Written by Lindsay Joy
Directed by Padraic Lillis
Produced by Stable Cable Lab Co. in association with IRT Theater
Nomination: Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role, Kara Young
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| Photos by Katy Atwell |
About the Company: Stable Cable Lab Co. strives to create an environment for new work and theater artists to flourish. We do this through developmental readings and workshops, ensemble laboratories and training, and productions. We are dedicated to producing new plays that are intrinsically theatrical, ensemble-driven and bold.
About the Production: Eight small-town twenty-somethings who know each other from high school share an impromptu time of mourning and celebration after the suicide of a mutual friend.
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"Kara Young as Kate packs a great deal of intensity and complexity into her time onstage..." ~ Leah Richards, Culture Catch
What first attracted you to this project?
Kara: It's a beautiful play that really hit home for me.
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Kara: Being challenged to get to a certain emotional level every night and make it come from the most truthful place.
What was the most challenging part of this production for you?
Kara: Crying.
Did you learn anything new during your time working on this production?
Kara: I discovered so much of myself during this production.
What was it like working with this group of artists?
Kara: They are incredibly supportive.
Make sure to follow Stable Cable Lab Co. on Twitter @stablecable
Written by Brooks Reeves
Directed by Leta Tremblay
Produced by State of Play Productions Inc
Nomination: Outstanding Sound Design, Jeanne Travis
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| Photos by Hunter Canning |
About the Company: State of Play Productions is an incubator hatching new work by theater artists. They embrace challenges and foster communication. They shake up the traditional order by encouraging actors to produce, working alongside writers and directors from the beginning to create art of unprecedented creativity and bold integrity. To reach the largest audience possible, they expand across media, presenting work in radio, film and other audio/visual formats.
About the Production: The City the Cried Wolf is a noir, fairy tale dark comedy with a healthy splash of political commentary. Little Bo Peep, a sultry singer seeks her sheep! Jack B. Nimble, a private eye hot on her tail! Corruption! Passion! Betrayal! Scrambled Eggs! Can Jack crack Rhyme Town's stickiest murder, or has he fallen for the wrong dame? Join private eye Jack B. Nimble as he makes some astonishing discoveries while tracking down the criminal mastermind behind the murder of Councilman Humpty Dumpty. A noir style detective story featuring everyone's favorite nursery rhyme and fairy tale characters.
Producer Michelle Concha Herko and nominee Jeanne Travis talk about staging this work with intriguing contrasting themes.
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What first attracted you to this project?
Michelle: It was the 10th anniversary show for State of Play and the show that started it all for the company in NYC.
Jeanne: The design concept. A "no-escape action thriller" based on fairy tale characters juxtaposed on a backdrop of gritty film noir. I could not wait to play!
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Michelle: Revisiting the show that stated it all for State of Play Productions in NYC.
Jeanne: The team! After the first dress rehearsal we realized that we had created an epic mini-musical. I composed multiple songs and incidental music for this play - not knowing at the start that I would be needing too. I had less than a few weeks to put it all together from scratch and I never felt the pressure. Having your team have your back means so much when approaching new work and is exactly why I loved working on this production.
What was the most challenging part of working on this production?
Michelle: Finding a fresh look to a show that had already had a very successful run the first time around.
What did you want the audience to walk away with after watching The City that Cried Wolf?
Michelle: Fun, Laughter, Silliness and an appreciation for the genre and the unbelievable similarities to a piece written 10 years ago and today.
What was the wackiest part of this production?
Michelle: Film Noir and Nursery Rhymes! Fairy tale characters in a gritty world and the where they stand outside of the books.
Jeanne: OMG the cast was hilarious. We had to hold a couple of times because the entire team couldn't stop laugh-crying at certain scenes to take notes.
Did you learn anything new from your experience of working on this project?
Jeanne: I tackled my fear of composing for live theatre. I sweated bullets the first time I had to present "The Song" that was the make or break tune in the show. My heart was in my throat when I played it for the first time. The actress that had to sing it looked at me with a huge smile on her face and said "Wow! I get to sing this"? I felt like I won all the chocolate in the world after she said that. This project def. made me a stronger artist.
What was it like working with this group of artists?
Michelle: Jeanne was a dream to work with, her constant attention to detail and excitement about the piece.
Jeanne: Everyone had an open heart and were so grateful for everyone's time.
Make sure to follow State of Play Productions on Twitter @SOPProductions
Directed by Kristin MaCarthy Parker
Produced by Recent Cutbacks
Nomination: Outstanding Performance Art Production
About the Company: Recent Cutbacks takes parody seriously. They're inspired by nostalgia, irreverence, pop culture, and high theatricality.
About the Prouction: Kevin is alone... at home... Critically-acclaimed company Recent Cutbacks revamps a beloved holiday classic with live projections, puppets, and a four-person choir. Using their signature brand of humor and thrilling theatricality Recent Cutbacks staged this rendition of Home Alone.
Producer Lanie Zipoy tells us about the joy of bringing this beloved movie script to the live theatre.
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What first attracted you to this project?
Lanie: We love the movie Home Alone, and wanted to give it a proper homage.
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Lanie: Figuring out how to integrate a four-person choir into the show live on stage. And the choir's ugly holiday sweaters. They were the best!
What was the most challenging part of working on this production?
Lanie: Live projections and the interaction of actors with puppets.
What did you want the audience to walk away with after watching Kevin!!!!?
