S3E2: October PlayTastings: Four Edgy New Plays

Resident Artists Aaron White, Kimie Muroya, and Amy Rene Byrne chat about our October PlayTasting series. Each week we will bring you a staged reading of an edgy new play at various locations around the area. A "flight of plays" to strike up conversation with our audience. Come out, have some good food, and tell us what you think about them-- you might see them in one of our upcoming seasons.

October 4th @ 5pm: How Now, Ophelia Free at the Bloomsburg Town Park
October 13th @ 11am: Wasabia, at the Brasserie Louis (tickets: brasserie-lous.com)
October 18th @ 7:30: Radiant Vermin, at The Blind Pig (tickets: blindpigkitchen.com)
October 25th @ 6pm: Dracula, at The Pine Barn Inn (tickets: bte.org)

Recorded by: Aaron White
Edited by: Amy Rene Byrne
Original Music by: Aaron White

Transcripts of all Season 2 and 3 episodes are available on our Buzzsprout website.

Check out our current season: http://www.bte.org
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone.

Transcript

Kimie: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center, a podcast where we take a moment to celebrate the unique opportunities found in our company, our people, our art, and our town, and bring some tasty theatre to our community front and down center. Hello. I'm Kimie Muroya, Resident Actor and Ensemble Member at BTE. I'm here with fellow Resident Actors, Aaron White and Amy Rene Byrne-- 

Amy: That's me! 

Kimie: That is you!. And today we'll be chatting about our October PlayTastings 

Amy: Play Tastings?

Aaron: Play Tastings. It's where You eat food. And listen to a play being read. 

Amy: Oh. Hey Aaron, what’s a Play Reading?

Aaron: A play reading? A play reading is a performance. It is not just reading the play. will be acting through a role, but we'll have scripts in hand. And, uh, we'll do small little suggestions. But for the most part, you're hearing the play happen. So there, there's no production. There, there are very few, if any, costume pieces. Some people actually really love them because they get to imagine what the play might be. Other folks, uh, can find them challenging because there aren't a whole lot of visual things. But if you haven't experienced it before, you really should check it out because it is a wonderful way to experience a play. And different than just reading it on the page because its not just that dead ink. How’s that?

Amy: That’s great. Sounds like a good way to dip your toes in the play pool.

Aaron: In fact, every weekend in October, you get to see a different play, a new edgier play, something that's been written within the last five years, that we're excited to program in our main stage season. 

We had a really fruitful play selection season last season, where we discovered some really fun offbeat plays that resonated with us so strongly. But were off the beaten path from what we've presented in the past.

And we chatted last episode-- fiscal sustainability is at the forefront of our thinking right now, and so this was one way where we thought we could get our community's opinions about plays we really love and want to show folks. And so you get an opportunity to come see them, have a little bit of food, have a little bit of conversation, and tell us how those plays resonate with you. 

Kimie: So, I have been writing a play, How Now, Ophelia, which I’m very excited about. And it’s public premiere will be the kickoff to these Play Tastings. The reading will be FREE at the Bloomsburg Town park on 5pm Friday, October 4th.

Aaron: I'm so excited for people to see this play! 

Kimie: Among among other plays. Such as Wasabia which will be a Sunday brunch performance on Sunday, the 13th of October at the Brasserie Louis. Wasabia by a friend of mine, Wendy Herlick who is a very fun playwright and it's a dark comedy dealing with end of life palliative care for elderly people and, relationships that we make as we make those bargains 

Aaron: It also features personifications of pharmaceuticals. 

Kimie: Yes, diva pharmaceuticals.

Aaron: Yeah. Comedy should be stressed because it is a fun play. Yeah, but asking some really poignant questions, too, a bout human beings and the end of life. 

Kimie: And And agency.. 

Aaron: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, really excited to bring that. On October 18th, we're going to be bringing Radiant Vermin by Philip Ridley to the Blind Pig.

We're so excited to partner with them. We've had a few opportunities for you to witness some plays at the Blind Pig. We're partnering with Sarah and Toby at the Blind Pig in Bloomsburg to bring Radiant Vermin. It is equally a dark comedy.

