Another year, another birthday! And this year, she's celebrating with a tinge of politics. I sat down with Witti Repartee to talk about her incredible career and what we can expect to see at her annual birthday bash!

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Oh isn't she just the fishiest! I got a chance to chat with Hibiscus about her amazing life as well as the incredible things she plans to do as Miss Stonewall 2018!

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He's the cutest thing to appear on Block Talk! It's Robby Rice! We got to chat before we sailed away on a cruise contract about everything nightlife, drag, working as an actor and dancer AND choreographer!

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I got to sit down and chat with one of my favorite people on the planet, Jackie Cox! We discuss everything from SYTYCD to I Dream of Jackie to the tea on some of her dear sisters.

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photo by Preston Burford

I'm so excited to welcome the incredible Honey Davenport to the podcast! She shares all in this episode from summer plans to some tea on her drag family!

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By Ed Malin

For fifteen years and counting, The Tank has been one of the most catholic of performance spaces. Just about any kind of live performance can be found there and, even better, receives their support.
I finally visited The Tank's new space on West 36th Street, which, luckily for the artists of the world, has two stages. Playing to a packed house in the middle of a three-day run was Molly Brenner—who performs much at UCB—with her boldly personal one-woman show Molly Brenner Isn't Coming.  The show is directed by Madalyn Baldanzi.
Molly is 28 years old. She informs us she has never had an orgasm, not even the accidental ones some women get from a horse or a bannister. She was worried she might have one before the show opened and wreck everything, but she is still qualified to tell this enlightening story.
Through a series of monologues as herself and some highly-recognizable other characters, she uses comedy to talk about her body and a condition that is often not discussed without shaming.

photo by Tucker Mitchell

In brief, the lights come up on Santa Claus, who chuckles “Ho ho ho! Merry Vaginismus!”
Vaginismus is a clinical-sounding name for a fear of penetration. Molly suggests she could make herself sound sexier by telling a lover “my problem is I've got tight vagina”
We meet Sex Barbie, the doll with the right genital organs, who, if she didn’t exist, children would find it necessary to invent her.
We hear the story of a young woman who goes to high school, hears what her fellow students are up to, and thinks that masturbation has just been invented. Later, with her gynecologist, she is prescribed various exercises to help her body relax from her condition.  These dilation exercises take approximately 20 minutes, which is exactly the length of an episode of the TV show “Portlandia”.   Still later in life, she calculates that if she were ever to have an orgasm, it would take as long as two episodes of “Portlandia”.
There is a lot of universal empathy in this play.  So many things in life could happen if we didn’t get distracted wondering if they were about to happen.  Thus is “meta” the enemy of pleasure.
And here's one that may make you realize how able-bodied you are: Molly reminds us that some women have never even seen parts of their anatomy, and so are just shocked that men like to expose their own body parts. Definitely something that would disappear if more thought were involved.

By Ed Malin

Project Y’S Women in Theater festival at IRT continues with Cindy, written by Amina Henry and directed by Michole Biancosino. This modern update of Cinderella has some surprise twists which I found very empowering for children and inspirational for me (a grown-up parent of a girl somewhere below princess age).
Cindy (Star Kirkland) is a thirteen year-old girl whose mother has died.  Fortunately, she gets good advice from her friend Rudy the rat (voice and puppetry by Zach Fifer). Her father, James (Joachim Boyle) tries to look out for her best interests, but he is not strong enough to resist his new wife, Cindy’s Stepmother (Rachel E. Evans), whose ego proceeds her. A very caring cow named Bell (voice and puppetry by Caleb Antony Green) lingers in the background, ruminating on Cindy’s future.

