Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
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Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to Being Frank, where the only
Speaker 2: way to be is Frank. I'm your host, Frank were
Speaker 2: going on. I'd like to thank you for joining us
Speaker 2: on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation podcast,
Speaker 2: where no conversations out of bounds and all points of
Speaker 2: view are welcome. You know, we record live pape. When
Speaker 2: I give you the date so you have context and relevance,
Speaker 2: it is the twenty fifth of June. You know, there
Speaker 2: seems to be no shortage of bad news today. Global conflict,
Speaker 2: political violence at home in an almost unbearable heat wave
Speaker 2: have left many people in a state of shock and
Speaker 2: looking for some kind of relief. Well, we have two
Speaker 2: great guests for this episode of Being Frank will offer
Speaker 2: their intelligent conversation and real alternative with some great diversions
Speaker 2: this summer and beyond. For the second half of our program,
Speaker 2: will be joined by Anthony Marinelli, editor, director, writer, filmmaker
Speaker 2: at an Hill Productions, and he will be discussing his
Speaker 2: role as director for the Center Players of Freeholds production
Speaker 2: of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. But before we
Speaker 2: meet Anthony again, he has been on once before. Our
Speaker 2: first guest may also be familiar with our listeners, as
Speaker 2: he appeared on Being Frank a few times before. Please
Speaker 2: welcome back for more intelligent conversation. The executive director of
Speaker 2: the Phoenix Festival Live Arts in the Hudson Valley and
Speaker 2: Managing director of at Phoenix Theater ensembled mister Craig Smith.
Speaker 2: So all part of being Frank Craig is a complaining
Speaker 2: about the weather and then be stumbling through my intro.
Speaker 2: That's an inside joke between Craig and guys. But anyway,
Speaker 2: now that we've got that out of our system, Craig,
Speaker 2: let's refresh people a little bit. As I mentioned, you
Speaker 2: have been on the four in your role as executive director.
Speaker 2: But tell us a little bit more about Phoenix. What
Speaker 2: is it about, where does it come from, and what
Speaker 2: are you about these days.
Speaker 3: Phoenix Theater Ensemble was started in two thousand and four
Speaker 3: in New York City and we still operate in New
Speaker 3: York City. We are basically a performing arts organization in theater.
Speaker 3: We basically do classical theater or adaptations of classical texts,
Speaker 3: so that's what we do. In twenty eighteen, I moved
Speaker 3: to Nyack and my wife, who was the artistic director
Speaker 3: at lease Stone, we moved to Nayak and we were
Speaker 3: I was considering retirement at that time, but I was
Speaker 3: very taken with Nayak and we started talking about doing
Speaker 3: a festival, and that got postponed because of COVID and
Speaker 3: things like that. And in twenty twenty two we had
Speaker 3: our first Performing Arts festival in Nyack and in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, twenty four. Coming up this year will be
Speaker 3: our fourth annual festival, a festival of theater theater companies
Speaker 3: from New York City, independent New York theater companies that
Speaker 3: we maybe wouldn't normally see that are very exciting and
Speaker 3: cutting edge kind of thing about the kind of they
Speaker 3: what they have. And then we also have dance and
Speaker 3: we have music, and this year we have fourteen shows
Speaker 3: over sixteen days from October second to October sixteen, and
Speaker 3: all the venues are within the village of Nayak, So
Speaker 3: we have performances at the Nayak Center, at the library,
Speaker 3: at the upstairs room of the Hudson House, Rose Hall
Speaker 3: at Paradise, at the Prohibition River, et cetera. So it
Speaker 3: really is like a celebration where we want to bring
Speaker 3: in a holistic celebration of the community as well the
Speaker 3: performing arts that we do. So that that's what we do.
Speaker 3: And I can't believe we're we're on our fourth year
Speaker 3: doing this. It's been a lot of work, but it's
Speaker 3: also been very exciting, you know, and.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about how ambitious that is. You know,
Speaker 2: you kind of roll through it, but you talked about
Speaker 2: the amount of performances, and it's one thing to handle
Speaker 2: a single stage and staging area, if you will, that
Speaker 2: presents its own difficulties, but to have all these different
Speaker 2: productions and all these different venues must present a unique
Speaker 2: set of challenges for you, Craig, talk a little bit
Speaker 2: about that and how you handle the logistics must be enormous.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, at least really handles all of that. So
Speaker 3: I know it's a lot of work. You know, women
Speaker 3: do the heavy lift they do, and you know, it's
Speaker 3: about eighteen months of work and we have to we
Speaker 3: have to have all the contracts with all of the
Speaker 3: performance that are coming in and then we the contract
Speaker 3: with each of the venues and all of that, and
Speaker 3: then we have to get the marketing program going and
Speaker 3: things like that. So it's it's extraordinary. But we've been
Speaker 3: doing theater for like a long time, and you know,
Speaker 3: theater teaches you how to handle many things and have
Speaker 3: many balls in the air at the same time, and
Speaker 3: we've adapted to it. So it is an extraordinary amount
Speaker 3: of work we could. We actually got it all buttoned
Speaker 3: up earlier this year than we did last year. We
Speaker 3: were getting close to August when we were dealing with
Speaker 3: our final our final performances and things like that. But
Speaker 3: everything is set now and now all we have to
Speaker 3: do is sell tickets, which is of course a gargantuan
Speaker 3: challenge for us as well.
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, we have to talk about that
Speaker 2: and I'm working on something a separate issue of sustainability network,
Speaker 2: if you will, dealing with all issues sustainable, but we
Speaker 2: have to sustain the network, you know, to be able
Speaker 2: to talk about sustainability. So you know, there's that issue
Speaker 2: of you know, the reality of running these organizations and
Speaker 2: I'm want to get that into that a little bit more,
Speaker 2: a little bit further on in our conversation and how
Speaker 2: you deal with that, especially with the change in climate
Speaker 2: that has been presented by the new administration. We'll talk
Speaker 2: about that in a minute. But there's one really important
Speaker 2: point that you made earlier that I really want to
Speaker 2: get back to, and that's your engagement with the community,
Speaker 2: you know, and that seems to be really one of
Speaker 2: the most the paramount of paramount importance in your mission statement.
Speaker 2: If you will talk a little bit about how that
Speaker 2: drives you in why community engagement is important and how
Speaker 2: you directly engage with the community.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thank you. The tenets of Phoenix Theater Ensemble
Speaker 3: are artistic excellence company, are ensemble of artists, and then community.
Speaker 3: And when we came to Nayak, we started out early,
Speaker 3: you know, and talking to community leaders and political representatives
Speaker 3: and talking about the idea and seeing if they were
Speaker 3: interested in it, and they thought it would be good
Speaker 3: for the community, and they said yes. And then we
Speaker 3: started talking to the local business owners as well, so
Speaker 3: I feel like it's a unique collaboration between small business
Speaker 3: and the arts. You know, they support us. And then
Speaker 3: we bring in audience members into Nyak and into Rockland,
Speaker 3: and audience members come into Rockland and ninety percent we
Speaker 3: take it. We do a lot of surveys. Ninety percent
Speaker 3: of them said they're going to eat eat in Nayak,
Speaker 3: So where else are they going to eat? They're going
Speaker 3: to be a Niak And eighty percent of them are
Speaker 3: going to shop in Nayak. Twenty four percent of them
Speaker 3: are going to spend the night in Nayak.
