Immersive Theater in So Many Ways

Contributed by Siobhan O'Loughlin

Photo by Jason Speakman

I didn’t write Broken Bone Bathtub out of a great need to do a show in a bathroom. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll also know that it’s not something I’ve actually written. Half of the performance is the stories that audience members tell, and the rest of the semi-script came out of a bunch of sloppy journal entries (sloppy, because I only had one hand).

After my oh-so-traumatic/dramatic Brooklyn bike accident in the Fall 2014, and upon donning a cast that covered my entire left hand and arm, I started borrowing my friends’ bathtubs all around NYC, because my Bushwick warehouse apartment was a shower-only abode. I traveled to every borough to bathe and was met with kindness and affection by friends who fed me, bought me wine or chocolate to go with the bath, new bubbles, and one friend who washed his warmest, best-est bathrobe for me to borrow. I was telling these tales to my friend, writer/critic Michael Dale of Broadway World, while sharing drinks at Don’t Tell Mama, when he said, “It’s like you’re going on a bathtub tour.”

But what if I really was?

And so, that’s what I’m doing. Thanks, Michael, for changing my life.

My goals with this piece in particular, artistically, are graciously being met. I hoped to be able to bring it anywhere that would have me, as long as there was a tub or water-based space for me to perform in. As I sit here writing this in Melbourne, Australia, I can tell you that I have received such bountiful opportunity to travel and perform this very mobile show. I also hoped that I could not only reach people with the stories I tell, as I have done with previous shows of mine, but that I could create a space in which participants felt comfortable sharing their own stories, so they could then move each other. And they have. They continue to. I have had audiences from Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Belfast and in our own beautiful NYC, where people listen to each other, comfort one another, and open up in a tiny space in ways I have never seen before. I get to sit naked in a tub and bare witness somehow. I feel so lucky. I have yet to have a bad experience (really! You’d be surprised how even the bro-iest bros can reveal their feelings so beautifully), and I find such joy in the opportunity that this show allows me; to disarm, to charm, and to listen. In that order, I think.

I feel very privileged to be doing this show. I know that any struggle I've had with this injury cannot compare to the great injustices many people in our country and the world over are currently suffering through right now. I am not an American person of color facing the aftermath of slavery and oppression. I am not a Syrian refugee fleeing for my life. But I believe there is something that the Occupy movement enforced for me very strongly: all of our grievances are connected. Through our stories, we can connect to each other, and we can heal. That’s why immersive theatre has been the outlet for this performance. I would love for all artists to strive for transparency about their careers and situations Let’s get intimate. Let’s be brave.

There is a flip side, of course. I live out of a suitcase. When I began this tour in the Spring 2015, I gave up my permanent home in Brooklyn. I got rid of a lot of my possessions, and I reside wherever my next show is. I stay with friends or on the rare occasion when a producer puts me up somewhere. When I last performed in NYC, I was an au pair with a lovely, generous family in Brooklyn who gave me a home. Doing a few nanny gigs a year helps me immensely with finances. I have yet to receive a grant, (though I do keep applying and I am always taking donations) and while some months are great, there are others that are…opposite of great (for instance, my current nomadic status also puts a serious strain on the potential of a romantic partner).

However, we always look to the future, I think. I didn’t know that my weeping alone on a hospital stretcher with blood on my hands would lead me to be in Australia a year-and-a-half later, about to share stories with a whole new continent of people at some very cool festivals and events. Who knows what kind of beautiful things will emerge out of this month’s imminent disaster?


