From the category archives:

Interviews

Carsten Höller: Experience at the New Museum

by Hannah Frishberg on November 14, 2011

in High 5 Freelancer,Interviews,Teen Reviews,Visual Arts

Untitled (slide) by Carsten Höller. Photo Credit: Noah Kalina, Katie Sokoler/Gothamist.

“The point of this exhibition is to disprove your expectations,” New Museum employee Kimberley Mackenzie noted, referring to the museum’s current survey of works by German artist Carsten Höller. Part test site and part laboratory, the exhibition takes the concept of a “visitor experience” to the next level. The participation requires museum-goers to sign a legal waiver on the ground floor, after which they pass the fittingly placed mushroom sculptures and enter an adult playground of interactive art. Depending on how willing you are to suspend your belief (and body), the exhibition offers a wide-ranging selection of experiences, all far from any conventional idea of museum installations.

For the hesitant, the upper floors offer a room of flashing lights, a fish tank with a hole for your head, parakeets, a mirrored carousel, and a moving tunnel. For the more advantageous, a 102-foot slide penetrates the main gallery floors and takes a total of four seconds to ride (and is becoming progressively faster as riders further indent the steel), and the Experience Corridor offers a number of self-experiments. For the dauntless, there are Upside-Down Goggles, which give the user inverted vision and make you so prone to falling that use requires leaving a credit card at the desk, and the Giant Psycho Tank, a sensory deprivation pool filled with literally a ton of salt, set at the same temperature as the human body, meaning to emulate the Dead Sea. Participation in the tank requires either the removal of all clothing or only wearing a swimsuit.

While such a wild menu of experiences would naturally seem the product of an artist, Mr. Höller, 49, in fact began as a biologist. [click to continue…]

Tagged as: Carsten Höller, New Museum

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An Interview with Christopher Loar, the Man Behind the New York Neo-Futurists’ The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill Vol. 1 Early Plays/Lost Plays

by Hannah Frishberg on October 31, 2011

in Interviews

A California native and fan of obscure British electronic music, Christopher Loar is the adapter and director behind The New York Neo-Futurist’s recent performance of The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill Vol. 1 Early Plays/Lost Plays. Hilarious and innovative, this production featured seven Neo-Futurists performing only the stage directions of renowned playwright Eugene O’Neill’s early and lost plays (as the title so directly fleshes out). A sold out success, the idea for the play had been brewing in Loar’s head for quite some time. Obsessed with O’Neill’s work in school, after joining the Neo-Futurists in 2009 Loar originally used the playwright’s 1941 Pulitzer Prize winning play Long Day’s Journey Into Night to test the functionality of having a script of only stage directions in the company’s weekly, ever-changing performance of 30 plays in 60 minutes, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. It was a success. He submitted the piece to the company’s annual main stage show, of which only two are performed per season. Loar’s piece was not accepted. However, after working on it for some time he again submitted it this year and, clearly, it was selected.
As to how he came up with such a creative performance-piece, Loar admits he “just thought it up one day. “It was a whim.” He also refuses to compare Eugene O’Neill with classic theatrical performances and Broadway. “I wouldn’t want to compare the two. That’s up to the audience.” A Neo-Futurist for three years now, Loar does, however, have an opinion on the ideal type of audience. “I like a mix,” he says, adding that at a typical Neo-Futurist performance “there’s always the staple crowd of young people, but also some older, uptown regulars”. Diversity, he feels, is great for appreciating the Neo-Futurists’ work. While for Loar no particular age group or demographic necessarily better reacts or appreciates the company’s work, the audience for the company does tend to be younger, although that means a range from teenagers to couples in their late-30s, with some elderly outliers.

Regarding New York City, Loar finds it a “very busy, utilitarian place, where survival means making a lot out of a little bit. It’s great to be here as a young person.” When asked how he would want to influence every member of the audience with a message from his shows, Loar quoted O’Neill, saying that he’d “like the audience to have fun,” and emphasizing that “rhythm alone can tell a story.” He further explained that O’Neill believed that rhythm was vital to telling stories, and Loar tries to do this with his own work.

A big supporter of theatrical companies such as The Wooster Group (where he interned prior to the Neo-Futurists) and the Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Loar also loves and is influenced by Japanese theater and performance as well as the Eastern realm. While he has a love for film, Loar does prefer the theater, emphasizing that “there’s nothing like performing for a live audience. It’s the live event of theater that makes it so great.” He went on to clarify that while theater is his preferred art, it is far more difficult to find good theater than good film.

