228 page reading packet!

Thanks to Emily the superturg (jf you don't know what one is, go ask your parents, provided, of course, that your parents have MFAs in theatre), we have quite the swanky reading packet (read the table of contents) for The Tragic Swashbuckler, weighing in at a hefty 6 or 7 pounds :).

It contains a bunch of historical, critical, and analytical material about swashbucklers and Greek tragedies, as well as some suggested movies and plays. Interestingly, unlike the last two CineTheatre pieces, it was nigh impossible to get juicy film theory on swashbucklers; most theorists seem to think it's meaningless fluff unworthy of serious scholarly attention.

They're wrong... ;P

Enjoy the packet! And it's not too late to sign up for our upcoming swashbuckling playdate (12/11 @ 7pm)...just email us at info@stolenchair.org.

NYtheatre.com: "Identifying the future leading lights of NYC theatre"

Martin plugs the Chairs in his latest blog post over at the I:

For example, we cited the Brick Theater back in 2004; now they’re one of Time Out-New York’s favorite venues. In 2005, Stolen Chair Theatre Company was on our list; this year, they’re on the New York Press’s “Best of Manhattan” list. Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker of Vampire Cowboys were honorees for us in 2004; in 2006 they won the Caffe Cino Fellowship from the New York Innovative Theatre Awards. And Daniel Talbott of Rising Phoenix Theatre Company was a “Person of the Year” in 2006; and Rising Phoenix won the Caffe Cino Award in 2007.

Thanks, Martin!

The new news

December newsletter 1 of 2 has just been sent to our eblast subscribers (sign up here!) featuring the official announcement of The Tragic Swashbuckler, details about the upcoming playdate, links to the two November print features on Stolen Chair, and a plea for all our supporters to make their holiday purchases with Giveline.

Calling all would be swashbucklers & tragedians!

The Tragic Swashbuckler Playdate: Tuesday, Dec 11 (evening)

The Stolen Chair Theatre Company invites all interested male collaborators to join us for 2 hours of collective creation as we begin developing The Tragic Swashbuckler, the third installment of our critically-acclaimed CineTheatre Tetralogy, a 1930s swashbuckler by way of Aeschylus, exploring how susceptible morality can be to the conflicting pulls of loyalty to self, lover, family, fraternity, nation, and god. This comic mash-up will feature rapier duels and rapier wit as it satirizes humanity's dependence on moral codes, however flimsy they might be.

We're starting from scratch on this and we need your help. If you're a fan of classic 1930s Errol Flynn swashbucklers (or even the more contemporary Princess Bride and Pirates of the Carribean), have had some experience performing Greek tragedy, enjoy a good stage fight, or just want to wile away 2 hours playing pirates, we hope you'll join us. While the evening will by no means be structured like an "audition," participants will be the casting pool for the two all-expense-paid creative retreats (the weekends of Dec 15 & Jan 5), the staged reading (the weekend of Feb 2), and the production itself (running for 4 weeks beginning April 18).

Please contact info@stolenchair.org with a letter of interest if you'd like to attend and please note if you would be interested and available for either or both of the retreats, the reading, and the production.

About the CineTheatre Tetralogy: In 2005, Stolen Chair debuted The Man Who Laughs, a live silent film for the stage. The play was met with popular and critical acclaim and has since been published in Playing with Canons, inspiring Stolen Chair to launch an ambitious 3 year program to adapt 3 other classic film styles to the stage. The next installment of the series was 2006's Kill Me Like You Mean It, an absurdist film noir for the stage which was called an "intriguing" "clever" "high-styling" "must-see" "stroke of genius" by an assortment of critics. The company plans to run all four of the installments in repertory for its 8th season in 2010.