That may be a trend these play tastings. And one of the reasons why we're so curious about how folks will receive them. 

 Radiant Vermin again, a dark comedy outlining unhoused people and the housing crisis that is across our country. Kimmy, you were looking for an apartment in Bloomsburg.

Kimie: Oh boy! It's expensive. 

Aaron: It is expensIVE.. And it is like the housing market in general across America leaves folks in the lurch because the housing costs skyrocket past what we can make our communities. But it talks about the housing market and our own personal responsibilities as members of community and the crisis that we sometimes come to when we're trying to make a home for the folks around us and--

Kimie: And how far we're willing to push our morals about it. 

Aaron: Yeah, that's right. Again, ask some really poignant questions. Again, a very funny play and actually has some magical realism that makes the play go that I, I think folks will find really delightful and maybe disturbing Ha, ha, ha, ha. 

Amy: Speaking of disturbing, we're going to follow that up on October 25th at the Pine Barn with Dracula by Kate Hamill I love the subtitle for this play. It's Dracula, colon, a feminist revenge fantasy, comma. Really.

Aaron: Period.

Amy: Period. Dracula, a feminist revenge fantasy. Really? So it's exactly what it sounds like. It's loosely based on the novel by Bram Stoker, and it's a gender bending dark comedy.

There really is a theme for these play tastings. I think dark comedies have a tendency to speak to theatre artists in particular because there is something very satisfying about having a meaty thing to chew on that also makes you laugh. 

Aaron: And it will be Dracula at the end of October, so if you are looking for an event to dress up and go out uh, right before Halloween-- and I do think costumes are not mandatory, but absolutely reccomended at the Pine Barn Inn in Danville. October 25th? Yeah. 

Amy: October 25th. 

Aaron: So, we're super excited to bring all of these titles to our broader community, but

 I'm really excited to witness Kimie's new play, How Now, Ophelia. It is a project that BTE has been, enjoying , since 2000 and? 

Kimie: Twenty two. Yeah I had finished working on Witch, and I went back to Philly, and I had this kernel of an idea, and typed it all down and then uh, when y'all brought me back for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I requested if we had some time to do a reading of it so that I could hear it out loud, and that was the very first reading of it.

I think it's also interesting that Hamlet is one of my favorite plays. How Now, Ophelia is both a Celebration and condemnation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. so yes, it is based on Hamlet  we take those characters and we, play with them like little dolls. Just imagine me sitting cross legged, playing with some Barbie dolls in my room. And that is essentially How Now, Ophelia. 

Amy: I mean, there's a lot more to it than that, 

Kimie: But 

Aaron: But , I will say that the playful quality is very much there. One of the, kind of defining characteristics comes from how theatre companies have produced Hamlet in the past. 

Kimie: Yeah. And BTE's production of Hamlet in, I believe, 2010 which I saw as an impressionable sophomore in high school and immediately fell in love with Hamlet and Shakespeare and everything. That was such an influential production for me that play has been near and dear to my heart since. So it's been really full circle to bring it back to BTE. And we did a, very small invited reading back in February and Jerry Stropnicki played one of the characters. And I did not realize that he had directed that production of Hamlet, but he was very touched by this story.

Aaron: Full circle.

Kimie: And it kind of brought tears to both of our eyes to think about that, that you know, young 15 year old Kimie, utterly depressed, but without the words to explain that watching Hamlet and becoming obsessed. 

Amy: Know how much you wanna give away, but you have a very fun commentary on all the different ways that Hamlet been produced. 

Kimie: I do, yeah so that's one of the funniest things for me as a, as a performer I do a lot of classical work and I do a lot of new work, there's not a lot in between that fits me but classical work, people are willing to take in interesting directions, I find, and particularly Shakespeare, people are willing to take in some very interesting directions and then impose what I call concepts onto them. 

Aaron: There's a very popular trend, particularly in the late 90s and early 2000s where you'd see production of Hamlet in space-- 

Kimie: Mm 

Aaron: Recognizing that somehow or other Shakespeare esoteric nature of Shakespeare's language. Somehow or other needed a lens for modern people to view it through.

