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Home Run! Shakespeare at a Ball Park: Interview with Rosemary Hay and Rudy Caporaso of REV Theatre Company, part 2

7/27/2015

REV Theatre Company, founded in 2000 by Rudy Caporaso and Rosemary (“Rosey“) Hay, and located in New York and Scranton, PA, presents Shakespeare and other classical works in innovative ways, often based on workshop approaches. The company seeks to build new communities along the East coast. REV adapts rarely performed Elizabethan plays, like The Witch of Edmonton, which not only ran on Off-Off Broadway, but also played to sold-out houses in Philadelphia. The company was even invited to perform this classic at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in Connecticut. After a run in Cape May, NJ, REV will be performing Shakespeare’s THE COMEDY OF ERRORS at Columbus Square Park, Philadelphia.

In this, the second of a two-part interview, REV founders Rudy Caporaso and Rosemary Hay talk about the company, its performance venues, and their upcoming productions.

Theater in unusual places

REV Theatre Company performing in unusual places. Photo by Jeffrey Greene

Henrik Eger: REV stands out by performing in public spaces like parking lots, storefronts, piers, the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art—even cemeteries—and now Columbus Square Park, a Philly ball park, with THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. Tell us more about the audiences that you attract.

Rosemary Hay: Audiences love coming to unusual and unexpected places that are not traditional theater spaces, but are made so by the theatrical event. Here are a few examples of audience reactions:

Philadelphia (on the steps of the Art Museum): While we were in Philly, about 10–12 young African-American kids started to watch rehearsals and then came back to all of the performances. They didn’t sit on the grass; they actually sat on the steps at the back of the Museum, so close to the actors that they were almost in the production. After our last show was done, they all came back to see the performers and begged Rudy for his feathered wings he wore as Puck. The young woman who took them said that she would put them on her wall and keep them forever.

New York: After our initial run of The Witch of Edmonton (see image above) in a tiny storefront on the lower East Side, someone who saw the production underwrote the transfer of the show to a theatre in Times Square for a three-week run.

Stamford, CT: Unexpected rain stopped the performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream ten minutes before the end. Actors voted to continue with the show if the audience was willing as well. It was put to an audience vote, and the audience of over 100 voted to stay.

Of their own collective volition, they went to the parking lot, got their cars, drove to the site and circled the actors with their high beams on, to cut through the rain and the darkness.

Cape May, NJ: We received an email from someone who saw the show last week:

The Comedy of Errors , Physick Estate, Cape May, NJ.
Photo by David Kappler.

“THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, was amazing. I cannot sing its praises enough. Prior to the performance, my daughter had only experienced Shakespeare’s written word. After the play, I could not get her to stop talking about how much she enjoyed Shakespeare. Thank you and REV for fostering what I’m sure will be a lifelong love of Shakespeare. The troupe made the authentic language approachable even for a thirteen year old. [. . .] Sincerely. Sandra E. Kilmer”

Shakespeare at Columbus Square Park

Eger: Now you are even staging Shakespeare’s THE COMEDY OF ERRORS at a former ball field in Philly.

Hay: True, REV’s production is spilling out into the audience and all around the space, making it as interactive as possible. For our upcoming Philadelphia production: actors bring up spectators to dance with the cast during the final curtain call song so audience members can join our dance party!

Rudy Caporaso: Overall, our target audiences are families with children, senior citizens, Shakespeare lovers, and young people.

Hay: The production is funny, zany, and madcap—an homage to 1930s screwball comedy, with its elements of slapstick and vaudeville. It’s exuberant and mega-energetic, physical to the point of athletic. The break between the first and second acts is filled with Rudy and three female cast members singing “Too Fat Polka” from 1947. We also include a 1970s disco song “Ain’t Gonna Bump”—all in reference to the Nell character. We believe that these elements make our production unique and compelling and different from other productions.

REV, REV, REV: Revitalizing great classics

Eger: “REV Theatre Company’s aim is to revitalize and transform the great classic plays.” Tell us more about the history of REV. Does the name imply that you are “revising” classic plays, or that you are “revving up” part of our cultural heritage?

Hay: The name stands for “revolution,” “revitalize,” and “revamp.” All those words imply we are taking a classic text and putting our stamp on it, without discarding the language or story.

Caporaso: Not to lambast anyone else’s work, but we made the decision not to do “museum-quality” theater.

Physical approach to acting

Eger: You said that you are using a “rigorous approach to the text with intensely physical staging and musical production numbers.”

Hay: With my classical background, I work with the actors to mine the text for what it can give us.

For example, our productions include 1960s pop songs like “Little Red Riding Hood” for the entrance of the Devil Dog in The Witch of Edmonton,and “Makin’ Whoopee” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Titania and Oberon reconcile. And because the world we create is so particular, these musical choices never seem out of place.

Caporaso: Without large set pieces, it is up to the actors to transform these spaces in physical ways. For such intense physical staging, like the lovers in Midsummer Night’s Dream, the actors need to be athletes. In addition, we use contemporary music in our productions. For example, instead of Titania’s lullaby (“You spotted snakes”) we use “Mr. Sandman.”

Intense physical staging in a REV production of a Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream

Responses from audiences and critics

Eger: You’re not only performing in many different locations—from South Jersey to upstate New York—but also for different audiences, ranging from traditional school performances to the avant-garde among theater-goers who might even crawl to see your experimental shows at a cemetery. Given this wide range, how does REV build a loyal audience?

Rudy Caporaso in A Graveyard Cabaret at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia

Hay: The audiences are very different, but they are committed and supportive in the different communities. And there is potential crossover; for instance, our audiences for our Fringe show, The Graveyard Cabaret, will be invited to see our production of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, and many of them have already said they will attend.

Caporaso: There’s cross-pollination overall. However, with our Graveyard Cabaret, now in its fourth year on the Philly Fringe, I’m happy to say that it has attracted its own “cult” following. People look forward to it and return to the historic Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Shakespeare and classical drama

Eger: Lest anyone mistakes REV as a travelling circus that puts on slapstick Shakespeare, you do serious work, even adapting rarely performed Elizabethan plays. What is the driving force for you to experiment with many different forms of presenting Shakespeare and other classical dramas?