Speaker 2: So these are.
Speaker 3: All very important, you know, pieces of data for us,
Speaker 3: and we provide that back to our sponsors. Last year
Speaker 3: we had about twenty five or twenty seven sponsors from
Speaker 3: the local community, and this year we have a lot
Speaker 3: of new spats. And it's surprising because I'm a member
Speaker 3: of Business Network International B and I, and I go
Speaker 3: to these meetings on Friday morning at eight o'clock in
Speaker 3: the morning and a diner, and I'm there with plumbers
Speaker 3: and contractors and attorneys and you know, mortgage people and
Speaker 3: things like that. What am I doing here? You know,
Speaker 3: we're performing arts, but we have really developed amazing relationships.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that we have to do
Speaker 3: that when you're talking about public art and supporting the
Speaker 3: art you have you have to appeal to the higher
Speaker 3: selves of these people and it's not just about selling
Speaker 3: windows or doors or siding or insulation. What we're doing
Speaker 3: is we're trying to make the community a better place,
Speaker 3: a better place to live, a better place to work in,
Speaker 3: a better place to play. And that has Kess catering
Speaker 3: benefits down from real estate and the contracts. People want
Speaker 3: to come. They want to come to nyak in Rockland County.
Speaker 3: They want to live here, they want to develop it,
Speaker 3: they want to have their families here, they want to
Speaker 3: go to school here, and they want to take part
Speaker 3: in the arts. So all of that, if we do
Speaker 3: it correctly, if we have a robust arts program in
Speaker 3: Rockland County, that is going to have benefits all to
Speaker 3: all of these other businesses as well. You know, in
Speaker 3: the nineteen seventies, as I understand, I'm still relatively new
Speaker 3: to Nyakua, in the nineteen seventies, it was antiques. People
Speaker 3: came to niak to do antiques, and then now it's
Speaker 3: mostly the nightlife. But the nightlife isn't necessarily the demographics
Speaker 3: that everybody wants. But what we haven't really really concentrated
Speaker 3: on are the arts. We have fabulous, fabulous arts organizations
Speaker 3: in this county. And if we can start to work
Speaker 3: together and elaborate and you know, work together on marketing
Speaker 3: and all that kind of stuff. Come to Rockland County,
Speaker 3: you know, come and see Arts rock Come and see
Speaker 3: Penguin rep. Come and see Elmwood, come and see us,
Speaker 3: you know, and there's no sense of competition. What is
Speaker 3: good for one is good for everyone, and I think
Speaker 3: that that could be key. We have already had success.
Speaker 3: We have tourists coming. We have sixty percent of other
Speaker 3: people that come in are tourists from outside of Rockland,
Speaker 3: from the Tri State area, but also national and we
Speaker 3: have some international tourists as well. I can tell you
Speaker 3: right now that that's going to stop because of the administration.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's that we've had a festival coming. Festival attendees come
Speaker 3: from England, from Spain, you know, from Argentina, and all
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. And that's very, very exciting to
Speaker 3: us because that's the kind of growth that we want
Speaker 3: to do. But right now that that doesn't look so good.
Speaker 3: So we have to really concentrate on the Tri state
Speaker 3: area in the national area. But the arts can be
Speaker 3: an economic driver if we all start working together, if
Speaker 3: we get rid of our silos, every organization has their
Speaker 3: own their own marketing program, their own development program, their
Speaker 3: own production program, and they're all going after the same money.
Speaker 3: If it's easy to say this, but but I think
Speaker 3: that if we can develop a kind of coordination, coordinated
Speaker 3: effort on behalf, everybody is going to gain by it.
Speaker 2: Well, how do you how in a logical sense, how
Speaker 2: would you create that kind of synergy?
Speaker 3: Well, that, of course is the big question I do.
Speaker 2: On the microphone. I get to put the hard questions
Speaker 2: to you, guys.
Speaker 3: I've spoken to some of them, and I think, you know, well,
Speaker 3: we all have galas, we all have fundraising events, UH
Speaker 3: and uh and we're all you know and and and
Speaker 3: everybody is going is it possible for uh Phoenix for
Speaker 3: Phoenix Festival and Bridges for instance, which which deals with
Speaker 3: UHL And they seem like two very divergent ones. But
Speaker 3: could they work together on a single gala and we
Speaker 3: both got our own mainly list, we would we could
Speaker 3: save money on all of this, you know, all all
Speaker 3: of the the event, the venue that we'd have to rent,
Speaker 3: the catering and all that kind of stuff. But we
Speaker 3: could work together and do that kind of thing that
Speaker 3: would work also there could be dual, that could be
Speaker 3: multi sponsored subscriptions to different places. Okay, buy a subscription
Speaker 3: here and that subscription will get you into the Hopper House.
Speaker 3: Buy a subscription here and that will also get you
Speaker 3: to the Brick Museum. Buy a subscription here and that
Speaker 3: will get you to Bridge Music. So that that kind
Speaker 3: of coordination of marketing I think could be very useful
Speaker 3: as well. But it takes a lot of work and
Speaker 3: a lot of you know, cooperation. Uh. And I've been
Speaker 3: talking about this for about the last six months. See
Speaker 3: if people get tired of listening to it. But but
Speaker 3: I think that there are some answers there.
Speaker 2: You know, I noticed, and you have a strong social
Speaker 2: media presence, you know the Theater of Phoenix as well
Speaker 2: as yourself. And I noticed something quite in my eye
Speaker 2: about an acting class that's being offered. I found that interesting.
Speaker 2: Talk a little bit about that. So, in other words,
Speaker 2: you're not just doing theater as an education, and again
Speaker 2: that's part of your community engagement, which I thought it
Speaker 2: was interesting. Give us some more detail on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna have classes at the Angel. The people
Speaker 3: who don't know The Angel is the Reformed Church on Broadway,
Speaker 3: which was purchasing. Now is an event side and it's fabulous.
Speaker 3: It's the kind of thing that I really needs. We're
Speaker 3: doing several of our festival performances there, and we're transferring
Speaker 3: our acting classes to there. We do classical theater. Okay,
Speaker 3: there's been a I go and I see players and
Speaker 3: I can't I can't hear. The people are literally five
Speaker 3: feet away from me, and I cannot hear what they're saying.
Speaker 3: And they're not using their voice. The voice this has
Speaker 3: been lost and and and I'm old school about this. Listen.
Speaker 3: I when I was a young actor and working in
Speaker 3: New York City, we took we took voice classes every week.
