“I’ve always said if I could have any job in the world, it would be atheist Catholic priest. Give me a gorgeous cathedral to work in. Once a week I will write a blazingly good sermon and deliver it, and I will minster to people in their times of need.” – Gwydion Suilebhan
This is the second part of a conversation that Extended Play’s Tommy O’Malley facilitated between Sarah Schulman and Chris Tyler, two artists whose work speaks to the complicated legacy of Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.”
On the 20th anniversary of the Broadway opening of “Rent,” Extended Play’s Tommy O’Malley sits down with Sarah Schulman and Chris Tyler to talk about the legacy of the Pulitzer Prize-winning show. Schulman argues that Jonathan Larson plagiarized huge chunks of “Rent” from her novel “People in Trouble.”
In light of #Rent20, poet Kit Yan and Jonathan Larson Award-winning composer Melissa Li talk about “Interstate,” their new musical about a queer Asian band traveling across the U.S. inspired by touring the country with their band, Good Asian Drivers.
“I think VR and theater are going to be best friends.” – Jarrad Bladich of The Mill
“Just don’t forget there’s no essential you, know what I mean? There’s no ground. And that’s scary, but I think it’s also fantastic. Because that means you can be anything. We don’t have to be stuck in the roles that we’re led to believe we need to be stuck in. We don’t have to be. I think it’s a message of hope that we’re empty.” – Dickie Beau
Georgina Escobar interviews playwright José Rivera, who created the musical “Another Word for Beauty” from a Civilians’ investigation of the annual beauty pageant at Colombia’s national women’s prison, El Buen Pastor, in Bogota. “Beauty” premiered at Goodman Theatre in Chicago in January 2016.
The Working Theater recently commissioned writer/performer Dan Hoyle to collaborate with director Tamilla Woodard on a research-based theater piece set in the Bronx. They’re in the process of creating “The Block,” which will tour all five New York City Boroughs in Summer 2016.
“I was noticing that, especially within the theater, a good bit of the material that discussed religion — specifically Christianity — did so satirically. Any time I notice a gap — something that’s not being talked about or said or noticed — then I want to rush in and make something for that barren space.”
Activist/writer Andrea Ciannavei interviews Jacques Servin and Laura Nix about the Yes Men, the activist performance duo that targets power systems.
“The thing I ask the artist is: What’s urgent to you? And then also: What can you do with groups that you might not be able to do by yourself? There is a politic there. Some people address it head on in a very overt way, and others are more nuanced.”
“The breaking of gentrification, the breaking of cultural ties — it’s a lot of what is happening in Harlem for us right now. That’s what so many people talked about — just losing the thread of the community, of a kind of cultural identity.”
Writer/performers Ilana Becker and Emilyn Kowaleski are bringing two very different investigative theater works to Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, a series that highlights emerging artists throughout the month of June.
“The whole thing about a tech is that the designers are all trapped at tables… So, in a way, the degree to which an audience member is trapped in a seat is very much the way the designers are trapped at their stations.”
Performance artist Aisha Cousins, along with musician Greg Tate, created “Brer Rabbit the Opera” as a response to the shifting demographics in her Brooklyn neighborhood.
Copyright © Extended Play 2014
