Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re open! Weeks of hard work and collaboration on Frogs culminated in a great opening Sunday night. The cast and crew killed it, the audience was incredibly generous and our good friends at Stillwater Grill across the street provided a wonderful opening night party venue. It was truly a FROGTASTIC time. We couldn’t have asked for a better evening. Don’t fret if you missed us on opening because there are plenty of opportunities left to catch this amazingly talented ensemble in action! We play through November 19th.
Frogs on nearsay.com
Our dramaturg for Frogs, Brandt Adams, chatted with Lanie Zipoy of nearsay.com about translating Aristophanes from the ancient Greek and fart jokes.
On Frogs
By Lanie Zipoy
Fault Line Theatre, hailed as an “ambitious new troupe” by Show Business Magazine, opens its second season with the rapid fire hilarious production of Frogs November 4 through 19, 2011 at the Fourth Street Theatre in the East Village. Classic Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote characters that belong in the same breath as comedic titans Three Stooges, Mel Brooks and Looney Tunes, and Aaron Rossini directs a bold production that underscores these elements.
Brandt Adams, who serves as the production’s dramaturg, gives some insights into what to expect from the dynamic show and how Fault Line Theatre creates its work.
LZ: What excites you about the play Frogs by Aristophanes?
BA: Frogs is a great play that really asks the big questions about great plays: Why are they important? And how do they serve us best? As a theater artist, these are questions that I am constantly revisiting whenever I approach my work. Aristophanes was clearly reflecting deeply on them when he wrote it and it led him to produce a really thrilling piece of theatrical satire and criticism. It’s also funny as hell.
LZ: Fault Line Theatre company is dedicated to text work. Will you explain what that means, particularly for people who’ve never been in theater?
BA: I’ve never worked with a theater company that had such a deep appreciation for the words on the page. Fault Line really focuses on putting up the play the author has written, so they spend the first chunk of their process sitting around a table hashing out each individual moment. Even after they have started building the play on its feet, director Aaron [Rossini] makes it a point to remind the everyone, “The table never goes away!”, by which he means that if, at any time, the company feels lost or confused about the moment we’re trying to build, we can always go back to the words on the page. Using this approach the company is able to craft exceptionally clear moments that, once strung together, gel into clear and complex stories that are as close as possible to the author’s original intention.
LZ: How did you approach Frogs? What were some of the challenges?
BA: Frogs is deeply rooted in the historical moment in which Aristophanes wrote it, and it’s full of jokes, so the first thing I had to do was carefully pore over the text to figure out what each reference meant to a 5th Century BCE Athenian audience. It’s remarkable, really, how many of these jokes require little or no knowledge of the historical context, but many of them depended on word-play that is difficult to translate or direct references to 5th Century Athenian politicians, and so much of the table work was dedicated to figuring out how to translate that material in a way that was true to Aristophanes’ play but also resonant with our audience. Sometimes this meant tweaking a word. Sometimes it meant grabbing a whole speech from a different translation because it captured the idea more clearly. It was really incredible to watch the play transform during that first week, especially. The cast immediately took ownership of the script and went through tweaking it almost line by line to make sure the words and rhythms were just right.
LZ: What should audiences expect from this production that is different from the norm?
BA: Well, probably a dozen more fart jokes than you get in you standard Off-Broadway fare. But more importantly, I think people will be pleased to find a really sincere exploration of the nature and purpose of theater. The whole show, from the style of performance to the production design, really owns the meta-theatricality that Aristophanes wrote into it. Too many plays try to mask the fact that they are plays, and it’s such a waste of an opportunity—an opportunity to recognize and lift up the event that is actually happening, which is a group of people physically coming together to tell each other stories, and own all that potential that moment has! From the first moment ofFrogs to the last, it will be very clear to the audience that they are in a theater watching a play, and that’s sort of the point.
Tech, Tech, Tech!!! Ribbit!
Frogs opening soon!
As you may have gathered from the title of this post, tech rehearsals for Frogs have begun! We had a great first day full of spacing, costume changes and singing and dancing in full Frog attire. FINALLY!
The play happened at the table, in the rehearsal room, and now we’re putting the final pieces into place to make it happen in the space! Our friends at New York Theatre Workshop have been very hospitable and we couldn’t be happier working at the 4th Street Theatre. We have our first audience in two days! Come see us! You’ll have a Froggin’ good time. Get your tickets here.
Aaron Rossini Interview in New York Theatre Review
Photo by Ryan Stadler
Aaron chatted with New York Theatre Review about the importance of storytelling and Warner Bros. cartoons!
AARON ROSSINI: Fault Line Theatre's Frogs
By Jody Christopherson
JODY: Why do you make theater?
AARON ROSSINI: I make theater because I believe that the way in which our species understands the world is through storytelling. All the ups and downs, the awful and the beautiful, everything that happens in the world is understood through the shared action of storytelling. It’s so exciting for me as an audience member to stand up and scream, that’s me up there on that stage in this book, in that poem, on that screen, wherever it happens to be. I enjoy the great responsibility of being an artist who tells that story. I make theater because I loved being an audience member so much and wanted to participate in that.
JODY: Tell us about your process for rehearsing Frogs.
