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.

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. 

Ensemble Diaries:TSP Ensemble Member Joshua George

The Seeing Place Theater is thrilled to announce its 2016 Fundraising Initiative. As a part of the initiative we want you to give you a chance to get to know our members, so we gave them a little challenge. To start, the Seeing Place asked each of its members 3 questions which they could answer via text or video:

1) What is your hometown?
2) What is your dream role?
3) When was the last time you contributed to a campaign and how did it make you feel?

We then asked them to craft a little blog post about what brought them to The Seeing Place and why it means so much to them. We hope you enjoy getting to know our ensemble!


"THE POWER IN TRUTH" BY JOSHUA GEORGE

Joshua George

   “I would be a great actor, you know why?”

   “Why?” 

   “Because I can lie my way out of anything.”

I’ve had that exchange with people more times than I can count. And I smile, maybe laugh with them, but there’s always this part of me that cringes inside.

“I hate actors because they’re all liars.” 

“Most actors are fakes, they’re just phony people.”

Acting and lies just seem to go together for so many people I meet. But I knew it wasn’t true. I knew there was something more profound in this craft and I meant to seek it out. So I moved to New York to study here. I made the pilgrimage like so many actors before me who wanted to find something more in their craft. I knew deep down that actors are not liars. Actors are truth tellers, they are the most honest people in the world.

When I chose to study in the Meisner Technique at The William Esper Studio a big part of that decision came from Sanford Meisners philosophy on acting, “to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” That’s the secret I’ve been searching for. But it seems to be this paradox, how can someone be honest in a situation that doesn’t actually exist?

Joshua in production of LINE at 13th Street Rep

Because actors aren’t trying to fool the audience, they’re trying to show the audience. The situation may not be real, but the journey is. And that expression is a craft. Actors strip themselves of the masks everyone wears in life and reveal their honest selves. We put up guards and shields in real life to protect us from the outside world. An actors job is to get rid of those and expose themselves fully. And this vulnerability is where the catharsis for the audience comes from. They’re seeing a human being on stage, a living breathing human being who is not hiding behind anything. And that’s powerful. That’s uplifting.

The theater is where we come to see ourselves, and that’s what The Seeing Place is. When I began reading about this company all I could think was, "YES, they get it." There’s a responsibility we all have as actors. And that responsibility is to truth and honesty. And only when the actor is fully honest on stage can the audience really be transported and moved. And only through truth on stage can the audience really see themselves.

Otherwise it’s just a lie, and actors aren’t liars.


3 Questions

1. Hometown: New Orleans, LA
2. Dream Role: Hamlet
3. Last time I gave: I donated money to a creative endeavor and I felt honored to help someone live their dreams

Learn more about Joshua at www.joshua-george.com


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To help create new work with Joshua and The Seeing Place by contributing to our campaign, visit www.TheSeeingPlaceTheater.com

Ensemble Diaries:TSP Artistic Director Brandon Walker

The Seeing Place Theater is thrilled to announce its 2016 Fundraising Initiative. As a part of the initiative we want you to give you a chance to get to know our members, so we gave them a little challenge. To start, the Seeing Place asked each of its members 3 questions which they could answer via text or video:

1) What is your hometown?
2) What is your dream role?
3) When was the last time you contributed to a campaign and how did it make you feel?

We then asked them to craft a little blog post about what brought them to The Seeing Place and why it means so much to them. We hope you enjoy getting to know our ensemble!

"WHY 'THE SEEING PLACE' " BY BRANDON WALKER

I always wanted to call a theatre company "The Seeing Place" - ever since I learned the origin of the name in a theatre history class I took in college. That's the literal definition of the Greek word, "Theatron." And in society, it was the place that people could go to relate, to see themselves, their own lives, and feel a sense of connection to their humanity. Unfortunately, it would be many years until I actually got to truly see myself on stage when I went to the see a play. Too many times, we leave the theatre impressed, rather than touched. "Entertainment" used to include a sort of catharsis in the early definition of the word. Nowadays, we are left with only the thrill of a good night. In a world where we are taught to be suspicious of others, I want to leave the theatre feeling connected. Theatre provides a necessary empathy to the world. 

