PCP: you were involved in the Welcome Mat reading of AFTER. this January.  How has the play and your character Susie changed since then?  What speaks to you about Chad’s play?

JACKIE: The play has changed quite a bit, but most of the adjustments were made to the Liz and Chap scenes and to the overall structure of the play. Susie’s general arc is the same – there were just some internal cuts within scenes and some small additions. The most devastating change for me was Susie being cut from the fight. I was hoping to get a hit or two in there.

JACKIE: Susie is a wonderful character – she’s sweet and bright, but she, as we all do, has some deeper issues. Through the course of the play, we get to see different sides of Susie and hopefully understand why she is the way she is. I think overall, she’s a woman who has been stifled by her own insecurities – she has been so influenced by outside, sometimes abusive forces, that she’s struggled to find her own voice. I guess she’s unique to me because she does some quirky things that are not unlike things I would do. And she makes some really awkward comments which we all do from time to time…right?

PCP: Anything on the horizon for you after AFTER.? 

JACKIE: I have a webseries coming out. We just had a sneak preview last week at MOCA, but I missed the event because we had a show that night! It’s called Pretty Precious Unicorns and it was borne out of a short play reading I did with Second Generation. You can find the trailer here: http://prettypreciousunicorns.com/. It’s quirky and funny and features a lot of my wonderful actor friends.

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Catch AFTER. in its FINAL WEEK!

Until October 8th!

Wednesday – Saturday at 8pm

Saturday at 3pm

Wednesday and Saturday’s matinee are PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN!

PCP: AFTER. is the 2nd collaboration with playwright Chad Beckim, the first being ‘Nami in 2006.  Tell us a little bit about your collaboration – what’s unique to you about Chad’s plays?  What do you enjoy the most about them?

Susie (Jackie Chung) and Monty (Alfredo Narciso)

ALFREDO: Chad is so gifted at creating vastly different characters; every character in his plays has their own voice and cadence, which makes for beautiful music on the stage – hearing the color of his characters in symphony.  Chad is also a great collaborator; I find, more than many playwrights I’ve worked with, a willingness to work with the actor, listen to the actor, to adjust what isn’t working and to re-write. That is a very generous and egoless attribute. He is a joy to work with.

PCP: Monty’s story presents an interesting challenge for an actor – portraying someone who has been falsely incarcerated for 17 years.  How did you prepare for such a challenge?

ALFREDO: Stephen Brackett said in an interview, and I paraphrase: “I feel a tremendous responsibility to tell Monty’s story”. I concur wholeheartedly. I did quite a bit of research online and read an incredible book that was edited by Dave Eggers called “Surviving Justice”, but the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was watching a documentary called “After Innocence”; in the doc, they followed the life “after” prison of about a dozen exonerees. After (we just can’t escape that word now, can we?) I saw the distant look that every single one of those men possessed in their eyes, I felt an instant responsibility and desire to inhabit and tell that story. It was actually the thing that made me decide to do the play.

PCP: The relationships that Monty makes now that he’s a free man are anything but simple; both Warren and Susie are dealing with their own kind of “prison” (for lack of a better word).   What do you think that says for Monty’s future friendships?  

Warren (Debargo Sanyal) and Monty (Alfredo Narciso)

ALFREDO: I can imagine a reticent man like Monty would welcome such loquacious people in his life. In my own life, I can be very quiet at times and rather enjoy listening. Being surrounded by talkers, I find myself coaxed out of my shell and finding my more gregarious tendencies.  When you live so deeply inside of your head, you have to let the light come to you. But, who knows? That’s the joy of the play; we have no idea what life will bring for Monty once the lights blackout. But we are hopeful…

PCP: What’s next for you after AFTER.?

ALFREDO: I just dropped my computer, so, hopefully, it won’t be a trip to the apple store.  For the first time in a while I don’t have anything lined up; I will most likely spend the next little while reflecting on life and choosing what direction to go in. Perhaps, a career as an ocularist? Or a Barbie dress designer? The options are endless…

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AFTER. continues this week at The Wild Project, 195 E. 3rd Street 

Tuesday – Saturday night at 8pm, Saturday at 3pm

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 3pm are PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN at the door!

