Brand new InViolet Lia Romeo tells us about why all playwrights should do literary management work, how she likens trying acting to trying cocaine and how her book inspired countless emo teens to post youtube videos of themselves reciting her words while lounging in bathtubs.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world? 

Lia: Pretty much exclusively as a playwright.  I did a bit of acting when I was in college, and I felt very similar to the way I felt about trying cocaine – that was a lot of fun, and I never want to do it again.

InViolet: You are a brand new InViolet. We’re so lucky to have you. Tell us what your InViolet journey has been like so far.

Lia: I’m so excited to be part of the company!  I got to meet some of the InViolet folks when I was part of the Brooklyn Generator in 2015, which was a great experience.  After that I went to see InViolet’s production of Bixby’s play Sommerfugl, and I was so impressed, both with the play (which I knew I would be) and with the quality of the production.  So I was excited to have the chance to get more involved when InViolet started doing Second Monday Social this past year.  Through SMS I met some more company members, and the more people I met, the more I realized that they’re all ridiculously talented, so I emailed Angela and asked if there were other ways I might be able to get more involved.  She invited me to come on the retreat this past summer, and then to join the company in the fall.

InViolet: Got a favorite InViolet memory yet?

Lia: It’s more of a memory of a feeling than of a particular experience, and it’s a feeling I’ve had multiple times at different InViolet events – the feeling of being welcomed and accepted into an incredible community.  I’m a bit of an introvert, and it’s sometimes a challenge to put myself out there and go to networking events, retreats, etc., but whenever I’ve attended any InViolet event I’ve felt instantly comfortable.  Everyone in the company is really, ridiculously nice, and Angela and Michael have created this genuinely supportive and encouraging community.

InViolet: You are the Literary Manager and head of the playwrights group at Project Y Theatre. What’s it like playing those roles?

Lia: I started working with Project Y about four years ago, and it’s been amazing.  I think all playwrights should do literary management work (I actually wrote a HowlRound piece about this a couple of years ago), because it’s so eye-opening to see things from the other side.  I’ve learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in terms of how to approach companies, and I’ve gotten to read so many (often great, sometimes not-so-great) plays.  I’ve also gotten to meet a fantastic group of playwrights through the playwrights group – we’ve had Pulitzer nominees and alums of Sundance, the O’Neill, Juilliard, etc., and I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend the past few years giving feedback on their plays and getting their feedback on mine.

InViolet: Your play Connected was recently published and had a great run in NYC. What was that whole experience like?

Lia: Amazing!  (I feel like I’m using that word a lot in this interview)  Michole Biancosino, who’s the A.D. of Project Y and one of my absolute favorite collaborators, was directing, and we had a fantastic cast (the NYIT Awards agrees, as they were nominated for best ensemble!)  I get produced a lot regionally, and I love getting to travel for shows, but there’s something really special about having shows in New York where all my friends and colleagues can come see them.  I remember walking back through Times Square after opening night feeling like “Okay, I’m really doing this ‘New York thing.’”  

InViolet: In addition to being a published Playwright, you can add novelist and humor book author to your list of accomplishments! Tell us about “11,002 Things to be Miserable About” and “Dating the Devil.”

Lia: They’re amazing!  Just kidding.  (Kind of.)  11,002 Things to Be Miserable About is a humor book I co-wrote with my brother – there’s a book called 14,000 Things to Be Happy About, and we thought it’d be funny to do the opposite.  We pitched the project to a few agents and publishers on a lark, and ended up getting a contract right away… and then we had to actually make a list of 11,002 things to be miserable about, so that was a depressing few months.  But the book ended up doing really well – it’s sold over 35,000 copies worldwide at this point, and there are quite a few YouTube videos of emo teens doing readings of it (sometimes while lying in bathtubs pretending to slit their wrists).   

After that book came out, I figured it wasn’t really that hard to get a book published (spoiler alert: not true), so I decided to write a novel.  Dating the Devil is a chick lit spoof based on my experiences from my single days – a girl falls in love with the perfect guy, only to realize that he’s been keeping a very dark secret… he’s actually the human manifestation of Satan.  She ends up deciding that it’s not necessarily a dealbreaker, and romance ensues.  I had a great time writing it and it did end up getting published eventually, as well as being optioned and developed as a TV movie.

InViolet: This past summer you were a guest artist at The Last Frontier Theater Conference in Alaska. How was that experience?

Lia: Very intense and incredibly rewarding (see how I found another way to say amazing?)  I attended the conference several times as a playwright back when I was in grad school, and it’s a crazy experience – two hundred playwrights and actors, plus thirty or so guest artists, convene on a tiny town in Alaska for a week of hearing and workshopping new plays and not sleeping (because the sun never goes down!)  The conference is actually where I first met Erin back in 2008 (?), so it’s indirectly responsible for my entire association with InViolet!  This was my first year as a guest artist/panelist, so I was responding to other writers’ plays, and it was a really lovely recognition of how far I’ve come in my career to be able to be on that side of things.  

InViolet: You’re very involved in the NJ theater scene. Why should folks see theater in the Garden State?

Lia: I feel so lucky to be a theater artist in New Jersey (I’m based in Hoboken), because it’s really the best of both worlds.  You have access to the New York theater scene, and you also have access to one of the most vibrant regional theater scenes in the country.  Apparently New Jersey has the third largest number of Dramatists Guild members in the country (behind only New York and California), and there are so many great-quality professional companies.  I often see better theater in NJ than I do in the city.

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Lia: I have a couple of readings coming up through Writers Theatre of New Jersey this month (speaking of the New Jersey theater scene) – one of an older play and one of a brand new play that I haven’t heard in front of an audience yet.  I also have a production coming up in a couple of months – my play THE GRAND TOUR, which I originally wrote for the Brooklyn Generator, won the New Jersey Playwrights Contest last year and is getting a developmental production this spring.

