Baby Lovin’ With Christen Clifford

First it started with an essay. Then it continued with a solo show that has played Europe and a variety of downtown venues here in New York. Now, actor-writer Christen Clifford tackles the big time with the Off-Broadway premiere of her show, BabyLove, in which she colorfully ruminates on what she calls “the eroticism of motherhood.” The show opened late last month at 45 Bleecker and runs until the first week of June. It is being presented by Hourglass Group, the producers of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles and the forthcoming Frequency Hopping.

With the show successfully up and running (and her son temporarily napping), Christen dropped by the ol’ blog to talk about the show, the Off-Broadway move, and what else she’s been up to since the last time I interviewed her. BabyLove director Julie Kramer (None of the Above, Mother Load) throws in a handy assist from time to time, as well.

When last we spoke, you were getting ready to open BabyLove at the very first FRIGID Festival. How did that run go?

The FRIGID was great for me: I got to work the show for seven performances instead of just of just one or two here and there. The other work in the festival was wild and wonderful. And it’s important to have a truly fringe festival in New York.

What have you been up to since then?
 
Well my son started PreK, only half days, but that’s been a big change since last year. Since I’m a stay at home and working mother (I just work when he’s asleep mostly!) his schedule is what dictates my schedule. Ummm..I got my MFA, won some writing awards (MFA New School Nonfiction Prize and a 2007 NYFA fellowship, woo-hoo!) I was supposed to be working on a book- if my agent is reading this I AM, I AM!!!

How has the show changed since then - or has it?
 
Christen: The show changes with my circumstances.  When I first started doing the show, I was still really caught up in many of the issues, still very confused about sex and motherhood.  Now I feel like I’ve gone over a mountain and am on the other side of it, so it has a different feel to it.  It used to be even more emotionally raw, it’s still pretty raw, but it used to be REALLY raw.  Now I have to act to access some of those emotions, when they used to just be there.
 
So that’s kind of a big difference.  After over two years, I am finally looking at the show as an actor!
 
Julie: The show has changed so much over the years that we’ve worked on it, though it’s probably changed the least between the Frigid Festival and now.  We’ve had the opportunity to do it so much out of town and it’s interesting to me how some things are pretty much exactly the same from when we first did it in Slovenia and other parts we have continued to refine.  Actually we changed some things for Frigid and this time we’ve gone back to how we did it before.  Also we brought Julie Atlas Muz back, and she expanded some of the dances, which is exciting. 
 
Mostly though, I think what’s changed has been Christen.  When we started Felix was two and everything was so raw and uncertain and frightening.  Now, he’s four.  Her marriage is strong and Felix is this really great little person.  So while the show is still unflinchingly honest and emotionally bare, I think we’re both able to achieve more clarity on what it’s about.

BabyLove originally came to life as an essay for Nerve.com. What inspired you to write it, and then turn it into a solo show?
 
I was really confused sexually after having a baby.  I had identified myself sexually, and I felt like that part of my personality was gone, or not accessible.  Like I wanted to be a mother without losing myself, but I WAS fundamentally different.  But also unchanged in my basic desires and neurosis. 
 
So as a reader I turned to books, only to not find very much out there.  As a writer, studying with two great essayists at the time, Vivian Gornick and Phillip Lopate, I wrote from my own experience.  All of my solo work has developed out of a need to express something I didn’t find out in the world, some true bit of my experience that I hope has some universal truth in it.  It started from writing personal essays, on which I then collaborated with the fabulous director Julie Kramer to turn into performance texts.  Julie and I first met when I auditioned for her for a role in something for the American Living Room festival at HERE, a funny play about Elvis and a Russian woman and a pig:  I played the Russian. Julie has devoted a lot of time to my work and I am forever indebted to her.  I was very unhappy about feeling disconnected from my sexuality, and a lot of humor can come out of unhappiness.  Julie really uncovered the humor.
 
I am so grateful and lucky, this show has been supported by so many different companies- New Georges gave us discounted rehearsal space, so did the Interart Theatre.  The first time I did the show in New York was for the terraNOVA soloNova festival in 2006, and we did a lot of rewriting and rethinking during that run.  We’ve taken it on the road. And now this run at 45 Bleecker for Hourglass Group.

Previously, you’ve said that the show is about “the eroticism of motherhood,” and that motherhood changed your ideas about sexuality and your body. How so?
 
Sex and love and intimacy overlap in romantic relationships.  My relationship with my newborn was the most intimate I’d ever had, and it was shocking to me.
 
Sexuality is so commodified these days, and motherhood is so commodified, and now there is the media-ization of the “sexy mommy” as if we have to look like Angelina Jolie when we are pregnant and be a stick six weeks afterward we give birth.
 
This doesn’t recognize the true experiences of many first time mothers: that your body is changed, often injured; that you are often completely in love with your newborns at the same that your relationship with your partners may be floundering, that your hormones are fluctuating.  So I really feel it’s important to talk about motherhood and sexuality together without it being part of a media trend that just makes most women feel badly about themselves. 
 
Principally, I’m interested in exploring the in-between moments, the grey areas between love and sex and intimacy.  Where we are all trying to connect.  And solo performance and storytelling has been a vibrant way to explore this: I love the shared experience of the theatre, to find community with an audience that might be shocked by my admissions.  Though I use sexuality as a way in, the work is always ultimately about love.
 
Maternal sexuality is actually an issue that involves us all, as children and women and men and parents. The director Julie Kramer always says it’s like the opposite of Phillip Roth romanticizing or fantasizing about his mother- now we get to see the mother’s point of view!

Let’s switch gears for a minute and talk about Hourglass Group. How’d you get hooked up with them?
 
I first met artistic director Elyse Singer at a party at our mutual friend Erica Gould’s in the early nineties. Erica had this huge Chinatown loft and always threw big parties that were lots of fun, and I met Elyse and I had seen her production of Love in the Void (alt.fan.c-love)  which was a one woman play in which Carolyn Baeumler did Courtney Love posting online just after Kurt Cobain died.  I was not a big Cobain fan but I fascinated by Courtney, and I LOVED that they had taken her posts and made them into a show.  It was so great.  And this was when the Internet was still fairly new, I remember I went to see it and I tried to get onto these message boards and couldn’t figure it out.
 
I did some readings and workshops with Hourglass.  When Felix was very young we did a two-week workshop of a very interesting play called 800 Words: the transmigration of Phillip K. Dick by Victoria Stewart and it felt so great being able to bring Felix to rehearsals with a babysitter.  Elyse had had her daughter a few months after I had my son, so there was an acknowledgement of motherhood.
 