photo by ClintonBPhotography

Suddenly, the teenage Prince Rupert (Timiki Salinas) is ready to wed and throws a series of balls to find himself a marriageable girl who wants to be a princess.  The Stepmother’s daughters, Sarah (Veronica Cooper) and Suzy (Emily Ma) prepare to be sassy for the Prince, and make sure that Cindy will be helping them prepare for the ball rather than competing against them.  Much classical music related to Cinderella appears in this piece; Sarah and Suzy’s leitmotif is “Run the World (Girls)” by Beyoncé, sometimes thought of as a female power song.  Meanwhile, Cindy dreams of being a pilot, something she knows she would enjoy more than being a groupie to royalty.
Now, the magic begins.  Honest Rudy the rat, loathed by the Stepmother and others who prefer image to integrity, helps Cindy get to the ball.  So does Bell the cow, who has the spirit of Cindy’s late mother. They provide the glass slippers (or superfly hightops) and carriage (or shopping cart) that takes Cindy—or should I say incognito “Princess Ella”—into society and brings her home at midnight.   Prince Rupert is a tall, jewel and cape-wearing party professional.  His gold and sparkly shoes and ripped jeans mark him as cool, though Cindy is not impressed.  Dancers thrill to the sounds of bhangra and congas, while Prince Rupert finds Cindy so refreshing, he does a split.  Cindy, with a thirteen year-old’s strength of will, tells him she wants to fly, and barely gets home on time.  One glass slipper remains in the prince’s clutches.
When the prince comes to the Stepmother’s house, she happily trots out her daughters and does everything to deceive the prince into believing that they are Princess Ella.   Sarah and Suzy each have a toe chopped off, but they can’t satisfy Prince Rupert that they wore the slipper at the ball.  Finally, the prince finds out that “Ella” is Cindy.  Her friends and family all want the best for her.  But will she marry the prince or find a way to take flight on her own.
Playwright Amina Henry has written a play that appeals to young people but frees itself from the fairytale form.  Amid fanciful moments, we see a Stepmother who does terrible things to her own children and a stepchild who chooses her own destiny.  Director Michole Biancosino makes sure that the humans and animals onstage never have a dull moment. Annie Ulrich’s costumes are flashy, contemporary and exciting, and the animal puppets are haunting and beautiful to behold. Hallie Zieselman’s set includes lots of signs and clues about the play for young viewers to discover.  Sound designer Amit Prakash did a great job with fancy interlude music and exciting dance tracks for the ball. Christina Watanabe’s lighting shows us Cindy’s loneliness and difficulties as well as the love she receives from her friends and spirit animals.

Cissy Walken and I break down the latest episode of RuPaul's Drag Race season 10 where the final four become...the final four.

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By Ed Malin

At the Brick Theater, The Festival of Lies continues from June 5 through July 5.
I saw Sweet Little Lies, which, as its title implies, is a thought-provoking program of short plays by talented regular artists at the theater.
Up first is Ruth: An Apology, written and performed by Bob Laine, directed by Maryanne Olson.  This is a moving solo piece about a man’s relationship with his mother—who has some of the supportive characteristics of the Biblical Ruth—as well as a woman named Ruth whom he dates during high school.  The young man liked boys more than girls, which, over time, turned out to be not just a phase but his identity.  Ruth was a year older, and wanted to be with him, and took on his interests, but this wasn’t the recipe for a healthy relationship.  From “Bartholemew and the Oobleck” to Billy Joel to the Atari game Pitfall and things you can do with a joystick, Bob Laine takes you down memory lane.
The second piece is The Three by Erin Bregman, directed by Maryanne Olson, with music by John Glover.  Ariana (Silvia Dionicio) sits at the center of a triangle of clicking metronomes.  Three observers (Jessica Marza, Clara Francesca and Roger Nasser) echo and critique in unison every word Ariana says. As the sound builds to a fever pitch, Ariana yells that it doesn’t matter, to which the replies is yes it does. Eventually, the three other voices cut out and Ariana can collect herself. For me, this is a piece about the oppressive nature of time.
The third piece is I Do Not See You by Richard Lovejoy, directed by Paige Blansfield. The Target (Morgan Zipf-Meister) tells us about how, as she ages, she believes that people actively try not to see her, except when they are looking for someone to blame. Perhaps it is true that babies get the most attention and it’s all downhill from there. In any case, she claims that a museum guard damaged an artwork and blamed her, which is why she went and broke something else in the museum.  If you’re going to get blamed, you might as well have done something, her logic goes. The other characters (Linus Gelber, C.L. Weatherstone and Daryl Lathon) loudly assail her for other minor things, like accidental littering. Finally, she is framed and carried off and beaten by two of the others, while the third tries to get some attention for himself.  He is ignored, and has to face the beaten woman in the end. Wouldn’t it be better for people to treat each other as equals?
The fourth piece is I [heart] Facts, written and performed by Alexis Sottile. The host of our presentation works as a fact checker for various publications. This important job is revealed to be a funny mixture of invention and harassment. We wouldn’t want the things we read to be inaccurate, would we? A few years ago, monologist Mike Daisey garnered some attention for his show about oppressive conditions in Chinese factories; at the same time, there was controversy about how much of the story was interview-based and/or fact-checked. Alexis’s adventures give some hope in a world where elected officials stray from the facts.

