New York Innovative Theatre Awards (the IT Awards)

(winners are in bold and underlined)

Artistic Achievement Award: 5 Lesbian Brothers

Ellen Stewart Award: The Theatre Development Fund (TDF)

Caffé Cino Fellowship Award:  Astoria Performing Arts Center

Outstanding Stage Manager: Katie Kavett

2012 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award: Donnetta Lavinia Grays

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE

­ Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant Returns in: The Mothership Landing: Justin Badger, David M. Barber, Melody Bates, Stephanie Dodd, Jeffrey Fracé, Connie Hall, Kelly Hayes, Jerusha Klemperer, Peter Lettre, Rachel Murdy, Melody Bates, Peter Richards, Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant in association with the Irondale Center

• The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill: Vol. 1, Early/Lost Plays Daniel Burnam, Brendan Donaldson, Cara Francis, Connor Kalista, Jacquelyn Landgraf, Erica Livingston, Lauren Sharpe, New York Neo-Futurists

• Eightythree Down Melody Bates, Ian Holcomb, Bryan Kaplan, Brian Miskell, Hard Sparks in association with Horse Trade Theatre Group

• For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much Loren Amos, Duane Boutte, Alexis Francisco, Anthony Gaskins, Michael Alexis Palmer, David Roberts, Robert G. Siverls, Zook, Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company

• Homunculus: Reloaded Adriana Chavez, David DeSantis, Lauren Elder, Regina Gibson, Mel House, Jennifer Luong, Eeva Semerdjiev, William Silva, Brett Teresa, Homunculus Mask Theater

• Urban Odyssey Penelope Armstead-Williams, Rocky Bostick, Ching-I Chang, Maura Donohue, Denise Greber, Alice Pasturel, Federico Restrepo, Gilbert Reyes, Kiku Sakai, Kayla Schetter, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with LOCO7

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE

­ Melanie Jones, Endure: A Run Woman Show, Collision Productions

• Bree Benton, Poor Baby Bree in I Am Going to Run Away, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club

• Greg Oliver Bodine, Poe, Times Two, WorkShop Theater Company

• Zac Jaffee, Heroes and Other Strangers, the cell theatre

• Juan Francisco Villa, Empanada For A Dream, Ballybeg & terraNOVA Collective

• Raïna von Waldenburg, Oysters Orgasms Obituaries, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with Center for Embodied Performance

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A FEATURED ROLE

­ Stephen Alan Wilson, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, T. Schreiber Studio

• Karl Gregory, Frogs, Fault Line Theatre

• Ian Holcomb, Eightythree Down, Hard Sparks in association with Horse Trade Theatre Group

• Jason Howard, Advance Man, Gideon Productions

• Bryan Kaplan, Eightythree Down, Hard Sparks in association with Horse Trade Theatre Group

• Curry Whitmire, Christopher Marlowe's Chloroform Dreams, Lunar Energy

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A FEATURED ROLE

­ Celeste Arias, Demon Dreams (Oni No Yume), Magic Futurebox

• Lauren Blumenfeld, Exit Carolyn, Sans A Productions

• Teresa Kelsey, The House of Mirth, Metropolitan Playhouse

• Marie Marshall, The House of Mirth, Metropolitan Playhouse

• Ryan Templeton, A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center

• Halley Wegryn Gross, Sex Good; Money Bad, Broken Watch Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A LEAD ROLE

­ Greg Horton, A Man of No Importance, The Gallery Players

• Adam Barrie, Dust, Tenement Street Workshop in association with Incubator Arts Project

• Hunter Canning, Dust, Tenement Street Workshop in association with Incubator Arts Project

• Karl Gregory, From White Plains, Fault Line Theatre

• Brian Miskell, Eightythree Down, Hard Sparks in association with Horse Trade Theatre Group

• Charlie Owens, A Man of No Importance, The Gallery Players

• Aidan Redmond, The Real Thing, Boomerang Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE

