Listen in as Tessa Flannery, playwright/performer of the new play Tentacles in the 2018 FRIGID Festival, along with her director, Rebecca Cunningham, discuss naming your characters after your actors, keeping calm in the face of technical difficulties, “on-brand failure,” and how to layer difficult social issues into your show about hentai.

“…I love working on shows that have strong women as the leads, but I also really love when they’re flawed, and the character Tessa is not perfect, and is certainly privileged and is coming at it from that perspective, and so we throw that at her…”

Voyage Theater Company presents

Tentacles

written by Tessa Flannery

directed by Rebecca Cunningham

remaining performances:

Thu Feb 15, 2018 | 10:30PM

Sat Feb 17, 2018 | 2:10PM

Wed Feb 21, 2018 | 8:50PM

Fri Feb 23, 2018 | 8:50PM

Fri Mar 2, 2018 | 5:30PM

Under St. Marks

94 St. Marks Place

Manhattan

tickets: $10, available via Vendini

photos by Ryan Smith

photos by Jody Christopherson

Listen in as performer Mariah Freda & director/”script assembler” Melissa Moschitto of The Anthropologists‘ new show Artemisia’s Intent discuss the company’s approach to devising, the well-meaning wish of “break a frame,” skirts from tablecloths, working from found texts, activating original art, and the resonance of 17th Century baroque painting with #MeToo.

“…pressing up these two points in time, with 400 years in between them, there’s actually still a lot with us, and we’re trying to point that out, and be, like, ‘now what?’ Let’s move forward from that…”

The Anthropologists present

Artemisia’s Intent

devised by Mariah Freda, Irina Kuraeva, Brianna Kalisch, Melissa Moschitto, & Lynde Rosario

script & direction by Melissa Moschitto

performed by Mariah Freda

part of FRIGID 2018

performances:

Wed Feb 14, 2018 | 5:30PM

Sat Feb 24, 2018 | 7:10PM

Mon Feb 26, 2018 | 7:10PM

Thu Mar 1, 2018 | 10:30PM

Sun Mar 4, 2018 | 3:30PM

Under St. Marks

94 St. Marks Place

Manhattan

tickets: $18, available via Vendini

photos by Hunter Canning

Listen in as the team behind the world premiere of Pete Rex—playwright Alexander V. Thompson, director Brad Raimondo, and performers Greg Carere, Simon Winheld, and Rosie Sowa—discuss the uses & dangers of fantasy, making your hometown a central character in your script, eerie resonance with the political moment, fun actor challenges, familiarity with the characters and situations onstage, loving someone while hating their inaction, crossing Ionesco with Albee, and, of course, dinosaurs.

“…this place that had been something, and turned into kind of a ‘non-place’ through the loss of industry, and the loss of jobs, and the economy. And we were all, ‘that feels like it should be in here now’…I think that’s something that we really want people to take away…the experience of these places…that have gone from thriving, to nowhere, and what that does to people…”

The Dreamscape Theatre presents

Pete Rex

written by Alexander V. Thompson

directed by Brad Raimondo

thru March 3, 2018

59E59, Theater C

59 E. 59th Street

Manhattan

tickets: $25, available via 59e59.org

photos by Hugh Mackey

Listen in as playwright Jennifer Fell Hayes and actor Kate Grimes of Rosemary and Time discuss beginning with a true story before letting the playwright’s imagination take over, mastering the Yorkshire accent, figuring out where in time your play begins, issues of class in the U.K. vs. the U.S., throwing in local turns of phrase, and dealing with issues of “shame and grief and connection and the past and guilt.”

“…having met the two women […] I really was very, very touched by what had happened to them, and promised them I would really try to do the best I could…a truthful play that might say something about the human condition, about love and loss and life, all those major, major themes that we try to wrestle with…”

Rosemary and Time

written by Jennifer Fell Hayes

directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan

thru February 17, 2018

Paradise Factory Theatre Main Stage

64 E. 4th Street

Manhattan

tickets: $18, available via BrownPaperTickets

photos by Gerry Goodstein

Listen in as director Lynnea Benson and performers Marcus Watson, Amy Frances Quint, Erick Gonzalez, Kyle Primack, and Kevin Hauver of Frog & Peach Theatre Company‘s new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, discuss why the company returned to the forest outside of Athens, bucket-list roles, the politics of Midsummer, playing different roles in the same play after six years, trusting collaborators to push you in new and exciting directions, and how to not only give the audience what they want, but what you think they might need.

