The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is itself  work of art. The somewhat recently redesigned MAD building is modern and does a better job of representing the intensely awesome art that is on display within it than the building it replaced. The architect, Brad Cloepfil, called his work “editing” because the building was worked on while it was still standing (Robin Pogrebin, “Renovation Slowly Adds Some Light to Lollipops”, New York Times, 5 June 2007).One of the most radical changes was the opening up of many rooms by cutting away part of the building. Cloepfil then filled these openings with glass as to create views of Central Park and more importantly shed some of the much needed light on all of the artwork. The old building was ill equipped to be used as an art museum because the inside held little space for large exhibits. Now, thanks to Cloepfil’s work, the building can easily and efficiently function as a museum, with its own restaurant too.

Otherwise, after personally observing the building, inside and out, I feel confident in saying that it is a breathtaking work of art. From the outside, the building draws the attention of any passerby because of the added glass and obvious radiance. It seems as if all of Columbus Circle should stop and observe the building because of its uniqueness and utter beauty. On the other hand, the innards of the building are what make it so unbelievable. The architect changed the building into a curator’s dream. The large glass windows bring in warm sunlight throughout the day that seems to be much appreciated by the perusing visitors.  As I traveled from floor to floor I saw how the natural light didn’t only bring warmth but appeared to save money on lighting for the museum. Furthermore, the building has a lot less in it because of the “300 tons of concrete” that were taken from the site while construction was still in progress (Robin Pogrebin, “Renovation Slowly Adds Some Light to Lollipops”, New York Times, 5 June 2007). For use as an art museum the new MAD building has been equip with the most efficient floor plans to maximize space. Another important aspect of Cloepfil’s glass additions is the view of Central Park and the surrounding city. I realized his train of thought and concluded that on warm sunny days, during any part of the year, no one wants to be inside. The best way to bring the outside inside was his glass additions. Now as the people visiting the museum stroll leisurely from exhibit to exhibit they can see the outside and feel the warmth. The building’s new design is not only attractive in appearance but attracting in terms of bringing people inside. All year round the museum will see jubilant visitors coming and going thanks to the work of Brad Cloepfil and his fellow architects.

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Lee Krasner's "Mosaic Table" in "Crafting Modernism" at MAD Museum. Photo Credit: Pollock-Krasner Foundation/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Have you ever thought whether design and art was the same concept? Well, they are not. There are actually many differences between them. Having spent ten weeks at the Museum of Arts and Design (the MAD Museum), I’ve come to some conclusions.

According to dictionary.com, the literal definition of design is to “prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to the form and structure of:” In other words, it can also be defined as to plan skillfully. Designs are in a commercial sense and are calculated. They are more of a problem solving through communication. Communication is a way to figure out what the designer conveys. Some questions you should ask yourself when you come across a design are: what does this mean? or What is the message that the designer is trying to tell us? These questions are made to make you think and analyze the piece.  If you do not understand what the designer is trying to convey in his piece, then he has failed and the design is not successful. Unlike art, designs are always objective which makes it easier to depict whether a design is good or bad. Many people can immediately tell if the design was good and easy to understand, or bad and misunderstood. Designers make their designs to be audience driven. It is meant for the viewer to be entertained and have fun. Designers are limited due to the costumer’s requirements. Furthermore, designs are more architectural and building rather than being open-minded and unlimited.

Art is a form of expressing one’s self in way that you can easily tell what the message of the artist conveys. It also expresses one’s feeling and emotions. I feel that art is a more loose and unlimited content. Anything around you can be considered as art.  It can be interpreted as many things, and can be used to express yourself through paintings, drawings, sculptures, and even pictures. Thus, according to dictionary.com art means “the quality production, expression, or realm according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” Comprehension is one thing that is not important in art. You might come across a painting that has both happy and depressing colors in it. In a picture described as that, no one would know what the artist is feeling, and it isn’t important to find out. The objective of an art piece can be created by what the artist is feeling through the color he uses. Artist uses art to burst out their creations in mind. Their art piece is not supposed to be audience driven. It shouldn’t have to target an audience whether they do like it or not. Art is subjective. A painting can have many different interpretations. And no interpretation is considered correct or incorrect. An artist can have an analysis for why he created a specific piece, but a viewer can have a different analysis for what that piece means to him. This is the difference between the two.

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Polly Lee and Rachel Leslie in "Nightlands." Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg.

