A blog on theater (and other stuff) from the fine folks at Apple Core Theater Company
With A Modest Suggestion, playwright Ken Kaissar aims to not only lampoon racism and anti-Semitism, but the competitive, often surreal climate of office culture.
What better demonstration of Jewish humor and the absurdity of office culture than Frank Loesser’s brilliant How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying? “The Company Way” — especially as performed by Bobby Morse and Sammy Smith — is practically a vaudeville routine.
We had a terrific meet-and-greet last night for A Modest Suggestion, and now that we’re beginning our mad descent into the rehearsal process, we only thought it’d be appropriate to introduce you to the fine lads we have onstage.
Aren’t they a handsome lot?
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JEFF AUER - This is Jeff’s third production with Apple Core and fifth under the direction of the inimitable Walter J. Hoffman. Theater: As Is (Theater Row), Buddy Becker’s Big Uncut Flick (Player’s Theater), The Return of Odysseus (TBG Theater), Tough Guys Don’t Shoot Blanks (Barrow Street Theater), Is That A Gun In Your Pocket? (Emerging Artists Theater), Vice Girl Confidential (Cherry Lane Theatre), Clinton’s View (Teatro La Tea), Fool For Love (Arthur Seleen Theater), Divinity Bash/Nine Lives (Pantheon Theater), Burn This (Westside Dance Project), A Lie Of The Mind (American Theater Of Actors), The Beauty Part (Gloria Maddox Theater). Film: Thunder Road, One Night Only, Summer Thunder, Yoga and Ecstasy, Monotony, The Clinic, The Bump In The Road. Jeff has appeared in national commercials and recorded numerous voiceovers for radio and television. SAG-AFTRA, AEA
BOB GREENBERG - This Improv Comic, Stand-Up, Actor and Clown has been making people laugh for years. Film: Dark Corner, The Tailor, Sad Sack Sally, Glow Ropes, Freax of the City, Heartbreak Hospital, Big Money Hustlas and Maid In Manhattan. TV: SNL (with Jim Carrey in Opening Monologue), Lights Out, The Next Best Thing, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, LateLine (Al Franken), Primetime Live (Diane Sawyer), Guiding Light and Law & Order. Regional Theatre: The Odd Couple, Pomp Duck & Circumstance (Circus), Harvey and Running In The Red. On Broadway: Hosted THE 39 STEPS Talkback Tuesdays, Winner of The 39 Steps1st Annual Alfred Hitchcock Look-A-Like Contest & Hosted the 2nd & 3rd Contests. Off-Off Broadway: The Jazz Singer. Bob stars as “Ralph Camden” in New York Dinner Theater’s The Honeymoaners. Bob is also a member of the Friars Club.
ETHAN HOVA is a founding member of Exit, Pursued by a Bear, where he recently played George Tesman opposite Billy Porter and Jeff Whitty in The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler. Other New York productions include King Lear (EPBB), Arok of Java (EPBB), Spinning the Times (59E59), Rhinoceros (Brooklyn Lyceum), multiple Youngblood Brunches (Ensemble Studio Theatre), and the original production of A Modest Suggestion at Columbia University. Ethan can also be seen and heard on episodes of ER, E-Ring, NCIS, and the feature film Accepted. He’s a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and thanks Ken for this opportunity and his continued support.
RUSSELL JORDAN makes his Apple Core Theater Company debut in this production. Other Theater Row: Beirut (Athena Theatre Company), Tower of Toys (Aurora Theatre Ensemble). Other NY Theatre: Big Black Mexican Woman (Metropolitan Playhouse), Hell and High Water… (MultiStages). He is a Maieutic Theatre Works (MTWorks) company actor, last seen in Absinthe (part of their 2012 National Newborn Festival). He would like to extend his deep appreciation to Walter, Allison, and the entire ACTC family for the opportunity to “play” with such a talented cast. Follow Russell on Twitter at @RussJordan and sign-up for his newsletter at http://www.bitly.com/rjnewsletter. Russell is a member of AEA.