Concerning the fact that Eugene O’Neill does satirize the work of the respected playwright (if only the stage directions), Loar rejected the notion that he was showing any disrespect to O’Neill, describing how, “O’Neill himself always said that he’d prefer the plays were never actually produced. He dismissed his work and never attended performances of his own plays. If we as the Neo-Futurists can make shows he hated entertaining, we can only hope he would have approved.”

Now that Eugene O’Neill is complete, Loar is back to performing with the Neo-Futurists in Too Much Light. What’s next in Loar’s future? The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O’Neill Volume II!

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Words with a Mime: Interviewing Rebecca Baumwoll

by Cecilia Kim on August 31, 2011

in Interviews

The theatre is empty and the sterile fluorescent lights reveal an ordinary scuffed stage; it’s difficult to believe that an entire show had occurred on that very stage only minutes ago, transforming the entire theatre into world of possibilities. The Broken Box Mime Theatre has brought its latest creation, Words Don’t Work, to the Fringe Festival and I was fortunate enough to catch a word or two with the artistic director of Broken Box Mime Theatre after the show.

H5R: So how did this troupe get started, Broken Box Theatre?

RB: I went to Tufts University with a bunch of other people who are now in the troupe and we were part of a mime troupe there called HYPE! Mime Troupe and it was totally student run. When I graduated last year in 2010, I moved to the city to be an actress and knew that this should be part of my life so I organized this company and got in touch with Brian, who’s our producer. He graduated three years before me, Brian Smith, and is now a professional producer in the city. He had also had in mind to continue the work of HYPE! Mime Troupe, so we decided to get going on it. He learned about the Fringe application, I gathered up the people from HYPE! who’d be interested in continuing the work—and everything just snowballed from there.

H5R: So what would say was the easiest part, getting this all together, and the hardest part?

RB: The easiest part of getting it together is finding people who are passionate about this work. It’s so unusual and so bizarre and so fun—and it allows the actor to work on whatever we want. Like, if I’m in the mood to be in a Spanish soap opera, let’s just write it, you know, it’s that kind of thing. So people were really excited to be a part of it and I think that more people after seeing the show—we have a lot of people interested in auditioning. So that was the easiest part. The hardest part is figuring out how to take this step for me, personally, to learn how to make it a business. And we’re still just learning—Brian has been my mentor in that because he’s been in the professional industry much longer than I have. But those are just the small things—who’s gonna take care of this, who’s gonna take care of that, what’s who’s responsibility and how do we go forward in a professional way, and to be able to keep our creative voice alive, keep it a creative company through and through.

H5R: Would you say that that would be the mission statement of your troupe? [click to continue…]

Tagged as: Broken Box Mime Theater, FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, Mime, Teen Interviews, Theater

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A Chat with Downtown Artist Edgar Oliver

by Kelly Cordray on August 29, 2011

in Interviews

Edgar Oliver is the closest thing the East Village has to an Urban Legend. His works, which include plays, poetry and fiction, have haunted stages from Downtown to Scotland. When given the opportunity to chat with Edgar about his life and work, he revealed glimpses into the lonely and meditative mind of a wanderer.

The High 5 Review: Mr. Oliver, you’ve spent time in London and Scotland, but you’ve chosen to make the East Village your home, why?

Edgar Oliver: Well, New York is where I got started performing and where I started to read my poems. I never had the inkling to perform but always to write. It never occurred to me to perform, but I knew I would read. I began reading at the Pyramid, a night club, at two in the morning after the people had been listening to dance music for hours. I had to perform in a setting like that and I loved it because it connected to the people.

H5R: Since you’ve been performing in the city for so long, how have you observed the theater industry change? [click to continue…]

Tagged as: Axis Theater Company, Downtown, East Village, Edgar Oliver, Hospital, Hospital 2011, Teen Interviews, Theater

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CLOSING SOON! Last Chance to see the “Hiroshima: Ground Zero, 1945″ Exhibition at ICP

by Claire Coveney, High 5 Staff on August 25, 2011

in Interviews

The International Center of Photography‘s Hiroshima: Ground Zero, 1945 is a harrowing collection of photographs from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city on
August 6, 1945.

TRaC-er Dalia Wolfson takes us behind the scene of the exhibition in an exclusive interview with curator Erin Barnett. Check out the video!