Speaker 3: We took dancing classes every week, We took stage stage
Speaker 3: comeback classes every week. And what you have is you
Speaker 3: end up with highly skilled, classically trained actors who can
Speaker 3: handle most of the of any kind of issues or
Speaker 3: challenges that they have. They got the chops, the chops
Speaker 3: to do it. Uh. And what I see right now,
Speaker 3: and I think it's amplification has really caused there are
Speaker 3: shows that we really need to have that kind of energy,
Speaker 3: that kind of sound, that kind of that that is
Speaker 3: coming out of the performer to the audience and that
Speaker 3: that energy will come back to you. But if it
Speaker 3: is amplified and they're talking like this and they're talking
Speaker 3: like this, there's no energy going on. So this, this
Speaker 3: is this is a pet project of mine as well.
Speaker 3: Uh at least is going to be the key teacher
Speaker 3: of this year is a fabulous teacher. So it doesn't
Speaker 3: have to be you know, uh, people who are already actors.
Speaker 3: I talked to my B and I people and I said,
Speaker 3: developing your acting skills are going to help you in
Speaker 3: your business in whatever you're doing, you know, and it's
Speaker 3: it's going to give you a kind of confidence, and
Speaker 3: it's it's and it's also developing the inner self and
Speaker 3: how you can get your your your feeling, your feelings
Speaker 3: and your emotions out to people, whether it's presentations or
Speaker 3: even just sitting back and and and doing your business
Speaker 3: on a data data, day by day process. Theater people,
Speaker 3: theater trained people can do anything because they're smart and
Speaker 3: nonprofit theater people can really do anything because they do
Speaker 3: it with nothing. They do it with nothing. I mean
Speaker 3: when we started this festival, we had nothing. We had
Speaker 3: we had an idea and we had to create it
Speaker 3: out of nothing. And it's still it's it's still a
Speaker 3: tremendous challenge. A lot of people think that because of
Speaker 3: our social media presidence, our marketing presidents, that that the
Speaker 3: Phoenix stated Phoenix Phoenix Festival has money. We don't have money.
Speaker 3: The last year I got seven thousand dollars because of
Speaker 3: acting I did for a Phoenix Festival. That was the
Speaker 3: extent of it, and at least gets about the same
Speaker 3: amount of money. But the rest of it we volunteer.
Speaker 3: We push it out because the engine, the engine that
Speaker 3: pushes us forward is the passion, the passion to do
Speaker 3: bring these pieces of work to a new audience, and
Speaker 3: it can be enormously rewarding.
Speaker 2: Well, with that in mind, perfect segue into this question,
Speaker 2: is local theater still relevant and why is it important
Speaker 2: to continue, especially if it's so difficult.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I mean when we when we came in here
Speaker 3: one we had connections with Elmwood, h We knew some
Speaker 3: of the people at Elmwood and all of that, and
Speaker 3: we had seen Elmwood and I think Elmwood is just terrific.
Speaker 2: Wonderful guessed on our show a number of times, a great,
Speaker 2: wonderful local.
Speaker 3: There there are two kinds of theater. There's theater that
Speaker 3: is good and theater that is not so good, and
Speaker 3: Elmwood does good theater. So it's it's threefoward. They've been
Speaker 3: around for seventy years, and yeah, it's part of the fabric,
Speaker 3: part of the fabric of our community. It's like you
Speaker 3: go and you have lunch someplace, and then you say,
Speaker 3: then you go and you're purchasing something, and you say,
Speaker 3: what are we doing tonight. Let's go to Elmwood. Let's
Speaker 3: let you know, let let's let's have a subscription and
Speaker 3: go there and then let's go out and have drinks afterwards.
Speaker 3: And that that is part of the whole milieu and
Speaker 3: the environment of a community, and that that that community
Speaker 3: theater is part of of that community and that environment.
Speaker 2: Now we've mentioned to the current climate has obviously changed.
Speaker 2: DEI has been eliminated in many cases, which affects so
Speaker 2: many community organizations, et cetera, funding, National Endowment for the Arts,
Speaker 2: et cetera. I could go on, I don't need to
Speaker 2: just say that it's bad. So within this climate, Greg,
Speaker 2: what what what are you guys doing to try to
Speaker 2: meet these new challenges? Then you know, talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about that what.
Speaker 3: Can These are real challenges. I mean, you know it,
Speaker 3: it's extraordinary. We are living through astonishing times, and we're
Speaker 3: living through astonishing times, and are we going to survive it?
Speaker 3: You know? I wake up each morning and look at
Speaker 3: and say, you know, what happened last night? You know
Speaker 3: what what new challenges are we going to hit?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: The National Endowment of the Arts is basically gone. The
Speaker 3: National Endowment for the Humanities is basically gone for us.
Speaker 3: That's a loss of twenty thousand dollars plus, you know,
Speaker 3: and we are founded on diversity, equity, and inclusion. I
Speaker 3: do not understand how these words have become so negative.
Speaker 3: It is so wrong. You know, if we hire a
Speaker 3: Hispanic actor, it doesn't mean that that we're pushing white
Speaker 3: actress out of the way. You know. We want to
Speaker 3: level the playing field so everyone has an opportunity. And
Speaker 3: we have a resident ensemble, and our ensemble is incredibly diverse,
Speaker 3: and it is important for us that the work that
Speaker 3: we do is representational of the audience that comes to
Speaker 3: see it. One of the things that is very difficult
Speaker 3: in most of the performing arts is getting people of
Speaker 3: color into your audience to see your productions and everybody thinks, well, yeah,
Speaker 3: they say, well, let's just over the price. Well that
Speaker 3: you know, that's kind of a slap, isn't it that
Speaker 3: they don't have twenty five dollars?
Speaker 2: It's man.
Speaker 3: But what what we have to do is when they
Speaker 3: go to the theater, they have to see their people
Speaker 3: on stage and represented equally. Uh, and that that that
Speaker 3: that has to happen. And when when we start doing that,
Speaker 3: you know, then you start seeing that that audience starts
Speaker 3: to filter in as well. There are barriers. There are
Speaker 3: barriers with underrepresentative, underrepresented communities who don't know about they
Speaker 3: don't know I say, oh, well, how do you order
Speaker 3: a ticket? You know? And and how am I supposed
Speaker 3: to act? You know? And do I do this? So
Speaker 3: all these barriers happen. So when we do plays that
Speaker 3: are outside of a brick and mortar building and they're
Speaker 3: done in a bar, or they're done in a restaurant,
Speaker 3: or they're done in something like that, it gets rid
Speaker 3: of some of those bare So those are some of
Speaker 3: the things we did. And this doesn't happen overnight. You know,
Speaker 3: you don't. You don't you don't start seeing that audience
Speaker 3: come in overnight. You know, it's it takes time. Building
Speaker 3: relationships and building trust is so important.
Speaker 2: Now. I know you mentioned the festival mostly in October,
Speaker 2: but you're busy in the meantime. You mentioned the acting
Speaker 2: class but also mentioned them very necessary fundraiser and you
Speaker 2: have one coming up soon at the wonderful Hand Mansion,
Speaker 2: which is this beautiful uh mansion in Nayak, actually in
Speaker 2: South Nayak. And tell us a little bit about that
Speaker 2: and some of the things you're doing to to keep
Speaker 2: driving things forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just one thing going back, just a little bit.