 

Links:

 

Personal Website: http://www.liaromeo.com/ 

 

Playscripts Page: https://www.playscripts.com/playwrights/bios/1682 

 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Lia-Romeo/e/B001JS7Z00/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 

 

Project Y Page: www.projectytheatre.org 

 

 

Original InVi member, Michelle David tells us about getting married 5 times (to the same person), how the story of It’s a Wonderful Life is supported by Quantum Physics and what a dinner party would be like attended by all her characters from InViolet World Premieres.

InViolet: You are one of the original InViolets! Tell us about your journey with us (10 years and counting!)

Michelle: Oh wow, what an adventure!!  I was invited to the first retreat quite accidentally, but I quickly realized that destiny had intervened!

I bumped into my friend, Francis Benhamou, at a wedding, and she says, “Girl you gotta come with me.   My boyfriend is going into the woods with a bunch of actors to do some plays and camp or something.  Please come!”  I say yes, but then she calls and tells me there’s no room.   Then the following week, my phone rings, and in his oh-so-recognizably booming voice I hear the words, “Michelle David.  Michael Henry Harris.”   (Michael and I studied voice and speech together for two years with Shane Ann Younts, but I have no idea why he’s calling because we haven’t spoken in ages.)  Then he tells me that he’s one of the people leading actors into to the Adirondacks for retreat and that I must come.  So!  A few days later I find myself en route to a van rental place to meet a bunch of strangers and travel into the woods, but when I get there, I know everyone.  I mean truly, of the ten people there, I probably know eight of them, and what’s more is that I know them from completely different areas of my life.  Areas ranging from former co-worker to former classmate to current…coven member…. (different interview  AND EVEN to the first person to ever write me a fan letter in NYC!   Yup, true story.   (A year prior to this moment, a man I’d never met sent me an incredibly beautiful letter after seeing me perform in Fool For Love, and his name was Michael Benjamin.)  On this, the first morning of our first retreat, standing outside the van rental place, already in disbelief at how many of these ‘strangers’ I know, Michael Benjamin walks out of the crowd and introduces himself to me.   Crazy.

My journey with InViolet?  Meant to be!

InViolet: What is your favorite InViolet memory?

Michelle: Tara Westwood’s boobs.  Obviously,  Tara Westwood’s boobs.   And I can thank you for that, Erin Mallon.  Your brilliant writing gave me three minutes of unadulterated exploration of Tara Westwood’s boobs for three weeks in a row, running five shows a week.  Yes, one of the MANY delights of portraying five-year-old Ben from your play, Branched, was family “lap time.”  The sheer joy of mounting and straddling Tara every night to poke, snuggle, slap, nuzzle, coo into, squeeze and in-every-way-possible, fondle Tara’s breasts WHILE Andrew Blair stands behind her, rubbing her shoulders and staring at me, and AS she delivers a straight-faced monologue to a horrified Marguerite Stimpson…  Well.  There are no words for the gift you have given me.  I will cherish it, as I will Tara Westwood’s breasts, for the rest of my life.  

InViolet: You are performing right now in It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play at Miles Square Theatre directed by fellow company member Mark Cirnigliaro and audiences are eating it up. What’s this process been like for you?

Michelle: Amazing!!!  What an incredible group of creators, and it’s so fun to perform a classic story!

Sidebar:  Though I knew it was a popular film, I must admit that I didn’t get it.  When I first saw It’s a Wonderful Life, as a child, it confused me because it’s such a dark movie.  It never felt very “Christmasy” to me, so I couldn’t understand why my parents, aunts, and uncles wanted to watch it every year.    But they did watch it every year, and I have learned from this production that MANY people do.  People come to the theater with a lot of memory, meaning, and tradition in tow, so maybe that’s why it’s having a big impact on audiences.

 Of course, the impact may have more to do with the essential question of the story, too.   Without getting too deep here, let’s be real:  it’s about a man contemplating suicide.  And if we’re honest, many of us have experienced at least fleeting doubt about how much we matter.  (“Why am I doing any of this?  What’s the point?  Would life be better, or the same, without me?”)  In this story, George Bailey faces this doubt.  He sees what life would be like without him, and it’s grim.   He sees that his kindness, decency, and love of man over money really do matter to a lot of people.  And then, in an instant, a suicidal life becomes a wonderful life.  

I mean (hahhahah uh oh here I go!) if we really want to take it all the way here, I think Jesus and Buddha would give this story two thumbs up with a twist!  One of their greatest teachings is that heaven is at hand for those with eyes to see, that the difference between samsara and nirvana is, well, perspective.  It’s a Wonderful Life tells the story of the very tiny and very important quantum leap in perspective between life as “suicidal” and life as “wonderful.”  That’s a great story in my book!  Because even though science tells us this story all the time (especially currently in the fields of neuroscience and quantum physics), I don’t know how interested people are in science, sadly.   We tend to make decisions with our hearts and sometimes forget that we are the ones telling those stories in our hearts.    So maybe that’s it.  Maybe we love It’s a Wonderful Life because it wakes up the most important story for our hearts:  the one about how much we matter.  

InViolet: You hold the “record” for acting in the most InViolet World premieres. What would the dinner party be like if all your characters attended?

Michelle: HAHAHHAHAHAH!!!!  That’s a good question!

Ummm….in brief, Anna of Sommerfugl would be the hostess with the mostess for this wildly inappropriate event, and Kira would be buttoned-up and judging Anna’s every move.  Celia of This is Fiction would be sitting across from Kira, getting super drunk, and wondering if she might be looking at the only woman who has gone longer without sex than she has.   Five-year-old Ben of Branched would be EXTREMELY overstimulated and thrilled to attend, and he would hold himself responsible for maintaining lively conversation between all the women in the group.  He would also, of course, perform a spirited violin solo for the ladies’ pleasure and lead them in group activities after dessert.  (Celia would unrelentingly stare at him throughout — totally over him, as it were, yet somehow rooting for the young freak.)  Nurse would have her feet up by the fire this entire time, and Molly of 40 Weeks would be dancing on the bar.   With everyone.  (And of course, during the meal Ben would be touching Molly under the table.  And she’d let him because she knows it’s important for people to explore their sexuality, especially children.  Plus she’s getting warmed up for Anna, who she will obviously be making love with later tonight.)  