­ Renee Claire Bergeron, A Man of No Importance, The Gallery Players

• Melody Bates, Eightythree Down, Hard Sparks in association with Horse Trade Theatre Group

• Casandera M.J. Lollar, The Runner Stumbles, Retro Productions

• Charlotte Pines, Callous Cad, Tom X. Chao in association with Kim Katzberg

• Laura Ramadei, Exit Carolyn, Sans A Productions

• Christina Shipp, Ajax in Iraq, Flux Theatre Ensemble

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY/MOVEMENT

­ Joe Osheroff & Evan Zes, Homunculus: Reloaded, Homunculus Mask Theater

• Jessica Isa Burns, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much, Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company

• Lee Sunday Evans, The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos, CollaborationTown

• Christine O'Grady, A Man of No Importance, The Gallery Players

• Lauren Sharpe, The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill: Vol. 1, Early/Lost Plays, New York Neo-Futurists

• Turner Smith, Romeo and Juliet, Northwest Passage

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR

­ Joe Osheroff, Homunculus: Reloaded, Homunculus Mask Theater

• Kevin Laibson, Demon Dreams (Oni No Yume), Magic Futurebox

• Christopher Loar, The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill: Vol. 1, Early/Lost Plays, New York Neo-Futurists

• Alex Roe, The House of Mirth, Metropolitan Playhouse

• Aaron Rossini, Frogs, Fault Line Theatre

• August Schulenburg, Ajax in Iraq, Flux Theatre Ensemble

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN

­ David A. Sexton, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club

• Nick Francone, Miranda, MirandaCo

• Richard Kent Green, Poe, Times Two, WorkShop Theater Company

• Ben Hagen & Joe Skowronski, LoveSick (or Things That Don't Happen), Project Y Theatre Company

• Cat Tate Starmer, A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center

• Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant Returns in: The Mothership Landing, Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant in association with the Irondale Center

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN

­ Sidney Fortner, The House of Mirth, Metropolitan Playhouse

• Denise Greber, Urban Odyssey, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with LOCO7

• Kim Katzberg, Penetrating the Space, Kim Katzberg

• Jessica Sofia Mitrani, Hypnotik: The Seer Will Doctor You Now, The New Stage Theatre Comapny

• Ayanna Siverls-Streater, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much, Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company

• David L. Zwiers, The Asphalt Christmas, Gracye Productions

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN

­ Kevin Judge, LoveSick (or Things That Don't Happen), Project Y Theatre Company

• Stephen K. Dobay, A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center

• Sarah E. Martin & Sara Nelson, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club

• Steve O'Shea, Up To You, TADA! Youth Theater

• Sean Ryan, Clowns Full-Tilt: A Musing on Aesthetics, Clowns Ex Machina/La MaMa

• Andy Yanni, Felix and the Diligence, or a Play About Fishermen in the 1940's, Pipeline Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN

­ Matt Schloss, Miranda, MirandaCo

• Martha Goode, Costa Rehab, Maieutic Theatre Works (MTWorks)

• Christopher Loar, The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill: Vol. 1, Early/Lost Plays, New York Neo-Futurists

• Mark Parenti, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club

• Nathan A. Roberts, A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center

• Tim Schellenbaum, Urban Odyssey, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with LOCO7

OUTSTANDING INNOVATIVE DESIGN

­ Joe Osheroff, Mask Design, Homunculus: Reloaded, Homunculus Mask Theater

• Gyda Arber & Aaron Baker, Phone & Text Design, Red Cloud Rising, The Fifth Wall in association with The Brick Theater

• Maia Cruz Palileo, Animation and Sculpture, Penetrating the Space, Kim Katzberg

• Elizabeth Barrett Groth & Amy Mathews, Puppet Design, We in Silence Hear a Whisper, Red Fern Theatre Company

• Federico Restrepo & Angela Sierra, Video Editing & Design, Urban Odyssey, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with LOCO7