Speaker 3: You know about the loss of the federal funding. What
Speaker 3: we are really doing is we're concentrating on the local
Speaker 3: and the state seems to be stepping up. They seem
Speaker 3: to be you know, and and and having more opportunities
Speaker 3: for us as well. And then and then we're dealing
Speaker 3: with our new sponsors and things like that. Is we
Speaker 3: made our sponsorship is very affordable, so a small business
Speaker 3: can come in for three hundred and fifty dollars and
Speaker 3: they get a very robust marketing campaign for that, They
Speaker 3: get invited to the gala, they get free tickets, they
Speaker 3: get all that kind of thing. And for nonprofits in
Speaker 3: working with nonprofits. The nonprofits, it's one hundred and seventy
Speaker 3: five dollars and then that and our marketing starts as
Speaker 3: soon as we get that and goes through December the
Speaker 3: end of December, so they really get a full package
Speaker 3: of that. So that and we're looking and saying can
Speaker 3: we replace what we have lost with volume? And we've
Speaker 3: taken down the prices, you know, the sponsorship, the sponsorship
Speaker 3: fees from five hundred dollars to three hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: dollars and then we're being successful so far. So that's
Speaker 3: one of the things that we're trying to do. Yeah
Speaker 3: with the hand mansion.
Speaker 2: A hand mansion, yeah from the area if ever. It's
Speaker 2: located on Franklin Street. It's a magnificent building and grounds.
Speaker 3: The grounds are fabulous and Guy and Lucian are fans
Speaker 3: at the festival. They came and saw crime and punishment
Speaker 3: and they've talked to us and they said, what is
Speaker 3: it that we can do for you? This is all
Speaker 3: again a part of this you know, community engagement. And
Speaker 3: we said, oh, well you have a beautiful house, beautiful grounds.
Speaker 3: That's and they said, yes, you know, just do what
Speaker 3: you need to do. So we're having this. It's going
Speaker 3: to be on Sunday, July twentieth. We decided not to
Speaker 3: try to promote it today because the temperature is about
Speaker 3: one hundred degrees and you start telling people, Oh, we're
Speaker 3: going to have a lovely outside program.
Speaker 2: And oh please come, you know, so we're going.
Speaker 3: To start that the promotion of that on Thursday. It's
Speaker 3: going to be great. We're going to have we have
Speaker 3: an Irish band that's coming in. We got some catering.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be Prosecca, we're gonna have Bubbly, We're gonna
Speaker 3: have some snacks that are there, and then we have
Speaker 3: these surprise that pop ups. We have members of our
Speaker 3: company who are coming in and to be at least
Speaker 3: says I shouldn't say this, but there's gonna be a
Speaker 3: thing during the course of the afternoon somebody, somebody's is
Speaker 3: gonna ring a bell and the people and the person
Speaker 3: that you are sitting across from is going to get
Speaker 3: up and start doing a monologue or doing the scene.
Speaker 3: And then then that's gonna be a two minute scene,
Speaker 3: and then that one's gonna get then they're gonna drink
Speaker 3: some more, and then you're gonna ring another bell and
Speaker 3: then there's gonna be all this this stuff surprises that
Speaker 3: are gonna happen. I'm really looking forward to. I think
Speaker 3: it's gonna be lots of fun. Uh So, I hope
Speaker 3: people will come to that that the tickets start at
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars fully tax deductible. I want, you know,
Speaker 3: I want the community to please come and see that.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a great time. You should come
Speaker 3: just to see the hand Mansion, even if you don't
Speaker 3: care about Phoenix Festival and you don't care about Poppas,
Speaker 3: just come and see the hand Mansion in the grounds
Speaker 3: because the views the grounds of spectacular. The views of
Speaker 3: the Hudson River from there are also spectacular. So we're
Speaker 3: looking forward to. We have a performance coming up on
Speaker 3: Saturday's this Saturday, June twenty eighth, of the Forever Walls,
Speaker 3: which is the Orpheus and Urbidicy program a myth but
Speaker 3: there's a twist to it. It's going to be great.
Speaker 2: Where is that? Where is that?
Speaker 3: It's going to be a Ripley Greer Studios, the performance
Speaker 3: space on It's on thirty eighth Street. It's in Chelsea
Speaker 3: in New York City. I'm hoping that we can bring
Speaker 3: that to Nayak as well. This is one of the
Speaker 3: things that we found. We have reciprocal. We have a
Speaker 3: foothold in New York City and then we have a
Speaker 3: foothold in Rockland, and both are feeding each other. We
Speaker 3: debuted crime and punishment and drinks with dead poets in
Speaker 3: the festival last year. Then they were very successful. So
Speaker 3: then we took them to New York and we did
Speaker 3: a short off Broadway run for them. And then we
Speaker 3: have Wind in the Willows, which we started in New
Speaker 3: York City, and then we brought that to Nayak to
Speaker 3: the festival as well. So this kind of reciprocal kind
Speaker 3: of thing between the two things. I don't think there's
Speaker 3: anybody else who has this kind of reciprocal thing between
Speaker 3: the urban center which is New York City, and of
Speaker 3: course everybody in New York City thinks that Nayak is
Speaker 3: next to Albany and is way upstate and in a
Speaker 3: rural area, and I say, no, it's not really, But
Speaker 3: we do draw from what we do have a rural
Speaker 3: audience that comes and sees our stuff. But this is
Speaker 3: a very exciting person see this as a path forward,
Speaker 3: you know, from We have not recovered from the pandemic yet.
Speaker 3: When the pandemic happened in twenty twenty, you know, people
Speaker 3: think that we've recovered. It's all over. It's not over.
Speaker 3: It's not over for ours organizations. We lost artists, artists
Speaker 3: who left the profess because they it's based on a
Speaker 3: gig economy. They couldn't afford to say around. And then
Speaker 3: we lost audiences over that period. And with that loss
Speaker 3: of audience, we also lost audience contributions as well. So
Speaker 3: we're trying to recover from that. And one of the
Speaker 3: things that we are doing is the festival is more
Speaker 3: than just seeing a play. It's an event. You're coming
Speaker 3: to this beautiful, beautiful river village on the Hudson River
Speaker 3: and it's only twenty four miles of New York City,
Speaker 3: and you're going to explore the village and you're going
Speaker 3: to see productions in the village. And people love going
Speaker 3: to like the upstairs room at the Hudson House and
Speaker 3: having drinks and seeing a play. Now it's extraordinarily difficult
Speaker 3: for us because there are no dressing rooms, there's no
Speaker 3: prop storage, and you know, we have to make do
Speaker 3: with all of that. But we we're theater people. We
Speaker 3: make it work.
Speaker 2: Craig. So now and closing, how can people get find
Speaker 2: out more information, get in touch with you? Now's the time,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: The easiest thing to do is you go on Google
Speaker 3: and you type the word NYAK and you type the
Speaker 3: word Phoenix and the festival is going to pop up
Speaker 3: right away. That is that's the easiest way to do it.