Brandon Walker

The first time I felt the impact of humanity in performance was at a New Village Arts' production of A LIE OF THE MIND in San Diego. It was a curious evening. I was strangely unimpressed, and yet I believed everything I watched - the whole ensemble. Nobody stole the show. The actors did not seem to be acting. They seemed to be living. I'd read about this phenomenon with The Group Theatre, but have rarely seen it. And I got to really understand the full story being told. 

I saw a few more plays of theirs and then acted with them a couple of times. Eventually, I began studying with their (then) Artistic Director, and then I moved to NYC to study with his teacher, David Gideon. I expected to find more work like theirs along the way. Certainly, Chicago boasts of some great ensemble work, but it still wasn't the same for me as what I experienced at New Village Arts. And in New York, although I've been privileged to see a lot of wonderful performances and great production values, I've only seen a full production come together a handful of times in my nine years here, and none of those happened with the same group of people. At a certain point, Erin and I knew that if we wanted to have the kind of theatre we loved in this city, we would need to build it. 

Brandon as Hamlet in TSP's HAMLET (2013)

I am privileged to be working with some of the most committed artists in the world. We have an artistic home where we can really play and stretch and do our work. Though it is important to us to share stories and make an impact with audiences, it's not our sole mission. First and foremost, we feed our own creative spirits. We take our time. We challenge one another. We make sure that every actor is there to tell a story that matters to them, and that directly affects our behavior in performance. We work hard in the rehearsal room. And we play hard on stage. We allow actors the freedom to discover how the play is going to unfold every night. The lines are the same. But the behavior is different every night. It's not a wild change. We are telling the same story, the same way. We are sharing what we learned in rehearsal and building on it. But the moments are different. 

Many of our patrons have become numb to the pizzazz of commercial theatre ventures and speak of being refreshed by our work. Our audiences frequently comment that they feel like they lived through something real that was authentically happening right along with us. That's an accomplishment I'm very proud of. What's even better is that those comments frequently turn into deeper conversations about the lives of the people that come to share in our work. Making that kind of an impact is everything. 

As hard as it is to keep a theatre alive in this economy, there is a cultural need that our work fulfills in the world. The average donation to Bernie Sanders is $27. Some people can't afford that and spread the word instead. We are also a grassroots campaign. Any kind of contribution makes a major difference. We don't need backers. We need everyday people that want to celebrate their humanity together with us. Thank you for your time in reading this. And thank you for being a part of our community.

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To help create new work with Brandon and The Seeing Place by contributing to our campaign, visit www.TheSeeingPlaceTheater.com

Ensemble Diaries:TSP Ensemble Member Olivia Baseman

The Seeing Place Theater is thrilled to announce its 2016 Fundraising Initiative. As a part of the initiative we want you to give you a chance to get to know our members, so we gave them a little challenge. To start, the Seeing Place asked each of its members 3 questions which they could answer via text or video:

1) What is your hometown?
2) What is your dream role?
3) When was the last time you contributed to a campaign and how did it make you feel?

We then asked them to craft a little blog post about what brought them to The Seeing Place and why it means so much to them. We hope you enjoy getting to know our ensemble!


"THEATER IS A VITAL LIVING THING" BY OLIVIA BASEMAN

[imagine you are in a theater, it is dark and you feel the excitement of the other people around you, you hear their breathing, sense their anticipation… then the lights go up, maybe someone speaks and you are transported to another place, this is theater, this is the seeing place.]

We all hear daily about how NYC is losing all it’s artists…how impossible it has become to live and make work here. And I for one frequently find myself questioning why I stay…I could take my work somewhere else (Detroit, LA, Chicago, New Orleans… the list goes on) where it seems it (and I) would be so much more appreciated. So why do I stay?

Because I still think NYC has a chance. A chance of staying relevant. A chance of being a place where creators, not just users and regurgitators can thrive…

Small theaters are where the great ideas come from. Where the crazy experiments turn in to legendary works…It is difficult and expensive to “make something new” but if we don’t we can’t move forward. Theater is a vital living thing. That's why it still exists. Because no matter what (and especially now when our lives are curated for posterity in our social media feeds everyday) human beings need a place where they can go without fear of judgment and experience things together…The Seeing Place is that, and that’s why I’m an ensemble member.

