What We're Seeing: rogerandtom

Our friends at Personal Space Theatrics present Julien Schwab’s critically acclaimed, mind-bending comedy rogerandtom on the Mainstage at HERE for an extended summer engagement. rogerandtom is a comedy whose only boundaries are between imagination and infinity. The play uses a twist to challenge the conventions of theatre while raising a series of profound questions about the role of theatre in theatre itself. PREVIEWS BEGIN SATURDAY JULY 6TH, OPENING SATURDAY JULY 13. Join them for an opening night reception immediately following the performance. Half price tickets available during previews July 6 – 12 use promo code “Preview2013″. Here are some more details about the show:

July 6 – August 24, 2013.
HERE MainStage Theatre
145 6th Ave. (enter on Dominick)
New York, NY
212-352-3101

Fault Line Theatre mailing list subscribers receive a $10 discount on tickets!

CAST:

• Suzy Jane Hunt*  (Dead Accounts)
• Eric T. Miller*  (Sweet Storm)
• Richard Thieriot*  (Clybourne Park)

PRODUCTION TEAM:

• Playwright - Julien Schwab
• Director - Nicholas Cotz
• Stage Manager - Taylor Alyssa Marun*
• Scenic Design - David Esler
• Lighting Design - Nastassia Jimenez
• Sound Design - Chris Rummel
• Costume Designer - Holly Rihn
• Properties Design - C. Alexander Smith
• Production General Manager - Rachel McMullin

*Appears courtesy of the Actor’s Equity Association

 

• Nicholas Cotz – Artistic Director
• Mel Wadle – Production Director
• Jacob Boller – Marketing Manager
• Ethan Van Auken – Business Manager

A LITTLE ABOUT THE PLAY

Julien Schwab’s rogerandtom was first produced by Personal Space Theatrics in 2003, as the company’s inaugural production. Since then, the show has been produced in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, at the Edinburgh Fringe, and, most recently, at the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre at HERE. Director Nicholas Cotz has worked with Schwab on many versions of the show, helping him polish the script and preparing it for its return to NYC.

“The writing and direction is brilliant and the production is flawlessly executed. I highly recommend checking this one out before it slips into a reality that we’re not privy to.”

- NYtheater.com

Samuel Beckett and Andre the Giant

A couple fun facts about Samuel Beckett to get you through to the end of the work day:

First, Fault Line Theatre co-artistic director and co-founder, Craig Wesley Divino, has a framed quote from the famous playwright in his New York apartment. The quote reads:

“Ever tried.  Ever failed.  No matter.  Try again.  Fail again.  Fail better.”

Second, I came across this article today by James Plafke at geekosystem.com about the unlikely friendship between Beckett and Andre the Giant.

“We don’t normally post many “today I learned” posts, but this one is just too awesome. Anyone who has ever watched wrestling back in the good ol’ days or has seen The Princess Bride knows that André the Giant was a massive, humongous — ahem, giant — guy. The famous Hulk Hogan was billed as 6 feet 7 inches tall, and everyone should remember this iconic moment between he and André, in which André made a guy who billed as the average height of an NBA player look tiny. When André was 12, he was already over 6 feet tall and weighed 240 pounds. He was too big to fit on the local school bus and his family didn’t have the money to buy a car that could deal with his weight if it drove him to and from school.

Samuel Beckett, Nobel Prize winner (literature) and esteemed playwright, probably most noted for Waiting for Godot, bought some land in 1953 near a hamlet around forty miles northeast of Paris and built a cottage for himself with the help of some locals. One of the locals that helped him build the cottage was a Bulgarian-born farmer named Boris Rousimoff, who Beckett befriended and would sometimes play cards with. As you might’ve been able to guess, Rousimoff’s son was André the Giant, and when Beckett found out that Rousimoff was having trouble getting his son to school, Beckett offered to drive André to school in his truck — a vehicle that could fit André — to repay Rousimoff for helping to build Beckett’s cottage. Adorably, when André recounted the drives with Beckett, he revealed they rarely talked about anything other than cricket.”

I think it’s safe to say we can now all rest easy knowing that Fezzik from The Princess Bride and the Irish eccentric who wrote Waiting for Godot were at one time close friends.