And then in 2005 Elyse and I were taking about solo work and she had the idea for a Lab devoted to female writer /performers.  The Lab is the first of its kind, which is very cool and also just a super supportive group of creative and diverse women – together we avoid the vacuum of solo performance.
 
And Hourglass Group is all mothers now: in addition to Elyse, Nina Hellman and Carolyn Baeumler both gave birth in the last year.  And Carolyn was just in Beebo Brinker at 37 Arts, and Elyse is opening Frequency Hopping at 3LD, so I’m happy to be a part of this group of mothers making theatre.

How have you enjoyed prepping the show for Off-Broadway?
 
Christen: I loved it.  I was so happy to get back in a rehearsal room with Julie Kramer, who is just so smart and I love working with her.  We had some sessions with the amazing Julie Atlas Muz and re-did some choreography.  She asked me if I wanted to make it dirtier and I said, “YES!”  So we have even more fun with the dance sequences now.  And Elizabeth Rhodes came in to rework some sound.  Costume designer Melissa Schlachtmeyer met me at maternity stores to find the perfect pair of pants, and made me a new belly. I am so lucky to have such generous collaborators who have been helping me work and rework the show over the years; we’re all in this together.  And we brought in Graham Kindred to do our lights, and had a consultation with a great set designer, Lauren Helpern, and added a Mylar rain curtain.  I love shiny things!
 
Julie: It’s always great to be able to revisit something, to have that confidence that it works in front of all kinds of audiences, and just to be able to really hone in on those areas that we want to be perfect.  It’s the best kind of rehearsal situation really, because there are fewer variables in terms of how or whether something is going to work.  And it’s always the best to be able to move forward with a show and bring it to more and more people, especially when you really believe in what the show is about.

Part of the performance schedule includes “Mommy matinees.” What time of day is best for theatergoing mommies?
 
Well, Sunday afternoons are pretty easy to get out get out of the house, you leave the kid(s) with your partner or a friend.  It saves you from having to make a big deal of going to the theatre and getting a babysitter and coming home late and tired.  And the Wednesday matinees are early, at 1pm, so parents can get back to school for 3pm pick up, or see the show on their lunch hour. 

What are some of the challenges (and advantages) you face in balancing motherhood and performing?
 
Well, first of all, I don’t buy into the whole “opting in” and “opting out” of motherhood that makes headlines.  For me, it’s not a choice to work or not.  Personally, I don’t have the option of having a high-powered job and hiring a nanny.  I can’t not be a mother, I can’t not be a writer/performer – these are givens for me. I also just started teaching.  So it’s a challenge for me to make my way in the world and piece it together the only way I know how.
 
When I was getting my MFA I’d be up until 1am writing and still have to get up with my son.  So I stayed sleep deprived long after my son was sleeping through the night in order to do my own work.  It’s definitely a DIY business model.
 
That said, I think coming from downtown theatre makes me scrappy in a way that’s a good influence on being a mother – the whole beg, borrow, or steal mentality makes you flexible and I feel like we can always find fun wherever we are.
 
When Felix was little, he would just travel with me- well partly because I breastfed him for so long!  When Julie and I premiered the show in Ljubljana, the festival there put us all up in an apartment and even arranged childcare for me and paid for it! 
 
I like to bring him to tech rehearsals, he loves the lights and gels, he loves to come to the theatre and explore different spaces.  He loves it and I think it’s important to see me at work, since he can’t see the work.  BabyLove is for adults only; it even came with a warning label in Canada. My son is old enough to really know what theatre is now – I take him to children’s theatre – and he likes to give people the postcards for my show and tell them, “Here’s a postcard for my mommy’s show.  It’s not for children.  It’s only for grown ups.”  It’s so cute!

You’re expecting your second child later this year. Congratulations on that! Might we see BabyLove 2 sometime in the future?
 
Thank you. I’m excited and scared to bring another human being into the world.  I don’t see BabyLove 2 in the works; I’m not fond of sequels in general. But who knows: when the new baby comes everything will change again.
 
I’m actually looking at sex from the perspective of a daughter instead of a mother now.  My new solo is called (What I Know About) My Parents’ Sex Life and it explores elderly sexuality.  I’m looking at everything from my father’s Viagra prescription to my mother’s racy letters, from nursing homes to granny porn.  Daniel Fish will direct it, and it opens June 17th at P.S. 122 as part of terraNOVA’s soloNOVA festival and I got an equipment loan grant from Digital Performance Institute so we’ll be using video and I’m excited that it will be something I’m not used to.  So I have to get to work making a new show.  And it’s scary, because though it is still a solo with personal stories, I’m consciously moving away from the storytelling form that I’ve been working in for the past few years.  I’m excited to see what will happen.

Chris Harcum Goes Badass

When it comes to solo performance these days, actor-writer Chris Harcum is about as experienced as they come. In the past several years, he has written and performed ten original solo shows including the FringeNYC 2006 hit, Some Kind of Pink Breakfast, and 2007’s Anhedonia Road, which was presented by Metropolitan Playhouse as part of their Twainathon festival.

Chris debuts his newest solo work, American Badass (or 12 Characters in Search of a National Identity), at this year’s FRIGID Festival. The show runs downtown at The Kraine Theater until March 9th. Chris stopped by the ol’ blog to tell us more about it, as well as to talk about how he builds his pieces and his ongoing creative partnership with director Bricken Sparacino. Check it out:

You describe your newest solo piece, American Badass, as different from your previous ones, in that it’s more political than what you usually do. Can you elaborate on that?

My work has tended to be more centered on human stuff. There has been a focus on spirituality and I used magic realism a lot in the how the story was told. Since 9/11 I have been using my work as a way to become a better person or a more developed person. Frequently, I find I fail, fail, fail at it and it is that struggle that makes the contours of the work. My work has tended towards revealing the parts of us that we try to avoid thinking about or that we must cover up to get through most of our days. I found it very daunting because I was putting myself out there.

Sometimes my work is autobiographical but more frequently it’s universal. I always work to make my pieces equally be about what the person watching may have experienced. I never want the audience to feel punished, preached at, or sorry for me. I also tend to go to dark and scary places but we always come out the other side like going to a professional haunted house.

This piece is largely political or at least looking at where we are as a nation. The full title is American Badass (or 12 Characters in Search of a National Identity). I think the “Never Forget” signs we’ve tattooed in our brains say more about how we’re going to kick everyone’s ass until we either run so far out of money we become some other country’s bitch or we bully the crap out of everyone so they know we still hold the distinction of biggest global bully. In general, I think Americans are fine with that until it affects their bank account.

