Please join our Brianne (Mai) Blessitt this Saturday, August 9, at 4pm for "Don't Rain On My Parade," an afternoon of music and poetry to benefit The Shriners Hospital for Children. Due to a very kind anonymous donor, all ticket proceeds will go to the Hospital in honor of Brianne's late father, Lee "Harley" Mai.
Brianne's band will feature the talents of Charlie Hanover, Chris Blessitt, Curt Garey, Elizabeth Olson, Jeni Magana, and our own Neil Fennell and Sky Seals. Several members of The SymphoNYChorus will also be making an appearance.
If you are unable to attend but would still like to contribute, please feel free to do so here http://goo.gl/zJPJ04 and enter Lee Mai in the Deceased Name entry.
We caught up with our own Amy Lee Pearsall to talk about the eventful end she had to 2013. Good things are coming up for 2014, as well. Keep an eye on her website for updates. *****
You were named an Indie Theater Now Person of the Year for 2013. (YAY!) They describe their People of the Year as artists that "represent the cream of contemporary independent theater…[who] have contributed in multiple ways to the diversity and vitality of NYC theater in the past 12 months." How does it feel to be recognized by an organization that describes their artists that way?
It's humbling. I'm enormously proud to be a part of the New York independent theatre community.
What did you do that contributed to your receiving this recognition?
LICKSPITTLES, BUTTONHOLERS, AND DAMNED PERNICIOUS GO-BETWEENS
photos courtesy of Boomerang Theatre Co./ Justin Hoch (2013)
In terms of my highlights for 2013, I was a frequent participant in Wide Eyed's "Winks" staged reading series; I played two very different roles in Boomerang Theatre Company's world premiere of Johnna Adams' LICKSPITTLES, BUTTONHOLERS, AND DAMNED PERNICIOUS GO-BETWEENS; I reviewed plays at the New York International Fringe Festival and the United Solo Festival. I went to a lot of plays and fundraisers, participated in last-minute readings, and was active in terms of supporting the independent theatre community. I think that in particular is what this all about: community building. We don't create theatre in a vacuum, even if the work is set in outer space. Theatre – especially independent theatre – is a collaborative art form, and I like to play with and support my fellow collaborators.
How did you initially get involved with Indie Theater Now, formerly nytheatre.com?
Wide Eyed's artistic director, Kristin Skye Hoffmann, had been doing some reviewing for nytheatre.com, and she knew that I am, among other things, a writer. She mentioned to me that the editors of the site, Martin and Rochelle Denton, were holding an open house for potential new reviewers, and the rest is history. Martin and Rochelle's focus on their work has changed in the last year, with priority now being given to the publication and distribution of new plays via the internet on Indie Theater Now, though they are still showcasing opinion pieces on their sub-site, nytheaternow.com. Indie Theater Now is a pretty neat thing, if you're not familiar. It's a fantastic way to discover new voices in contemporary theatre.
You were also recently invited to join the League of Professional Theatre Women. What does that mean to you? How will it shape your acting career as a woman and an artist?
Wide Eyed's "Winks"/ Brianne Blessitt (2013)
Joining the League of Professional Theatre Women goes hand in hand with being acknowledged for my work in the independent theatre community by Indie Theater Now. It's really not about How is this going to serve me or shape me; it’s about being a member of a community. It's about having another opportunity to ask How may I be of service to my colleagues, to women in my field, to the stories we want to tell, and to the world we're creating? In this business, it’s easy to get stuck in the mindset of What can I get out of this? If I scratch your back, how will you scratch mine? but I think that's backwards. You get as good as you give, and really, the getting lies within the giving. I just look forward to contributing as best I can.
What advice do you have for actors who are starting out or need inspiration to keep at it?
There is no shame in paying the bills and putting food on the table. Stay healthy. Just don't forget to continue to generate your art while you’re doing what you need to do in order to survive. There may be days when you feel like you may never work again, or like your own voice is failing you. It will pass. Get out of your own way, because self-sabotage is not sexy. Write the play, mount the show, take the class, upload the video, read the union contracts. We have so much more control these days over our own creative output than our predecessors. There's indie theatre and film, web series, plays in apartments and improv on the subways, dance installations in warehouses, internet publishing...the possibilities are endless. Just be true to yourself, be true to your calling, and make your art.
