Reopening Plans for The Seeing Place

It goes without saying that it’s been a long time that we’ve been away from our live audiences. And we miss you! Many of you have asked when we’ll be able to deliver live performances again, and we wanted to share some of what we’ve learned throughout the pandemic, what some of our obstacles are, and what we plan to do with the rest of the year.

One of the first things we did when the pandemic hit is gather as an ensemble (with support form our board of directors) to discuss the central question that was coming up for all of us: What importance does theater hold for our community, especially during a pandemic? The answer that we came up with was simple:

As civic-minded artists, we determined that our best course of action as activists is through art. Theater has the power to change hearts and minds - collectively and individually - and our company chose to forge ahead to create programming that would allow us to engage with our community in a meaningful way, in whatever way possible. 

One of the obstacles we have encountered is getting the word out so that people know we're still here for them, especially when so many people are going through immense trauma - psychological, economic, physical trauma. How can we make sure people know that thoughtful arts engagement can be a healing force during this pandemic? To solve this problem, we've expanded our outreach efforts to make sure that our message is getting out to communities that need to hear it - those whose stories our plays center around - especially women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA, immigrant, and disabled communities - of which the majority of our ensemble is comprised. 

Of course, funding is also a challenge. And while we have won several grants this year, it's not nearly enough to help us grow to the level of service that we hoped to have reached pre-pandemic.

Our next step was to figure out what we could do keep serving our artists and community during COVID times, and despite our challenges we've been pretty proud of what we've accomplished. 

Pandemic Programming

As you probably know, we pivoted our operations completely online from March 2020-present. This not only involved transitioning to Zoom for our weekly ensemble training workshops, but for our audiences we created an Education and Outreach Program and our Ripple for Change Program. For those of you who are unaware, here’s a brief description about both: 

Education and Outreach - In this program, we devise classes and events to help artists and theater lovers to learn and experience many aspects of theater in new ways. From our Drama Book Club, where we discuss plays of social relevance to our professional artist workshops, audiences of all kinds get a great glimpse at what creating theater is all about.

Ripple For Change - In this program, we find a play that is of social justice importance, and then partner with a non-profit organization that is doing work aligned with the theme of the play. We produce two public performances as a benefit for that non-profit. These performances are performed on Zoom “live” (in real time) for audiences, and proceeds go directly to that non-profit. We follow the performances with a special "Action Steps" panel discussion to discuss what's happening in the play, its current relevance to the issues addressed by the non-profit, and how we as global citizens can make a difference in our community addressing the themes of the play.

These programs have been very successful. Our Education and Outreach Program has served hundreds of arts lovers and provided desperately needed income for our ensemble members as teaching artists. Our Ripple For Change Program has raised thousands of dollars for important non-profit social justice organizations while also paying our artists a competitive wage for their work. 

With all of this, while many other arts organizations were losing money (or sadly shuttering) we were able to raise our budget by 40% due to strong support of audiences and supporters just like you.

We are continuing both of these programs for the foreseeable future, and even hope to keep them going when we go live later this year.


Live Programming

We’re listening closely to advisement from the CDC and Actors' Equity Association to determine the best time to reopen. We’re reapplying for what we hope our first play will be - WIT by Margaret Edson - for production in Nov-Dec 2021. This would mean that we’d likely do pre-production via a hybrid of Zoom and in-person in October, and then move to in-person rehearsals in November.

As of now, indoor performance venues are restricted to 33% capacity with social distancing and masking. This would mean that a 50 seat theater (our normal capacity) would allow 16 audience members. If we move into the larger of the two theaters in our complex, that would allow 26 people for the 80 seat theater. We hope that the capacity restrictions will be relaxed somewhat by then, but will adhere to whatever is deemed safest by the experts. We will be working closely with the venue to make sure that air filtration systems are in perfect working order for the kind of safety we need, and will consider staggered entry, contactless tickets and programs, and limited interaction with others as needed.

We plan to continue with our live programming with BOY by Anna Ziegler in early 2022. We’ll, of course, give you more information about both shows as soon as information becomes available.

Thank you for your continued support of The Seeing Place, both pre-pandemic and now. We're so excited to celebrate our 12th anniversary with you later this year.

If you have any questions about our reopening plans, please email us at outreach@seeingplacetheater.com.

And to support our work, please consider becoming a Patreon member. Learn more by clicking here.

2020 - A Year In Review

Looking back on 2020 has been painful and, frankly, a little strange. Time somehow lost its meaning this year as both March and the last month of the election seemed to last for years in and of themselves. 

Many of our ensemble members experienced deep losses - from jobs to apartments to family members. Moving all of our operations to Zoom also created its own kind of difficulty. Not only is it difficult to create theater this way, but as miraculous as Zoom has been, it has also increased social anxieties and blurred work/home-life boundaries to many who use it. 

However, there have been some “wins” that we’ve experienced, and we have many things to be grateful for. Most of all, we appreciate our audiences who have been flexible, curious, and committed to seeing what was possible amidst the barriers created by the pandemic. Without your support and encouragement, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve even half of what we created this year.

And now, for a breakdown of 2020:

1st Quarter
January-March 2020 

The year started brilliantly. We opened the first production of the season in February - a sold-out run of our world premiere ANIMAL FARM, an adaptation of the novel by George Orwell written by our very own Brandon Walker. Animal Farm, an allegorical play, tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy.

The play featured four actors - Laura Clare Browne, Erin Cronican, Will Ketter, and Brandon Walker - playing 27 roles, many of whom were played on the actors’ hand and feet. The estate of George Orwell eagerly approved our script and sanctioned our production. The Orwell Society came to see the show and related to its members: “Make the effort [to see it.] It will be worth it. And you have heard that straight from the horse’s mouth.” 

Theater Critics also said:

"I enjoyed it more than the short-lived Broadway production of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four a few years ago." - Opplaud

“Masterful enactment...a smashing way for this group to mark their landmark 10th season." - Short and Sweet NYC

"More timely than ever." - Thinking Theater

"Pulling off Animal Farm with four actors is just the kind of dare The Seeing Place would gravitate towards." - Talkin' Broadway

 

The cast of ANIMAL FARM.