JONATHAN MARBALLI is currently a performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade performing monthly as a member of the Maude team “Beige.” He is also a former member of The Flea Theater’s resident acting company (the Bats). His last show there was The Great Recession with world-premiering one-acts by Will Eno and Adam Rapp, directed by Jim Simpson. Other New York work includes: Hamlet reading with Alec Baldwin (Fundamental Theatre Project), Toby in Twelfth Night and Cloten in Cymbeline with Frog & Peach and Henry V and Measure for Measure with Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. He has also worked with Miscreant Theatre, Terra Firma, Berkeley Rep, and others. Film/Web: UCBComedy, CollegeHumor, Onion News Network, and others. Jon has also performed at the Del Close Marathon, the Boston Improv Festival and the Providence Improv Festival with his indie team “The Garys.” www.jonathanmarballi.com
ROBERT W. SMITH has been away from the theatre for a number of years. Now retired from the health department he’s once again become involved in acting. He returned several years ago and in the past two and a half years he has appeared in over 30 short films. While most of them have been for student directors at NYU, Columbia, SVA, Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges, Fairfield Univ. and NYFA. Robert has also appeared in It’s All Relative, Lakota Films, LLC; Rust, Guinea Pig Pictures; Adrift, Companion Pictures; The Gays, BTB Productions; and The Meet, 3PS Productions. This past fall he returned to the stage, appearing as Les Kennkat in Boy Gets Girl at the Access Theatre. Robert is a member of AEA, AFTRA and SAG.
“And the clock begins to wind down.”
It’s so hard to believe that we’re already in our last week of By the Dawn’s Early Light! While we will surely have more blog posts as we wrap up our run, our playwright Mel turned in his final, very contemplative, very heartwarming post last night. (Sigh.)
And the clock begins to wind down.
How is it possible that as I write this, we as a company are about to embark on our final week of performances? Six more shows and the theatre will go dark. Costumes and make-up removed for the final time. Props placed in a box for some other times, others given as remembrance of a joyous creative experience, and others discarded like so many unwanted toys.
It’s going to be tough, no doubt. It has been some ride for me. The journey from first phone call, to table read, run through and first performance – first laugh being heard from the audience, as well as the sniffle of a tear, will be always remembered.
As Arturo Castro said: “Dude, we’re on f**king Theatre Row, bro!” – Yes we were, and we done good.
I have sat in the back of the theatre on many a night marveling as I watch Walter, our director, hunched over the control panel, intensely watching the performance, smiling, shaking his head, cheering, wipe a tear away and still continue to take notes as if it were the first day of rehearsals.
I watch Kevin move deeper and deeper into Freddie’s journey with the ease of a great painter who knows just what strokes are needed to fill in the colors of his canvas.
I still find myself welling up when Karen says: “Victor, when you leave it’s going to be quiet. I don’t like that kind of quiet.”
This has been a truly rewarding collaboration. I have made new friends and have enriched others. The seeds of future collaborations have been planted with the work that we have done as a company.
How did we all get here? Hard work and trust are often good starts to any collaborative endeavor and this one was no exception to that rule, but I think there were other factors involved as well – factors that perhaps in a month or so, when I find myself at a quiet moment, glass of wine in hand, it will come to me. But for now this will have to do: The Lebanese American artist, poet, and writer Kahlil Gibran once wrote, “You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”
To the ensemble cast: Kevin, Arturo, Gordon, Alicia, Wynn, Camilo, Karen, Mark, Gustavo, Flor, Damian and Jorge – thank you for truly giving of yourself and to your art to brings these stories so beautifully to life.
To Walter and Allison, you remind one constantly of why we do what we do with this life of ours in the theatre and the both of you do it inspirationally.
Yeah, I will be saying the same words as Angie does to Victor once the final curtain comes down on Sunday – “I don’t like that kind of quiet too.”
… “Midnight Mass”!
Here are Joey Castillo’s photos of our second half of By the Dawn’s Early Light.
Remember: we’re only running through Sunday August 28th, and it’s only a 55-seat theater… so get your tickets soon at www.telecharge.com.
We hope to see you at Theatre Row!
Hurray! We opened By the Dawn’s Early Light last night! And to a sold-out house no less. Thank you to the wonderful audience who came out to see the show. (And for those of you who haven’t gotten their tickets yet, be forewarned: it’s a 55-seat house and fills up FAST. So get your tickets soon!)
In honor of this momentous occasion, we thought we’d share with you a few of the photos that the remarkable Joey Castillo took during tech rehearsals, and a blog entry that Mel wrote after attending a tech rehearsal this week.
Waking up this morning I could not help, but feel it was going to be a special day.