InViolet: You directed InViolet’s very first production. How was that? Would you do it again?

Michelle: Hahah!  Yes, I did, and yes I would.  I would love to direct again, especially given the way we do things now (with actual designers, for example).  At the time, we decided it would be a great idea to do everything ourselves, everything except stage managing.   AND, at the time, I said ummmm….really??   Not sure that’s the best idea, but okay, if that’s the way it’s going down, I will lead this crazy train!  It was completely insane.  But looking back, it was also far and away the most fun of all the productions.

InViolet: You had quite a summer. You got married! Became an aunt! Built your coaching business! Big life moments! Tell us all about it.

Michelle: I sure did.   I got married.  I got married five times to the same person.  Five weddings, five rings, five dresses, five sets of vows, you name it!!!  I can’t get too into that here because there’s so much, but I will say this:  I am obsessed with my husband.  He is a Light on Earth, and each of our weddings, like my husband and I, were highly unconventional and highly aligned with our values.   We got married in the eyes of the Law, Spirit, Nature, Family, and Friend.   The festivities ranged from city hall, to my parents’ backyard, to five days of camping and canoeing down the Green River, and beyond.  Each ceremony was magnificent, and we would feel incomplete without any of them.  I’d encourage anybody wanting to get married to throw a big finger in the direction of the “wedding industry,” and, with the support of your family and friends, make something that is real for you.  You can do it, and it’s SO worth it.

As for being an Auntie, IT’S THE BEST!!!!  I am obsessed with my dear, sweet nephew, and I keep trying to get my sister to give him to me so that we can make millions in baby commercials.  (I know you all say it, but he really is the cutest.

And yes, coaching is incredible.  I love it so much.  I get to use all my greatest skill sets simultaneously, and it’s incredibly fulfilling and super fun.  I also love being coached.  What a gift to have someone in your world who really meets you where you are and loves you as you are while holding you accountable to who you want to be.  Friends and family are wonderful, but most of them aren’t trained professionals whose sole aim is to ask questions that evoke the best in us.  Having a professional who’s well-trained in human development, mindset, creativity, motivation and more?  Well, it’s pretty awesome.   I employ both a personal coach and a professional coach, and while I would be absolutely fine without them, I don’t want to be without them.  Without them, everything takes longer, there’s lots of accidental waste (wasted time, energy, effort) and so many blind spots.

Uh oh, now you’ve got me going, hahaha!  I could talk about this forever!!

It’s just that I giggle when I think about it because life coaching confuses a lot of people.  Like, what’s a life coach?  A lot of us, myself included, hear those words and our eyes roll to the backs of our heads.  But in other contexts, the logic is clear.  If we want to be better at playing the piano, for example, we get a piano teacher.  No-brainer, right?  This reasoning doesn’t transfer as easily with “life.”  People even get embarrassed by it, sometimes defensive.  I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s hilarious that we seem to have an inborn belief that because we are alive, we are good at it.  Which is obviously not true!  Haha!! It’s pretty clear that being alive, in no way correlates directly to the skill of “Being Alive.”  Sure, some of us are born good at it, but we all know people who are alive and unhappy, unfulfilled, or making the same mistakes over and over again.   Coaching illuminates the blind spots so that you can get over your s**t and get on with your life.  Plus, it’s fun and top performers in most every field have coaches.  That’s probably not a coincidence, and there’s NO reason to be embarrassed by claiming a life you love.

InViolet: What’s your favorite Christmas movie, the one you gotta watch every year?

Michelle: Umm…White Christmas.  No doubt.  “Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!!!”

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Michelle: Oh golly gumdrops.  Hopefully a nap. Ha!

No, but really I have been going pretty hard, and I am excited for the holiday rest.  

I am currently interviewing one-on-one coaching clients for 2017.   Though I am ready for a rest, the interviews are actually super fun.  They help me ensure that the relationship will be a good fit for both of us (which is important in because I only work with about ten one-on-one clients at a time), and for potential clients basically get an hour of free coaching. So that’s cool, too.

I will also be introducing group coaching in the new year, which I am very excited about.   I will run both Personal and Professional coaching groups that will meet virtually and run in three-month cycles.  While there’s definitely overlap between the groups, Personal coaching groups will center on fulfillment and activating the ideal, while professional groups will center on mindset and staying on track with projects and goals.  In both cases, the aim is accountability, making sure you are feeling alive, engaged, and connected to what matters most in your world.  Though I love working one-on-one and going deep with people, I am also eager to start the groups because they provide a way for me to work with more people at a lower price point while also creating community, which is very important to me.  

People need people, y’all.  For real.

 

 

Erin chats with us about Branched, Brooklyn Generator and the lengths she will go to help dress her sets.

InViolet: Tell us about your journey with InViolet

Erin: It’s been a five-year love affair so far! Many years ago while on a theater retreat (for a different company), Melanie Maras and I were randomly assigned to be bunkmates in a rundown mouse-infested cabin. Needless to say, we bonded. InViolet was in its super early stages and Melanie was one of its founding members.  A few years later when they were looking for new members, they invited me along on their annual retreat (no mice this time!) and I was instantly smitten.

InViolet: What is your favorite InViolet memory?

Erin: I’m going to be greedy and pick two: watching Tara Westwood, Michelle David and Andrew Blair engage in “Family Lap Time” each night during our production of Branched, and standing in the kitchen during retreat ’15 while Jeff Kurtz, Bernardo Cubria and Bixby Elliot serenaded my then 7-month-old son, Jett. 