About Stolen Chair: The Stolen Chair Theatre Company is a critically-acclaimed award-winning collaborative theatre laboratory dedicated to the theft, recycling and re-examination of historical performance styles, and the creation of visually stunning and uniquely contemporary work where the earnest and ironic happily co-exist. Stolen Chair was featured in New York Press' Best of Manhattan 2007, is a recipient of NYtheatre.com's People of the Year award, and has been praised by TimeOut, Flavorpill, nytheatre.com, Backstage, and PBS' New Theatre Corps. The company's 6th season is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Pirates of the Aegean

Stolen Chair's back from hibernation and the above post title is the very silly working title of our newest piece, set to debut April 18, 2008.

Here's the blurb:

The Stolen Chair Theatre Company presents the third installment of its CineTheatre Tetralogy (4 years, 4 productions, 4 classic film styles adapted for the stage): Errol Flynn meets Oedipus in a 1930s swashbuckler by way of Aeschylus and Homer, exploring how susceptible morality can be to the conflicting pulls of loyalty to self, lover, family, fraternity, nation, and god. This comic mash-up will feature rapier duels and rapier wit as it satirizes humanity's dependence on moral codes, however flimsy they might be.

If you think you should be a part of this show as a performer, designer, choreographer, weapons specialist, et al, please email me at jon@stolenchair.org.

"Continuing Education" : SCTC in Backstage

So, while it doesn't look this is the weekend that I catch up on my blogging (it usually takes me a month or so to jump back into the game after a big show!), I wanted to let you all know that there are big big things happening over at Stolen Chair HQ. In the next couple of weeks, announcing our exciting 2008 season, patting ourselves on the back for some very good news, and restructuring the entire way the company creates new work.

But until then...content thyselves with this week's Backstage article about alumni-founded theatre companies, featuring a section about Stolen Chair's Swarthmorean history and quotes from yours truly.

More Kinderspiel in the blogosphere

In a recent post on the nytheatre i, Martin mentions Kiran's name (and Stolen Chair's Kinderspiel) as an example of the many sociopolitically engaged playwrights working in New York's indie scene.

On the blog "next door," Michael Criscuolo's nytheatre mike, Michael extends his congratulations for Stolen Chair's New York Press "Best Of..." Award.

Finally, in some random googling for "stolen chair kinderspiel," I found this fantastic essay on Kinderspiel by Stephanie Vella over at Blackbox. Given the fact that it's a critical essay, we will not likely be pulling quotes for our press pages, but it's truly a great read and a terrific companion piece to the production. Here's a snippet:

"As it turns out, people with nothing to live for will pay good money for the opportunity to waste there time on meaningless frivolities. It also turns out that a thorough grasp of dialectical materialism can be more useful to the seller than the sold."

She had me at "dialectical materialism." :)

Just two shows left. Get your name on the waiting list now by emailing me.

We're the best!

In this week's New York Press (links are mine):

BEST GENRE-BENDING NONPROFIT THEATER
Stolen Chair Theatre Company

Every creative artist thinks their über-wacky parody of noir is one for the ages. Not Off-Off-Broadway’s Stolen Chair Theatre Company, which gave such pretentiousness the bird when it premiered Kill Me Like You Mean It earlier this year, the second installment in its “CineTheatre tetralogy.” Their trick is the opposite of being derivative: They smash genres in a theatrical supercollider and see what happens, such as noir being fused with the idiocy of Ionesco in Kill Me. Stage Kiss, meanwhile, fused Charles Ludlam’s theatre of the ridiculous with Elizabethan blank verse; The Man Who Laughs was a silent film for the stage. Stolen Chair’s latest, Kinderspiel (subtitle: “all art is useless”), currently at the Kraine [CORRECTION: Under St. Marks], is yet another genre-bender: a drop of Weimar cabaret in political drama.

Thanks, New York Press!

Ausverkauft

Google tells me this is how you say SOLD OUT in German. I don't trust Google's translations all that much, but I do trust SmartTix's box office report which says we are now officially out of tickets for Kinderspiel. Do not despair, though, because we usually end up releasing between 5 and 10 tickets at the door. So, if you want to catch one of the final three performances, please arrive at the theatre at 7pm to make sure your name gets on the waiting list for no-shows or overflow seating.

We're #2! We're #2!

Check it out over at indietheater.org.