Speaker 3: And our box office is eight three three six eight
Speaker 3: one four eight zero zero. We are selling tickets now
Speaker 3: that some of these are going to some of these
Speaker 3: shows are going to sell out because we because of
Speaker 3: the venues. We have Lady Day at the Emerson's Bar
Speaker 3: and Grill with his extraordinary, extraordinary actress who's doing Billie
Speaker 3: Holiday for us, and that's it. That's upstairs at the
Speaker 3: road Vision well it it's about fifty people, you know.
Speaker 3: And and if people are going to come to this,
Speaker 3: they have to get their tickets early. I keep telling them.
Speaker 3: If they're going to wait till, you know, late September
Speaker 3: to get their ticket, they're not going to be there.
Speaker 3: And it's the same with some of the other ways.
Speaker 3: We've got Reggie Wilson doing Sugar Ray. We have this
Speaker 3: public works event of of the Crucible, which is going
Speaker 3: to have professional actors and then members of the community
Speaker 3: all coming together to do this performance of Arthur Miller's
Speaker 3: A Crucible and the House on American Activities Committee Larry Parks.
Speaker 3: We have a play written about his taken from his
Speaker 3: testimony in the House an American Activities Committee and written
Speaker 3: by a Hudson Valley playwright, Ron Marquette, who has passed.
Speaker 3: But he's from king He's from Kingston. So then we
Speaker 3: have we have I won't go through all of the
Speaker 3: fourteen shows. So it's it's it's it's really cool.
Speaker 2: It's a it's a really wonderful festival. You guys, you
Speaker 2: at least do a great job your hopes staff does,
Speaker 2: your team does? I highly recommend it. Craig Smith, the
Speaker 2: managing director of Phoenix Theater Ensemble at uh in the
Speaker 2: Live Arts in Hudson Valley. As always, Craig, we really
Speaker 2: appreciate your intelligent conversation here on being Frank.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Frank, and I'm glad you're going to
Speaker 3: do something about the weather.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm working on that. It'll change tomorrow, don't worry.
Speaker 2: I put in a special guys, inside the choke. Those
Speaker 2: who know will know. Don't go anywhere yet. We've got
Speaker 2: a whole half a show coming up with a really
Speaker 2: another fascinating interesting guest, Anthony Maronelli, who's with the Center
Speaker 2: Players and the Millstone Performing Art Center. He'll be here
Speaker 2: to talk about his new play that he's directing, Neil
Speaker 2: Simon's Barefoot in the Park. It's going to be challenging,
Speaker 2: I'm sure, and he'll have a lot to say with
Speaker 2: us when we come back. Right after these brief commercial messages,
Speaker 2: This is Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. Don't
Speaker 2: go anywhere yet. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 3: This is Hudson Riverradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. Thanks
Speaker 2: for sticking with us. You know, I'm your host, Frank
Speaker 2: Leboro of course, and our engineer is the mailman because
Speaker 2: he always delivers. Mister Neil Richter. You know, we bring
Speaker 2: our audience a fresh topic just about every week and
Speaker 2: stream from Hudson River Radio, which is located in beautiful
Speaker 2: and historic Stony Point, New York, and I do mean that,
Speaker 2: but you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your
Speaker 2: favorite podcasts, that includes Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio and the others.
Speaker 2: And because every Being Frank is archived, you can listen
Speaker 2: to any of our programs anytime you like. Find the
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Speaker 2: Find the icon, just click on it and you're there
Speaker 2: listen to any one of our archive programs. All right,
Speaker 2: it's a great pleasure to introduce our next guest. It's
Speaker 2: mister Anthony Marinelli. He is a editor, director, writer, filmmaker
Speaker 2: at an Hill Productions and he's going to discuss his
Speaker 2: role as director for the Center Players of Freehold production
Speaker 2: of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. Anthony, welcome back.
Speaker 2: As I mentioned once before, you have been on the
Speaker 2: program in a slightly different role, but today we want
Speaker 2: to talk about your role as a director for this play,
Speaker 2: Barefoot in the Park. Thank you for having.
Speaker 1: Me, Frank, it's always great seeing you and talking to you.
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about Anthony first, as I said,
Speaker 2: people met you briefly, and we're going to talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about an a role as an actor with
Speaker 2: our friend Paul Evinson and his book It's Real Life
Speaker 2: and you're an actual character. And now we're talking a
Speaker 2: little bit about that later and what that's like a
Speaker 2: little bit later on in a discussion, and we did
Speaker 2: a reading at the Big Read Books here at Nayak.
Speaker 2: It was a lot of fun. I did a little
Speaker 2: reading with you as well. But anyway, so tell us
Speaker 2: a little bit about bout Anthony. How your involvement in
Speaker 2: theater began. You know, a little bit of a background
Speaker 2: beyond enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm an editor. I've been editing commercials for
Speaker 1: over thirty years, so working on advertising for thirty plus years.
Speaker 1: And you know, I filmmaking has always been my passion.
Speaker 1: It's what I've always wanted to do, and I was
Speaker 1: lucky enough to be able to do that for a living.
Speaker 2: And some went along the line.
Speaker 1: Maybe about fifteen years ago, I started developing another passion
Speaker 1: I had, which was which is theater. It's something I'd
Speaker 1: always wanted to get involved in, and I did have
Speaker 1: an opportunity in two thousand and four to direct my
Speaker 1: first play in New York City, and then a few
Speaker 1: years went by and I wanted to do you know.
Speaker 1: It was about two thousand and nine and I was
Speaker 1: putting together a feature film that I was trying to
Speaker 1: raise money for, and during that process, nothing was happening.
Speaker 1: So I said, I want to do something. I want
Speaker 1: to do something creative with some of the actors that
Speaker 1: I'm working with on the film. So I decided to
Speaker 1: produce and direct a production of Fool for Love by
Speaker 1: Sam Shepherd. So we did that, and it just reignited
Speaker 1: this passion, this passion for theater that I had. And
Speaker 1: it was then that I decided that at least once
Speaker 1: a year, I was going to do at least one
Speaker 1: non advertising project a year. It was either be a
Speaker 1: film or a play, and sometimes it's both. So so yeah.
Speaker 1: So then after that I did a production of I
Speaker 1: directed a production of Frankie and Gein and Declared Alone
Speaker 1: in the City, and I produced that as well. And
Speaker 1: then about twenty ten, I live in New Jersey. I
Speaker 1: live in an Allepena Jersey, and a friend of mine
Speaker 1: introduced me to a Theosmal Theater Company in Freehold, which
Speaker 1: is like fifteen.
Speaker 2: Minutes from where I lives, further birthplace of Brooks Springsteen.
Speaker 2: All the Jersey boys know that, of which I am on.
Speaker 2: You know, Richter is another.
Speaker 1: We're everywhere exactly exactly. Ye at a company called Center Players,
Speaker 1: and it was always one of it was the small
Speaker 1: store front place with a head of an awning and
Speaker 1: said Center Players, and I always looked at it and said,
Speaker 1: someday I want to work with those guys. And then
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity to do a stage reading of
Speaker 1: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and that was sort of
Speaker 1: my entry into working with them. And then over time
Speaker 1: I directed my first production there in twenty fourteen, played
Speaker 1: against Sam by Woody Allen, and then every year or
Speaker 1: every other year, I was directing a play with them,
Speaker 1: and I love working with them. The artistic director is
Speaker 1: or was at the time, Bernice Garfield ZTA. She's now
Speaker 1: the president. And Michael Toda was a good friend of
Speaker 1: mine and also a wonderful actor and director. He's the
Speaker 1: artistic director at the theater.