The first trailer to PCP’s AFTER., with insight from Chad Beckim.

PCP: You’ve designed for quite a few theaters in New York and beyond.  What are some of your recent highlights from the past year – whether it be designs for theater, dance, or live performances?  

GREG: I had a great time working on Broke-ology with Tazwell Thompson at TheaterWorks Hartford. I think the collaboration between everyone involved really hit the nail on the head in regards to what we wanted to do with the show. Soldiers Tale at Pace University with Jody Oberfelder Dance Projects was another standout because we took the story and put in a modern setting, something not commonly done with that piece. The show had lots of technical elements that both supported the dancing onstage and our ideas of the type of modern story telling we wanted to express.

TheaterWorks Hartford's BROKE-OLGY, lighting by Greg Goff

PCP: Like the rest of our design team, I’m sure you have had times when you’re working on multiple projects at once.  What are some of the challenges you face with the differences in projects?  What keeps you grounded during those periods (besides coffee)?  

GREG:  A challenge I face while keeping track of multiple projects is keeping my thoughts and ideas focused on each individual show when I sit back down in the rehearsal room. A way I’ve learned helps me stay focused is to write everything down, for me it’s that simple. When I write something down it becomes engrained in my mind. I love technology, and have moved towards a more digital way of working and tracking progress on shows. However, the minute I’m confirmed as the lighting designer that show gets a yellow pad I keep with me at all times. I keep important details, ideas, budgets, dates, etc. on that pad, it’s with me from the first phone call until opening night.

What keeps me grounded is a balance in my life, which took a very long time to find. I often feel the need for creative expression, but even the most consummate artists need other things like proper sleep, immersion in other arts, and a social life outside of our wonderful theater family. Having this balance in life keeps me hungry to imagine, explore, create, and express every time I sit down in rehearsal or at the tech table.

PCP: What were some of your impressions from your first reading of the play?  How have they changed/grown since meeting the rest of the design team?

GREG: My first impressions of the play were various thoughts of two completely different worlds, things that oppose each other. I don’t want to give much away but things like comfort versus fear, or freedom versus oppression. Feelings like those will make their way into the language of the lighting in the play. Hopefully audiences will feel that, either consciously or subconsciously, while experiencing After.

Those impressions have only grown stronger since I’ve had more meetings with Steven and the other designers, but it’s not because everyone intends to do the same. We think our individual pieces make the whole, not all the design elements saying the same thing.

Jody Oberfolder Dance Projects SOLDIER'S TALE, lighting by GREG GOFF

PCP: Last week, we asked our set designer Jason Simms if there was a specific space he loved to design for or wished he could design for.  He of course gave a very diplomatic answer, saying that it’s his responsibility “to fall in love” with each space to make the most out of it.  Do you feel the same way?  

GREG: I do and don’t, for me it’s less about “falling in love” with the theater and more about imagining how it can work for me given how the set interacts with the theater, or if it makes no mention of it. Sometimes set designers intentionally choose not to show parts of the theater, an example of this would be shows that use a lot of masking, be it by blacks or architecture that is hidden behind scenery. Other times set designers leave things open and exposed. In each case my design is in response to what we’ve established in design meetings and what actually comes to fruition onstage after load in. Based on the above I may mask all the fixtures and only light the actors and set, or I may expose some of the lights and highlight elements of the theater itself, or I’ll do some combination of the two.

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Click here for tickets.

Beginning September 14th at The Wild Project

PCP: Jason, you’ve been designing so much within the last year, with many productions in New York and surrounding theaters. What have been some recent highlights for you?

JASON: Working at The Public on Urge for Going with Hal Brooks and Mona Mansour was a true pleasure because of the amount of support (both physical and emotional) the staff at their provides.  Designing Greg Keller‘s play Dutch Masters directed by Brian Roff at the Berkshire Theatre Group was swell too.  Also, A Thousand Clowns directed by Davis McCallum at Two River Theater was great fun.

A THOUSAND CLOWNS, Two River Theatre Company, Dir. Davis McCallum

PCP: Partial Comfort audiences were first introduced to your work in Sam Hunter‘s A Bright New Boise.  For Sam’s play, you created an incredibly welcoming and life-like breakroom in the back of a local Idaho Hobby Lobby, complete with a hallway window, a working coffee pot, and a strike door – just so many elements to that set that we loved. We’re curious to know: when you look back on the design, is there one aspect of set that excited you the most – color, perspective, even that nasty fridge that we salvaged?

