Spotlight On...Paul Cameron Hardy

Name: Paul Cameron Hardy

Hometown: I live in Brooklyn, grew up in Wenatchee, Washington

Education: University of Washington, with a brief stint at the SUNY Purchase Dramatic Writing Conservatory

Favorite Credits: Anything and everything people have let me put my grubby hands on.

Why theater?: The money. Also, the power of a bunch of people all in a room, performers included, letting themselves be vulnerable together.

Tell us about feeling.?: I wrote a play about a woman who attempts to cope with the unexpected end to what she thought was the romantic relationship of her life, and the subsequent loss of control over her life, by hallucinating a friendship with the long-deceased Jeffrey Dahmer.  It is interested in the desire for perpetual relationships, and the different ways we cope with unmet expectations and finality. It is interested in memory's ability to preserve and distort. It is interested in obsession. It is interested in our attempts to reconcile the extremes of individuals' actions. It is interested in time not healing all wounds. It it interested in people caring for people.

What inspired you to create feeling.?: I spend a lot of time with all sorts of types of grief on my mind (I am a hit at parties), and some of that mixed with some radio interview I had heard, in which people discussed Dahmer's professed lonliness, and I thought it would be fun to try and draw some analogues. The idea of reconciling another's actions with the type of person one knows (or has experienced) that person to be quickly became an entry point.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Anything that allows itself to be vulnerable to everyone participating. Things that aren't concerned with how things are supposed to be done. Things that don't care to hold my hand too much. The people inspiration list is too long, here is a peak: Young Jean Lee, Susan Lori-Parks, Caryl Churchill, Wallace Shawn, Heidi Schreck, Mac Wellman, Erin Courtney, Maria Striar, Brendan Hill, Clare Baron, Gail Bennington, Zoe Winters, Eliza Bent, Sibyl Kempson, Doug Howe, Jeremy Bloom, Richard Maxwell, Adam Greenfield, Annie Baker, Phil Elverum, Bill Callahan, Michael Gira, Calvin Johnson, blah blah blah. As far as things, pretty much everything is inspiring, in one way or another, and you never know what or how it will sneak up on you.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Young Jean Lee. I'd work with her as, like, her personal eyeglass polisher, if it would get me around her brain and her process. I don't think that she wears eyeglasses.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: I saw a chunk of Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play a while ago, and I am telling everyone they need to see it, even though I haven't seen the full thing yet. I have also been talking up this amazing Heidi Schreck project that I have no idea what the timeline for finishing and producing is. That probably doesn't count, or at least isn't useful.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: My biopic would probably be called "Napping Towards Obscurity", and I would be played by that one ugly, creepy actor from that one movie.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Sweet treats. More accurately, a seemingly total lack of regard for what I put into my body, or the concept of 'diet'. I don't tend to feel guilty about any media that I consume.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Even more depressive.

What’s up next?: I have an odd little play about solipsism that I am trying to get people interested in.

Spotlight On...Sean Patrick Monahan

Name: Sean Patrick Monahan

Hometown: Originally from Marine Park, Brooklyn, but spent most of my formative years on Long Island.

Education: Will be graduating next spring from Fordham University with a B.A. in Theatre. Knock on wood.

Favorite Credits: My favorite role of all time is Jimmy the Newsboy in Charles Busch’s Times Square Angel. I’ve done it every December at Theater for the New City for ten years with the same cast, and those people really feel like family to me. The part was written for me when I was 11 years old, and I still wear the same knickers. Also- and I’m not ashamed to say it- I played Sweeney Todd when I was 17. And my grandma said I was better than Johnny Depp. AND I can’t leave out that wonderful time when James Presson- who’s directing me now in DIVA- cast me as Giles Corey in The Crucible, and, because James is a criminal and a madman (and a bit of a genius too), he staged Giles’ arrest as a recreation of the carbon-freezing scene in "The Empire Strikes Back". So I basically played Han Solo.

Why theater?: I tried to think of something witty to say here, I really did. But this question made me feel a tad sentimental. I think that theater has the power to bring hope, comfort, and unity to theatergoers and theatre-makers alike. I really believe that sitting with a group of people, and watching another living, breathing person tell a story is the most important ritual that we as humans have devised.

