Arts Independent

For eight years, (that’s eight THEATRE years, which is -like- 25 in “normal” years), the Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble has been one of the leading improvisational companies in New York and making the rest the country laugh out loud as well.

IRTE is a powerhouse group of theatrically-trained artists who come together to create spontaneous and uproarious retro-themed improv-comedy shows. Their brilliance at stage craft makes each event deeper and funnier than any other troupe of its kind.

IRTE writes, develops, produces, and performs a season of original themed improvisational shows, following the basic model of traditional repertory theatre. While they are New York based, they also tour the country with their clever on-the-spot antics.

When in NYC, they make The Producers Club, 358 West 44th Street, NYC, their home. There, the highly-skilled fighting force of fun-makers present a season celebrating the best of pop culture.

This year, artistic director Nannette Deasy and her rep of rapid fire revelers have grabbed another group of back-in-the-day-themed routines. They start with an interactive bachelorette party where the audience are “guests” of the bride-2-be (or NOT to be!); then they set sail on a send-up of disaster films; supply a sequel to their classic “stupid kid” show… only this time, it’s a slumber party … and – wait for it – shades of Tim Curry … IRTE meets a secluded cabin full of ITs!

Adding to the fun, IRTE features a musical guest and guest improvers as well. In the past, IRTE spotlighted cabaret artists like Tym Moss and instrumentalists like guitarist John Munnelly.

Tell us about yourself as an artist? 

After college, I studied to be an actor at various studios and with various teachers. (Roger Simon, Sam Schacht and Terry Schreiber were most influential.) I joined Equity after appearing in an Off-Broadway play in the late 90s at LaMama.  At some point, I saw my first comedy improv show at Chicago City Limits and was really taken with the idea of unscripted comedy. It seemed really fun, funny and dangerous. During the late 90s, early 2000s there was a strong indie theatre and indie comedy movement on the lower east side of NY. I was impressed with a lot of what I saw coming out of that scene and with the thought that theatre could really be fluid and self-created.

What is funny? How do you get to be funny?  

It’s super difficult to tell what other people might find funny (although an audience will be quick to let you know either way). It’s best to just dig into whatever makes you laugh and let go of expectation. Personally, I tend to like somewhat over the top characters who have overly strong worldviews.

How do world affairs play into making an audience laugh? Is it better when times are hard?  

Hooboy, I’m not sure I’d call it “better,” but yes, laughter and pure entertainment are really important in tough times. As a people, as a community, we need a release, we need a de-stressor. We need to escape, together in a darkened theater, even if it’s just for an hour and feel better for it. I know I do!

Have you even been in a situation where the audience just didn’t laugh?

What are you saying? (Clutches her pearls and faints). Yes, of course, what I think is funny is not always what other people are going to find funny. I’d like to think, though, that an (ahem) “quiet” audience is simply waaay too enthralled to risk missing a word we say, and a (cough) “angry” audience member (yes, we’ve gotten those) is just very, very moved (sometimes right out the door). LOL

As actors, more than improv’rs, do you create a “moral” or message in each piece or does that happen organically? 

As an actor, I hope to deliver whatever message the playwright and director are trying to convey through their work. That’s part of my job. As an improvisational actor, I’m creating the work, myself, on the spot. Personally, I don’t have any agenda other than my own character’s selfish wants and needs in that particular moment. Consciously trying to deliver some sort of message, to me, can be distracting. However, I am a human being and I am affected by the world around me (I hope) and whatever is going on inside me in relation. That does tend to come out and express itself in performance if I’m truly being open.

What do you hope the audience will take away from this piece?

I hope they laugh. I hope their chests feel a little less tight and their foreheads uncrease. I hope they get that warm happy feeling in their stomach from laughing really hard.

What have you done to make it as universal as possible? Or Have you? 

I guess I’ve paid attention to what tickles me the most and hope that other people can relate.

What’s next for you?

We have IRTE’s season opener, Tammy’s Bachelorette, which is going to be, literally, a party for the performers and the audience.

The IRTE 2019 Season:
Tammy’s Bachelorette
Conceived by Nannette Deasy
Directed by Robert Baumgardner
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS March 8, 9, 15 & 16, 8:00pm
Tickets $15 Online / $17 at the Door
The Producers Club, 358 West 44th Street, New York City
Blonde, beautiful Tammy Tucker is getting married, and you’re invited! She’s reunited all her besties, one male stripper and an ex-boyfriend or two to say goodbye to single life in this improvised and interactive Bachelorette Party of the CENTURY!