Hay: In Shakespeare’s time, theater-going was an event. It was a mixture of a rock concert and a sports game—raucous, intense, and very immediate. Actors had to command attention from their audiences. In the 21st century, we need to find new ways to get people to come to a theatrical event or performance. We can’t rely on traditional modes of sitting quietly in a theater and watching from a distance. We need to immerse audiences, surprise them, shake them up, challenge their thinking, and engage both their hearts and minds.

Caporaso: I have absolutely no problem being considered a “circus.” I’d much prefer that label, rather than being associated with any “highfalutin” and/or elitist work. It’s important for us to return Shakespeare to the people.

Creating changes in Philadelphia

Image 1: Ilene Wilder, President of the Columbus Square Park Advisory Council.
Image 2: Rudy Caporaso as Dromio the servant, being dragged away by Lucas Kappler as Antipholus in front of the Roundhouse.
Image 3: Roundhouse, Columbus Square Park, Philadelphia, scene of the REV production of The Comedy of Errors.
Image 2 by David Kappler

Eger: In Philadelphia, REV was recently chosen to become the resident company for the Friends of Columbus Square Park, helping to turn the ball field into a community space. Was there any resistance to such a dramatic change: from baseball to Shakespeare?

Hay: There was no resistance. Everyone is thrilled that there will be theater and arts performances in the park. The renovated park will include open space for the community, as well as playing fields. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS will be presented in Columbus Square Park later this month.

Caporaso: We’ve become great friends with Ilene Wilder, President of the Columbus Square Park Advisory Council, and the Park’s “force for change.” She saw a REV production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream a couple of years ago and has been a great supporter of our work since. She is dedicated to her Park mission, has seen our work more than once, and is committed to having REV in the Park as part of her vision.

Eger: A creative production of Shakespeare at a baseball field? With great actors? With music? With lots of surprises? And all of it free of charge? Who can resist such a COMEDY OF ERRORS? See you, not at the Globe in London, but at the ball field in Philadelphia—with all the other groundlings on their blankets and chairs. William would love it, no doubt.

Cast of The Comedy of Errors at the Physick Estate, Cape May, NJ. Photo by David Kappler.

Columbus Square Park, 12th and Wharton streets July 30-31, 2015; revtheatercompany.org.

HENRIK EGER

This interview was originally published by Phindie, click here.
For part 1 of this interview, click here.

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Building New Audiences for Classical Theater: Interview with Rosemary Hay and Rudy Caporaso, artistic co-directors of REV Theatre Company

7/24/2015

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Rudy Caporaso, a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, is a professional actor who has appeared in numerous Off-Broadway, Philadelphia, and London productions playing a wide range of roles, including Hamlet, Iago, and Puck.

Caporaso is the co-founder of the recently created Cape May Shakespeare Festival, and serves as the co-founder and co-artistic director of the REV Theatre Company.

As its educational director, he has worked extensively in outreach theater programs.

Shakespeare writing with a quill

Rosemary (“Rosey”) Hay, trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and worked as the Assistant Director for Trevor Nunn at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

She has taught and directed at numerous schools, including the Central School of Speech and Drama, London; the Stella Adler Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York; the New York University; the Yale School of Drama; and the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

Hay is the co-founder of the recently created Scranton Shakespeare Festival, and serves as the co-founder and co-artistic director of the REV Theatre Company.

Theatre in unusual places

Adriana (Marilyn McIntyre and Rudy Caporaso in REV’s Comedy of Errors. Photo by Dave Kappler.

Eger: Unlike traditional theaters, you attract a wide range of people who may just walk by seeing your outdoor productions. How are you engaging these communities that cross racial, cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds?

Hay: Our outdoor productions are extremely interactive. We bring the world of the play to our audiences so that we break down the fourth wall that usually exists between performers and audiences. For example, during the “To be” speech, Rudy as Hamlet talks directly to audience members who are only 2–3 feet away from him, which made the soliloquy very intimate and immediate. To allow Rudy (as Iago in Othello) to address the audience directly, we built a ramp into the audience.

Rudy Caporaso as Puck and Bethany McCall as Cobweb in Midsummer Night's Dream

A crucial element in the engagement of a broad section of the community is that we offer our performances free of charge so that anyone can come and experience the production. We always offer talkbacks for our educational production, and occasionally for public performances as well.

Eger: Large crowds at the Physick Estate in Cape May clearly love your production of The Comedy of Errors, including the warm-up with its Elizabethan festival prior to the show, featuring “jugglers, jesters, music, cheer, food, drink, interactive entertainment, and a visit from the King and Queen,” according to Shore News Today. How do you involve your audiences during your Shakespeare performances?

Hay: In our current production of The Comedy of Errors, Nell, the kitchen wench who is enamored with Dromio, chases him in and out through the audience at various points in our production. Similarly, Antipholus and Dromio run into the audience and hide behind people, inviting their complicity by asking them not to reveal their whereabouts to the other characters involved in the chase.

Shakespeare is anything but boring

Eger: How are you developing new audiences for classical theater?

Hay: Our outdoor Shakespeare productions are not only free, but we make them vital, immediate, and accessible through rigorous attention to the text and the action, along with intensely physical and dynamic staging. Children and young people in particular can experience for themselves that Shakespeare is anything but boring.

We also work in educational environments, particularly Rudy, who teaches in a major after-school program in Wildwood, NJ. Shakespeare is a part of the program and the participants are exposed to these extraordinary words and stories. For the past 4 years, REV also has partnered with United Neighborhood Centers (UNC) in Scranton, and we created a Teen Shakespeare Program that has expanded to include Middle Schoolers. These young people will be our audiences in the future, and they will know from first hand experience that Shakespeare is exciting and thrilling.

Shakespeare worried about a bee resting on his nose

Eger: For a number of Americans, theater is seen as expensive and elitist.

Caporaso: A major element that contributes to theater being elitist is unaffordable ticket prices. For people of a certain economic standing, if the choice is a loaf of bread or an evening at the theater, the bread should and must win, of course, but people’s artistic souls and imaginations also should be nurtured. Therefore, everyone under 15 is admitted at no cost. This is to ensure that we can reach tomorrow’s audiences so that our outreach to them hopefully will nurture their desire to see more theater.

