The Indie Theater Companion

John Clancy by Martin Denton

John Clancy is probably best known as one of the founders of the New York International Fringe Festival (with Elena K. Holy, Aaron Beall, and Jonathan Harris; until 2001, he was its artistic director). Theater-makers in their 20s and 30s regard him as one of indie theater's elder statesmen (though he's not yet 50), as co-founder and executive director of the League of Independent Theater, and as a teacher and advisor who has offered counsel and support to countless emerging companies and artists.

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Rachel Chavkin by Maureen Towey
When I think back on ten years of Rachel Chavkin's work, its remarkable how many of her stage images are seared into my memory. In Faster, Rachel's first play out of college, her frequent collaborator Jessica Almasy ran on a treadmill for the whole performance. Even in these early theatrical explorations, Rachel's actors were earning our affections through sweat.
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Mac Rogers by James Comtois
Talking to Mac Rogers is at times like talking to an over-caffeinated Jimmy Stewart clone that's wondering if he left the oven on while simultaneously realizing he's late for a train. To describe Mac's conversational style as "distracted" is putting it mildly. To say he's a fast talker is an understatement.
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Maria Alexandria Beech by Jody Christopherson
As a performer I am always delighted to work on a Maria Alexandria Beech script. I think of Alex as a global visionary. Her characters are provocatively juicy and painfully full of honest contradictions. They exist in worlds that connect regions of the globe, opposing ideologies, they challenge the politics of daily living. They are people I know and, more importantly, people I must get to know because I want them to manifest. And I believe that Alex does too.
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Kelly McAllister by Martin Denton

Kelly McAllister is one of indie theater's true Renaissance Men, excelling as actor, producer, director, and—mostly, nowadays—playwright. I first got to know his work as an actor, in a production of Richard II at Expanded Arts on Ludlow Street and then in the title role of the (possibly) lost Shakespeare play Edward III. So I knew the name, but not the man, when I noticed that he would be contributing a play to the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival. I got to read an early draft and liked what I saw. And then, that August, I got to see Last Call, and immediately recognized in Kelly McAllister not only a brilliant playwright but also a true kindred spirit.

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Axis Company by Martin Denton
Axis Company occupies the building at 1 Sheridan Square that once housed the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, and while their aesthetic is markedly different from Charles Ludlam's, their dedication and commitment to the creation of theater that challenges assumptions about how art works and how the world works is as strong as their predecessor's; that's one of the reasons I keep on going there. A visit to Axis is always a surprise for all the senses, from whatever themed art-or-artifact display is housed in the theater lobby, to whatever astonishing, inventive, possibly multimedia, probably sensorially assaulting experience Axis's artistic director Randy Sharp and her colleagues have cooked up for us INSIDE the theater.
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One-Minute Play Festival by Michael Criscuolo
New play festivals are a dime-a-dozen these days. But a new play festival that regularly features works by writers such as Mando Alvarado, Clay MacLeod Chapman, James Comtois, Mike Daisey, Jason Grote, Ashlin Halfinight, Rajiv Joseph, Callie Kimball, Mac Rogers, Trav S.D., Lloyd Suh, Adam Szymkowicz, Brian Dykstra, Caridad Svich, Megan Mostyn-Brown, Crystal Skillman, Alejandro Morales, Lisa Loomer, Brooke Berman, and Webb Wilcoxen--well, that's another matter altogether. I'm talking about the One-Minute Play Festival, the five-year-old annual event that brings many different threads of New York's independent theater community together for a weekend of daredevil shenanigans. Created by director and new play development guru Dominic D'Andrea, the festival, at first glance, looks like equal parts genius and folly: commission dozens of writers to contribute sixty-second scripts, and then enlist an equally large number of actors and directors to bring them to life. Give all the participants limited resources and rehearsal time (both on purpose), stir their imaginations into the mix, then sit back and enjoy the barely-controlled burst of frenzy and exuberance that follows.
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