[Climbs down off soap box, hides in back row]


3 Questions

1. Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA and NYC
2. Dream Role: Whoever I’m playing now.
3. Last time I gave: To a theater company of course! It made me feel like I was "part of the solution"…

Learn more about Olivia at www.oliviabaseman.com


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To help create new work with Olivia and The Seeing Place by contributing to our campaign, visit www.TheSeeingPlaceTheater.com

Ensemble Diaries:TSP Ensemble Member Brisa Freitas

The Seeing Place Theater is thrilled to announce its 2016 Fundraising Initiative. As a part of the initiative we want you to give you a chance to get to know our members, so we gave them a little challenge. To start, the Seeing Place asked each of its members 3 questions which they could answer via text or video:

1) What is your hometown?
2) What is your dream role?
3) When was the last time you contributed to a campaign and how did it make you feel?

We then asked them to craft a little blog post about what brought them to The Seeing Place and why it means so much to them. We hope you enjoy getting to know our ensemble!

"WHY I JOINED AND WHY I STAYED" BY BRISA FREITAS

This is quite the topic to tackle. Frankly, I can talk about all the reasons I love The Seeing Place for hours. Alas, I'll do my best to be concise. Why did I join the company? Well, it goes back to a chilly fall evening just outside São Paulo, a beautiful young woman gave birth to a baby girl named Brisa... Too far back? Okay, I'll fast forward a bit.

To be perfectly honest, when I got the invitation to audition for The Seeing Place, I had recently made the decision to give up acting altogether. You see, I had spent my first couple of years in "show business" working mostly on projects I won't dare mention in fear of you Googling them. But the funny thing is I had actually made money, while most of my other actor friends that were doing "good work" weren't getting paid at all. This was very disheartening to young me. There I was committed to being a professional actor and I was ashamed to show anyone my work, and the few projects that were worth anything (cannot emphasize "few" enough) were unpaid. That's insane... and not uncommon for actors. 

Brisa and Nathan teaching empathy to 3-5 grade students

Anywho, I actually managed to book a tour with an educational children's company, CLIMB Theatre. That was an incredibly eye opening experience. Not only did I start to enjoy performing again, but the work we were sharing was actually having a real impact on people's lives. I was part of the Teaching Company (Teach Co). Instead of just doing plays, we taught theater-based interactive workshops to students PreK-12. We used theater and improv games to teach kids about bullying prevention, drug prevention, environmental issues, goal setting, and so many more topics. For the first time I was using theater -- using art -- to make a real difference in the world. There is nothing in this world that can compare to that feeling.

When the tour was over I came to the obvious conclusion that I didn't actually like acting, I liked teaching. Because... I don't know. Seemed to make sense at the time? Sure. We'll run with that. So I decided to quit acting. 

Luckily, the universe intervened. And by "universe" I mean Erin. She let me know that her theater company was auditioning people and she wanted me to come in. I have a great difficulty saying "no" so I said "yes." In prepping for the audition the more I read about TSP, the more excited I got. What is this magical place that lets actors be actors and let their creativity lead the way? Hold on. They also do socially-relevant theater and hold talk backs to engage the community? This isn't a theater company. This is Narnia and I'm dreaming. Then during my callback we discussed a possibility of starting an education program. At this point, I was like "LET ME IN!!!!!!" but I played it cool till I got the official offer (haha tricked you! I'm actually crazy and now you're stuck with me).

Brisa as Bianca (with Logan as Cassio)
in her first play with TSP - OTHELLO

Still at this point I was just really excited to start this education program and was willing to do and say anything for them to let me start. Unaware of the extent of my madness, they were kind enough to cast me in their first show of the season. The dramaturgy and rehearsal process was unlike anything I had ever experienced. We delved so deeply into the work in a way that freed me in a way that I didn't think was possible. It made me fall in love with acting again. Something I was certain would never happen. After the first show, I was hooked. They really weren't getting rid of me anytime soon. Now after every production period is over I feel like I'm just sitting around twirling my thumbs until the next one, just casually asking our directors "So uuuhhh, next show? Happening anytime soon? I can be in it, right? Right?!?!" As you can see, I'm really quite lovely once you get to know me. 