Kimie: Yeah, that, but also that on a positive spin that the, that the story and the text can transcend time and place.

Aaron: A different set of given circumstances offers us an ability to see the play in a different way.

Kimie: Yeah. Yeah. So I both love and hate Productions that do that. So, 

Amy: I mean I both-- 

Kimie: Um-- 

Amy: Love and hate Shakespeare I feel like that's fair. 

Kimie: So uh, my elevator for this play is uh Rosencrantz Guildenstern are Dead meets Groundhog Day. 

Aaron: It's true.

Amy: And a little dash of No Exit.

Kimie: With a little dash, No Exit. Nothing is new under the sun. Everything is derivative and I am the most derivative of all. 

Amy: No you are not the most derivative of all. 

Aaron: But I will say that there's nothing recycled or stale about this play. Like I, I think there's something wonderfully fresh and exciting and vital about the way that you're telling this story. 

Kimie: Thank you. 

Aaron: You're welcome. 

Kimie: Yeah 

Aaron: A nd I think very current because so much of it has to deal with identity and narrative. We've talked a lot about that on this podcast about who gets to tell what stories. And I think your play poses it in a really fascinating intriguing way. 

Amy: Yeah and I really appreciate the way that you look at Shakespeare's female characters in this play because, you know, some of our greatest theatrical characters are Shakespearean characters, but there are so few really good, solid female characters.

They are predominantly male, and, you know, Ophelia is well known character, a well known name, but if you really look at the amount of time that she is in Hamlet, it is small.

Kimie: I believe she has lines in four scenes and she appears in like one more. And out of the entire four hour production of Hamlet, if you do the full cut, yeah, it's a, it's a small, it's a small amount. Something that I was hoping to do was to give her back some agency and a character that I, would like to play.

I would also like to play Hamlet. I, you know, come and see Kimie's one woman production of Hamlet because that's something that I'll probably do eventually. But yeah, Ophelia, have so much love and sympathy for her and she's so controlled by particularly the men in her life. And I feel that with Gertrude too. Gertrude the queen of Denmark, Hamlet's mother, who remarries Gertrude. Her husband's brother, you know, there's interpretation of, whether or not she is complicit in the goings on of the story, or if she also is a victim of circumstance and the power dynamic and control of the men in her life.

But Ophelia very rarely gets to have any sort of power. She is constantly torn between wanting to please her family her father the the king, who is obviously in huge power over her, and the person that she loves, Hamlet who I do believe loved her at one time.

Aaron: I think so too. I've played Hamlet a couple times. I don't think he doesn't have some sort of tie to her. But that's also not the only character that we're focused on. The two central characters of the play are Ophelia and

Kimie: and And Horatio he's the confidant character to Hamlet. He's Hamlet's best friend. And he's the one who's left alive at the end of the story to continue telling the 

Amy: The only one left alive. 

Kimie: And there's very little agency in what he has to do and what, what he's allowed to do. He gets to listen, he gets to watch, he doesn't really get to impact the story and that's a hard position to be in as well.

Aaron: Yeah, yeah. And comes into the dynamic between those two characters in, in your play. And a question about what does it mean for a character whose job it is to carry the story forward, what is it if that is wrapped up in the identity of the character itself? It's such a cool play. I, I really love it. 

Amy: It's so funny. I really like, it's a beautiful confluence of all of these different things. And I think it just congeals in such a delightful way.

Kimie: Yeah, the thing that most nervous about and hope to get feedback on from our audience is if it makes sense to you, if you don't know Hamlet? I have tried to write it in a way that you still understand the story of what's happening between these characters. And I've tried to write it in a way that you start to develop an appreciation understanding of the Shakespearean text. Some of the play is in the Shakespearean text that often repeats. So if you didn't catch it the first time, you'll catch it the next time, or the next time, or the next time, or by the end where there's a very satisfying twist, find even more delicious meat in that scene. 

