Live!...at the Cockpit

Produced by Loose Moon Productions

Author: Kobun Kaluza and T. D. White

Live! … at the Cockpit … is a look at what back stage, the “tiring house,” might have been like one day in 1599 at the newly built Globe Theatre when Shakespeare was working with his actors, then The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, on new plays such as Henry V and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and rehearsing certain scenes for upcoming performances such as Henry IV, Part One, a particular favorite of the Queen’s. It’s Shakespeare alright, but this time from behind. Our new, original work for theatre opens back stage in what we now would call a dressing room as we hear a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream ending with the “…lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby” (Act V). Shakespeare plays The Lion but is often seen scribbling feverishly between entrances and exits and “directing” those remaining back stage in a physical imitation of what’s being said on stage — after all, he understands what his words really meant better than anybody! Will will then introduce his actors to new scenes from his new play, Henry V, one of which he will compose right before our audience’s eyes. Then it’s some after show entertainment and a trip to The Mermaid Tavern where Shakespeare will seek out the former boy actor “Joseph” and direct a scene from Hamlet about “… country matters.” For an uproarious conclusion, it’s all about sack and saloon as Shakespeare puts the actors playing Prince Hal and Falstaff through their paces. Where there’s a Will, there’s a way!

Today, curiosity about actors and their processes approaches adoration. We feel that people are fascinated by the craft and art of acting and would appreciate a journey into a most iconic past for acting, the Elizabethan Era, to see how Shakespeare and his ensemble might have worked together, what Shakespeare’s particular role might have been “back stage;” what his relationships with his fellows might have been like; what the acting “styles” or methods might have been like. Modern people seem more fascinated in what goes on “back stage” than in the production being presented! People can come to this show and really enjoy watching actors work with new material, somewhat familiar to them perhaps, but not to the actors. Are actors any different today than they were 350 years ago? We explore that question!

The primary reason for presenting this show at this time is that it’s fun and funny. And people need to laugh. It’s healthy. People respect Shakespeare and his work, of course, but we feel much of the richness is lost on contemporary audiences — quite naturally — because of archaic language and constructions, and lack of knowledge of customs and history easily familiar to Elizabethans. Today’s audience for Shakespeare loses a lot due to some natural self-consciousness when sitting through a two or three hour even well-made production. Our production is meant to reduce this strain and give a contemporary audience the full delightful flavor of Shakespearean theatre in just short of an hour in a modern, most digestible way.

Thomas D. White, co-director/co-playwright

The Expatriates

Produced by The Beggar's Group

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Dorothy Parker first met in the cafes and salons of Paris on the cusp of  the Great Depression and in the rubble of World War I.  They developed intense relationships that at once nurtured and wrecked havoc on all involved.  The Expatriates is a four part cycle exploring the nature of artistic creation by focusing on the lives of this exceptional group.

The Expatriates, as presented in The Frigid Festival, represents the first movement in this larger piece.  It is a kaleidoscopic window into the world of one of the United States' most talented and most tormented literary luminaries, F. Scott Fitzgerald.  By eschewing a traditional narrative for a non-linear, image and idea driven framework and by employing a host of experimental techniques, The Beggars Group provides a lens through which to view not just the life of one historic genius, but the very nature of artistic creation with its many payoffs and  commensurate perils. The Expatriates explores the ways that the artist can create the world in which we live while simultaneously destroying their own in the process.

Harrison Williams, writer/co-director

The Dysfunctional Guide to Home, Perfection, Marital Bliss

Produced by Dysfunctional Theatre Company

Author: Jennifer Gill, Rachel Grundy, Amy Overman, Amy Beth Sherman, Theresa Unfried

The Dysfunctional Guide to Home Perfection, Marital Bliss & Passionate Hot Romance is the single greatest book on marriage ever written.  It covers over 500 years of recorded history (and some unrecorded history, too).   Our show is about this book.  You can expect to see five women drinking a lot of wine and playing a lot of different, random characters through time.  We wear little black dresses, drink heavily, talk about men and ponder why the hell we're married and why the hell we bother.  It's a bit like Sex & the City, but with one more woman and a much smaller wardrobe budget.

