Nero/Pseudo: Meet Sarah Ripper

(As part of my blogging about Nero/Pseudo here at Balkans via Bohemia, I will be introducing readers to members of the cast and creative team of the show. Today it's our amazing movement coach Sarah Ripper.)

So much of the joy in watching a play you've written take shape is watching actors move and make the words and gestures real.

Nero/Pseudo director Patrick Pearson asked Sarah Ripper to be the production's movement coach, and her talent and positivity and energy are rippling through our production.

Sarah earned her M.A. in Educational Theatre from NYU, and received her B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Sam Houston State University. In 2008-2009 she toured Asia in Cinderella (Ensemble), starring Tony Award Winner Lea Salonga. Her original work credits include Looking For Billy Haines (Swing), Forward Flux's production of Robot Songs (Woman #1) at Theatre Lab in NYC, and the world premier of Deborah Zoe Laufer's META (co-choreographer) at NYU Steinhardt. Sarah is also a teaching artist at Acting Out! in Brooklyn, NY.

I was delighted that Sarah was willing to answer the playwright's three questions about the Nero/Pseudo experience:

Who is your favorite person/god from antiquity?

The Goddess Demeter. She was the nurturing, protective, and agricultural goddess...basically mother Earth. I find it fascinating that when her daughter was held captive by Hades four months a year, she took her vengeance on the world and created winter. Don't mess with Demeter!

What's the strangest fact about the ancient world or glam rock that you've learned from this experience?

When doing some research of female glam rock artists, I came across the name Jayne County, who was rock's first transsexual singer. I find it strange that I never heard of Jayne until now. Check out her song and performance of "Are You Man Enough to Be a Woman?"

If you were Empress for a day, what would be your first decree? 

My first decree would be that everyone would love and treat others as they would love to be treated. Love, peace, and rock 'n roll!

Nero/Pseudo previews open at The Shop at Fort Fringe on Friday, May 2. Find out more about the play at WSC Avant Bard. Tickets are now on sale. 

Nero/Pseudo: Meet Laura Schlachtmeyer

(As part of my blogging about Nero/Pseudo here at Balkans via Bohemia, I will be introducing readers to members of the cast and creative team of the show. Today I feature stage manager Laura Schlachtmeyer.) 

Nothing really happens on a production without the stage manager. Our production of Nero/Pseudo at WSC Avant Bard is extraordinarily fortunate to have landed Laura Schlachtmeyer -- a recent arrival in DC -- to make our chariots run on time.

This is how fortunate we are: Laura received the 2011 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Stage Manager. It is the only such award for stage managers in the United States.

Laura has worked from coast to coast as a stage manager, from Tony N' Tina's Wedding (Chicago) to Killing My Lobster sketch comedy (San Francisco) to a position as a technical collaborator with the New York Neo-Futurists.

Laura is also a playwright whose short plays have been featured in the EstroGenius and InGenius festivals at Manhattan Theatre Source. She has also produced several independent sci-fi feature films. (Yes, they are on Netflix and iTunes!)

Even closer to the playwright's heart, however, is that Laura has translated plays by two of his favorite German dramatists: Georg Büchner (Woyzeck) and Ernst Toller (Masse Mensch). Both translations were also produced at Manhattan Theatre Source.

Would Laura consider a trifecta and translate Odon von Horvath's late (and still untranslated into English) play Pompeji: Komödie eines Erdbeben? I haven't asked her yet. Perhaps she's had enough of Rome. But she did answer the playwright's three questions about the Nero/Pseudo experience.

Who is your favorite person/god from antiquity?

I like all the monsters, as a general group. It would be awesome and scary to live in the same world as all those Scyllas and Charybdises and Hydras and Sirens and Gorgons and Minotaurs and Sphinxes.

What's the strangest fact about the ancient world or glam rock that you've learned from this experience?

Auguries are neat. It's such a natural human urge to want to predict the future and get guidance for our choices. And there's something beautiful about the idea that all life is connected, to the point that human events can be connected to natural events like birds in flight. I can't exactly think of a glam-rock equivalent. But I think we all know the feeling when that certain song comes on the radio, and we interpret it as a good or bad omen. (People still listen to the radio, right? Sometimes? In the car maybe?)

If you were Emperor for a day, what would be your first decree? 

See, the hardest part of being a supreme ruler is to feel sure that your decrees are really helping people. That's why as Emperor I would make keys illegal. (I wouldn't concern myself with what keys are replaced by, if anything. Biometrics. Voice recognition. Abolition of property ownership. Whatever.) That way I would be sure that everyone gets at least 5 minutes back in their day -- the time they would have otherwise spent looking for their keys. People would get where they were going on time, productivity would go up, and the welfare of my Empire would be secured.

