Tag: New York City

Wipeout

I’ll be appearing in the Chain Theatre’s Winter One Act Festival in a short play called Wipeout, written by and featuring Jeryl Brunner. We met several years ago while doing some improv training in the city. Jeryl reached out to me to play two roles: a skiing enthusiast and a grade school teacher. It’s part of a full-length play she has been working on. It’s always nice to get a request out of the blue like this and Jeryl’s enthusiasm is contagious!

This project also gives me the good fortune of reconnecting with a friend from college Sara Thigpen, who is directing. This is the first thing we’ve worked on together since our days at UNC-Greensboro. It’s been so nice to reconnect while working on this.

With Amy Ziff from the indie rock band Betty rounds out the cast and plays three roles. I saw their show, Betty Rules, back when I first came to the city. It ran at the now defunct Zipper Theatre, which was located just one block north of where we’re doing this festival. Amy and I have similar senes of humor so we’ve been cracking each other up like misbehaving school kids.

This play is being presented by Jesse Eisenberg, who directed an earlier section of this play, Anna Strout, and Barbara Toy. And the festival is produced by my old friends from the Chain with whom I did a production of Hurlyburly when their space was located in Long Island City. It’s a big festival with 25 programs and over 90 plays altogether. The festival runs through March 2.

It’s been delightful to have several strands of my life draw together while working on this.

Program No. 2: We Were Girls Together by Jacklyn Collier, Wipeout by Jeryl Brunner, The Interlude by Jeff Checkley, and The Same Place by Rory Lance.

Tickets: Sunday, Feb. 9 at 2 p.m.,  Friday, Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m., and Friday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. Use the code WIPE25 to get 25% off your tickets.

The Chain Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, 3rd floor MainStage, NYC

Box Cutter

Max Clark asked me to do his short film “Box Cutter.” It’s on 16mm and shot in black and white. It also has no dialogue. (All my 90s indie film dreams come true!) Max and I met to develop the piece out near the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The story went through several iterations before it became what you see here. The ending changed in the editing room. To me, it is a dark poem to working people living in late capitalism.

We shot this at a storage facility near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Max is the one with the glasses looking at the viewfinder in the picture below. I spent most of the day kneeling and sitting on my feet. I also gashed the top of my head walking out of the storage unit as my eyes had not quite adjusted to the light. It’s not art if you don’t suffer at least a little. This was another very efficient shoot. We got through everything in one day because a big storm with gale-force winds was forecast for the next day. After the flooding back in July this year, we did not want to take any chances.

Last Rites

Back in March, I was asked by the writer and director Yohana Desta to play a role in her touching and funny short film “Last Rites.” She rented a very nice brownstone up by Strivers’ Row for the shoot. There was a Covid officer during the shoot. I spent most of my time in bed while wearing a pajama top and shorts to stay cool. The crew was very kind, full of humor, and efficient. Ronald Emile was also generous and supportive as a scene partner. What you always hope to experience.

It was a little surreal to die over and over again during this time. It was also strange to stop takes of our shoot because the TV series “FBI” was shooting an action sequence in the street below the windows behind me. They say dying is easy but comedy is hard. I guess this was somewhere in between.

Hurlyburly

Had a great time working on Hurlyburly at the Chain Theatre. It’s such a great space. At one point it was a chain factory. They have space for small rehearsals downstairs. They can even build scenery there. The lobby is one of the biggest for Off Off spaces in the city and they always have a decent art show on display there. Plus the dressing room is big enough to hold 8 or more people without feeling crammed.

It was really nice of Rich Ferraioli and Greg Cicchino to ask me to audition for the show. It was one of those auditions where they’ve met me and like me but haven’t seen my work. That can be awkward if it doesn’t go well. Ever get in a relationship with someone and only find out too late that they’re not a talented actor? Or not as talented as they claim to be? I don’t recommend it.

Fortunately, this was not the case for me here. (Or, who knows, this may have been a pity casting.)

The cast was really great. Deven Anderson, Jackie Collier, Rachel Cora, Kirk Gostkowski, Brandon Hughes and Christina Perry pulled a lot out of this monster of a script, especially Kirk who was on nearly the whole time as Eddie. This is a long play, even though they got the okay to use the slightly shorter version New Group did in 2005. You don’t see many with that kind of running time nowadays. Part of the festivalization of the theater. I suppose I could argue the merits of both.

Me, left, Kirk, Deven and Brandon (on couch). I liked this set.

Me, left, Kirk, Deven and Brandon (on couch). I liked this set.

I played the role of Artie, who was played on stage by one of my heroes, Wallace Shawn recently and Jerry Stiller in the Broadway production from the ‘80s. I was a little nervous because a good friend of mine, Jackie Sydney, was his assistant back then and she came to see this production. (She gave me a thumbs-up personal review.)

Jackie Collier and me trying to out cool one another backstage.

Jackie Collier and me trying to out cool one another backstage.

It was good to be on stage with other people having spent most of last year doing a solo show. It is a bit strange to me now to not have to carry every moment of a play. But I did to have a ton of laughs backstage. I haven’t had that in a long time. Welcome relief due to a lot of sadness in real life recently. Aimee’s mom died suddenly last month and it’s been, well, tough. I flew out with her for the funeral and other arrangements in Ohio and barely made it back in time due to the snow and cancelled flights to make half-hour for the first preview performance. I’ll write more about this when I have processed it better. On the other hand, this may stay private.