Eger: What are your plans for the foreseeable future?

Rudy Caporaso as Puck, blowing bubbles in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Photo by Chris Springer

Caporaso: At the beginning of August, after the Philly leg of our performances, we’ll return to Scranton for one of our original children’s theater pieces—a production with children for children. Immediately after that, we will present They Only Come Out At Night: A Graveyard Cabaret in Laurel Hill Cemetery for the Philly Fringe in September . . .

Hay: . . . and an all-male Macbeth in 2016.

HENRIK EGER

This interview was originally published by Phindie on July 24, 2015.

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The secrets of getting a manuscript accepted: Meshejian interview, part 3

7/20/2015

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In my recent Phindie interview, James Ijames, a prominent young Philadelphia playwright who has been chosen to participate in the PlayPenn experience twice (2013 and 2015), had this to say about the PlayPenn founder: “Paul Meshejian is a miracle. What he does with PlayPenn is so important to the American theater. His taste is impeccable, and he has created a development format that really allows a play and a playwright to grow. I can’t thank him enough for including my play.”

In this third of a three-part interview, Paul Meshejian reveals the secrets of how a play might get accepted by PlayPenn, the annual play development conference.

How do playwrights get accepted?

Eger: PlayPenn receives hundreds of scripts every year. Fewer than 1% make it to the final round. Could you describe the selection process to whittle down the scripts to the top six?

Meshejian: Our evaluation process was designed to take the burden off any single reader in helping to identify plays we consider in the final round of consideration. Each play is read and evaluated by three different theatre professionals. Everyone reads blindly. Any effort is made to assure that each threesome is made up of a diverse group of individuals coming from every point of view. It’s never all men, all women, all young, all old, all actors, all white, all African American, all Asian, and so forth.

It’s not about not offending anyone. It’s about the widest range of views that will guide us toward looking carefully at work that may only recommend itself to one out of the three people who have evaluated a particular play. PlayPenn’s record, in that regard, speaks for itself.

PlayPenn readers read for us out of a sense of community pride and responsibility that Philadelphia has an organization committed to this kind of substantive work, and that its results are observable. They participate with a curiosity for what’s being written and how it’s being written. The readers participate with a sense of their individual and community responsibility to the profession and a pride in the results.

Our process of evaluation is ever-evolving, and this coming year we will exercise a new structure toward achieving our goals of identifying plays we feel have potential to come to fruition as fully produced plays on stages across the country.

Eger: Todd Ristau* once asked you, “What are you looking for in the first ten pages?”

Meshejian: “I’m interested in having my attention grabbed. All I want is to want to know more. I want to be intrigued. I want to know more about the people. I want to know more about the story. I want to know more about the language. I mean, all you have to do is hold me for ten pages. [. . .] If you can’t keep [the audience] for ten minutes, you’re not going to keep them for two hours.”

Eger: He also asked you, “How do you know if a writer is a good match for PlayPenn?”

Meshejian: “Intuition. I’m not always correct, but I explain what we’re about, and listen to playwrights’ responses, and what they want to accomplish.

I ask people for ten pages up front, and from those ten pages I decide if I want to see the whole play or not.”

Eger: At what stage do you stop “blind readings” and look at a playwright’s bio?

Meshejian: To date, all evaluations have remained blind until we get down to thirty semi-finalists. At that point in the process, we are employing theatre professionals from across the country, many of whom read enough to be able to recognize either the play they’re reading or the voice of the writer. The professionalism of our finalist panelists is beyond question, making the knowledge of play or writer just another element in the process of evaluations—sometimes working for and sometimes against a given play’s advancement to the finalist list.

Blind reader, from the Bitter Script Reader YouTube channel

Once we achieve a list of finalists numbering 12-15 plays, it becomes a question of diversity of thought, theatricality, language, culture, geographic representation, and so forth. Early on, we decided that if a playwright has work [he or she] wants to bring to us for development, that playwright has to be considered an artist who is mature, a grown-up. We are essentially working to select a group of writers whose work will make up an interesting community of playwrights to participate in the close interaction and creative environment that we foster during the Conference.

Inside a PlayPenn Conference

Eger: Could you walk us through the PlayPenn Conference?

Meshejian: We begin the Conference with a three day roundtable that allows playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, designers, and interns to get to know each other in a relaxed environment. During those three days, each of the six Conference plays is read by the artists in the room, which does not include actors. The purpose is for all of the principal Conference artists to begin to become familiar with all the Conference plays, as well as one another.

Actors arrive on the fourth day. Rehearsals begin with time off in between to allow for playwrights to think, reflect, and revise. Along the way, there are meetings with designers that allow playwrights to hear design responses from scenic, lighting, sound, and costume perspectives.

All PlayPenn photos by John Flak

Last year, we added a second public reading of each play—midway through the process—to give the playwright the opportunity to learn from an audience about the work as it had progressed to that point. Then it’s back into the room for more rehearsal and revision, leading up to the final public reading where writers can begin to evaluate the efficacy of the work they’ve done over the three week period.

Left: Jasmine St. Clair and James Ijames rehearsing SlipShot by Jackie Goldfinger, 2011

Eger: Looking at the wide range of playwrights that went through the PlayPenn experience, what would be the three things they all have in common?

Meshejian: They are all driven to learn from what they write, all driven to have their stories told, and all courageous when it comes to their willingness to fall down publicly, get back up, and fall down again.

Eger: What advice do you have for young playwrights who want to make major breakthroughs?

Meshejian: Keep reading, keep writing, and go to the theater.

*Todd Ristau, “Guest Profile: Paul Meshejian.” Lab Report 2.2, Hollins University, July 2008.

Read the first part of this three-part interview.
Read the second part of this three-part interview.
Find more information on PlayPenn.
Watch a short video bio with Paul Meshejian (2009).

HENRIK EGER

For Part 1 of this interview, “A comfortable place for misfits”: Interview with PlayPenn founder Paul Meshejian, click this link.

For Part 2 of this interview, Everything you always wanted to know about PlayPenn, but were afraid to ask: Paul Meshejian interview, click this link.