Much love and heartfelt congratulations to Wide Eyed company member Ben Newman, and to our dear friends Anthony Reimer and Brian Watkins. Watkins's High Plains (produced along with another haunting work by Watkins, My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer, as "The Prairie Plays" by Wide Eyed in 2010) is yet again proving itself to be a fascinating bit of theatre, this time at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Don't just take our word for it. Check out the reviews here.
Duane Chivon Ferguson
is an actor, writer, director, producer, editor, cinematographer, singer, and
poet. He was born in Harlem, New York and raised in the Republic of
Trinidad and Tobago. He first developed his creativity performing in
plays at his alma mater, Herbert H. Lehman College of the City
University of New York. He also performed on various stages in New York
and did repertory work with The Positive Youth Troupe and The Citykids
Foundation. On camera, Duane has hosted various episodes of magazine
shows and has appeared in numerous independent shorts. He is currently a
member of Wide Eyed Productions in NYC. His life is all about the
chase....whether it be after the dream, the fantastic, or the joy of
being surrounded by his friends and family. He dedicates all of his
efforts to his lovely daughter, Soul. [You can keep up with Duane on Twitter,
and check out more of his work on youtube and Vimeo. - Ed.]
Let’s just get this out of the way: You won an Emmy last week. What was that like? Can you tell us a bit about what you won for?
What was it like? Well…. I remember last year at the NY Emmys, a couple of good friends and colleagues won their Emmys. One won his second; another won her first. I remember thinking, “You know what? Next year... I’m winning one.” I kinda put it out there, like a mantra. I then was given the opportunity to create a segment for CUNY TV's Study With The Best. The segment featured poetry written by members of the City University of NY community; we call it ‘Digi-flow’. This particular one featured Wide Eyed's former Artistic Director, Tim Butterfield, a Brooklyn College graduate. The segment was then featured in an episode that was nominated…and ultimately won the category of Education Program/Special.
CUNY Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson, Study with the
Best
producer Duane Ferguson, senior producer Nehama Miller-Kohn, & CUNY
TV
Executive Director Robert Isaacson, NY Emmy ceremony (Photo by
Vincent Verdi)
When we were announced as the winner... It was one of the proudest moments in my life. I loved it, not only because I kept my promise to myself, but because the team of producers I worked with all worked their asses off and it showed. It’s one of the best examples of teamwork I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience.
You have been quite active in recent months with The Inspired Word spoken-word poetry series. How did you become involved? When did your love affair with poetry begin? Do you find yourself most inspired by anything or anyone in particular?
Well, one day I was damn depressed, and I said to myself, “Self… stop being so damn depressed. You know what you need? Jesus.” I didn’t have his number on speed dial, so I decided to do the next best thing and Google ‘open mics NYC’. One of the top hits on there was Inspired Word. So on a whim, I just went. On the day I decided to sign up, it also happened to be a slam night. So…I just said, ”Screw it. Do it”. I didn’t win that night…but it was a hell of a lot of fun, and now months later I have another family.
Photo by Michael Geffner
Poetry was something I had always dabbled in, but never had the guts to really perform. I remember performing a poem I wrote years ago when I was with The Citykids Foundation, and I remember the response it got. It was phenomenal. Added bonus, I performed on the same stage that day with poet Amiri Baraka. That always stuck with me. I was always a poet, but I somehow neither had the opportunity nor the courage to do it, which was super ironic since I had already established a comfort level with performing on stage at an early age.
Ever since I’ve began performing with the ‘Word’, I’ve gained so much more confidence. I started playing guitar in public…When I hit the mic, no one knows if I’m going to sing, play guitar, do poetry or just whistle patriotic songs through my nose. I love performing. But I love watching performers. Whenever I see a poet, or comic, or singer, or musician move the crowd, not just vocally but with energy…. It’s just such a turn on. It’s like whenever I watch a company member, or any actor for that matter, move an audience. It’s the same thing. That’s where I draw the most inspiration: from other bad-ass performers.
