Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant

Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant creates a unique theatrical experience for each audience member. 

We asked founding member Conni Hall about how this eccentric troupe developed this adventurous and entertaining theatrical experience.

What are the origins of Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant?

The group of actors who founded Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant came together in the summer of 2006, while in residence for a production of As You Like It at The Stonington Opera House in coastal Maine. Our physical emblem, the “Conni’s Restaurant” sign, came from an abandoned diner that was known for serving legendary French toast to the town’s fishermen. We fantasized about moving into the place, asking, “What would happen if a group of experimental theatre artists took over a roadside restaurant?” Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant — the running joke — was born. Once we got back to New York, we decided to try the idea as the concept for a show. Since then we have brought in a resident production manager, director, and designers.

Conni's is more than theatre and more than just a meal. How do you create this communal experience for your audience? 

Peter Lettre in Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant

In a way, the meal actually does the work of creating community for us. We seat people at banquet tables of 10 each and they share a meal, family style. This is a novelty for many people. The theatrical experience begins when the audience meets eccentric characters at the box office and in the bar, and they choose an identity for the evening with a “hello my name is” nametag. They agree to playful rules of etiquette that are sung to them by devotees of the legendary Conni Convergence. This warms up the party atmosphere and invites them into the room with individual attention. Only after this pre-show initiation into our strange world, do we reveal an elaborate pre-set dining room. We make it clear to the audience as soon as they walk in the door that we will take care of them as our welcome guests and that they need to respect our home. We make the food and the theater ourselves from scratch. A New York audience can smell authenticity and they appreciate it. I think they can feel that the show doesn’t exist without them. 

Some of the performance is improvised and dependent on audience reactions. Can you share a few of the more interesting audience interactions?

There are some I won’t share. “What happens in the restaurant stays in the restaurant.” But on more than one occasion I have had to physically put my hands on an audience member to keep them from charging the stage. During the Bus-That-Table game in the middle of the performance, we routinely have people taking off articles of clothing, leaping into the air and doing flips, and running around the room pursued by other audience members while holding a bus bin. They never cease to amaze me. More intimately, we have a section of banter in the middle of the show where audience members get to ask questions of one of our self-declared celebrity avant garde performers, and their participation re-shaped that section. Each of us has moments when the audience ‘stopped’ us. As Sue James, I had an audience member grab my arm in Cleveland to tell me all about the way that food is saving that city. Rachel Murdy, who plays Muffin, has gathered a wealth of advice for new mothers from her survey of mothers in the audience, who ask to feel her bump.  

Conni's is nominated for Outstanding Ensemble and many of the performers have commented about what a gratifying experience it is. Why do you think the project is so rewarding for the performers?

As a performer, I can only answer for myself.  It feels like this show was given to us, even though we made it. Partly it’s the authorship of it. We made it together, and we keep re-making it together. Partly it’s the audience. It is gratifying to make people feel good but to feel like we are still pushing the boundaries of our own creativity. In other words, I feel like we made something populist by working in a way that’s deeply personal and artistically demanding, as actors working through character.

What is Conni's working on now?

We are creating three new shows this year, with smaller groups of company members working with outside actors and collaborators. While continuing our ongoing fascination with food service, we are branching into new ways of exploiting theatricality–namely walking tours and social clubs. We recently premiered Little West 12^th Night, a historical walking tour of the meatpacking district based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which ran as part of the undergroundzero festival throughout the month of July. We are hopeful that we will be able to re-mount that production in the near future. Four of the company members are currently in Cleveland devising a new piece with local actors called The Secret Social, which will run in December at Cleveland Public Theatre. Soon after we return to New York, we will create some new material for the Conni’s Restaurant characters at NACL’s Deep Space Residency.  This will be a more intimate setup, with some of the Restaurant characters taking on roles from classic texts. That piece will show on October 13 in Highland Lake, NY.


Congratulations to the Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant!

Miranda

Miranda stretched the musical theatre art form in some exciting and modern ways this last season.

We caught up with creator and composer Kamala Sankaram to ask about this groundbreaking work.

Miranda is described as a "The Steampunk Murder Mystery Opera." What was the inspiration for this Musical?

I was really interested in writing a modern opera- something that would borrow from the classical form, but would resonate for a contemporary audience. I settled on using the frame of reality TV. In a reality TV show, we’re conditioned to accept these very stylized versions of people, complete with theme music. It seemed a natural extension to then have the stylization include singing. This frame also led to some of the major themes in the show, such as the idea that you can’t really judge a person by what you see of them (or by what music they happen to have attached to them.)

Miranda was really a multi-media project that mashes up various genres. What were the challenges of piecing together all of these elements.