Aaron: A la Groundhog Day. Yeah, yeah. I think that's such a great description of it too. I will say, I want to just say really quickly that this is a piece that's been living within BTE's creative energies since Kimie brought it to us two years ago. And it's been such a joy to see how it's grown and how it's changed from how many different ways can we do Hamlet, which I think is where it kind of began to a place that it is now and, deepened. 

 Before we talk about the devising process that we went through, I think it would be great to hear from one of our newest ensemble members who played Horatio in the very first reading of this play, and who is now joining our company as a Creative Producer. I'm excited for our listeners to hear from the marvelous Sarah York. 

Amy: Today we have a new Ensemble member profile to share with you and I am sitting here with Sarah Elizabeth York. Hello 

Sarah: Hi Amy.

Amy: How long have you worked for BTE?

Sarah: be here? That's a complicated question. I was doing some interim work since May, but now I'm in a full time position. The new creative producer at Bloomsburg theatre Ensemble. But two years ago, I was your Assistant Director on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and doing an administrative internship for my Master's degree.

Amy: That was a long time coming The first time that Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe was slated on the schedule was pre COVID.

Sarah: Yes. 2020.

Amy: and we started that process. Mm-Hmm. , we started talking, you were at a very different point in your career. Yes. You had just started

Sarah: I had just started grad school. That was my very first year of grad school. And then 

Amy: And then by the time we actually got to do it, you were done with

Sarah: I was, I had my masters under my belt.

Amy: Covid was a wild time.

Sarah: was, 

Amy: But that wasn't the very beginning of your relationship with BTE, was it? 

Sarah: No,

no. so my very first live theatre experience as an audience member was actually at BTE when I was six years old in 1996, the house at Pooh Corner directed by the wonderful Laurie McCants. My mom worked in Bloomsburg when I was younger. So we came up to see, and I remember, Like bothering her immediately and being like, well, how do I do that?

How do I get on stage? What do I do? And then we came to see BTE shows for many many years And then once I graduated undergrad, I auditioned to be one of the BTE interns. So I've been in the orbit for a while trying to make it happen.

Amy: Hey, sometimes that's what you got to do. I, I joked when I first started working here cause I started out as part time Education Director and I was like, it's okay, I'm just going to be like a fungus I'm going to grow slowly until I've infested the whole place and they can't get rid of

Sarah: Yeah, that's kind of what it feels like.

Amy: It's a really gross analogy.

Sarah: Yeah, I was thinking about it. Like, I'm just like orbiting and it's like when a meteor is coming and it's like, well, here it comes. And it like just missed this time, but you know. 

Amy: But this time it was a direct impact. Yeah, we are so excited to have you here as our Creative Producer, which is a new position for BTE, something that we have wanted for a very long time, but something that we have not historically had.

Can you tell our listeners a little bit about what that is? What a Creative Producer is or 

Sarah: Yeah, I think that's a great question So as a new role, I think there's a lot of really exciting but intimidating things about this position in that BTE is an Ensemble Theatre and the Ensemble makes calls artistically.

But I'm functioning as someone who is helping foster the conversations within the artistic side and guiding those decisions in a way that are still being collectively collaborated on by the ensemble, but ultimately, within an, a leadership role that is helping. Push it in the right direction, helping problem solve things when you have a multi headed decision making, you know, body.

 And so I will be working to produce a lot of the plays, making sure that they stay on track, working in terms of production, communicating with designers, directors, actors, keeping the work flow. moving smoothly, and I will be working with our managing director in ensuring the budget stays on track and that we are hitting these mile markers and these goals that we want to hit moving towards our 50th season.

And so I look at it as if like a production manager and an artistic director and an ensemble member of BTE like had a baby, it's me. Um, so, uh, yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's, It's an interesting way to look at it. But so like I'm doing the producing, but also running production meetings and things like that, but still get to be involved creatively and artistically, which is exciting.

Amy: We're so excited to have you here in this role. We're already seeing the wonderful benefits of that. As the person that is directing the next show, I am directing our upcoming Christmas show, having you here to help me navigate things already has been such a great relief.