Under the umbrella of your production company, Baba Soul, Ent?, you’ve been generating “digi-poems” in collaboration with other local poets and creating shorts like I Am: Keep Your Hood Up in memory of Treyvon Martin. Can you share with us what your mission is with Baba Soul? What inspires you to undertake the projects that you create?
I want to be able to provide a showcase for people with a voice. Like I mentioned, I love performers. If I see one I particularly like, I essentially accost them, and tell ‘em stuff like, “Damn. I love your shit. I’d love to work with you on something one day.” Most of the time I have no idea what that would look like, but I don’t care. I just want to put it out there. Because of digital technology, artists have no more excuses as to why they don’t have a digital or showcased forum for their art form. I just want to be able to not only help show their work, but to inspire other cats to do the same. I particularly want to take advantage of my skill as a camera operator and editor…who also happens to act, write and direct.
We may be a little biased, but we think you’re a very talented
actor. Do you have any plans to be on the other side of the lens
sometime soon?
Hell yes. The whole point of me doing digi-shorts and poems was
for me to stop bitching about not being cast and do my own stuff. I
just never found the right opportunity to cast myself, because sometimes
I think too much like a director and would imagine other actors in
roles that I write. I have to stop doing that crap. I’m gonna write
myself out of a freakin’ job.
Can you share anything with us about any upcoming or additional projects you have coming up?
Speaking of acting... I am working on a feature film that I’ve been cast in, thanks to [fellow Wide Eyed member] Carly Knight who had the foresight to refer me to the filmmaker. Because of her, I’m acting again. That Carly… always looking out. The added bonus is I’ll be sharing the screen with her, too. That’s awesome.
I also wrote a webseries that I am hoping to get up and running this summer, and I actually cast myself in the lead role. So I am hoping to add to the fine Wide Eyed tradition and follow in the footsteps of Andrew [Harriss], Neil [Fennell], Jake [Paque] and Trevor [Dallier] as company members who have graced the digital screen [in their own webseries]. Plus, I’m kinda hoping I might get to jump on stage with those crazy Wide Eyed kids again. It’s like the NY lotto. Hey…ya never know.
Buddy System– the web series created and starred in by Wide Eyed company members Jake Paque and Trevor Dallier – launched on April 10th with a public screening at Manhattan’s Stone Creek Bar and Grill. We caught up with Jake and Trevor to discuss current and upcoming projects for StagNation Productions, their film and media production company. Be sure to check out Episode 1 of Buddy System on youtube (you can also watch it below)!
Please tell us about how this web series was conceived. What inspired you to create Buddy System?
JAKE: Trevor and I started kicking around these characters of BB Roo and Trent Dulcimer and we loved their dynamic: BB, this music video writer who gets fired and doesn’t really know how to do anything else, and Trent, a person who works for a fictitious company called Buddy System that helps people re-enter the workforce. We spent hours riffing on situations these guys could get into, so with the help of our director Kurt Rodeghiero, we built a home for them in our web series Buddy System. We also desperately wanted an opportunity to work with some friends whose work we really respected, but the industry doesn't always provide that opportunity. So we just did it on our own and it was immensely rewarding. TREVOR: I think Jake’s point about wanting to find a venue in which we could work with as many of our favorite people as possible was a huge draw for me. And that is to say, that our company, StagNation, was also formed with the same hope in mind. We thought that this concept would allow us to write scenarios fitting each person we know specifically. After completing filming on another project, we were hooked and knew we had something good going for us in StagNation.
This worked out to be somewhat of a bi-coastal creative process for your team. Can you share with us some of the technicalities of that? Would you say it worked in your favor?
JAKE: We had all of our post done in LA. It was a decision we made with Kurt, knowing he wanted to work closely with our editor Jeremy Bird. Once we decided that the edit would be done out there, it just made sense to have the rest (color correction, sound etc.) done out west as well. The experience was actually pretty cool. We were able to stay updated by watching edits and adjustments via private youtube links and videos stored in Dropbox. We were in the loop every step of the way. Saw dozens of versions of the episode and were able to make adjustments. It definitely worked in our favor and allowed us to establish relationships with industry pros we might not have met otherwise.