Want more? Don’t miss your chance to see the exhibition before it closes on Sunday, August 28th! Get your 2-for-$5 museum passes to ICP from High align=”center”

Tagged as: Ground Zero, ICP, International Center of Photography, Teen Interviews, visual arts

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High 5 Interviews Teen Playwright Sofia Johnson

by Dalia Wolfson on August 24, 2011

in Interviews

22 Stories, a FringeNYC show currently playing at IATI Theater, showcases both a distinct age and an exceptional playwright. Seventeen-year-old Sofia Johnson, a senior at Bard Early College High School, has written a play that captures the angst, torment and conflict of teenage years, from an insider’s perspective. 22 Stories follows Nicole, a motivated, academic student as she struggles to come to terms with the suicidal drop of her twin sister, Natasha. I sat down with the purple-haired prodigy Sofia to discuss the play’s trajectory, from a script on paper to a show at the Fringe.

The High 5 Review: As a twin, I can definitely relate to the idea that you present in 22 Stories of two siblings with divergent personalities. Did you imagine Natasha and Nicole first as extremes and then as characters?

Sofia Johnson: Yes, I did imagine them as extremes. The idea of twins having these polar opposite personalities and having to confront these differences constantly – because simply, technically they’re so close all the time – creates something that is very interesting to see on the stage. It was only after writing some scenes between the twins, along with some internal monologues, that I was able to understand who these people were and where they were coming from. So the characters eventually began to speak for themselves, and it was amazing.

H5R: I can imagine that seeing those paper characters come alive must have been thrilling. That process – casting, revising, and rehearsing – is often a very intensive one. Was there a main challenge that you had to overcome?

SJ: I did have writer’s possessiveness; with the ending, it took a long time to figure out. There were a lot of scenes where the director, Anna Wilson, would have one idea, and if the thought of the idea was really not working with the words of the play, I would have to restrain myself from saying, “No, that’s not how it is!” We needed to figure out the ways that she and I were in control, and trying to make them coexist. But it was great to have someone that I trusted so well and had known for so long, because this is my first show: if anyone’s going to mess it up it might as well be her, because at the end of the day we would still see eye-to-eye on many of the things.

Overall, though, I do try to be open-minded, but there are still some things that tick me off – like when the cause & effect gets thrown off… that’s when my Mama Bear instincts kick in. Is it a challenge? Yes. Did things go back to the way I had originally wanted them to? Also, yes.

H5R: So you got your way, in the end?

SJ: Yeah, it was kind of a U-Turn of things first not going quite the way I want. Then I object to it, and then I finally get used to it and suddenly, “Oh, just kidding, we’re changing it back again.” But obviously right now, I’m very happy with the way it is.

H5R: Okay, so now one of those dream-situation questions: if you had a few more minutes beyond the Fringe limit, or a few more months beyond the deadline, what would you do?

SJ: If I had a few more minutes or months to write, I might have expanded on the home life of Nicole and Natasha. It’s such an interesting home life, where the parents sympathize more with the rebellious teenager than the studious one; it would be interesting to see that interaction and would shed some light on how Nicole and Natasha developed into those two types of teenagers. I would also expand the friends scene, because I love her friends and they’re so much fun to write. In terms of the ending…I don’t want to think about it anymore, I am done with it.

H5R: How was opening night? Were there any surprises, pleasant and otherwise?

SJ: The house was less than half-full, but the pleasant surprise came from our fabulous venue director, who told me that our show had sold more seats than any other show that day, which was the opening day of all of Fringe in general. And of course, it’s been a pretty rewarding experience to hear people’s feedback, because the show’s been within this small circle of people who have been acquainted with it, in and out, for six weeks, and to have other people look at it was refreshing. It’s nice to be able to take your head out from underwater every once in a while.

H5R: I just wanted to take the time to mention an especially memorable reaction – remember that lady who spoke during the talk-back with the French accent?

SJ: That was one. That was unlike anything that I’ve ever experienced.

H5R: Possibly the best quote of the night: “Twin-ness is a magnifying glass onto the universal need for unity.”

SJ: She said that!?

H5R: And it wasn’t scripted.

SJ: I think that’s the prime anecdote there. Although my friend did text me – her parents own a little coffee shop nearby- and she said that one of their regulars had come in, seen one of my play postcards, and said that she’d seen the play and loved it – which is nice, though not nearly as anecdotal as that. That really takes the cake.

H5R: People tend to write off plays about youth as “Young Adult” genre-literature. Do you think your play falls into that category? How is 22 Stories different? Does it aim to be mature, as opposed to targeting an age group?