• Suchan Vodoor, Interactive Technology Design, Endure: A Run Woman Show, Collision Productions

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL MUSIC

­ Jeff Raab, 12th Night, Libra Theater Company

• Karolyn Bethke, Kris Kukul, John Sully, Elizabeth Swados & Martin Wallace, Urban Odyssey, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with LOCO7

• Sasha Bogdanowitsch, Erosion: a Fable, Loom Ensemble

• Christine Owman, Endure: A Run Woman Show, Collision Productions

• Kamala Sankaram, Miranda, MirandaCo

• Sxip Shirey, Prometheus Within, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club in association with Skysaver Productions

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SHORT SCRIPT

­ Chisa Hutchinson, This is Not the Play, Mad Dog Theatre Company

• Lucy Boyle, Mort, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club

• Dean Imperial, The Needle Through the Arm Trick, Too Much Too Soon, Lesser America

• Vincent Marano, Artistic License, What I Meant Was... The Odd, Short-Ish Of Vinnie Marano, teatro oscuro

• Joe Osheroff & Evan Zes, Homunculus: Reloaded, Homunculus Mask Theater

• Anna Ziegler, A Map of Broken Glass, The Spring Fling: My Best/Worst Date Ever, F*It Club

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL FULL-LENGTH SCRIPT

­ Melanie Jones, Endure: A Run Woman Show, Collision Productions

• Zac Jaffee, Heroes and Other Strangers, the cell theatre

• Mariah MacCarthy, The Foreplay Play, Caps Lock Theatre

• Michael Perlman, From White Plains, Fault Line Theatre

• Mac Rogers, Advance Man, Gideon Productions

• Juan Francisco Villa, Empanada For A Dream, Ballybeg & terraNOVA Collective

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE ART PIECE

­ Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant Returns in: The Mothership Landing, Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant in association with the Irondale Center

• The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill: Vol. 1, Early/Lost Plays, New York Neo-Futurists

• Empanada For A Dream, Ballybeg & terraNOVA Collective

• Endure: A Run Woman Show, Collision Productions

• For Black Boys Who Have Considered Homicide When the Streets Were Too Much, Modern-Day Griot Theatre Company

• Homunculus: Reloaded, Homunculus Mask Theater

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL

­ Miranda, MirandaCo

•  LoveSick (or Things That Don't Happen), Project Y Theatre Company

• A Man of No Importance, The Gallery Players

• The Secret Garden, Astoria Performing Arts Center

• Unville Brazil, FullStop Collective

• Up To You, TADA! Youth Theater

OUTSTANDING PREMIERE PRODUCTION OF A PLAY

­ Advance Man, Gideon Productions

• Demon Dreams (Oni No Yume), Magic Futurebox

• Eightythree Down, Hard Sparks in association with Horse Trade Theatre Group

• The Foreplay Play, Caps Lock Theatre

• From White Plains, Fault Line Theatre

• A Hard Wall at High Speed, Astoria Performing Arts Center

Fabulous Flux-ers

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A REMOUNTED PLAY

­ Ajax in Iraq, Flux Theatre Ensemble

• Frogs, Fault Line Theatre

• The House of Mirth, Metropolitan Playhouse

• Poe, Times Two, WorkShop Theater Company

• The Real Thing, Boomerang Theatre Company

• The Violet Hour, The Active Theater in association with Goode Productions

Red Dog Howls

When a show is deeply sincere and takes genocide as its topic, the idea of criticizing it feels churlish and in bad taste. Therefore, let me stipulate that I recognize that Red Dog Howls was put together with the best of intentions and that the Armenian genocide is an important and heartbreaking topic.

Kathleen Chalfant, Alfredo Narciso
Photo: Joan Marcus

That being said, I must now add that Red Dog Howls is not well-written and trades too much on the horrors of history. From its disingenuous opening monologue to its inevitable Sophie's choice moment, little in Red Dog Howls is authentic or earned.

