Juan talks Chicago vs. NYC, how the election has focused his approach to his work
and the many brilliant artists we should be seeing and supporting.

 

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world? 

Juan: An actor, a playwright, a teaching artist, and an artivist.

InViolet: Tell us about your InViolet journey so far.

Juan: September of 2011 is when I became a company member of InViolet along with Erin Mallon, Bernardo Cubria, Sam Thomson and Bixby Elliot. It’s been a great place to hear my plays heard out loud as I continue to explore my voice as a writer. It’s been gratifying to witness the makeup of the company become more diverse because it lends itself to different perspectives. Co-Artistic Directors Angela Razzano and Michael Henry Harris give anyone in the company the opportunity to spearhead an idea with it being on you to oversee it. I have seen the extraordinary success of Second Monday Social led by Marguerite Stimpson and Bixby Elliot. The company’s desire to flex our artistic by directing, acting or writing led to the down and dirty series called One Night Stand. Bernardo was behind its initial inception producing the first one and it has become one of our consistent hits.

It’s been great to have a support system for any new plays that I am exploring. I have had readings of Don Chipotle, Gen-tried, El Dargòn del Village, Wanna be Starting Something…, and Can you hear me…now?.

InViolet: Do you have a favorite InViolet memory you can share? 

Juan: The first meeting after the recent election is definitely a moment that stands out to me. The company showed up to the meeting a bit disconnected with our bodies. It was a somber meeting. It was clear that we were each yearning for something to snap us awake. I saw comrades shell shocked. I saw friends disjointed with reality. I saw artists questioning the purpose of art. I then saw what comrades, friends, and artists do which is help each other rise to the occasion. Clarity of a new direction for the company came out of it. I am looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond for the company.

InViolet: You grew up on the Lower East Side and have spent long stints living and working in both Chicago and NYC. What are the draws and challenges of each?

Juan: I have loved my time in Chicago. Chicago is where there is no tier system when it comes to art. The work is the priority regardless if you are at a 700-seat house like The Goodman Theater or a 47-seat house like The Gift Theater. The pay is different, but EVERYONE goes to support each other’s work. The fact that Goodman Associate Artistic Director Adam Belcoure, Victory Gardens Artistic Director Chay Yew will show up to witness my non equity production of Don Chipotle speaks volumes to their effort to support the Chicago community. Respect to your fellow artists is most important, work ethic comes second, and talent is the LAST quality that people look for. If you are an asshole, it gets around pretty quickly. You better be one talented asshole in order to continue to work. It has happened where someone’s talent can veil their disrespectful actions, but all it takes is one person to come forward and with the tool of social media the community can rally together.  Last year’s Not In Our House initiative led by Laura Fisher and Lori Myers is a prime example of that.

New York City is where I grew up. I just look at it as home. I don’t look at it as New York City the way others see it. Time away has given me time to see the city for what it has to offer.

I trained at Maggie Flanigan Studios in NYC, which was an extraordinary experience for me. Though I completed the program 8 years ago, I am just now understanding what was taught. Patience, persistence and perseverance is how I look at my time in New York City. I recommend everyone to just live for one year in New York City because you will learn a lot about yourself. The make up of the city has changed, but there is a tenacity of New Yorkers that can never be extinguished.

I have been back in NYC since September due to some changes in my life that include my family and my career. I have returned with a new sense of purpose that has me aspiring for more from New York City.

InViolet: We’re excited to hear that your acclaimed solo show Empanada for a Dream is looking to be brought back for an official NYC premiere! For those who don’t know the play, can you tell us a bit about it? EFAD has performed nationally, what’s on the horizon?

Juan: Empanada for a Dream grapples with the question of “How can you love someone that has hurt so many people?” Growing up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, I had to deal with all of the stereotypes that come with being Colombian-American. When I turned 11 is when all the lies that had been said about my family had been exposed to be true including the role of my family in the cocaine drug trade. That began a journey of shame and anger I had for my family. I had to grow up by getting out. Telling the tales of my family became a way to begin the long overdue healing process initiated by the deaths of my heroes Tio Alvaro and Tio Chepe.

I have performed the show with The Latino Theater Company at The Los Angeles Theater Center, Teatro Vista at 16th St Theater in Chicago, Victory Gardens in Chicago, Le Moyne College in Syracuse, La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, Ballybeg and terraNOVA Collective soloNOVA Festival here in NYC. The opportunity to perform it at places like East Morton High School or The Chicago Cook County Juvenile Detention Center has been the most rewarding experience due to the stories that are shared with me from those teenagers.

EFAD will next be presented this July in Washington, D.C. at 1st Stage Theater where my Director, Alex Levy, is Artistic Director.

InViolet: Your next solo show is underway, yes? What is this one exploring?  Where are you in the process?  

Juan: My next solo play is called Finding Pancho. It explores my time raising a child, which triggers my relationship with fatherhood while searching for my father in Bogota, Colombia after he’d been missing for over a year.

I began writing it for the inaugural El Semillero Playwrights Unit for ALTA’s Victory Gardens residency in Chicago. It led to a 25 min performance as part of the Pivot Arts Festival in Chicago. This summer the play will get continued development in D.C. during my residency at 1st Stage Theater while performing EFAD.

I will continue to develop it with Alex Levy who developed and directed Empanada for a Dream. A lot has changed in our lives since the initial workshop production of EFAD in 2012. It will be interesting to revisit our artistic relationship at this point in our lives when exploring the question of “What does it mean to be a father?”

InViolet: There are still a few more performances where folks can see you in Five Sessions at Julia De Burgos Theater in NYC. Sounds like shows have been getting great, enthusiastic audiences. How has the process been for you?

Juan: For those looking to support Latinx new works, here is a good opportunity to experience exactly that, through the eyes of a Latinx playwright, a Latinx director and a Latinx lead with a dynamic play like Five Sessions.

Five Sessions by Jaime Estada, Directed by Eddie Torres has been an inspiring experience that has pushed me as an actor. This is a story of a Puerto Rican Superintendent who manages buildings on both The Upper East Side and The Upper West Side who after his repeated failed attempts of suicide has been forced to go to 5 therapy sessions with a newly graduated white therapist. The pressures on the working class while trying to maintain their sanity can push anyone to the edge. Here you get to see how that can happen.

“We are both humans but we are situated differently….How are we supposed to feel when we are surrounded, angry or depressed?”-Superintendent

Jaime has written a character that I like to call “The Truth Teller.” There is usually one in all plays where they are the person who tells “the truth” whether you want to hear it or not. But being a truth teller comes at the price of being ostracized. Will this middle aged Puerto Rican Superintendent choose to focus on exposing the truths of our society that have caused him to be angry or choose to focus on exposing the truths of his deep hurt since a young child?

This is the kind of role that can push an actor to go through an epic roller coaster ride like Willy Loman (Death of a Salesman), King Lear (King Lear), Troy Maxson (Fences), and Henry Reyna (Zoot Suit).

This is our final weekend of performances Friday March 24th at 7:30 pm, Saturday March 25th at 7:30 pm and closing will be March 26th at 3 pm. It’s a 95 min play with no intermission.

InViolet: You will next be heading back upstate to Rochester, NY to perform at Geva Theater in Other Than Honorable by Jamie Pachino, Directed by Kimberly Senior. What can you tell us about the play?

Juan: With her husband deployed to an unknown location, lawyer Grace Rattigan, a former Army officer who resigned her commission under sealed terms, must make life-altering decisions on her own. When she reluctantly takes on a military sexual assault case, it re-opens old wounds and forces her to confront her past, along with the real meaning of the military’s codes of honor, courage and loyalty. A new drama by award-winning playwright and screenwriter Jamie Pachino, writer of NBC’s “Chicago PD.”

I get to play a LAWYER! I am excited due to the rarity of a Latinx actor getting the opportunity to play a role that is not reduced to a drug dealer rapist, crooked cop, restaurant cook or prostitute. I get to play “Hector Nuñez”, a smart, ambitious, military lawyer who has been treated well by the army and plays by the rules.

I have known Director Kimberly Senior for 15 years from back in Chicago, but his will be our first opportunity to work together. Kimberly’s profile has been elevated since directing Disgraced by Pulitzer Prize Winner Ayad Ahktar on Broadway. But to me she is still Kimberly who has worked at small storefronts all over Chicago. It’s been a joy to be in this industry long enough to witness colleagues’ careers soar.

I went to Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY so I’ve had plenty of experience of visiting Rochester, NY. My good friends Arin Sullivan and Andrea Taylor both worked at Geva Theater for years, which is why I was able to experience numerous plays there. It will be good to revisit upstate NY after it became a safe haven for me in the 7 years I lived there.

In lieu of the recent election, this play has become a priority to highlight the misogyny culture not only in the military but also in this country.

InViolet: You are one of 6 playwrights chosen to be part of The Brooklyn Generator’s Season 5. This June you will close their season by writing a brand new play in less-than-30-days. Any idea what you might tackle? Have you ever completed a draft that quickly?  