For Part 3, first published on Phindie, click here.

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Everything you always wanted to know about PlayPenn, but were afraid to ask: Paul Meshejian interview, pt. 2

7/18/2015

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PlayPenn 2015 with Paul Meshejian, an actor, Leonard Haas, and Sabrina Profitt. Photo by John Flak.

“PlayPenn is a new play development conference,which provides professional actors, directors, designers, and dramaturgs with space, technical and administrative resources, and ample time to use them.” The annual conference includes a series of staged readings featuring Philadelphia actors, providing a unique first look at new plays by major contemporary playwrights. This year’s conference runs July 7-26, 2015. Visit playpenn.org for more details.

PlayPenn was founded by local actor and director Paul Meshejian. “We are aware that many theatres have an interest in new works that come to their attention but feel some reluctance in programming those plays into their seasons because of perceived risks to success.” Meshejian told American Theatre Magazine (Nov 10, 2014). “One of those risks often has to do with the ‘production-readiness’ of any given new play, which we are addressing by offering support in the final phase of development.” In this, the second in a three-part interview with Paul Meshejian, he tells Phindie more about the organization, how it began, and what it strives to do. Read part one here and part three here.

Paul Meshejian, feeling disaffected as an actor

Eger: Having acted and directed, and done a lot of other things in the theater world, you became one of the key people in Philadelphia to nurture playwrights through the PlayPenn experience. How did that organization come into being?

Meshejian: I was feeling disaffected as an actor. As I tried to imagine what I might like to do next, it occurred to me that one of the more engaging periods of my life had been during my time in the twin cities working with The Playwrights Center.

It was a kind of lightning bolt moment when I realized that although Philadelphia was a prolific production community with five LORT theaters*, a growing number of Equity and non-Equity actors, as well as directors and designers, there was no professional organization devoted exclusively to developing new plays.

I personally knew dozens of playwrights of quality whose voices were not known to this community. So I went about talking about my idea everywhere I went.

Rick DesRochers, Paul Meshejian, Michelle Houle Hitz, and Michele Volansky, 2008 PlayPenn Conference. Photo by John Flak.

PlayPenn, beginnings and development

Eger: How did PlayPenn fare in those early days?

Meshejian: I was fortunate to have been able to raise the money to get it off the ground. Our first year, 2005, saw three of the four plays we invited to PlayPenn go on to multiple productions around the world at various theaters of note. Those three playwrights were Jordan Harrison, Sheila Callahan, and J.T. Rogers. That stroke of luck put us on the map.

Eger: What distinguishes PlayPenn from similar programs in other cities in North America?

Melissa Maxwell directs PlayPenn actors Carl Clemon-Hopkins, Kimberly Fairbanks, Kirschen Wolford, Jamal Douglas and
Katrina Yvette-Cooper in Jonathan James Norton’s My Tidy List of Terrors, 2012. Photo by John Flak.

Meshejian: I believe I can say with certainty that PlayPenn is the only new play development organization in the country that, from the beginning, has given each playwright who has come to Philadelphia the opportunity to work with a director of their choice and to cast their own actors. The process itself is 29 hours of rehearsal and stage reading time over a period of three weeks.

Eger: PlayPenn also offers a wide range of successful workshops for Philadelphia playwrights throughout the whole year with nationally known playwrights.

Meshejian: A few years ago, it occurred to us that no one in Philadelphia was offering classes for playwrights. To serve the local playwriting community, we decided to offer a class to see what the response would be. Since we began, we have had nearly full enrollment in all of our offerings, which have included classes by local writers like Bruce Graham, Michael Hollinger, Thomas Gibbons, Jacqueline Goldfinger, and others, along with nationally recognized playwrights like Jeffrey Hatcher, Craig Lucas, Paula Vogel, Erik Ehn, Lisa Krohn, Sam Hunter, and more.

We are now offering from 10-12 classes each year, covering a range of topics of interest to playwrights and artists interested in writing, directing, and dramaturging new plays.

The nitty-gritty of running PlayPenn, perfect teamwork

Eger: You run this important organization single-handedly out of your home office.

Meshejian: Yes, I do run PlayPenn out of a home office, but I don’t run it alone. Not at all. I have the most skilled, intelligent, passionate, devoted staff—all of whom work part time, to one degree or another—that someone in my position could want. I think of them as partners in the enterprise, along with my board of directors, which I consider one of the better non-profit boards in the city.

Eger: Tell us about the range of things you and your collaborators do.

Meshejian: In addition to reading a lot of plays and working to advance the lives of the 80 plays we have developed over the past 10 years, I take care of general administrative responsibilities, including accounting and payroll. Michele Volansky, who has been an artistic partner from the beginning, has been a steady collaborator in addressing both philosophical and practical questions that arise regularly as we work to hew close to our original purpose.

We are continuing to entertain new possibilities as we evolve as people and artists who are open to new understandings and perspectives. Karyn Lyman, our Consulting Director of Development, and I work very closely together with regard to grant proposals and fundraising in general. And then there are ongoing relationships with our Education Director, Jacqueline Goldfinger; our Marketing Director, Leigh Goldenberg; and our Production and Company Manager, Tom Shotkin.

Eger: You have put together a great team.

Meshejian: This is a group of devoted professionals and first rate human beings who are doing such terrific work in bringing our mission into reality in every area of our organizational programming. We all work together so harmoniously that there are times I feel as if we share office space.

The future of PlayPenn

Professional actors reading a script at a PlayPenn Conference. Photo by John Flak.

Eger: What would you say is one of your major goals?

Meshejian: I would like to develop a large enough audience for new work through the readings that we present. Such a move could lead to a change in perspective among producing organizations about the willingness of audiences to buy tickets to new plays. If producing theaters can see hard evidence that there is an appetite for new plays, perhaps they might find it easier to make decisions when crafting their seasons.

I am always looking for ways to encourage new play production across the country, in the region, and most especially here in Philadelphia.

Eger: That sounds wonderful—but, of course, not everything can be perfect. What is the greatest stumbling block for PlayPenn?