[spoilers below]

Let's start with that opening monologue. Michael Kiriakos, about whom we know nothing at this point, tells us, "There are sins, from which we can never be absolved. I know this... because I have committed one." Except that we will find out, much later, that the words are not his--the very suspense on which the show is based is false.

The words belong to Rose Afratian, Kiriakos's grandmother--the one he thought had died decades before his birth. How did he discover her words--and eventually meet her?

After Kiriakos's father's death, Kiriakos found a small box labeled, "Junior, don’t open anything inside this box." And Kiriakos opened the box because his father was so exact with words that he knew it was okay to open the box itself, just not anything in it. Inside was a pile of letters, with only one opened. Kiriakos decided to go to the return address, and there he met the woman who eventually told him that she is his grandmother.

This is an awful lot of work to get these two characters to meet! Author Alexander Dinelaris clearly wants some mystery here, and to send his protagonist on a bit of a quest, but, please. First of all, if Kiriakos's father wanted Kiriakos to meet Rose, wasn't he taking a bit of a risk by waiting until after his own death? Why would he think that he'd predecease Rose? Why would he think that she'd be hale, hearthy, bizarrely strong, and fully compos mentis in her 90s? And at the same address?

But she is indeed all of these things, and even more unconvincingly, she seems to have been waiting for years for Kiriakos to appear at her doorstep.

For the next 80 minutes or so, Rose metes out information to Kiriakos at a speed that reflects Dinelaris's desire to (unconvincingly) ratchet up the suspense rather than any recognizable human behavior. She speaks of a curse on the family that seemingly affects Kiriakos himself when his wife nearly loses their baby late in her pregnancy. (Kiriakos's relationship with his wife is also unconvincing, but that's a whole other story.) Rose also beats Kiriakos at arm wrestling, which is an important but ludicrous and unnecessary plot point.

Eventually we get to the big reveal, with all sorts of yelling and acting on the part of Kathleen Chalfant. It's a horrible, grotesque story, but the way that the entire play artificially leads to this moment somehow robs it of its power. More importantly, Rose's so-called sin, the topic of the opening monologue and really the entire play, isn't one. Pushed into a horrendous, incomprehensible corner, she made the decision to save her son's life. What she had to do to save her son was abhorrent and appalling, but she genuinely had no choice.

An exploration of the fact that Rose internalized her behavior as a sin when she was absolutely innocent would have been much more compelling than all of Dinelaris's manufactured mystery. That she then chose to desert her son after saving his life would also be a more interesting focus.

And then we get to bizarre ending, in which Kiriakos smothers Rose with a pillow (embroidered with the name of her lost daughter, no less) to give her the gift of peace after her decades in emotional hell. We are to believe that this is what she wants him to do, and that it will be a way to end the curse on the family, and even a form of redemption.

But why couldn't she have committed suicide, oh, fifty years earlier? Why did she wait for a grandson who might never have shown up to put her out of her misery? Sloppy, unconvincing playwriting is the only answer I can think of.

Other questions: What has Rose been doing for the previous, oh, fifty years? How did she make a living? Why didn't her son, Kiriakos's father, open the other letters? Why did he keep them? Why did he set up this mystery for Kiriakos instead of just talking to him? Again, the answer is: sloppy, unconvincing playwriting.

Red Dog Howls has been in development for some five years. It must have been seen by a range of smart theatre pros at its various workshops, and by the staff at New York Theatre Workshop. Did they all truly find it to be a worthy play?

Or did the topic blind them to the play's many faults?

I wonder.

(press ticket, fourth row center)

ART

Changing the sex of the characters in the workinggirls productions presentation of ART, the Yasmina Reza play that swept the 1998 awards season (Tony, New York Drama Critics’ Circle and Evening Standard awards, to name a few) makes the dialogue more brittle somehow. The play, which shows how a simple artwork purchase can dismember a friendship as conversations question what should be valued, transforms into a mean girls reality show: Real Women Debate Art.