2nd Quarter
April-June 2020

We had begun pre-production for our 2nd live show, Eugene Ionesco’s EXIT THE KING, when the shutdown in NYC started. Like many, we did not know how long the shutdown would last, so we faithfully moved our pre-production discovery sessions online, with the cast and creative team approximating the work we do in-person through the lens of the web camera. After several weeks of work, we started to see that the shutdown would be lasting much longer than anticipated. We gathered with our ensemble to discuss the possibility of performing the play online. Collectively, we determined that due to the physical nature of the storytelling, the production would be served best as an in-person performance. So we put this particular play - and the rest of the season - on hiatus.

If we weren’t going to perform our season as planned, we asked ourselves what else could we do online that would help engage our patrons and fulfill on our mission to help audiences “see themselves”? Our answer was to recreate our Education and Outreach program for the online world. In late March and all of April and May, we held three classes/outreach events per week to hundreds of participants across the globe, from professional level acting classes to our community Drama Book Club which explored plays from a literary perspective. 

Participants in our "Introduction to Linklater" course, led by TSP member Jon L Peacock (center)

Participants in our Drama Book Club, led by TSP members Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker


In May we were honored by the Indie Theater Fund with an unrestricted grant to help us with loss of income due to the pandemic. We’re very grateful for their unending support of independent theater in NYC.

In late May, our collective world stopped with the death of George Floyd. We immediately put a pause on our programming and took a long, hard look at our practices to begin to eradicate any racism in our programming and operations. Our board and staff released our Solidarity Statement for Black Lives Matter (read here) and we also created a broader Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement (read here.) We continue to grow and learn through the work of our tireless Black brothers and sisters - to start, we're educating ourselves through books, articles, videos, and panel discussions - as well as the two month anti-racist training course being provided by the Indie Theater Fund.

This work will never be done. Until our racist systems are replaced, equity is common, and restitution is made, white supremacy will always seep into the practices of theaters and other organizations. We can only promise that we will keep educating ourselves, listening to Black and Brown people, and making changes based on what we learn.

3rd Quarter
July-September 2020

Because of the civic unrest related to Mr Floyd’s death plus the countless others including Breonna Taylor, Brandon and Erin sat down to discuss the possibility of creating a social justice program as an extension of our season. In it we would address a key social issue, partner with an organization currently fighting to address that key issue, and help our audience take action steps to make a difference in this area. Thus, the Ripple For Change Series was borne. 

The inspiration for the program name came from this quote:  

“You want to be the pebble in the pond that creates the ripple for change.” - Tim Cook


Each RIPPLE FOR CHANGE AWARD comes with the following: 

• a financial prize worth $1000 or more for a chosen non-profit
• a benefit performance in the non-profit's honor using a play that mirrors the efforts of the recipient organization
• promotion and support as an official Ripple For Change Award Winner

The first production in this series was DUTCHMAN by LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka.) DUTCHMAN presents a stylized encounter that illustrates hatred between Blacks and whites in America as well as the political and psychological conflicts facing Black American men in the 1960s. We chose to benefit Black Theatre Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to the exploration and preservation of the theatrical visions of the African Diaspora.

The play was performed live via Zoom and streamed via YouTube, and featured Broadway greats Timothy Ware and Eugene Barry Hill, along with Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker. The cast received a glowing review in the New York Times for our timeless and relevant work (including photos on the front page of the Arts section. Read the review here.)

Other critics raved about it as well:

"The Seeing Place's reading of Baraka's scathing work about an encounter in a New York City subway car between a white woman and a Black man premiered on the same day that civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis died and even his colleagues' tributes unintentionally highlighted the pervasiveness of racism in America as well as the continued urgency of the kinds of conversations that productions such as Dutchman can foster...Both Ware and Cronican are excellent." - Thinking Theater NYC 

"Dutchman is so relevant at this moment of protest of Black Lives Matter and is a testament of the power of great writing of Mr. Baraka. Both actors are great, very moving and absorbing in their roles. The heat of the day and the heat of the play got to me. I loved the reading." - Hi Drama

Hundreds of people took part in our production of DUTCHMAN as audience members and as participants in our panel discussion: Race in America: Action Steps. (Click to watch the panel discussion.) With this, we knew that the series was important and there to stay. 

The summer was very hard for many people across the nation. Many people lost their jobs, and there was an epidemic of homelessness - especially in the LGTBQ community whose youths were being kicked out of their homes at an alarming rate. So we decided that the second production of the Ripple for Change series would William Shakespeare’s comedy A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, presented as a LGTBQIA+ story with a woman playing the character of Lysander and the characters of Puck and Oberon being genderfluid. The production benefited The Ali Forney Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting LGBTQ youths from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to live independently.

The play was performed live via Zoom and streamed via YouTube, with performances by guest artist Dan Mack and 7 members of The Seeing Place’s permanent ensemble (Laura Clare Browne, Erin Cronican, Elli DiLorenzo, Will Ketter, Jon L Peacock, Brandon Walker and Weronika Helena Wozniak) with original music by the incomparable Randi Driscoll. The play was named “Best Theater to Stream Online” by Timeout New York, and “What To Watch” by Times Square Chronicles. Critics loved the imaginative production which utilized fantastical technical elements only possible online:

"The Seeing Place Theater’s Zoom production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is perhaps the best Zoom work I’ve seen so far..." - Ewing Reviewing

"The Seeing Place Theater, now in its tenth season, offers indeed a talented ensemble of actors in a delightful late-summer mounting made for Zoom." - Broadway World

"The creativity artists are showing as they play with this new format is, honestly, delightful. Overall, this is a very enjoyable production of Midsummer, and it couldn’t be for a better cause." - Bitter Gertrude

We had a wonderful panel discussion: Action Steps: How to Address Homelessness in the LGTBQIA+ Youth Community, introduced by Carlina Rivera, New York City Councilwoman District 2 (Click here to watch the panel discussion.)

