NYC Fringe - POY Alum Takes Center Stage

POY Alum Lizzie Czerner is bringing her "one-woman, two-booby" show to the NYC Fringe Festival this week! Congratulations Lizzie! She first developed this piece on POY's very own stage and she's got immense talent. We heartily recommend you check out her show!

From the desk of Marc Adam Smith who is working on Lizzie's show:

I am very excited to tell you about THE BOOBY PRIZE, which is a new hit solo show to be performed at The New York International Fringe Festival next month. This one-woman, two-booby play was nominated for BEST COMEDY (voted in top 3) at The Hollywood Fringe Festival 2011, and was selected for an extended run as part of "THE BEST OF THE FRINGE".

Please find our press release (attached and pasted below, for your convenience) as well as links to rave reviews from LA THEATRE REVIEW, THE EXAMINER, and HOLLYWOOD PASSPORT. More information can also be found at www.lizzieboobyprize.com.

There are several story angles that I would like to point out, as these subjects may be of interest to you:

1. THE BOOBY PRIZE has partnered with KEEP A BREAST FOUNDATION and will donate a percentage of ticket sales to this worthy organization to help promote breast cancer awareness and prevention. (The show is not about cancer but the disease has touched the family of writer/performer Lizzie Czerner, and the subject is as close to her heart as her boobs are.) ;)

2. The show has local appeal, as Lizzie lived in New York City for 20 years before moving to Los Angeles, and her show chronicles her life and adventures in Manhattan.

3. THE BOOBY PRIZE deals with body image issues, and other subjects that may be of particular interest to your female readers. (Many times after a show, women have come up to thank Lizzie for portraying the female experience in a manner which is raw, fearless and truthful.)

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This uplifting one-woman, two-booby comedy chronicles Writer/Performer Lizzie Czerner’s struggle to stop playing second banana to her two melons, and find true love.Comedy writer and sketch-comedienne Lizzie Czerner performed her solo show in The Hollywood Fringe Festival to full houses and standing ovations.

A seasoned performer with degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts, and with off-Broadway credits to her name, Lizzie was a member of the successful and long-running sketch comedy group, Faulty Logic, (St. Marks Theatre/HA! Comedy Festival) and her solo shows have been performed in venues all over New York and Los Angeles. Her show entitled GETTING NAKED was an official jury selection of the New York International Fringe Festival in 2009, and her newest work, THE BOOBY PRIZE was performed at Upright Citizens Brigade, Santa Monica Theater and BANG Comedy Theatre, prior to its festival debut in The Hollywood Fringe Festival.

The show will be performed in New York City at The Players Theatre as part of the New York International Fringe Festival on Saturday, August 13 at 7:30pm, Sunday, August 14 at 8:45pm, Tuesday, August 16 at 5:00pm, Friday, August 19 at 4:15pm, and Sunday, August 21 at 4:30pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.fringenyc.org, or $18 at the door.

Turn Out The Lights...

From the Desk of Marc Adam Smith:

[Editor's Note: As many of you may know, we at Point of You had a home away from home with our Officers Gerard Savoy and Tina Trimble - we hosted many a party and held many a rehearsal there. At the end of 2010, they left the city for the suburbs. What better way to end our 10th Anniversary Season than with a look back...]

"The Parties Over" the recently passed Don Meredith used to sing that at the end of Monday Night Football in the 70's and 80's and now it seems apropos for the end of the CASA DE SAVOY where so many of us spent so much time over the past few years. I hope you all had a chance to stop by and help out with the move, and to take one more look at our home away from home and the two folks who invited us into it over the years, I can only think back to 8 years ago when we started going there...

Tina and G had 5 Cats: DJ, Jack, Roscoe, Ben and Omar. They now have one cat...do the math folks.

Mel and Sean where a couple living together down in the South Street Seaport and had no cats or a baby... and Mel was not yet Jewish, welcome to the front of the Bus Mel!

Jeff and Meghan where not Jeff and Meghan.... Jeff was ....well Jeff, and Meghan as far as we knew did not exist. Since we can only think of them as a couple let us not dwell on the past.

Paul looked like Lenny from the Simpsons, and back then he was always leaving things at the loft. Glad that stopped....wait, I think G just found Paul's South End script.

Johnny was the Dirty one, the single guy who had the nerve to sleep with women. OMG how did we ever survive that shock? And now he's a married man!

Keating was Keyser Soze in training, and now we know how wrong we where about him (PLEASE DO NOT KILL ME ONE DAY KEATING)

And I was a Loudmouth, Sarcastic, Prick... Good that some things stay the same, huh?