Because we are in such a weird and scary time I wanted to create a piece that looks at how that action film morality affects us personally and publicly. I only have an hour max in the Frigid Festival so I could only cover so much ground but there’s a lot. The big thing is that I think we need to be aware of our loss of civil liberties and the bastard birth of Blackwater from Momma Neo-Conservative and Poppa Capitalism. I have an old-school Republican in the play. He doesn’t say it but he’s the guy who identifies most with Ron Paul. That is very different than what we have going on with the outsourced government stuff. If Blackwater is not reigned in soon we could be in big trouble.

With this piece, I think I will be pushing different people’s buttons at different times. There may be a few people who learn a few things and there might be some who think it’s a bit elementary. My friend, Lisa Barnes, who is super-talented actress calls what I do “wake up” theatre. I kept that in the back of my mind as I created this one. I was brought up believing America was one thing but now it is something different to me. This piece is about that difference.

American Badass also differs from your previous work in that it’s a multi-character piece. Why’d you go with that format over your usual one (i.e. playing yourself)?

This is kind of a tough question in that I don’t have a usual one. Fans of my work will know that each piece is very different from the last. Most of my work has been character-based work and largely like watching one person do an entire play. Sometimes I will play myself or a version of myself as part of it but most of my work is character-based. My director, Bricken Sparacino, always points out when I write a character who is being totally nasty to Chris Harcum because it is kind of funny. My last few pieces have been structured like a multiple character play. The trick is to not come off like the guy auditioning with Taxi Driver in Waiting for Guffman. This format is similar to classic Bogosian where one character does five minutes and then goes away. I did that in Gotham Standards but in other stuff I’ve done, characters return or change. This is that kind of Bogosian character work with some multimedia things in between to keep the audience entertained while I do a quick change.

People ask, “What’s your show like?” I start to answer but it takes much longer than the usual elevator ride speech. It’s part Bogosian, Gray, Dario Fo, Bill Irwin, Mike Myers, Monty Python, Van Halen, Mamet, Pirandello, Chekhov, and Garrison Keillor. It’s not improv, clown, mime, narrative, stand-up, or non-linear performance art. “Chris Harcum” only appears in this one in a slide show and a short documentary film made by Evan Stulberger. I do have a couple of characters talking to me, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it.

How do you go about writing and constructing your pieces?

This is my 10th and it changes but some things are consistent. I’ll get a title and theme long before I set pen to paper. Usually, I do things in scribbles and bursts in longhand before getting on the computer. Sometimes there’s some improvisation thrown in but usually I write it the way I write plays. It takes longer to get it going than I normally expect. I don’t have a problem with judging myself when I write, thank God. Once I catch the wave, I can ride it pretty far. The longer I’ve written the pickier I’ve become about which wave to ride though. I’ve also become better at editing things and taking out the boring, the cringe-inducing, and (this is the hardest) good stuff that doesn’t fit in with everything else in the piece. There is usually a time when the cast argues with the playwright. Since they are all me, it’s not too fun. Working on a new piece is wacky. I develop it, write it, workshop it, rehearse it, rewrite it, re-rehearse it, get it through tech, and in front of people in the same or even less time than many use for doing a straight play. Also, there’s all the marketing, producing, and coordinating that actually take up close to 65% of your time when you are doing one of these. That’s the most difficult part of this. I’m not naturally a business man but I’ve been improving over time. It’s tough to say, “Hey come see this show I made that features just me.” Unless you have nice breasts and sex or something about a celebrity in the title. I wish I were kidding. I think people are generally lazy about seeking out new or different things. We are now used to having food and entertainment delivered to us at home, at our desks, on the device we carry on the subway (I expect Apple to create something with a feeding tube soon.) I work in an area somewhere between high art and low art and there’s less people swimming around in that pool than one would expect. I am coming to a place also where the marketing and producing doesn’t infect the writing or performing.

Is there a difference, preparation and rehearsal-wise, between American Badass and your previous works?

I had a horrible case of writer’s block getting this one started. I had my antennae up for the longest time so I had a lot of material building up but something was in the way. Of course, that’s always your own personal resistance. I finally went to using an exercise I give my solo performance students and gave my inner critic a voice. Unfortunately, lots of people give you friendly and unfriendly advice when you are writing a piece. Sometimes it’s good not to tell anyone what you are doing to keep it pure for that reason. So I came up with a character who represents the people I’ve had in my audience who look miserable while I perform and let him tell me how I should write my show and what’s wrong with what I do. This became my opening piece. I also like to give the audience cues on what will happen in the evening. No one ever sits on the front row by choice at a solo performance, except people who have a bad case of “I want to be up there but I’m too scared so I’ll just try to ruin this however I can.” Most are afraid they will somehow be singled out. I don’t usually do that. If I do, I turn the joke on myself. Once “Hipster” started telling me things I could write everything else rather easily.

Everyone’s busier. Bricken went out of the country to perform twice. I took a trip to London and am shooting a movie for Jason Cusato called Two Toms. Bricken will be back from Dublin the day we open with her suitcase, as long as the plane arrives on time. We did get some great work done in a short amount of time. I also could do 10-15% less in one hour. This was structured with the multimedia breaks to give me a chance to change costumes and to trick the audience into thinking they are not hearing me but they are because I did all the voices. I get a chance to breathe a couple of deep breaths and take a good sip of water so I’m not burnt like a tater at the finish line.

Why did you choose the FRIGID Festival as the place to debut this show? 

I killed myself doing FringeNYC in ‘06. I did a revamped version of Anhedonia Road at Metropolitan Playhouse in January of ‘07 and Alex Roe asked me to return my piece about Dr. Ores in Alphabet City. Other than that, I wanted to not do solo work. Too many people were saying things that said they only saw me as a solo performer. Ultimately, Harold Pinter’s career is my model. I’ve been writing a lot of short plays and performing with others. Finally, I gave in and started buying auditions for casting directors at a couple of places. They call them classes and a couple of them, like Maribeth Fox, actually do teach them like classes and they are useful. Others are just taking your money and spreading a sickness. To call what they do a class is to call rape flirting.

I wasn’t very happy about this and getting very caught up in the minutiae of what they coming up with to justify the cost of the experience and dying a little bit inside each time. My girlfriend suggested I submit to Frigid to finally make this piece. So I did it at 2am one night and promptly put it out of my mind. It’s a lottery festival so, lo and behold, my number was pulled from a hat and here I am. This is part of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals and I like their vibe. I decided not to use this as a platform to get industry to see the show and focused on making a good piece.

This is your fourth collaboration with director Bricken Sparacino. How did you two meet, and what do you like about working with her?