InViolet: The Brooklyn Generator is moving into its 5^th Season this January.  What’s it like producing this project with InViolet member, Bixby Elliot?

Erin: Unbearable. A total slog. Ha! No, Brooklyn Generator is one of the great joys of my creative life and Bixby is a dream partner. I am endlessly amazed by what playwrights can create in less-than-30-days. Our new season starts in January (stay tuned as we announce our writers!) and I am first up at bat to write. I keep telling myself “Write small plays, Erin, small!” But… it’s looking like this one wants to be 8 to 9 characters.  What can you do?

InViolet: Branched was just published! How does that feel?

Erin: I’m pretty pumped about it! Jason Aaron Goldberg and Original Works Publishing rule. We had a blast a few weeks ago launching the play at Drama Book Shop with a party and performance. Three of our original InViolet cast members (Andrew, Marguerite and Tara) reprised their roles, joined by our dear Amy Kim Waschke and original director Robert Ross Parker who whipped us quickly back into shape. I’m super turned on by the idea of getting this play on as many university and regional stages as possible, so if any folks reading are still connected to their alma maters and want me to gift a copy of the play to their school, let me know!

InViolet: You have several projects happening right now with our friends at The Collective. Tell us about that!

Erin: Yes! I feel so lucky to have two plays, Check Out and Zero Efs (1^st written for an InViolet one Night Stand!) involved in The Collective’s annual short play festival, C:10. They fully stage 12 plays and publish them in a fancy anthology each year. Check Out is playing December 7^th through 10^th at Paradise Factory in NYC. Want to know how excited I am about this one? I spent the past few days soliciting empty tampon boxes from every woman I could find in my neighborhood so we can dress the set (the play takes place in a Duane Reade’s feminine product aisle). Yup, that excited. But before all that, the company challenged us to write pieces in response to the election. I wrote a new one act called The Carving, which tackles the dreaded 1^st Thanksgiving post-11/9. That’s happening December 1^st, and all the proceeds from the evening are going to Art Start, a great organization that uses the creative arts to transform young, at-risk lives.

InViolet: What’s next for you?

Erin: I’ll be doing lots of Brooklyn Generating and audiobook-narrating as usual, and diving into some cool opportunities to whip a few of my full-length plays into shape. My play A Mind Out of the Gutter is having a reading with American Theatre Group, Good Riddance is having a mini-workshop with Project Y Theatre and The Other White Meat, my play with talking farm animals, is part of Writers Theater of NJ’s Women Playwrights Project.

Website: www.erinmallon.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErinMallonActor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErinMallon

Brooklyn Generator: https://www.facebook.com/TheBrooklynGenerator/

  

 

Our Co-Artistic Director, Michael Henry Harris chats with us about simultaneously growing a theater company and a human, the changing arts scene in Atlanta and InViolet’s journey over the past TEN years.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Michael: As an artistic director/producer, an actor, and a writer.

InViolet: Did you ever imagine you would be Artistic Director of a theater company in NYC? How would you describe the job of an Artistic Director?

Michael: I supposed I must have, but only as the natural consequence of wanting to create an artistic home.

Lynn Meadow once described her job as being responsible for everything that happens inside and outside of the theater. That sounds about right. Thank God for Angela. For independent theater at the level we’re producing at, an AD plays a myriad of different roles depending on the needs at the time, anything from cleaning toilets, creating budgets, encouraging and listening to our artists, or choosing what play we’re going to produce. In all honesty, there is so much more to do than we (Angela and I) have time for. I’m still figuring it out.

InViolet: Your theater company and your amazing son are both turning TEN this year. Did you birth two babies at the same time on purpose? What’s it like celebrating those milestones simultaneously?

Michael: Thanks for the shout out for Hank! The births were mostly coincidental.

Having Hank and wanting him to be raised around an extended family caused us to leave New York, and knowing that I was leaving made it all the more important to create a great reason to return, so there is some correlation there. Having both Hank and InViolet growing up together is a constant reminder of how fleeting this all is. I am amazed at how lucky I am, and my goal is to be as present as I can in whatever role I am currently filling.

InViolet: You live in Atlanta. Apparently Georgia is now tied for 3rd place in worldwide film production. That’s sexy! Talk to us about how the art scene has changed over the years you’ve lived there.

Michael: It’s amazing what some tax incentives will do! The art scene is still changing, so we’ll see. One consequence of all the good paying Hollywood work is that crews now have the money to occasionally shoot the low budget “do it for love” project. It might be one of the few examples of the trickle down economy theory working in practice. On a personal level, it means I’m auditioning for better projects. Overall, there is a lot of enthusiasm in the art world here, at least from the tiny perspective that I view it from. I’d love to see Atlanta become known for the creative, vibrant arts city that it could be, and there’s a talented group of people working on that.

InViolet:  What is your favorite InViolet memory?

Michael: Too many to name just one, of course, so here are a few:

Seeing my son climbing on the set of 40 Weeks, a play written in response to his birth.

Huddling with Angela in various corners at our first retreat. We each invited a separate handful people having no real idea if there would be chemistry present or not. Plus, we barely had more than an inkling of what we were doing. We’d whisper things like, “I think it’s going well, right?” And respond with, “Yeah, I think it is.” It was terrifying and exciting and joyful all at once.

The techs. All of them. They’re magical to me. Seeing all the work come together to create something never done before . . . I love that. It’s my favorite part of the production process.

Most of my memories stem from the company giving people opportunities that they richly deserved, but may never have had but for InViolet, or would’ve had years later.

InViolet: How would you say InViolet has changed over the years?

Michael: So many ways. We were brand new when we started. Of course we read everything we could get our hands on about doing this, attended CTI, had meetings with anyone who could/would teach us something, etc., but the truth is you have to try and fail, and do it all over again. So I like to think we’re making different, perhaps more sophisticated mistakes, along with some victories as well.