Happy Monday everyone!

Congratulations Class of 2013!

As you may have noticed, our website has unfortunately been down the last couple weeks.  This problem was sadly out of our control, but we’re excited to be back up and running again.

It seems like Summer has finally set in upon New York City.  Aside from unbearably humid heat and sweaty subway stations, Summer in NYC means a flood of young, excited graduates from all around the world.

Recently, I visited Providence, RI to attend the commencement weekend of Brown University.  Many of Fault Line’s founders are graduates of the MFA program at Brown (I, myself, was an undergraduate in the theatre department).  So it is with great excitement that we would like to congratulate the new crop of talented actors and directors who graduated this year!

From all of us here at Fault Line Theatre: Congratulations Class of 2013!

10 Rules for Students and Teachers

INSPIRATION FOR THOSE WHO STRUGGLE THROUGH THURSDAYS

If you’re anything like our friend Arthur from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (“This must be Thursday,’ said Arthur to himself, sinking low over his beer. ‘I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”), sometimes Thursdays can be difficult.  With the weekend fast approaching, he are “10 Rules for Students and Teachers” from the enigmatic John Cage to motivate you.

(I would argue that these rules could apply to everyone, not just students and teachers…. but then, I would also argue that everyone is also both a student and a teacher…)

“RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then, try trusting it for awhile.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student – pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher – pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined.  This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Follow the leader.  Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail.  There is only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.  You can fool the fans – but not the players.

RULE EIGHT: Do not try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: We are breaking all the rules, even our own rules, and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for ‘x’ qualities.

HELPFUL HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read everything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully and often. SAVE EVERYTHING – it might come in handy later.”

A Shakespearean Weekend

Happy Friday everyone!  It’s finally starting to feel a little like Spring and we hope everyone is looking forward to a lovely holiday weekend.

Here at Fault Line Theatre, we love our Shakespeare (and his contemporaries). To celebrate the weekend, here is a fabulous link to Sir Ian McKellan leading a virtual, interactive workshop on the opening speech of Richard III.  He goes through line by line text analysis, general questions about context, and much, much more!  It’s a blast to watch one of the great Shakespeare actors of our time break down an equally brilliant piece of text.

On Regional Theatre

I’ve spent the last few days in snowy Madison, WI visiting friends, eating delicious food, and drinking a wide array of local brews.  It’s been a lovely, relaxing few days.  Over the weekend, I caught a Saturday matinee of a touring ‘live-action graphic novel’ called The Intergalactic Nemesis Book One: Target Earth.  It was a fun production that was not dissimilar to our production back in October of the staged radio-play The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

The Intergalactic Nemesis played to a crowded house at the Overture Center for the Arts right in the heart of downtown Madison.  This was the first time I can remember seeing a regional theatre production in a smaller city.  I’m so accustomed to attending shows in booming metropolises (like Toronto, London, or New York City) where the audiences are often critical observers rather than excited participants.  The excited audience (young and old) in Madison helped to remind me what is at the core of theatre.

Theatre is, first and foremost, for audiences.

One could say that the process leading up to a performance is for the artists; the rehearsal room is a place for actors/directors/designers to question everything, let their imaginations run wild, and make discoveries.  However, a performance is an offering.  It is an invitation to an audience to participate in the telling of a story.

I think this fact can sometimes get lost in big cities.  Perhaps it’s an issue of over-saturation.  Maybe there are so many theatres vying for an audience’s attention, that it becomes a competition to see who can do it better.  I certainly find myself often entering playhouses with the mind of a critic.  I’ll catch myself judging a production while I’m watching it, rather than allowing myself to be immersed in it.  I am not in any way saying that reflection and thought are to be frowned upon.  On the contrary, I believe they are necessary!  But, I think they should come after the fact.  Hindsight is, after all, 20:20.  The audience in Madison reminded me how to bask in the warm glow of the moment instead of shading myself with the wall of my critical intellect.

A performance is a two-way street.  The theatre should not be pretentious.  It should guide an audience on a journey through the story.  On the other side of the footlights, audiences should come with open minds and, more importantly, open hearts.

I will strive to keep this in mind as I head back to the big city tomorrow.