Speaker 2: Anthony. You work in many different mediums, you just said, commercials, film,
Speaker 2: You act, you direct, you write, you edit, you know,
Speaker 2: having dabbled in some of those things, you know, they
Speaker 2: were all sometimes they cross over as disciplines and sometimes
Speaker 2: they're different. What might you say, you know, is there
Speaker 2: a common thread that runs through all of them for you?
Speaker 2: And and what what does what particular challenges does each
Speaker 2: present to you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you mentioned acting. I only act when
Speaker 1: I absolutely have to, like when Paul, when Paul, when
Speaker 1: people people, When Paul contacted me and said, you know,
Speaker 1: I made you a character in my book.
Speaker 2: Are you okay with it?
Speaker 1: And I said, of course, you know, And then later
Speaker 1: on he called and said, we want to do a
Speaker 1: lot of reading with you performing as yourself.
Speaker 2: Are you okay with that?
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, so I'll do it for my friends,
Speaker 1: and I'll do it for you know when absolutely half
Speaker 1: to my son. You know, he's a he's a young filmmaker.
Speaker 1: He's going to the school Girdl Arts, and he was
Speaker 1: going to hell A High school. They had a great
Speaker 1: film they have a great film program there. And occasionally
Speaker 1: I would act for him or his friends and their film,
Speaker 1: but definitely only to oh there was another maybe there's
Speaker 1: a feature film that I mean, also have one scene
Speaker 1: by a filmmaker named Jeff Mazillo. So you know, I
Speaker 1: do I act only you know under you know dress
Speaker 1: exactly fair. It is fun and it is you know,
Speaker 1: it gives me. It gives me the experience of putting
Speaker 1: myself as a director into the actor's shoes, which is great.
Speaker 1: But as far as crossover goes, what's cool about it
Speaker 1: is what's cool about doing having a hand in all
Speaker 1: these disciplines is I always find that somehow when I'm
Speaker 1: working on a commercial, if I'm editing a commercial, they
Speaker 1: feed each other in some ways. This there may be
Speaker 1: something that happened in rehearsal. If I'm doing a play
Speaker 1: or a film, something that happened, you know, during rehearsal
Speaker 1: that I can I can apply in a to a
Speaker 1: commercial some way, even if it's finding music for a
Speaker 1: film or play. It's it's it's just it just unlocks
Speaker 1: so much, you know, you become this this creative tuning
Speaker 1: the fork you know for everything, and it's just one
Speaker 1: thing just always informs the other. It's really it's incredible
Speaker 1: when that happens.
Speaker 2: Let's let's talk about your current material this play, Okay,
Speaker 2: Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. Why why did you
Speaker 2: choose obviously you must have a choice of material. Why
Speaker 2: did you choose this particular play at this particular time.
Speaker 1: So I'll back up a little bit about like Center
Speaker 1: Players and what's going on with them, and I'll get
Speaker 1: into why I chose Barefoot. So the Center Players, they've
Speaker 1: they've been in this space and Freehold for over twenty
Speaker 1: five years up until last year when they lost their
Speaker 1: lease and a company came in and bought the building
Speaker 1: and kicked them out, made it a grocery store.
Speaker 2: And they think a.
Speaker 1: Year has gone by and I think now they're starting
Speaker 1: construction on the grocery store. So it's been empty for
Speaker 1: a year, which is annoying. But what we've been doing
Speaker 1: this past over this past year is monthly readings play
Speaker 1: readings that that we've been doing at the American Hotel,
Speaker 1: which is also in Freehold, and that's been great. So
Speaker 1: I got the first Monday of every month will be
Speaker 1: a play reading and that's been keeping the theater active
Speaker 1: and the community active, people participating in keeping the name
Speaker 1: out there. There have been a few other venues that
Speaker 1: we've been in contact with and have been able to
Speaker 1: perform in a black box situation in Freehold, as well,
Speaker 1: and while looking for a new home and permanent home,
Speaker 1: I stumbled upon the Millstone Performing Arts Center, where a
Speaker 1: couple of friends of ours saw a production of Into
Speaker 1: the Woods and told we're telling my wife and I
Speaker 1: about it, and thought that we should go. I should
Speaker 1: go check it out and talk to them about maybe
Speaker 1: doing something with Center Players over there.
Speaker 3: So I did.
Speaker 1: I contacted them, and it ended up being the exact
Speaker 1: right time because they were looking for another theater company
Speaker 1: to partner with, which is great, and they had an
Speaker 1: open slot in October to the the first two weekends
Speaker 1: in October. So and this stage, like Center Players the
Speaker 1: theater in Freehold, it's a small theater, forty nine seats
Speaker 1: maybe you know, seventeen by fifteen or something. It was
Speaker 1: a small stage. This place is like triple the size.
Speaker 1: So in considering what production might be done there, I
Speaker 1: decided that Bearform in the Park by Neil Simon would
Speaker 1: would be conducive for you know, the stage and that audience,
Speaker 1: and would bring people in and and also sort of
Speaker 1: be a tonic, you know, for our time. You know,
Speaker 1: it's basically, you know the world is kind of on
Speaker 1: fire right now, and I thought that doing something light
Speaker 1: and something from a more innocent time in the early sixties,
Speaker 1: before the world changed, you know, in nineteen sixty three,
Speaker 1: like a week after Barefoot opened on Broadway, JFK was
Speaker 1: asassinated and from there on the world just you know,
Speaker 1: ignited in flames, like one thing after another. But the play,
Speaker 1: to me, it's sort of reflected a more innocent time.
Speaker 1: And I chose that because there's there's so many other
Speaker 1: Neil Simon plays I could have chosen, but I chose
Speaker 1: that one because I just thought it was it would
Speaker 1: be an antidote.
Speaker 3: To you know, the.
Speaker 1: Kind of the way the world we're living in right now,
Speaker 1: Like people need that kind of escape, and I felt
Speaker 1: that it was the right time for that.
Speaker 2: I'd like to hear your perspective on you know, Neil
Speaker 2: Simon is extremely well known. Therefore in the Park is
Speaker 2: known you mentioned amongst his other works. Is it is
Speaker 2: it more challenging as a director to to direct a
Speaker 2: play that is so well known, that has been performed
Speaker 2: so many times in the in the past. Does that
Speaker 2: help or does that hurt?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: I try to look at I try to avoid as
Speaker 1: much as possible any like the movie, and then the
Speaker 1: other production, that that's that's been done, and I focus
Speaker 1: on the script and the text and what the what
Speaker 1: the intentions are. So in terms of if if I could,
Speaker 1: if I could shut everything else out and forget everything
Speaker 1: that's been done and focus on you know, the characters
Speaker 1: and the and the you know, the circumstances, then uh,
Speaker 1: it's that part of it is is uh that that
Speaker 1: that goes away. The challenging part is you know, making it,
Speaker 1: making it fresh.