Tell us about DIVA: Desmond Channing, a dethroned high school drama queen, tries to make sense of his impending execution by reenacting the events leading up to his murder of archenemy Evan Harris in an impromptu prison cabaret performance. It runs at Theater Row as a part of the United Solo Theatre Festival, on October 7th at 6pm, October 10th at 7:30pm, and October 23rd at 7:30pm. Less Than Rent Theatre, of which I am a member, is producing. I’ve written the book, music, and lyrics, and I play all of the parts. And I do a sword-fight with myself. Any questions?

What inspired you to write DIVA?: When I was in high school, I was very frustrated that I wasn’t on "Glee", and I was also very frustrated that "Glee" existed. So, I wanted to write a Bizarro-Glee… for myself to star in someday. I watched a lot of TCM as a kid, and so I decided to mash up the plots of "All About Eve" and "Sunset Blvd", with nods to "Mildred Pierce", "Gone with the Wind", and "I Want to Live!". Fast forward to April 2013, when I was in Words, Razors, and the Wounded Heart at Under St. Marks, written by none other than James Presson. He asked me if I had any interest in developing a solo show to do with Less Than Rent. I said yes immediately, knowing that this was the perfect way to resurrect the character from the notes I jotted down in high school. So, I got to work writing, getting a little advice from Charles Busch along the way. Charles has been a dear friend and mentor to me since I was eleven years old, and I knew that he got started in solo performance, and I’ve always wanted to be like him when I grow up, so I’ve really had the urge to try something like this since I was a kid. In fact, as a child, I used to do one-man shows (or one-and-a-half-man, since my little brother ran tech and played miscellaneous characters) in my basement for my parents. My repertoire included Anyone Can Whistle, Sweeney Todd, Company, Assassins, Man of La Mancha, and, at my mother darling’s request, Grey Gardens.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I’m really interested in the intersection of story and spectacle- where the events on stage sweep away the audience, but anything can still happen. Naturally, right now I’m trying to explore that in solo work, so I’m drawing a lot of inspiration from Ruth Draper, David Drake, Edgar Oliver, Taylor Mac, Lily Tomlin, and, of course, Charles Busch. But I draw most of my inspiration from my family and friends. I’m lucky enough to live with two incredible actors (Kyle Walton, and my girlfriend Sarah Hegarty) who keep the creative gears spinning. And my family, especially my younger brother, has given me enough material to last a lifetime. Also, James Presson.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Tina Benko. Literally every play I’ve written has a part in it for her. Including DIVA. Which is a solo show. But she stopped returning my e-mails. ARE YOU READING THIS TINA??? WORK WITH ME! LOVE MEEEE!!!!!

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Most recently, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn at Playwrights Horizons. So inventive, so brilliant, and, ultimately, extremely moving. The end of the second-act was so shocking, that my nose spontaneously started to bleed, and the play’s final image was among the most cathartic I’ve seen on stage.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: It would be called “Long Day’s Journey Into Trite” and I’d campaign heavily to be cast in it to play myself, but I’m sure that I’d lose out to Nick Jonas. Yet again.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Oh dear. There’s a kind of casserole that I make… The ingredients: melted Nutella, half a stick of butter, diced Reese’s peanut butter cups, a crushed Ritz cracker crust, and a layer of sea salt on top. Put it in the freezer overnight, and the next morning you’ll have what my friends like to call ABOMINATION SNACK.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: One of those people who stays in school forever and ever. I think that working in a theater is sort of like being in a state of constant education, which I love, so I’d either need to find another job like that, or I’d just want to get degrees in everything. Art, English, History, Philosophy, Theology… But not Math or Science.

What’s up next?: Well, I’ve got my final academic production at Fordham University, which is called 6B and is about a group of boys in college living together in a dorm. I’ll be writing and performing in it, along with my five former roommates. We’re very meta. And graduation is just around the corner. But what I’m REALLY excited about is the wedding of James Presson and Rachel B. Joyce, which is in a few weeks. I’m going to be in their wedding party, and I cry every time I talk about it.

Spotlight On...Elena Araoz

Name: Elena Araoz

Hometown: Newington, CT

Education: MFA from University of Texas at Austin, BA in Theatre and English from Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA

Favorite Credits: La traviata at New York City Opera at BAM, Falstaff with the Brooklyn Philharmonic also at BAM, and War Music that I adapted from Christopher Logue’s retelling of the Iliad and that played in NYC, Chicago and toured New England.

Why theater?: Because it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.  Because it’s painstaking to get it just right and it requires constant self-awareness.