I had several early morning appointments with various school representatives for possible positions as a theatre instructor this coming September, and along with my teaching credentials and artistic resumes I handed each school representative a postcard for my play, By the Dawn’s Early Light. They were rightfully impressed with the artwork by the gifted Katherine Miles Jones and with the subject matter that I was tackling. But most of all, they were impressed by the fact that the plays were being performed on Theatre Row, that cool block on mid-town Manhattan.
After I finished with my meet-and-greets I was to my other job of the moment and that is playwright for Apple Core Theatre Company. As I walked uptown from East Broadway (Yeah, I did say walk. I’m a big fan of walking.), and as I eventually turned the corner and headed to the stage door entrance, it suddenly dawned on me that I was in Theatre Row… but not as a theatre goer, but for lack of a better word, a “theatre-maker.”
As I entered the theatre space our crew — lighting designer, Jordan Acosta; set designer, Adam Kaynan; along with Allison (Producer), Barbra (Associate Producer)Walter (Director) and Farin (Stage manager) — were busy with setting things up on stage. It was really happening. Theatre was being created.
After a while as the actors started to come in they all had the same “this is cool” smile on their faces; I must tell you that as an actor in New York City I have performed in spaces that were barely more than a black box with three chairs in the middle of some block on the far reaches of the earth where even our beloved city rodents wouldn’t be caught hanging out in. Thus is the journey of the New York City actor, but every so often you get the chance to perform in a space that can truly be called nothing else but a “THEATRE,” and Theatre Row is such a space. You can feel the energy in the air. The pride in the actors as they take in their surroundings and what will be their “HOME” for the next three weeks.
It’s an awesome tribute to all the hard work that Walter and Allison and Barbara (the Apple Core Theatre Company Crew) have put into this production. The actors feel it, and I most certainly do.
Interview: Farin Rebecca Loeb
Thank goodness we have an awesome stage manager for By the Dawn’s Early Light. With twelve actors and two plays (and eight scenes in the second play), keeping track of what-props-were-supposed-to-be-where — and keeping our [wonderful] actors in line — was much too much for us to handle.
Please meet the wonder that is Farin Rebecca Loeb, who has a surprisingly varied background — from the performance side to the technical side, and from opera to theater.
Why did you decide to pursue stage managing?
Well, my education was actually in opera performance. I wanted to be an opera singer when I was about 7, and even got a specialized high school degree, then a BM and MM.
And then, when I had a vocal health problem, I noticed all the other stuff I’d been doing the whole time: coaching (working on non-technique things with singers, like acting choices), assistant directing, supertitles (translating operas and projecting the translations), stage managing, and so on. So I started doing more of that! I starting stage managing at a few small theaters where I was living, and eventually started directing opera.
And it’s funny how things work out, because I’m much better suited to what I do now. My experience as a singer and actor allows me to connect with the folks on stage in a really useful way, and I can add way more to the arts of theater and opera by telling lots of performers what to do at once, or as an SM, supporting a really positive, effective, awesome environment, and technically excellent and fluid environment!
Was there a performance/play/actor who made you want to go into this business? Why?
I guess I’ll finally admit it. For all my love of Mozart and Verdi, it was The Phantom of the Opera that made me decide to be a singer when I was little. I know.
Of course I also worshiped people like Kiri Te Kanawa, Kurt Moll, and Sir Thomas Allen (let’s pretend I totally kept my composure when I met the latter). As for what I do now, David McVicar really inspired me, as well as Francesca Zembello, and singers like John Relyea Gerald Finley- two of the greatest actors and singers working today, and some of the kindest people I’ve met. And singers like Nicholas Tamagna who made it clear to me that this was the type of work where I added the most to a production. And there are so many SMs, directors, and actors who have given me personal ideals of how to do things right!
How does working with the cast members of By the Dawn’s Early Light inform your process and performance?
We’ve really lucked out with an amazing group of talented folks and fabulous personalities. Having such creativity and lively but respectful attitudes makes my job way easier than it sometimes is, and allows us to creatively go that much farther.
Are there any other fields within theater/the arts in which you work?
I’m also really a director, as I’ve said. And I spend a lot of time and energy working on supertitles- one of my biggest passions since I was a teenager. I’m absolutely dedicated to accurate, well-timed translations, and will always fight for choices that make a big, if hopefully-not-consciously-noticed, difference. I also have done a lot of work with fight choreography and weapons.