JASON: The fact that I was able to put a real room on stage was incredibly satisfying.  Watching characters on stage behaving like real people and doing real things was the goal of the design.  The Boise set was a space that could be activated by the action of the play.  Sam wrote a play that took place in one space, which meant we could focus on the reality of that space and make it as real as possible.  It was a literal “dissection” room.

PCP: Now that you’re working with us on Chad Beckim‘s After., what were some of your first impressions of the play and how did that shape your initial design?  And how do the perspectives of the scenic and sound designers influence your work?

JASON: After. is an excitingly different situation than Boise.  With multiple locations that are essential to the story, we are approaching the design in a way that is completely different.  I don’t want to give away too much, but I think the audience is in for a treat and departure from the usual.

As with any project, collaboration with the other designers of a project is about discovering a language that is unique to the project that we are working on, even though we are using different mediums to speak it.  The hope of any project is that these things will come together to create a world in which we can tell the story in the most interesting way possible.  It takes a lot of trust and faith between all the designers and the director.

URGE FOR GOING, The Public, The Public Lab, directed by Hal Brooks

PCP: Having worked in off-off theaters, is there a specific space that you love to design for or wish to design for next on account of its layout, its limitations, its ambience?  

JASON: I think part of the job of being a set designer is being able to fall in love with any space.  The space is the physical limitation of what a set can be, and every space has its own set of limitations.   One of the joys of working in off-off  and off-Broadway spaces is the diversity of “character” each space presents.  For Example, The Anspacher at The Public is a challenging space because its layout dictates so much of what the design can be.  I’m always looking for new challenges because they help me grow as a designer.  So, I guess, I would love to work in any space that I haven’t already.

PCP: You work on a lot of original plays – any theater classics you’d like to work on?

JASON: I believe that another part of a set designer’s job is to be able to fall in love with any play.  At the moment, I am working on two “classics” outside of NYC:  Sweeney Todd and Fefu and Her Friends. I have also designed classics such as Harvey, The Crucible and On Golden Pond (all outside of NYC also).  I would love to design The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder because I think its relevance never dies.   

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Beginning Wednesday, September 14th

Click here for tickets, or visit www.partialcomfort.org/on-stage-up-next/

Image by Joyce Chan.

PCP: Whitney you’ve been our resident costume designer for quite some time.  Do you have any highlights from past PCP productions? Favorite elements you’ve used that really were signature to a character, specific challenges that you found rewarding, etc.

Whitney: Yes, I’ve been the resident costume designer since 2008 when I designed Chad Beckim’s The Main(e) Play. Each show PCP produces presents its own unique challenges, from figuring out clever costume transitions to sometimes working out special makeup effects. The pinnacle of my PCP design career would have to be putting the half-naked Andrew Garman in blackface for The Bereaved.

PCP: What were some of your first impressions of the characters in AFTER upon reading the play? For instance, any particular images that struck you? How did these impressions shape your initial ideas for your designs?

Whitney: I love Chad’s plays because the characters he creates are so well drawn and specific. I feel that by the time I’m done reading the play, I really know who they are. This piece is particularly interesting to me because the characters reside in Queens. I’ve been living in that borough since I moved to NYC, so I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on what these characters might look like. I see and interact with them every day. I use my gut instinct for initial ideas, do a lot of research (and people-watching), and find the actors to be tremendously inspiring for all the nuanced details.

PCP: From the design meetings, it seems like the designers are moving towards an abstract approach to creating Monty’s environment (Monty is our protagonist in the play). How much do the perspectives of the set/lighting/sound designers influence what you do? 

Whitney: The scenic and sound designs are definitely going in an abstract direction. It’s my job to keep the characters grounded while helping the other designers establish the time and place of each scene. When you’re working with these types of design elements, its important that the costumes define character and tell a clear, consistent story in an abstracted environment.

PCP: Do prefer designing for original plays where new characters are created or is it more comforting to work on a play that is already familiar to you?