Juan: Since the election, my virtues have simply become clearer for me in my role as an artist. In 2009, I had performed in a play that explored the history of immigration in the USA called America Amerique by the late John Adams, Directed by Alex Levy, It toured all over the country, but focused on rural areas that wouldn’t normally be exposed to these kinds of stories. It was then that I had a sobering view of how the country outside of liberal cites like NYC and Chicago actually was. There was a sense of patriotism and normalcy in those areas that made me aware how split our country was. I only share that for perspective on how the recent election made me very sad despite me not being surprised by the result. But it seemed to wake up the rest of the country. So now what is my role in all of this as an artist? Do I create a zany comedy to take everyone’s mind off of things since the world seems so dire right now? Do I explore a play that is from the point of view of those in support of our current president? Or do I simply speak from my truth as a descendant of Colombians to highlight the atrocities of the history of violence while exposing my contribution to those atrocities as an American? Regardless on what I choose, all I know is that no matter how brutal our fellow humans have been, it is my duty to also highlight the power of compassion. Compassion can be just as dramatic as conflict.

I am grateful for the opportunity to write a play with a beginning, middle and end. My stomach is turning just thinking about it, which means it’s good I am doing it!

InViolet: What was the last show you saw that really knocked you out and had you feeling hopeful about theater?

Juan: I was blown away by Orange Julius by Basil Kriemendahl, Directed by Dustin Wills, presented by Page 73 and Rattlestick. Dolphins and Sharks by James Anthony Tyler, Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite, presented by Labyrinth Theater was another production that excited me. Both were potent theatrical productions that were brilliantly directed with two courageous casts that were led by two playwrights with very original voices that add to the diverse makeup of American Theater.

InViolet: Whose work (companies and/or individual artists) do you think we should be seeing and supporting more?

Juan: Quicksilver Theater in NYC led by Tyron Henderson.  Free Street Theater in Chicago led by Coya Paz and Melissa Duprey. Victory Gardens led by Chay Yew in Chicago. LATC Latino Theater Company in Los Angeles. Watts Village Theater in LA. 1st Stage Theater in D.C. since Alex Levy took over has gone through a dramatic shift. Meghan Beals at Chicago Dramatists has been creating exciting new opportunities. Teatro Vista’s production of La Havan Madrid by Sandra Delgado, Directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce in Chicago highlights as you step back in time to 1960s Chicago and right into La Havana Madrid, the long-gone Caribbean night club that drew throngs of newly-arrived Latinos to the city’s north side. La Havana Madrid, a vibrant, musical venue, became a cultural hub for these new Chicagoans. Black and Brown Theater led by Emilio Rodriguez in Detroit. INTAR Theater in NYC led by Lou Moreno. ALTA Semillero Playwrights Group in Chicago led by Isaac Gomez. Halcyon Theater in Chicago. Sweat by Lynn Nottage presented by The Public Theater on Broadway. Make an effort to know the canon of work by Lorena Diaz and Wendy Mateo of Dominizuelan, Ike Holter, Guadalis del Carmen, Bernardo Cubria, Jonathan Payne, Ming Pfeiffer, Lauren Yee, Tanya Saracho, Ricky Gamboa, Aaron Mays, Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Marisela Treviño Orta, Marcus Gardely, Thomas Bradshaw, Rohina Malik, Lavina Jadhwani, Gabe Ruiz, Georgina Leanse-Escobar, Reginal Edmund, Migdalia Cruz and Marco Antonio Rodriguez. There are so many more, but this interview is overdue.

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Juan: March 30th airing of Blacklist: Redemption (NBC). April 5th performance of my 10 min play When My Father Died. Directed by Aaron Mays at Something Marvelous in Chicago. April/May 2017 Other Than Honorable by Jamie Pachino at Geva Theater. June 25th Brooklyn Generator reading of my new play. Empanada for a Dream at 1st Stage Theater in Washington D.C.

 

Links:
http://www.juanfranciscovilla.com
http://empanadaforadream.weebly.com
http://www.somethingmarvelous.org/2017-season/
http://www.gevatheatre.org/shows/other-than-honorable/
https://www.facebook.com/TheBrooklynGenerator/

 

 

Read about the great Bixby Elliot, co-founder and co-host of InViolet’s Second Monday Social. Watch him struggle with what to call himself in the theater world! Learn about his diabolical plan to break up a marriage! And discover why he’s purchasing a one-way ticket to Sweden and renaming himself Sven!

 

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Bixby: First, thanks for doing this with me.  I really appreciate it.  I am not very good at interviews, but let’s give this a whirl – shall we? This first one is easy.  I’m a playwright.  Ok. Wait. No. More than that.  A writer – yep – let’s go with that.  Theater is my passion, the thing that gets my motor going, but I also have worked on some TV projects and written a few screenplays.  Yes. Writer. Ok. Now. Let’s hold on a beat. It might be more nuanced than that – I think I might identify as a collaborator.  There is something about the way I am navigating the world lately that makes “writer” feel a bit limiting.  I also consider myself a person that loves to work with other individuals to create and bring things to life – whether this is a play I have written OR working with writers and actors for The Brooklyn Generator or Second Monday Social with InViolet.  Ok. Let’s go with “collaborator” – it might change but I will stop now.  Um. This was supposed to be the easy question.  Next.

InViolet: Tell us about your InViolet journey so far.

Bixby: Well,  like all good things in my life, joining InViolet was a bit of an accident and a bit of lack of awareness of what was really going on.  Several years ago I became friends with Melanie Maras (a founding member of InViolet).  After a chance encounter on a street corner one afternoon we began a long love affair (that does NOT sound right).  We were seeing a ton of each other when I was in LA working on something and she said “Hey Bixby do you want to go to an InViolet meeting” and I was like “sure”!  So I went to a meeting and they read some of my pages and it was really fun.  Then Melanie said, “Hey Bixby do you want to go to an InViolet retreat” and I was like “sure”!  So I went to the retreat and had a blast and just really clicked with everyone.  I met great people and great artists but I was not thinking this would lead to becoming a member – that hadn’t even entered my mind – really! Then I got a call saying Angela and Michael wanted to have coffee with me and they were like “Hey Bixby do you want to be an InViolet company member” and I remember being totally shocked and confused.  I, of course,  said YES!  I am so glad I did, because InViolet has become a wonderful theatrical home for me in NYC.  InViolet has produced workshops of my plays TREASURE ISLAND, FL and done a reading of my play BIRDS DO IT and, of course, they produced the NY premiere of SOMMERFUGL.  I have also met amazing friends and collaborators in InViolet – people I know that I will know and work with for the rest of my life. I mean, what more could you ask for!   Oh gosh this answer is soooo long. I told you that I was not good at this.

InViolet: You and the dreamy Marguerite Stimpson are the brains and beauty behind InViolet’s Second Monday Social. How has that whole process been for you? Oh, and did you plan to make out with Marguerite at our Valentine’s event ahead of time, or were you simply gripped by a sudden overwhelming passion in the moment?

Bixby: I have been planning to make out with Marguerite for years!  Who wouldn’t want to make out with Marguerite Stimpson?!?!  In fact, Valentine’s Day was supposed to be the first phase of my multi-phase plan to steal her away from her husband Gerry.  #watchoutgerry Ok,  back on topic.  Second Monday Social has been an amazing experience and I love working with Marguerite to create this “thing” every month. It is this big mosh pit of creativity and community and energy that happens every second Monday of the month and it has really taken on a life of its own.  

To tell you the truth I can’t really tell you when we decided to do this. I do know that Marguerite came up with the idea during our InViolet “Notes Day” where we talked and strategized about the future of the company.  When she said it in the meeting I knew instantly that we, as a company, needed to do this.  Then some point later we decided to make it happen.  We just chatted and fleshed things out, looked at spaces (we were so lucky to land District Social which hosts us each month) and then we worked on it with Michael and Angela (co-artistic directors of InViolet) and then we launched last year. From the beginning it was a smash!  In May 2017 it will be our 1-year anniversary and I can’t wait to see what the second year of second Mondays will bring! (um, that’s a tongue twister)

InViolet: InViolet produced the World Premiere of your play Sommerfugl last year, which told the story of Lili Elbe, the first person to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Tell us about the process of bringing that play to the stage. Do you have future hopes and plans for the play?

Bixby: Wow! What a great experience. Truly. It is a play that was such a challenge for me to write and a real departure for me…and to have InViolet take the risk to produce this piece and support the play was extremely powerful and I am so grateful.  I got to work with incredible actors, one of my favorite directors in NYC (Stephen Bracket), the design team was OFF THE CHARTS and Angela and Michael and all of InViolet produced the heck out of it.  I do hope the play will have a life outside of NYC – there are some theaters that are looking at it and a college has asked to see it (I would love a college theater program to tackle the show)!

InViolet: You and fellow member Erin Mallon are co-curators of The Brooklyn Generator, a collective of playwrights who “write new plays in less-than-30-days.” You are the BG Playwright of the Month for March! Word on the street is that you’re writing a “big gay love story.” How’s it going? When is the reading?