On top of that, TSP is such a phenomenal community of artists. It is so wonderful having a group of people I get to see every week who are so passionate, talented, and driven to create meaningful work. TSP is a home for all of us that want to create something bigger than ourselves. Whether that's a connection with the community, an education program, or just a really frakking amazing performance. It's a place we can go to feel safe and free. It's a place we can go to be true artists. Whatever that means to us.

P.S. We're finally creating the education program!!!! AAAAAAH!!!!! 

To learn more about Brisa, visit www.brisafreitas.com.

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To help create new work with Brisa and The Seeing Place by contributing to our campaign, visit www.TheSeeingPlaceTheater.com

Ensemble Diaries:TSP Ensemble Member Candice Oden

The Seeing Place Theater is thrilled to announce its 2016 Fundraising Initiative. As a part of the initiative we want you to give you a chance to get to know our members, so we gave them a little challenge. To start, the Seeing Place asked each of its members 3 questions which they could answer via text or video:

1) What is your hometown?
2) What is your dream role?
3) When was the last time you contributed to a campaign and how did it make you feel?

We then asked them to craft a little blog post about what brought them to The Seeing Place and why it means so much to them. We hope you enjoy getting to know our ensemble!



"THE MAGIC OF SHOWS BEING 'DIFFERENT' " BY CANDICE ODEN

My relationship with The Seeing Place began FAR earlier than my becoming a part of the company.  I was introduced to it by my best friend.  She had co-founded a theater company called The Seeing Place Theater (oh, right – my best friend is Erin Cronican), and when she first told me of the way they were working, my response was, “Oh, HHHEEEEEEECK no.”  It sounded absolutely terrifying to me.

Candice Oden

I went to see her in her first show with the company, and she was extraordinary. I wouldn’t shut up about her and the male lead in the show – to anyone. Anyone who came into contact with me for the entire rest of the week had to suffer through me going on and on about Erin and “this other guy who played the male lead.” “This other guy” I later found out was an old friend of Erin’s (from their mutual home town of San Diego), and – oh – the one with whom she co-founded the company.  Right.

I started coming to all of their shows – I would go on opening night, because Erin’s my best friend, so I need to go to her opening night; but I would also go closing night … and I would go to a show or two during the middle of the run. I was fascinated. Every single show was different from the previous, yet they never varied in quality. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it, and Erin would remind me of the way “they” (now “we” ;) ) worked – setting no blocking, etc. – and I would always have the same response.  “Oh, HHHEEEEEEEEECK no.”

But I couldn’t deny what I was watching.

I was doing a production of a show with someone who had performed the understudy title role in a very famous musical on Broadway, and someone asked him what is was like to work with some of the [celebrated] people in the cast. And his response struck me. He said that one of the leading women would deliver the same show every night. And as a musical theater actor, my first thought was, “Of course she did! That’s the way you’re supposed to do it!” But there was something about there being a distinction between someone doing the exact same show every night and someone not, both getting the same paycheck, and both getting wonderful audience responses. I grew up doing musical theater, and, as a child in musical theater, you’re not encouraged to go out on stage and explore your art. You take direction and do only what you’re asked to do.  Fortunately I was very good at that. But having a concept now of doing a different show every night blew my mind.

Candice creates set dressing for TSP's production of
GIDION'S KNOT

Cut to years later, I had the opportunity to stage manage a show at The Seeing Place.  I got to watch the makings of what I’d witnessed from the audience for so many years, show after show, production after production. And I was addicted.  I wanted to know everything about it. I wanted to know what it was like to work the way TSP does, to have the artistic home that TSP provides – everything.

I then had the opportunity to become an ensemble member at TSP, and it has been the best thing I have ever done as an artist.  I was fortunate enough to perform as an actor in BOYS LIFE, and now it was my turn to do “a different show every night.” It was absolutely terrifying, but I knew that I was safe. I knew that no one was going to let anyone “fail” onstage or off, because every moment on the stage is precious when you’re living (and I mean living) onstage with other people like this.