Do you any great passions separate from theater/the arts?
The rest of my energy is generally consumed by fencing, social justice, and swing, blues, and tango dancing!
Interview: Karen Sours
We still have interviews on the way for By the Dawn’s Early Light. Today, we hear from the lovely Karen Sours, who plays the role of Angie, the pregnant girlfriend of a soon-to-be-deployed marine, in “Midnight Mass.”
How did you end up in New York City?
When I was 5 years old, I told my mom I wanted to be an actress. My mom smiled, thinking this would be a passing thing, and said: “Claro que si mi amor, lo que tu quieras.”
When I was 9, I started acting in plays in Mexico City. When I was 13, I told my mom I wanted to study acting in NY. Again she smiled, and said: “Si corazon.” I continued to pursue acting in Mexico making my parents drive me around the city for casting calls. Oh, they hated it! Let’s face it: it sucks — being stuck in traffic to go sit at a casting office for hours to get seen for 5 minutes… who wants to do that? I did, and my parents without knowing what they were getting into, agreed to take me.
When it was time to look into colleges, again I told my mom I wanted to study acting in New York. This time she didn’t smile… nor did she frown. She just had that look people have when we realize that something is for real, that that something is actually happening… the look a parent has when they find out their child is moving miles away from home at age 18.
This time she said (in Spanish), “You really want to move to the U.S.?” I said: “Oh, yes. To New York City!” So we started looking at schools in New York. Schools in New York were insanely expensive, especially for international students. My cousin had gone to Texas State University which is right outside of Austin; she studied theater there, and loved it. Texas has a program in which Mexican students can study in Texas and pay tuition as Texan residents. Awesome! I visited the school, loved it, and the next year I was moving to the US. NY was still in my agenda though.
I graduated college, and immediately after, packed my things and moved to New York. There was never any doubt in my mind that New York was the right place for me. I was back in a big city, thank God! Moving from the giant Mexico City to a college town outside of Austin is a little hard, okay, really hard, but New York and Mexico City are much more alike; it feels closer to home. Plus, there are a ton of Mexicans here! And we have REAL Mexican food here, not that Tex-Mex stuff.
I love New York. You can get a taste of every culture here — I don’t know anywhere else in the world where this happens.
And now: a word about technical design from Producer Allison Taylor.
One of the great challenges of putting together an off-off-Broadway production in New York City is figuring out how to make it look good.
Consider this: our production of By the Dawn’s Early Light will “load-in” to the theater next Monday. That means it’s the first time that our actors will rehearse in the space with all of the set pieces, props, and costumes. (That will also be the first time our lighting designer, Jordan Acosta, will get to focus the lights and create a design for the show.) While we do have all day at Theatre Row on that Monday, we only have Tuesday and Wednesday evening to rehearse on our stage… and then on Thursday, we open.
It’s a quick turn around, and not uncommon for most indie theater here in New York. And the only way to deal with this time crunch is to be amazingly organized. I can’t say I’m amazingly organized, but luckily, our set designer Adam Kaynan is.
We worked with Adam last year on our production of As Is — Adam created the remarkable artwork for the show. This year, he is taking on the set design for By the Dawn’s Early Light. When we asked him if he was interested in designing, without skipping a beat he smirked and remarked, “Yeah sure… I love a challenge.”
Perhaps the greatest challenge of the show is that it’s actually two shows… two different one-acts with no common scenic design overlap. The one saving grace is that “Los Embruajdos” takes place on one single set (in the Windows on the World restaurant). But the second one-act, “Midnight Mass,” includes multiple locations including two different apartments, a basement, and a church. To depict these multiple places, Adam went with a sleek and minimalist approach, employing furniture that could take on multiple uses. Another great challenge for Adam was our director Walter’s preference to build a raised platform.
In the photos above, you can check out the design scheme for By the Dawn’s Early Light. Needless to say, Adam is a remarkable artist in his preparedness and creativity. But in order to appreciate his talents best, we of COURSE hope you come see the show and see the set for yourself.
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Apple Core Theater Company produces emotional, entertaining plays by American writers. Valuing the immediacy and intimacy of theater, we strive to present plays that cut down to the core and go straight to the heart. Believing that theater should be accessible to all people, we are committed to providing affordable theater to New York City.
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