Bixby: Writing plays is hard! I am in that deep panic phase of the month.  The deadline is looming large and the play is very small and I am wondering if I should purchase a one way ticket to Sweden and change my name to Sven and open a business selling Swedish Fish and just disappear from the face of the earth.  That all seems easier than finishing this play!  BUT I have the experience of having done this 4 times before and I have faith that I will finish and that I will get something out of me that I have been dying to express and that will be helpful no matter what!

I do have to make a plug for the Brooklyn Generator.  It has been one of the great experiences of my life. I am so blessed to get to do this thing with the talented and wonderful Erin Mallon (my theater wife) and to help support writers in the creation of full-length plays. Yes, I get to write a play each season, but I also get to watch all these other writers create these amazing, brilliant, funny, moving plays in less than 30 days.

If you want to see more come check out my reading on Sunday March 26th at 4:30pm at Jimmy’s #43.

InViolet: You work at “The Google.” Are the stories of nap pods, unlimited free smoothies and constant scootering through the halls to be believed? But seriously Google is making lots of beautiful headlines these days for the way they constantly advocate for Human Rights. What’s it like spending time there?

Bixby: Working at Google has changed my life.  Look, I don’t want a day job – but if I have to have one (and I do) I found the very best place to work.  There are a ton of amazing things about working there (free food, nap pods, etc.) but all that pales in comparison to two things: 1) working side by side with people who are incredibly smart, generous, talented, dedicated and kind; working to make the world a better place in innumerable ways and 2) working for a company that takes action each and every day (in big and small ways) to create a world that is more open and tolerant and where diversity and equality are a number one priority.  That stuff makes it a whole lot easier to go to work in the morning.

InViolet: Each year at our retreat, you wage war on your fellow members to claim the title of “World’s Best Stage Manager.”  Time to fess up: are you actually an amazing stage manager or are you full of s%*#?

Bixby: Thank you for the opportunity to go on the record regarding this subject.  For the record, I have won the BEST STAGE MANAGER AWARD at InViolet Retreats for 4 years running. I am an INCREDIBLE stage manager!  Last year I started a mentoring program because I wanted to “give back” to the people that were unable to win the award due to my dominance. They are really growing as stage managers and I am proud of them.  There are a lot of rumors about how I basically forced the company to start this award, there have been questions about the validity of my numerous awards, some have even called them “fake awards”. I want you to know that those are all LIES.  Lies I tell you – brought on by the fake media! Thank you for giving me the opportunity to set the record straight.

InViolet: Do you have a favorite InViolet memory you can share?

Bixby: Oh. Gosh. There are too too many to pick one favorite moment.  A few highlights – sneaking off to the gas station with Melanie Maras to use the wifi on my first InViolet retreat, hearing my play SOMMERFUGL read aloud by Peter, Aubyn, Bernardo and Michelle for the first time, sleeping with Mark Cirnigliaro and creating a safe space, playing that stupid weird crazy “drinking” game with Hunter, Andrew and Joe and realizing Joe might potentially be a convicted felon, surviving the benefit with Sam #BEST, the first SMS with Marguerite, giving Karina dating advice, discussing tropes in my work with Peter Graham (crystals, bi-sexuality and kewl), creating a writers group with Jen and Megan and falling in love with them, getting Sommerfugl up on its feet with Angela and feeling the exhaustion and pride of that, kicking generator ass with Erin and Jett being at retreat and singing for him, Bernardo offering to “take my place” during retreat….wow…I am realizing that InViolet has brought me so many incredible and wonderful memories (personal and artistic) over the years. Not to get too schmaltzy, but thanks for giving me a chance to take time and think about those all over again!

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Bixby: I have a reading of my brand new play, written in less than 30 days,  IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT at The Brooklyn Generator on Sunday March 26th at 4:30pm.  The terrific Julie Kramer is directing and Kaaron Briscoe Minefee, Zach Fifer, Charlie O’Leary and Lori Vega will be acting in it (so lucky to have them join us!).

More info can be found HERE:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1008286492606941/

My play THE WHOLE SKY ALL DIAMONDS will have a reading at Jersey City Theater Center on April 13th.  

More info can be found HERE:

http://www.jctcenter.org/

In Atlanta, there is a reading of my play ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS A FAGGOT at OutFrontTheater on March 19th. This will be the first play in their new Spectrum Reading Series!

More info can be found HERE:

https://www.facebook.com/events/148235109021776/

I am producing InViolet’s ONE NIGHT STAND – THE POST-IT PLAYS (part of our #InViolet InSolidarity project).  That is on March 20th.  

More info can be found HERE:

www.inviolettheater.com

Second Monday Social (brought to you by InViolet Theater Company) happens every month. The next one is Monday April 10th and the deadline to submit writing is Thursday March 30th.  Submit writing or join us as an actor!  You will have a blast!

More info can be found HERE:

www.inviolettheater.com

I also have some other things in the works that we will start to talk about very soon and it is super exciting and really fun.  How is that for a tease?  

 

 

 

Benjamin Manno has C-L-A-S-S. He also plays the harmonica, acts, writes, directs and is on the look-out for two identical cats to star in his new screenplay. Feline leads, anyone?

InViolet: You are a fairly new InViolet member. Lucky us! What’s your InViolet journey been like so far?

Benjamin: Grand! Thrown right into the mix, which is great. Not many companies will actively pull their newer members into the fold without a level of tenure. InViolet has provided programs like ONS, and SMS to give me a place to start submitting writing; something that I don’t often submit.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world? 

Benjamin: A hopeful dreamer…Really that question is probably the scariest thing you could ask, right? How do I identify in the theatre world? How does anyone identify in the theatre world? Sometimes, it’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks in terms of success. In terms of art, I like performing in pieces that reflect a dry reality of life. Spending too much time being something you are not is exhausting, and I like living, breathing and writing about the times that veneer falls to the side. That’s when we find out, at our base, how much love we can give, how much BS we will put up with, and ultimately what we believe. That to me is fascinating.

InViolet: Have a favorite InViolet memory you can share?

Benjamin: Each night of Judgment of Fools. Every night had a different energy and reaction to the text. When things got heated that was the best, because you knew you hit on something good…

InViolet: You are directing a piece for our upcoming One Night Stand: The Post-It Plays. Who’s the writer? Who’s your cast? How are rehearsals going? 

Benjamin: I am directing Megan Hart’s piece, Probably, Maybe acted by the wonderful Nurit Monacelli and Juan Villa. SCHEDULING IS HARD. Like. The hardest thing ever…it has nothing to do with my actors, you are beautiful! It’s just the reality of busy NYC lives. Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful piece that is absolutely relevant, dealing with micro-aggressions that are seen or maybe not seen, by those closest to you.

InViolet: Your significant other, the one and only Jacqueline Guillén, is also an InViolet member. Do you two collaborate often? It’s impressive how you two are able to focus during our meetings without constantly making out. Must be challenging, yeah? 

Benjamin: We collaborate semi-often…and make-out never. We have class. C-L-A-S-S. But, whenever we aren’t busy running around doing everything else on the planet, we like to enjoy an evening of sitting in the same room as one another in absolute silence. Honesty-time. We never really worked together in college and NYC as afforded the opportunity to act in multiple things together, which has been a ball! We have a few sketch ideas in the works, and play instruments together for INTAR’s Salon and to our houseplants.

InViolet: Word on the street is you’ve been flexing your writing muscles lately. What are you working on? 

Benjamin: Yes! I am terrified for SMS, the first time I will really have something read out loud. I like writing, I find it like a puzzle of story, character and plot. When I have an idea, I have to lay it out, and fill in the blanks. Make the bends and curves fit, and flow. The worst thing that can happen…it doesn’t make sense; a nightmare inducing thought.

InViolet: What are these short films you wrote that require identical cats? (And… let’s all put our heads together… how can we get you a pair of identical cats to make this dream a reality?)

Benjamin: I has screenplayz. I wrote two small pieces about a cat swap, and I need two cats that look identical, or at least close enough to fake it…Part One will be read at SMS next week, and the second I will submit later. But, yeah. If you have any feline leads for the future. I would like to produce it sometime in the Summer. But, that is if finding cats don’t put a paws on the whole operation…

InViolet: You’re quite a musical fella. You play guitar, harmonica… (anything else?). When are we going to see these skills in action?  

Benjamin: I don’t know…have an open mic or something InViolet Theater…gosh.

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Benjamin: I am currently acting and directing in the One Night Stand, and will be acting in a show called ‘Astronauts Wanted” in late April that will go up at Dixon Place Main Stages. Other than that, writing and working on my own work. This year, I decided to not chase, but rather create.

Links:

benjamin-manno.com

INSTA – blackbeltsandbrows

 

 

Original InViolet Tim Mullins could write one hell of a memoir! He’s a set-building, Shakespearean-acting, former naval nuclear propulsion operator and lover-of-galactic-rocks who is thriving after open heart surgery and is currently building a “pumpkin bike” to ride across thecountry. Intrigued? Read on!

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Tim: Artistically, the roots of my theater world are primarily in acting (read attention whore) yet the longer I play within InViolet and without in the theater world, the more I am aware of the potential and possibility of branching into directing, writing, and producing. (I’m also aware now of the copious amounts of work involved in theater which happens to fly in the face of my desire to lay on warm sand and ponder love, life and my beverage temperature.) Technically, my engineering education has transformed into a stage carpentry practice that is both lucrative and rewarding. I get to build cool stuff that helps tell stories.