Tell us about Be a Good Little Widow: Be a Good Little Widow is a very deceptive piece.  It’s short and sweet with a quirky, modern and youthful sense of humor.  But for all its seeming simplicity, Bekah Brunstetter drags her characters to hell and back. Hugely tragic events happen fast and furiously, and yet they are related with this dry, ironic wit that makes you laugh at the most sad and politically incorrect moments.  She has this amazing ability to make us laugh at ourselves.  She’s also riffing on ideas of American entitlement and wastefulness and the things we take for granted, like food and family – all of which I think are pretty important topics to expose.

What inspired you to direct Be a Good Little Widow?: On one level, the play lives in realism; the actors are all very ordinary people and they inhabit a space that is very recognizable and naturalistic.  On the other hand, the circumstances of the play are theatrical and even magical.  We decided to play up that paradox; I asked the designers to come up with a playing space that can be inhabited realistically – a living room where the characters can have wine and cheese and put their feet on the coffee table.  But I asked them to push the theatricality of the space – a place that heightens the purgatory that these characters are living in, without any walls or windows and those things that make a stage seem like a realistic room.  I have to say, the designers have come up with something beyond what I could ever have imagined. Another challenge to this play is in the acting.  It requires that each actor wear his or her emotions right at the surface, right under the skin.  At the same time, the text requires a dry, often deadpan sense of humor, and that kind of wit calls for an immense amount of technical precision. It’s been a great time trying to help the actors find that balance.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I like theatre with a great sense of humor (it has to make me laugh!) and with epic events told theatrically but truthfully.  I am most excited by theatre that asks me to use my imagination and doesn’t try to do all the work for me.  I’m inspired by visual artists and writers who are playing with language and its tools and tricks.  I like putting the ordinary in the extraordinary and the extraordinary in the ordinary.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Tara Donovan and The Decemberists.

What shows have you recommended to your friends?: I love getting my friends out to see theatre.  I am always recommending tons of shows to everyone – trying to find the right matches for people.  Shows recently that I happen to be telling everyone about: A Night with Janis Joplin, anything by Mike Daisey, and Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage by Banana Bag & Bodice.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I would play myself because that would be really fun.  And it would probably be called something like "Twenty-Two". 

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: This question makes me feel funny – because I think in fact I don’t feel guilty about much.  I’d say not everyone knows about my passions for salsa dancing, singing like it’s a kickboxing class (both classical and belting), spider rolls, British sitcoms, formal dresses, and bread (I love carbs!).

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: A surgeon.  I studied science for a very long time and I miss it tremendously.  Sometimes I wish I could feel more palpably the impact that I make in the world.  I think surgeons must feel that way.

What’s up next?: The two Mac Wellman pieces that I have staged, Horrocks (and Toutatis too) (which was developed at the New Museum, New Dramatists and the Great Plains Theatre Conference) and Wu World Woo (which was developed at the Great Plains Theatre Conference) will both be presented in Boston by ArtsEmerson and Sleeping Weazel.  Also, I’m currently workshopping Architecture of Becoming, a crazy group devised piece, which I will direct for the Women’s Project.  And I am also very excited that the production I directed of Jaclyn Villano’s Unanswered, We Ride will be presented at the 2014 Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, Alaska.

