Listen in as the director of Basement, Janet Bentley, along with actors Alexandra Cohler & Ian Campbell Dunn and sound designer Andy Evan Cohen, discuss radio-announcer-as-chorus, working in multiple languages in the same piece, sound as dramaturgy (and dramaturgy through sound), the benefit of having a medical professional in your production team, finding a place for a dance, and how to turn the traditional wartime romance narrative on its head.

“…theatre is always musical to me. There’s a rhythm to it…”

Roly Poly Productions presents

Basement

written by Michael Hagins

directed by Janet Bentley

thru October 15, 2017

The Gene Frankel Theatre

24 Bond Street

Manhattan

tickets: $25, available via BrownPaperTickets

photos by Al Foote III

Listen in as the writer & performer of Outside Paducah: The Wars at Home, J. A. Moad II, discusses creating dialogue through story and art, how he got to the stage from the page, the seeds of the stories he tells in this show, how those stories have touched audience members, society’s role in taking care of its veterans, and how war affects not only those who serve on the front lines, but also those who serve without a uniform at home.

“…these stories live in me…everything comes down to story, right? It’s that basic human impulse, from the time we’re a little kid and the first thing we say to our dad is, ‘tell me a story.’ If we embrace that idea, of how we learn through story, how story changes the way we see the world and the way we imagine the possibilities, it invites us into all these other places that we cannot begin to see…”

Poetic Theater Productions presents

Outside Paducah: The Wars at Home

written & performed by J. A. Moad II

directed by Leah Cooper

thru October 15, 2017

The Wild Project

195 E. 3rd Street

Manhattan

tickets: $25, available via OvationTix

photos by Hunter Canning

Listen in as director Michael Hardart, designers Sidney Fortner (costumes) and Michael LeBron (sets), along with actors Marc LeVasseur and Erin Beirnard of The Metropolitan Playhouse‘s production of Clyde Fitch’s The Climbers, discuss finding opportunity in constriction, pacing, showing & reflecting the mechanics usually reserved for the background, hearing from the servants, being in tune with your audience in an intimate space, achieving elegance by suggesting elegance, and why this play from 1901 fits in our “new gilded age.”

“…what it’s driven me to…is an appreciation of what I enjoy, what I love: when a play can continue moving forward, even in a set change…you make it something that’s part of the story…”

The Metropolitan Playhouse presents

The Climbers

written by Clyde Fitch

directed by Michael Hardart

thru October 8, 2017

The Metropolitan Playhouse

220 E. 4th Street

Manhattan

tickets: $30 ($25 students/seniors), available via BrownPaperTickets

photos courtesy of Metropolitan Playhouse

Listen in as James Godwin, co-creator and performer of The Flatiron Hex, discusses his roots in puppetry, accidental iconography, flood myths, how you know when your puppet is complete, astounding coincidences, mocking the sacred to make it stronger, how the show requested the puppets (and extreme physicality), and why you should make the kind of things that you enjoy.

“…you know your [work] is done when you’re sitting there, and you decide, ‘there’s one more thing I’m going to change.’ Don’t ever do that change. Because if you think there’s only one more thing to change, you’re about to destroy [it]…”

Little Shadow Productions presents

The Flatiron Hex

performed and co-written by James Godwin

directed and co-written by Tom Burnett

thru September 30, 2017

HERE Arts Center

145 Sixth Avenue

Manhattan

tickets: $25, available via the HERE website

photos by Richard Termine

Listen in as Erin B. Mee, who conceived of and directed This is Not a Theatre Company‘s Subway Plays, discusses the origin of the term “podplays,” how variables can enter into the “performance,” practical considerations when you’re dealing with the MTA as your venue, mindfulness and the opportunity to mono-task, and making your theatre work even more accessible.