So … Dear Ensemble Diary: Thank you so, so much.  May every artist feel as blessed as I do.

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To help create new work with Candice and The Seeing Place by contributing to our campaign, visit www.TheSeeingPlaceTheater.com

Ensemble Diaries:TSP Managing Director Erin Cronican

The Seeing Place Theater is thrilled to announce its 2016 Fundraising Initiative. As a part of the initiative we want you to give you a chance to get to know our members, so we gave them a little challenge. To start, the Seeing Place asked each of its members 3 questions which they could answer via text or video:

1) What is your hometown?
2) What is your dream role?
3) When was the last time you contributed to a campaign and how did it make you feel?

We then asked them to craft a little blog post about what brought them to The Seeing Place and why it means so much to them. We hope you enjoy getting to know our ensemble!



"WHY I SELF-PRODUCE" BY ERIN CRONICAN

When I was younger I never had any aspirations of being a director or a producer. I was an actor - there was no way I’d overwhelm my life with other things. It was, “Be an actor” or nothing at all.

The last few years in my hometown of San Diego I worked for an amazing organization called the Actors Alliance, a non-profit that helps actors have all of the resources they needed to be professional artists in San Diego. One of our projects was our actor-driven Festival of Short Plays, which would allow actors to sit into the producer’s seat and have a chance to create work for themselves. What was so amazing about co-producing this event is that each year I was able to feel the pulse of the community and curate content that a) our audiences would appreciate and b) would inspire our artists. And all of the sudden a day job which once simply supported my efforts as an actor became a training ground for what would be a life-altering jump into the abyss as a Managing Director of The Seeing Place.

Erin Cronican
(headshots with new hair coming!)

I’ll be honest - when Brandon approached me in 2009 and said, “Hey, I’m starting a theater company, and you’re going to start it with me,” I said no. I’d known Brandon for years, from back in our mutual hometown of San Diego where he worked with me in my final year producing the Festival. I assumed that all he wanted was my producing acumen rather than my skills as an actor, and I wasn’t having any of that! But he wore me down with a promise that we were going to do something different. Actors who led the company would have choices. They would have a voice, an opportunity to have a real say in the art they created. And how can you turn down a promise like that?

So many people describe productions that actors self produce as “vanity projects” and I find that term so disheartening. Where is that distinction when a writer produces their work, or when a director finds a script they love and have a vision to bring it to life? I think that what “vanity project” actually refers to is when someone creates something for their own good or use with no regard for their audience. People fear that actors only want to perform because they like to show off or want personal accolades. But thinking that way does actors a great disservice, and we at The Seeing Place are fighting to return the name of ACTOR to their rightful place as Living Historian - a position that, in the past, held great reverence. Actors are the conduit that allows an audience to see themselves and learn something about the world around them.

A thank you Erin received from Judy Shepard
of the Matthew Shepard Foundation

What is most inspiring to me about being an actor who produces is that I don’t just have a voice in the roles I play - I also have a voice in the organizations we partner with, the audiences I help to develop, and the issues that I’m burning to shed light on. When we did THE LARAMIE PROJECT (2014) I got to dream big about how I wanted to make a real impact, and we were able to partner with the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Tectonic Theater Project (who wrote TLP with Moises Kaufman) and multiple other organizations who put humanity over hate. When we did A LIE OF THE MIND I was able to coordinate talkbacks on traumatic brain injuries and violence against women, and our dramaturgy sessions help educate our cast about the very real issues surrounding abuse that is passed down through families. Can you imagine how inspiring it is to be able to make a difference not only on stage in bringing a human being to life, but also off stage with our audiences and our members where the real difference is made?

So when you donate to The Seeing Place, you do more than give us money so that we can act. You are funding a company that teaches its members how to give back to society. You’re enabling our producing staff to mentor dozens of actors to be conscientious self-producers, the way I was mentored back in San Diego. And best of all, you’re a partner in creating art that makes a real difference for its community, which means you’re an artist, too.