Something that hasn’t changed is the feeling of family and love that pervades the company. We have amazing people: extremely talented but equally kind and generous.

InViolet: What is your vision for the next ten years of InViolet?

Michael: I’d like to retain the feeling of being a small, tight knit company while expanding on our production opportunities, both the level and the number of productions. But that may change. Angela and I try to continually check in with each other and the company to be sure we’re serving the needs of the individuals and the company as a whole.

InViolet: What’s next for you personally?

Michael: I have a couple of plays in the Atlanta One Minute Holiday Play Festival, I need to raise some money for InViolet (it’s our fundraising season after all), and several new projects in their infancy that will hopefully come to fruition in 2017. A couple of auditions in the next few days too. A busy actor is a happy actor.

Links: I’m michaelhenryharris on Instagram. That’s where I’m posting the most. Facebook is a little much right now, but I’m diving in when I can stomach it.

Bernardo tells us about being InViolet’s new Literary Manager, building audience participation into his plays and making the move to LA.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Bernardo: Actor/Playwright/Podcast Host

InViolet: What is your favorite InViolet memory?

Bernardo: Being in Megan Hart’s This is Fiction. I was brand new to the company and getting to be in my first InViolet Play at The Cherry Lane was a dream come true. Walking every day on Commerce Street I felt like a real New York actor. Plus the cast and crew was an all star team. Megan Hart is a ridiculously talented playwright who also happens to be a kind and generous person. I would do anything she wrote in any space anywhere.

InViolet: You are InViolet’s newly crowned Literary Manager! Tell us what you plan on doing with this sexy title.

Bernardo: First off I’m going to read all of Bixby Elliot’s play and send him detailed notes. Then I’ll make a Power Point presentation for the company detailing all of the things Bixby needs to improve on as a writer.#jokes
No, I honestly just want to help us do more and more readings of our work and get more of it produced. This company has so many talented writers and we are building up quite a catalog of plays that deserve to get done all over the country. It’s an embarrassment of riches and I just hope we can get more of these play out into the world.

InViolet: You recently celebrated the 150th episode of OFF AND ON, a New York Theater podcast by interviewing Stephen Adly Guirgis (who actually directed our 2nd World Premiere, Kiss Me on the Mouth by Melanie Angelina Maras). Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished with the podcast! Our members listen to you constantly (obviously). What keeps you interviewing folks week after week? What has the process taught you over the years?

Bernardo: I love doing the podcast. It’s an excuse for me to sit down every week with a theatre person and talk to them about the thing we both love the most. The more interviews I do the more I fall in love with theatre people. It’s a crazy career and the fact that so many people sacrifice so much to pursue it is astounding. Think about how cool it is that we are in a community with all of the people who were brave enough to say no to the “normal” path and said fuck it I’m pursuing my dream. And then we get to have drinks with those people, have those people over for dinner, be in a company with those people. It’s fucking cool.

InViolet: You just went to your hometown of Houston, Texas to see the premiere of your play JUDGMENT OF FOOLS at Horsehead Theatre. This is the 3rd production of this play in one year, yes? Amazing. What’s the journey of this play been like for you?

Bernardo: This is the most experimental piece I’ve ever written. It has audience participation as the main ingredient. So the play changes depending on the city and the venue and the people. The biggest challenge has been the script itself, fine tuning it and learning how best to get audiences to want to participate. We have over 100 years of audiences being trained to dress up and sit in a quiet room when watching theatre, so fighting against that is tough. But I hope this piece is the first of many I write that uses these techniques and hopefully creates an environment where the audience gets to be more involved. In Houston the other night the show ended with everyone in the audiences hugging each other and talking about peace. That was fucking cool. This company is really great and the cast is superb. I hope everyone who reads this will send their plays to Horsehead Theatre Company because they are a great group of people doing really create challenging new work.

InViolet: We interviewed Gerry Rodriguez a few weeks ago and talked about your play NEIGHBORS. Your cast and director Lou Moreno killed it at our InProgress Play Festival this June and we were psyched to see it was part of Two River Theater Company’s Crossing Borders Festival. What’s next for the play? What are your hopes and plans for it?

Bernardo: I hope it gets done somewhere. I am desperate for a rehearsal process and to see it up on its feet. The next workshop is here in L.A. at The Blank Theatre on November 14th. Ideally a theatre will do it both in English and Spanish. I know this sounds weird but I think the play is in a really great place and I’m fucking proud of it. Plus Gerry is brilliant in this piece and I hope if anything, it gets done so people see how talented he is. This is one of the best actors in New York. He should be on stage all year round.

InViolet: You recently made the move to LA. You are now a part of “InViolet West,” our affectionate (unofficial) name for our members who now call Cali home. How has the adjustment been for you?

Bernardo: I am surprised at how much I like it. Life is easier out here, you have more time to think and breathe. I’m even teaching myself to surf. But I miss theatre. I miss it so much. You don’t get to be in it as much out here. It’s a balance. I’ve had the best financial year of my life out here but it’s not as fulfilling as it was in New York. I hope with time I get to be more involved with things I love out here but as of now it’s a purely adult decision. #Adult

InViolet: Your wife, the amazing Lauren Saffa, is a documentary film editor. If you could choose one InViolet member whose day to day life you’d like to see captured in a big budget, widely released documentary film, who would it be?

Bernardo: Andrew Blair. What is that guy doing, one minute he’s in New Zealand, then he’s on the today show, and then he has a mildly racist instagram account for his dog, and then he has access to infinite memes and gifs that he sends me on whatsapp all day…does he have a job, how does he survive?

InViolet: What’s up next for you?

Bernardo: The workshop of Neighbors on Nov 14th! If you are in Los Angeles come on out! And same ol same ol, auditions, writing plays, and the podcast.