“…what we wanted to do was create a piece [where] the audience member mixes the live experience with the recorded experience, and creates an experience that is unique to them. So there’s something kind of John Cage about it…”

This is Not a Theatre Company presents

Subway Plays

conceived of and directed by Erin B. Mee

featuring plays written by Jenny Lyn Bader, Jessie Bear and Colin Waitt

sound design by Natalie Johnsonius Neubert

stage management by Sophia Cohen Smith

available via an app on iTunes, Amazon, or Google; head to https://www.thisisnotatheatrecompany.com/subway-play for links

Listen in as Ran Xia and Charlotte Arnoux, co-Artistic Directors of The Arctic Group, presenting their Fridge Festival at IRT, discuss happy autocorrect errors, finding a fridge for your fridge festival, developing your climbing skills, the beauty of limitations, serendipitous curation, “figuring it out,” and what it means to “pick a snowflake out of an avalanche.”

“…it’s putting two different groups of people onto the same platform, so they can have a conversation…”

“…and just offering space to artists that we love, and ones that we have come to love…we wanted to create the theatre festival that we never had…”

The Arctic Group presents

Fridge Fest

thru September 10, 2017

IRT Theater

154 Christopher Street, #3B

Manhattan

tickets: $18, available via BrownPaperTickets

Alexander Lambie and Chalia LaTour in no seconds, photo by Charlotte Arnoux

Glenn Marla in Scarcity Freezer, photo by Samantha Kugler

Listen in as some of the team behind Friends Call Me Albert—performers Julie Congress and Steven Conroy, director Ryan Emmons, and musician Enrico de Trizio, all members of the ensemble of No. 11 Productions—discuss how and why puppets ended up in their play about Albert Einstein, the meaning of “bio-epic,” cross-continental collaboration, impossibility, how to integrate Einstein’s concepts into the presentation of your show, “fluidity,” using real math onstage, and how their ensemble plays together on the journey of creating their work.

“…it’s like playing with gravity…”

No. 11 Productions presents

Friends Call Me Albert

written by Zachary Desmond

directed by Ryan Emmons

thru September 10, 2017

Access Theater

380 Broadway, 4th Floor

Manhattan

tickets: $18, available via BrownPaperTickets

photos by Sean Meehan

Listen in as The Unwritten Law co-creator & performer Chesney Snow, along with co-creator, director, performer & choreographer Rebecca Arends, discuss working with collaborators who can help turn your story into art, making “something different,” microphones and music, “the magic that happens between people onstage,” American issues, and how sound and movement come together to tell this very personal story.

“…I tell people, they’re coming to see a story of America…we’re looking at black life, and I’m hoping they’ll be able to follow the journey of where we’ve come from…I don’t want to preach at people, but I would love for people to hear the story, and maybe they’ll have a different perspective on some of the things that are happening today…”

Dixon Place presents

The Unwritten Law

co-created & performed by Chesney Snow

co-created, directed, choreographed, & performed by Rebecca Arends

thru August 14, 2017

Dixon Place

161A Chrystie Street

Manhattan

tickets: $22 advance ($25 at the door), available via OvationTix

photos by Peter Yesley

Listen in as the duo Marina & Nicco—Marina Tempelsman & Niccolo Aeed—discuss beginning their new show Unpacking from a design idea, introducing nostalgia via live music, ephemera, melancholia in comedy, what happens when you trust your audience with your lighting design, and the ghosts that imagining the future can summon.

“…this is a very literal answer to, ‘why is this live,’ but I think it checks out really beautifully. It’s really fun and interesting to see the collective personality of an audience having such a direct impact on what you’re seeing on the stage…”

SubletSeries@HERE presents

Unpacking

written by Marina & Nicco

directed by Niccolo Aeed

thru August 13, 2017

HERE Arts Center

145 6th Avenue

Manhattan

tickets: $25, available via HERE‘s website

photos by Giancarlo Osaben

Listen in as Mine playwright Maria Deasy and director Rachel Dart discuss making connections, inspiration from Maria’s paralegal background, the brand-new Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, discoveries in rehearsal, how to deal with a show inspired by real-life events, how to be “rich and spare,” and where we fit in as links on this human chain.

“…I didn’t want to make a polemic…I didn’t want to tell a story from event-to-event-to-event…I wanted to explore the idea that we’re all connected…”

Mine

written by Maria Deasy

directed by Rachel Dart

part of the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival

thru August 5, 2017

The Theater at 14th Street Y

344 E. 14th Street

Manhattan

tickets: $25 advance/$30 door, available via 14th Street Y