The cast of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

In May we were honored by the Ravenal Foundation with a surprise unrestricted grant to help us with loss of income due to the pandemic, which we were immediately able to allocate toward artist salaries for our production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

4th Quarter
October-December 2020

The end of the 3rd Quarter brought the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which was devastating for many including the members of our ensemble. We began to brainstorm about ways to honor her legacy, and we realized that one of her greatest contributions to society was her voice for women. In the face of the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, we decided to present a play about women’s reproductive rights.





In October and November we presented Pulitzer Prize finalist KEELY AND DU by Jane Martin. KEELY AND DU is a volatile drama about abortion rights: Du is a right-to-life activist, and Keely is the pregnant rape victim Du is confining to keep her from having an abortion. Through the play these two women find a way to transcend their circumstances and the ideological issues that separate them.

The play featured guest artist Audrey Heffernan Meyer and TSP ensemble members Erin Cronican, Robin Friend, Olivia Hanna Hardin, and Brandon Walker. It benefited Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region, a non-profit specializing in women’s reproductive health, specifically abortion services. In addition to being the only state-licensed abortion facility in Missouri for many years, RHS is the longest standing non-profit abortion provider in the state of Missouri.

The critics, again, were blown away by what we were able to create via Zoom:

"The excellent company pulled this viewer into the situation so intensely that he found himself yelling at Walter and Du in Keely's defense. Naturally, a staged production would more effectively present pivotal physical moments, but The Seeing Place greatly succeeds in offering an emotionally rich episode of personal and political theatre." - Broadway World 

 "Astonishing, marvelous, engaging, truthful and downright comic at times."- Theater Life 

 "The Seeing Place Theater has done it again with their rendition of Keely and Du...The virtual set is dark and mysterious enough to fit the eerie mood of the performance...The end of the play is quite surprising and relevant to today’s discussions surrounding reproductive rights."- Manhattan With A Twist

We finished the production with a panel discussion: Action Steps for Protecting Women's Choices. (Click here to watch the panel discussion.) 

The cast of KEELY AND DU.

In December we were named a "Recommended Charity" by The Stern Opportunity - a group of MBA scholars in NYC - in their roundup of their favorite places for people who are looking for ways to give back.


It’s now the end of the year, and looking back we’re stunned at what we’ve been able to do while so hampered by this awful pandemic. It’s a testament to the resolve of our artists and the openness of our audiences to keep innovating when road blocks were and continue to be presented. 

Looking ahead to 2021  

What’s in store for 2021? We’ll plan to present four plays via the Ripple For Change program, relaunch our online Education and Outreach Program, and - COVID willing - return to the live stage for two in-person productions in the latter half of the year. 

In the meantime, please: 


Click here to join our mailing list to be notified about upcoming events.

Click here to make a donation so that we can continue to bring our work to you.

We wish you health. We wish you joy. We wish you a plethora of great theater, both online and in-person when the pandemic clears. Happy holidays! 

Erin Cronican, 

and the Ensemble and Board of The Seeing Place Theater

The Seeing Place is More Than Theater

 

In 2009, The Seeing Place Theater was born as an artist-driven theater company - selecting plays that accurately reflected the issues facing their community, with an emphasis placed on education, authenticity, and social justice with programming that would be accessible and affordable for all audiences.

Since then, we have presented over 40 full productions of Pulitzer-Prize, Tony, and Olivier Award winning plays, as well as 5 world premieres and countless staged readings, with a particular focus on stories by and about women, LGTBQIA+, BIPOC, immigrant, and disabled communities.

Like you, we believe that theater has the power to change minds and change hearts. You can help us bring powerful theater to the world.

Are you with us? Make a tax-deductible donation here. Every little bit helps make the world a better place.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts,

The Seeing Place's Board and Ensemble



Web: www.TheSeeingPlace.org
Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: @TheSeeingPlace

KEELY AND DU - A Fight for Women's Rights

By Erin Cronican, TSP Executive Artistic Director


This week we unveil our newest production, the Pulitzer-Prize nominated drama KEELY AND DU by Jane Martin. It’s a searing look at the blocking of women’s rights related to abortion, domestic violence, and the ability to control our own bodies. 

The play is being presented LIVE (via Zoom) Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1, 2020 - 7pm Eastern, with a streamed recording November 3-7, 2020. Tickets are available here: www.TheSeeingPlace.com - 100% of the proceeds are being donated to Reproductive Health Services, Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region.

I have to admit, I was very tentative when Brandon (Walker - Producing Artistic Director) suggested that we do this piece. The play doesn’t pull any punches - it can be incredibly triggering for anyone who has experienced abortion, miscarriage, domestic violence, kidnapping, and not being believed by those who are charged with keeping you safe. I didn’t know if I had it in me to bring something so serious and important to the world when the world is already so fraught.

But this is exactly why this play is the right play, RIGHT NOW.

How did this event come to be?

It started when we sat down with our ensemble to talk about the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. For many of us, it was a devastating blow in an already trying time. What could we do as a theater company to honor her memory and take up the charge on issues that meant a lot to her legacy? With as helpless as many of us have felt to make any kind of difference, we contemplated what we could do to encourage action steps that we as concerned citizens could accomplish?

We started exploring different texts related to women’s rights, but kept coming back to KEELY AND DU. Once we made our selection and secured the licensing/rights, we began to look at what non-profit organizations we could partner with, not only for our Action Steps panel discussion, but also as the beneficiary of our RIPPLE FOR CHANGE AWARD. And I immediately thought of the work of Dr. Colleen McNicholas.

SIDEBAR; If you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching the documentary REVERSING ROE (2018) which is currently viewable on Netflix.