photo by The Brick

The fifth piece is Foxing by Greg Romero, directed by Maryanne Olson.
Beatrice  (Silvia Dionicio) is a bit of a personal trainer, complete with a whistle and furry animal ears.  Aaron (Linus Gelber) and Charlie (Bob Laine), two men not dressed for the gym, are put through a variety of aerobic exercises to dance music. Thus warmed up, they then sit and have a conversation, with the help of note cards which Beatrice hands out.  They apparently know each other, and raised a son who died.  It is so hard for them to talk to each other and find any kind of resolution that they try the exercise again until they can brave it all and go unscripted. Don’t knock drama therapy; it works!
The sixth piece is Level III by Erin Bregman, directed by Paige Blansfield
Anna (Morgan Zipf-Meister) and Lea (Anna Ty Bergman) are talking about their views of mirrors. Using stylized language, they explore some fears of the sun bouncing off a mirror and setting the house on fire. What is the difference between reflected and refracted? What do you call a lot of cracked pieces of glass? Versailles? Together, they are able to find their way to some very empowering resolutions.
The seventh piece is Hunkerpuss: The New Adventures, with words and sound by Chris Chappell, directed by Jesse Edward Rosbrow. Late at night, Polly (Rocio Mendez) is discovered watching those cartoons starring Hunkerpuss (Timothy McCown Reynolds), the cat who can never seem to stop chasing the lovely otter, Olivia Otterford (Clara Francesca). These cartoons combine several cute and awkward old cartoon characters such as Snagglepuss from Hanna-Barbera. Polly’s girlfriend Clare (Lex Friedman) joins her and offers a mixture of empathy for what is keeping Polly up and confusion about the appeal of an arguably sexist cartoon. As the two talk on the sofa, their roommate Brandon (V. Orion Delwaterman) appears from behind the sofa to offer his chock-full-of-semiotics perspective. On the other side of the stage, the adorable, lisping Hunkerpuss is seen reminiscing about the making of the classic cartoon. Eventually, not unlike some kids commercial, Hunkerpuss creates an energy portal to Polly, Clare and Brandon’s apartment. When the young fans (these appear to be the children of today, who are having this discussion 10 or 20 years from now) interrogate Hunkerpuss, he tells a fantastic story about his life as a cat, a very rich cat who could have invested in a progressive new Artificial Intelligence project but did not.  When Hunkerpuss died, he found himself alive again inside of the virtual world of the cartoon—which is controlled by the A.I.—continually forced to chase an otter. He moans that he doesn’t have a choice about such base desires. As technology permeates our world, are the animalistic traits of humanity refined away, or are they used against us?  It's a super-dramatic, finely-crafted and hilarious tale.
This show was delightful and ambitious.  Short plays, like cartoons (especially the one which mixes the two together) are magical sparkplugs which can launch a debate about human nature. Kudos to the versatile ensemble which brought to life so many interesting characters, and to the directors, some of whom worked on two or three plays of vastly different styles. Morgan Zipf-Meister’s lighting provides the intimacy that these works require.

Elise Navy-Dad and I, and our inner saboteurs, are here to breakdown episode 11 of RuPaul's Drag Race season 10!

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Name: Ryan Wesley Stinnett

Hometown: Army Brat (Although I’ll hit 10 years in NYC this August… so here!?!)

Education: MFA in Acting: University of Virginia

Select Credits: LOCKED UP BITCHES (Dir. Michael Raine), The Nomad (Dir. Elizabeth Swados), Take Care (Dir. Niegel Smith)

Why theater?: The community. The community of the people it takes to put a show on and the community of the audience that attends it. Nothing beats the energy of a live performance. An entire theatre breathing and experiencing the same emotions in unison, how could you not want to be a part of that?

Who do you play in the hollower?: Pigman

Tell us about the hollower: Without giving too much or not enough away, I would say that the hollower is a kind of modern ghost story. It’s not a ghost story in the traditional sense at all. The things haunting the characters of this play are all real-world occurrences. These characters are haunted by societal expectations, misogyny, gender roles and all the other systemic things that affect people daily. The play also has a lot of humor and each individual audience member is likely to connect to the show differently.