“…we wanted something that could also reach out to families with children, and younger people, people who think they know Midsummer but maybe don’t know it the Frog & Peach way. Also, we never miss an opportunity with the present company to do a comedy…”

The Frog & Peach Theatre Company presents

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

written by William Shakespeare

directed by Lynnea Benson

thru February 25, 2018

The Sheen Center Black Box Theater

18 Bleecker Street

Manhattan

tickets: $26.95, available via OvationTix

photos by Paul Greco

Listen in as actor Peter Buck Dettmann (“Brody”), director Ben Liebert, and playwright/actor Larry Phillips (“Davey”) of Koalas are Dicks discuss turning a six-foot man into a koala, finding sight gags, inspiration from Charlie Sheen, writing to your actor’s Aussie accent, finding a balance between groan-worthy and intellectual humor, and using abstraction through the absurd to get closer to the ridiculous & terrible truth.

“…there’s a lovely irony that the koala is the only one who seems to understand how worthless what they’re doing is…it is very liberating, that fantasy element…being a six-foot-tall dude playing a tiny koala, if the audience follows you on that, they’re with you…”

Randomly Specific Theatre presents

Koalas Are Dicks

written by Larry Phillips

directed by Ben Liebert

thru February 24, 2018

Theatre 80 St. Marks

80 St. Marks Place

Manhattan

tickets: $32, available via OvationTix

photos by Zoe Lintzeris

Listen in as Attic Theater Company‘s executive director Ted Caine, and cast members Hannah Sloat, Jack Sochet, and Noelle Franco of the company’s world premiere production of Jericho by Michael Weller, discuss working with the playwright in the room, loving and hating your protagonist, “having the conversation,” perspective from present day vs. the time of the play’s action, “doing the do of the play,” complicating the motives of your characters, and the importance of presenting hits that absolutely do not feel like kisses.

“…the only person that can change is you […] Just as he has to figure out how he’s going to change, the audience has to figure out how they’re going to change…”

Attic Theater Company presents

Jericho

written by Michael Weller

directed by Laura Braza

thru February 10, 2018

The Wild Project

195 E. 3rd Street

Manhattan

tickets: $26, available via OvationTix

photos by Dustin Moore

Listen in as Phoenix Theatre Ensemble‘s producing artistic director Craig Smith, along with performers Lori Parquet, Ariel Estrada, Elise Stone, Stacey Raymond, and Layan Elwazani of the company’s world premiere production of Topher Cusumano’s The Cult Play, discuss the play’s resonance with the current zeitgeist, how defense of one’s identity can put others in harm’s way, technology’s place in telling a story in the theatre, killing different characters in different drafts, surviving cults, what we believe and why we believe it, “truth” vs. “certainty,” and the responsibility of not just the leader, but of those who choose to follow them.

“…2.5 million Americans have been in cults in the past 30 or 40 years. It’s pretty widespread, and I think cults are enormously interesting. I think all of us, on some level, feel wounded, and maybe a bit fragile, and I think we’re more fragile than we think that we are, and we come under the spell of these folks like Mama Pearl […]”

“You don’t have to go political with this play. If you’re on Instagram, or Twitter, or whatever, you already follow someone…”

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble presents

The Cult Play

written by Topher Cusumano

directed by Irene Lazaridis

thru February 17, 2018

The Paradise Factory

64 E. 4th Street

Manhattan

tickets: $35, available via OvationTix

photos by Gerry Goodstein

Listen in as writer & performer Brett Evan Solomon, director & performer Kelsey Lurie, and performer Gabriel Vasquez of SOMEONEPLEASELISTENANDUNDERSTAND (they’re wiretapping our brains) discuss collaborative creation, mediatization, putting a podcast into the live theatre realm, “abstracting feelings,” how technology and the people around you can shape identity, surveillance, and developing a shared language with your close collaborators.

“…that screen is not a threat to me as a performer; that’s my friend…”

The 2018 Exponential Festival with The Brick Theater, Inc. & Brett Solomon & Kelsey Lurie present

SOMEONEPLEASELISTENANDUNDERSTAND (they’re wiretapping our brains)

written by Brett Evan Solomon

directed by Kelsey Lurie

thru January 28, 2018

The Brick

579 Metropolitan Ave

Brooklyn

tickets: $20, available via OvationTix

photos by Cameron Kelly

Listen in as three of the five company members of The Associates—director Jamal Abdunnasir, and performers Lauren Larocca & Peregrine Teng Heard—discuss their new collectively-devised “waking nightmare” Sheila, exploring the intersection of the mundane with the grotesque, the role of improvisation in their process, how they work with non-Associate associates, and why the company likes to make things just a little bit scary.

“…I think what we’ve found out about ourselves is that we write almost as much as we create in the room, that we all find a lot of value in putting down proposals on paper. Jamal happens to work a lot in stage directions, and I happen to work a lot in action, and then there’s dialogue people…the important thing is for everyone to be able to jump into all these characters…”

The Associates present

Sheila

a new play by The Associates

directed by Jamal Abdunnasir

thru January 27, 2018

Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre

The A.R.T./New York Theatres

502 W. 53rd Street

Manhattan

tickets: $18 ($30 reserved, $50 supporter), available via artful.ly

photos by Russ Rowland