Meshejian: Not to be glib, but money is a constant stumbling block. I would like to be able to pay every single person that works for PlayPenn more money, from the staff to directors, dramaturgs, designers, stage managers, actors, and interns. But that is true for all of us making theater.

Eger: What plans do you have to make the overall goals a reality?

Meshejian: Next year (summer 2016) will be the first Conference that takes place at the Drake [1512 Spruce St., Philadelphia]. While InterAct Theatre is the principal tenant at the Drake, there are four other partners who will inhabit and use the space regularly: Azuka, Inis Nua, Simpatico, and PlayPenn.

Each of these organizations is engaged in producing new plays, and we believe the shared space will create a kind of synergy around the idea of new play production that may, hopefully, filter out into the larger community.

Constructed in 1929 as a luxury hotel, The Drake, once the tallest building in Philadelphia, will host four theater companies, plus PlayPenn. Photo by M. Rosenberg

Eger: What a great concept. Apparently, you and your team want to strengthen PlayPenn even further.

Meshejian: We are constantly re-examining what we do, how we do it, and with whom. In my view, nothing could be more deadly to the theater as an art form than institutionalization. We have just held a very exciting staff retreat that, when combined with an upcoming organizational strategic planning process, will, we believe, lead to changes in the what, how, and who questions and take us buoyantly into the next ten years of our work.

Is there life outside PlayPenn?

Eger: Congratulations. What else would you like to do as an actor, director, PlayPenn founder, and as a person who may have interests outside the theater as well?

Meshejian: I am deeply engaged, always stimulated, and personally happy with the work I’m doing now. In some ways, I think the desire to make this organization and do this work was a function of a desire to nurture. I find the work I’m doing fulfilling in that way.

I enjoy traveling, something I wasn’t really able to do when I was younger, so I’m finding opportunities to do just that. And probably not very surprisingly, I love to read literature, which I’m finding a naturally complementary activity to reading plays.

Image above: Canterbury Tales Mural by Ezra Winter, Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, D.C.

Image below: Wooden chapiter of the six pointed Star of Armenia, 9th century, Astvatsamayr Church, Araqeloc Monastery, Sevan History Museum of Armenia

* LORT: “The League of Resident Theatres is the largest professional theater association of its kind in the United States […] LORT Theaters collectively issue more Equity contracts to actors than Broadway and commercial tours combined” (Wikipedia).

Read the first part of this three-part interview.
Read the third part of this three-part interview.
PlayPenn 2015. Get free tickets to staged readings with Philadelphia actors (July 14-26, 2015). Donations appreciated.
Find more information on PlayPenn.
Watch a short video bio with Paul Meshejian (2009).

HENRIK EGER

For Part 1 of this interview, “A comfortable place for misfits”: Interview with PlayPenn founder Paul Meshejian, click this link.

For Part 3 of this interview, The secrets of getting a manuscript accepted: Paul Meshejian interview, click this link.

For Part 2, first published on Phindie, click here.

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“A comfortable place for misfits”: Interview with PlayPenn founder Paul Meshejian, Part 1

7/16/2015

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“Paul Meshejian is the Founding Artistic Director of PlayPenn. Since 1989 he has been a company member at People's Light and Theatre (PLT) outside Philadelphia where he has both acted and directed. In addition to his work at PLT, he has performed with all of Philadelphia's major theater companies. He has been nominated for the Barrymore award numerous times. In the 1980s he was the founding artistic director of Stage One: Collaboration, a professional theater in Minneapolis/St. Paul, devoted to new and rarely produced works. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Theatre Research and is a member of LMDA, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas” (HowlerRound, November 22, 2013).

“I’ve been working in the American theater, making my living, such as it is, for the past forty years. In all that time, I’m not ashamed to say I’ve never earned more than $45,000—and that was a year that included residuals from a major motion picture I was lucky enough to have had a role in. In Todd London and Ben Pesner’s book Outrageous Fortune, playwrights talk about the fact that they have to teach, edit, or write copy besides playwriting to make ends meet, and they say it as if it were an injustice. I have to say I find that astonishing” (HowlerRound, 2013).

Paul Meshejian listening to PlayPenn playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, and a wide range of theater artists. Photo by John Flak.

Paul Meshijian: actor, director, producer, PlayPenn founder

Paul: This is your life

Henrik Eger: What was it in your childhood and adolescence that got you interested in theater arts?

Paul Meshejian: My parents took the family to see the Broadway production of Oliver! when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I was captivated by the story, of course, but also by the stage craft and the performances. The boy who played the Artful Dodger was Davey Jones, later of the pop group, The Monkeys. I begged to wait for him at the stage door. That was my first exposure, and it stayed with me.

Later, while in high school, I found the drama club a comfortable place for misfits, of which I was one. After that it was a series of hit and miss experiences that eventually, after I came out of the Army, landed me firmly in a theater, spending all my free time learning the trade.

Paul Meshejian, the Armenian

Eger: Your family comes from Armenia, a small country that has suffered endlessly, with over a million people killed brutally, ISIS style, by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire. Later, Armenia was occupied by the Soviet Union, suppressing Armenian culture further. How did Armenian values and worldviews impact your life as an American?

Meshejian: I grew up thinking of myself as an Armenian, and not, in any way, as an American. It was the culture of my home life and of the church we attended. While we talked about ourselves as Armenians, socialized with Armenians, listened to Armenian music at home—as well as other kinds of music and art—as the first child and only son, I was expected to function outside the home and to succeed as an American. I always felt like the outsider and, in today’s terms, I would be considered “the other.” I never even thought of myself as white, until I began to be defined that way by the institutions in which I participated.

I think it was the mid-1960s when I filled out a college application and was asked what I “was.” The choices were White, Indian, Black, Oriental, and Other. I checked Other and filled in Caucasian. Because I am Caucasian. From the Caucasus. Lost on many but, at the time, meaningful to me.

Stumbling into the theater world by accident

Eger: It seems that you joined the professional world of theater almost by accident with several unexpected scenarios that opened doors for you. Could you share those serendipitous moments and the impact they had on your career?