What is it like being a part of the hollower?: It’s definitely been a ride. This is the kind of play that opens itself up to you more and more every day. I’m still constantly understanding and learning new things about this show. I can’t wait until we have audiences because they will teach me even more about what is happening in the world of this play.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I am not a fan of theatre that beats the audience over the head trying to educate them. To me, theatre pieces that set out to educate generally wind up feeling self-congratulatory and the message gets lost, no matter how good their intentions are. However, I am a huge proponent of entertainment for entertainment’s sake because I firmly believe that when theatre is done correctly you should always be learning something new about the world and your place in it. I like my theatre to have a point and a purpose, but I don’t particularly like it when it makes its mission known. I like difficult plays that take risks with form, subject matter, storytelling, and language. I also like really, really silly and over-the-top things. When I do my own writing I tend to gravitate towards an absurd, accessible humor that celebrates universal themes and is appropriate for audiences of all ages. When I perform other people’s work I tend to gravitate towards much darker themes and subject matter.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I would love to play any character in American Idiot or Hair (Don’t even get me started on how they are companion pieces and should be performed in rep), Andre in Three Sisters, and either son in Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Really I’ll do anything. I’m not that picky. I’d also kill to just be a factory worker in Kinky Boots or a parent in School of Rock. But let’s be real: the role I am most dying to play is anything that will get me my Equity Card. You could even get me to do a George Bernard Shaw play for that.

What’s your favorite showtune?: See above. Anything from Hair or American Idiot.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I would absolutely love to work with Charles Busch. I’m a huge fan of his work and fun fact: the only play that I ever won an acting award for [so far] was a production of Psycho Beach Party that I did in North Carolina. As you may have already guessed, I played Star Kat, the most handsome surfer on the beach. I just love how silly and over-the-top his work is but how they also have a very strong kindness to them. They are never mean-spirited in their humor. I am also such a fan of the Youngblood Playwrights at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Past and present, I have always found them to be super top-notch. I would love to work with any of them. I am consistently impressed by the work happening at EST.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: At this point in my life I would probably be played by the newest, quietest, and most lonely freshman at Marymount Manhattan. The film would be called NON-EQUITY GREENROOM. They would do a fine job with the role, but they would become so frustrated with NYC that after the filming they would drop out of school and move back to Topeka, KS.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Easy: Passing Strange. Thank God Spike Lee filmed it.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: I have been such a bad theatregoer this year. That is, I suppose, the biggest problem of being lucky enough to be cast in back-to-back shows: you have no time to make it out to see what else is being produced around town. What I can say, though, is the show I am most excited to see and the one that is being recommended to me the most right now: Clare Barron’s Dance Nation at Playwrights Horizons. Hopefully I will be able to snag a ticket to see that before they are all gone. Better yet, hopefully Playwrights will offer me a complimentary house seat because I just plugged their show.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: The Voice. And I do not feel bad about that at all. Wait. What is a guilty pleasure?

What’s up next?: Unsure. Having just spent my entire 2018 thus far working on projects that couldn’t be more different from each other, a hip-hop parody of a certain Netflix show called LOCKED UP BITCHES and the super dark haunt-comedy the hollower, I’m don't even know what the next natural progression would be. Maybe a show that mixes upper-case and lower-case lettering in its title? Perhaps it will be getting my Equity Card for doing a Shaw play after all. Most likely though I will take a bit of time to give some much-needed love to some writing projects that I have been a bad parent to lately. I’d also like to get back into comedy for the summer so if anybody needs a timeslot filled on a character night, hit me up.

Name: Liza Birkenmeier

Hometown: Olivette, MO

Education: BA Washington University in St. Louis. MFA Carnegie Mellon

Favorite Credits: Tragedy in Spades: A Crime Documentary with Katherine Brook as part of the Artist-in-Residence program at University Settlement.

Why theater?: I’m not exactly sure, but I think it has something to do with wanting to be able to physically participate in the film "A League of Their Own."

Tell us about the hollower: It’s meant to be about how we perform gender and sexuality in our moralist patriarchy! So it’s a horror and a comedy, I hope. 

What inspired you to write the hollower?: I heard a podcast about a seventeenth century colonizing program where Parisian women were sent to New France Canada to help populate the invaded territory. I was curious about how femininity has been shaped by imperialism. This seemed to demand a piece that was formally anti-Aristotelian.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I love almost all theatergoing experiences in some way. Performances featuring human bodies in real time are so exciting. Visual art, Suzan-Lori Parks, novels.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I would love to write the book for a St. Vincent musical.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: "Dance Nation" by Clare Barron.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Kathy Najimi would play me as a child; Kathy Bates would play me as an adult. Title: "Magic Kathy." It probably wouldn’t be about me at all.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Cloud Nine by Caryl Churchill, 1979. 