AARON ROSSINI: The process for rehearsing Frogs or any play that we would ever do or have done is to begin with the words, start with what is on the page. It’s a slow process, and we start at the table, reading the words, discovering what they mean, what the thoughts are that are attached to each word, sentence and phrase. We explore how those thoughts are being communicated to the other characters onstage and to the audience, and from there we build the play up from a read through to table work to more table work to standing on our feet, how we are going to physically communicate this. You can’t just stand up and say it, you have to build your physical life from a profound understanding of the language and of the story you are choosing to tell. You have to know how the grammar works, how the words connect to that moment, how that moment connects to the rest of the play. With this play a lot of work went into making sure we took responsibility for both of the major aspects of this story, the wild comedy that’s happening but also the deep human needs of the play, the hard look Aristophanes is taking at his civilization and, by extension, ours.
JODY: Clearly Fault Line is a theatre company dedicated to the exploration of language and text. In addition to this consideration, what made you choose to produce Frogs?
AARON ROSSINI: I would be lying if i shied away from the fact that we chose to do Frogs, just like we chose to do Faustus, because no one does these plays. We’ve got a bit of a chip on our shoulder about that. They have survived for a reason, because they’re good, this play has been around for 2500 years and it’s still here and I’ve never seen it. That excites me as an actor and a producer and a theatre goer, check it out, they’re doing that. So I think there’s a little of that in it. I also think that this play is extraordinarily relevant, my mind is always blown away when something so old is so vibrantly and elegantly speaking about right now. Also, I’m a cartoon addict and the first time that I reread this play when I was choosing our season I couldn’t help but think that it should be produced by Warner Bros, it should be Bugs and Daffy and Elmer as a theater company producing Aristophanes’ Frogs. There’s a beginning to all this comedy stuff and Aristophanes is a part of that beginning. I’m going to jump at the opportunity to direct a cartoon because, well, I can’t draw, and Aristophanes has given us a great gift here.
JODY: Tell us about the original music in Frogs?
AARON ROSSINI: Greek plays all have chorus speeches, and I can think of nothing more boring to me than a large group of people in masks and robes speaking in unison. Eric Thomas Johnson has done this incredible job of creating original music that has made the choral moments pop and move the story forward in a way that I don’t think the traditional chorus can do. The content is all intact, and very important, but the human element is so much more vibrant. Accordion, ukulele, guitar, melodeon, slide whistle, kazoo; the music enhances the play without distracting from it. What I have learned from the music and from this process is that what one is supposed to do as a director is to hire brilliant people and let them do the thing that they are brilliant at doing. ETJ’s ideas were never about him but about supporting the play and the company of actors communicating a story. Music can express so much all at once, different thoughts and emotions and voices together and it buoys the story in a beautiful way.
JODY: Favorite places below 14th street?
AARON ROSSINI: 440 Studios, where we rehearse plays, is #1. Death and Co, because they make the best cocktails, period. We go to Swift for Guinness and oysters.
Hearth. Because it’s incredible.
Fault Line Theatre Presents;
FROGS
by Aristophanes
directed by Aaron Rossini
A rowdy, bawdy romp through the underworld, FROGS is a celebration of humor and a poignant examination of the purpose of art. Inventing what would become the finest traditions of modern comedy, Aristophanes brings to life characters that belong in the same breath as the Three Stooges, Mel Brooks and Looney Tunes. A night of original music, jokes and capable storytelling, FROGS is a comedy event 2,500 years in the making.
Fourth Street Theatre
83 East 4th Street
between Bowery & 2nd Ave.; Subway: F to 2nd Ave., B/D to Broadway/Lafayette or 6 to Bleecker
November 4 through 19, 2011.
Director: Aaron Rossini
Cast: Rachel Christopher*, Matt Clevy*, Craig Divino*, Becky Gibel*, Karl Gregory*, Scott Raker*, Haa Regen*, Blake Segal*, David Rudi Utter*, John Tracey:
Set Design: Tristan Jeffers | Costume Design: Allison Crutchfield
Lighting Design: John Eckert | Composer: Eric Thomas Johnson
Vocal/Speech Coach: Jimmy King | Assistant Director: Brandt Adams
Production Stage Manager: Jamie Steffen
Fault Line Theatre is a collaborative group of artists dedicated to producing plays, classical and modern. The core of Fault Line Theatre is the text. The company converts the potential energy of a playwright’s words into action, creating productions that engage and inspire. Fault Line Theatre strives to understand and transmit a story from within the text — shear the unnecessary and seek the essential.
Last year, the company kicked off its season with a lauded production of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.
“After such an auspicious maiden voyage, we can expect many, to quote Marlowe, more ‘sweete speeches, comedies, and pleasing showes,’ from this ambitious new troupe.” — Show Business Magazine
A Note From The Director of Dr. Faustus
An incredibly poetic story filled with magic, spectacle, comedy and tragedy, thematically Dr. Faustus couldn’t have more resonance in our world. We take our advancement and our technology for granted. We trust our doctors and put our opinions in the hands of tv’s talking heads. Every day we see overly ambitious and falsely glorified people who seem to have made some kind of supernatural bargain to achieve heights previously unimagined. Some obvious in their brilliance, as Steve Jobs, some in their lust, as Bernie Madoff, and some in their unfathomable, undeserved success, as the Kardashian clan. What we want to examine, because on some level these are crimes of opportunity, temptations to which any of us could fall prey, is the question of desire. What would you, member of our audience, sell your soul for?
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