Whitney: So far this year, I’ve designed two Shakespeares, one classic farce, three operettas, a burlesque show, and another new play. I’m very lucky to be able to work on such a variety of projects. I LOVE musicals, but I have to say that new play development is my favorite. It’s exhilarating to be a part of an intense collaboration, where everyone is so instrumental in the creation of a new piece. It’s also exciting to have constant access to the playwright. I find working on new plays to be incredibly rewarding.

PCP: On a tight off-off-broadway budget, you’ve gotta be crafty. Any tricks of the trade or resources in the city that are your “go-to’s”?

Whitney: It’s true. You’ve got to be crafty and clever. Right now I’m really happy that all of the stores are having their end-of-summer sales! Modern dress shows can be surprisingly expensive. I try to shop at places that have good deals with clothes that would be appropriate to the characters and their financial situations. Sometimes things can be bought and embellished, recut, or re-imagined. It’s about keeping an open mind. I’m also very lucky to have a great network of talented designer friends who frequently let me borrow from them. A lot of times things from my own closet end up on stage and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t “borrow” my fiance’s clothes sometimes!

- These images are from Whitney’s design portfolio.  The first is a design for Jenny Seastone Stern’s character Melissa in Tom Bradshaw’s The Bereaved. The second is Karen O’Kane, a character in the musical Jubilee that Whitney recently designed with Ohio Light Opera.  

- Whitney’s designs will be featured in After. beginning September 14 at The Wild Project.  Tickets now available!

WHAT’S UP NEXT

Beginning September 14^th, catch PCP-er’s Jackie Chung, Andrew Garman, Alfredo Narciso, Maria-Christina Oliveras in Chad Beckim’s latest play, After.  Stephen Brackett directs withWhitney Locher as Costume Designer and Lindsey Austen as Production Manager. 

With Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Justin Blanchard will appear as Willoughby in an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility beginning August 30^th.

Louis Ozawa Changchien has two upcoming productions this fall: Jen Silverman’s Crane Story, produced by the Playwrights Realm at The Cherry Lane Theater and also Pinter’s The Dumbwaiter directed by Andy Pang with the National Asian American Theater Company. You can catch Louis in PREDATORS, airing this month on HBO.

In the midst of her work as a director, Erica Gould is currently teaching a Shakespeare and Classical Acting class this August based in the work of John Barton, Michael Chekhov, Kristing Linklater and others.  For information, Erica can be reached at ericagould@gmail.com. 

Frank Harts travels to Australia at the end of this month to premiereCrime USA created and directed by Alix Lambert of The Civilians.

Whitney Locher’s costumes can be seen this summer in Josh Koenigsberg’s Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis with At Play Productions beginning August 7^th and in Fiasco Theater’s Cymbeline at the Barrow Street Theater.

The feature film VIOLA is making the rounds at film festivals this summer, featuring Peter O’Connor.  A trailer of the film is available here: www.violamovie.com

As a part of this year’s Fringe Festival, Curran Connor is appearing in Apothecary Theater Company’s original comedy Bella and the Pool Boy by Dennis Flanagan.

Sarah Nina Hayon is also performing in the Fringe.  Catch her alongside Vayu O’Donnell in The Apartment: A Play with Four Sides, directed by Adam Blanshay and presented by team that brought you the fringe hit Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead.

Tiffany Rachelle Stewart is currently performing as Lady Ann in The African Company Presents Richard III in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

WHAT’S GONE DOWN

Chad Beckim and Stephen Brackett took the cast of After. to The Orchard Project, a play development retreat space in the Catskills, to further develop Chad’s play with the help of other off-broadway theater artists.

Justin Blanchard recently appeared as Henry in the New York Classical Theater’s production of Henry V at Castle Clinton.

Jackie Chung performed in the final reading of the Ma-Yi’s Labfest, a play called Locked House written by Samantha Chanse and directed by Kel Haney.  Jackie and Jenny Seastone Stern were featured inThe Germ Project, a collaborative development project of 4 new plays with New Georges.

Two Partial Comfort actors were a part of Fulcrum Theater Company’s inaugural production Julius by Design, written by Kara Lee Corthron: Crystal Finn and Curran Connor.