I’m very interested in mash-ups, and have used this approach in some of my other works. In this case, the different genres were used to give a sense of character to the murder suspects. I was interested in seeing whether one genre would tend to sway the audience toward voting for a suspect more or less than the others… and it did! I think part of what helped the different elements hang together was to have a strong overarching aesthetic- that of steampunk. Steampunk is a branch of sci-fi that imagines what the modern world would look like if it relied on mechanical, rather than electrical, power. It uses Victorian England as a jumping off point. I first settled on steampunk because it allowed us to use a law that was in effect in Britain at the time- if you were wealthy, you could pay someone poor to stand trial for you (and sometimes even to serve your sentence. This is actually going on in China right now). But I’ve always had a fascination with old machines, gears, and corsets so it just made sense that the entire world of the show should use the steampunk aesthetic. We were also lucky to have a great design team involved (including Matt Tennie designing the video and Spike McCue performing the live video feeds), so we seemed to be pretty much on the same page.

What was the audience's reaction to the piece?

I was pretty amazed by the audience- we had people ranging in age from 8 years old to 73, from different ethnic backgrounds, theater people, opera people, people who had never been to a downtown show before… And they really seemed to get into it! Even the audience who started out not wanting to yell along with the Bailiff (Jerry Miller- who did a fabulous job getting the audience involved), by the end was fully invested in seeing their murder suspect get punished. I heard many people arguing about it afterward. I also got so many requests for cds that we decided to record a cast album, which is being mixed right now.

What was the most satisfying part of creating Miranda?

This was my first large-scale work, and, honestly, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to pull it off. So, it was thrilling to see it come to life in a way that I never could have imagined. It was also such a treat to be able to get to know all of the people who worked on the show and made it happen- it wouldn’t have been possible without them, and without the support of HERE, which gave me space to develop the show through their artist residency program.

Do you think musical theatre is still important and why?

I do think musical theatre is important for several reasons:

1. Music is a universal, and so it can provide a way to connect with experiences that are unfamiliar to us. I think part of the success of shows like Next to Normal, is that music provides an entryway into something that is very foreign for most of us. You can do this in a play, but it takes more time. Make it a song, and people immediately understand it.
2. This may be because music creates an immediate emotional response. You can use this to amplify the text of the song, to provide a layer of subtext, or to be completely ironic. Can you imagine the Book of Mormon without the music? Part of what makes it funny is how the text plays against the familiar musical theatre tropes.

What is next for the artists involved with this project?

We have another big show in the works, but are holding off for a bit to let everyone spend some time on their individual projects before we jump back in. 

Rob and I received a commission from Opera on Tap to write an immersive parlor mystery, so we’re working on that right now. I’m also working on a new show (Thumbprint) with playwright Susan Yankowitz based on the life of Mukhtar Mai, which will be produced by Beth Morrison Projects. Rob, Matt Schloss (sound design), and Eric Brenner (the voice of DAVE) have been finishing their own musical- Yahweh’s Follies. Lauren Yalango and Christopher Grant (choreography) are on tour with Pilobolus. Most of the cast members are composers in their own right, so they’re all writing music and performing... It’s an amazing group of people!

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.

Kim Katzberg

Kim Katzberg's Penetrating the Space garnered critical acclaim and two nominations this season.

It has been a busy year for the multi-talented performer. We asked Kim to tell us a little more about her provocative work.



What was the inspiration for Penetrating the Space?

For years I felt this burning in my gut that I wanted to create an original piece of theater that was entirely from my voice. I felt limited in many of the roles I played in traditional theater and felt that there were characters inside of me that wished to be expressed that lived beyond the boundaries of most plays. The characters in PTS came from my bowels. After I earned my MFA in acting I finally had the confidence to try and write a show from these characters' points of view.
What has the audiences’ reaction been to the piece. 

People either really like it or they don't get it. Even though it is exploring a woman's experience in relation to dominating men, guys seem to really relate to the vulnerability in the show. Audiences find it disturbing and funny at the same time. People have told me that sometimes they feel worried to laugh because they aren't sure if they should. I love that reaction!


Tell us a little about your 'one-woman show kit' and maybe some of the best reactions to it.

When I would cart all of my props, costumes, set pieces and the huge purple horse around the city in a grocery cart to go to a rehearsal studio-people mostly said, "nice donkey!"


Maia Cruz Palileo is also nominated for the Innovative Design award. What were her contributions to the work and what was it like working with her?

Maia is a visual artist and had never worked on a piece of theater before. She is my wife and we both adore eachother's work so we felt inspired to collaborate. Maia created stop motion animations that expressed the characters' inner monologues or moved the story along. She also designed and built the purple horse. Working with her was a dream. She's incredibly hard working and intense. I can't wait to work with her again.