Meshejian: Once I went to college, I kept stumbling into theaters, something to do, something to belong to, something to engage and occupy my curiosity. When I returned from my service in the Army, I went back to the first of several colleges I had attended before being drafted, essentially to get my grades in order and then transfer back to a school on the east coast. I was smoking a lot of pot and doing other things.

A guy I was hanging around with had a technical theater requirement and asked me to come along with him. I did and found the work to be therapeutic and satisfying.

Eger: Theater work—therapeutic and satisfying? Great. What happened next?

Meshejian: He quit showing up, but I kept going to work building scenery, scene painting, hanging lights, and so forth. After a few weeks I was told the head of the department wanted to see me. I was sure I was in some kind of trouble. He told me he’d noticed my passion for what I was doing and asked me if I would like to be paid for my work. This was an important day for me.

That man, Sydney Howard Spayde, became my friend and mentor. Eventually, when I’d finished my B.A. work, he took me in as a private student. I can honestly say that the training I received from Syd was more complete and had more depth and substance than I could have gotten at any graduate training program that might have been available to me.

Eger: How did this mentoring impact your career?

Meshejian: During that first summer, Syd put me in a play without even asking. I played a Puerto Rican waiter in Neil Simon’s Chapter Two. I was terrible. I had to hand someone a check. My knees were weak and my hand was shaking so much the check literally flapped in the breeze. I was certain I’d never act again. For years that held true.

I immediately gravitated to directing plays, which is the work I did and how I earned a living for quite a few years thereafter. Because my wife’s work took us to Minneapolis-St. Paul in the early 1980s, I found myself in unknown territory. While I was trying to find my footing in the community, someone asked me to be in a play. That began a 25 year career of acting in the various media which eventually led me to join the company at People’s Light and Theatre, where I remained an active company member until I decided to start PlayPenn.

People’s Light and Theatre guideposts, Malvern, PA

From “misfit” to success

Eger: From a “misfit” to an established director and stage and movie actor, appearing in films like The Comeback; Equinox; Twelve Monkeys; Private Enemy, Public Eye; and The Final Patient; plus TV shows like Homicide: Life on the Street; and The Wire—what a great transformation. And somewhere in between, you even met the love of your life.

Meshejian: Had I not met my wife, Michal, there is no doubt I would have had a completely different life in the theater—if I would have even stayed in the theater at all. She was someone who believed in my passion for the work I did and wanted to do. When I announced my next crazy scheme, whatever that may have been, she was always the first person to support my choices.

Eger: You experienced the theater world from numerous perspectives, including teaching at Arcadia University and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. What were some of the best and worst moments, and what did you learn about yourself?

Meshejian: I don’t really know how to answer this question, Henrik. Perhaps, the best thing I can say is that every single experience I’ve had, professionally speaking, in and outside the theater, has been defined in one way or another by some element of extremity. Each experience has presented, even confronted me with an aspect of myself.

Advice for the next generation of theater people

Eger: What would you say to the next generation of young people who want to enter the theater world?

Meshejian: It’s become a cliché, but it bears repeating. If you are passionate about expressing yourself and what you perceive about others—and if you are willing to do so at great cost to yourself—the theater may be the place for you. However, if you can think of something else to do, do it.

Eger: Anything else you would like to share?

Meshejian: Like so many who enter this profession, it is notions of community, communication, communing and how we can learn from one another within those constructs that have been the driving aspects of my passion for the theater.

Paul Meshejian, listening to PlayPenn playwrights
and offering advice. Photo by John Flak.

The idea that is trumpeted regularly, that the theater is dead, seems to me unlikely and even preposterous as there is some human need that drives us to find a quiet focus around shared stories of who we are as human beings.

It’s unfashionable to suggest there’s such a thing as human nature, but as a number of anthropologists and sociologists have posited, we are “Homo narrans”—Man, the story teller. If that’s true, the theater will always be with us—as a sacred space.

All PlayPenn 2015 participants, including the six playwrights who were chosen out of over 700 applicants:
James Ijames, David J. Jacobi, Genne Murphy, Eric Pfeffinger, JT Rodgers, and Ellen Struve. Photo by John Flak.

Get free tickets to staged readings with Philadelphia actors at PlayPenn 2015.
Find more information on PlayPenn,
Watch a short video bio with Paul Meshejian (2009)

HENRIK EGER

For Part 2 of this interview, Everything you always wanted to know about PlayPenn, but were afraid to ask: Paul Meshejian interview, click this link.

For Part 3 of this interview, The secrets of getting a manuscript accepted: Paul Meshejian interview, Part 3, click this link.

For Part 1, first published on Phindie, click here.

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Tribute to Omar Sharif

7/11/2015

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Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor best known for his work in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, died July 10, 2015, at the age of 83. Henrik Eger penned this tribute to him.

Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia, 1962.

I do not come to mourn, but come to celebrate

For Omar Sharif, the Sultan of Cinema,
The Bridge between Arab life and all of us

I do not come to mourn, but come to celebrate Omar Sharif, the Sultan of Cinema.
I do not come to mourn, but come to celebrate the actor of actors, the man of men.
I do not come to mourn, but come to celebrate his Russian Zhivago, his Arab Sherif Ali.
I do not come to mourn, but come to celebrate the Egyptian, the citizen of the world.

* * *

Omar Sharif, wherever you are on our journey into timelessness,
you have left behind the kind of magic that makes me look up at the sky
and see you as a star that shines, in spite of your foibles,
making you a very human star.

I do not come to mourn, but come to celebrate Omar Sharif,
the Bridge between Arab life and all of us,
the Sultan of Cinema, the star that shines--
even now.

Fare thee well, auf Wiedersehen, bedrood, Ma’ Alsalam, مع السلامة, Omar.
Ma’ Alsalam, Omar. مع السلامة.

PS: Your love for life lives on in your family,
in that moving embrace of your grandson, Omar Sharif, Jr.,
and in the memories of millions whose lives you’ve touched.

I do not mourn, but celebrate your life, Omar Sharif.

Henrik Eger

This poem was originally published by Phindie on July 11, 2015.