The Ship Be Sinkin’
Conceived and Directed by Robert Baumgardner
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS April 5, 6, 12 & 13, 8:00pm
Tickets $15 Online / $17 at the Door
The Producers Club, 358 West 44th Street, New York City
The largest cruise ship ever built is going down!! What did it hit? Who will survive? Why does that singer keep singing? Find out at the hilarious improvised comedy that will float your boat!

Evil Clowns Have Feelings, Too
Conceived by Izzy Church
Directed by Nannette Deasy
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS May 3, 4, 10 & 11, 8:00pm
Tickets $15 Online / $17 at the Door
The Producers Club, 358 West 44th Street, New York City
When their car breaks down in the woods, the Poolander’s family vacation comes to a screeching halt, forcing them to seek refuge in an old cabin in the woods until help arrives. Little do they know, that a bunch of evil clowns own the cabin and are having a really, really bad day. Join the IRTE jesters, fools and jokers in this improvised and totally terrifying comedy… for the whole family!

Go to Sleep, Stupid Kids!
Original Concept by Nannette Deasy
Directed by Robert Baumgardner
FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS May 31, June 1, 7 & 8, 8:00pm
Tickets $15 Online / $17 at the Door
The Producers Club, 358 West 44th Street, New York City
Jamie’s been twelve for THREE WHOLE MONTHS and has NEVER had a “big kid” slumber party. That’s all going to change in this improvised sequel to IRTE’s hit comedy “Happy Birthday, Stupid Kid!” Grab your sleeping bag and your best PJs and hope that Jamie’s dysfunctional family doesn’t embarrass him in front of the cool kids!

Mary is divorced, estranged from her family and suffering with cancer. Her son Mike visits her during spring break. She asks him for concrete actions of moral support. Mike’s father and aunt caution him not to get involved. Old wounds re-open, and the bonds of family and love are rigorously tested. William Considine, pens this naturalistic, family drama and peppered it with elements of poetry and surrealism.

Poet & Playwright, William Considine, hands us deep drama from his own dark past. He opened up to Ai on bringing to life … his life. 

Tell us about yourself as an artist? 

I have written plays and poems for much of my life. I’ve also made poetry videos. I’m active in the downtown New York poetry scene. Four of my plays had staged readings at the Public Theater, and I’ve also had readings at St. Clement’s and La Mama, as well as play performances at Theater for the New City, Brooklyn Army Terminal, Limbo Lounge, Ear Inn, ABC No Rio and Dixon Place. In 2017, the Operating System published a volume of my plays, The Furies, which is available on Amazon and from the publisher. The Operating System has also published a chapbook of my poems, Strange Coherence. A CD of my poems with music, An Early Spring, is available on iTunes and from the label, Fast Speaking Music. I’m a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Polaris North theater artists cooperative. I was an attorney for many years, in the public sector, retiring a few years ago. I live with my wife in Brooklyn.

What drew you to write about such a topic? Is it – in any way – autobiographical? 

 I was compelled to write about this subject. Memories and emotions are strongly involved. Yes, it is autobiographical. For a long time, I was reluctant to address this, and to be so revealing, but I had to come back to it.

What do you – the author – experience when writing characters of such deep emotion? 

Frankly, it was often painful, to recall tense moments, to relive them word-by-word, and recreate them honestly. I wrote this play a little at a time, over the course of decades. Each character lived in a rich web of memories and feelings. I was very concerned with being true to the people and e-examining my own assumptions or habits of thought.

What do you hope the audience will take away from this piece?

I hope the audience will take away a sense of the complexity of family relationships, and a feeling that even the most difficult encounters can arise out of love and with understanding, can regenerate love.

What have you done to make it as universal as possible? Or Have you?

I have tried to be true to the particulars, to be factual. I think the universal is found in the particulars. Art that is rooted in the soil can flower for everyone to see.

What’s next for you?

I hope this play will continue to live. I have another full-length play, a verse play, Women’s Mysteries, that I plan to take up, to find staging for it, too. And there is always more to write.

Magnetite LLC presents
Moral Support, A new play by William Considine
Medicine Show Theatre, 549 W. 52nd Street, 3rd floor, New York City
February 21, 22, 23 @ 8:00 p.m. / February 24 @ 4:00 p.m.
February 28, March 1, 2 @ 8:00 p.m. / March 3 @ 4:00 p.m.