Speaker 2: But so.
Speaker 1: You know, staying true to the time, to the period,
Speaker 1: and you know, and and the you know, the innocence
Speaker 1: of it, you know. So yeah, so it's it's it's
Speaker 1: sort of it's a double edded sort because I mean,
Speaker 1: what's great about it is because it's so well known
Speaker 1: that we hope that that's a draw that brings people in.
Speaker 1: And I'm hoping, I mean to the actors. We haven't
Speaker 1: begun rehearsal yet, but we've been very actively speaking. I said,
Speaker 1: you know, my hope is that you know, people say
Speaker 1: they've never seen Barefoot like this before.
Speaker 2: Interesting, interesting perspective. Now some of the things that Craig
Speaker 2: said similar questions obviously, guys in very similar positions in
Speaker 2: your mind, Why is it important to have community theater.
Speaker 2: I mean people could go to Broadway certainly if they
Speaker 2: could afford it. Uh, but yet there there's a thriving
Speaker 2: local theater community that persists. Why should it persist?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean the word community says it all. It
Speaker 1: brings people together, and it gives people a way to
Speaker 1: express themselves. Like there are so many people like you know,
Speaker 1: everyone with everyone wants an outlet. Everyone needs an outlet.
Speaker 1: You know, whether it's it's it's music or or acting
Speaker 1: or or you know, painting or drawing. It's like everyone
Speaker 1: needs to create an outlet and it makes it makes
Speaker 1: us all better as individuals. So I think having a
Speaker 1: theater is a community theater is the best of all
Speaker 1: worlds because it brings all of those disciplines together. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're an artist and maybe you want to help
Speaker 1: with set design. If you are an actor, well obviously
Speaker 1: want to be on stage if you're there, you know,
Speaker 1: so even musicians, if you if you're doing a musical.
Speaker 1: So it's the best way to bring you know, people together.
Speaker 1: You know in a way that you're all you know,
Speaker 1: working towards the same goal. You know, you want to
Speaker 1: do something great, you want to share it with an audience,
Speaker 1: and the audience, you know, there is this great communal
Speaker 1: thing that happens with an audience when you know, when
Speaker 1: when actors are performing, it's just it just it makes
Speaker 1: it really does make everything better. And what Craig was
Speaker 1: saying earlier is is all relevant as well in terms
Speaker 1: of like what a community theater does for the community.
Speaker 1: In terms of businesses, people go out to dinner, you know,
Speaker 1: the there's just so much more that that it brings
Speaker 1: to you know, to everyone. So it's it helps everyone drive.
Speaker 2: I think you know Craig mentioned and I'm sure the
Speaker 2: unique set of challenges. These are not big profit making
Speaker 2: organizations and so they've always had challenges in terms of existing. Again,
Speaker 2: and I mentioned the idea of sustainability. Even if you
Speaker 2: have a sustainability network, it's the key is can you
Speaker 2: sustain the network? So you know that that's a big
Speaker 2: part of it. But so how do you how do
Speaker 2: you deal with, especially now in the changing environment mentioned
Speaker 2: already the blow that the theater company took in terms
Speaker 2: of losing their actual theater and things are getting worse
Speaker 2: not better. Does that failure with trepidation? How will you
Speaker 2: deal with.
Speaker 1: That yeah, you know, it's it's it's strange not having
Speaker 1: a home, you know, because we're always looking for places
Speaker 1: to perform and ways of doing what we love. One
Speaker 1: of it is, you know, applying for grants. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: that's always an ongoing process. Looking for sponsorships, that's that's
Speaker 1: an ongoing process right now as well. And for this production,
Speaker 1: I decided to launch a go fund campaign. They've never
Speaker 1: done anything like that before Center Players, but I suggested
Speaker 1: it because it's, you know, this is a it's a
Speaker 1: it's the largest production that they've ever done. It's you know,
Speaker 1: the scene capacities double the amount of people that they've
Speaker 1: they've had, you know, they've had before, and the stage
Speaker 1: is triple just just about triple the size of what
Speaker 1: they had before. So I want to take as much
Speaker 1: advantage of that as possible. So rather than relying on
Speaker 1: ticket sales to fund the production, I'm trying to raise
Speaker 1: I'm trying to help raise money to augment whatever you know,
Speaker 1: comes in from sponsorships or or grants, which may, you know,
Speaker 1: may or may not happen. You never know. So I
Speaker 1: started a go funding campaign onto the theater. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a five to one C three so it's tax deductible.
Speaker 1: They'd be tax deductible donations. And actually we started it
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago when we've already raised over
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars, so it's already gotten off to a
Speaker 1: really good start, and we're we're trying to raise six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to fund the you know, the production for
Speaker 1: for the rights, for building materials, everything that goes into
Speaker 1: the physical production. So yeah, money is always the biggest challenge.
Speaker 1: It's like, and I you know, I've been dealing with
Speaker 1: this for many years because whenever I do a film,
Speaker 1: if I'm f I'm directing a film, you know, the
Speaker 1: money's got to come first. So as far as like
Speaker 1: fundraising campaigns, I've been doing this for for years. So it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's a necessary evil that we have to, like, we
Speaker 1: have to deal with.
Speaker 2: It's like the big bucks I make for doing this
Speaker 2: podcast Anthony, which is which is none but I do Yeah,
Speaker 2: but you do that, but it's most serious. Did you
Speaker 2: do it because you love it? Very interesting?
Speaker 1: It's like people ask sometimes people ask you why, you know,
Speaker 1: why do you do this? And I find myself when
Speaker 1: when I'm not doing it, there's there's an empty I
Speaker 1: have to do it. It's it's like the money is like
Speaker 1: the money doesn't matter. It's like it's the satisfaction of
Speaker 1: taking something, bringing it to life and sharing it with people.
Speaker 1: And that's you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I was whining to being frank with
Speaker 2: an artist friend of mine said, oh, you know, I
Speaker 2: wish I had been ratings and it's a lot of
Speaker 2: work to put in and just whining away. And she
Speaker 2: looked to me very simply and said do you love it?
Speaker 2: And I said yeah, kind of dude, She said so,
Speaker 2: and that was the end of the conversation. It was
Speaker 2: all that was neat. So can you say, uh, I
Speaker 2: want to talk a little bit about the production itself,
Speaker 2: how people can eventually see and how they can contribute.
Speaker 2: But before that we mentioned your role in It's Real
Speaker 2: Life and Alternate History of the Beatles, which is our
Speaker 2: friend doctor Paul Levinson's novel, which great fun. We did
Speaker 2: a reading. We've had him on to talk about a
Speaker 2: little bit. So talk a little bit about your experiences
Speaker 2: with its real life and what is it? What did
Speaker 2: it feel like? Because you're not a fictional characters, this
Speaker 2: is your.