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Editor's comments: Thank you for the love, the laughter, the learning and the food. We'll miss the loft. Thank you G & T for letting us share that magical place with you.

Enthusiasms

From the desk of Gerard J. Savoy

When you put together shows like POY's I'm Just Saying Series, most of the major components are in place. You round up your writers (new and old), your directors (new and old), your actors (new and old) and stick them in the POY blender and see what you've got. You plan, you re-plan, you rehearse and you obsess. In the end, you do the best you can and hope that the audience enjoys what you have spent so much time on and worked so hard at. If you come out in the black then you're another step ahead of the game.

With this season's I'm Just Saying: Summers in the City, the Officers were fortunate enough to have added an relatively uncharted component: An "intern". Erin came to us as people often do, through a friend of a friend. She was looking to work with a theater company and get some experience doing what she hoped to be pursuing in college and beyond. Her interest was primarily in stage managing. Anyone who runs an OOB company can attest to the fact that good stage managers are hard to find.

We met, we connected, we threw her in the mix. Officers took the lead in guiding her through our process and giving her tips based on our own experiences. She was professional every step of the way. Erin was involved, listened carefully and came with a built in personality that worked perfectly for the job: No nonsense, organized and hard working. Rarely, if ever, did she crack a smile.

As we progressed through the rehearsal process, Erin became the keeper of the production. During tech she herded cats (don't ask). She kept a straight face throughout.

On opening night I stood backstage; not in the dressing room but directly backstage so that I could hear our Executive Director give the curtain speech. I like to gauge the audience by how they respond to these. While I was standing there in the dark, Erin joined me. As I listened and my eyes adjusted, I turned to look at her. She looked at me and in the dark I could see the biggest smile come across her face. She bent her elbows, put her hands next to her face and gave a little shake.

Thank you Erin. That is what its all about.

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If you would like to intern for one of our productions, please contact us at info@pointofyou.org.

I'm Just Saying: Summers in the City!

Point of You ensemble and guest artists gather together for monologues, scenes and music celebrating all things summer in the latest installment in our I’m Just Saying series.

I'M JUST SAYING: SUMMERS IN THE CITY
Tuesday, August 3rd &
Thursday, August 5th @ 8pm

Gotham City Improv
48 West 21st Street, 8th fl
(btw 5th & 6th Ave)
New York, NY 10010

Tickets: $18
Reservations: 212-613-6138
www.pointofyou.org

Featuring the talents of: Brandon Beilis*, Ellis Cahill*, Jessie Fahay, Kathleen Rose Fletcher*, Marlise Garde, Annalee Hardison*, Cedric Jones, Karron Karr, Johnny Blaze Leavitt, Monica Blaze Leavitt, Jeff Love, Meghan Love, Alyssa Mann, Leslie Marseglia, Rita MenWeep*, Gerard J. Savoy, Jessica Silver*, Lee Solomon, and Felicia Eugenia Velasco

Playwrights: Eilis Cahill,* Kathleen Rose Fletcher,* Nicholas Walker Herbert,*Johnny Blaze Leavitt, Monica Blaze Leavitt,* Peggy Lee,* Jeff Love, Leslie Marseglia, Olivia Worden,* Ceren Zorlu*

Directors: Jeff Love, Monica Blaze Leavitt,* Alyssa Mann, Marc Adam Smith, Paul Weissman, Ceren Zorlu*

Choreographer: Jessica Silver • Photography: Johnny Blaze Leavitt, Marie Halloran • Production Manager: Johnny Blaze Leavitt

* Guest Artists

Who are you and what are you doing in my costume?

From the desk of Gerard J. Savoy

It’s going to happen sooner or later. If you’ve been doing theater since before you can remember a time when you weren’t, eventually you are going to watch another actor step into a role that you’ve played.

It happens all the time on Broadway. Headliners come and go in order to keep a production that may or may not have been produced without them, alive. In the world of OOB however, this is much rarer. Sure, we’ve all done our Shakespeare and Sheppard. We’ve watched as others have taken on the roles of Iago or Desdemona, Eddie or May. It’s expected. Theater is a living breathing art and in it, characters can exist forever.

I recently had the opportunity to experience this first hand when POY remounted a production of Kenneth Branagh’s “A Midwinter’s Tale”. Originally produced in 2004, I was given the opportunity at that time to play the role of Carnforth Greville. Up until that point most of the roles I had been cast in had me playing tough guys or the guy next door. I had begun to think that this was what I was destined to play forever until POY gave me the chance to sink my teeth into a role that was totally against my “type”.