Twitter @bernardocubria.
Website www.bernardocubria.com

 

Brand new member Tallie Gabriel tells us about working with the Obie Award winning Bedlam Theatre Company, the time InViolet drove her into the woods for four days, and having her fingers in many delicious pies.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world? 

Tallie: Primarily as an actor, though I currently have a stage managing job! I’m a writer as well but writing plays is new for me. I’m just starting to dip my toes into that, thanks to the Second Monday Socials.

InViolet:  You are a brand new InViolet! We’re so happy to have you join us! Tell us about your journey with InViolet so far.

Tallie: Ahh, I’m so excited and honored to be a member! I started stalking InViolet after I worked the benefit in June 2015. I then did a video for Bixby’s Sommerfugl, a play that I totally fell in love with, and went to The Judgment of Fools a few times. Basically I became obsessed with everyone, and was then asked to be in the One Night Stand and invited on retreat, which was INCREDIBLE. Plus Second Monday Social has become something of a monthly church for me. And now here I am!

InViolet: This August you got in a van and let us drive you into the woods for your first InViolet retreat. Brave woman! How did it go? 

Tallie: Oh my goodness. It was unbelievable, please put me in a van and drive me into the woods anytime you like. It was such a rich, fulfilling, and inspiring few days artistically and personally. I really felt like I had found a family in InViolet, which is an invaluable feeling.

InViolet: You’ve been a consistent supporter and participant at our Second Monday Socials, event before you were an official member. Thank you for that! What has the SMS experience been like for you? 

Tallie: Thank YOU, Marguerite and Bixby, for putting SMS on! It’s been so special. It’s a perfect way to participate as a member of this artistic community- whether you write, read, or just show up, it’s always so fun and fulfilling and I always come out of it with big new ideas. Plus the people are the BEST and it’s in the basement of an A+ bar- honestly, what else could you want?

InViolet: You are Eric Tucker’s assistant at the great Bedlam Theatre Company. Tell us all about that gig! (PS – that picture of you taken the moment Bedlam won the Obie last year should be in the dictionary next to the word “psyched.”)

Tallie: Ha, thank you! That was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced. Bedlam is so COOL, and working with them has been amazing. I do a lot of scheduling sort of stuff for Eric, as well as coordinating readings of new plays, setting up meetings, that sort of thing. Right now I’m in the room in the rehearsal process of a new project and that is SO exciting. Eric is an amazing source support and helps me out so much (as do Susannah Millonzi and Kimberly Pau Boston, also of Bedlam), and I am constantly learning tons from him. 

InViolet: The same month you became an official InViolet member, you became a shiny new AEA member. Killing it, girl! How does it feel being part of the union? 

Tallie: Thank you!! It feels very validating! I feel very recognized for doing this work, which is stellar. Plus I LOVE the idea of being able to sign up at EPAs without getting up at 7am to wait in the non union line. 

InViolet: You’ve teamed up with fellow company member Jennifer Bowen to work for her great company, Book Hive. What’s your role there? Must be awful working with someone so kind, talented and hard working, Huh?  

Tallie: Ugh, she’s the worst. No but really, Jen is such a star, and I love helping her. We’ve been calling me BookHive’s “social media maven” which feels appropriate! So far I write one blog post a week, as well as coming up with one writing prompt per week that hopefully people will see and use as writing inspiration. I also tweet and post on Facebook. Check out the blog (and the rest of Jen’s brilliant business) at bookhivecorp.com. 

InViolet: What’s up next for you? 

Tallie: A lot of fingers-crossed sort of things at the moment. I’m currently working on this workshop with Bedlam (title of play to be announced fall 2017!) and would love to keep being in room/theatres with them. I also have an offer from a literary agent in the air, so I’m pinning down a few specifics with that but that’s super exciting! So the next steps would be working to get my YA novel, M, published on top of all of this. I have my fingers in a lot of pies right now (all of which are delicious)! I feel very, very lucky. Oh, and in January I’m going to Thailand which I am freaking out about. So world travel is the other general plan!

Links to your website, social media, etc.: 

Talliegabriel.com
Instagram @taleesi_
Twitter @talligator_

 

Gerry Rodriguez tells us about “It Can’t Happen Here” (currently playing at Berkeley Rep), getting shout outs from Jake Gyllenhaal and Jon Hamm, and the time he acted so well he made an audience member faint.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world? 

Gerry: Actor/fight director/occasional director

InViolet:  Tell us about your journey with InViolet so far.

Gerry: I was asked to participate in a theatre retreat by Bernardo Cubria for a company called InViolet about 4 years ago. I had heard of the name but knew very little about the company. My wife Marguerite Stimpson was also asked to go, so I said sure, why not. It was an incredible retreat and haven’t looked back since. Thanks for having me…

InViolet: What’s your favorite InViolet memory? 

Gerry: Oof, hard to choose from but I’ll give it a shot. I know you asked for a “memory” not “memories” but I have to name a few, because they are so great! Top of the list, putting my hands down Joe Mancuso’s pants (really everyone should be doing that) because have you met Joe? Acting as a scrotum-less hustler hitting on a phlebotomist (played by Jen Bowen) in Erin Mallon’s 10-minute play, as an audience member proceeds to faint. My current favorite is acting in Bernardo’s play “Neighbors.”

InViolet: You are currently acting in “It Can’t Happen Here” at Berkeley Rep. Tell us all about it! And – ahem – Jon Hamm and Jake Gyllenhaal performed a scene from it at the Broadway Fundraiser for Hillary??