Since 50% of marriages end in divorce, I think trying to figure out why the other half don't is pretty topical.  Plus we're really, really funny.  And smart.  This is a crazy, funny, romantic comedy.  Women will relate to it; men will gain valuable insight into the female psyche.  Plus, what other show features a 15th century English prophet/crazy woman?  No other show I'd bet you.

We love FRIGID and we're proud to have been a part of every FRIGID festival.  We've wanted to do this piece for a long time and FRIGID's open, experimental atmosphere is the perfect place to premier a new work, especially one as surreal as this show.

Amy Overman, writer/actor

95/Turnpike/95: Chickens in Jersey

Produced by International BTC

95/turnpike/95: Chickens in Jersey is the story of Milo and Jane, two toll booth workers on the Jersey Turnpike experiencing a freakishly slow work day.  As Milo waits for his dream woman and Jane waits for her steam whistle, they're faced with the impending doom of the Rooster of the Turnpike — the horrid Chicken Truck — and the difficult choice of: do I stay or do I go?  Audiences can expect language with no restraints, eccentric characters — both odd and endearing — chicken clucks a-plenty and a whole lotta feathers.

Known as the butt of many a culture joke, this show contains two perspectives of the great Garden State — New Jersey, love it or hate it.  At the heart is a question that everyone faces at some point in life, but on the surface is an absurd funny picture of these two eccentric characters that don't take life too seriously, and neither does this play.  Overall, we feel audiences will want to see this show because it's thoughtful, but mostly, just plain entertaining.

We mainly chose this play because it's a fun piece to experience and in this festival especially, we're granted the chance to experiment and indulge our stranger side… and the show's pretty strange.  When it comes down to it, we figure with seasonal depression and an economic recession (rhyme!) — why not make 'em laugh?

Amanda Sage Comerford, co-playwright

habeas corpus

Produced by the real kim harmon

habeas corpus is  a year-long project on the topic of getting rid of things. we have been and are currently soliciting responses from folks on the topic of "what would you get rid of?" and responses  are built into a multi-media theatrical performance, incorporating what turned out to be both expected and completely unpredictable themes. habeas corpus invites audience interaction (both during the show and RIGHT NOW at www.therealkimharmon.com), contains original live music, physical theatre elements, a spiraling structure, and is both ridiculously silly and devastatingly sincere. We do not recommend this show for children, though childish adults are particularly welcome!

habeas corpus is as today as it gets — we adapt the show as responses come in, so it is about what is happening, right now, for people across the United States as well as abroad; there are both unique and universal perspectives to each show. What I love most about this show is the fun of the dark, dark comedy inherent in its extremely intimate nature. I don't know of another show like it in New York right now.

Part of the goal of the real kim harmon is about bridging east and west coast styles of performance experimentation together. Our cast for the New York presentation is half New York artists and half San Francisco artists, which creates a particularly dynamic feel. This is part of what inspired our investigation into how people are affected by things, how they feel limited, how they limit themselves, and we are interested in exploring the idea of how to find freedom — basically, to have unlimited access to one's self, one's personal body — habeas corpus.

Kim Harmon, artistic director

Hysteri-KILLY! A One Freak Show

Author: Killer Killy Dwyer

Hysteri-KILLY! is a hilarious, psychedelic, witty wet dream.  It's like if Carol Burnett, Andy Kaufman's ghost, the Spice Girls, Sigmund Freud and a banana peel all had the same best friend — that best friend is my freak show.  It's a manic-depressive, cockeyed-optimist toy train wreck, with catchy original music that will have your toes tapping, possibly turn you gay and have you leaving the theater with a life changing experience and a brand new car.  It's rock and roll meets performance art. It's super heros and super egos.  Hysteri-KILLY! Is art imitating art imitating life imitating art.

My show is pertinent to today's times because it is priced for a crappy economy...well, that AND it's a multi-personality, multi-media comment on an over medicated, over stimulated society.  It's a silly and surreal observation of ourselves, our stressed and saturated psyches, and our inner children yearning to be free from fear and failure. The audience should expect to be surprised, to laugh at inappropriate things at inappropriate times and to have their inner children experience a play date with Hyster-KILLY!