Learn more about Erin at www.erincronican.com

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To help create new work with Erin and The Seeing Place by contributing to our campaign, visit www.TheSeeingPlaceTheater.com

Ensemble Diaries:TSP Ensemble Member Autumn Mirassou

The Seeing Place Theater is thrilled to announce its 2016 Fundraising Initiative. As a part of the initiative we want you to give you a chance to get to know our members, so we gave them a little challenge. To start, the Seeing Place asked each of its members 3 questions which they could answer via text or video:

1) What is your hometown?
2) What is your dream role?
3) When was the last time you contributed to a campaign and how did it make you feel?

We then asked them to craft a little blog post about what brought them to The Seeing Place and why it means so much to them. We hope you enjoy getting to know our ensemble!


"DEAR TSP AUDIENCES: WE LOVE YOU!" BY AUTUMN MIRASSOU

Something wonderful happens between the ensemble and audience during a show with The Seeing Place. It's palpable, real and radically transparent, but somehow also mysterious. The actors don't know what's coming next, outside of a series of well-written lines, to be said in a certain order. It's exciting and feels a little dangerous—thrilling at the very least, because the actors are experiencing the production for the first time, too. It's a quality that The Seeing Place's returning audience members know and love. You can feel it in the whispers buzzing around the theater's house pre-show. There's an anticipation and an expectation that they'll see this play in a way it has never been done before. Numerous people come back to the same show repeatedly, excited to see a different show every time.

While managing the Box Office and understudying for THE PILLOWMAN this last fall, I got to see first hand some of the extensive work that goes into rehearsals and back stage. But what struck me most was the way audiences were reached by The Seeing Place. They came out of a show and rather than leaving in a rush, desperate to shut the city out again, they opened up to the actors who were humbly waiting & ready to talking to them. Night after night, people stuck around to share stories from their own lives that resonated with the plot and relationships in our two shows. I quietly observed handfuls of people offering their own stories of loss in response to GIDION'S KNOT, and people so shocked and horrified by the treatment of Katurian in THE PILLOWMAN they continued speaking to the cast members as if they were their characters, chastising them. Students from an all boy's school on a class trip hung back for an hour just to hear how the actors' work in GIDION'S KNOT was made and share what touched them about the play they saw. The fact that these generous patrons stayed and chatted to share their own stories reveals so much about TSP's audience dedication to the company and the work that emerges from it. The company strives to spark the conversation in the surrounding community—a trait which audiences have welcomed with open arms.

Audiences chat with the cast and our talkback speaker
after a performance of "Love Song"

And if the way people come to the theater is any indication of how an audience respects it, you'd find our audiences are in love. Working Box Office, I was surprised to learn one woman trekked by bus and a walk with a handicap three hours just to see our last two shows three times. Another such amazing indication of the excitement this company generates was an evening colored by Murphy's Law--everything that could go wrong, did. There were behind the scenes struggles no one could let on about or even fix - the lights wouldn't operate even though the light board appeared operational. As we worked to restore power we had to open the house late, starting the show much later and not even lit by a complete set of work lights, but incandescent clamp lights.  In apology we offered our audience timely explanations and complimentary wine - and not a single audience member left, not one person complained. Nothing could deter them from seeing the show that night. They stuck it out and responded. They had more to say afterwards to the actors. And one generous audience member, a theater maker himself, offered to help us find the source of our electrical challenges. That guy is a hero.

I am so proud and grateful to be a part of a theater company that does so much to generate such excitement in its patrons, solely based on the quality of the work. It starts from the moment they get wind of the shows to several days afterward as we continue engaging them about their experiences. The Seeing Place cares deeply for its audiences, and its audiences are loyal and generous in kind on a level that's deeply humbling. My greatest hope as an actor and theater maker is to have a tangible, positive impact on our community. Dear TSP Audiences, you make that possible and give me a lot of hope for a future in the theater. Thank you! I'm looking forward to seeing you out there again soon.


3 Questions

1. Hometown: Silicon Valley, CA
2. Dream Role: Clara in "The Light in the Piazza"
3. Last time I gave: I gave money to another small theater company. I felt really good :)

Learn more about Autumn at www.autumnmirassou.com.

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To help create new work with Autumn and The Seeing Place by contributing to our campaign, visit www.TheSeeingPlaceTheater.com