Penetrating the Space was produced on a double bill with Tom X. Chao’s nominated production Callous Cad. How did these two shows work together as an evening and what were the benefits and challenges of having two separate productions on the same bill?
One of the challenges of doing a solo show is that it gets lonely. Working with Tom gave me a lot of support because we were in this thing together and we weren't competing in any way. Also, Tom is an experienced producer and I was not. This was my very first solo show. He acted as a mentor to me which was invaluable. It was also financially helpful because we split many of the costs. The challenge was to get reviewers to see both shows.


What’s next for you?

I have a new solo show, Darkling, in development. It's partly autobiographical in that the protagonist is based on me at 13 when my older sister ran away from her lock-up boarding school. I recently performed a short excerpt from the piece in CATCH 52.


Congratulations to everyone involved with Penetrating the Space!

Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company

The Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company presented some searing and timely work this season that offered important social commentary on current events.

We asked Modern-Day's Founder and Artistic Director,  Pharah Jean-Philippe to tell us about their work and the audience response.

What are the origins of the Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company?

As a little girl, I’ve always loved stories; whether it was in having stories told to me by my father or making up my own stories when I played. Years ago, my acting teacher said that acting is telling the story of the character in your truth. It changed my life forever. It freed me to marry the two things I love most: acting and the art of storytelling. It also gave me my purpose for life. My love of telling the story has led me to all work in all aspects of the performing arts; which includes: acting, directing, filmmaking, writing, teaching and producing. But make no mistake about it; I am not singularly any of these titles. I am more than that. Simply put, I am a storyteller. I am a passionate artist who is in love with her art and this is why Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company was founded. It is my desire that Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company produce works that will entertain, educate and heal.

Why name our theatre company “Modern‐Day Griot”? A griot (GREE oh) is a storyteller, singer, musician and oral historian who wandered from tribe to tribe, singing songs that tell stories of cultural heritage and traditions. I wanted to create an entity that preserved this storytelling tradition. We exist to tell stories that express the struggle to understand ourselves and the world around us; to create works that excite, inflame and heal as we recreate the intimacy and tradition of the storytelling art‐form.

For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much is a strong piece that examines the street life of several black men. Why is it important to have this conversation and present this work?

Playwright Keith Antar Mason once said, “African American men aged 24‐40 are the most likely to die from homicides than any other ethnic group in the United States.”  I just couldn’t get that harrowing statistic out of my mind.  It was with that statistic in mind that I felt compelled to produce for black boys who have considered homicide when the streets were too much written by Mason.

for black boys… is evocative work that explores the inner landscapes of six Black men attempting to reclaim their humanity and redefine their masculinity while grappling with the harsh realities of street life, violence and racial and economic injustice in the wilds of the United States.

It was imperative that we, as a theatre company, produce this because unfortunately timeless, this powerful piece of American theatre continues to reverberate with meaning in this society full of Sean Bells, Oscar Grants, Troy Davises and Trayvon Martins.  for black boys… is a brutal yet beautiful testimony that effectively communicates the ongoing struggles with which the American black man grapples and America needs to hear. This piece shows us, in essence, that in spite of what we want to believe, free really isn’t free.

Through poetry, the spoken word and dance, we got to examine this phenomena, as told to us from the perspective of men who were condemned for being black and male in America, as each journeyed through inter‐relational landscapes and moved steadily toward healing and transformation.  Black boys, young and old as well as those who want to understand them, needed to see it and experience this.

What has the audience reaction been to the production?

Opening weekend, we had talkbacks with the Playwright, the actors as well as myself with the audience members. The piece resonated with them on so many different levels. For black men, it was cathartic to see their stories up on stage. They appreciated the vulnerability displayed by the actors as they emotionally went places most men refused to go in public, much less in private.  For everyone else (regardless of color), there seemed to be a new form of understanding that was cultivated and they were happy to experience the raw intimacy displayed by the men.

For Black Boys... is nominated for Outstanding Ensemble. Why was ensemble so important to this project and how did you achieve such a cohesive effort?

When I read the play, I was struck by the openness and raw emotion of it. To me, they weren’t just words on a page; they were a door to a secret room that, although I had an idea it existed, I never took the time to imagine. I saw the men move from institutionalism to individuality within the piece. I saw both the individuality of each man, as well as, the friendship that existed between the men. I wanted to bring that camaraderie onto the stage.