In this documentary we are introduced to Dr. McNicholas, an abortion advocate who is single-handedly changing the lives of women across the Midwest by providing abortion access to those who have none. The film talks about the journey of Roe vs Wade in the courts, and I wept multiple times while watching it. I was so inspired by the women who were profiled - including doctors, politicians, and filmmakers taking up the cause - that I immediately got onto Twitter and began to follow them: including US House Candidate @JillSchupp, Missouri State Senator @SenatorNasheed, US House Candidate @WendyDavis, filmmaker @RBraceySherman and Planned Parenthood Chief Medical Offer @DocMcNick. I wanted to know more and to be able to support their efforts.

Within 24 hours I received a notification that Dr McNicholas had followed me back, and I have to admit I fan-girled a little bit! Here is this incredible person who speaks on behalf of women on Capitol Hill, is interviewed by NPR, travels around 75% of the month to neighboring states to provide critical services to women in need, and puts her life on the line every day fighting for what she believes in. To have her following me on Twitter was and is incredibly humbling.

So when we decided to produce KEELY AND DU and were looking for someone to partner with, I immediately thought of her. I never dreamed that she would say yes - not only to being on our panel, but helping us connect with her employer, Planned Parenthood of the St Louis Region - the states ONLY clinic that provided crucial abortion services, so that they could be the beneficiary for this very special presentation.

This is when we fully realized the power we have as artists to make social justice change. Non-profit theater, hand-in-hand with non-profit medicine and advocacy, can move mountains.


A Personal Journey

I’m very honored to be playing Keely, a victim of spousal rape who becomes pregnant and upon going to get an abortion is kidnapped by a extremest right-to-life group intent on holding her until her baby comes to full term. As someone who has personally experienced sexual assault by an intimate partner and also one who has had my abortion rights challenged, the play hits a very deep chord for me. Furthermore, as a woman mired in health care hell as a metastatic breast cancer patient, I am very well aware of how tenuous my position is as a woman, as I’m constantly pushing to advocate for my own care and the care of other women like me.

The opportunity to use theater to express what life has been like for me, in a way that hopefully resonates with our audiences, means a great deal to me. It also means a great deal to me that we don’t just stop at creating art - The Seeing Place feels it’s crucial to explore “what’s next” once the curtain falls. What can we do, as individuals and as a collective society, to bring change? How do we bridge the gaps between ideologies? How do we make sure people’s rights are protected against extremism? How do we take daily action that makes a difference on a local, regional, and national level?

My first answer to that is, of course, to VOTE. Early voting is available in many states at the moment, building up to our official Election Day on November 3, 2020. Make sure your voice is heard.

My second answer is to keep educating yourself on the issues that matter to you. Read books and articles by experts, watch documentaries, have conversations with civic leaders, and never stop asking questions.

My third answer is to keep calling for empathy, in yourself and others. Just because you may not have experienced something doesn’t mean that it isn’t urgent or important. Imagine those people who rights are being taken away and/or ignored. How would you feel? Your empathy is a vital tool in making a difference.


The fourth answer is to buy your ticket to see KEELY AND DU - being presented LIVE (via Zoom) Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1, 2020 - 7pm Eastern, with a streamed recording November 3-7, 2020. Tickets are available here: www.TheSeeingPlace.com - and then register for the discussion panel with Dr. McNicholas.

The play stars Audrey Heffernan Meyer, Brandon Walker, Erin Cronican, Robin Friend and Olivia Hanna Hardin. Co-Directed by Erin Cronican and Brandon Walker, and produced by the members of The Seeing Place Theater Ensemble.

We're Reviewed in the New York Times!

We're very excited to announce that our production of DUTCHMAN, by Amiri Baraka, was reviewed by Maya Phillips of the New York Times, with our photo front and center!

Part of the review reads:

"The Seeing Place production, which starred Timothy Ware and Erin Cronican and was directed by Brandon Walker, highlighted the sexual friction between Clay and Lula. Cronican’s Lula gives Clay a lusty up and down, hungrily takes bites of her apple, a seductive smile creeping across her face. Ware’s Clay smirks gamely in response; he seems mostly unbothered by her odd diversions and casually racist remarks and appears to lust back...By underlining the sexual power dynamic between the man and the woman, Walker’s direction simplifies the larger reach of the play and what the characters represent. The tension becomes less about the matchup of Blackness and whiteness in society than about the interracial fraternization of one Black man and one white woman..."

We also appear in the PRINT EDITION - with a teaser image on the front page of the Arts section:

Read the full review here:

NY Times - In Two Renditions, ‘Dutchman’ Speaks to the Moment

Learn more about our production here:

The Seeing Place's DUTCHMAN

What is DUTCHMAN?

Come see our reading of DUTCHMAN by Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, starring Timothy Ware, Erin Cronican, and Eugene Barry-Hill, directed by Brandon Walker, stage managed by Hailey Vest. The readings are taking place via Zoom on July 18 & 19, 2020 with proceeds benefitting Black Theatre Network. 

For full information and to get your tickets, visit www.TheSeeingPlace.com

For full information and to get your tickets, visit www.TheSeeingPlace.com

Sonnet Marathon Featuring TSP Members!

In honor of April 23, 2020 - Shakespeare's death day (also attributed to his birthday), members of The Seeing Place participated in a Sonnet Marathon online. The event was conceived and hosted by TSP Alumnus, Lila Smith (Two Rooms, Othello.). Each artist was asked to choose one non-profit arts organization to support. As it was required that no organization could be supported twice, TSP asked Executive Artistic Director, Erin Cronican, to read in honor of The Seeing Place and then Producing Artistic Director Brandon Walker and Ensemble Member William Ketter chose other organizations near and dear to their hearts.

We initially planned to share the videos of our ensemble reading these sonnets. But because many actors in the event (including Erin and Brandon) are union actors, there was a rule that stated that the video had to be removed from the internet within four days. So, instead, we've opted to list the sonnets that were read by the actors, along with links to the organizations that they were supporting:


Brandon Walker, Sonnet #27

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts--from far where I abide--
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.

To make a donation in honor of New Fortune Theater Company, visit www.newfortunetheatre.com


Erin Cronican: Sonnet #71

No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it, for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot,
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O! if, I say, you look upon this verse,
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse;
But let your love even with my life decay;
Lest the wise world should look into your moan,
And mock you with me after I am gone.