We’re both members of New Jersey Rep. Co. and they do a festival of short plays called Theatre Brut each year. Bricken was the director of the piece I did and we hit it off. I asked her to direct me in my next solo Mahamudra. I always liked that title because it sounds like a Led Zeppelin album to me. She’s a great director for actors. She gives me space to operate and solid guidance. We don’t agree 100% but that’s good. I tried giving in more quickly to her notes about cuts and changes. She doesn’t force a vision or agenda on my work but helps me to reveal what I am trying to say the best it can be said. I actually had to fire a director once for putting too much on me and throwing me way off course. She needed to write and perform her own piece. I think it’s tough to ask somebody to get between the cast and the playwright when they are the same person. I also now know when she thinks something’s off in rehearsal while I’m running something. The energy changes so I try to fix it. In that way, the actor/director telepathy is getting stronger. I’ve worked with a few other directors. A couple have been helpful and good to work with but most really are there to let the world know they’ve been there. I think that’s great for certain pieces, especially revivals or published works, but for this it’s trouble. Bricken knows when I’m being hard on myself and lets me work it out. I can trust her and relax.

I want to give a couple other shout-outs. Carolyn Raship did a bang-up job with the graphics and producing. Debby Schwartz wrote and recorded a sweet song called “Arise” about “the sins of the father” as well as some amazing work on the voice-overs I recorded at her home studio. She also made this creepy Pink Floyd-esque soundscape for one passage where I play a guy in a black cell in Iraq. Daniel McKleinfeld put all of it together with his masterful animation. Chris Foster helped out a lot with the costumes and Maryvel Bergen made art with the rep lighting plot at the Kraine Theater. You can see a couple of the clips on my youtube channel. (http://www.youtube.com/user/virgodog)

What first drew you to doing solo work, and what keeps you coming back to it?

I saw Danny Hoch do several characters in 10 minutes when I was a freshman at North Carolina School of the Arts. We both got kicked out of there. I also saw Angus McLachlan who wrote Dead Eye Boy and Junebug perform an unproduced screenplay as a solo in Winston-Salem, NC. That’s when it clicked for me that I wanted to make something like that. It’s a bit like being a serial monogamist. You have a deep relationship and then you move on. I don’t like doing things the easy way.

You don’t just do solo work, however - you also do “regular acting,” as it were. What are the rewards of doing that versus your solo work?

Comraderie, bigger email/MySpace/Facebook list, and more laughs in the dressing room. I’m not always running around muttering an hour of text to myself without coming up for air. Someone else says lines to me. I am trying to only do projects that are rewarding for me as an artist and I know will bring joy.

Have you got any upcoming stuff in the works?

Yes. I am going to be writing a full length play based on an autobiography of an infamous persona that is yet to be published. I’m filming Two Toms and am talking with Alex Beech about working up something in the fall. This is also the time when I do a lot of teaching artist work in the Bronx and in Queens so I am helping turn out a lot of little actor/playwrights.

hotINK Festival 2008

There’s no rest for the wicked over here at the ol’ blog. This coming Sunday, immediately following the closing performance of Merry Mount, I’ll be doing a one-night-only staged reading of Joshua William Gelb’s play, The Tragedie of Bour IV. This is part of the hotINK Festival 2008, presented by NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (my alma mater). hotINK showcases new works from around the world: this year’s batch boasts selections from Romania, Australia, France, Canada, Belarus, the U.K., Lebanon, Guadaloupe, Sweden, and the good old U.S. of A.

The role I’m playing, Mr. Lightbulb, is described as “a theatricalized version of Thomas Edison, who’s running a sideshow on Coney Island at the turn of the century, exhibiting the dangers of Tesla’s AC current by electrocuting animals with it in front of the public. He’s part barker, part inventor, part business man, part sadist thug.” Yummy. Also featured in the cast are Alex Coppola, Akil Davis, Cherrye Davis, Kimberly Herbert Gregory, and Justin Nestor.

The reading is being directed by my old NYU chum, Tomi Tsunoda, whose work I’ve admired since back in the day. I’m glad we’re finally working together: I’ve been wanting to for about ten million years now, so I’m grateful to finally get the chance. Thanks, Tomi!

Tomi is also one of the curators of the festival. She and her colleagues have put together a good-looking program that includes new works by Mac Wellman, Eduardo Machado, Anna Ziegler, Crystal Skillman, Jason Grote, and Rob Ackerman, among others. The readings are free and take place at Tisch School of the Arts, located at 721 Broadway, between Waverly Place and Washington Place. Check out the festival’s official schedule and website for further details.

(By the by: The Tragedie of Bour IV goes up at 7:30pm on Sunday night, in the Abe Burrows Theatre at TSOA. If you’ve got a hankering for new work, or just want to see yours truly in action, then come on down.)

Nice Try, Wanton!

Lots going on over here at the ol’ blog this past weekend, beginning with the opening of Merry Mount on Friday night. Boy, was that rough. An absent prop, a malfunctioning costume piece, a last-minute understudy, and some poor pre-show preparation on my part all conspired to throw opening night off. Things had gone swimmingly at our final rehearsal the night before, so I wasn’t worried about anything. Ah, such brash confidence - how presumptuous of me! I forgot to take into consideration that I’d missed our tech rehearsal (on Wednesday afternoon, while I was at work) and would need to adjust to all the design elements on the fly. Yeesh. Basically, opening night was my tech rehearsal, and I felt like it showed.

To begin with, there was a prop I’d rehearsed with all throughout that I suddenly learned I wouldn’t be getting. A little thing, but it made a big difference. By doing something new in the first scene, my focus was diverted from the matter at hand (my performance) and siphoned into making sure this novel activity looked convincing. A surefire recipe for disaster, as I almost immediately blanked about three lines in and never fully recovered. I felt so sure that the audience had detected my near-miss that, for the rest of the show, I overcompensated by rushing my lines and the overall pace, and watched myself to make sure I didn’t blank again. Which, of course, only led to a couple of more almost-fluffs. Nice.

Then, there was one of my costume pieces - a top coat with a tear in the lining of one of the sleeves so huge that if you didn’t finesse it properly your arm would go straight into the lining instead of the sleeve. This, of course, happened to me onstage, despite having rehearsed with the coat numerous times before curtain that night in anticipation of such an event, and took me right out of the scene. Trying to draw as little attention to the fact that my upstage hand (the one facing away from the audience) was jutting comfortably out of one sleeve while my downstage hand (the one right in everyone’s face) was lost somewhere in the lining of my coat. Kill me now. I couldn’t get offstage fast enough.