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Siobhan O’Loughlin is a Brooklyn-based writer, performer, activist and award-winning playwright who tours her solo work internationally. She is a Moth Story Slam Champion, a founding member of the Australian/American storytelling conglomerate Everything is Everywhere, a published playwright with Indie Theatre Now, and a trained Joker with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. http://siobhanoloughlin.com/about/

Twitter: @brokenbonebath, @siobhan_solo
Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/siobhansolo
Broken Bone Bathtub Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/Broken-Bone-Bathtub-200266236997436/?fref=ts

Oversharing is Caring

By Mel DeLancey

My whole life I had been a singer. I took my first voice lesson at 9, went on to study music in college and until I was 24 every spare moment was spent singing, studying singing, talking about singing, or listening to Broadway cast recordings. I never envisioned a world where music wasn’t THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. Then at age 24 I met my ex-husband, and I stopped singing. Completely. I was in love and making money, and I don’t remember what else happened for the next 9 years but it wasn’t music. So divorced at age 33, I decided to reclaim my showtunes. I reconnected with my college voice teacher, and I enrolled in a cabaret class at the Y. This is where I started to develop a technique in “personal storytelling” which completely changed the singing game for me. It was a beginner class and, for the final performance, we got to sing 3 songs, and the teacher requested we do a little bit of “patter” before one song. “Patter” in cabaret is basically dialogue before a song to add context. One of my songs was “How Did We Come to This?” From the Andrew Lippa Wild Party. It’s a lush ballad that has a vocally dramatic arc that’s perfect for a belty-mixer like myself. With this song, I took on the “patter” assignment and ended up writing a whole monologue about the “wild party” I was having while owning the bar, and how, with my frosty beer goggles on, I was missing the signs of a marriage falling apart. I’m gonna pat myself on the back here and say: I took “patter” to the next level. But the coolest part was that after telling my personal story, singing the song was a completely different experience. I’d “made it my own,” and I turned the song into something the audience had never seen before and could never see again. After all the years of acting teachers preaching “make it your own,” I finally heard them! I found “my own”… and I started doing it with every song I sang… and wrote a one woman show called Tinder Roulette… and now I don’t ever want to stop telling stories with my showtunes.

My current project is The Over Share Cabaret, a Broadway variety show of my own invention. It takes place at 13th Street Repertory, which is not your usual cabaret venue. Cabaret is often defined by where it takes place: a nightclub where people can eat, drink, and dance. The acts are not just entertainment but ambiance. 13th Street Rep is in fact a standard theater, a cozy, 65-seat space with a rickety piano and a quaint wine barrel bar area in the lobby. Alcohol is of course an essential ingredient to a performance where the emcee talks openly about her sex life in between Rodgers & Hammerstein standards. I wanted to have this show at the Rep because it’s in the heart of Greenwich Village where I’ve lived for 20 years, the coolest place on Earth. For me, the “vibe” of the whole night is just as important as the show itself. I’m working hard at creating that vibe as I build the audience, company and structure of Over Share Cabaret. Right now, the show is a combination of musical theater tribute, sketch comedy and personal storytelling.


Thinking ahead for Over Share and myself as an artist:

1.  Keep singing my heart out, because physically, it feels as good as sex
2.  Showcase and collaborate with my talented friends, because masturbation is so   two-dimensional
3.  Find an audience who loves talking about sex and showtunes half as much as I do

I’ve been a wild child in Manhattan since 1996 and love sharing my adventures on stage. And I love my showtunes. I may never get to do that production of Guys & Dolls where I play all 4 leads at once like I do in my fantasy, but I can sing “Adelaide’s Lament” and make it relevant 78 years later by telling a story about a recent STD scare I had... which you only know isn’t true because, of course, I’m a virgin.

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Mel DeLancey is a cabaret singer and musical theater enthusiast living in Manhattan. She is the creator of The Over Share Cabaret, a new variety show and performance party at 13th Street Repertory. She's returning to 13th Street after her success there with Tinder Roulette, her autobiographical musical revue about her unconventional childhood, eccentric failed marriage and internet dating experiences. Mel has been an actress of the New York Indie Theater scene for the last 16 years, including 5 years as a founding member of the sketch comedy group, Slightly Known People, where she first got to flex her writing muscles. She is a member of the Dysfunctional Theater Collective and looks forward to bringing her original program I Heart Showtunes back to Governor's Island this summer as part of the artist residency program. In addition to her work in the arts, Mel is the founder of Joyful Fitness, her personal training company.

IG:@melercise
www.sexloveandshowtunes.com