These responsibilities that Sarah is. undertaking are things that used to be shared amongst the Ensemble as a whole, and as our numbers have dwindled, our capacity to be able to do those things has dwindled with it. And so we have found ourselves, you know, really hungry for an additional hand to help us make the thing go.

Sarah: it's been really great to be able to offer that help because I know when you're directing a show, like It's overwhelming, and the amount of things you have to do, and it's, great to be able to offer that support to you all, and make sure that you can do those artistic things, and, and put your efforts and focus there.

Amy: Amazing. You're also going to get a chance to see Sarah's artistic ability later in the season. She will be directing The Little Prince. 

Sarah: Yeah,I'm very excited. This is actually my BTE directing debut. and, it is actually one of my favorite books from my childhood.

So that's really special and I'm very excited. And I get to direct all three of the resident actors within the ensemble, which is really 

Amy: Yes, I'm excited for all three of us to be able to be on stage together. 

Sarah: Yeah, that's really special. 

Amy: That got to happen during Miss Holmes, Miss Watson, Apartment 2B, and I mean, they're two of my very favorite people to act with,

Sarah: Mm-Hmm. . Oh, that's so nice.

Amy: Just so our audience gets to know a little bit about you personally, Sarah, can you tell them a little bit about why you love theatre and why you do what you do?

Sarah: Sure, yeah so I grew up in Schuylkill County where like the only two things to do are like play sports or like Go drink on a Friday and watch people play sports. and I don't say that in a disparaging way. It's just, you know, I love Schuylkill County, but it's what celebrated and it's, it's the thing to do. But I was an athlete and I was very committed to sports and things like that, but I did the musicals in high school and I always found that it like tapped into a different, part of me that I didn't get to explore. and so when I went to college I was originally like studying psychology and my family was like, no, you're not adding a Theatre Major, like no don't do that.

And I secretly added the theatre major, um, and I didn't tell my family

Amy: You it on the sly!?

Sarah: I did it on the sly, before Thanksgiving break I met with a professor and I really want to do this and he was like, okay and so I added the theatre major and I came back from winter break and I was, there I was in the throes of it, and what I found was like really special to me at the time was like I was using acting as a way to like escape and the sense of escapism and to, you know, just step away from like my everyday life and, and be someone else for a little bit and do something else for a little bit that felt like healing in a lot of ways.

And then as I continued to act, I found myself like escaping too much into the roles and, and not finding that very finite balance between myself and my acting skill. And then I found directing, which being able to like create worlds and hone worlds for people to escape to felt like a much larger gift and something that was more holistically in line with who I was. And I always feel like, theatre is a means for change and it is, you know, a way for us to escape, but also to look at and reflect on our own lives and the things that are happening around us and being able to world build and create those worlds where people could come in for, you know, 90 minutes to two hours and just all be together and present and experience this ephemeral thing once that's now fleeting and gone was the most special thing to me.

And not only giving people an escape, but giving them a community and a communal experience that is so rare. but like, for me, I think. As time has gone on, I, I value being able to collaborate and I value being able to work on things that feel topical. And right now I think that's one of the most important things is how is art influencing The world around us and I feel like this is such a long winded weird answer. 

Amy: I love it.

Sarah: But I think it started Being someone who like had a goal. I was an athlete. I had this thing I had to do this and that but the sense of team And what that gave me and then arts the sense of community And what that gave me, but a way to escape and a way to Reflect and the fact that it's here and it's gone in an instant is probably my favorite thing about it You can't capture it.

Amy: You can't. Oh, that's really a lovely answer. 

Sarah: I'm so glad I was like i'm like, no, boy. How do I word this? That 

Amy: No, I, I think that really speaks to something that a lot of theatre artists feel, and it, it's, for me, it's why I am drawn to theatre above film or anything like that, because it is that fleeting, ephemeral thing that can't be recaptured.