Gerry: Yes, it’s a new adaptation of a Sinclair Lewis novel by the same name. The original adaptation was produced by the Federal Theater Project in 1936. The play was performed in 17 states and in several languages simultaneously on the same night. It takes place in 1936 Vermont, and it was a satire written at the time as a reaction to Huey Long. It the plots a course as to what might have happened if the Huey- like character had taken office instead of FDR. Angela Razzano, co-artistic director of InViolet brought it to my attention that Jon Hamm and Jake Gyllenhaal performed excerpts from our play on Broadway Live – a campaign for Hillary. It was pretty great to watch the words of our play being performed, especially during this political climate. Couldn’t be more proud to be part of this production.

InViolet: You gave one hell of a performance as José in Bernardo Cubria’s “Neighbors” at InViolet’s Play Fest this past June. That guy seems to be in your blood! What’s it like working on this role? (PS – We’d love to see you in a full production of this play one day).

Gerry: Thank you! I love that character and play. José is a great character and a once in a lifetime type of role for me. Sometimes some characters fit and sometimes they don’t I guess. I feel honored every time I get to be him. Thank you, Bernardo. I would also love to do the full production of this play.  

InViolet: You have a longstanding relationship with INTAR Theatre, led by the amazing Lou Moreno. Tell us about being part of that community. 

Gerry: INTAR is an off-Broadway theatre that has been producing Latino voices since 1966. I was first introduced to INTAR by Daniel Jaques who is a wonderful director. Then brought on board to co-teach movement workshops with the guru himself David Anzuelo (if you don’t know who he is you should). Subsequently working with current artistic director Lou Moreno on several projects. Lou is a champion of talent and an incredible voice of not only Latino artists but the theatrical community at large. INTAR has provided me with a home when I really needed one. 

InViolet: You and  Marguerite Stimpson hold the honorable title of “InViolet Theater Company Married Couple.” It gets extremely uncomfortable for all of us when you make-out during our company meetings. That aside, what’s it like having a partner who is in the business as you are? 

Gerry: I didn’t know we had a title. Don’t be jealous now… It’s great to have my wife in the same company because it allows the opportunity for us to work on something together, which rarely ever happens outside of the company. It’s also nice to have a partner in the same business because there is an immediate understanding of each other.

InViolet: If you could choose one childhood Halloween costume of yours to revisit as an adult, which would it be?

Gerry: I would like to revisit my Dracula and ninja costumes. I’m thinking of a combination of the two. Dracula-on-the-top and a ninja-on-the-bottom type of action. A ninja with a cape, what’s cooler than that?

InViolet: What’s up next for you? 

Gerry: Finishing up my run of the “It Can’t Happen Here” and getting ready to go back to NYC!

Links:

www.gerardorodriguezactor.com

Twitter: @geratheclass
Instagram: gerrod
Facebook: gerardo rodriguez (careful because there are many)

The hilarious Melanie Maras tells us about writing solo shows, having her first play directed by Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis and representing Indonesia in The Funniest Person in the World Contest.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Melanie: Playwright! Solo performer. And lover of the theatre.

InViolet: Tell us about your journey as an InViolet. You are one of our original members! How have things changed since the early days?

Melanie: Oh my good Lord have mercy….that was many moons ago! I was so wild and young at InViolet’s inception — for me, it was a creative incubator for my buck wild ideas and behaviour. InViolet was a safe space for me to begin to grow up professionally.

InViolet: What’s your favorite InViolet memory?

Melanie: SO MANY. (A) Laughing so hard whilst on retreat with an InViolet homie that you want to just die because you feel you might never experience such mind-blowing joy ever again. (B) Watching the cast and crew of KISS ME ON THE MOUTH work on my words so tirelessly and breathe into them such beautiful life. (C) There was this solo show I had started to write in Los Angeles — it was the first time I had done anything like that. I had done storytelling before but this was something else entirely. It was deeply personal, very vulnerable, a huge leap for me to say these words out loud. To other people. In a public setting. I had done one very early reading of ten minutes of my solo show and after the reading someone who I valued at that time in my life basically told me that I was sick in the head and that my voice shouldn’t be heard. I believed them and completely abandoned my solo show after that. Half a year later, Bixby Elliot kept pushing me to bring my solo show to InViolet’s annual retreat. I resisted but Bixby is very persistent and so I brought the beginnings of this solo show to retreat and I was seriously, I was so scared. And I was paired with Mark Cirnigliaro as a director and he worked with me with such dignity and respect and compassion. And then I did my reading for the company and they sat in the audience and every single person there gave me so much love in that reading. They gave me strength. The way the company received my work renewed my faith in my voice and it propelled me forward. Every single person in that room believed that my voice had value. They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.

InViolet: Your play “Kiss Me on the Mouth” was InViolet’s 2nd World Premiere and directed by Pulitzer Prize Winner Stephen Adly Guirgis. What was that experience like for you?

Melanie: That experience was everything for me. The only thing I had written before that point were papers in high school and university and some really abominable poetry. It grew me into a writer. It was the beginning of the rest of my life. It was the very first turning point towards becoming the woman I was always meant to be.

InViolet: You were just representing Indonesia in the Funniest Person in the World Competition. Wow! Tell us all about it!

Melanie: I am very proud to be representing Indonesia in the semi-finals of the Laugh Factory’s Funniest Person in the World Competition! Of twenty semi-finalists there are only three women and I am the only woman in the top 5. In December I’ll be performing in the semi-finals in Helsinki! Apparently I still need to collect votes, so please go to www.funniestindonesian.com to login to indi.com and like, watch, and follow my video from there.

InViolet: Your pilot “Third World Royalty” is a Quarter-Finalist for Screen Craft’s 2016 Pilot Launch TV Script Contest. Congrats! Can you tell us about the pilot?

Melanie: Thank you! THIRD WORLD ROYALTY has gotten a lot of love this year. Outside of ScreenCraft it was also a semifinalist for Sundance’s Episodic Storytelling Lab and an Honorable Mention for the Tracking Board’s Launch Pad pilot competition. The pilot is based on my Indonesian-American family. Although it’s very specific to my culturally confused family, it’s a universal story about trying establish your independence from your family.