Also, one of the lead actors (the one I play opposite the most) was absent Friday night, so our fearless director, Mr. Ian W. Hill, stepped in for one night only and did an admirable job. Despite that, he and I only had the luxury of rehearsing together as scene partners the night before, and it threw me. Like I said, Ian did a great job, but he played the part somewhat differently from my regular co-star, and I did not adjust well to the new stimuli.

So, I was not feeling too good after this performance. But, as we all know, actors are not always the best judges of their own work. Ian, Trav, and my fellow castmates were quite complimentary afterwards, as was my old friend Cathy McNelis (whom I spied in the front row at curtain call), and that was nice. It’s always great to hear good feedback, especially in circumstances like these, where it appears as if I came off looking good regardless of how I felt about it. A lesson every actor should learn.

Needless to say, I didn’t make any of those mistakes the following night. I showed up focused and ready to go, having run the script aloud once or twice on my way to the theater (that’s right, folks: more of the infamous running-my-lines-in-public). I kept all non-show related interactions to a minimum (as in: no small talk about anything), and concentrated on working those opening beats in my head and coming out of the gate strong. I refined my new activity (sans prop) in the first scene, and safety pinned the lining of my coat sleeve so my arm wouldn’t do another disappearing act.

And it all worked. I was much sharper all-around on the second night, and felt much better about my performance. Good thing, too, because there were even more people there to see me: two friends and colleagues - fellow Hawthornucopian Chris Harcum and soon-to-be-published Plays and Playwrights 2008 scribe Carolyn Raship - as well as The Companion herself, who, for all intents and purposes, was seeing me perform for the very first time. Thankfully, she was impressed, so I went home on cloud nine.

Last night’s performance (our third) also went well. I felt like we were finally out of the woods, and could relax and have some fun. I tried a couple of new things, none of which threw me off (thank God!), but none of which were a significant improvement over what I already had. Best to stick to what I’ve got and to just refine it. We’ve got one more show left, on Sunday afternoon, and I want to make sure it’s a good one.

The last several days have been a valuable reminder to never get too comfortable with what I’ve got, performance-wise, until I’ve done it in front of the crowd a couple of times. What plays well in the rehearsal room may turn into something completely different in front of a paying audience. I should never take my level of preparation for granted because it can all easily fall apart (or at least feel like it’s doing so) in a matter of moments. (Can you tell yet how much opening night spooked me?)

By the way: the title of this post is one of my lines from the show - an appropriate heading, I thought, considering the circumstances.

Merry Mount Opens Tonight

From the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion comes a formal announcement about the opening of my new show TONIGHT! As you probably know by now, this is a short 15-minute piece that is part of Metropolitan Playhouse’s Hawthornucopia festival. Read on for more details, Macduff…

Merry Mount by Trav S.D.
Directed by Ian W. Hill
With Eric Bailey, Irina Belkovskaya, Danny Bowes, Patrick Cann, Michael Criscuolo, Ian W. Hill, Doua Moua, Robert Pinnock, Brandi Robinson, Julia C. Sun, and Elizabeth Toft

At Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East 4th Street (between Avenues A & B)

Friday, January 18 and Tuesday, January 22 at 7pm
Saturday, January 19 at 10pm
Sunday, January 27 at 1pm

Tickets are $18
$15 for seniors; $12 for students; $10 for children under 12
For tickets and reservations call 212-995-5302 or go online at http://www.metropolitanplayhouse.org.

Wish us luck tonight - more details to follow soon!

Hawthornucopia Roundtable Discussion

For some further insight into - and information about - Metropolitan Playhouse’s upcoming Hawthornucopia festival, I thought I would turn to some of my colleagues who are also doing shows in it. Playwrights Trav S.D. and Tony Pennino, and actors Chris Harcum and Iracel Rivero, were kind enough to convene a cyber-roundtable with me to discuss each of their respective shows, and Hawthorne and the festival in general. Here’s what they had to say: 

Okay, panel: tell us a little bit about which show you’re doing and what it’s about.

Trav: Merry Mount is an adaptation of “The May-Pole of Merry Mount”, which can be found in Twice Told Tales. It is based on a true incident, wherein an acting governor of colonial Massachusetts took it upon himself to crush another slice of English culture (besides Puritanism) which had crossed the Atlantic in those early 17-century years - the vestigal paganism that had been retained when Engalnd was first Christianized in Medieval times. In a nearby town, not far from the Puritan plantations, Anglican folks dance around a Maypole, drink and otherwise “sin”. Not to be tolerated in such proximity to the “City on a Hill”.

Tony: The name of the piece is Misty Phantoms, which is a term taken from one of Hawthorne’s texts. It is how he referred to the Native Americans/Indians. He believed that they would soon vanish from the face of the earth and leave nothing behind as monuments to their existence. My piece takes place in the 1840’s on what was then the western frontier. It concerns Evelyn, a young American woman who encounters two brothers from the Winnebago Tribe. Their encounter eventually leads to tragic results. In that way, my piece in a small way mirrors but for the most part serves as a counterpoint to the Hawthorne’s “The Dunston Family”.

Chris: The Scarlet Whale by Dan Evans. Hawthorne waits with Herman Melville at Walden Pond for Thoreau for a meeting of the minds. Bounty hunters come through looking for a slave on the Underground Railroad.

Iracel: I’m a part of House of Celestial Experiments by Jeremy X. Halpern and Irving Gregory. It is a movement piece that is being described as a theatrical chamber concert of Hawthorne text.

For the writers: how did you decide which story to adapt? And how faithful have you remained to your source material?

Trav: I’d long wanted to do a play on this theme. For ages my idea had been to wed The Bacchae to the diaries of Michael Wiiglesworth, a rather fanatical preacher and Harvard theologian. But I’d known the Merry Mount story for a good long while too – it was an obvious choice for me. Now I think I may have gotten it out of my system. The play is about 50% Hawthorne, 50% me, the biggest deviation being an ironic coda Hawthorne couldn’t have dreamt of without a crystal ball.

Tony: Usually, I do a straight and traditional adaptation as I did last year for Twainathon. This year, I tried something a little different. This one-act isn’t so much an adaptation as a response to Hawthorne. The writer was very ambivalent about the Native American. In some cases, he seems to find them to be a noble people but a doomed one. At other times, though, they come off as quite quite savage. So though we touch on “The Dunston Family,” “Rappucini’s Daughter,” “Main-Street,” and, most especially, “Young Goodman Brown,” the audience should consider this play as more of a dialogue with Hawthorne than a straight adaptation of his work.