To make a donation in honor of The Seeing Place, visit www.TheSeeingPlace.org


William Ketter, Sonnet #93

So shall I live, supposing thou art true,
Like a deceived husband; so love's face
May still seem love to me, though altered new;
Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place:
For there can live no hatred in thine eye,
Therefore in that I cannot know thy change.
In many's looks, the false heart's history
Is writ in moods, and frowns, and wrinkles strange.
But heaven in thy creation did decree
That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell;
Whate'er thy thoughts, or thy heart's workings be,
Thy looks should nothing thence, but sweetness tell.
How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow,
If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show!

To make a donation in honor of EPIC Players, visit www.epicplayersnyc.org


To learn more about the event, visit: www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedinshakespeare-sonnet-marathon-2020-lila-smith/

Special Award from the Indie Theater Fund!

We're thrilled to announce that The Seeing Place has been granted an award from The Indie Theater Fund to help support our efforts to bring programming to NYC audiences (and beyond!) during this challenging time. 
We will be using these funds to further support our education program, which you can learn more about here:

www.seeingplacetheater.com/training.html

If you are an indie theater company/artist, you may be eligible for an award as well. To find out, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/pLm7bLhKQE8AbpDn6

To contribute to the fund, please visit: www.indietheaterfund.org/donate

Podcast Interview: How to Produce Your Own Work

TSP's Executive Artistic Director, Erin Cronican, was a guest on this wonderful podcast, "I Love Theatre: Now What?" (which was recorded just before the pandemic shut down.)

In this episode, hear Erin and podcast host Steph Newman talk about:

· How nonprofits versus for-profits differ with finances
· What producing your own work is like
· How Erin differs from her co-founder, Producing AD Brandon Walker
· How TSP crafts their seasons
· What producing in NYC is like versus everywhere else
· The 3 questions that are a MUST for choosing plays
· The strong connection Erin has with Margaret Edson’s play, WIT
· How you can get cast or involved at The Seeing Place Theater
· Great advice on how to make a real connection professionally
· How actors can treat themselves like a business
· Characteristics that mean you might be a leader

Take a listen here, and leave a comment to let us know you what you think!

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/0/episodes/how-to-produce-your-own-work-w-56506444

TSP's History: Season One

As we celebrate our 10th Season, we thought we'd publish a series of articles detailing our history - how did these 10 years come to pass? From award-nominated plays to community favorites rarely seen on NYC stages, since August 2009 we've produced 40 main-stage productions and countless readings, employing over 200 actors, designers, and directors who all worked tirelessly as self-producers thanks, in part, to our Self Producing Training Program.

To help The Seeing Place produce its 10th Season, please consider making a tax deductible donation. You can make monthly or one-time donation here: www.TheSeeingPlace.org. 

Here is our story from Season One of The Seeing Place:

Brandon Walker, TSP Founder

by Brandon Walker, Producing Artistic Director and Founder

It’s funny to refer to Season One as a season. We were doing things show by show for a while and compiled them into seasons later. My memory may be off, but I don’t think it was until Season Three until we officially decided what Seasons One and Two were and where to split them up.

I reached out to Erin Cronican (Executive Artistic Director) shortly after moving to New York. We’re both from San Diego, and I had assisted her with Marketing on the San Diego Actor’s Alliance Festival of New Plays in summer 2005 before she moved out to NYC. Initially, we were talking about doing a production of Neil LaBute’s THE SHAPE OF THINGS. We’d get together occasionally and read plays in coffee shops. I had a few other friends I’d do that with, too. We didn’t get the rights (licensing), and we all moved onto other things shortly after. I continued to read plays with friends once a week for a few years. I got an apartment with a big living room and a donation of 20 chairs, and we were able to make it a little more official after that.

Erin Cronican, TSP Co-Founder

I don’t know that many people really set out to create a theatre company on their first show. With ours, we were getting together informally every week. It was a lot of fun. We’d get some wine and chat afterwards. I had no plan to take it anywhere. Then a woman I knew approached me to create a multifaceted art company. I was going to head up the theatre wing. There was also a film wing and an internet and television wing. As far as I know, those wings didn’t go much of anywhere. Neither did the theatre wing, really. We called the organization, "The Social Zoo." It was the only name we could agree on.

At first, we were going to work on a production of THIS IS OUR YOUTH, but we didn’t have any money. As I became closer with the woman in charge, she convinced me to write a play as a fundraiser (not the best idea in the world, by the way). I did. And we did raise some minimal money with a reading of it. Most importantly, we gained a lot of community interest.

I had a friend at that time with the same birthday as me, and she was very sad that she wasn’t going to be performing for the first time in her adult life on our birthday. I suggested we read a play, THE CREDEAUX CANVAS. We did. After the reading, one of the people reading said he wanted to produce it. We decided that would be the first production for The Social Zoo.

Within a week, both that producer and the woman running things got in a huge fight as we went to scout theatre space, and both of them backed out of the project. I had already made commitments to three friends and was excited. I’d already done most of the work. I decided to push forward with rehearsals.

I pulled a friend from class to play the missing role - and it turned out to be luck that we were working together. The company accidentally became a company about the process of our work. Both he and I were working based upon Lee Strasberg’s rehearsal work, and everyone else in the company wanted to learn what we were doing, so we all just worked that way. It was a blast. The play was all about the art world. Our director, Lillian Wright, and our lead actress, Anna Marie Sell, happened to be models at an art studio, and they talked the woman who ran it into giving me 20 free drawing lessons. I went to a museum every day to observe and practice. We rehearsed for a few months. We ended up getting free rehearsal space from a guy that came into my restaurant a lot (I'm a server for my day job), who left the country to study abroad and said we could use his centrally-located, $4,000 a month apartment for two months if we’d just clean it up. We did. He left the biggest mess I’ve ever seen. He was very rich. I also ran into another patron of that restaurant on the street one day, who ran a Shakespeare reading group every Tuesday night at the bar, and she offered me her brother’s bike. He’d recently died. I fixed it up, biked around, starved, and paid for most of the first show with Lillian and Anna Marie out of pocket.