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Naming cats and children I don’t have.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Naming my cats and children.

What’s up next?: radio island at NYSAF Powerhouse at Vassar: June 28-July 8.

For more on Liza, visit http://www.lizabirkenmeier.com/

By Ed Malin

Amios, the dynamic young theater company in residence at the Kraine, has a regularly monthly program of new work called Shotz.  Their two shows on the first Monday of the month are usually packed with fun-loving audiences.   I saw and enjoyed the June offering: Musical Shotz: One Night Only. Each new short musical was written to take place in New York City between 12 am and 6 am on Sunday, May 6, 2018, must have someone taking a picture, and must feature the line “We only have tonight”.   The freshly-written pieces cover a lot of ground in under ten minutes.  They are presented on a fairly bare stage which is the ground for an eruption of theatrical excitement.  By the way, Amios stands for Art and Music In Our Souls.
The program started with Kiz is Dead (Long Live Kiz) written by Liz Thaler with music composed by Ben Quinn, directed by Mario Gonzales featuring Annie Harper Branson, Kelly Chick, Cassandra Paras and Kia Sayyadi.  Here we have the coming together of a legendary punk band, known as Kiz, which is hitting the road again after 15 years.  All of the members have the first name Kiz.  As the band is about to begin what might be their reunion tour, they grant a backstage interview to a roving Rolling Stone Reporter.   Each Kiz is trying to overcome their demons (some question if there will be more than one show on this tour; they haven’t bothered to rehearse).  Cathartically, they play that one new song that isn’t really ready (most bands have one): “All is Forgiven”.
The next piece is Sonder by W Tré Davis, composed and directed by Richard Aven, featuring Meghan Grover, Emily Kitchens and Erin Roché.  Three women who have shuffled off this mortal coil find themselves together, ready to sing about the joyous things in life.  Sonder is defined as "the profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it." Jo never lived when she was alive, although her great love was mathematics.  Rachel died young, and hears that her “guardian angel” friends have raised her daughter, who is now a grandmother.  Flower was named by a hippy mom and was a fortune teller.  Everything you like so much is right there. A chilled bottle of chardonnay magically appears.  And then the phone rings and it’s for you.

photo by Kara Overlein

The first half concludes with The Room written by Lisa Kitchens, composed by Therese Anderberg and Emily Casey, directed by Lindsey Wormser, featuring Khalia Davis, Lauren Hart, Katie Rose Krueger and Richard Sears.   This is the last night a young man is spending in the apartment he called home for nine years.  Home is a place where on a bad day you can have a glass of wine, and on a good day you can have a glass of wine. The Room itself—including fragments of memories —is played by three women.   As the night progresses, the human protagonist is pulled into a passionate dance with his Room.  As they do, random and beautiful occurrences float to the surface and elicit bemused reactions.  When you’re by yourself, you feel free.  You also feel empowered by what you have done and sad to leave it behind.  This was the most boldly experimental piece of the evening, and it succeeded admirably.
After the intermission, things take a turn for the dramatic with Deli Guys 3: Bodega Nights, written, composed and directed by Richard Thieriot, featuring Zach Evenson and Ashley Grombol as a bodega owner and his outrageous cat.  Richard Thieriot and Natalie Hegg provide narration, in Spanish and English, respectively.
The cat is loud and proud, baring her belly and then scratching her keeper when he tries to rub it   This is a tortured love.  And, like many tragic situations, there is a humorous communication gap. (Never has “carajo de mierdo” sounded more bewildering than in a straight-faced translation.)  This is a great play to ponder whether humans are superior to animals.  Also, Thieriot’s guitar is great background music for a sparring match.
Next is the engrossing Hoops written by Justin Yorio, composed by David Paarlberg, directed by Erik Saxvik, featuring Caitlin Diana Doyle, Philip Estrera, Michael Propster and Sarah Alice Shull.  We find ourselves in the middle of the basketball game that never ends.  At the stroke of midnight, the two two-player teams are evenly matched, tied at way over a hundred points each.  These are teenaged boys and girls who love the game.  The young men are in a bromance which started with their mutual love of feminist theorist bell hooks and continued when they realized they were wearing the same basketball jersey.  The young women are sisters who will never surrender.  It’s true the theme of the evening requires them to sing “we only have tonight”, but will they remain friends and chill out and see each other at the Bar Mitzvah on Saturday?
The show ends with a new beginning.   Metropolitan, written by Thomas J. Picasso, composed by Mikey Rosenbaum, directed by Emily Brown, featuring Fulvio, Dillon Heape and Leigh Williams shows us New York through the wide eyes of a visitor.  The setting appears to be the Metropolitan Bar, a gay-friendly hangout in Williamsburg.  As the new day technically begins, a young photographer from Iowa is checking out the great possibilities of the big city and hoping his hookup will call him back.  At last call, he says what used to be obvious before the neighborhood gentrified: $8 is a lot to pay for a Narragansett.  While he waits, he is privy to what goes on after hours in the bar, namely an artist salon.  The man and woman who run the place want him to share his photographs, and, just because, to share his body.  They do only have tonight since he is flying home in the morning.  Could they be lovers?  Don’t you like bars where you can hear your date?
While I heard that Shotz is on hiatus for the rest of 2018, Amios continues to produce full-length plays, many of which originate in Shotz.  Check out their upcoming shows.  This is a dedicated, large network of talented artists who always deliver an amazing show, with or without a glitzy set.

