She Interviews Directors

Part X: Ping Chong Ping Chong Hometown: NYC Current Town: NYC Tell me about ALAXSXA/ALASKA: Ryan Conarro came to Ping Chong and Company as a TCG mentor/mentee fellow about 2015 and suggested we make a work together. Using the UE approach of interviewing people, I interviewed Ryan and found that he had lived in Alaska for 12 years. I suggested we make a work about Alaska with 2 more or less parallel narratives: His personal encounter with Alaska and a historical encounter of outsiders with Alaska. After I did extensive research on Alaska, I wrote the character of The Professor’s material and Ryan went off and wrote his personal narrative. We then went to Saratoga for a theater residency to develop it and stage it as a work-in-progress. It is here that I developed the airplane dances for Ryan. We did a second workshop in New York at La Mama’s Great Jones rehearsal space for an invited audience. At this point we had an almost complete work in the rough. Ry...

Part IX:   Liz Kimball Liz Kimball Hometown: Philadelphia Current Town: Brooklyn, NYC Tell me about SOUTH PACIFIC: It’s a musical composed by  Richard Rodgers , with lyrics by  Oscar Hammerstein II  and book by  Hammerstein  and  Joshua Logan . It originally premiered in 1949, and is based on James Michener’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning Tales from the South Pacific. This production was produced by Gulfshore Symphony and performed at the Barbara Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Meyers, Florida. Tell me about your process and concept of this show. I began by immersing myself with anything I could get my hands on about the history of the original production. I read Michener’s book and I also read some of my grandfather’s letters to my grandmother during WWII (he served in the South Pacific). I did a great deal of dramaturgy around the military aspects of the story, a great deal of improv swing da...

Part VIII: Anne Bogart Craig Schwartz  Anne Bogart Hometown:  New York City Current Town: New York City Tell me about Chess Match No. 5 : Chess Match No. 5 is a new two-actor theater piece based on the philosophy of John Cage.  Tell me about your process and concept. Chess Match No. 5 required the combined talents of a large number of collaborators to bring to fruition.  The production is the initial step in the journey towards a large multi-disciplinary project to be entitled Theater Piece No. 1 .  The plan is for Chess Match No. 5 to eventually become the central action and organizing principle for Theater Piece No. 1 , which will incorporate the talents of many artists from multiple disciplines that include dance, music and visual art who have been influenced by the example, innovations and life force of John Cage.   How would you define your job description for this piece? Havin...