Photo by Lauren Marsh Photography
TREVOR: We also had our hearts set on making sure that Kurt was able to direct. This was a tough decision (upping the cost of the production), but we really felt he was an integral part of both the storytelling and the production as a whole. He had such a huge influence on the production, from script edits, to story ideas, to helping us find a great crew and working closely with our DP, Nolan Maloney, we have to give him major props!
Can you tell us a little bit about your plans for future episodes of Buddy System? What’s the next step in the production process for you?
JAKE: We have the next few episodes written and in pre-production. There is a ten-episode arc that we'd love to be able to produce all of. The first episode has already helped expand our audience base and we're really pleased with all the feedback. We also hope that Meet and Greet intrigues potential financiers that would be interested in investing in Buddy System or future StagNation Productions. The immediate next step is acquiring further funding, locking down locations and booking the crew/talent for episodes two and three!
You produce the Stagnant Thoughts podcast. Can you tell us it about that? What inspired you to create a podcast? What excites you about it?
JAKE: The Stagnant Thoughts podcast is an opportunity for us to check in with our friends in the entertainment industry and let others know what they're up to. The podcast medium has always excited me. I love the back and forth, riffing and storytelling that comes out of each episode. The unspoken goal of the Stagnant Thoughts podcast is to bring to light some of murkier elements of the entertainment biz. There are a million places you can go to hear what famous people are doing, but the majority of artists are struggling, scrapping to get the next project. I wanted our podcast to discuss the successes and failures of the emerging artist, while making sure the guests talk about things that are important to them. We love the opportunity to share our friends’ voices and hopefully give people a laugh. For instance, the Goro Fighting reference in our most recent episode... TREVOR: Adding on to what Jake said, podcasts are a perfect venue to describe what independent producing is like for us as a personal experience. I feel like when I was younger, I would have latched onto a program like ours to get a feel for the real world of independent arts. I hope we can both inspire and educate our listeners. I also hope they laugh with us in our rants about Goro fighting and “fixing things in post” (which will never happen, by the way).
Can you tell us about other projects you have in the hopper?
JAKE: We have a ton of things we're interested in producing… sketches, shorts and ultimately a feature. These are each on individual times lines, but I'll say for certain, our youtube channel will be filling with content very soon. The response to Buddy System has been phenomenal and we promise to continue bringing that level of entertainment. TREVOR: All I can say is that I am extremely excited to be working on our upcoming projects, in all facets, and I hope to learn and grow as a producer and an artist. Our viewers will not be disappointed!
Ben Newman (AEA) - New York: Bub in The Town of No One (NY Fringe '11), Richard in Henry VI, Pt. III (Wide Eyed Productions at CSC), Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (Columbia Stages), R.P. McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (WEP), among others. Regional: Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Actors Theatre Kansas City, Riverside Shakespeare Festival. Creator and director of Wide Eyed's NY Fringe '10 hit A World Elsewhere! Arias in the Key of Clown. Performing next as Morris in Blood Knot at Profile Theatre in Portland, OR, where he has recently relocated in order to foster his passion for artistic creation and his love of the outdoors. BA University of Northern Colorado. MFA University of Missouri-Kansas City.
You’ve been working on a production of Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot for Profile Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Can you share with us a little bit about the show and your experience working on this production?
Ben Newman as Morris and Don Kenneth Mason as Zach; Jamie Bosworth Photography
The play is about two brothers, one black and one mixed race, trying to figure out how to love one another in Apartheid South Africa. Working on this production has been a huge growth experience both as an actor and a human. South African Dialect? Check. Two-hour-two-hander where you never leave stage? Check. Role that the playwright originally wrote for himself? Check. Around 18 monologues for said role? Check. Hugely important subject matter? Check. The list goes on…it’s been an incredible challenge to attack head on and dutifully explore. Fugard’s writing is absolutely beautiful and it’s been a blessing to learn and speak his words. There’s a trap there however, in making those words too precious (something I’m consistently guilty of), and losing good storytelling in the process. This is one of those plays where the same story never gets told twice during the course of the run. Every night is going to be a roller coaster ride, so it’s best to just strap in and enjoy the ride. It has been, and I’m sure, will continue to be, a great lesson in truly listening to your stage partner and remaining as present as possible. I can’t wait!
How would you say the Portland theatre community is similar to that of the New York independent theatre community? How did you come about to work with Profile Theatre?