SJ: A lot of the problems in there are especially issues that high school students struggle with. Those are everyone’s struggles, so everyone can relate…but teenagers find these challenges particularly relevant. I think one of the main aspects that distinguishes 22 Stories is that with a similar play and plot, it would be an adult dictating what they think a high schooler’s life is like. In the case of my play, this is what I feel like, as someone who is experiencing this and is explaining my own emotions, and you’ll just have to take my word for it. This is what a teenager is feeling. In that sense, yes, it can be themed ‘young adult’, though I don’t like to classify things as young adult or adult, because that can restrict audiences.

H5R: How have you been enjoying the Fringe experience?

SJ: I love it. It’s beyond amazing. Everything about this has been so completely surreal, and the fact that we went to a Town Hall meeting and I got to hear what everyone’s show was about….knowing my play fit in with all of these shows and then having auditions, realizing that here are people who want to be in a show I’ve written- that was crazy, too. Being in tech and being in the house, thinking that I was going to have my work here and seeing it on stage all the time – it’s wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

H5R: And finally: with your show on stage and going strong, what have you learned? What’s the “Take-away”?

SJ: I’ve realized that I want to do it again, that I want to have more plays put on with more actors…that I want to write. I’ve caught the playwright bug.

The final  performances of 22 Stories will be on:

Fri, Aug 26, 2011, 7 pm
Sun, Aug 28, 2011, 3:15 pm
*Learn more and buy tickets here!

And look out for Sofia’s work in the future – she’s currently revising a new play about a small-town teenager who impregnates his girlfriend, then runs away to hitchhike with a band of travelling anarchists.

Tagged as: FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, Teen Interviews, Theater

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FringeHIGH Artist Profile: Karmia Chan Cao

by Claire Coveney, High 5 Staff on August 23, 2011

in Interviews

Meet Karmia Chan Cao
Creator & Director of Pawn

$5 tickets for Pawn at FringeNYC

What’s next on your Netflix queue?

Tree of Life 

What’s playing on your iPod right now?

Frightened Rabbit

Last good book you read was…?

The Bomb by Howard Zinn

Your favorite restaurant in the city is…?

New York Hot Dog’s Bulgogi Dog

All-time, hands-down favorite piece of theater:

Fiddler on the Roof

What’s the best thing about FringeNYC?

The best thing about the Fringe from my perspective is that 200 shows offers a tremendous amount of diversity, career paths, geographies, perspectives, and passions. FringeNYC is a massive gathering stormcloud of talent and of ideas. As young artists, this is exactly the kind of experience we need. We look forward to exchange and look forward to collaboration. We look forward to pouring ourselves on New York. Every single wave comes in earnest. In this we are no different. But we bring with us a sense of earnestness and simplicity that is often denigrated in a cynical world where it is cooler to mock than it is to reveal greatness. One of the greatest strengths of the Fringe is that it embraces the Don Quixote sense that it is better to be considered mad than to not do what we believe in. Artists at the Fringe care about the power of theater wielded properly. We are all trying to express something. Regardless of the content, the shared desire for complete, holistic expression is common among all the shows and we look forward to sharing that with people.

What’s the #1 reason people should come see your show?

Pawn challenges people. We are not nice to our audiences, but we do it because we operate from a place of true love. Pawn brings up a lot of issues that many of us, including those within our company, would be perfectly happy to avoid. Yet, Pawn brings forth memories that incite us to feel. We live in an age where to feel is to be vulnerable and open to attack. Instead, we live in fear of what we cannot express. Fear is the primary, celebrated feeling of the past decade. Pawn aims to draw the poison out of the wound. Audiences may feel vulnerable as they are asked to examine the wound. But having stitched it up, what is left behind is an overwhelming sense of unity and hope. This show was written for New York and has always been about New York. We care about the people of New York and want to celebrate their spirit and bravery. How quickly New Yorkers got up to stand again after the 9/11 attacks. And when they were exhausted, they stood some more. To celebrate New York is not to have a party, but instead to study why the city stood when the towers fell. The first tower is for that spirit. The second tower is unfortunately for the kneejerk reaction that launched the country into two consecutive wars. This show is not blindly antiwar. Instead, it aims to lift unexamined consequences back onto the table. It wants to explore whether the price-tag of war is something we can afford. Through the butterfly effect, we are all deeply connected in a way beyond race, ethnicity, or religion. To change the world is not an option or a calling, but a reality. Everyone is changing the world everyday, so it is a choice of how we are changing the world, what flag we carry, and for what we are soldiering on.