For the actors: tell us a little bit about the part you’re playing and how it’s going so far.

Chris: It’s going well. Festival situations force you to work quickly. Coming in right after the holidays was a bit of a mind-bender. Dan’s script feels like it is a bit influenced by Beckett and Pinter. I wish I had more time to research but it’s good for me to trust my instincts and pray for creativity. Basically ask “What would Johnny Depp do?” then find my own way.

Iracel: I’m a part of an ensemble of nine that play an old woman, a servant, and a devilish boy, exchanging roles in multiple variations of a scene. It’s been really fun learning the original “choreography”, as it were, and injecting the variants. We’ve also recorded text direct from several Hawthorne manuscripts. I translated and recorded the 19th century text in Spanish! You’ll have to see how that plays into the scenes… too fun.

How is this project different from some of the others you’ve worked on recently, if at all?

Trav: In a way, it’s nearly identical (in theme) to my last play at Metropolitan, which was set in Victorian New York. Most of my work examines the dichotomy between authoritarianism and the limits of freedom, and most of it either has a historical setting, or is otherwise set in some time and place outside the ordinary. So as far as my work goes, it’s right in the mainstream!

Tony: This project is different in that I am not simply adapting material from one medium to another. I think of it as more of a conversation. And conversations like this are tricky. Obviously, I have great respect for Hawthorne. He’s one of the seminal figures in American literature. But he doesn’t get it right all of the time. So that is what I am trying to address here.

Chris: I worked with Dan and LuLu two years ago as Edgar Allen Poe. They are two of my favorite people. I hope I am still going like they are when I’m that age. LuLu does a lot great solo performance. They really support and love each other.  Recently I’ve been auditioning for commercials and casting people, which takes a chunk of one’s faith in humanity. This is a seven-man cast. All men and we don’t get naked or make puppets with our privates. Just a good play.

Iracel: There are a couple of recent projects I think of that work as a diving off point for this one: Macbeth Without Words for it’s movement and World Gone Wrong/Worth Gun Willed for it’s recorded text.  However, House of Celestial Experiments differs entirely in that the previous projects had a story to tell whereas House… deals more with process and allows for “experiments” in the technique without the concern for one specific story.

Are there any challenges or advantages that any of you face working on a period piece like this?

Trav: Only advantages. I adore this kind of language. I’m an extremist in that department. On Christmas Eve, I went to mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (high mass, two hours long) and found myself getting angry that they were no longer using the King James version of The Bible. If I could do so without getting arrested, I’d speak in antique language every moment of every day.

Tony: I think it’s a great advantage to play in something that is so ingrained into the American mythos.

Chris: I love working different styles and periods. It lets me trot out all my grad school training no one lets you use until your working for one the major theatre companies. I was a high school intern for North Carolina Shakespeare when I got the bug. I am trying to keep the text sounding like something I would actually say how I would really say it. It also makes me glad people still read books.

Iracel: It’s hard to say, since the work is based on period material, but the end product is incredibly contemporary and, dare I say it, avant-garde. So the challenges or advantages for me don’t come from the period material.

Did you ever have to read The Scarlet Letter - or any other Hawthorne - in school?

Trav: Well, “have to” would be inaccurate. I don’t remember The Scarlet Letter being assigned but “Young Goodman Brown” definitely was. But I’ve read The Scarlet Letter a couple of times by choice, and have enjoyed a couple of film versions, as well. You have to realize that these are “my people”. My mother’s ancestors came here in the 1630s…I relate to the writing of Hawthorne as Americans of other lineages might relate to Saul Bellow, Gay Talese, or Amy Tan. Strange as it may seem.

Tony: Yep.

Chris: So shortly after I caught the acting bug, we had to do projects for The Scarlet Letter in class. I was fed up with kids in high school so I decided to do something crazy. I wrote a monologue as Hester Prynne before she goes to be executed. I dressed up like her and played it straight. I remember feeling the room wanting to be let off the hook and I wouldn’t do it. This was before To Wong Foo…so it was a shock. I guess my work goes between the classical and going solo like that and giving the unexpected (when it goes well).

Iracel: Of course!

What’s up next for each of you after this?

Trav: 2008 is shaping up to be a big year. Looking at a full production of my play Family of Man at Theater for the New City, And How! Theatre Company is developing my play Jasper Jaxon, and I have a bill of two one-acts going up in London.

Tony: I’m working on an adaptation - surprise, surprise - of Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker at Metropolitan. And we are setting some of it to music. It’s going to be lot’s of fun. You should come check it out.

Chris: I’m putting up a new solo in The FRIGID Festival called American Badass (or 12 Characters in Search of a National Identity). It’s about figuring out who we are in messed up world with a government playing outside the rules.

Iracel: I’m currently in rehearsals for Night Flyer, a piece that will be part of Dixon Place’s “Page to Stage” series on January 28th. It is a poem by S.M. Dunlap that I will be performing along with two gorgeous dancers. Immediately after that is the premiere of Aaron Baker’s 3800 Elizabeth, a sitcom for the stage that includes myself, and the wonderful Michael Criscuolo and Peter Handy. This will take place every Sunday evening at The Battle Ranch for seven weeks starting February 3rd.

——

Well, that seems like an appropriate enough note to end on (and, no: I did not put Iracel up to giving me such a nice plug). My thanks to Trav, Tony, Chris, and Iracel for their participation. I’ll have more with Chris about his next show, American Badass, next month - as well as an interview with Aaron Baker, the writer-director of 3800 Elizabeth. Stay tuned.

More Coming Attractions From People I Know

Quickly, here are just a pair of upcoming shows (as in, this weekend only) from people I know. Check it:

• The Gospel According to Jack Vitrolo: my 365 Days/365 Plays castmate Sophie Nimmannit is featured in Kameron Steele’s “scathing critique of modern medicine,” as the press release puts it. The author is an acolyte of both Tadashi Suzuki and Robert Wilson, and the producing company - The South Wing - is known for “its trademark neo-expressionist style.” This show happens at 8:30pm, January 10-12, at HERE Arts Center’s Culturemart.
• In the Heart of a Chinese Curse: LIVE Theater Company presents their latest collaborative work-in-progress, a “movement theatre piece that focuses on the actors’ physical relationships with each other and with the performance space.” Text is by playwright Chance Muehleck, with direction by Melanie S. Armer (Cardium Mechanicum’s Scout’s Honor).  The cast features Reyna de Courcy (The Commission), Karen Greneke (The Blue Puppies Cycle, Wuthering High), and the terrific Stacia French (Macbeth Without Words, Kiss Me, Succubus). If you’ve never seen Stacia before, you might want to check this out - she’s one of the very best actors in town. Period. This goes up at Dixon Place, January 11 and 12 at 8pm.