Nero/Pseudo: Dress for Success

(One of the terrific things about writing a play that gleefully mashes up the ancient world and the age of glam rock is that it really encourages the designers on team let their imaginations run wild. That's been true for Nero/Pseudo costume designer Elizabeth Ennis, who has provided a special guest post for Balkans via Bohemia on her process in designing the costumes for the play.)

I love anachronism. I really do. When used intentionally, I think it can inspire a lot of creativity. So when I get a chance to do a "mash-up" of time periods when costuming a show, I run with it. This is actually my second "mash-up" show for WSC Avant Bard (back in November I costumed King John as a cross between Medieval England and Cold War America), so I've taken this approach before -- looking at the Ancient world through the lens of the 20th Century.

In the case of Nero/Pseudo, we're imagining how a 1970's glam rocker might have interpreted Roman history. For my research I looked at movies and TV shows that were produced in the late 60's to early 70's and that were set in Ancient Greece or Rome. My favorite material actually comes from Star Trek: The Original Series. I've been a Trekkie since middle school, and I especially love the costume designs by William Ware Theiss. He did some incredibly imaginative work. There were several episodes when the Enterprise crew encountered worlds and characters from ancient history, and that's where I got a lot of my inspiration. Theiss made all these gorgeously draped dressed in psychedelic prints and shimmering lamé fabrics. And of course, over-the-top hair and make-up. That's what I'm aiming for in Nero/Pseudo.

Elizabeth also cheerfully answered the playwright's three questions about the Nero/Pseudo experience:


Who is your favorite person/god from antiquity?

Themistocles. One of my favorite things I learned in 11th grade World Civ was the story of his victory over Xerxes at Salamis during the Greco-Persian War. It involved strategy, subterfuge, and the exploitation of Xerxes' ego. I remember thinking it was the coolest, cleverest, most inspiring piece of history I had ever heard. Somehow I don't think 300: Rise of an Empire did it justice.

What's the strangest fact about the ancient world or glam rock that you've learned from this experience?

For me personally, the strangest fact is that I've made it this far with out becoming totally obsessed with David Bowie. It was overdue, and now I can't stop listening to "Life on Mars." And what a fashion icon he was! I want this suit. Who doesn't?

If you were Empress for a day, what would be your first decree?

More sequins. FOR EVERYONE.

Nero/Pseudo previews open at The Shop at Fort Fringe on Friday May 2. Find out more about the play at WSC Avant Bard. Tickets are now on sale. 

Nero/Pseudo: Meet John-Michael d’Haviland

(As part of my blogging about Nero/Pseudo here at Balkans via Bohemia, I will be introducing readers to members of the cast and creative team of the show.) 

One of the real pleasures of the Nero/Pseudo process has been getting to know our music director John-Michael d’Haviland. He's got a terrific ear and has worked with the actors closely to get them as a glam as possible before we start our previews.

John-Michael holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Music from George Mason University. Since 2001, he has received twelve WATCH (Washington Area Theater Community Honors) Award nominations for “Outstanding Music Direction.” In 2011, he received a WATCH AWARD for “Outstanding Music Direction” of Rent and again in 2013, for A Little Night Music. Also an active actor and musical theater performer, some of his favorite roles include Coalhouse Walker, Jr., (Ragtime), Noah “Horse” Simmons, (The Full Monty), Jake (Side Show), Eddie Mackrel (The Wild Party, LaChiusa) and Tom Collins (Rent).

John-Michael also has worked at the Keegan Theatre, Arena Stage, and Round House Theater as a musical theater and vocal instructor. He trained at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.

His answers to the playwright's three questions about the Nero/Pseudo process are succinct but deep. Very much like JM is in the rehearsal room.

Who is your favorite person/god from antiquity?

Haha...random one -- the 100-handed ones, the Hekatonkheires. Been fascinated by those giants, since I was a kid.

What's the strangest fact about the ancient world or glam rock that you've learned from this experience?

How musically diverse glam-rock is and the outrageously awesome fashion that emerged from it.

If you were Emperor for a day, what would be your first decree? 

Teachers and artists would, forever, be paid in the same salary range as professional basketball and football coaches.

Nero/Pseudo previews open at The Shop at Fort Fringe on Friday May 2. Find out more about the play at WSC Avant Bard. Tickets are now on sale.