. The final emotional moment and really the entire journey of the play hinges on the reveal of the bird carcasses that Sarah and Sonya created. They tackled this challenge with care, reverence and dedication and in so doing created the lasting button? audiences will never forget.

What does receiving this nomination mean to you?

Jordan: It's a wonderful opportunity to celebrate this play and all our hard work with our friends and my family. It gives me heart that the judges and audiences could share the same passion for the endangered eagles, laugh a little and then be moved to recognize the play and its mission.

Sarah: I haven't been prop designing for long and still have a LOT to learn, so it's nice to be recognized!

Sonya: I moved to NYC less than two years ago without really any contacts, leaving behind all my former classmates and every designer & director I'd worked with over in the UK. As that statement should imply, I'm pretty damn happy about it. A little more than pretty damn happy, maybe.

Check out Whirlwind on both Instagram and Twitter - @whirlwindplay

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

Fear and the Career

By Jennifer Harder

I first started acting at the age of three as the cow in Jack and the Beanstalk–my one line was “moo”–and the ensuing decades where I’ve continued to throw myself onstage have rewarded me with insight, adventure, joy, pain, embarrassment, a little money, a modicum of infamy, and even an IT Award (playing a chicken with the lines–and I’m paraphrasing here–“Bawk, cluck, cluck.”) I’ve been at this calling for over thirty years and have made it a career for over twenty; though I’ve only really enjoyed it for the past 3 or 4 because I’ve begun to realize that it’s not really my work that defines me or even which discipline I choose to perform that defines my career; a career is an extension of me: my appetites, fantasies, questions, and fears. The more I run toward the ideas that scare me, the more satisfying my experiences are.

The most unhappy, unproductive times in my life were when I was afraid to change. I had begun to grow away from my day job, theater company, marriage, and hobbies but was so scared of the unknown that I stayed. And stagnated. And was miserable. The catalyst that sparked an avalanche of unavoidable change was when I refused a role. I believe my exact words were, “I can fuck a pig blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back. I want to play an SAT tutor instead,” (wtf is it with barnyard animals??) and thereafter I lost all the stability I thought was keeping my life running. But I soon stopped crying, looked up, and noticed that I was still very much alive. No job, company, partner, home, or routine, but totally alive and no longer paralyzed in unhappy places.

Thus began an era of Yes; any ideas I wanted to try I said yes. Everything inside me would yell No–and assorted other bullshit like “you’re not talented/young/attractive/connected/likeable/strong enough!”–but I would do the work anyway. I have lots of desires and weird little notions and I began to say yes to all of them even though those nasty fears kept screaming gross things like, “Jack of all trades, master of nothing,” and “you’re going to starve” and “no one will like you.” I had an innate knowledge that facing the fears could be the only option because I’d tried obeying them for so long and had found that tactic to be…quite literally depressing.

So I began to play music, write, speak, model, audition, dance, produce, sing, host, book, joke, edit, coach, etc. etc. etc. and….some of it sucked and some of it was brilliant. One time all my props, costume, (and almost my mind) broke in the middle of an act. I cried (alone) but didn’t give up. A few months later, my friends exited the theater yawning. I frowned and went back to work. Still months later, I had people approaching me saying they had never seen anything like it before and were thoroughly entertained to the point of wanting more. Oh, it felt so good.

Six years ago my dad made a speech and ended it by saying that “Jenny flips life upside down and shakes it to see what will fall out of its pockets,” and at the time my response was “psshaw” (or a variation on that theme) because I knew I was half-assing it; skimping on the shakes for sake of validation or permission or assurance or something that I know now will never be given to me. I’ve since stepped up the shaking and the “yes”ing and the risk taking and am happier than I ever thought possible. Facing the unknown has made me a better actor by one million percent and given me such confidence and surprising opportunities. I’ve danced both on and backstage with rock ’n roll royalty; provided the soundtrack for an illegal speakeasy inside of a water tower in Chelsea; screamed my lungs out to a crowd of a dozen or so thousand people in the south of France; strutted onstage wearing nothing but high heels and a smile in Brooklyn; entertained a plaza of ridiculously happy children in Bogota, Colombia; played for drunken revelers on a pirate ship in the NY harbor; and through it all have confronted fears and doubts because therein lies the unique, the enthralling, and the new.

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Jennifer Harder first started acting with the Flint Youth Theatre in Michigan. She received a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied at Lee Strasberg Institute and with faculty of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and has worked with companies including chashama, 29th St. Rep, Target Margin, Les Freres Corbusier, and on tour to the Capital, Dublin, and Montréal Fringe Festivals as well as the Ibero-American Theater Festival. Jennifer was a founding member of theater company The Management and received a NY Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role for their production of MilkMilkLemonade. When not acting, she can be found playing trumpet with Hungry March Band and Balthrop, Alabama. She has toured and performed with pirate band Skull Buggery, clown band The Maestrosities, gypsy punks Gogol Bordello, and in her vaudeville act Bathtub Jen and the Henchmen. Jenny is also the host of radio show "Blonde Thunder Presents", available as a podcast on iTunes. www.jenniferharder.com