InViolet: You are one of the InViolet originals! Happy 10 years, sir! How did you get involved?

Tim: One of our artistic directors, Angela Razzano, and I attended the William Esper studio together. Upon graduation, she asked if I had any interest in going on an upstate retreat to workshop some original plays. I was reasonably certain at the time that this was code for “Would you like to go partying in the woods with like minded people?” Given the rather rigorous self-medication schedule I was on at the time, this was a solid yes for me. Over the next three days we work shopped 8 or 9 plays, I slept a similar number of hours, bonding/eating/playing was fit in where it could (aka sleep time), and the InViolet journey was begun.

InViolet: Do you have a favorite InViolet memory you can share?

Tim: First retreat, first night, Only Deanna Sidoti, Michelle David, Troy LoCoco, and I are free to stargaze as most of the people have not arrived or are busy writing. Someone mentions the fact that a meteor shower was going to happen that night so off we go, more than slightly tipsy, to lay down in a field with our heads together and watch the falling stars. There were so many that night, it seemed a wondrous, quilted patchwork of luminescence. To think of a chunk of galactic rock on a seemingly cold, endless journey that fires up like a small sun when contacting atmosphere. As a metaphor for ideas, creation and collaboration, pretty powerful stuff. As an experience, unforgettable.

InViolet: From your perspective, how has the company changed over the years?

Tim: In the beginning, the creative support was snuggly, warm and not very challenging and the writing was, well, ready to grow. Over a decade things have evolved to a place where you can challenge and develop your skill set in many aspects of theater. Through the various outlets for writers, actors, and directors we have created quite the powerful catalyst for the creation and development of new work. The immersive workshop quality of the retreats really sharpens the craft of our writers and the creative process and critical sensibility of fellow members. The InProgress workshops, One Night Stand gatherings, and Second Monday Socials make for better artists and better artistic communities. At InViolet, we ROLL DEEP!

InViolet: No InViolet World Premiere load-in is complete without a Tim Mullins there to guide us with his mad carpentry skills. How did you develop such prowess with tools?

Tim: I’m feeling the warm glow of a couple of compliments there, so thanks! My father is a musician so he was not a tool guy. It turns out I once actually had a class that taught the MOST fundamental tool skills, before I started Naval Nuclear Propulsion School. The tools got a tad more complex after that but the fundamentals will always serve you well. Then for InViolet’s production of This is Fiction at Cherry Lane, I was asked to assist the set designer and technical director to build the set. That job has turned into numerous freelance carpentry jobs and I recently was Production Carpenter for the Wallace Shawn play Evening at the Talk House with Ferris Bu…. I mean Mathew Broderick. (not a Ferris fan, I hear.)

InViolet: After many years in the same apartment, you recently moved and are now experiencing the wonders of Brooklyn. What’s that transition been like for you?

Tim: Nice place you got here! It’s never easy to move but after a decade at 106 & Columbus and a couple of lengthy physical rehabs, I was ready for a change. I’m currently building a bicycle to ride across the country (after this last election cycle, I’d like to check in on the middle) so I was unsure of my next residence. Turns out that fellow InVi Mark Cirnigliaro had a friend looking for a roommate in Cobble Hill. Love the neighborhood! There are lots of great food, culture, kids and money, not in that order. The pancakes at Café Luluc are essential to me being a happy Tim and the folks at 718 Cyclery are helping me build the wandering Pumpkin bike. Really a great hood! It’s so quiet some times at night I feel like Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny, I need the sound of chaos to sleep. As for having a roomie after a decade of solo living, it’s taking some adjustment. Who knew?

InViolet: You had some health stuff and hospital stays these past few years that scared us quite a bit. How you doing now? Have those experiences changed you at all?

Tim: The shattering and rebuilding of my left ankle went much better than was expected so that I only occasionally walk like a pirate. I also will be using a cane later in life and they are quite distinguished. The mitral valve repair to be done with minimally invasive vascular stents that turned into full blown open heart surgery was surprising in the largest sense of the word. Yeah, some dark times there. Nothing like a couple of extended stretches of self-reflection and forced inactivity to make you acutely conscious of your human failings. It will also firmly excise any sense of youthful immortality you may have once possessed. On the upside, I am definitely not dead! And many of my friends say this is the best I’ve looked since they have known me. Which is both wonderful and unsettling. I was a pretty regular drinker (again, in the largest sense of the word regular) and that seems of less interest now. Which is creating havoc with my personal life because now I have a standard or two, and this seriously interferes with the whole dating/mating process in which I trained myself. Yet it does feel healthier, so I remain hopeful.

InViolet: You have a long military history, yes? Can you tell folks about that?

Tim: I think at this point in my life it may be that I have long history, part of which is military. In any case, I decided to join up because after high school I moved in with a couple of friends whose parents paid their way while I was working ten hour days at a pump manufacturing plant. After tiring of coming home to bounce drunken friends out of the constant party that was my first apartment, I decided to give the military a try. Got a 98 out of 100 on the ASVAB (I are smart!) and then got a four hour Physics intensive from my high school chemistry teacher in order to barely pass the Nuclear Field Qualification Test. This allowed me to join up and get a tech education that rivaled MIT and Cal Tech for academic difficulty. I made some lifetime friends, learned how to run a ships power plant, and served aboard the USS California and the USS Enterprise. Also was on surf clubs on both ships so got to surf some EPIC locations. All top secret. Oh, yeah. After the Navy I obtained a BS in Industrial Engineering with a concentration in Systems Analysis from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. This led to an internship at Northrop Grumman building secret stuff for the Defense Department. Sounds exciting, it was totally not exciting, not the place for those seeking attention lol. While attending college, I fell into a musical theater production that my father saw which led to him sharing about his passion for acting when he was in school. He had never mentioned this to me before. This planted a seed, which InViolet has only nourished and help grow.

InViolet: Tell us all about this sexy project you’re doing with Austin Pendleton!

Tim: I was sitting home one day, scrolling through the EPA’s, as one does, when I noticed that King Lear was auditioning that day, Austin Pendleton was playing Lear, and Alberto Bonilla was directing. I had worked with Alberto in the past at corporate teambuilding events so I brushed up my Bard, auditioned, and got the part of Cornwall, who is the Duke who gouges out Gloucester’s eyes in the play. It’s of interest that in my preparation prior to rehearsal, I had envisioned my character as an intimidating, violent, scary individual. Yet only through rehearsal am I realizing what a comedic, bumbling, intimidating, violent, scary guy my Cornwall is. And being in a room of imaginative and supportive people is just all around good stuff! And Austin is… supremely Austin, an accomplished actor with whom is fun to play. Please come and see the show!

Here’s a link: http://www.secrettheatre.com/KingLear.html

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Tim: I’m visiting Navy buddies for our 50th year in South Florida after Lear wraps. We’ll be on a boat. Then heading to Rome for my birthday and the Amalfi coast for the wedding of two friends in August, huzzah! And building my pumpkin orange bike and planning the Cross My America tour is exciting (and a little scary)! Also continuing to create and play with my InViolet pals will provide all the healthy distraction I require as I generate an income in areas less exciting than theater.

 

New(ish) member Jacqueline Guillen talks about her mad skillz (flute! ukulele! starring in Charmin commercials!), awful/magical photo shoots and the new documentary she’s helming.

InViolet: You are a new(ish) company member. We love having you with us! Tell us about your InViolet journey so far.

Jacqueline: Oooo thank you!!! It’s been really great (so far :P) Ever since Judgment of Fools I’ve been in heaven.  Working with that cast and crew was such a memorable experience. I kept coming back to InViolet after the show closed because I wanted to be surrounded by this energy. The people in this company are just so lovely and talented and supportive – I love it!

InViolet: Speaking of Bernardo Cubria’s JUDGMENT OF FOOLS when we held a monthly show at INTAR. What was that whole experience like for you?

Jacqueline: I was in Chicago for LTC when Lou Moreno, the artistic director of INTAR, told me had recommended me for this guy’s show. Now I had been a Bernie fan for a few months then. You see he too is Mexican and after seeing one of his shows I was like “that guy! I need to work with that guy!” So then he and Mark contacted me and I said yes because well …duh! Afterwards I was incredibly worried and nervous. Everyone was already a part of this company and had already worked on this show. I was the only new one. But like I said before this company is so welcoming, we hit the ground running and it was incredible and so much fun!

InViolet: Do you have a favorite InViolet memory you can share?

Jacqueline: Judgment of Fools in general. The show’s where people actually started talking and debating and participating were incredible!

InViolet: Alright, tell us about the Charmin commercial.

Jacqueline: Haha! Yes! I just shot a short spot for Charmin! When my agent called me to tell me I had actually booked it, I just cracked up. Of course I would book the part of this girl who goes to the restroom to steal toilet paper. That’s me.

InViolet: You are a pretty musical gal, yes? We’re told you can rock the flute. And you posted a video on the medias last week of you singing and playing the ukulele like a dream. How long have you been developing these mad skillz?