About a week before we were set to open THE CREDEAUX CANVAS, The Social Zoo fell apart. The two other people running it didn’t like the fact that we’d moved ahead without them. But they offered to help us with the transition if we wanted to remain as a company. One of them was a graphic designer and offered to make a logo for us. Lillian, Anna Marie and I decided to call the company The Seeing Place, and Erin agreed to make a website and marketing materials for us all super quickly.

Brandon Walker (left) and Anna Marie Sell (right) in THE CREDEAUX CANVAS (2009)

THE CREDEAUX CANVAS was a success. We made money. We did a second engagement production. We had to recast one role, but it wasn’t a problem. We made money on that, too. People got excited. Everyone I knew wanted to be part of what we were doing. We started working on THIS IS OUR YOUTH again, but didn't end up getting the rights. We ended up producing my first play, WHEN WE HAVE GONE ASTRAY in rep with HOT CRIPPLE, written and performed by a friend from my class as well, Hogan Gorman. Two very kind people in the company offered to produce the shows, and they put up most of the money for them.

Heather Lee Harper with Brandon Walker in WHEN WE HAVE GONE ASTRAY (2010)

First plays are always a funny thing. The play started out well. It was very raw and very engaging. It was also five plays in one. As I edited and cut, I destroyed the play more and more. Luckily, the acting and the production made up for the basic structural issues (for the most part). It was probably unadvisable to have written an onstage miscarriage into the play. New playwrights, as I was then, think of a climax as being a big dramatic exclamation. Really, the whole story is the story of the climax. You start at the latest point that makes sense. I learned that the hard way.

Hogan Gorman in HOT CRIPPLE (2010)

Our sophomore shows were difficult. We went from a group of friends to a theatre company practically overnight. I became the leader at that time practically by default. I was the one heading up all the work, and all of a sudden I was in charge. When we brought in new actors, directors, technicians, designers, they all treated me and us as though we were employers all of a sudden. I guess that technically we were, but NYC Showcases (and really any early productions of a theatre company) are a labor of love. It was disorienting for quite a long while. We almost broke even on that rep. We ended a little in a financial hole. This company really has existed on the backs of many of us not taking stipends and putting in our own money. At that time, there were no administrative positions for actors in the company. All of us happened to be actors, but we were a group of self-producers.

I think the largest driving factor in the company during that first season, and even well into the second, was the recession. By the time we were performing the second set of shows I'd lost my job, was on unemployment, and I was really just trying to make art with people as a diversion to all of the difficulty. It worked out.


Season One Achievements:

• In September of 2009, The Seeing Place's inaugural show, THE CREDEAUX CANVAS, sold out it's first run, prompting a second sold-out run of the show. Playwright Keith Bunin enthusiastically attended the show, a coup for a brand new theater company.

• In February of 2010, The Seeing Place produced Hogan Gorman's one woman show, HOT CRIPPLE, which was attended by Perigree Trade Publishing, resulting in a book deal and major distribution in 2012.  


To help The Seeing Place produce its 10th Season, please consider making a tax deductible donation. You can make monthly or one-time donation here: www.TheSeeingPlace.org. 

Nominated for Three NYIT Awards!

Congratulations to the cast and crew of The Seeing Place's "The Maids" for our three 2019 NYIT Award nominations:

• Outstanding Revival of a Play

• Outstanding Ensemble (Erin Cronican, Christine Redhead, Gaia Visnar)

• Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Gaia Visnar)

Click here to donate to The Seeing Place so we can continue to produce critically acclaimed independent theater!

Candice Oden as Martha - Freedom in the time of #MeToo

I’ve been aching to act with my theater company for a while. I took a little break to work on some writing, which I’ll hopefully be able to share with you in the somewhat near future, but this production round, I was like, “I’m in.” And what an experience it has been. It’s been such an adventure to work alongside Brandon’s writing process, figuring out as a team what story we were wanting to tell. During our preparation process, we discovered so many things about the story that could be told from a feminist perspective, and we realized just how timely we could make this story-telling. 

In addition to the clever and challenging aspects of a many-person story being told by only four people, we also have women playing male roles. And three of the four characters are women in this production. Woohoo! My role has a few characters rolled into one, and some are traditionally male roles. It’s exciting to be able to tell a male’s story from a female perspective, instead of having to actually play a man. And Martha has been such a joy to play. In many ways, she and I are very similar. I think people think that if a character is like you, you have to work less, but I have found that to be quite incorrect. No matter how similar we are, at the end of the day, I’m not Martha, we do not experience the same things, and our responses to things can vary greatly — and with the kind of work we do as a company, those responses can vary night to night!

Candice Oden as Martha in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. Photo by Russ Rowland.

These are desperate times, and the play speaks to that quite well. It also champions things like the #MeToo movement. The Hysteria of Dr. Faustus is so timely — even reviewers are saying so — and it’s thrilling to execute night after night. This show has so many complexities that are such a delight to deal with on a nightly basis. I was telling my mom I have a place to shove all my emotions, and it’s actually a good thing. Ha! 

Candice Oden as Martha in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. Photo by Russ Rowland.

It’s also been very gratifying to be working with the cast we have in the way that we do. We have a truly organic process, and in that, if a piece of the set breaks (and it has), we have the acting tools to deal with it. No night is the same, and I treasure the opportunity to do this kind of work. My work as an actor has grown over the course of doing many shows with The Seeing Place, and I’m actually playing onstage more than I ever have. Doing this show has been so freeing — it’s definitely one of my favorite TSP productions. And may the rest of the run be performance bliss! :)

***

Candice Oden is appearing as Martha in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. The show must close October 21 - To get tickets or to see reviews and production photos, visit www.seeingplacetheater.com/shows/9-faustus.html. 

Rachael Murray as Asst Director - Hell Hath No Fury, Right?