Let me just clarify something. I think that casting on “type” is bullshit. I have seen this happen over and over again. Most of the jobs I have gotten, I knew in the first 30 seconds that they were mine. Didn’t matter if my audition was crap (at least in my mind), I could see the look in the casting director’s eye that I was the one they were looking for. They pictured me when they envisioned the character. But I digress.

Carnforth has a depth of spirit that I wanted to explore. He is a quiet, shy man who loves his mother and seeks approval from her in a life that she considers a waste of time. Carnforth is a drinker. Hiding behind the strength and confidence that alcohol provides. Here is a man that has never been challenged regarding his ability as a performer or his ability to stand up straight. I love this character. I loved bringing him to life.

Jump ahead to 2010. POY remounts the production from March 3 to the 13th. The show is
recast with some of the same actors that appeared in the original and several new additions to the POY family. All the original actors are recast in different roles. I am not cast as Carnforth. Instead another actor takes on the role at his request and I am given the role of Henry Wakefield by the director. A brand new opportunity opens for me to play another interesting role. I have the chance to mostly work opposite an actor who I have enjoyed watching in the past but have worked with on a limited basis. We make each other better. I watch as the actor playing Carnforth now works out his own interpretation of the character. It is not easy. Not because of what he is doing but because like most actors there were things that I had only begun to discover the first go around. I want to jump in and share these insights with him but realize it is not my place. He is on his own journey. It’s tough. I concentrate on my own role. I have to hope that the director and actor take care of the character I love. It’s an interesting place to be. In the end the production had its run. A good time was had by all. And for me, I have learned to let it go. Who knows, in the world of OOB, I may cross paths with Carnforth again.

A 10th Anniversary Conversation with our Founders

Jeff: I feel like Jeremy Pevin talking to John Cusack in Gross Point Blank, “TEN YEARS!!! TEN YEARS! TEN….YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRSSSSSSSS!.....TEN! YEARS!”

Johnny: Oh, I see where you’re going. I thought it was because I’ve lived in Chicago. Yes, Point of You has been around for 10 years. Wait, WHAT?!?!?

Jeff: It’s amazing when you’re so focused on the next project how suddenly you take a break and look behind you and see you’re a decade older and such is the case with Point Of You Productions.

Johnny: Stop saying that! You’re making me feel old! I still buy comic books, for crying out loud! … Maybe I shouldn’t have confessed that to the World Wide Web?

Jeff: Do you think there’s anybody out there who’s shocked by that?

Johnny: (sigh) No. BUT comic books play a pivotal role in our 2011 season!

Jeff: Stop looking ahead right now. This blog is about looking behind us.

Johnny: … I like these curtains.

Jeff: (sigh) And as amazing, wonderful, and even surprising as it is to see that POY has turned a tenth of a century older this year, I can’t say that if you had told us ten years ago that we’d still be doing theater that I would’ve expected anything else.

Johnny: That’s quite a run-on sentence you’ve got there. But I take your point.

Jeff: I mean, some of the faces have changed but the goal hasn’t.

Johnny: I was updating some of our files the other day and it’s amazing to see how much the Ensemble and even the governing board has changed over the years. So many fantastic guest artists have worked on our stages and some truly amazing people have dedicated years to this group and continue to do so.

Jeff: A special thank you to Melanie Kuchinski Rodriguez, Chris Keating, Paul Weissman and Karron Karr who have been with us since Day One. And to all of the current Ensemble members and guest artists who help us continue to do entertaining, challenging, and well crafted shows.

Johnny: I know you said no looking forward but we’ve got to talk about our 2010 season at the very least.

Jeff: This will be a different year for us as we will be bringing back some old favorite productions with new casts (mostly) and directors (possibly…depending on if enough people want to see me act).

Johnny: Oooh! Should we put that to a vote?

Jeff: How many sugars were in your coffee this morning?

Johnny: I can’t blink, so… seven? -teen?

Jeff: Moving on. We kicked off our 10th season with a night of stand-up and improv comedy that was a HUGE success. Thank you to Gotham City Improv for the use of the space! And coming up in March we’re bringing back a fan favorite.

Johnny: If you say Hurt So Good I think I’ll cry. That show takes a lot out of me!

Jeff: No no, we're bringing back our staged adaptation of Kenneth Branagh’s A Midwinter’s Tale. It opens on WEDNESDAY!!

Johnny: I love that movie!

Jeff: Who doesn’t? A bunch of desperate actors fed up with their current career paths trying to do Hamlet to save a church, Christmas and their souls?

