FringeNYC 2013: Worst Year Ever

All About My Show · Charlotte Miller (Writer)

1. Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
   My show is the only show in the fringe that has Charlotte Miller in it. I love that question but I don't know the answer a) because I haven't seen all the shows yet and b) because I operate under the assumption that everything has been done before. Maybe my show is the only show that is almost completely based on my feelings about Claire Danes as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life.
2. What do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
   I think the show is about growing up. All of my shows are about growing up. It's about my seventh grade year and all of the sort of awful and chaotic things that were happening when I was that age. There were small things that seemed big and big things that seemed like awful fate. I can't know what people will take away from the show but I've gotten a lot of feedback already that's mainly "Yeah, me too!"
3. Why did you want to write this show?
   My friend Nicholas Gorham, who is a brilliant performer and artist, asked me to do a little reading at his performance night Mama Said Sparkle that takes place once a month at the Spectrum in Brooklyn. I said okay, it was the day before and I wrote the first installment in a couple of hours, Worst Summer Ever. It got a good response so I came back in and did Worst Thanksgiving Ever and thought, "I'd like to string this together and do this in front of people more than once" so I wrote a third installment and submitted to the fringe.
4. Who are some of the people who helped you create this show, and what were their important contributions to the finished product?
   I have to thank my friend Nicholas Gorham again for pushing me to perform and giving me the initial platform to do so. The Spectrum is a really safe space for me and there are a lot of outrageously talented folks performing and creating there. I've also gotten a lot of counsel on producing from people like Padraic Lillis, Daniel and Addie Talbott, traded war stories with other young writer/actor/producers and then had a blast making silly indiegogo videos with friends like Diana Stahl and my roommate Rachel Cole. Now I'm working with Stephanie Johnson as a director and we have so much common experience walking into the room even though we met through this project, so I have to give a big thank you to her in this. I also have to give a big thank you to Lanie Zipoy and Frank Winters who have also put in a lot of great work as publicity and producer respectively.
5. Which character from a Shakespeare play would like your show the best: King Lear, Puck, Rosalind, or Lady Macbeth -- and why?
   I think Lady MacBeth. Maybe just because seventh graders are constantly jockeying for power and take everything so seriously, often to their detriment. Lady Macbeth would be like "Your boyfriend dumped you for another girl? Cut him."

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