Jacqueline: Thank you! I think I’m pretty musical. I love music, and actually wanted to be a professional flautist at one point . I  broke up with my first boyfriend because he always wanted to be around and I just wanted to practice and I was like ” you’re getting on the way of my art!” so I dumped the guy.  I first started playing the flute at 11 when I was in middle school and stuck with it for 7 years, took a break after high school, but couldn’t stay away. My first SAG project was actually because of my flute skills! The uke I picked up maybe 4 years ago after I realized I personally couldn’t really jam out with my flute.

InViolet: Recently you and the one you love (fellow member Benjamin Manno) did this fancy photo shoot where you wore a leather jacket and a poofy feminine skirt. You were holding each other by a body of water and gazing into each other’s eyes. This prompted many to think you eloped. Tell us about this seemingly magical photo shoot.

Jacqueline: My sister-in-law is a wedding photographer and is always looking to expand her portfolio so Ben and I always do photo shoots for her when she comes to visit. We knew people were going to think we eloped, I’m pretty sure some people still think that. Let me tell you the shoot itself was awful, it was 7am, freezing and raining but we wanted to take a photo of that damn dress so we shot for 45 minutes and then called it a day. If you look very closely you can see my hands are extremely red and ready to fall off.  It didn’t feel like magic but they sure do look magical!

InViolet: Word on the street is you are working on a super secret voiceover project. How secret is super secret? Like you can’t tell us anything about it? Come on, tell us something about it.  

Jacqueline: Stop pressuring me!!!! It’s super secret and can’t really say much. Here’s what I will say, I get to speak Spanish and English and I have multiple characters and I am having the time of my life!!!! 

InViolet: What is the scoop on this mini documentary that you’re working to get done? Sounds exciting!

Jacqueline: It’s very exciting! It’s my first baby. I am traveling down to Brownsville Texas, the border town I grew up in after moving from Mexico. I will be telling the story of some of these kids who live in Mexico but go to school in the US. I mean just in this company 3 of us used to do that. It’s a reality to thousands of kids and no one talks about it. It’s still on a very early stage, I currently working on raising funds, but I am very passionate about this so I am putting it out in the world because now it has to get done and their stories have to be told and I cannot wait!

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Jacqueline: Who knows! This year I want to focus on developing my own work. I have this V/O project I am working on until the end of April, I would love to get this documentary up and done by June. Ben and I have a few sketches that we need to shoot, and I am currently attempting to write something. I am working on a one-woman show and a  also writing a full-length play with my colleague and friend Valeria Avina. I don’t know what the hell I am doing and it’s hard but I am having a blast!

 

jacqueline-guillen.com

 

 

Longtime Invi member Jennifer Bowen (aka “J-Bo”) talks about being Queen Bee at BookHive, her new novel that sprung from a former play and that time she and her husband won the internet and were crowned “Dateline Super Fan Finalists.”  

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Jennifer: I started out as an actor, and any chance I have to see a play, I get something from it. The story, experience (or even lack thereof) will leave an impression, possibly spark something in my own writing.

InViolet: Tell us about your journey with InViolet.

Jennifer: I’ve been a member of InViolet for about seven years. I started out acting, wrote my first full-length play because of InViolet, and these days, writing is my focus.

InViolet: Do you have a favorite InViolet memory you can share?

Jennifer: Probably all of the retreats, the reading of my play Ruin (after working it through the InViolet machine of feedback of two retreats and meetings.)

InViolet: Several times InViolet has had the honor of your service as Props Mistress on our productions. Is this a secret passion of yours? One of your many talents? Or perhaps we roped you into it against your will?:)

Jennifer: I think I just pitched in to help!! But I was glad to. I loved it when props would sometimes be mentioned in reviews – I was getting prop famous!!

InViolet: BookHive! You are the Queen Bee/Mastermind/Boss-lady/CEO of this amazing literary empire. We wanna know all about it. Give us the scoop and don’t leave anything out.

Jennifer: BookHive is a company I launched two and a half years ago. We do beta reader editorial research for novelists. It came out of myself writing my first YA book, and wondering if teenagers would really respond to it. So I pulled together some teens to read it and was startled by the feedback! I realized then that it could be a service for other novelists. We have groups of 500+ beta readers from all over the country (and we just opened up to International readers). From that pool, we select beta readers to read the authors novel, and then give feedback via an online survey. The author receives a 35+ page report full of both qualitative and quantitative feedback. Some of our authors have gone on to find agents, get published traditionally, and also self-publish. It’s been an honor to be witness to so many people’s stories growing and coming into fruition.

InViolet: A while back, you and your husband Garrett started doing online video reviews of Dateline. It took the Internet by storm and we were all clamoring for more. How did this start? Can we expect more of this awesome in the future?

Jennifer: We’re weird and in love and are obsessed with Keith Morrison’s dramatic retelling of sordid tales. We then got self-conscious (are we tactless talking about this??) but it was FUN while we did it. And I don’t want to brag, but we were selected by Dateline as a super fan finalist during a contest!

InViolet: We had a wild and wonderful InProgress production of your play Little Prince$$ a few years ago. There was Bunraku! Puppets galore! Ke$ha music! It was glorious. What was that whole experience like for you?  

Jennifer: I felt blessed to work with Mark Cirnigliaro as the director. He brought a lot of creative vision to the project (puppets!) All of the actors really brought it as well. Instead of just seeing the play at music stands, Mark allowed me to see the journey of the characters fully realized – it was awesome.

InViolet: You unabashedly post the delicious food you cook on Facebook and make the rest of us feel jealous. Is cooking a big passion for you?

Jennifer: It is. I feel better when I eat food that I’ve cooked. I’ve always loved cooking. Feels like a creative hobby for me.

InViolet: We spent time at meetings and our company retreat working on your beautiful, complicated play, Ruin. Word on the street is that you’re adapting it to become a novel. Can you talk about that?

Jennifer: First I stole the title from another play My Grief is Golden and True and that is the name of the fiction project inspired by Ruin. I was intrigued by the characters and wanted to take a deeper look. Everything is tweaking and changing. Certain dynamics and characters that can exist well in the play need to be expanded to sustain in a book. I was first inspired to write it after seeing Chan-wook Park’s film Stoker. My play was sort of a response to it. I think one can write in many styles, but some of us have strengths. I think my strengths are in examining gritty, darkly comic, realistic personal dynamics. That is what I am diving into.

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Jennifer: Well, I’m five chapters into My Grief is Golden and True (14,000 words!) and am taking another fiction class at Sackett Writer Workshop where I studied (and started) My Grief this fall. My general goal is to get a draft of the novel out by July. But I’ve also learned one needs to find the balance between being disciplined and flexible. If it doesn’t happen, it means I need more time. But I will do my best to read books that inspire me and carve time out to write, and hopefully the magic will happen.

Links: https://www.bookhivecorp.com/

Versatile actor Dan Domingues (he plays female serial killers! unrepentant assholes! aggressive life coaches!) talks about his obsession with horror films, his love for his A.R.T. classmates (and fellow Invi members) Nurit, Gerry and Marguerite, his latest show at Abingdon and his new podcast!

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Dan: I identify as a theater actor.  I love rehearsal, I love tech, I love opening nights.  I love sharing a show with a different group of people every night.  It still seems like magic a little bit to me.  I still have yet to find the comfort and sense of excitement on a film and TV set that I do on a stage.

InViolet: Give us the skinny on your InViolet journey so far.

Dan: Well, I’ve been an official company member for about 9 months give or take but I’ve been excitedly circling InViolet for about two years. Marguerite Stimpson and Gerry Rodriguez invited me to an InVi Christmas party a while back and that introduced me to who and what InVi was.  My first event as a company member was a One Night Stand play written by the incomparable Bixby Elliott where I got to play a female serial killer and that was a thrill.  

InViolet: Have a favorite InViolet memory you can share?

Dan: I loved seeing the full productions Branched and Sommerfugl because they were so fully realized.  You get used to seeing shows in NY with a lot of ambition but perhaps not the talent or resources to pull it off.  Both Branched and Sommerfugl were so impressive because from the bottom up, there wasn’t a weak leak.  Great acting, impeccable technical elements, a passionate audience base — I knew I was watching people who cared about what they did and would stop at nothing to realize it.  

InViolet: Last year you tore up the stage in J. Julian Christopher’s The Locusts Have No King at INTAR (also featuring InVi member John Concado). We had a little row of InViolets there to see you one night and we lost our minds with how good you were. What was that whole process like? 

Dan: Having InVis there was very special to me.  They are the MOST supportive group of people.  And thank you for the kind words.  Yes, we loved doing that show.  But we were terrible to John.  In the play, he was the character that got the most abuse and that bled into our offstage relationship.  The thing is John is just THE sweetest guy — he has an openness and an eagerness to make every moment count and the rest of us were jaded old bastards so he was easy pickins.’  But that play had a wild journey.  It was originally going to happen in the fall of 2014 but was canceled.  A year and a half later, Lou Moreno of INTAR (another gem of a guy, just love him) put it back in the season. We lost our original director and several actors but got the genius young director David Mendizabal, John and the beautiful Liam Torres on board and the rest was a joy.  It was a dream to work at INTAR — a rite of passage for any Hispanic actor in NY — and our playwright J. Julian was wonderful.  I was grateful to be in that show because the guy I played was an unrepentant asshole and that’s not something I get a chance to play often.