It's time to Cher our thoughts on the latest episode of RuPaul's Drag Race season 10. I'm joined by the lovely Diana Carfire!

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He's perfect, he's beautiful, and he's here on Block Talk! It's the amazing Chad Sapp! In this episode, we talk about the incredible adventures he's been on as well as his appearances in upcoming international boylesque festivals and Broadway Bares Stripathon!

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Name: Ain Gordon

Hometown: Born and bred in NYC

Education: Checkered

Favorite Credits: How about “rarest” credit? Collaborating with my parents (just the 3 of us) on the The Family Business presented at Dance Theater Workshop, New York Theatre Workshop and the Mark Taper Forum, etc

Why theater?: Oh hell, I was born in the proverbial trunk, performance is in my blood, and I love words.

Tell us about 217 BOXES?: 1972: Dr. John Fryer donned an oversize tuxedo, rubber joke shop mask, called himself Dr. Henry Anonymous and lent into a distorting microphone to challenge the American Psychiatric Association with these words: “I am a homosexual, I am a psychiatrist.” Dr Anonymous propelled medicine to declassify homosexuality as a mental disease but who, really, was the man behind that mask… the play asks three key figures in Fryer’s life to conjure the man they shared.

What inspired you to create 217 BOXES?: All my work is about the ways in which mainstream history has been a ruthless editing machine – I look for the those figures who have been swept (or forced) to the margins of public memory. AND I’m a gay man but have rarely sourced LGBTQ history – it was time.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: 1) I am more drawn to a complicated character amid his/her/their evolving thought then I am to seeing that person submit to the engine of a “well-made” plot. 2) I don’t need to understand where the event is going if I am sure that that the author/director/actor does – I like being in sure hands and relinquishing my authority.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: A few names from a long list of women: Kate Valk, Judi Dench, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Joan Macintosh, Roslyn Ruff, Linda Emond, Brenda Wehle

What show have you recommended to your friends?: The last Caryl Churchill play at BAM (Escaped Alone) and the upcoming one at NYTW (Light Shining In Buckinghamshire).

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Cate Blanchett in male drag or Jeremy Irons in American drag or Joaquin Phoenix less bearded. Call it Oh, yeah, HIM.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Consignment shops

What’s the most played song on your iTunes?: I’m on a 60’s/70’s bender: Superman by The Kinks

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Unemployed (I frequently am) or, with luck, an archeologist.

What’s up next?: My show Radicals In Miniature (premiered May 2017) tours to the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven this June.

By Ed Malin

Renowned playwright Mario Fratti returns to Theater for the New City with The Politics of Gender, a program of two new one-act plays.mBoth plays investigate how privileged men set out to dominate women.  Well, I suppose they are welcome to try.
The first play is Jennifer and Cassie, directed by Joan Kane.  This is an old-fashioned murder story, complete with smoky trumpet music (composed, performed and recorded  by Andy Evan Cohen) and a fedora-wearing, constantly smoking detective (Bryan James Hamilton).  Although a landlord (Linus Gelber) has been killed and we see a red silhouette on the ground, Fratti puts us off the trail of the murderess by offering us three femmes fatales.  Jennifer (Taylor Graves) and Cassie (Ivette Dumeng) are roommates and women in love. Their deceased landlord, denied access to certain romantic portals by his wife, sometimes asked his tenants to allow him to bring his lover to their apartment, where they would leave him to his own devices.  All understandable in some way, yes no?  Unfortunately, a kitchen device was used to stab the landlord several times.  Why would the unhappy wife tolerate this lover, and perhaps others before?  Who snapped?  Jennifer and Cassie are portrayed with great purity but also with jealousy and foibles that they sometimes can’t conceal.  They have many feminine graces, including theater training (not to be confused with histrionics) and portrait sketching (not to be confused with sketch comedy).   The investigation, which goes back and forward in time, omits nothing.  Perhaps you, as the detective could not, can reframe this cleverly nuanced play in terms of male privilege, the only thing that would make a man dare to ask for such things.  Joan Kane directs her eager cast with great sensitivity to all of the feelings that are always so close to bubbling up from the surface.