Dirty Paki Lingerie, a play conceived and performed by Aizzah Fatima and directed by PCP’s Erica Gould, just recently ran in the Midtown International Theater Festival.

Frank Harts just workshopped William Jackson Harpers The Man From Madisonville at MTC which was initially performed this summer with Frank in the cast at EST’s Southampton Writers’ Retreat.

Berkshire Theater Festival’s world premiere production of Dutch Masters, written by Greg Keller (The Seduction Community) closes this Saturday evening.

Maria-Christina Oliveras performed in a staged reading ofZoetrope by Javierantonio Gonzalez in celebration of the Public Theater’s Emerging Writer’s Group in their Spotlight Series.  She was also featured in the season premiere of “Damages”, which just aired earlier this summer on DirectTV.

Just recently at the Cape Cod Theatre Project, Debargo Sanyalappeared in the reading of And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light by Laura Jacqmin.

Produced in the FringeBENEFITS Series, Cynthia Silver brought her one-woman-show Bridezilla Strikes Back! to the Fringe Festival last week for an encore presentation.

Chris VanDijk appeared in Untitled by Korrina C.  in MCC Theater’s FreshPlay Festival.

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Occupation?

Actor.

How did you come to know about Partial Comfort? 

I bedded Chad Beckim.  Kidding.  Not so.  I had heard buzz about Partial Comfort for a few years but, didn’t encounter them until I was cast in PCP’s Fringe production ofRoss Maxwell‘sOpen House.  Greg Keller was also in it.  I bedded him too.

Is this your first experience as a member of an ensemble?

I was a founding member of the now defunct Mobius Group Productions.  We had some early success with some really amazing productions of plays by successful playwrights that, for one reason or another, were deemed uncommercial.  We worked our butts off and had a blast doing it for a few years but, ultimately ran out of steam once we were faced with the reality of how much effing work it was to keep a theater company afloat.  Like parenthood, running a successful theater company is not for pussies.

What makes PCP unique for you?

From an actor’s standpoint, I never feel that I’m competing with other company members.  We’re all very different type-wise and admire and support each other’s unique strengths.  From a former producer’s standpoint, I appreciate that Chad Beckim and Molly Pearson never make the same mistake twice.  They have the courage to stand behind their artistic choices and charge full steam ahead and then, when all is said and done, the humility required to LEARN from their experiences. And, Sam Marks is hot.
Any highlights from this past year as a member?

Working on Jonathan Caren‘s new play Everything Under the Sun,directed by Mia Rovegno and top notch fellow cast members Zach Evenson, Jo Mei,  and Aaron Yoo at this summer’s retreat in CT.  A dream day.

Tell us what you’ve been working on this year.  Anything we can look forward to in the coming months?

So far this year, I did a remount of Carnival Round the Central Figure, a play by Diana Amsterdam that Karen Kohlhaas directed me in during my second year as a student at the Atlantic Theater Company.  Five of the original cast members, including myself, revisited our roles 15 years later (and age appropriate) at IRT.  It was bananas.  Then, I played a terrific role in Packawallop‘s gorgeous production of Paper Cranes, by Kari Bentley-Quinn, directed by Scott Ebersold.  Now, I have a small role in the indie filmTHE GREEN, by Paul Marcarelli (fellow Mobius Group founding member and my BFF) that he co-produced with PCP co-founder, Molly Pearson, that is making the rounds in the festival circuit and will screen at Newfest in NYC on July 24th.   I’m  also about to shoot a day on David Mamet’s HBO biopic of Phil Spector (starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren, no less ) and then I’m doing a benefit performance of my solo show, BRIDEZILLA STRIKES BACK!, co-written withKenny Finkle and directed by Paul Urcioli, as part of FringeNYC’s 15th Anniversary Celebration on Thursday, July 28th at the Laurie Beechman Theatre.  Yep, next week’s a big week.

What productions/readings/etc have you worked on (within or outside the company) that you are particularly fond of? 