InViolet: You have a thing with horror movies, huh? Or perhaps just horror posters? You often put horror movie posters on the social media. You seem like a relatively peaceful guy, so what’s up with the love of gore?

Dan: You’ve opened a Pandora’s Box right there.  Get me started on horror movies and I may never shut up.  Yep.  Guilty as charged.  Total horror movie fanatic.  It’s my “thing.”  Some guys have sports.  Some guys have video gaming.  Some guys have poker.  I have horror movies.  My love goes back as far as I can remember.  And you’re right, it is antithetical to my character — I think of myself as a pretty non-threatening guy.  But there’s an energy, a vitality, a sense of wrongness that draws me to horror.  It’s the one genre where anything goes and filmmakers are allowed to be their most creative and outrageous.  And I love the art of the horror movie poster.  My poster collection, accumulated over 30 years, includes mostly movies from the 70’s and early 80’s — my horror sweet spot — and they’re some of the most vivid one sheets every drawn.  Okay, I better stop now…I could go on and on.  

InViolet: You went to grad school with several InViolet members, namely Marguerite Stimpson, Gerardo Rodriguez and Nurit Monicelli. Please embarrass them by telling us a story we shouldn’t know.   

Dan: Oh, I totally wish I had some dirt on the three of them!  But we actually weren’t at the ART program in Boston at the same time.  You see they are SO much older than me so they were long gone by the time I got there.  But in all seriousness, I’m sure there’s no way anyone could find anything incriminating on those three because they are the kindest, most supportive, positive people I know.  Gerry helped me book the show at INTAR last year, Nurit and her husband Tommy were crucial in helping me sign with my new agents and Marguerite and Nurit have championed me to countless directors and writers over the years.  And that’s just scratching the surface.  They’re the best.

InViolet: A few weeks ago you played a Tony Robbins-like character leading a huge self-help seminar in Erin Mallon’s new play written for The Brooklyn Generator. You were pretty much perfection in the part. Do you have experience telling everyone how to live their lives? How did you channel all that awesome?

Dan: Well, it all starts with the words and when you have Erin Mallon’s words to say, most of your job is already done for you. I am the least bossy or aggressive person you’ll find — I avoid confrontation at any cost.  I’m getting better at standing up for myself as I get older but I’m the furthest thing from a Tony Robbins.  But that’s the joy of doing what we do — stepping into a skin dissimilar from your own.  I did watch the Netflix documentary Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru and that helped.  That was a lovely afternoon working on that reading because our director chose to stage the show among the actual audience and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but the ensemble really rose to the occasion.  With only four hours of rehearsal, it all just came together.

InViolet: You’re performing in James Lecesne’s The Mother of Invention at Abingdon Theatre Company until 2/26. We can’t wait to see it! Who do you play? You having a good time with it?

Dan: I’m having a great time in the play so thanks for bringing it up.   It’s a comedy about a son and daughter dealing with a mother with Alzheimer’s.  Yep, a comedy.  As they move her into a care facility, they gather at her home in Florida to clean it out and sell it.  But there’s a certain local mechanic who complicates things and I play said mechanic.  The play’s a world premiere, which is always exciting, and a little anxiety-producing and it’s one of the first plays being produced at Abingdon under its new artistic director Tony Speciale.  Tony is directing us and he’s a smart, generous guy.  He’s going to build Abingdon into a force on the off-Broadway scene, mark my words.  

InViolet: What’s up next for you?  

Dan: I was surprised to discover that a film I shot almost two years ago just premiered at Slamdance!  It’s called Future ’38 and maybe that’ll get a release soon.  But I’m a free agent come February 26th.   In the meantime, check out my movie podcast on iTunes or Google Play.  It’s called “Hot Date with Dan and Vicky.”  My fellow movie-loving friend Vicky and I pick a random date in history, find an interesting film that came out around that date and talk about it.  I was inspired by fellow InVi Bernardo Cubria, who is a podcast master.  He’s doing serious, thought-provoking work with his podcast.  Ours is much more pop culture but we LOVE doing it.

Links:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hot-date/id982412632?mt=2

http://abingdontheatre.org/mother-of-invention/

 

 

New member Rob Hille tells us about his 7-month stint in the Caribbean as a Victorian era magic show emcee, his love for “punk-rock/seat-of-your-pants” theater and how he broke fellow member Mariana Fernandez with his pronunciation of “yava.”

 

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Rob: I’m an actor that’s learned how to do a bunch of other stuff in order to keep acting.

InViolet: You are one of our newest members. Psyched to have you onboard! What’s your InViolet journey been like so far?

Rob: Thanks, it’s great to be here!  It was kinda like Cub Scouts: I got taken camping and then got asked to raise money.  I mean, I’ve been catching InViolet’s mainstage shows for years, and have always been impressed with the group, so I was really jazzed when Angela invited me to be a part of this awesome group of I’ve been participating as an actor at InViolet’s Second Monday Socials regularly and the stuff that’s been cooking at the company meetings has got me excited about the next year.  But I’m a young’un at InViolet, I’m still taking my first steps as a company member here, who knows what’s gonna happen?!

InViolet: Have a favorite InViolet memory you can share yet?

Rob: I know this is cheating, but I have two: The first is at Second Monday Social, I was reading an excerpt from a play-I think it was by Jen Bowen?-with the lovely Mariana Fernandez and I made her laugh when I pronounced java “yava.”  I think there’s a photo taken from the exact moment she broke and it’s one of my favorites of all time.  Right afterwards the entire room fell apart.  That was a great room to be in that night.

The other was, while camping, I tagged along with co-AD Michael Henry Harris to pick up Troy and he was talking about future goals of the company and in passing mentioned that they had something wild like a dozen full-length plays written by company members that they were trying to decide on what to produce next but a company with a budget this size could only realistically produce one or two full-lengths in a year. I’m paraphrasing, but he said something to the effect of, “so we need to find other ways to give these plays life,” I was, and am, blown away by how generous that sentiment is.  There’s this weird mysticism around success in the performing arts and people can be very protective and cagey about things they think will bring them more success and to hear an Artistic Director of this company say that the work deserves to be seen for its own sake, regardless of how or if the company benefits from it, was really inspiring to me.

InViolet: A few years ago you worked on a SHIP for a good chunk of time. Fill us in on that experience, please. We want to know about  island excursions, towel monkeys, everything! (PS- Did you ever get seasick?)

Rob: Yep, I was an emcee for a Victorian-era magic show on a cruise ship in the Caribbean for seven months.  That’s a fun sentence to write.  It was a good gig: I’ve been lucky to be a part of very good groups in the past: my classmates in grad school out in Denver, the core group that was working with Amios the first couple years when we were getting off the ground.  There were six or seven of us in the show that were all about the same age and I was and am deeply grateful to have had them around.  There was an Austrian couple who did the mentalist act in the show that were both really great at finding the really cool places to explore everywhere we went.  One day we spent exploring the neighborhoods in St. Thomas that took us all the way out to these cliffs on the ocean that felt like we were standing on the end of the world as the tide came in.  That was incredible.

There were lots of times where the contrast between the way people lived was really jarring: The Gorillaz-one of my favorite bands of all time-has this album called Plastic Beach and for the album cover they built this huge sculpture of an island which looks like this really idyllic paradise, but as you get closer to it, you realize the entire thing’s made out of garbage and has been painted over, that’s what Nassau reminded me of.  There were the private beaches next to public land that were tiny ship graveyards and an abandoned condo development that folks had started squatting in a quarter mile up the street from celebrity summer homes.

Even the paths of my castmates were really different: the Austrian mentalist couple took third place in America’s Got Talent last season, while another magician in our cast left straight from his contract to his mandatory military service for the South Korean Navy.

And there were all kinds of crazy things that happened with the passengers: we had a man overboard that turned out to be a failed suicide attempt (he landed on the lifeboats that hang off the ship), they had to med-evac a couple of people with health problems (one was a dead body!), one time this girl got stuck in the waterslide, the porn production company Brazzers hosted an “event” on the ship for a week, I met a crazy parrot lady and a real-life treasure diver in St. Thomas and one time a kid got detained for trying to smuggle a lizard onto the ship.  It was three feet long.

And, no, I was never seasick: Rob Hille ain’t no punk bitch

InViolet: You are a founding member and former co-artistic director of Amios Theatre, who many know as that cool company that does Shotz! each month. What has that whole adventure been like?