Speaker 1: Name, all took some liberties, but you know, it was
Speaker 1: really it was, it was it was so much fun
Speaker 1: to be a part of that. You know, when when
Speaker 1: he mentioned that I've known Paul for twenty years at least.
Speaker 1: I met him when I was I was writing a
Speaker 1: play at the time called Acoustic Space, which is based
Speaker 1: on Marshall McLuhan a one of his terms for you know,
Speaker 1: for media, and in order to I and I had
Speaker 1: just read Paul's book Digital mccluan, which is kind of
Speaker 1: what the film is saying. It's like it's it's it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, McLuhan's concepts in the in the modern digital world,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to I reached down to him to
Speaker 1: just really to ask if, you know, if I was
Speaker 1: accurate in my in my depictions. And he wrote back
Speaker 1: and then, uh, you know, he gave me some of
Speaker 1: some feedback and I made adjustments, and you know, years
Speaker 1: we've been friends, we stayed in touch, we've been friends
Speaker 1: ever since. So he you know, he's come, he's come
Speaker 1: to some of our productions, and uh, one day I
Speaker 1: knew he had written its real life as a short story,
Speaker 1: and he won some awards and he expanded into the novel.
Speaker 1: I didn't know he was including me as a character
Speaker 1: until after it was done and he wrote to me
Speaker 1: and said is it okay? Like, of course, it's okay,
Speaker 1: you know. And then and I think it's been it's
Speaker 1: been doing really well for him and it deserves me
Speaker 1: so because it's a really it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: such a fun read.
Speaker 6: It's so it was it is it is really it
Speaker 6: is really fun. Uh yeah, I think let's talk a
Speaker 6: little bit about how people can get involved. You mentioned
Speaker 6: a go fundme campaign. Tell us a little bit how
Speaker 6: people can get involved, and a little bit more about
Speaker 6: the production and when it's going to be happening and
Speaker 6: where it's going to be happening.
Speaker 2: You know, we wte people to come up to Nayak.
Speaker 2: People from NYA can go down and see great theater
Speaker 2: and freehold New Jersey as well. So tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit more about the nuts and bolts, if you will.
Speaker 1: So, the go fund me campaign is live and it's
Speaker 1: if you if you find me on Facebook or or Instagram,
Speaker 1: there'll be a link you could you could you can
Speaker 1: find it. You can and make it tech again to
Speaker 1: a tax deductible donation because Center Players is if I
Speaker 1: will one C three nonprofit. The play Bear from the
Speaker 1: Park opens this October third and runs the first two
Speaker 1: weekends of October, so runs through October, from October third
Speaker 1: to the twelfth. And we're just about we're gonna be
Speaker 1: starting rehearsals July fourteenth, so pretty soon we'll be starting
Speaker 1: rehearsals and a great cast, really good. The two leads
Speaker 1: are Olivia are Arendt and Darren Carfano, and then Onetiful.
Speaker 1: I actually met them during a reading of Beyond Therapy
Speaker 1: at the American Hotel. Like I said, we have these
Speaker 1: monthly readings, and I you know, I always love to
Speaker 1: find talent, you know, in in the in the situation.
Speaker 1: So rather than an audition, I'd rather say from from
Speaker 1: seeing a film or seeing a plant. I don't want
Speaker 1: to work with those people. And that's exactly what happened
Speaker 1: with them. I saw them in this this reading of
Speaker 1: Beyond Therapy, and I filed them in the back of
Speaker 1: my head. It's at noment of where I had to
Speaker 1: work with them one day. So when the opportunity came
Speaker 1: up with Barefoot, I offered them the roles and they
Speaker 1: were super excited. To be a part of it, and
Speaker 1: I'm super excited to have them.
Speaker 2: So it's going to be.
Speaker 1: It really is going to be a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: and it is going to be it's going to be
Speaker 1: different from what you might have seen in the past,
Speaker 1: that's for sure.
Speaker 2: And if people needed to get in touch with you
Speaker 2: directly to ask questions, do you have a site or
Speaker 2: an email that people might be able to use to
Speaker 2: contact you.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my email is Anthony Marinelli at mac dot com.
Speaker 1: My website is Anthony Marinelli dot net. And to get tickets,
Speaker 1: actually tickets for Barefoot rou on sale now, you could
Speaker 1: go to Centerplayers dot dot org, center players dot org
Speaker 1: or tickets Anthony Marinelli.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for your intelligent conversation. This
Speaker 2: was great.
Speaker 1: It was so much fun to you know, to speak
Speaker 1: with you again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we'll we'll have you come back when when
Speaker 2: the play is running and we'll see how how how
Speaker 2: how it's rolling and everything. That would be great. It
Speaker 2: would be my pleasure absolutely, Thank you. Thanks, of course,
Speaker 2: our pleasure. Of course we want to thank Craig Smith
Speaker 2: from the Phoenix Theater Ensemble as well for his intelligent conversation.
Speaker 2: And remember we offer a special thanks to our listeners
Speaker 2: who take time to give us a voice in their lives.
Speaker 2: Remember we offer a fresh topic every week. Catch us
Speaker 2: wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts That includes
Speaker 2: all Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and all the rest. Check
Speaker 2: us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Now
Speaker 2: you know, I was leave you with two fool things.
Speaker 2: A slogan that I think is relative to our conversation,
Speaker 2: and then some music which is also relative to our conversation.
Speaker 2: And Anthony, I gotta tell you, I stole this from
Speaker 2: your Facebook page. It's from John Cassavetes, and he said,
Speaker 2: as an artist, I feel that we must try things,
Speaker 2: but above all, we must dare to fail. You must
Speaker 2: have the courage to be bad, to be willing to
Speaker 2: risk everything, to really express it all. I really I
Speaker 2: try to. I really try to do that. I risk
Speaker 2: being bad and I usually fulfill a weekly bits.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely not afraid of failure.
Speaker 2: Definitely. That's why we call it being practiced being Frankett.
Speaker 2: All right, we've got some closing music from the doctor
Speaker 2: Professor as I called Paul Levinson, and of course work
Speaker 2: for our engineer mister Neil Richter the Mailman. I'm your host,
Speaker 2: Frank Lobono. We hope to have you join us for
Speaker 2: the next being. Frank. We're the only way to be
Speaker 2: is Frank.
Speaker 4: Thanks everyone, love your name.
Speaker 5: Jans, the ships, lovelings, Chell dots, French chis it is
Speaker 5: a salt silk.
Speaker 7: Get enjoy that, Bodkin said to a third son.
Speaker 3: It's clean.
Speaker 5: Chay chet jams tree Jing.
Speaker 7: Chall nine in.
Speaker 1: Gent call.
Speaker 2: See the nine.
Speaker 5: This is not I not see the night. It's broad
Speaker 5: on the crowd, got the pass, still play the breezeberd
Speaker 5: is the graft Turkey, sat chaity, cherry per soft wine,
Speaker 5: friend charity, cherry chums to cham.
Speaker 3: Oh so.
Speaker 5: Holidays.
Speaker 3: You your.
Speaker 5: Holloway Holliday.
Speaker 3: So this is Hudson River Radio dot com.