Quisqueya Productions presents a limited showing of a re-imagined version of Shakespeare’s HENRY V. Shakespeare’s definitive parable of war and warriors will directed by Broadway veteran, Mary Lou Rosato, at the legendary American Theatre of Actors – one of the last great theaters of the famed off-off Broadway movement – for a special limited run, February 21 – 24 (Thursday – Saturday @ 7:30 p.m. with special matinees on Saturday & Sunday @ 2:00 p.m. – Invited previews start Feb 18) The ATA is located at 314 W 54th St, New York City. Tickets available at https://www.smarttix.com/Event/hen393. Te event is listed on SHOW-SCORE and OPPLAUD.

Presented in contemporary dress with allusions to period style, Quisqueya Productions hopes to show – in this stunning new production – the duality of mankind; the eternal battle between modern thinking and warlike desires. Producer/performer, Laris Macario, who appears as Henry was quoted as saying “Henry gets caught up in his own legend … as we all do,” Macario has accepted the challenge of playing several of Shakespeare’s men of conviction, who see their missions as a way to justify a place on the throne and, in many respects, come closer to God. Others in his canon are Marc Antony in Julius Caesar and Lucius in Titus Andronicus leading the pack. “In these uncertain times, the story of a valiant soul leading the common man to victory is that much more necessary,” he concluded.

Broadway luminary, Roger Rathburn appears in this production directed by another Broadway notable: Mary Lou Rosato.

The ensemble cast includes, Sylvain Panet-Raymond, Sam Tilles, Julian Evans, Megan Smith, Kaitlyn Farley, Joe Penczak, Jared Kirby, Patrick Hamilton, Yosef Podolski, Diego Tapia, Mark Guerette, Suzanne Kennedy, and co-founder of the company, Tom Kalnas.

We were able to grab Tom during their break-neck schedule of rehearsal, character exploration, fight-choreography and production meetings. Tom was clever but to the point. Here’s out warrior-to-writer chat:

Tell us about yourself as an artist? 

I’m from Pittsburgh. I write, sing, act, and improvise. Acting is impulsive. I strive for a simple and believable style. As a writer, I focus on media, marketing, politics, and technology. I write plays about self-branding and online identity.

What drew you to do Shakespeare and especially this play? 

I missed Shakespeare. I missed the challenging text and the unbridled satisfaction of performing Shakespeare in a believable way.  I’m like those opera singers who love to perform Handel.

As for Henry V – I’m in the mood for a war play. The show raises excellent political questions, morality questions. It’s a complicated, challenging, rewarding production.

In what way is Henry V timely today – also, what lessons can we learn from it? 

Henry uses the rhetoric of a wartime leader. As any mainstream American politician knows, delivery is everything. Rhetoric is sacred today, as it was in Shakespeare’s time. In Henry V, an island nation follows a man into France to fight an unnecessary war. But, hey, they’re happy about it. Most of them support the cause. Or at least, they support King Henry’s agenda.

What is the importance of Shakespeare in terms of being presented in the indie theater scene? 

You don’t need a college education to appreciate Shakespeare. You don’t need a ton of money. You need good actors and a good stage.

What’s next for you and your company? 

Ask Laris! He’s the one with big ideas.

MESHELLE “THE INDIE-MON OF COMEDY”

FUNNY A$ A MOTHER…COMEDY TOUR

The Triad Theater, 158 West 72nd Street, New York, NY  10023

February 1, 2019

Inola McGuire reviews! 

The performance of Meshelle “The Indie-Mon of Comedy” Funny A$ a Mother…Comedy Tour and her two special guests, John Moses and Mike Troy out of Brooklyn surely gave the audience a lot of heat on a frigid winter night at the Triad Theater.

There was a well-dressed and diverse audience that welcomed the performers.  John Moses started the show with his brand of comedy, and some of his jokes were taken from his own life experiences.   The audience responded quite well to his salacious puns wholeheartedly before he gracefully concluded his rendition eloquently.

Mike Troy stroked the audience with his comedic style of jokes straight out of Brooklyn because he has mastered how to relate his personal interaction with his family into his comedy, but he reminded the audience of the homeless problem in New York City.  In his analogy, homeless animals have gotten better treatment than homeless people.  It was hilarious and the audience wanted to hear more of his tell-it-like-it-is jokes.

Meshelle’s presence on stage brought a special heat to the audience in more ways than one.  Members of the audience, mainly the women, got some great advice from Meshelle in her comedy in order for them to love themselves unconditionally.   The bantering in her comedy was unique and the audience showed its appreciation with laughter.  Meshelle’s comedy was the next best thing to a homily on Sundays, for there was food for thought for all in attendance.

Overall, it was a great show that forced each member of the audience to reflect on his or her carnal, natural and spiritual self!  I am confident that everyone has gotten an antidote from the dynamic comedy to use in the improvement of their lives.