Johnny: Sounds a bit like how POY started. Only we did Titus Andronicus and it had nothing to do with Christmas.

Jeff: Although that gives me an idea!

Johnny: Save it for 2012! This time around, A Midwinter’s Tale has some of the same performers from the 2004 production but all of them are playing different roles. In addition to the newer ensemble members we also have some fantastic guest artists. This production is already a hoot and a holler!

Jeff: And that’ll take us through winter. Come summer, we’ll have an I’m Just Saying with a “summer in the city” theme, looking at life in NYC dealing with the heat, enjoying the sun, hating the humidity, etc.

Johnny: But with flashbacks to various years! It’s not just about summer 2010.

Jeff: Correct. And again, we’ll have plenty of guest artists bringing new scenes, monologues, songs, you name it.

Johnny: And I promise the theatre will be air conditioned!

Jeff: And this fall we’ll be doing a brand new production of Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus.

Johnny: Marlowe’s written something new? Amazing (if not highly improbable)!

Jeff: What I mean is we’ve done Shakespeare before but this will be our first adventure with Marlowe. This, by the way, will have a Washington D.C. angle with Dr. F being a prominent Governor, or Senator, or whatever politician is in the news that month for being a scoundrel…it came to me while in the bathroom of a bar. Not so surprising when you think about politics and the devil these days…

Johnny: It just hit me! Ten years, man. A decade!

Jeff: I know! And as challenging as every year has been in the way of finding spaces for shows, and ways to draw in crowds with much smaller wallets than in previous years, what seems to never be hard to do is to find something challenging to ask people. In the case of A Midwinter’s Tale, we ask why people put themselves through such hell to do something they love, why they chase so hard after something. In a sense, we’re asking is theatre worth it, or life? And why?

Johnny: But in a funny way!

Jeff: And with Dr. Faustus, we will be asking our audiences at what point do we, as voters, decide that personal demons should be allowed to usurp our decisions of who we want running our country, city, or state (I mean seriously! He brought a prostitute across state lines. THAT’s a reason to get rid of the man an entire state wanted as Governor…? Really?????)

Johnny: Ok, reign in the rant, there, killer. Save it for the stage.

Jeff: Hopefully the next ten years will yield similar successes of exciting productions and amazing performances, but if we had a goal that we most would like to see realized, it would be to finally find a home for POY where we can do all of our shows. After all, as we get older, we do feel that ache to finally settle down.

Johnny: Ya think? In the past ten years, we’ve had four weddings and one baby (with another one due in April).

Jeff: Johnny means the company settled down! (Dude, this is how Ernie and Bert rumors get started!)

Johnny: I look back with nothing but pride. We’ve built one hell of a family here at Point of You. I look forward to giving each and every one of them a chance to shine.

Jeff: Anything else sappy you’d like to say in conclusion?

Johnny: A toast! All my love to long ago and to days to come!

Stand Up vs. Theatre - it's a whole new ball game

From the desk of Jeff Love:

So I'm five hours away from making my sophomore performance as a stand up comic. Somebody asked me the other day if it was any different than doing theater. I'm hard pressed to think of anything MORE different from doing theater. I mean sure, there are certain characteristics that are the same. In both you're "performing" in front of an audience, timing and words and sometimes props are involved...but comedy is far less forgiving than theater. In theater, an audience, even if they are going to see a comedy, is open to anything. Stand up audiences, on the other hand, expect to laugh...period. It doesn't necessarily matter why, or when, or how...but if you tell a joke, do a bit, or tell a story during a stand up set and there isn't a laugh, you've failed. Period.

The thing that makes stand up both thrilling and absolutely petrifying is that you only have yourself to rely on. Even if you do an act that relies on exact wording, chances are you're still doing material you've written, and again, if no one laughs, they know exactly who to blame.

Even my act, that doesn't have a typical setup-punchline delivery and is about a guy on stage who's petrified, won't be funny if the wording and timing is off. And it's a very funny thing about comedy, not everyone has the same opinion as to what's good comedy, but truly bad comedy is something that most people agree on. I've been to clubs where nothing but strangers from all walks of life sit there and watch some poor schmuck get up on stage - something they all admit they could never do - and tells something he thinks is a joke, and nothing but crickets.... While sometimes there'll be comedians who say something that some people don't respond to, but others will.

It's that definite freeze of time...when a joke doesn't land...that is the performance equivalent to getting the wrong chamber in a game of Russian Roulette.

Hopefully tonight I won't be reminded of that silence before my five minutes are up.