Do you have any opening-night rituals?

Ritual is logic for the soul. The logic that my soul goes through on each opening night is parsing through why we’re here, what Pawn represents, what we’re fighting for, and what we consider success to be. Then I play the drums.

What are the craziest performance conditions you’ve had to work under?

Do you really want to know? How about trying to fill 1700 seats each night in Beijing during the biggest storm of the century? How about losing power in the middle of a performance in Daegu, South Korea and being left with just drums and raw voices for two minutes in a metal-rock song? How about being told in Chengdu that there are no gel frames for the lights, but hair clips will probably work? How about chunks of the ceiling falling an hour before a show and being told that it’s the first time in twenty years that the ceiling has fallen, but that it won’t happen again?

How did you get involved with the arts?

Simply put, I think writing was discovering an extra appendage or an organ. It’s very much like a breathing exercise of how much I want to take in of the world, how much I want to give back, what the air smelled like, how the words taste and what receives life from every breath.

Tagged as: artist profile, FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, Pawn, Theater

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FringeHIGH Artist Profile: Katie Cappiello & Meg McInerney

by Claire Coveney, High 5 Staff August 23, 2011 Interviews

Meet Katie Cappiello & Meg McInerney Directors/Producer of Facebook Me $5 tickets to Facebook Me at FringeNYC What’s next on your Netflix queue? Winter’s Bone with Jennifer Lawrence (soon-to-be Katniss in Hunger Games) What’s playing on your iPod right now? Adele!  We love Adele!  Rolling in the Deep! Last good book you read was…? Perks [...]

Tagged as: artist profile, Facebook, Facebook Me, FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, Theater

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High 5 Interviews Emily Jablonski

by Cecilia Kim August 22, 2011 Interviews

We walk into the quiet teashop together and Emily Jablonski promptly orders a cup of coffee. She had been overseeing a last minute rehearsal only hours before and confided that she needed a little boost. Jablonski is the director of the mash-up musical Gleeam, which combines the hit show Glee and the horror film classic [...]

Tagged as: FRINGE Festival, FringeNYC, Teen Interviews, Theater

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FringeHIGH Artist Profile: Leslie Collins

by Claire Coveney, High 5 Staff August 22, 2011 Interviews

Meet Leslie Collins Writer/Actor of Poteet Girls $5 tickets to Poteet Girls at FringeNYC What’s next on your Netflix queue? The Fighter What’s playing on your  iPod right now? Poison & Wine -The Civil Wars Last good book you read was…? Empire of the Summer Moon Your favorite restaurant in the city is…? Patsy’s Pizzeria [...]

Tagged as: artist profile, FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, Theater

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Interview with Chris Roe of BAMA Theatre Co.’s “HAMLET”

by Carol Szwei August 18, 2011 Interviews

BAMA Theatre Company beautifully reconstructed one of Shakespeare’s most complex and dark plays. Especially after enduring the tragedy of Hamlet before my eyes, I had so many opinions and questions burgeoning inside of me. The talk-back with the cast and directors after the show was a great eye-opener to many other ideas and realizations. I [...]

Tagged as: BAMA Theatre Company, Chris Roe, FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, Hamlet, interview, Shakespeare, Theater

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FringeHIGH Artist Profile: John Paul Karliak

by Claire Coveney, High 5 Staff August 17, 2011 Interviews

Meet John Paul Karliak Writer/Performer, Donna/Madonna $5 tickets to Donna/Madonna at FringeNYC What’s next on your Netflix queue? Season 2 of “Misfits” (BBC show… amazing) What’s playing on your  iPod right now? Studio Killers, “Ode to the Bouncer” Last good book you read was…? Tina Fey’s Bossypants Your favorite restaurant in the city is…? ChikaLicious [...]

Tagged as: artist profile, Donna/Madonna, FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, Theater

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Poe-Dunk: A Matchbox Entertainment

by Sharon Mizrahi August 16, 2011 High 5 Freelancer

Poe-Dunk: A Matchbox Entertainment is theatrical alchemy—a golden marathon of Edgar Allan Poe’s lesser-known works, humbly sprouted from two sides of the humor spectrum. Actor-turned-director Kevin P. Hale returns to the stage as a slightly exaggerated version of himself, crackling with both the energy of an impassioned Poe aficionado and the leveled, snarky wit of [...]

Tagged as: FRINGE Festival, FringeHIGH, FringeNYC, PlaylabNYC, Teen Interviews, Theater

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