We had a table read where the actors got to see themselves and the piece as a whole. I explained my concept to them and where I saw them fit within the piece. Then, I met with the actors individually so as to work on their character development. We explored the actor’s relationship with each of the monologue as well as how each monologue drove their character. We discussed the fact that each monologue was a part of a through-line of their character and where did they see their character growth, if any, at the end of the play. We had some intense one-on-ones and, believe me, it was not for the faint of heart. One or two actors withdrew from the piece, unable or unwilling to deal with the emotional commitment that I envisioned. The rest that stayed were uncomfortable, because we spent weeks on the one-on-ones. I felt that since for black boys… was such a strong ensemble piece; I wanted to hold of on the male-bonding for as long as possible because I wanted each actor to be strong in their choices made within their character development and not be influenced by the group as they worked together.

 

The actors trusted my vision and went along with it and for that I am glad cause it was truly tested when one actor quit opening night. I called three phenomenal actors (David Roberts, Duane Boutte and Michael Alexis Palmer) to become Brother #5, the drill-sergeant, the overseer, the storyteller for these men, the perpetual outsider. The remaining brothers had to band together, feed off each other’s energy as well as the ever-changing energies of the different Brother #5s each show. I felt that this raised the stakes for all the actors as well as heighted their emotional awareness (of themselves, of each other and of the story as a whole).

I feel that the work that we did as well as the adversities we faced in the production bonded us (cast and crew) together and taught us that it wasn’t about us. It’s about the telling of these men’s stories; the repairing of souls; and the witnessing of raw intimacy the likes that is seldom seen. 

What was it like working at the Schermerhorn Center?

The Actor’s Fund Art Center at the Schermerhorn was a tremendous place to house our first production. Not only was the space beautiful, Matthew Brookshire, the Activities Manager, and his crew were amazing and patient.  It is the ideal theatre space for those who want to produce in Brooklyn. I will gladly produce more shows in that space.

What is next for Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company?

For our second season, we are working in the theme of social justice; so we are currently looking at several plays, shows and concepts that speak to that thematically. We are also looking to work collaboratively with a couple of theatre groups and artistic organizations this year: Reel Sisters of the Diaspora, Soul of Brooklyn Consortium, and Artistic New Directions, just to name a few.

We are currently in the process of updating our website: www.moderndaygriot.org which will be up by October 2012; so please feel free to stop by to see our new season as well as pictures of our past season.

Contratulations to everyone at Modern-Day Griot Theatre!

F*It Club

F*It Club has nominations again this year for Outstanding Original Short Script. 

We asked Executive Director Allyson Morgan to talk to us about the success of their short play festival and some of the philosophies of this bold company.

What was the inspiration for The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever.

F*It Club started The Spring Fling in 2011 as a collection of 8 short plays themed on a very general idea of dating, hooking up, etc.  For our presentation in 2012, we wanted to specify and refine that theme to tighten the show and make the pieces more cohesive, although we didn't want to lose the universality of relationships. As we were brainstorming, we kept coming back to awkward first dates, which made all of our company members and our playwrights excited - we knew we had hit on something.

What is your favorite line(s) from these plays?

Here are my favorite lines from our nominated plays:




A Map of Broken Glass by Anna Ziegler: "Israel is a map of broken glass. And the pieces, the shards, don't fit together to make a whole. But it is the knowledge of...it is the understanding that that is the case that makes us each whole. Do you see?"

 

Mort by Lucy Boyle: coincidentally, my line :) "Find, somehow, all I wanted was still to find, Mr. X--someone, whomever he would be and he could be--you?"


 

You were nominated last year for your festival as well. What is it about your short play festival that you think judges and audiences are responding to?

We strive to be more than just another "festival."  All of the work is commissioned and carefully vetted, along with the entire artistic and production staff.  We also aim to speak to an under-represented twenty and thirty-something theatre going audience, and want to present work that feels visceral and exciting that can compete with online entertainment that pervades the zeitgeist. Additionally, we continue to work with colleagues who are at the top of their game in our community.


It seems that we are seeing more festivals in the Off-Off-Broadway community.  Why do you think that is?

Short plays are, frankly, easier and cheaper to rehearse and stage.  Additionally, they bring in a diverse and larger audience. The more participants you have involved, the bigger the potential for a wider reach.  There is also a hunger to work amongst the community and short play festivals or collections allow the maximum amount of participation.


F*It Club is one of the most creative names for a production company. What was the origin of that name?

F*It Club was born from the idea of "Why are we waiting for people or circumstances out of our control to give us work? F*ck it, let's make our own work."


What is F*It Club currently working on?

We're in pre-production for a short film, a web series, a fall site-specific theatre project, and Spring Fling 2013, tentatively titled The Spring Fling: The Morning After.

Congratulations to F*It Club!