Now all we have to do is find a way to dispose of those Jersey Boys :)

Just 12 tickets left for the run. Buy your tickets online this instant!

I'll be posting a photo album of our "Get Drunk and Play" night in the next few days. Good times...we'll definitely have to throw another one of those sometime very soon.

4 Stars from Time Out NY

UPDATE: The online edition is up. Read it here.

Though the TONY online edition hasn't yet been posted, here's a snippet of Raven Snook's 4-star review of Kinderspiel:

"The inventive folks at the Stolen Chair Theatre Company explore the [Weimar] era with the existential KINDERSPIEL; think NO EXIT decked out in fishnets and Art Deco decay...Jon Stancato directs Kiran Rikhye's unsentimental script with a minimum of fuss...The overall effect is haunting. Watching these slightly cracked adults play with desperate abandon reminds us that the worst of times may bring out the best in artists, but in the end it's the politicians who get to rule (and ruin) the world"

A flavorful pill to swallow

Pardon the painful pun, but here's what Flavorpill's Mr. Paschalides had to say about Kinderspiel:

"There's a delightful irony in watching Kiran Rikhye's delectable frolic of a play Kinderspiel: audiences sit in a musty — yet appropriately atmospheric — basement to watch a play about a bunch of Weimar-era demimonde oddballs who sit around and play like children while customers pay to watch. The playwright provides insight into a glorious era of Berlin history, contrasting it with the economic depression and political upheaval of its time and drawing parallels to contemporary affairs. The childlike idiom is brilliantly developed and performed by the talented cast, leaving Under St. Marks' crowd wanting more."

Pick of the Week

Kinderspiel marks Stolen Chair's third "Pick of the Week" over at nytheatre.com.

Check it out here.

Thanks, Martin.

Get Drunk and Play w/Stolen Chair

"GET DRUNK AND PLAY" NIGHT
Thursday, Oct 18 @ 10pm

Remember transforming your family's old refrigerator box into a dungeon?

The Stolen Chair Theatre Company has spent the past 6 months training to play like kids for KINDERSPIEL ("Child's Play"), a provocative and playful new production running every weekend in October. We've had such a great time "kinderspieling" that we want to invite everyone we know to come join us for a playdate. We've got loads of free wine and a stage filled with fun objects, and we invite you to get drunk and play with us. Or skip the drinks and just play with us. Or skip the playing and drink all you want while you watch other people play with us. Or sit in a corner and play by yourself while knowing that there are people drinking and watching you play.

$10 gets you the open wine bar and about two hours to recapture your youth in the company of friends and complete strangers.

Space is extremely limited so please RSVP by contacting jon@stolenchair.org.

You can find out more about Kinderspiel at www.kinderspiel.us, where you can also click through to SmartTix and purchase your ticket for the show that Martin Denton calls "required viewing for the theatrically adventurous and those in search of the most provocative and thought-provoking work that indie theater has to offer."

Rants and Raves

Martin Denton from nytheatre.com calls it "required viewing for the theatrically adventurous and those in search of the most provocative and thought-provoking work that indie theater has to offer." (Read more...)

Jerry Portwood from Backstage calls it "obnoxious." (Read more...)

Come to the show and decide for yourself. You can buy your tickets here.

FREE WINE and rave review

If you're dance card's not too full, come on down to the Village tonight and catch the 7:30pm performance of Kinderspiel. We're bringing a case of wine in and we want to leave empty handed so it's your civic duty to come and drink our free wine.

And while you go order your tickets, make sure to browse Aaron Riccio's rave review of the show over at New Theater Corps. A snippet:

Stolen Chair bills itself as a company dedicated to the "theft" of "historical performance styles," but it's a crime for which they'd never be convicted. Between this and their recent Commedia dell'Artemisia, they're dramatic Robin Hoods, stealing from a rich theatrical past and producing for a poorly educated present, and I look forward to their next production.

Open for business

Nice loud house last night and we have a big Friday night crowd waiting for us tonight.