Rob: Oh, man, it was great.  Amios was started by my classmates Christian Haines and Melissa Ortiz (who married each other and are super gross), along with my roommate from Denver Michael Fulvio (who was Co-AD with me for a bit), and also in the room were Jillian LaVinka, Kathleen Wallace Lauren Berst, and Justin Yorio, who’s the current AD.  All were alumni of our grad program, the National Theater Conservatory.  Christian had adopted the Shotz format (assign three writing prompts and a cast to six writers, give them two weeks to write, give the casts two weeks to rehearse and throw it up as a one-night event) from a company he’d worked with in New York and so we came back out here after our showcase we’d been doing this in Denver for nearly a year and a half as this close-knit ensemble that was really comfortable directing and working with one another. So we do our showcase and it goes well for some of us and not so well for others and Christian decides to not wait around and wait for someone else to give him a job when he knows how to make his own work.  One of Fulvio’s classmates was bartending at a place in the Flatiron with an upstairs event space which we got access to.  Several of the NTC alumni were also playwrights (including Steve Cole Hughes, John Behlmann, and Dan Loeser) and they were super game to write for us.

The whole thing had this kind of punk rock, seat of the pants energy to it where we were using the absolute minimum to tell our stories, which were tailor made to the actor’s strengths by the playwrights and the first couple of years when the show went up-we did it on Mondays in Denver because we’d started inviting the actors that were in town doing shows to work with us and Monday was the only night they had off-there was this awesome energy in the air because nobody really knew what the hell was going to happen.  Partly because the rehearsal period was so short-you can always double down on a talented actor’s sense of self-preservation to make fantastic and hilarious choices when they’re in a packed house of their friends-and partly because each of the six plays were rehearsed separately so tech and the performances were the only time we got to see one another’s work and the first few venues we performed in, there was always this sort-of-off-stage area where the whole rest of the cast was watching one another’s work and just drinking it up.  That was a fantastic vibe to get not just from the crowd, but from your peers.

We were good at it and had no reason to stop, so we kept going and kept getting bigger.  And I think when I left in early 2015 we’d produced something like 450 original works and collaborated with more than 500 artists.  They’re still going.  I’m not sure what they’re at now.

We all started doing Shotz in New York because we didn’t have other projects to work on.  There have been five different Artistic Directors for Amios since we started going in 2009, so there may be some disagreement on what I say next, but I think the company was only ever intended as a placeholder for its artists-a gym to keep the acting (and writing and directing) muscles tuned-while we waited for the next project.  Well, when you’re helping to run the show, the next project is always the next show, so for me at least I found myself not working as hard to find other stuff to do and Shotz and Amios became my only artistic outlet, which wasn’t healthy for me so I had to step away to find other ways to be an actor.

InViolet: What was the last piece of theater you saw that knocked you out?

Rob: “Beauty Queen of Leenane” at BAM.  McDonagh remains one of my top five playwrights of all time.  My Dad got me a membership there for Christmas, which was a pretty kickass gift.  The Harvey’s a beautiful theater (I saw my favorite production of “The Tempest” there a couple years back), I’d love to do something on that stage one day…

InViolet: Seems like you’ve been catching lot of live music lately. That’s a very cool New Yorker thing to do. What have you been seeing?

Rob: I saw two awesome shows at Pete’s Candy Store last week.  That was a super cool venue to discover.  I’d say you should probably see The Lobbyists and Phil Pickens whenever you get a chance.  Also Lake Street Dive, Ben L’Oncle, JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, Pickwick, Tobacco, Gorillaz, Rostam, Maps & Atlases, and Jenni Lark.

InViolet: Word on the street is that you’re heading to Myanmar soon? What??? Give us the scoop!

Rob: It’s true!  My lady found a pretty sweet deal on air travel and it’s a place she’s always wanted to go, so I said fuck it, first trip to Asia, first time in a hot air balloon….I’m pretty stoked.

InViolet: What’s up next for you? 

Rob: I go straight into rehearsals for this play by Sara Farrington called “CasablancaBox,” which is about the making of the film.  I’m playing Peter Lorre.  I’ve been involved with a couple of workshops of the piece since this time last year and the final version of the show Sara and her husband Reid, who’s directing, is gonna be something really awesome that I’m really excited to be a part of.  We open April 5!

http://here.org/shows/detail/1875/

 

Jacob tells us about the many different roles he juggles in the theater, the joys of improv and what it’s really like being InVi Co-AD Angela Razzano’s “Work Husband.”

 

 

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Jacob: I’m a little all over the place these days, and am still trying to figure that out- but I think that’s normal.  I am loving the producing side of the theater world right now and I am itching to explore more of it. I also have a passion for casting, something I got to play around with in college and theater back in California but haven’t had much of an opportunity to do here. Directing is what I went to school for and got my degree in, so I love dabbling in that field. And of course, acting is always fun from time to time. 

InViolet: You are a brand new InViolet member. Lucky us! Tell us what your journey has been like so far.

Jacob: I’ve been a fan of InViolet for a little while now, Angela invited me to this play called Sommerfugl awhile back, and I was hooked ever since.  In fact I don’t think I missed an event after that. I was invited to attend the retreat this last August which blew my mind. I learned so much more about myself as an artist as well as the ability to create new work mainly through InViolet. I’m so excited for my future with this company.  I am currently working with Bixby Elliot and JJ Pyle on producing our upcoming One Night Stand in March which I’m so excited for! 

InViolet: Do you have a favorite InViolet memory yet that you can share?

Jacob: I’d have to say, InViolet’s last retreat in August would be my favorite memory, the whole trip in general. Being able to watch the creative process happen before my eyes was an amazing experience. From the directing of new plays, working with writers to workshop them, acting in them and then discussing them as a group of artists was such a great experience that I took so much away from. This retreat also encouraged me to attempt writing, which I have grown to love!

InViolet: Tell us about your gig at Culture Project. We hear you have an adorable co-worker by the name of Angela Razzano (aka, InViolet’s co-AD). Have you two decided to become life partners and spend all of your time together?

Jacob: Yes I have the privilege and honor of working alongside and learning from the great and famous Angela Razzano. She has dubbed me as her work husband – which is a huge honor as I’ve never had a work wife-  and she’s a perfect one! I actually started off as her intern and she moved me on up to Operations Manager and we’ve had a great time enduring this company together. It’s nice seeing her every day and then getting to see her at InViolet events as well. We have yet to grow tired of one another… I think…. 

This job has been such a blessing and has opened so many doors for me within the theater community. I’ve got to meet some amazing people, watch and aid in producing new work, and work for a socially conscious theater that is aiming to give a voice to the marginalized which is so incredibly important. 

InViolet: You’re a man of many talents! What’s going on with your photography? Your writing? 

Jacob: Oh, why thank you! Photography has always just been a side hobby of mine, but it has become my creative outlet these days.  So much can be expressed through it, and I wish I had more time and resources to do it. Writing is a newfound discovery for me, thanks to InViolet’s retreat. I’ve yet to complete anything- I’ve started maybe 4 or 5 one acts/10 minute plays and then I hit a wall and don’t know what to do next. It’s definitely a goal of mine to get something finished so I can have it read at a Second Monday Social!

InViolet: You’re a member of an improv company. What can improv do that scripted theater can’t? Where and when can we come see you do your thing? 

Jacob: Yay improv! I helped build an improv group back in college and loved every second of it, so when I moved out here I tried multiple times to get on a team, but didn’t get too far. So I just started my own company with my partner in crime Morgan  (also from the same college).  Our group focuses on studying a variety of improv styles from long form to head to head. We pride ourselves in challenging each other on the stage and educating the city about the art of comedy and try to give chances to upcoming sketch writers to workshop their work with us.  We meet every week and have a show every other month! 

What I love about improv is that it’s one of those life tools that can help you out anywhere. I don’t know how many times I’ve used that “yes, and…” attitude in interviews, pressing situations, work and even school. It’s taught me to work and act quickly on my feet and how to solve a problem head on.

InViolet: It’s been a crazy time, post-election, yeah? You marched in NYC this past weekend. Thank you for that! What was that day like for you? 

Jacob: Crazy is one way to describe it. I did march this past weekend and it was such a wonderful experience. I’ve never done anything like that before! I was surrounded with so much love, acceptance and people who just want to be there for you no matter what. New York has taught me to find a voice of my own. Though this election season didn’t play out the way that some of us hoped… at all, I have learned so much and I believe that we as artists are going to keep each other strong throughout everything. 

InViolet: Word on the street is that you are in the thick of some new year’s resolutions of sorts: eating super healthy, focusing on more creative fulfillment etc. Teach us your ways, Jacob! How can we be more like you? (PS – that new headshot of yours is sexy!)

Jacob: Oh boy… yes I (like many) am doing “The Whole 30”, a “lifestyle cleanse” to reteach myself how to eat better, what it feels like to really be full, when you’re stress what types of food should you be turning to, etc. It’s been really rough since I can’t have cheese or alcohol… but, it’s almost over. I’m on day 25 and I truly do feel healthier. I have my own natural energy these days and I only need 1 cup of coffee as opposed to 3 or 4. It just feels good following through with a commitment. As far a creative fulfillment goes, as we all know, work can consume your life and it’s so easy to keep pushing aside your creative outlets, but I am (trying) to schedule specific times within my calendar week to just sit and allow art to happen, in whatever form.

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Jacob: As mentioned, March 20th I am helping produce this awesome event, InViolet’s One Night Stand at Brother Jimmy’s. The Downtowner’s Improv team is having a show on March 27th at 7:30! More information is on its way!