nytheatre mike Joins the Hawthornucopia

So, amongst all the many happenings around town these days, I’m in an upcoming show myself. I’ll be playing the lead in “Merry Mount,” Trav S.D.’s adaptation of the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story, “The Maypole of Merry Mount,” which is being presented as part of Hawthornucopia, Metropolitan Playhouse’s festival of Hawthorne adaptations. Downtown indie theater legend Ian W. Hill directs a cast that also features Eric Bailey, Robert Pinnock, Patrick Cann, and Danny Bowes - all of whom have worked with Ian before. So far, I’m the only cast member who hasn’t previously worked with him, and I’m glad to finally be a member of the club. Having seen and liked several of his other shows over the past couple of years, this is a very exciting opportunity. We open on Friday, January 18th at 7pm, and perform three more times after that, concluding at 1pm on Sunday, January 27th. For full performance schedule and ticket info, click here.

“Merry Mount” is also exciting because I get to work on something written by my nytheatre.com colleague, Trav S.D. (also a downtown indie theater legend, I should mention). He’s a great writer and a very funny man, and I’m playing a really nice part: a straight-laced Puritan in 17th century Massachusetts who’s got a bee in his bonnet about shutting down an alleged Pagan settlement. Look out!

Hawthornucopia seems to be quite a little hotbed of activity for many others, as well. Two other nytheatre.com counterparts of mine, Tony Pennino and Chris Harcum, are participating in the festival: Tony is the author of “Misty Phantoms,” a new work that draws on four different stories of Hawthorne’s - “Rappacini’s Daughter”, “Main-Street”, “Young Goodman Brown”, and “The Duston Family”; and Chris is actually playing Hawthorne himself in “The Scarlet Whale,” Dan Evans’ one-act which imagines Thoreau, Herman Melville, and Hawthorne all meeting at Walden Pond. Nice. In addition, my pal Iracel Rivero is appearing in “The House of Celestial Experiments,” Jeremy X. Halpern and Irving Gregory’s “theatrical chamber concert of Hawthorne text.” Fun!

And if that weren’t enough, there will also be a special event reading of Alex Roe’s play, Salem, which is adapted from and inspired by Hawthorne’s story, “Young Goodman Brown.” Alex, in addition to being a talented artist (actor, writer, and director) and an all-around gentleman, is the artistic director of Metropolitan Playhouse. Salem was published in the NYTE anthology, Playing With Canons, and I had a chance to interview him about the play twice when the book came out.

I’m also really excited about working at Metropolitan Playhouse again. I directed a play in last January’s festival, Twainathon (dedicated to the works of Mark Twain), and had a blast. The theater itself is lovely - a cozy and intimate three-quarter thrust that poses delicious challenges to anyone who works in it. The staff there is wonderful and friendly, and the audiences are large and appreciative. Everyone at Metropolitan has done a great job building audience support and making sure the theater is a visible part of its community, and the overall atmosphere there is positive and very creative. A terrific place to be and I’m glad I get to go back.

(Incidentally, the Twainathon show I directed was “Extracts From Adam’s Diary,” a riff on Twain’s story “The Diary of Adam and Eve” adapted by none other than Mr. Tony Pennino. Ah, here we go again, Tony - see you there!)

2008 is Off and Running Already

We’re not even a week into the new year and it looks like 2008 is off and running already. Here’s a quick sampling of worthwhile sounding shows I’ve received press releases about just in the last three days alone: 

• The Lily’s Revenge: Taylor Mac (The Young Ladies Of, Red Tide Blooming) debuts a workshop of his new play at HERE Arts Center’s Culturemart Festival tonight and tomorrow night. The press release includes this evocative blurb - “A self-uprooted lily goes on a quest to combat its oppressors and destroy nostalgia! Through puppets, elaborate costumes, and vaudevillian theatrics, Mac reveals our national pastime of melancholy remembrances.” Rachel Chavkin (Particularly in the Heartland) directs a cast featuring Hannah Heller, Nina Mankin, and the author himself.
•  David’s Play: Tom Rowan (The Second Tosca, Kiss and Cry) premieres a free workshop of his new play at Ensemble Studio Theatre, January 11-13. It’s described in the press release as follows: “A group of college friends reunites in New York City ten years after graduation to celebrate a milestone. Can a recently discovered manuscript get their lives back on track?” Bobby Steggert (recently of Yank! at Gallery Players and Roundabout’s 110 in the Shade) and Walter Brandes (Gemini CollisionWorks’ Temptation) headline the cast.
• Cherubina: Performance Lab 115 (God’s Waiting Room, Dead Letter Office) presents Paul Cohen’s new play based on the true story of a crippled Russian schoolteacher and frustrated poet who creates a sexier persona and nom de plume in order to get published. Directed by the terrific Alexis Poledouris (God’s Waiting Room, Food for Fish, Baby Face). Performances begin February 1 at the Sanford Meisner Theater. 
• The Beebo Brinker Chronicles: Hourglass Group’s terrific production of Kate Moira Ryan and Linda S. Chapman’s adaptation of Ann Bannon’s lesbian pulp novels gets a well-deserved 10-week Off-Broadway revival at 37 Arts starting February 19. Original cast members David Greenspan (Some Men, The Argument), Marin Ireland (Cyclone, The Ruby Sunrise), Autumn Dornfeld, Bill Dawes, and Carolyn Baeumler return for a second go-round, as does director Leigh Silverman (Well).

In other news, here is this Friday’s Random Top 10, courtesy of my Pandora prog rock station:

• “Perpetual Change” - Yes
• “We’re Not Gonna Take It” - The Who
• “Dancing With the Moonlight Knight” - Genesis
• “To Cry You a Song” (Live) - Jethro Tull
• “Monday Morning” - Fleetwood Mac
• “Night in the City” - Electric Light Orchestra
• “Who Wants to Live Forever” - Queen
• “Why Have They Gone” - Starcastle
• “Our Song” - Yes
• “Anyway” (Live) - Genesis

Fleetwood Mac? On a prog rock station? Does that sound right to you? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. Crazy Pandora…

nytheatre mike’s Favorites of 2007

My turn to weigh in on my favorite shows of 2007. I saw a lot of them - more so than I ever have in one year, I think - and the good news is that most of them were good. (I frequently tell people that I’ve finally learned what the dirty little secret of New York theater is: most of it is really good.)