People seem tense these days. I moved to New York this year, after spending 7 years in the nation’s capital. While those years hold many lovely memories, if I’m being honest, those 7 years felt far, far longer. Aside from the traffic, the other piece that makes time move so slowly is living next to the seat of national politics. In particular, since the 2016 election the city has taken on an even more palpable political tension. There is a sense of impending…(doom? anxiety?) in the air, like storm clouds swirling overhead.

One night after a Tech rehearsal, Candice Oden, who plays Martha in The Hysteria of Dr. Faustus, asked me which city was harder to live in: DC, or New York? Without hesitating, I said DC, for sure. That’s not to say I suddenly have rose-colored NYC blinders on, with no recollection of the times I’ve cried on the subway whilst apartment hunting, but suffice it to say there is a LOT to be said for having a little distance from the anxiety-inducing ad nauseum of the Hill.

So how the Hell is all of this related to The Hysteria of Doctor Faustus? (No pun intended. Just kidding. Pun totally intended.) I’ll get to that. I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with current events these days, but we have recently had a new Supreme Court Justice sworn in. And the news cycle of the last few weeks has had some eerie parallels to our show.

In doing some of the research during the rehearsal process, we did a little reading on a variety of religious philosophies, from Calvinism to Satanism. I started thinking about modern parallels. What does it mean to be damned in 2018? It got me thinking about privilege in a wide sense, and—as it is most prescient to our show—masculine privilege. And how that interplays with Mephistophiles, a damned, fallen angel. Who is a woman. Fighting to smash the Ultimate Patriarch in the Sky.

Erin Cronican as Mephistopheles. Photo by Russ Rowland

As Erin touched on in her blog post as well, I also got to thinking about how much women are conditioned to behave over the course of their lives. Amongst the sea of “ladylike” or “not ladylike” behaviors that are ingrained from a young age is this sense of being “nice.” Being nice is so closely linked with ladylike-ness. I also began to think of this ladylike demeanor being so closely linked to one’s interactions with men. Part of that sweetness and nicety is often directed at not hurting a man’s feelings—both not to upset their ego, and also not to upset them to the point of…regrettable action, shall we say. So really, a large part of being ladylike is connected to a sense of safety.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not the first person to think these thoughts, and it’s not necessarily the first time they have crossed my mind in one form or another. But I think over the course of this rehearsal process/news cycle, I came to understand them more deeply and fully. One of the best things about wrestling with a play is you have to wrestle with its deeper-seated meanings as well. 

Broghanne Jessamine as Gretchen (left) and Candice Oden as Martha (right). Photo by Russ Rowland

Having lived 30 minutes as the crow flies from the Capitol, I was exhausted from the hourly White House drama. New York has held a pleasant sort of escapism for me these past few months. But I suppose there’s still something of a Washingtonian in me, because I can’t quite break the habit of getting up to watch the Sunday morning shows. I suppose my change in perspective has also put a lot into focus for me about what’s going on for us as a nation.

Though it’s been building for a while now, in a post-Kavanaugh world, there is a tangible sense of feminine rage in the air, vibrating around us. A line from Clare Barron’s female-focused Dance Nation suddenly popped into my head at one of our last Hysteria rehearsals: “What am I going to do with all this power?”

What are we going to do with all this anger?

Truthfully, I’m not sure. But maybe I’m just being nice.


(Also, there are magic tricks. Did I mention the magic tricks? Come for the magic. Stay for the rage.)

***

Rachael Murray was assistant director for THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. The show must close October 21 - To get tickets or to see reviews and production photos, visit www.seeingplacetheater.com/shows/9-faustus.html. 

Brandon Walker as Dr Faustus - Writing and Enacting Doctor Faustus

I really didn't know what I was getting into, probably much like Doctor Faustus' pact with the devil. I thought it would be a relatively easy task to adapt the play. After all, I've adapted ANTIGONE and THE STRANGER, and I've written two other full-length plays. It seemed like more of the same. Boy, was I wrong.

Since beginning, a few people have asked what drew me/us to such grand and epic material. I guess it didn't start to hit me what a gargantuan task I'd undertaken until I finished writing. In the process, I recognized that the play had gotten a Hell of a lot more personal than I had been expecting - pun intended. It's quite confronting to write a play about an aging, suicidal nobody, waking up to his own repressed desires. I think that, in a way, we can all understand. There are always these things we want that seem to be just out of arms' reach.

That's just the first problem. Really, this was also my first time writing an intimate scene as well - which is an unbelievably personal thing to do. And then there's the whole issue of the decline that Faustus runs into when he realizes that nothing is filling the gap in his life. And that's probably what's been most difficult for me as an artist: this is largely a play about someone that gets what he wants - and still isn't satisfied.

Brandon Walker as Dr Faustus in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. Photo by Russ Rowland.

As an actor, it's also an interesting issue to work on a script you've written. I've largely had to disassociate myself from the writing in order to accomplish what I'm doing onstage, and I've been much more successful than I was with my first play, WHEN WE HAVE GONE ASTRAY - in which I remember feeling so self-conscious onstage that I swore I'd never act in one of my own plays again. See, generally, there's someone else to blame as an actor. But when you're the writer AND the actor, the finger is going to point to you, no matter what. In my second play, SCOTCH KISS, I didn't write a character for myself. Same goes for THE PEOPLE VS ANTIGONE. I did write a part for myself in THE STRANGER, but we haven't done anything other than readings of that at this point. So, this is really my first time back since my first play. It's helpful that it is an adaptation - and I've tried to keep pretty true to the source material - even with the modernization. I've essentially pulled the story from Marlowe's texts, but the characters from Goethe's play - so, it isn't just the love story we see in the Opera of Faust. It is a story of corruption. It also helps that I'm not directing - and though I wrote the play, it's a very different thing to live through something as an actor than as a writer. So, once I started acting, I still had to learn how the behavior operates though me.