photo by Bruce Kraemer

The second play is the equally compelling Brooklyn, (Cain's Adventure), directed by Janet Bentley.  Who is the Biblical Cain if not the first refugee?  However, although that first Cain walked the Earth with a mark on his head which made people reject him, some men forget their tenuous position and come to harm.  We begin with a monologue by Cain (Jovani Zambrano)—in a residual immigrant intonation—about his many, many experiences with women.  The child of a promiscuous woman, Cain travels widely and sees more of the same frustrating hedonistic behavior among women his own age.  He has been married and divorced, and is raising his children on his own in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  (Yes, Cain is Jewish and states he lives in a safe community surrounded by his “brothers”, but otherwise is vague about his religious affiliation; he has been and still is a strikingly lustful single man.) All the time, he longs for an ideal, pure woman who will make everything all right.  He meets Elena (Ivette Dumeng), a graceful, shy and wealthy Manhattan lawyer.  Ivette is great in this play, too.  They court slowly, and when after the sixth date they become romantically involved, Cain concludes he can use his sexual prowess to manipulate Elena.  He gradually convinces her to sell her apartment and move to a new place in Brooklyn with him.  Although she loves and to a large extent obeys him, she is overwhelmed by her new surroundings.  Cain then threatens to step out on her unless she accompanies him to some shady places and degrades herself for his benefit.  He appears to praise her as he throws around some old Yiddish patriarchal chestnuts such as “A fault! The bride is too beautiful!” (a khisorn, az die kallah is tzu sheyn)  Nevertheless, Cain, who is determined to see female weakness, decides that his wife is at heart a stupid person.  Her love, and her willingness to give him so much, add toxicity to his masculinity.  Do you think he is going to get away with abusing such an amazing person?  If you do, you don’t know Mario Fratti.  (The author spent years lecturing on Dante, so I think it’s reasonable to expect punishment for sins.)  A play with such long monologues depends on fine direction, which is abundantly on offer from Janet Bentley.  Forget the symbolism; I was surprised by the ending and am grateful for the sincere performances.
We don’t see a lot about Elena’s friends and her grown daughter and other parts of her life apart from Cain.  This looks like patriarchal reduction, but, what I think we are really focusing on is how men conspire to belittle women.  We do know that Cain’s realtor and lawyer and other comrades in the neighborhood all have the same expectations of Jewish women, and are ready to make the odds against them nearly insurmountable.   Whether or not this was their reality in past centuries, even under the threat of abuse from powerful white people, this is a great opportunity to wake up and smell the fresh Brooklyn air. The title points us to the politics of it all.  Good thing there are two female directors ready to take on this production.
The sets by Marc Marcante and Lytza Colon literally give us fabulous views of the New York skyline.  There is also a stark whiteness to the interiors which invites the complexities of human emotion to come out from hiding.  Catherine Fisher costumes the ensemble for this subtle battle of the sexes, from demure ladies to the playboy landlord to underground swingers.  Sound design is by the Roly Polys (Andy Evan Cohen and Janet Bentley). Elena at one point gives a piano performance for Cain, which is Bentley's composition Neko Kumogata recorded  by Cohen.   Alex Bartenieff’s lighting design is like a microscope for a murder investigation.

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Name:  Eric Sirota

Hometown:  Brooklyn, New York; Living in Flemington, NJ for the past 32 years.

Education:  Stuyvesant High School, NYC (Frank McCourt was my homeroom teacher throughout high school);  Brown University ScB '80; Harvard University; PhD (Physics) 1986.

Favorite Credits:  Frankenstein (currently playing Off-Broadway at St. Luke's Theatre).  Your Name on My Lips, showcase production at Theater for the New City (March 2017).