This isn’t intended to be a comprehensive or representitive list, however - there were a good many shows I missed (like, say, Frost/Nixon, August: Osage County, Young Frankenstein, and Men of Steel, just to name the first four that popped into my head). No, this list is purely subjective and is meant to highlight the shows that I, personally, got the most out of - the ones I responded to most viscerally and that stayed with me the longest after the proverbial curtain came down.

Also, I saw so many good shows this year that I’ve decided to cite my favorite 15 instead of the more traditional 10. There was no way I could do fewer than 15. It just wouldn’t be right. (Incidentally: shows with highlighted titles link back to my original nytheatre.com reviews - if I reviewed them, that is.)

Okay, enough talking - on to the main event! Without any further ado, my favorite 15 shows of 2007 (in alphabetical order):

• 110 in the Shade (Roundabout Theatre Company): This glorious Broadway revival of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s musical adaptation of The Rainmaker featured stellar direction by Lonny Price and a knockout star performance by Audra McDonald. This was tug-at-the-heartstrings type stuff that Broadway does better than anyone else.
• All the Wrong Reasons (New York Theatre Workshop): Former “prompter monkey” John Fugelsang cast off the chains of his television persona and reinvented himself as a solo performer to be reckoned with in this riotous and inspirational show about coming to terms with his unusual Catholic upbringing.
• Blackbird (Manhattan Theatre Club): By far, the most haunting and spellbinding theatrical experience I had all year. Jeff Daniels and Allison Pill delivered tour-de-force performances as former lovers trying to face the fallout of their forbidden romance in David Harrower’s intense and disturbing love story.
• Every Play Ever Written (The Brick Theater’s Pretentious Festival): Actor-writer-director Robert Honeywell continued to prove what an ingenious triple threat he is with this deliriously daffy and razor sharp meta-comedy about a theater history lecture gone terribly, horribly wrong. Featuring hilarious, top-notch performances from Brick regulars Moira Stone, Audrey Crabtree, Lynn Berg, and Honeywell himself.
• Invincible Summer (The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival): The solo show of the year, hands down. Author and performer Mike Daisey brought together such seemingly disparate threads as 9/11, his own life, and the history of the MTA in a dazzling display that beat the late Spalding Gray at his own game.
• Macbeth: A Walking Shadow (Manhattan Theatre Source): Andrew Frank and Doug Silver’s smart but audacious adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy fractured the narrative in a cogent way that made this familiar tale new again. Featuring a pair of outstanding lead performances by Ato Essandoh and Celia Schaefer as the title character and his scheming wife, respectively.
• Macbeth Without Words (Piper McKenzie Productions at The Brick Theater’s Pretentious Festival): Director Jeff Lewonczyk ingeniously re-imagined the Scottish play as a silent movie and came up with one of the best and most memorable Shakespearean productions I’ve ever seen - all with nary a word spoken. The fabulous ensemble cast was led by Brick regulars Fred Backus, Hope Cartelli, Bryan Enk, and the fierce Stacia French.
• Nihils (The Brick Theater’s Pretentious Festival): Trav S.D., the man who was seemingly everywhere this year, gave audiences the funniest show of the year - a one-man demolition of beat poetry, performance art, avant-garde elitism, and all things pretentious. Featuring a brilliantly funny performance by the author himself as the title character.
• Oresteia (Blue Coyote Theater Group): David Johnston’s fantastic adaptation of Aeschylus’ classic (and bloody) tale brought Greek tragedy into the modern age with a deft mix of both old and new language. Director Stephen Speights and the rest of the Blue Coyotes gave Johnston’s script the royal treatment on every front.
• The Chronological Secrets of Tim (Impetuous Theater Group): The quarterlife crisis got the Kevin Smith treatment in Janet Zarecor’s brash, coarse, and completely riotous comedy about a slacker who decides to end it all on his 30th birthday. Full of surprising depth and warmth, and some of the rudest, crudest laughs in all of New York this year.
• The Death of Griffin Hunter (Inverse Theater): Inverse’s revival of Kirk Wood Bromley’s epic 1998 political thriller secured the author’s position as one of indie theater’s biggest thinkers and most nimble linguists. True to form, Inverse regulars Al Benditt, Timothy McCown Reynolds, Bob Laine, and Catherine McNelis all delivered outstanding performances.
• The Seafarer (Booth Theatre): Redemption and the supernatural collided in Conor McPherson’s campfire-like tale of four Irish drunks visited by the Devil on Christmas Eve. David Morse and Ciaran Hinds led one of the best ensembles Broadway saw all year long.
• Till the Break of Dawn (Culture Project at the Henry Street Settlement): One of the year’s most overtly political works also had one of the biggest hearts. Danny Hoch’s ambitious and entertaining play about a grassroots group of hip-hop activists who get a rude awakening during a visit to Cuba made politics and social relevancy cool again.
• Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen (Women’s Project): The year’s biggest and best surprise came in the form of Kathryn Walat’s exuberant comedy about a popular high school bombshell’s quest for respect and validation among the school mathletes. A crowd-pleaser forged from the same underdog pedigree as Rocky and Hoosiers.
• Wickets (HERE Arts Center’s Culturemart): Clove Galilee and Jenny Rogers re-set Fefu and Her Friends aboard a jet airliner and made it fly. Armed with a built-to-scale plane cabin set and one of the hardest working ensembles of 2007, this 4-performance-only workshop was one of the year’s most unique and enjoyable experiences.

The list wouldn’t be complete without a few honorable mentions. Here are 16 more that rocked my world in one way or another:

• 33 to Nothing (Wild Project)
• A Beautiful Child (New York International Fringe Festival)
• And (National Asian American Theatre Festival)
• Bill W. and Dr. Bob (New World Stages)
• Butterfly Suicide (SoloNOVA Festival)
• Cyrano de Bergerac (Richard Rodgers Theatre)
• Hamlet (Gorilla Rep)
• Happy Days: The Musical (Paper Mill Playhouse)
• Inherit the Wind (Lyceum Theatre)
• Scout’s Honor (Cardium Mechanicum at the New York International Fringe Festival)
• Suburban Peepshow (Nosedive Productions)
• Talk Radio (Longacre Theatre)
• The Boycott (Arclight Theatre)
• The NECROPOLIS Series (Gemini CollisionWorks)
• Washing Machine (Fist in the Pocket)
• w.m.d. (just the low points) (Sponsored By Nobody)

I could go on and on, but I’ll leave you with that. My thanks to all the wonderful artists on both of these lists - and all the other ones I saw this year - for making 2007 one of my favorite and most memorable years of theatergoing in recent memory. Happy New Year, everyone - I can’t wait to see what you’ve all got in store for 2008!