I'm very lucky to be working with the group I'm working with, and everyone has been very patient with me as I've caught up to them in terms of my work in rehearsals. Probably the biggest challenge I've had as an actor is that I've had to age myself 40 years for the top of the show - and I spend about an hour doing my hair and makeup before every show. I have a whole physical and vocal character that I put on for it. It's quite extensive. Then I have a few minutes as myself, sharing a fun banter with my partner in crime, Erin Cronican, as Mephistopheles, before putting on a second persona, an English novelist named Henry Faust. Then I have an extensive make-out scene that turns into a "me too" moment with Broghanne Jessamine, which though it's always nice to kiss someone, has got to be one of the most nerve-wracking things I've ever done onstage - especially considering that I wrote it. And I always come away from that feeling like a pretty terrible human being. And then everything goes south for Doctor Faustus, and I spend the rest of the play covered in blood from various people and filled with guilt, loss, and emptiness - literally haunted by Candice Oden as Martha, one of the many people I've destroyed.

Brandon Walker as Dr Faustus in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. Photo by Russ Rowland.

I think that the biggest surprise to me has happened in the playing of the role. I just didn't realize how profound the subject matter is. Hell really is a state of mind for Doctor Faustus. It's a fascinating thing to get what you want, because it really isn't ever enough, is it? We always think that things are going to be better when ____. And they just aren't. And related to the "me too" movement, it's been an interesting thing for me to tap into the many things I've done in my life to contribute to the problem. I can't speak for men everywhere, but I can say that I have crossed a lot of lines in my life. Most of them were not seemingly disastrous at the time, but I'm not proud of my behavior either. I have been creepy when I thought I was being romantic. I have been forceful when I thought I was fighting for a relationship. I have taken advantage of people who looked up to me when I'd convinced myself we were on an even playing field. I have also been on the other side of things. I was molested by a director in my early years as a professional actor. I know about compromised situations firsthand, and it's quite powerful to share them so viscerally both as a writer and an actor in this play.

Finally, it's really very exciting to me that this production is so ensemble in nature. The same basic themes are present for all of the characters. Gretchen is not just an innocent victim in our production. She has some responsibility in her own downfall. Wagner and Martha are both complicit as well. Really, we are all victims of our own envy, even Mephistopheles - and so, the audience gets to share in that from many different perspectives. I'd say that everyone that sees THE HYSTERIA OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS can really see themselves in at least one of the characters, if not all. It's a timely and important story - and just in time for Halloween.

***

Brandon Walker is appearing as Dr Faustus in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. The show must close October 21 - To get tickets or to see reviews and production photos, visit www.seeingplacetheater.com/shows/9-faustus.html. 

Erin Cronican as Mephistopheles - Fighting For My Voice

The title of this blog takes on multiple meanings, which I didn’t realize when I sat down to write today. Not only is there the craziness that has been going on with #MeToo and #IBelieveWomen in which my voice has figuratively been silenced, but I been fighting pneumonia for the past few months which has literally taken my breath away. I have felt so stymied that I have been glad for a creative outlet, and I’ve funneled all of my strength into producing/directing a decidedly more feminist take on the enduring fable, FAUST.


I’m fighting for my voice more than ever, and it’s both invigorating and exhausting.

THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS is the first play of The Seeing Place’s ninth season, and I’m so proud to be involved as an actor, director and producer. It’s the classic story of a man who sells his soul to the devil, but we’ve chosen to adapt for a cast of just four - three women and one man - which drastically changes the way the play is perceived by audiences. And by having the main antagonist, Mephistopheles, played by a woman (me!) we put further focus on the traditional roles of male and female when it comes to power, agency, and expression. [Tickets through Oct 21, here]

It’s been interesting playing the role of the quintessential devil. Everyone expects the devil to be a man, so there’s a real focus on what I bring to the role to make it different. I have worked hard to make sure that I’m not slipping into caricature or thinking that I’m supposed to be a man. Instead I’m a disembodied, non-gendered spirit that inhabits a female form, so gender has no construct with me. (You’ll have to see the show to find out why this is - no spoilers here!) Another challenge is that this is a character who’s joy and expression of love have been removed from her when she was damned to hell - how do I stay true to that while remaining energized and dynamic as am actor on stage? How do I keep my voice alive?

Erin Cronican in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. Photo by Russ Rowland.

Part of my inspiration for the role comes from great actors who are crossing boundaries in today’s theater (think Janet McTeer in Bernhardt/Hamlet and Glenda Jackson as King Lear.) And the other inspiration comes from within myself - where is the little girl who learned that she must be quiet - who was she before that lesson and how do I bring her to the surface?

As a director I’ve worked with the female actors to help them find their particular voice as the characters, especially pushing for the to explore their anger and dark emotions in ways that we don’t get to see on stage from women. It’s been inspiring to watch these women come into their own with the roles and make a statement about the environment in which we’re living and how that’s reflected in the play.

Erin Cronican in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. Photo by Russ Rowland.

All this while I’ve been dragged down by pneumonia, and for months I have been lacking a full bodied voice to speak with. Have you ever had the experience where your speaking voice was inhibited for a long period of time? I have found myself getting smaller and smaller in everyday life, while becoming more and more frustrated by my lack of personal expression. People who know me have assumed that the reason I’ve been sick is because I run myself ragged. And that may be true - running a theater company takes a toll, especially when working on a project that is so personally impactful. But I’m starting to feel like the loss of my figurative voice has made my literal voice disappear as well.

And it’s funny - as soon as we started run-throughs of the show where I was inhabiting the character for more stretches at a time, my voice started to come back. It’s as if my artistic expression on stage is helping with my personal expression in life. And the more of myself I reveal as an artist on stage, the more I’m revealing in my real life.

I hope that you’ll be able to come out to see this play. It’s got the thrills and chills that you expect from a play about the Devil, but it also poses questions about the nature of consent and desire that’s apropos of today. It’s also achingly funny, and I think it’s so important to laugh during these trying times.

***

Erin Cronican is appearing as Mephistopheles in THE HYSTERIA OF DR FAUSTUS. The show must close October 21 - To get tickets or to see reviews and production photos, visit www.seeingplacetheater.com/shows/9-faustus.html.