Well…I guess the obvious would be my solo show.  It’s a very true story about my very naive foray into the world of reality-TV back in 2002.  I’m not necessarily proud of myself for having gone against, well…ALL of my artistic values in an attempt to further my career BUT, I’m super proud of taking lemons and turning them into (pink) lemonade by creating & performing BRIDEZILLA STRIKES BACK!.  In fact, the reason I met up with Partial Comfort was because director Josh Hecht, saw me in my show and ended up casting me in Open House, which was my first production with PCP.  So, without “Bridezillas”, none of this would have happened.  But, mark my words, PARTICIPATING IN REALITY-TV IS A VERY BAD IDEA.  It’s right up there with the casting couch.  Although, the casting couch has the potential to be way more fun.  And prolific.  At least, that’s what my friends on TV tell me.

Occupation?

Actor.

How did you come to know about Partial Comfort? 

I first heard of Partial Comfort when I was at graduate school at Brown.  One of the playwrights in my class was Sam Marks–and I became a big fan of his and I was in his first play up there.  He had a show going on at or around that time with Partial Comfort so I knew about it through him.

Is this your first experience as a member of an ensemble?  What make s it uniqute for you?  

I was in a children’s theater group all through my childhood called the Lilliput Players.  I think that speaks for itself.  Partial Comfort is unique though: having playwrights write for a specific group of actors, think about a specific group of actors–that is a real gift and it’s rare.

Any highlights from this past year as a member?

This is my first year as a member–so that is the main highlight: that I’m very happy to be included.  As an audience member I saw and heard some of the best work of the year at Partial Comfort:  Sam Hunter‘s play A Bright New Boise, which I felt kind of completed this trilogy of Sam’s plays that were produced last year that tackle big American themes with real subtlety and precision; also Thomas Bradshaw‘s play Ashes, which was in the Welcome Mat reading series last year and which completely riveted me.  Both Partial Comfort retreats were also very memorable. There is really nothing better than getting to work on a new play with a writer you haven’t worked with before.  Last year that writer was Jon Caren and I felt really lucky to be paired with him; this year it was Chad Beckimwho was writing his play as we were rehearsing it, which is a real treat, and makes you feel very special–like you are actually a part of what is getting made.

What productions/readings/etc. have you worked on recently (within or outside of the company) that you are particularly proud of?

I love doing readings.  Sometimes I love readings more than shows. I like reading things cold–I wish auditions could just be cold reads because I think I wouldn’t screw them up as often. There is a Bekah Brunstetter play called Miss Lilly Gets Boned that I have read a couple times and was very proud to be a part of.  In a couple weeks I’m doing a reading of a new play by Sarah Hamond that Stephen Brackett is directing.  Sarah is in a writing group with me and I love her work.  The piece is very new and was just the kind of play I was dreaming about getting to work on–it’s a two-hander, very meaty.  So…I think that will be one that I’m proud to be in.  As for productions: as my thesis in graduate school I did the first act ofHappy Days.  If I ever get to do the second act of that I will be very proud.

Tell us what you’ve been working on this year.  Anything we can look forward to seeing you in in the coming months?  

 Currently I’m in a new play called Julius By Design by Kara Lee Corthron, alongside fellow Partial Comfort member Curran Connor.  It’s being produced by a new company called Fulcrum which I think has a really exciting future.  Before that I was in A Thousand Clowns at Two River Theater that Davis McCallum directed.  It was an old chestnut but I loved it!  Davis directed me in the Sam Hunterplay Five Genocides  last summer, and Davis….well Davis is like a theater wizard.  Actors work with him and feel like they have died and gone to heaven: I ask any actor that has worked with him and they all say the same thing.  In terms of what’s next, in August I’m going to be in a new short play by Tina Howe that is being done at the 59E59 Summer Shorts festival.  Tina is one of my personal heros and role models–she was kind of a revolutionary for women writers and I think some people forget that–or take it for granted.  I’m also working on a solo show called Becoming Liv Ullman, which is about exactly what it sounds like it’s about.  I guess it’s pretty much a Bergman parody which is kind of cheap because it’s so easy–but I’m having fun writing it and I am re-discovering Bergman’s films which sometimes feels like prison and sometimes feels like the most useful thing I will ever accomplish.

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Catch Crystal Finn alongside Curran Connor in Fulcrum Theater’s

JULIUS BY DESIGN

written by Kara Lee Corthron

until July 24th at the Access Theater!