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“I want my art to inspire action”: Interview with Asylum playwright Cheril N. Clarke

7/9/2015

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Author Cheril N. Clarke and her wife Monica Bey-Clarke

Wikipedia lists Cheril N. Clarke as “a Canadian-born contemporary author and playwright of gay and lesbian romance, drama and comedy. She has lived in the United States for the majority of her life”—not to be confused with Cheryl Clarke, also an African American lesbian writer and professor at Rutgers University in NJ.

Cheril N. Clarke published Love and Romance: The Gay and Lesbian Guide to Dating and Romance, and a collection of erotic vignettes entitled Illusions of Love. She also wrote five novels: Foundations: A Novel of New Beginnings, Different Trees from the Same Root, Intimate Chaos, Tainted Destiny, and Losing Control. An innovative writer, she created a series of “sexy short stories,” covering The Beautiful People in New York, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and South Beach.

Although only 34 years old, Clarke has written not only erotic pieces but also important books for children of LGBT families, including My Family! A Multi-Cultural Holiday Coloring Book for Children of Gay and Lesbian Parents, and Keesha & Her Two Moms Go Swimming, co-authored with her wife Monica Bey-Clarke, “a good-natured story that promotes the normalcy of everyday life in LGBT families and relates a universal message about the importance of sharing, being nice to others, and getting along despite our differences,” according to Amazon. This book “upholds gay and lesbian unions, encourages early childhood literacy, [and] builds self-esteem.”

Clarke also wrote a thought provoking play, Intimate Chaos, based on her novel—“an emotional whirlwind [where] two women struggle to learn lessons from past mistakes and apply them to future attempts at making things right.” Most recently, it was translated into Spanish and performed at the Tercer Amor festival in Puerto Rico under the name Caos Intimo.

Clarke’s second play, Asylum, featuring the attempted honor-killing of a young lesbian from Uganda by her father, world-premiered in New York with great success, winning the Audience Award of the 2012 Downtown Urban Theater Festival. Asylum, now directed by Kash Goins with Philadelphia actors, will be premiering at The Stagecrafters Theater, Chestnut Hill, July 24-26, 2015.

The work of the prolific Clarke has been featured in a wide range of publications, including PGN; Out IN Jersey; Curve, the nation's bestselling lesbian magazine; Sistah2Sistah Magazine; and even business publications like Crain's New York Business newspaper. Her opinion columns have been featured by the National Coalition of Black Justice. Her editorial work has appeared in About Magazine, GayWired, and 247gay. Clarke was a keynote speaker at an African Asian Latina Lesbians United conference and has performed at events organized by African American Lesbians United for Societal Change. Several radio stations, including NPR, have also featured her work.

Eger: Quite a few of your earlier novels and stories deal with sexy characters and scenes. What made you stop writing erotic works?

Clarke: It’s important for me to stimulate myself with different genres every few years. That is not to say I wouldn’t revisit a particular genre after I’ve taken a departure — I might. My works move in tandem with the ebb and flow of my life and, at this time, there are many other things inspiring the stories I want to tell.

Eger: You married the love of your life. What’s the secret of your successful marriage?

Clarke: Yes, I’m grateful every day to know that I was lucky enough to marry my best friend. Monica and I have been together for over a decade now and my love for her rivals my need for breathing. She has helped me grow into the woman I’ve become and continues to inspire me, every day, to be my greatest self. The secret to our marriage is compatibility, respect, honest communication on a daily basis. It’s the fact that we were engaged for about a year-and-a-half before getting married, and during that time we got to know each other thoroughly and made sure that we were willing to do whatever it required for us to have a healthy, lasting and loving relationship. We set goals with timelines and achieved all of them on time if not early. We understand and respect what’s important to each other and on the rare occasions where our desires don’t align, we talk until we solve the dilemma and find solutions. We leave no room for guessing at what each other wants. This is all by design and intention. Our marriage today is standing on the foundation we started building almost 12 years ago.

Eger: You and Monica, your wife, have co-authored books, too.

Clarke: She and I have co-authored books, but more than that, we co-own the Dodi Press Company that publishes our works and the works of authors around the world. We also own the parent company, which focuses on producing positive, multi-cultural depictions of the LGBT community, including a stock photo company (which is in the works) — www.gaystockmedia.com — to fill the void of images that positively reflect the diversity within our community.

Eger: What’s your secret of blending a marriage with your creative publishing enterprise?

Clarke: We work better together than with anyone else. That’s one thing we’ve learned over the years with many of our ventures, including our marriage: communication, planning, enacting those plans, revising when needed, etc. We run our marriage like we’d run a family business — with passion, love, courage, sacrifice and commitment to experience quality over the long haul.

Eger: Many of your earlier novels are erotic. Yet, you also have authored moving children’s books for LGBT families. Were eyebrows raised when first you published such contrasting works?

Clarke: Good question. I stopped focusing on erotic novels many years before writing children’s books, so, fortunately, there were no questions raised. The novels were for adults and the kids’ books were for children. Our lives are multi-faceted and I really don’t think writers should be restricted to one medium or a single target audience for the bulk of their careers. That could get very boring, and I don’t like boring. My work has evolved with me, from a single young teenager to a family woman, business owner, adventure seeker and beyond.

Eger: What inspired you to write “Asylum,” based on a true story about a young woman who has to flee Uganda to avoid getting “honor killed” because her sexuality does not conform to her family’s heterosexist norms? Unfortunately, so-called honor killings of LGBT people take place not only in Africa, but on all continents to this day.

Neferneferuaten Nefertiti, ca. 1370 – ca. 1330 BC, Ancient Egyptian relief featuring her face and sensuous lips, Brooklyn Museum

Clarke: I first heard about this story while doing freelance work for Out IN Jersey magazine. There was a petition going around to help this woman, Prossy Kakooza, appeal her case for asylum. Though we are exposed to terrible news stories every day, this one truly stuck with me. It wouldn’t let me go. So, I asked my editor if he knew of a way I could speak with her. Through a series of connections, I was able to do just that. I was blown away by the calm and courage of this woman who had endured so much.

Eger: How did you communicate with the young lesbian who fled Uganda?