This show chose to present me.  I gave birth to it.  It owes me just like any child owes their parent.  My parents (its grandparents) don''t approve of my bastard love child and have since disowned us both.  That's how bad ass my show is.  Good show.  Good. (Pats show on head) Good.

Kelly B. Dwyer, writer/director/performer

Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass

Produced by No. 11 Productions

Author: Antonin Artaud

Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass is a visceral exploration of violence and the power of art.  Audiences should expect an experience that is as much an art exhibition as it is a music concert as it is a puppet show as it is live theatre.  Musicians, artists, dancers, designers, puppeteers and actors have created this production as a personal response to violence in our world today.  Actors push the limits of physicality while a live band pushes the limits of musicality.  This intimate production engages all five senses and is intended to shock.  There are also scorpions.  Lots of scorpions.  

Movies, videogames, the war in Iraq — violence is ubiquitous.  Jet of Blood or the Ball of Glass confronts violence head on and digs to the root of it.  We are bombarded by a cacophony of images everyday, and this production intensifies this discord to lead to a reassessment of modern life.  Our aim is to explode the boundaries of theatre through the intense inclusion and redefining of other art forms.

Artaud writes without any regard to physical or spiritual boundaries; he furiously enters directly into the territory he wants to explore.  We wanted to use his play as inspiration and courage to enter directly into unknown territory.  No. 11 Productions is committed to creating theatre that juxtaposes seeming reality with the unpredicted, and of all the plays we have encountered, this play is pregnant with imagery and ideas of the unexpected.

Ryan Emmons, director

Oens

Author: Wilson Loria

From the Age of Discovery to the effects of today's globalization, Oens portrays a disquieting ordinary man and his journey to self-realization. Bringing and mixing the past and the present together, Oens shows that "globalization" is not a recently coined word in today's vocabulary. The Portuguese suffix Ões, (the corresponding and loosely translated word in English would be "Oens") from which the title of the play is derived, is used for making nouns into the plural and the augmentative forms. Most important, it is part of the name of the 16th century Portuguese poet Luiz Vaz de Camões (Camoens in English) who wrote the most famous epic poem in the Portuguese language, The Lusiads, which describes Vasco da Gama's voyage via southern Africa to India in 1497-1498. Through music, mime and dance, Oens also enacts the eternal wish for a better world.

Oens attempts to call people's attention to some current and relevant social questions. We've unfortunately grown accustomed to being and living only in our own small "worlds." We should never let our guard down just because we have a new president elected by the majority. We must always keep questioning the establishment and, above all, our own role in today's society.

Oens causes people to think of their place both in society and life. It also attempts to show that we should not value all that paraphernalia we see on stage today. That has definitely never been the primary goal of the theater. The main element of any performance should undoubtedly be the actor on the apron of the stage. (Photo credit: Carlos Guerriero)

Wilson Loria, writer/performer

Y, marilyn unstitched

Author: Irene Glezos & Brad Calcaterra

Y, marilyn unstitched is a solo play that explores the inner landscape of a woman who was given the name Marilyn Monroe.  It's about a longing for self in a world strongly bent on defining and possessing us, a world where others are sure they know us even if we aren't sure we know ourselves.  Weaving truth with imagination '— and with liberal use of free association, alter egos, pill-induced manic episodes, and, especially, an open heart, Y follows MM as she tries to solve her own death.  We like to call the process by which we arrived at this play, and, for that matter, the playing of it:  "making proper use of the crazies."

This show is pertinent because who wouldn't want an intimate hour with Marilyn!  I would!

Y, marilyn unstitched was developed by Irene Glezos and Brad Calcaterra in an ongoing workshop called "Risk" under Brad's direction at the Sally Johnson Studio over the course of one year.  In "Risk," a group of solo performers meet on Mondays to explore their truth in front of each other.  We call it "Live Diary" or "Stand Up Drama."  Out of these improvisations, characters emerge, and stories begin to take shape. We believe that the things we want to hide from or about which we are ashamed are actually the seeds of our creativity.  The performer's improvised material is videotaped each week, then transcribed and shaped into the play.   The attempt is never to impersonate but rather to engage an archetype, and through the character and play, to find ways of telling our own truth. 

Irene Glezos, co-creator/actress