InViolet: What’s up next for you?

Melanie: I’m the subject of a new documentary by Abe Forman-Greenwald (filmingdocs.com) that follows my stand-up journey as an Indonesian-American comic. You can see a sneak peek here: twitter.com/FilmingDocs/status/781171994972651520

InViolet: If you were invited to the Presidential Inaugural Ball 2016 and could only bring one InViolet as your date, who would it be?

Melanie: Bixby Elliot. It is my dream to be at the Emmys with Bixby where we are both nominees and writing stupid notes to each other at our table and making lewd gestures at the other attendees whilst wearing our formal attire. The Presidential Inaugural Ball would be a close second. And Bixby loves Hillary (I’m manifesting this outcome). Also he looks fantastic in a tux.

www.melaniemaras.com
funniestindonesian.com
Instagram & Twitter: @troublejones
Facebook: www.facebook.com/melaniemarascomic

Joe talks to us about his “Crossfit guy” status, getting intimate onstage with a fellow InViolet (Go G-Rod!) and the process of bringing his web series, Life, Coached to the screen.

InViolet: How do you identify in the theater world?

Joe: Actor first. Writer second.

InViolet: Tell us about your journey as an InViolet.

Joe: Troy Lococo was/is a friend of mine and was coworker at the time. We often talked about projects we were working on and he had spoken to me about hi theater company, Inviolet. A bunch of our friends attended a couple of the Inviolet Benefits and had a great time. After meeting a handful of Inviolets, I was asked to audition for Michael Henry Harris’s play, 40 Weeks. After that I worked on Sara Van Beckham’s play, The Oddyasee and Bixby Elliot’s play “Treasure Island”. Our first rehearsal for TI was the morning after my birthday and I had celebrated quite a bit the night before so I was late. I “acted” (terribly) like I was feeling fine and got through the rehearsal but assumed that would surely be the last of my Inviolet endeavors. But, after a few more rehearsals and the performing the readings, all was well again. I attended the next retreat and then was asked to join the company.

InViolet: What’s your favorite InViolet memory?

Joe: This is easy. Making out with and receiving a “HJ” from company member Gerry Rodriguez in a short play that Bernardo Cubria wrote FOR US in a One Night Stand. I have fond memories of rehearsing with Gerry. He was a gentleman through and through but definitely let me know who was in charge.

InViolet: You’ve had a big, busy year launching your web series “Life, Coached.” We were lucky enough to read episodes with you while you were in development. We’re so proud of the amazing finished product you’ve created! Tell us all about the process of bringing this to the screen.

Joe: Overall it’s been about a two-year journey bringing Life, Coached to “Life”. It started as an idea, like so many writers’ ideas, from something I was experiencing in my own life. Around the same time, Inviolet was beginning to entertain the idea of expanding our company into the digital world as well by producing a Web-Series together. A handful of us brought in pitches and we had a wonderful creative meeting about all of these ideas. As I was writing the series, I realized that I wanted it to be, and that it really needed to be something more. So I began, developing the show as a Half Hour Dramedy series. I wrote a full 10 episode Season of Short episodes and workshopped all of them with the company. I also wrote the Full Length version of the Pilot episode. During the development process, I had decided that I wanted to shoot something that would help me pitch this show to Networks. I decided I need to hire a female Director because let’s face it, I’m a bro writing a female protagonist. I met with Chloe Lenihan, a former colleague, who had recently finished the Film MFA program at Columbia. She had some festival experience, was working in film, and I learned pretty quickly just how talented she really was and that she was exactly the person I needed to make the show happen. We all did the work, but without her guidance, the show would have been a disaster. The shoot was pretty great. The cast and crew was an assembly of working professionals who (most importantly to me) like the show and it really created a wonderful working environment. I wanted to create a show that had humor but that also had has heart because that’s how life is. I think that comes across in the show. I hope people feel the same.

InViolet: You’re one of those “Crossfit guys,” yeah? You’ve been known to take InViolet members out into the woods while on retreat and then you all return 30 minutes later looking like sweaty exhilarated messes. What’s the scoop?

Joe: Haha. I haven’t been able to Crossfit in a while due to the amount of squatting in the practice. I have a labral tear in my hip so I had to find other ways of working out that still gave me the intensity I need. Working out is maybe the most important part of my day because it sets the tone for the rest of what I do. I am a more productive actor, writer, editor, friend, son, and husband when I work out.

InViolet: You are one of four InViolet members who have worked as bartenders at Brother Jimmy’s. What’s the deal? Do they grow awesome theater people over there or what?

Joe: There are wonderful people who work there, many whom have become some of my closest friends. The thing for me was that I was always working toward something else and developing a trade so that I could ultimately leave.

InViolet: What’s up next for you?

Joe: Life, Coached is set to start screening at Festivals this week. We have a Network Notes meeting at ITV Fest on Thursday. I am speaking at a Content Creator’s Round Table on Friday for Brooklyn Web Fest, and then we screen on Saturday. We were recently accepted into LA Femme International Film Festival which is a premier festival that focuses on platforming women filmmakers “by women, for everyone”. Being accepted to this particular festival is a testament to the guidance that the women of Inviolet and Chloe gave me during the development process.

You can see the show this Saturday in Dumbo at Brooklyn Webfest. Our screening block is at 3:00. Here is the link:

http://brooklynwebfest.com/discount-passes/

InViolet: What are the best and worst pieces of life coaching you’ve ever received?

Joe: My mother and father are my first and most important Life Coaches and are the reason I am who I am. But like anyone, you have to figure a lot of stuff just by failing. I think that has been the best life coaching I’ve received. That failure is a good thing.

Links:
www.JosephMancusoActor.com
www.LifeCoachedSeries.com
Instagram: @mancusojoseph, @lifecoachedseries
Twitter: @jmancusoactor