Website: http://www.jacobpeterschott.com/

 

 

Andrew tells us about acting in a Hugh Hefner project for Amazon, how damn cool New Zealand is and the magical, tear-filled moment he knew he’d fallen in love with a semi-racist Chihuahua.

 

InViolet: You have been an InViolet member for 5-ish years. How did you find your way into this crazy crew? What’s the journey been like so far?

Andrew: First, I’m a very skilled at Long-Winded Story Telling, so apologies in advance for anyone who labors through my explanations.

Troy Lococo is guilty for bringing me in. He and I were working together and discovered that we both took class from Maggie Flanigan. He told me all about InViolet, the wonderful people that I eventually met and that they were in desperate need of male actors, because the majority of the guys in the company at that time had shifted to writing. I started healthily stalking the company and their whereabouts and eventually they realized I wasn’t going away and embraced me.

My journey with InViolet so far, in short, has been rewarding. We all work very hard, from fundraising, to set construction, monthly meetings, organizing, and the million other things that we do to accomplish our goal of putting out new work that’s By Us. With You [our community and supporters]. And at the end of a retreat, a strong creative meeting, a One Night Stand, a benefit, or another InViolet World Premiere, all of that hard work pays off. It’s a unique experience and reward. It’s one that artists move to New York to find, and we’re lucky enough to found each other to experience it.

InViolet: Have a favorite InViolet memory you can share?

Andrew: It’s hard to pick. Being a part of Branched, so many wild One Night Stands (the shows), and retreats have been real blessings in my life. But, I think if I have to choose just one, my favorite memory is when I was able to usher at Cherry Lane for Megan Hart’s This Is Fiction when the New York Times was there to review the show. Cherry Lane was electric that night. The next day I went and bought 5 copies of the NYT at a coffee shop and someone asked why I was buying so many papers and when I told them it was to see InViolet’s review for the show, the person got our companies info and bought tickets to come see it.

InViolet: Please explain why people call you Andrew Quality Blair.

Andrew: It’s because you’re not going to get quantity out of me. Haha, no, it’s from my days on Facebook. I made my middle name Quality as a joke for, what I intended to be, a week and it stuck. So where we are.

InViolet: Alright, we want to hear all about New Zealand. You were in New Zealand doing acting things with New Zealanders. Tell us the entire scoop immediately and don’t hold anything back. 

Andrew: I was! New Zealand is incredible. I was doing a mini-series for Amazon about Hugh Hefner and Playboy; I was cast as an ad trainee who eventually becomes the VP of Playboy Enterprises. It was an amazing group of people on this project. The producers, the directors, cast and crew were the nicest, professional and friendliest group I’ve had the pleasure of being on set with. The majority of them are Kiwis. Kiwis are very VERY nice people as a culture. I made so many new friends on the shoot. And a new best friend, named Dave Van Horn.

Dave was in the cast and became the unofficial Kiwi Ambassador to me and a few of the other foreigners who were on the project. He took us all over the North Island on our days off and we got to see, eat, drink and experience a lot of the unique qualities New Zealand has to offer that we otherwise never would have known were right under our noses. I could write a book about those experiences, but I’ll just give you one.

We went to explore the Waitomo Caves via blackwater rafting. In a wetsuit and inner tube, we walked down into these caves that have a very calm underground river. You walk through the water at some points and at others you just float down; it’s very serene, and very dark except for the lights on your miner’s cap. Well, we’re floating down the river and the tour guide says “everyone turn off your headlamps and look up” and when we did, we saw thousands and thousands of glowworms illuminating the cave ceiling. And at that point, I knew I couldn’t experience that anywhere else in the world. We also saw limestones that grow a fingernail every ten years that were 15+ feet long. And fossil imprints that were thousands of years old.

And that is just a small taste of the beauty that New Zealand has to offer. If you go, look up Dave!

InViolet: Alright, you gotta tell us more about the Hugh Hefner project! 

Andrew: Like I mentioned before, it’s for Amazon and it was an incredible shoot with world class people. It chronicles Hugh Hefner’s early life and the first 30 years or so of Playboy. Everyone recognizes Hugh Hefner and Playboy, but I didn’t realize until doing this show just how much social impact he’s had with his articles. Yes, his articles. From printing unedited interviews with MLK, Malcolm X, to being monitored by the FBI, suing the U.S. Government and sticking up and further defining freedom of speech. To going against resistance of southern television stations that refused to air the premiere of his first show because he wanted Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald to host and the stations refused. It’s easy to look back now and think “of course he succeeded, he’s Hugh Hefner”, but he continually risked everything for not only success, but for what was right. I think the series is going to be great and I feel very fortunate to have been a part of it.

InViolet: Company member Bernardo Cubria has mentioned that you have a mildly racist instagram account devoted to your dog. Do tell. 

Andrew: I’m glad you brought this up! My girlfriend, JoJo Kissy Poo, fosters dogs for an organization called UnleashedNY that rescues dogs and partners with a sister organization that empowers adolescent females. She’s fostered 19 of them. She has a big heart, she takes care of these dogs from awful situations, she loves them, spends time with them and finds them loving homes, Once they’re gone, she has a good cry and moves on. I, on the other hand, do not detach easily. About a year ago she wanted to foster and she picked a very weird, freaky looking 4lbs puppy that was 3lbs of ears. We were told she was a corgi-mix and that her name is Cinnamon. The dog wouldn’t let us hold her, she was stand off-ish and not that cute. I was thankful, because I knew there was no way I was going to get attached to her.

Well, 4 days went by and I spent a lot of time with this little girl. One night, I had to go to work and while I’m at work, someone was coming to meet/adopt her, so when I left, I was going to have to say goodbye. I’m in the shower and the puppy pushed the door open with her little nose and sat down to be in the same room with me. I scooted her out of the bathroom to finish getting ready. I go into the bedroom to get dressed and she’s laying on my work jeans. I move her off my work jeans. I go to put on my work shoes and she’s sitting in them. I go to play with her so she gets some energy out, but she won’t play. She just climbed into my lap, got on her hind legs and pushed her tiny forelegs into my chest and started crying while she licked my face.

I burst into tears. While I’m uncontrollably sobbing, I’m blubbering out the words: “I love you, Cinnamon.” Long story short, we adopted her. We thought about renaming her, but ultimately kept Cinnamon. The names I came up with included fun, play on words that underlined her adorably gigantic ears! They included Amelia EARhart, Elle McEarson or Paola Earscobar. Since I had not won the REAL name battle, I chose one of those names for her Instagram account that I created for her and since I was fresh off of watching Netflix’s show Narcos, I went with Paola Earscobar (which her account says: “Hi, I’m Cinnamon, star of the new show Barkos on Petflix). Anyway, we did a DNA test to find out what her mutt breed consisted of, because she didn’t look like a corgi. Our suspicions were right and we discovered that she is, in fact, a Chihuahua.

Which leads Bernardo (one of Cinnamon’s first follower on IG) to joke about that. But, in reality, it could have just as easily been Amelia Earhart or super model-dog Elle McEarson. I have a lot of fun running her account, and for my friends in social media land, I’m not stuffing their feeds with a million photos of her from my account. Speaking of, if anyone reading this would like to follow her, her handle is @PaolaEarscobar.

InViolet: You were in our World Premiere production of Branched, the only guy in a show full of talented beautiful women, with Tara Westwood playing your wife, Marguerite Stimpson playing your mistress and Michelle David playing your son. Not a bad gig! What was that whole process like for you? 

Andrew: It was the best gig. Erin Mallon writes with an incredibly unique, rewarding style, that’s all her own. My first retreat was her first retreat and Branched was the last piece we read and I remember watching it and being blown away with how weird and awesome it was.

I volunteered to read stage directions for it on Theater Row just to be a part of what I knew was destined to be produced. I auditioned for the only part I had a shot at and really was so lucky to be chosen. Surrounded by Tara, Marguerite and Michelle really inspired me to make sure I was prepared. Robert Ross Parker was the perfect director for the show.

It was this time 3 years ago we were rehearsing, Snowmegedons and Polar Vortex’s were swirling all around us during rehearsals and the run. And I remember thinking, “if this play and these people weren’t so damn fun, walking through 18 feet of sidewalk snow/soup would be brutal” but instead it was invigorating.

Recently, Erin and Branched were published and she generous enough to have the cast get together for a reunion reading at The Drama Book Shop for the launch. She signed a copy to my mother. And when my mom opened it on Christmas, read the note and saw her son’s name in the book, she started to tear up. So, I have to thank Erin for creating and including me on that very rewarding journey.

InViolet: It’s a new year. Do you do the whole resolution thing? 

Andrew: I use it as a time to reflect about how quickly time passes by, like, “Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a year since I didn’t become a better person.”

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Andrew: This past week I met with and started freelancing with a new legit agent, Irene. And this woman is a badass boss. She’s dedicated her career to diversifying the industry and fighting for the things she believes in. She has a fierce artist’s heart. I’m hoping she and I accomplish great things in 2017 and beyond. Also, the Hugh Hefner show is suppose to come out in February, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the final product looks like.

Links: AndrewBlairActor.com, UnleashedNY.org,

Intagram: @PaolaEarscobar