So long Madison!

GLAAD Media Awards

We have some very exciting news from this past weekend! 

On Saturday, Fault Line Theatre headed to the New York Marriott Marquis for the GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards.  Celebrities in attendance included Madonna, Anderson Cooper, and hosts Sam Champion, Lara Spencer, and Josh Elliott of ABC’s Good Morning America.  We are thrilled to announce that the original production of From White Plains won the award for best New York Theatre: Off-Off Broadway!  It was an incredible night and we were honored to be in the company of such inspiring artists and activists.

What We're Seeing: The Tragedy of Arthur

Our friends at the Guerrilla Shakespeare Project are developing and producing a NEW Shakespeare play. Crazy, right? Crazy awesome. Check out the details here:

March 22nd—April 7th
Presented at
TBG Theatre
312 West 36th Street, NYC

Based on the novel by Arthur Phillips
Adapted for the stage by the Guerrilla Shakespeare Project
Directed by Artistic Director Jordan Reeves

A Little About The Play

CAST:

• Geordie Broadwater
• Sarah Hankins*
• Jordan Kaplan*
• Madeleine Maby*
• Eric Emil Oleson*
• Jacques Roy*
• Tom Schwans*

*Appears courtesy of the Actor’s Equity Association

Stage Manager: Darryl Lee Van Oudenhove
Set Designer: Lynne Porter
Lighting Designer: Melissa Mizell
Sound Designer: David Are
Costume Designer: Lea Reeves
Props Designer: Polina Minchuck

THE GUERRILLA SHAKESPEARE PROJECT COMPANY:

• Tom Schwans – Executive Director
• Jacques Roy – Technical Director
• Jordan Kaplan – Development Director

“THE PLAY’S THE THING”…OR IS IT?

“The father’s passions storm within the son.”—Act I, Scene IV

The Tragedy of Arthur centers around the discovery of a lost Shakespeare play and the doubts surrounding its origins. It is an evening of fraud, forgery and illegitimacy, centering on the complicated relationship between a father and son.

“There’s only war. ‘Tis man’s inheritance.”—Act IV, Scene I

This lost text is the true story of the famous King Arthur from the Bard’s point of view. It is a tale of epic war, love and the search for one man’s true calling.

“What man knows aught of his chronicle?”—Act V Scene III

The Tragedy of Arthur is a play full of Shakespeare’s language, poetry, insight, drama, beauty, and history; however the mystery of its true origins begs us to blend and blur what we know and what we choose to believe.

Does our birth decide our destiny? Can a bastard be a king? Can a modern man write Shakespeare? Join GSP on its exciting journey into the heart of the truth.

Effects of Bullying Last Into Adulthood

Catherine Saint Louis recently wrote a blog post for The New York Times discussing a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry on the long-term psychiatric consequences of childhood bullying.  In the past, studies have made connections between bullying and psychiatric problems in children, but never before has the connection been extended into adulthood.  It is also worth noting that the study concludes that both the victims of bullying and the bullies themselves are prone to psychological issues in adulthood.  The entire article can be found here.

I was actually most struck by the idea that bullying impacts the bully almost as much as it does the victim.  This statistic is one that is potentially difficult to wrap our minds around.  Incidents of bullying that reach the mainstream media understandably vilify the bully.  We are often presented with a clear antagonist.  In reality, the relationship between bully and victim is potentially far more complicated.  Bullying, at its core, seems to be a struggle of ‘status’.  Bullies are concerned with maintaining higher status, forcing the victim to acknowledge a lower status.  However, it is worth noting that the bullies would not be bullying if they already felt they were of ‘high enough’ status.  The idea here is that there is an inferiority complex at play.  In From White Plains, Ethan Rice says he only bullied Dennis and Mitchell to make his friends laugh.  This is subtle, but that desire to get laughs is, in itself, an ego-based desire for approval.  On the other side of this, the victim is then forced (often violently) into feeling minimized and of a lower status.