These are the Night lands that’s what they said

You love someone so much and life takes it away

It doesn’t matter what it is, is what you have inside

Nobody has the power to discriminate that right

When you feel like you are not alive

Then that just means you are dead inside

A family that’s what he wants

But it is too late to ask for that

She needed you but you could not see

The person she wanted to be

You can not blame no one for something you did

That’s just life which you have to learn to live

Back then there was hate in every eye

Every mind, every soul people live in the angry world

If you do not stand for what you want

Then people won’t respect you for who you are

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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. After writing his dissertation, “Overwintering and hymenopterous parasitism in autumn of the cereal aphid Sitobion avenae (F.) in northern FR Germany”, which focused on agricultural science, specifically the area of insects’ olfactory communication strategies, Mr. Höller found himself bored with the idea of research and began making art in the late 1980s.

Certainly his work has brought a fresh atmosphere to the New Museum. “We’ve never had so many children at an exhibition before. We’ve never had so many people, in general,” Kimberley commented. And it’s true: while the New Museum has always offered avant-garde art by free thinking artists, this current exhibition of participation based installations is bringing in a far less elite crowd, with a much younger mean and a decent amount of families. While the museum’s last exhibition, Ostalgia, featured a graphic spread of intimate, at times pornographic, photography from Soviet artists which attracted, predictably, no families and an audience of mainly the middle-aged or the incredibly well dressed, the Carsten Höller Experience brings in more of a downtown group closer to college age.

As to whether this change in crowd and shift from art to experience will persist in the next few exhibitions, it would seem that the New Museum is booked too far in advance for the success of Carsten Höller to have an effect for a year or two to come. “The exhibitions are booked very far in advance,” Kimberley told me, “so the success of Carsten Höller may influence exhibitions farther down the line, but nothing will be changed about the next few.”

On view until January 15, the exhibition is free for anyone 18 or under (although the presence or signature of a legal guardian is required to participate in the slide, tank, carousel, or goggle use), and is certainly worth checking out.

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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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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?

RB: The mission statement of the group is that we’re reminding the audience of the power of simple storytelling. That’s like the key base. When you go to a big Broadway show and there are bells and whistles every which way, what the audience is actually responding to is stage presence and great story. Sometimes it’s in the simplicity that will strike you. Especially when we’re in white face and totally no costume that the audience will project whatever they feel and their history onto what we’re doing, so it’s much more emotional for the audience, in fact, then having a fully blown set and costume and everything.

H5R: What would you say your position of artistic director—what is it exactly?

RB: To make sure we don’t stray from our mission statement is one big thing. I end being sort of the stage manager in rehearsals; I organize when we’re going to have rehearsals, who’s gonna be there, and if people have conflicts or issues with the group they talk to me. I make the final decision on what’s in the show and I also assert myself as the leader in rehearsals and say, you know, this is what we’re planning to do today in rehearsal and let’s go back on track. So it’s kind of the—it’s sort of a traditional director kind of position. However, when we get down to each skit, choosing how each skit looks becomes much more collaborative when we get down to the nitty-gritty.

H5R: So what was it like being part of Fringe?

RB: Wonderful. The people are wonderful and very, very nice—it’s interesting four days off in between shows, that’s a little bit crazy especially when we’re doing something that’s so physical. To take days off and come back into these little moments is difficult but it is such great exposure. And not in the way you want to get famous, ASAP [laughs]. It’s like—it’s more like exposure, like Tasha said in the talkback, the audience is here, that completes the puzzle. Audiences, when we’re such a brand-new company, like months-old, is a huge treat.

H5R: Would you do this again? This sort of thing?

RB: Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. I think—this is something—being the artistic director of this group is something that I see happening for a very long time in the future, it’s something I want to keep in my life. Everyone in the group is a professional actor, so people are going to have jobs here and there, but right now the feeling is when people are here and in town, they want to work on these shows. It keeps you thinking, it makes actors better actors, it makes dancers better dancers, it makes clowns better clowns, because you’re looking at the work—when you direct yourself and each other, your eye just starts to be so much more critical and honed in on what you’re doing, and I think it makes us all better performers.

H5R: Why did  you choose the sketch format [for the show]? Why not one of the longer pieces?

RB: That’s what I was trained in, that’s what we did at Tufts. It’s wonderful because for each show, everyone will have a favorite in the show—the actors, the company, everyone has a favorite in the show. So everyone comes in really excited to do the show, as opposed to having one story, maybe it’s someone’s favorite and someone’s not favorite moments—in this one, everyone’s featured at a different place, each one has a very different style and tone so it’s sort of like as a company, as actors, it’s so exciting to do because you now you’ll be flipping into different genres and styles as you go along. Also for the audience, it’s great to show the range of what is possible in mind. If we did one piece, most likely—when I think of it now, we haven’t done it yet—will probably be in one style, one genre. This, when we’re jumping around to different ones, it shows the possibility of your imagination and that’s the basis for this show really, the storytelling. When we show all different kinds of stories, it really sells our—our mission statement.

H5R: What really drew you to mime?