Lanie: Absolute joy and the desire to revisit entertainment from their youth.
Was there a noteworthy moment for you during this production?
Lanie: The granddaughter of one of the film's actors (he's since died) came to the production and loved seeing her grandfather's character represented on stage.
What was it like working with this group of artists?
Lanie: Their ability to fuse physical theater, live choir and projections in service of comedy. Brilliant. Also, they are the lowest maintenance group of artists I've ever worked with.
Make sure to follow Recent Cutbacks on Twitter @recentcutbacks
Written by Larry Phillips
Directed by Ben Liebert
Produced by Randomly Specific
Nominations: Outstanding Set Design, Meg McGuigan; Outstanding Lighting Design, Catherine Clark; Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role, Griffin Hennelly
About the Company: Randomly Specific Theatre is a New York City based independent theatre company founded in 2014. Their mission is to produce new plays with an emphasis on excellence in writing and script development and high quality production aesthetic. They do not subscribe to any single method of training or rehearsal technique. The play's the thing. Spinning a good yarn for the entertainment of an audience is their number one goal.
About the Production: Brody, America’s favorite koala, has stormed off the set of his hit sitcom. Holed up in a sleazy LAX motel, he's got enough booze and drugs to last for months.
Desperate to get him back on track his agent, wrangler, and co-star try to make him see reason. But is their concern for Brody's future? Or their own? Koalas are Dicks is a dark Hollywood comedy about terrible people and the koala who supports them.
Playwright Larry Phillips and nominees Meg McGuigan, Catherine Clark, and Griffin Hennelly talk about staging this dark comedy about the sleazy side of being a koala.
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What first attracted you to this project?
Larry: The play was written specifically for our Theatre Company.
Meg: New work generally interests me, as well as an excited team.
Griffin: The amount of physical comedy.
Catherine: I was asked by the director, Ben Liberties, and we had worked together previously on another quirky new show.
What was your favorite part of working on this production?
Larry: Working with a brilliant ensemble and team.
Meg: The collaboration from all parties.
Griffin: I love working in a fast ensemble comedy. A group of people with the same goal (putting on a damn good show) is a nice group to be a part of.
Catherine: The most fun thing about the production was creating the environment of a trashed, cheap motel room, it's not often that "gross" is the goal, so it was something fun and different to work on.
What was the most challenging part of working on this production?
Meg: Logistics were fairly tricky for a needy set with a small load in window, lots of furniture with little time!
What was the most unique aspect of this production for you?
Meg: There is a lot of joy in finding the ugliest artwork you can.
Griffin: I got to huff gasoline, mime fellatio on an inflatable Kangaroo and smother a koala to death with a pillow... there wasn't much that was not odd.
What was it like working with this group of artists?
Larry: They are all talented, smart, and dedicated.
Griffin: Incredibly professional but at the same time warm, friendly and inviting.
Catherine: The show was really a team effort, everyone helped each other to get things done and come up with creative solutions together, it was a very open and collaborative process, which made working on a new play that much more enjoyable.
Written by based on the play "The Rules" by Charles L. Mee
Directed by Ildiko Nemeth
Produced by The New Stage Theatre Company
Nomination: Outstanding Performance Art Production
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| Photos by Lee Wexler |
About the Company: The New Stage Theatre Company is an award- winning theatre company founded in 2002 by Hungarian native Ildiko Nemeth. Drawing from the traditions of Eastern European theatre, the company premieres foreign playwrights' works in New York and creates original works through collaboration between its artists. The company's works are distinguished by their bold visual style and compelling mix of absurdist and physical humor with dark and difficult themes. Since 2008 New Stage has produced plays by invitation at legendary Off-Off-Broadway institutions including LaMaMa, Theater for the New City and Dixon Place. Its 2015 production, Night by Charles L. Mee, received the Outstanding Performance Art Production Award from the New York Innovative Theatre Awards in 2016, New Stage received the prestigious Caffe Cino Fellowship, awarded to a company that consistently produces outstanding work.
About the Production: Nemeth’s Rules is an of-the-moment performance piece channeling the anxiety of our time. Faithful to Mee’s collage-like approach to drama, it brings together voices of the marginalized, objectified, and simply horrified to question what rules inform our reality. Who is writing them? What does it mean to fight for cohesion or unity?
"New Stages has consistently delivered stimulating, surreal theater." ~ Michael Block, Theater in the Now
Make sure to follow New Stage Theatre Company on Twitter @NewStageNYC
Written, Directed and Produced by New York Neo-Futurists
Nomination: Outstanding Performance Art Production
About the Company: The New York Neo-Futurists is a collective of wildly productive writer/ director/performers who create theater that is fusion of sport, poetry, and living-newspaper. Their work is “non-illusory,” which means that all the characters are the performers themselves. Their performances are interactive, energetic and timely.
About the Production: The Infinite Wrench is a mechanism that unleashes a barrage of two-minute plays for a live audience. Each play offers something different, be it funny, profound, elegant, disgusting, topical, irrelevant, terrifying, or a song; all are truthful and tackle the here-and-now, inspired by the lived experiences of the performers. With new plays every week, The Infinite Wrench is the Neo-Futurists’ ongoing and ever-changing attempt to shift the conventions of live performance and speak to audiences including those unreached or unmoved by traditional theater.
Make sure to follow the New York Neo-Futurists on Twitter and Instagram @nyneofuturists