Jockeying for status certainly does not end after childhood.  As adults, we are often more subtle in our tactics to maintain and vie for status.  However, if the habits we form and roles we assume at a young age are not in some way dealt with, why would we expect them to change?  This makes the cause of psychological trauma perhaps a chicken-or-the-egg question.  Is bullying the cause of the psychological state or is it merely a symptom of a larger, deeper psychological issue that also leads to problems as an adult?  The study does take into consideration previously diagnosed psychological issues and other risk factors in the children that were studied, but perhaps the motivating psychological factors are not as overt has we would like to think.

I pose these questions because I think bullying is a serious issue that should be discussed; it should not be simply swept under the rug.  I don’t think we have all the answers.  Often times, I think we look for easy answers to try and understand the issue of bullying.  We look for clear good guys and bad guys.  Perhaps this is not the case, and in reality the relationship between bully and victim is a mutually negative one.

From White Plains in Ms. Magazine

Thank you for coming to New York to check out our play in Ms. Magazine. We're glad you enjoyed it!

Is Forgiveness Overrated? "From White Plains" Raises Questions

By: Amelia Sauter

I’m a movie person, not a play person. Suspending reality in a dark room with a stage is not one of my fortes. And I’m drawn to movies with strong female characters, whether it’s Silence of the Lambs or Alien or Bridesmaids. So when someone told me “You’re going to love this Off-Broadway play about a gay man who blames a high school bully for his best friend’s death and then confronts him 15 years later,” I decided to head to New York City to see for myself.

In the opening scene of From White Plains, Ethan (Aaron Rossini) is watching the Oscars and sees Dennis (Karl Gregory) give an acceptance speech for a screenplay he wrote. The movie was based on Dennis’ best friend’s suicide after being bullied as a teenager. Dennis says, “I hope this film helps all the Ethan Rices of the world see the effect they are having, and the Mitchell Coles of the world know they are not alone. So that maybe a few more of them see that life is worth living.” The play then follows the aftermath of Ethan’s public naming. Ethan and his best friend John (Craig Wesley Divino) debate Ethan’s responsibility for the death, while Dennis’ boyfriend Gregory (Jimmy King) questions Dennis’ inability to move on from the tragedy.

The play’s tagline–”Just because it gets better doesn’t mean it didn’t happen”–expresses perfectly the inner conflicts of each of the play’s characters. The message is clear: We must stand up to our abusers. But the question that hangs foggily in the air is: And then what? This limbo, this purgatory where healing must take place is the subject of the play.

As a woman, I am no stranger to victimization, so relating to the four male characters was uncomfortably easy. Since I have been both the victim and the therapist, their emotional processes were familiar though not predictable. When we dive into a trauma with an appetite for healing, the question of forgiveness eventually comes up: What is forgiveness? Can we forgive? Should we?

From White Plains suggests that forgiveness is overrated. “I’m sorry” is clearly not enough for Dennis; Ethan’s public Internet apologies only increase Dennis’ rage. The lack of face-to-face interaction fuels a series of one-sided arguments that simultaneously reveal and guard their vulnerabilities.

But in place of forgiveness, what is the goal? What does moving on look like? Ask any trauma victim or anyone who has lost a loved one: the pain doesn’t ever go away, it only shifts and changes shape over time. Dennis has been living with it for over a decade, and Ethan is a newcomer when he learns he is partly to blame for another’s death. We see them as victim and bully, opposites, but what ties them together is their similarities. After they each acknowledge their pain publicly, they both find themselves asking the same question: And then what?

From the moment the lights came up, the brilliant acting sucked me in. In one of the last scenes, the interaction between the actors is so intense, you feel like you are witnessing something naked that you weren’t supposed to see, like walking into the dressing room of someone’s emotions when they forgot to lock the door. Throughout the play, we are witness to Ethan’s loneliness and struggle to look honestly at himself, to John’s questioning his friendship with Ethan, to Dennis’ infected wounds, to Gregory’s desire for Dennis to shut up and live. What happens after we confront bullying, homophobia, and abuse is messy and unpredictable, and we have the responsibility to write that storyline together, just like the characters in From White Plains do.

From White Plains is conceived and directed by Michael Perlman, and written and developed in collaboration with Fault Line Theatre. It is playing at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City through March 9.

Amelia Sauter uses food, drink and humor writing to sneakily address social issues. She blogs at www.drinkmywords.com and www.feliciaspeakeasy.com.

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