RB: How simple it is, I think. I think, when you see a great painting, the artist knows exactly how to use oil paints to the weaknesses and the strengths in oils, they use it to the best advantage. Someone’s an electronic musician, the best electronic musician; they use their craft, their media—the best possible [way]. But this, there are so many limitations, so to think what you could do within those limitations—like a puzzle and a challenge and that what really draws me to it.

H5R: Not regular acting, this is what–?

RB: Oh, that’s the other joy, when I’m out there in “Duet” and I’m out there with Joe, and I’m having this emotional moment, I can really stretch my acting skills. It makes me a better actor when I’m speaking because I don’t have—I know how much I can tell in just a hand gesture. And that is something that is so valuable when you’re on stage. I love that we’re writing our own stuff. Whatever I’m in the mood to work on, we can make it happen. It’s empowering for us as performers.

H5R: So this troupe is basically new work?

RB: Everything we show, we just wrote in the last two months.

H5R: Wow, that’s incredible. So what’s next for you and this troupe?

RB: We’re working on some viral videos, getting on YouTube and doing funny stuff because mimes are just so bizarre anyway, that it’s really fun to poke at the craft and do stuff like that and have publicity. We’re gonna have auditions in September and get a couple of more people. Like I’ve said I have a feeling with the glory of the talent that we have, people are going to be doing jobs, so having a bigger core will be useful. And also, we know that we’re going to want to go into schools, do probably a sister group to Broken Box, or not necessarily called Broken Box Mime Theatre; kind of a small group of us that will do a side project which will go into schools, do workshops and teach miming. Because really, it gives you body awareness, it’s fun and it’s and exciting way to use your imagination.

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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?

EO: I moved here in [19]77 and started performing in [19]81, and since then there’s been a lot of interest in downtown and it’s a lot easier now, well not easy, but people writers are more interested in reviewing downtown. It’s a change for the better.

H5R: In your work the connection between comedy and what might be considered horror is often explored. How would you define that connection?

EO: I think of what I do on stage as comedies, though they are terribly dark. The connection is that I’m talking about secret things; desire and longing. In a way desire is connected to sorrowful places. Horror is a good way to express, but it’s also beautiful. I love the dark and the funny.

H5R: When you are performing other people’s work, do you perform the role as it was written, or do you personalize it?

EO: When I perform other people’s work there is always an aspect that is me. I think I do personalize it. There’s an aspect of Edgar in everything. I often play villains. I try to play them as people who are having a lot of fun.

H5R: You recently played several roles in Hospital, which roles did you enjoy playing the most?

EO: Well, I loved playing Wee Willy Winkie. I loved that nursery rhyme, loved that poem. It goes “Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town, up stairs and down stairs in his night-gown, tapping at the window, crying at the lock, are the children in their bed, for it’s past eight o’clock.”  I’m a wanderer. It’s what I do, I wonder aimlessly as he does.

H5R: Where do you like to wander in such a populous place as New York?

EO: Empty and desolate places. I love the bridges to Brooklyn and Prospect Park and Harlem. I want to go to Greenpoint and wander. I’ve never been to Greenpoint. I also love walking the Bridges to Queens and recently I’ve been to Jackson Heights.

H5R: What do you find yourself writing about when you return from wandering?

EO: I write about solitude and being alone in these places. I write about the trees, I love trees.

H5R: When you’re writing, how do you ensure that the piece will connect with the audience?

EO: I guess by being as simple and truthful as possible. I try to make sense. Try to not be afraid to say things in a strange way. I think making people laugh is always good. I love making people laugh during dark things.

H5R: Do you ever find yourself editing something because it’s too dark?

EO: No, I’ve never done that. I tend to trust whatever my first draft is. My notebooks might look like someone who’s constantly changing things because of all the scratches and writing. I do change things, but I’m constantly changing them back.

H5R: So you prefer writing in notebooks?

EO: I prefer writing by hand. I like to write by pencil. I don’t know, I guess it’s the quality of writing. I like dragging the pencil across the page. It’s a beautiful noise. Sometimes my cat likes to think the pencil is a toy and she’ll claw at it.

H5R: Do you think having a cat benefits your work?

EO: Well, it’s nice having something to live with. My cat can contribute to the work as well. It’s good to have a companion when you’re agonizing over what to write next.

H5R: Are you and your cat working on anything now?

EO: Yeah, I’m going to begin writing a story. It’s going to be prose. I was thinking yesterday about the bridge and the coastline. I’m going to try to write about a Polish man. It’s strange because I don’t know anything about being Polish and I don’t know any Polish. So when I figure that out I can write. I’ll tell you, my solution so far is to make the story as close as possible to my own life. I’ll see what I can do with that and I’ll be simple and truthful.

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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”

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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.

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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.

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