Mm-Hmm. and. I mean, I'm also a glutton for punishment, and my favorite thing both as an artist on stage and an audience member is when things go wrong, because that's the joy of theatre,

Sarah: Oh, yeah,

Amy: Things are going to go wrong, and watching people deal with something in real time, in character, in the world that's been created, those are the moments that are the most magical to me, and you just don't get that, uh, In TV or movies. 

Sarah: Right.And I think it's really beautiful because humans are so flawed and I think in watching things like that on stage, it gives you permission to. Be flawed and I think theatre celebrates that and that in the moment the things you can't prepare for because you can prepare as much as you want and things are still going to go wrong and it's it's celebrating and and embracing the flaws of that rather than trying to escape them and the perfectionism of I'm going to fine tune this film until this shot is perfect.

Like you just don't get that. You know, people are bearing soul to you. They're on stage in front of you. It's the most vulnerable place a person could 

Amy: Yes. Yeah, yeah. You don't have the distance of a camera. you are in front of each other. And that is a part of the experience that just can't be duplicated.

Sarah: Yeah, no, truly can't. And, you know, you have a moment on stage and you feel it and you, could try to describe it to somebody, but you're going to feel it forever. Like I could think about things I felt when I was like 18 on stage or 20 on stage and it still lives in my body. And I think that's very special.

Amy: Oh, that's great. Well, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much, Sarah. We are thrilled to have you on board.

Sarah: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. 

Aaron: Can we just talk about the devising process that we went through last season?

Kimie: Yeah, we had a little bit of a break in between our productions in October this past season. and you all very graciously set aside some time for me to bring this script into a rehearsal room and work on it.

 We did a couple of reads of some edits that I made. One particular pass was terrible. So we threw it out and returned to an older pass.

Amy: That pass was informative.

Kimie: It was very informative and I'm glad that it happened because it was something that I was trying work with. I was trying to get it down to a 90 minute one act, which is the kind of theatre that I really love. But it took out a lot of a lot of the connection and a lot of the heart. So it was really informative to know what is important for the story to move and to work. I also struggled a lot with the, opening moments, this, this opening beat between Horatio and Ophelia, where the audience are, are meeting them for the first time, and them meeting each other for the first time and this happens externally from the play of Hamlet.

So there's nothing really to go on. I think Ophelia and Horatio within the extant text of Hamlet interact very briefly and without words. Like he's in her mad scene and then he's sent after her once she exits. Like that's, that's their experience. But I've, worked on developing the friendship and relationship between these two people.

And so we had a really fun day where we just took a bunch of the rehearsal furniture in our rehearsal room and, built a liminal space, which is where these two characters live. And in various iterations, I was, you know, switch, switching people around and recasting people in our, in our room and, and seeing like, okay, what's this dynamic?

And I would give somebody like a note that the other person didn't know and be like, okay, you are extremely hungry. You know, that's, that's very simplistic version of it, but like, and, and playing with that and really hammering out this first beat and it was extremely helpful and really rejuvenating. 

Aaron: Yeah, it was cool because we started setting rules about what this liminal space, which was abstract on the page, learning what It such fulfilling week.

So, thanks so much, Kimie. Please check out our October play tastings, running through the whole month of October.

Kimie: I'm about to say

Aaron: I know, I just have

Amy: Hey everyone, please check out our October

Kimie: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

Amy: the whole month

Kimie: hey, don't miss, don't miss. Don't miss all our October play tastings. 

 This has been Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble Down Center. Ensemble Driven, Professional Theatre, Arts Education, Rural pennsylvania, For Everyone, With Everyone.

We would like to thank the foundation of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce for the use of the equipment that makes this recording Don't miss all of our October play tastings, four staged readings of four different plays read in four different venues around the region. Every weekend in October there will be great food, good conversation, and a fresh look at four edgy new plays that we are considering for future seasons.

Details for this and all of our offerings for season 47 can be found online at bte. org.

Aaron: Thank you all very much.

Amy: Thank you.

Kimie: Konnichiwa. Watashi wa Muroya Kimie desu. Hajimemashite. Resident actor and ensemble member at the BTE. 

I'm Terrible. Um, 

Amy: Kimmy's across the room making googly eyes at me and farting.