For more on Elena, visit www.elenaaraoz.com

Review: Damaged Hearts in a Damaged World

Within every tragedy there is hope and love. But often they get overshadowed by the big picture. In Ryan Sprague’s Reach, we get to see a glimpse inside the hope and love in the aftermath of an infamous hurricane. Set in New Orleans in 2006, Reach follows exes Jordan and Lindsey as they try to rekindle a spark from the past while dealing with the tragedy of the present.
With Katrina as a backdrop, the real story is about our two exes reaching back for each other after both lose someone. When we learn Lindsay's husband is in a coma, we progressively learn it was a direct result of the hurricane. However without that tidbit, the main plot, lovers rekindling with the obstacle of a spouse in a coma, can easily be transported to any place. I mention this because anytime you use Hurricane Katrina as a focal point, it should be used fully. The dialogue exists without the hurricane. Perhaps having Lindsey live in a more storm stricken location or giving her a different ethnicity, the impact of Katrina would have been stronger and more prominent and not just a selling point. Now it seems as an after thought. With that being said, Sprague crafts some wonderful moments for his characters. Though one of the most questionable moments was the inevitable. When you learn it's a two-handler about former lovers, like any Lifetime movie, they're going to do it. But the true question is why Lindsey, who has been so devoted to her still "alive" husband, would risk everything before revealing the truth to Jordan. She goes though the play lamenting her love yet throws it away when it's her ex who's the real vulnerable one.
Actors Christo Grabowski and Emily Tuckman did a fine job navigating Sprague's world as Jordan and Lindsey respectively. Grabowski played the determined Jordan with heart. Tuckman's Lindsey was whiny throughout but showed her bite when she went toe to toe with Grabowski. It was in those battle scenes when the two displayed their moments of chemistry for the majority of the piece it felt contrived. Director Jennifer Sandella establishes the world of the play nicely in the tricky space. She focuses our attention to the history between Lindsey and Jordan allowing us to feel the tension until all inhibitions are lost. Luckily for the piece, the space they were in translated into an empty loft atmosphere as the acoustics in the theater were quite echoey. Though the set didn't scream New Orleans, the preshow music set the mood.
Reach is not a Katrina play. The true heart of the play comes in exploring loss and grief and finding the person who can help you through it. But when you watch two characters you know are longing for the wrong person, you can’t help but put your palm to your forehead, especially when the big picture behind them is more interesting.

Spotlight On...Elizabeth Jasicki

Name: Elizabeth Jasicki (but Liz to my friends)

Hometown: NYC but from Lindfield, West Sussex UK

Education: All the usual stuff in England and then Drama school in London.  Later I studied with an American drama coach in London.

Select Credits: Two of the highlights of my career were doing the stage version of When Harry Met Sally in the West End with Luke Perry & Molly Ringwald and when I moved to NYC the first job I got was in a Mike Leigh's play Abigail's Party that was a New York & USA premier at The New Group with Jennifer Jason Leigh which was the most tremendous launch into the city & so much fun to do! Currently the new play Final Analysis at The Pershing Sq Signature Theatre.

Why theater?: First I wanted to be a ballet dancer but soon realized I wasn't born with the right body and it was too much hard & painful work for a short career span so moved across and started signing an acting which I much preferred.  I've done all of the performing arts but I truly love theatre and will always return to it as there is nothing like it.  Being with the audience each night is unique and different each show and getting to play a full arc of a character from start to finish without stopping is so fulfilling no matter what happens during the show and things do happen which is the exciting part!

Tell us about Final Analysis: 1910 Vienna, a cultural mecca – but beneath the frivolity and joy, the city is rotting.  Against this backdrop, six historic figures destined to change the world, meet:  Gustav and Alma Mahler, Joseph Stalin, Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Wittgenstein and a mysterious young misfit.   Final Analysis received its acclaimed debut at The Midtown International Theatre Festival in 2012, where it received an unprecedented 13 award nominations, and won 7 awards. Critics call Otho Eskin's Final Analysis "fascinating…"

What is it like being a part of Final Analysis: I love playing Alma Mahler as she was such a modern bohemian woman of her day.  Everyone was attracted to her as she had an amazing charisma.  And her relationship with Mahler was very passionate & tempestuous so that's so much fun to play!

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Theatre that makes us think about our lives and throw a light on things in a different way.  It makes us feel more human and not alone in our lives.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: Not really but I just love working with really talented people writers, directors, actors & writers alike!

What’s your favorite showtune?: I'm a huge Sondheim fan but it's so hard to pick just one!  I particularly love Merrily We Roll Along & Sunday in the Park with George.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: There are so many, actors & directors I'd love to work with. I did always want to work with Anthony Minghella as I really admired his work & when I met him he was such a lovely person and I'm so sad that opportunity has gone.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Rachel Weisz I suppose although I can't really think about that ever happening!  And I've no idea what it would be called!

What show have you recommended to your friends?: My dear friend Lucas Steele is in Natasha Pierre & the Great Comet at Kazino in West Village and its fabulous!  A rock/pop musical of part of "War & Peace".  But not left to catch I fear…

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Food!  All kinds.  Mu husband and I are both big foodies and each try to eat at great restaurants wherever we go!  We just came back from eating our way through Italy on honeymoon!

What’s up next?: I really don't know as yet with Final Analysis set to go on till October 5th.  I do record a lot of Audio Books which I really enjoy.  But we are off to Rio for a wedding in Nov and until then we've just got a new puppy that I'm trying to train!