Why theater?: I definitely came to theatre first from the music side, having studied composition.  I wanted to take people on emotional journeys, and I know I could do that with the music.  But there are also stories I wanted to tell.  Music can stir the soul and is a universal language.  But when you find the words that join the music as equal partners, and in service to the story, propelling it forward in both plot and emotional arc, nothing is more creatively fulfilling.   I just had to learn how to do that - which took me a few decades.

Tell us about Frankenstein: For many of your readers whose knowledge of Frankenstein might be the Boris Karloff movie, or more likely the Mel Brooks parody of it, let me first say that this is not that.  No flat head.  No bolts.  And no Igor! This Frankenstein is a sweeping romantic musical based on Mary Shelley's novel, which happens to be celebrating the bicentennial of its publication this year. This work attempts to honor that source material, while adapting it into a compelling work of musical theatre. The plot:  Having lost his mother at a young age, Victor Frankenstein seeks to end human mortality and arrogantly enters territory beyond his control. While he enjoys unconditional love from Elizabeth, he grants none to his creation.  Some people have used the Frankenstein story to stoke fear of science and technology.  But Frankenstein's Creature was not a piece of technology, rather, a living being, and the musical I wrote is about the human need for love and companionship.

What inspired you to write Frankenstein?: During winter break of my first year in grad school in 1981, my mother took me to a preview of the infamously short-lived Broadway production of the Gialanella play, based on Mary Shelley's novel.  I thought, "Why AREN'T they singing?!"  I re-read the book and heard the story sing in my head as a musical.  Like Victor Frankenstein, I was a scientist working towards my degree, far from home and far from the girl I loved, and the story spoke to me both intellectually and emotionally. 

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: For me, it is mostly material driven emotionally and intended to elicit an emotional response, more so than an intellectual one: thus, my interest in musicals rather than plays.  Through my school years, I had a Beethoven poster on my wall, where I had appended to his famous quote "Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman. . . And visa versa." After seeing Massenet's Werther as a 12 year old, I developed a love for opera, even in languages I did not understand.  It was Andrew Lloyd Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar which inspired me and taught me that such an emotional musically-driven score could live in the contemporary world of musical theater.  Later, I became equally inspired by Stephen Sondheim, his work and his discussions of the importance of the lyrics.  On developing the "book" for a musical theatre piece, my inspiration came from Stephen Schwartz and his co-panelists at the ASCAP musical theatre workshops.

If you could work with anyone you've yet to work with, who would it be?: As far as in creating the work, a lyricist/co-bookwriter on a new project.  Book, music and lyrics myself is overwhelming!  I will have to find the right collaborator and the right project.  As far as performers, I would like to work with the actor Rodney Ingram (currently in Phantom). But I'm not sure if it counts, since he was in a 15-minute workshop presentation at the West Village Musical Theatre Festival when he was a student. But in terms of developing my next project in the works, his favorite quote (according to Facebook) happens to be the basis of that musical.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: The Band's Visit;  The Book of Mormon.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?:  "Arts and Sciences" or "The Hopeless Romantic".  I'd be played by Omar Sharif, from the past.  I had a mustache my first year of college, and my classmates said I looked like him; and for the next 4 years, I answered to the name 'Omar'.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?:   The original Broadway production of Jesus Christ Superstar; and Hamilton, early on when you could get tickets.

What's your biggest guilty pleasure?: A rich creamy pasta with salmon.

If you weren't working in theater, you would be _____?: If I wasn't working in theatre, I would be a scientist.  But even though I am working in theatre, I am also a scientist.   Specifically a condensed matter physicist, studying the properties of soft materials such as waxes and polymers.  I am very fortunate that my "day job" is something that I am equally passionate about.  Even though my research is highly cited, I think more people have seen my theatre work than have actually read my specialized papers.

What's up next?: Staged reading of Go, My Child, a new musical about the untold story of biblical Sarah, Abraham and their parents: Infertility, xenophobia and the search for truth.  (My daughter, Julia London Sirota is my co-bookwriter/co-lyricist on this.) Starting a new musical based on a specific novel, if we can get the rights.   Expanding A Day at the Whitehouse, (book and lyrics by Vin Morreale, music by me) into a full length musical.  We did a 15-minute workshop version in the West Village Musical Theatre Festival in 2012.   The story, according to Matt Mitchell's interview with you last year (Block Talk- Episode 11) "predicted Donald Trump."