The original Broadway cast included Alan Alda, Victor Garber and Alfred Molina, and went on to play 600 performances. This new version, directed by Michael Colby Jones, ran for a mere handful of shows and closed last week. Still, it’s worth mentioning because adding the female presence changes the drama, adding another element to the musings on long-term friendship the play usually provides. Certainly, friendship among women is as complex and messy as with men. And this version hints that amid the power of female bonding lies an underbelly of ugliness, moreso than in the original. The Broadway version focused on three friends: Serge (Garber), who purchases a modernistic, expensive painting that looks like a white canvas with a few wavering lines. Marc (Alda) as the friend who upsets the tranquility with his constant questioning on the wisdom of the sale, and Serge (Molina) who acts as the mediator. In the workinggirls adaptation the plot was similar with Serge becoming Sevrine (Christine Ann Sullivan), Marc morphing into Claire (Anna Pond) and the Molina role goes to Duvall O’Steen as Yvonne (Yvan in the original).

ART doesn’t just address the aesthetics question; it inquires how long-term friendships change as one-time cohorts deviate in their belief systems. Can a friendship last when the nature of it alters? And, can friends forgive each other for the string of unknown slights that follows us as the years pass by? The 90-minute satire worked perfectly in the tight, sparse space in The Alchemical Theatre Laboratory that basically turned a small couch and two swivel chairs into rooms that prickled with the friends’ growing hostility. Yvonne, a nervous bride, was all rounded shoulders and furrowed brow as she squirmed into stories about battling relatives, only standing fully erect when she channeled her unsupportive mother—imitating her as if she were Katharine Hepburn smoking a cigarette. Yvonne’s helplessness piqued Claire and Sevrine as their animosity toward each other was temporarily alleviated through a joint barrage of abuse hurled at her. Sevrine, the intellectual, seemed placid and remote, even when angry, and provided a cool contrast to Claire, who was partial to bitter and breathless diatribes. In the original, the unraveling of the three friends did not seem so harsh; the words spoken in a male voice did not feel as unrelenting and cruel and I wonder if the glorification of female friendship makes the dismantling of it more tender. For the resonance of what could be lost seems tougher in this version, and because of this the resolution becomes less believable; It seems like too much has aired to find repair.

Something Wild

By deciding to present in one evening three grueling Tennessee Williams one-acts--27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Hello From Bertha, and This Property Is Condemned--director Ken Schatz has set a major challenge for himself and the Pook's Hill theatre company. Unfortunately, in Something Wild, Schatz et al. only intermittently meet that challenge.

Brian Gianci, Samantha Steinmetz
Photo: Cecilia Senocak

The most successful of the three plays is 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, which is anchored by a brave, moving, odd performance by Samantha Steinmetz as Flora, a none-too-bright woman caught between two manipulative, angry, and violent men. Hello From Bertha, more of an exercise or character study than a play, feels endless; nothing happens, nothing changes, and the cast does not make it compelling. This Property Is Condemned is also a character study and also not particularly compelling. However, the character has echos of Blanche DuBois, and it is interesting to watch Williams riff on his themes of loneliness and loss.

Something Wild's main problem is that these three plays are too much for one evening, particularly without an intermission. 27 Wagons Full of Cotton delivers a large helping of anxiety and horror, and the other two plays, although less-well-written and less-well-acted, also serve up a tremendous amount of pain. In addition, the latter two plays are too similar in structure, both being virtual monologues by unhappy, hopeless women. After a while, the production begins to feel assaultive. When the evening was over, I felt like I needed an emergency comedy.

Another issue is that the theatre has audience on three sides but the plays are directed only for the people in the middle. For extended periods of time, actors speak too softly, block each other from view, or never face one or both sides. This is disrespectful of two thirds of the audience.

Something Wild does have one important achievement to its credit; by and large, the evening captures the Tennessee Williams-ness of the plays.

(press ticket; second row center)