The theatre community in Portland is hugely similar to NY indy theatre. Portland is filled with tons of great, hard-working, hugely talented artists striving to get their work out there, and willing to do whatever it takes in order to do so. Last week, I learned in conversation that there are 83 theatres in Portland alone. Not bad for a town whose population isn’t even one third of mannyhatty. However, that has some drawbacks as well. With the market being fairly saturated, financial support gets tapped out, and the levels of professionalism suffer across the board. I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity, and it will be interesting to see if Portland’s demand for good theatre can keep up with the number of people wanting to provide it.
Profile Theatre has a new Artistic Director at its helm in Adriana Baer. Adriana and I met when she was in grad school at Columbia and I worked with her on several projects in NY. She was offered this job last spring and when I decided to move to Portland this summer I reached out to her. Luckily enough, she asked me to audition for Blood Knot’s director, and I was offered the role. It’s a great opportunity to introduce myself to the Portland Theatre Community and I’m grateful.
What is life like for you out in Oregon? Are you working on any additional projects at the moment? Care to share with us?
I’m still figuring it out. Winter in Portland is pretty tough with all the rain. Weather was a huge factor in my decision to leave NY, so we’ll see if I can tough it out. My main reason for coming to Portland was to be able to marry my love for the outdoors with a theatre lifestyle. I’ve been able to go snowboarding quite a few times throughout the winter, and did a lot of camping, fishing, and golfing in late summer after I moved here. I have a feeling it’s going to be a pretty good fit. Regardless of how much I miss my Wide Eyed family!
As soon as Blood Knot closes, I’m going to Colorado to co-direct a production of Medea at the University of Northern Colorado. Very excited to work on that! Aaaaaand…High Plains, a play that Wide Eyed produced [The Prairie Plays, 2010], has been invited to Edinburgh in August! When I saw the playwright (Brian Watkins) perform this play in NYFringe ’09, I immediately fell in love with it and his writing. Brian called me last fall and told me he wanted to take it to Edinburgh and asked if I’d be interested in taking on the role of Jake. I leapt at the opportunity, and now it’s really happening! We’ll be doing 23 performances in an underground vault space known as Iron Belly. We also just booked some preview performances in NY right before we leave this summer. They’ll be on Sunday, July 28th at 7 and 9pm at Jimmy’s no. 43! Come check it out!
We hope you'll join us tomorrow night, Tuesday, December 10, for our *free* staged reading of
Bryony Lavery's FROZEN as part of our "Winks" series at the Underground Lounge (955 West End Ave. @ 107th Street). The reading features the talents of company members Sky Seals, Lisa Mamazza,Will Farrell, and NY indie theatre veteran Kristen Vaughn. Nytheatre.com 2012
People of the Year recipient Jordana Williams directs.
At the reading, Wide Eyed
will be accepting donations of *crayons, coloring books, paper, colored
pencils and washable markers* for The New York
Innovative Theatre Foundation, which is participating in the Secret Sandy Toy Drive. So swing by a drugstore or dollar store
on the way: You can help to bring the gift of holiday creativity to kids
still very much affected by the storm.
Comedian Kevin Downey, Jr. will kick things off with his good cheer at 7pm, and the reading begins at 7:30. Come a little early, drop off some art supplies for a good cause, grab a drink and a seat, and settle in for a fine night of storytelling. We'll see you there.
White Liars– the web series written, directed, shot and starred in by Wide Eyed company and board members Andrew Harriss and Neil Fennell – launches its second season with a new episode on September 29. While not a direct project of Wide Eyed Productions, the web series has featured the talents of many of our company members. We caught up with Andrew and Neil to discuss their project. Be sure to check out the Season 2 trailer on youtube (you can also watch it below)!
Please tell us about how this project was conceived. What inspired you to create White Liars?
ANDREW: The seed of White Liars came from my cousin, Adam Harriss, who basically gave me a situation and a few lines of dialogue which I used as my starting point, and are the first lines of dialogue in the first episode. The idea of spending the amount of time and money that it would take to produce a web series was overwhelming to me at the time, so I put off writing the first episode for about eight months until I thought, why not? That’s when I approached Neil to direct and Justin Ness to play [the character of] Chet, and we finally sat down and talked about it about three months after that.
