FringeNYC 2013: The Spider

Journey to FringeNYC · Roger Danforth (Other)

1. What are some of your previous theater credits? (Be specific! Name shows, etc.)
   I am the artistic director of the Drama League Directors Project and have produced our annual DirectorFest since 1996. For the past eight years I have also created and produced the Drama League's yearly benefit gala (honoring such luminaries as Audra McDonald, Angela Lansbury and Kristin Chenoweth). I have produced and directed for numerous theatres. In NYC, I have been on the artistic staffs of Urban Stages, WPA Theatre and Manhattan Ensemble Theatre. Prior to this I was the associate artistic director/literary manager at the Cleveland Play House for seven years. I have produced and/or directed over 80 plays including premieres by Alan Ball, Lydia Stryk, Jules Feiffer, Murray Schisgal Stephen Massicotte and Seth Greenland, whose play Jungle Rot was awarded a Kennedy Center grant, the Steinberg New Play Citation and was published in the Best Plays of 1995-1996. I will direct a workshop of Vincent Delaney's new play Foreclosure at Shakespeare and Company in late August.
2. If this is your first appearance in FringeNYC -- why did you want to be part of this festival? If you have appeared in FringeNYC before, tell us what show(s) you have done here previously. What about your prior experience led you back to this festival?
   In 2000, The Drama League produced "Five at the Fringe" -- five plays that DL alumni directors had directed in our summer program at the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, but had never been seen in NYC. The Spider is the Drama League's second FringeNYC experience. We began a new US/Bulgaria Stage Directors Exchange program in 2010. Since then we have brought American directors and theatre artists to Bulgaria, and introduced Bulgarian artists to the US. We have created work opportunities for directors in both countries, arranging for Drama League director Andrew Volkoff to direct at Sofia's Nikolay Binov Theatre, and for Bulgarian director Vesslin Dimov to assist and observe at a number of NYC theaters last fall, including NYTW, MCC, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and the Public Theater. This August we will bring four Bulgarian directors to the US to be a part of our annual directors retreat, joining our fall directing fellows to work on the plays of Tennessee Williams. We wanted to showcase more of the directing work of our Bulgarian colleagues in the US, and felt that FringeNYC was the perfect means to do that. Theatre B+ is an an exciting new company. Their production of The Spider has been enthusiastically received in Sofia, and has won awards in festivals in St. Petersburg and Moscow. And now The Drama League is thrilled to introduce it to New York audiences.
3. Have you seen a lot of fringe shows in the past, and what have you learned from them to help with this show?
   We were deeply involved with our production of Five at the Fringe in 2000, and were astonished at how enthusiastic and adventuresome our audiences were. The Drama League has taken a leap of faith that American audiences will respond to a new play performed in Bulgarian with super-titles, but I have seen this very thing happen personally in past years at the Fringe, so I know it can work. This was a risk we all felt confident in taking.
4. What was the most memorable/funny/unusual thing that has happened during the development and rehearsal process for this show?
   We had invited a group of young Bulgarian directors that we admired to apply for this opportunity. We considered all the applicants and felt American audiences would find The Spider the most exciting of the projects submitted. The co-writers & directors, Dimitar Dimitrov & Yordan Slaveykov, had given us a videotape of the production, and we were surprised to discover that the two actors are sharing a bubble bath! We know that getting a full bathtub onto the stage presents a logistical problem, but we responded to the the project so positively that we decided to say Yes. Luckily, I was able to see a performance in Sofia in May (along with Elena Holy who was accompanying us), and seeing it live showed me what we really need to do to produce its well in the Fringe. It will be a challenge -- especially with our limited tech time -- but an exciting challenge, for sure.
5. Which cartoon character would most like this show – Bugs Bunny, Marge Simpson, Charlie Brown, or Casper the Friendly Ghost?
   Marge Simpson absolutely. The whole Simpson family would be impressed with it. Marge would recognize that it's an important work, even if she wasn't sure she was getting all of it; Homer would be bored because he's too lazy to read all the super-titles, but he'd love the partial nudity; Lisa would find it artistically adventuresome and totally compelling (the level of work she aspires to do when she's older) and Bart would love all the soapsuds and hope that someone slips in the tub! Something for everyone.

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