I'll post thoughts on the weekend as a whole this Sunday, but here is what the esteemable Mister John Clancy had to say (full disclosure: in addition to being the co-founder of FringeNYC, an Obie-Award winning director, the author of the totally kick-ass Fatboy, and the first winner of the Edinburgh International Festival Award, John and his wife Nancy have been Stolen Chair's consultants for about a year now, advising us as we move forward to the company's 2nd five years):

"Once again, Stolen Chair demonstates what a company can achieve when it commits to the discipline and sacrifice of the laboratory process. Kinderspiel has all of this company's burgeoning trademarks: exquisite, surprising language, fluid, meticulous direction and mesmerizing and courageous performances from an outstanding ensemble. It is a pleasure to watch this young company grow in strength and confidence."

Only 11 performances left! Buy your tickets now...

My goodness that Jon Stancato is a handsome fellow

Check out the Horse Trade roundtable from NYtheatrecast, featuring Stolen Chair's director Jon Stancato chatting about Kinderspiel (have you bought your tickets yet? We open in a few hours...) and the rest of Horse Trade's October productions with tech god Justin Sturges, director johnmichael rossi, and writer/director Todd Michael.

8 weeks of tech rehearsals

So, to give you some light reading material while you BUY YOUR TICKETS to Kinderspiel, I thought I would muse a little bit about what's going on in our final stages of rehearsal (we open Thursday, people!).

After what was positively the most pleasant cue-to-cue we've ever had (after what has easily been the most challenging rehearsal process we've ever had), Emily had this simple but brilliant realization:

In the lead-up to the past nine shows which have, as Jimmy Comtois says, since gone to the great production in the sky, we spent almost all of our last 20 hours of rehearsal dealing with tech issues, principally trying to figure out the most artful and least stupid ways of transitioning from scene to scene, a task made especially arduous by our CineTheatre projects, which usually have short scenes alternating between quite a few different locations, each with their own set. This time around, our evil-genius-set-designer-David has surpassed his genius if not his evil in providing us with a devilishly organic set which requires no interscene physical transformations (which is not to say his last 4 sets weren't brilliant cuz...um...they frickin' are!). What this means, however, is that we've spent every rehearsal since day one working out how the stage action itself can creatively transform the set over the course of a given scene. So, essentially, we've had about eight weeks of the logistically maddening what-goes-where-wait-when-was-that-supposed-to-be-preset rehearsals as we've simultaneously tried to develop a new work (with an original script) from the ground up.

The good news: instead of spending each minute up until opening night's curtain trying to work out how to cover the sound of dropping venetian blinds with a trumpet riff, we get to spend these last few hours delving even deeper (does anyone ever use the word "delve" for anything but that cliche?) into understanding the play's rhythms. And this is good.

Rehearsal in the morning tomorrow. An excerpt of the play performed at the Fourth Arts Block Festival in the afternoon. Rehearsal all day Sunday. A little brush-up on Tuesday and then we'll see some of you for Thursday's opening night.

Oh, and by the by, if you or someone you know is an artist (of any breed) whose work draws inspiration from the aesthetic, politics, or literature of 1920s Berlin, please let me know as we'll be kicking off our interview series next week.

Kinderspiel website launch and press photos

Jeez it's been awhile since I've posted. If you haven't already figured it out while browsing stolenchair.org, we are in the thick of final rehearsals for Kinderspiel. This piece has challenged us to go to so many new places that my mind will continue reeling well into the winter. There's so much I've wanted to write about but I'm reluctant to run my mouth off and reveal too much about the show now that audiences are about to close the creative circuit with us...and it's about time! After 6 months of fooling around in a basement on St. Marks Place, I'm really curious about how the heck this fruit of our collective loin is gonna feel in front of an audience (heh heh heh, we're going to feel our loin's fruit while you watch!)

The official website with snazzy flash bling by Aviva Meyer is at kinderspiel.us.

You can buy tickets there or here.

You can look at some pretty photos here, also courtesy of Aviva Meyer.




Kinderspiel opens October 4 and I'll hopefully get back into my once-weekly posting schedule.