NEIL: Andrew brought the script to me and asked if I would direct it. We sat down for a production meeting and ended up mapping out all eight episodes of the first season. Then Andrew wrote script by script, and we shot as we went, episode by episode. We were pretty green in the beginning, and definitely picked up steam with more experience.
ANDREW: I had no idea what the show was going to be about other than con artists. I thought a lot about the concept of lies, and how easy they are to tell to ourselves and others, how comfortable we can be with lies, and how when we convince ourselves of a lie, sometimes we can just go ahead and proceed as if this fiction we’ve created for ourselves is true. There’s a lot of humor there and commentary, too.
Adam wanted it to be a little more like the office. He comes from the corporate world, and I don’t even have a stamp on my passport for the corporate world, so making Tim (my character) an actor and keeping the corporate world vague was a product of my personal experience. That was pretty much the point we were at when Neil and I sat down and talked through the season.
Can you give us a little summary of what happened in Season 1?
ANDREW: In a nutshell, White Liars follows the exploits of Tim, a down on his luck New York actor in need of a job and his friend Chet, who has lots of jobs. Their journey takes a satirical look at the world of business, non-paying theatre, and the little white lies that end up becoming much bigger down the road.
How would you say Season 2 differs from the first?
ANDREW: Season 2 is a continuation of the narrative of Season 1. At the end of Season 1, we see Tim turn from a pawn to a player in the game. The game changes very quickly in Season 2 as the consequences of Tim and Chet’s actions start to catch up with them. There’s still plenty of lying, though…Lots of lying. That’s very important in our show. The quality is much better, too. The lessons we learned on Season 1 bear their fruit this time around.
NEIL: Season 2 is so much tighter. It’s fast-paced; it’s funnier; the performances are fantastic. Plus, we’ve just gotten better at it. The planning was far more extensive, the camera covers more, and it’s on a much grander scale. People will be very interested to see where the story goes.
I’m sure you each have a couple of favorite shots from Season 2. Can you share with us some of the technicalities?
NEIL: Well, I can reveal that a good friend of ours is a Steadicam operator, and we got to utilize his talents for a shot in Season 2. That was an incredible experience, utilizing 15 people for one long moving shot. I had never got to direct something like that before - it was so much fun. Anything else, you’ll have to wait and see.
ANDREW: I do love the Steadicam shot, but I have to say, even though I’ve only seen some of the raw footage, I think the finale has some of my favorite moments and shots of the entire series. They’re beautiful.
White Liars has an original soundtrack. I believe that’s kind of unusual for an indie web series. Can you tell us how that came about?
NEIL: I always hoped that we could do original music for the series, since I’m a musician. I also hoped that we didn’t have to use outside sources due to rights, etc. We wanted to create something original that had our own kind of feel. Luckily, we have fellow company member Sky Seals, who works wizardry. We have a lot of fun, the three of us in a room, coming up with original themes for the show.
ANDREW: I’ll just say that when you have people who are willing and eager to help you out, you should make use of them. I didn’t even think about music until we’d started shooting, but when it came time to score the episodes it became very clear that the music had to tell as much of the story as the rest of the components. I think it’s wonderful and can’t sing Sky Seals’s praises enough for the work he did (and is continuing to do) to bring a musical life to our story.
I understand that White Liars is now not only the name of this web series, but is also the name of your production company. What do you like most about working together?
NEIL: I like that we’re friends first…We work together because we like each other. It’s hard enough to do this without an underlying friendship, and lord knows we can get stressed with/at each other at times. I’d hate to think what it was like working on a project of this scope with someone that I DIDN’T like.
ANDREW: I like what Neil said. Same goes for me.
Can you tell us about other projects you have in the hopper?
NEIL: I’m currently editing Wide Eyed Productions’s short film The Return of Toodles Von Flooz. It’s been on the back burner far longer than I care to admit, but we have a timetable in place and people should keep an eye out for it soon. Other than that, I enjoy the few hours a week I get to sleep.
ANDREW: Smaller, more sketch based videos in 2013! And maybe a nap.
Please join us this Saturday, Sept. 29, at 9:00 p.m.