Clarke: We corresponded quite a bit in the beginning. I’d initially written her just to ask if there was anything else I could do to help her case and to offer sisterhood, despite the distance between us. Over time, we spoke more and more about everyday things as well as what she’d survived and, at some point, I became inspired to tell her story. We spoke primarily through email for years as I carefully crafted “Asylum.” Sometimes we used Skype, but the time difference made that challenging. I didn’t want to be like other writers about whom she’d told me, those who stuck a tape recorder in her face, hoping to “get her story” after just having met. I just wanted to be a friend and, with that approach, came her trust in me with her life story. This began a friendship that stands to this day. My wife and I did meet her and her partner, Leah, when we went to Manchester, U.K., last fall. It happened to be gay Pride weekend, which made it all the more surreal. It was one of the most amazing moments of our lives to be in their presence — two women who looked like us and loved like us, but who had almost paid the ultimate price for their love. Their courage and strength made an indelible impression on us, and we’re grateful to have crossed paths with them and be able to tell their story.

Eger: Black women have been marginalized for a long time, black lesbians even more so. It has been said that you are “passionate about bringing to life the stories of black gays and lesbians,” especially as they have “often been left out of the mainstream when it comes to realistic portrayals and genuine life experience.” You even violate an old unwritten rule that African-American writers are not supposed to share with the rest of the world the “many layers, including domestic violence and vigilance, religion and oppression” within the black community as portrayed in “Asylum” — a play that has been considered “absorbing as much as it is shocking.”

Clarke: I should include bisexuals in that quote because they are a segment that is often left out and misunderstood, even within the LGBTQ community. I’m a strong advocate for bisexual people, too. I think there may have been a time of having an unwritten rule that African-Americans, in general, should not share with the rest of the world the many layers of our being. If anyone could break those rules, however, I think it would be writers and other artists — those who regularly walk the tightrope of societal pressure and freedom of expression. Unwritten rules are of no matter to me. Silence has rarely protected anyone. Lack of communication and unwillingness to explore the things that make us more alike than unalike stall progress and equality. In my works, I’m specifically seeking exposure that cannot be ignored, cannot be denied and cannot be forgotten. I am pushing for a perspective beyond traditional, safe and even proper. I want my art to inspire action, and honesty is the best way for me to accomplish that.

Eger: Soon Philadelphia will see your moving play. Tell us about this new production of “Asylum,” directed by Kash Goins.

Clarke: The new production is my best work to date and, with Kash at the helm, I’m more excited than I could ever be about presenting it in Philadelphia. New scenes have been added since its first showing in New York City and the returning cast members, as well as myself, have all grown as artists. “Asylum” is just as delicate as it is strong because it recounts some of the most horrific events that happened to real people who had done nothing but fallen in love in a place where their love was illegal — punishable by prison and death. This play has been nurtured for years to reach a palpable point of maturity, and it is ripe for presentation to the Philadelphia theater community.

Violence against women. Scene from ASYLUM where the father is ready to "honor" kill his daughter
because she is in love with another woman.

Leah Nakazibwe, Prossy Kakooza, Cheril N. Clarke by Monica Bey Clarke

Eger: Much of your work brings attention to women’s rights and human rights as they cross paths with gay rights, sometimes even within the context of the African diaspora. How do you keep readers interested in such important, but complex subjects?

Clarke: I make sure there is balance in the presentation. It would be too intense to have such hard topics driven at full speed from beginning to end, and it wouldn’t be an accurate reflection of humanity. Even the persons who are deemed the bad characters by the majority have redeeming qualities about them. They have to have layers. I work to keep audiences interested by using a combination of poetic prose, crisp comedy, and providing honest portrayals of universal themes. Everyone can relate to hope, fear, guilt, the need for love and a craving for dignity.

Eger: Any chance of bringing the young woman from Uganda and her wife to the United States to see your play?

Clarke: Prossy has actually seen a video-recorded version of “Asylum” after the NYC world premiere, but it took her time to view it. While we [audience members] are watching it live in the United States, we have to remember that “Asylum” is based on a true story. All of the horrific events portrayed happened to these women. Rape. Torture. Ridicule. Abandonment. Loss of family. All of this is theater to us but very real to them, as is the post-traumatic stress syndrome. Seeing the play live dramatizes it even more than watching a recording. Of course, I’d be happy for Prossy to see a live performance when that perfect time has come.

Eger: Given the violence against people of color and members of the LGBT community — from hiring and firing at will in the United States to witch hunts in Africa — what do you think might help to reach fundamentalists in the United States and overseas who are responsible for a great deal of discrimination and hateful actions, and perhaps engage them in a dialogue to see that we all have much more in common with each other than anything that might separate us?

Clarke: Reaching fundamentalists is one of the toughest tasks oppressed people face, but on an individual basis, a first step would be to try and understand them first before trying to get them to understand us. A favorite quote of mine is “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care … about them” by Zig Ziglar. We cannot assume we know why they feel what they feel so we must create opportunities where we can ask questions. Asking specific questions automatically gives them a chance to start thinking about why they believe what they believe. It challenges them, particularly when you decrypt their religious-speak into relatable language and modern-day examples. And when it’s our turn to speak, we must find a way to demonstrate that agreeing with freedom for all who are not harming or endangering others will not dismantle their faith. Fundamentalists are entitled to their beliefs that their religion doesn’t condone homosexuality, but what does that have to do with fair housing, access to medical care, fair taxes, employment practices, protection from bullying, torture and death? We must show fundamentalists that one’s fighting for these things has absolutely no bearing on their personal faith — that homosexuality is not a communicable disease that will wipe out the world. After all, most of us were born to heterosexual parents! And we must personalize our conversation. My wife and I have been together for more than a decade and I do not see any way our union has infringed on the rights of others. Most don’t even know we’re married unless we tell them. Our relationship could be invisible if we wanted it to be but we choose not to. There is no inspiration or strength in being silent or invisible.

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Eger: What would you say to the new generation of young LGBT poets, story writers, novelists and playwrights to move forward as creative artists and build an audience?

Clarke: Don’t be afraid to tell your truths, but study those who were great at their crafts so that you can tell your story in the most riveting way possible. Technique is equally as important as content. Be bold, be daring and be exceptional in all that you do.

Eger: What are your next plans?

Clarke: I am going to continue bringing “Asylum” to new audiences while I work on a brand-new play that delves into the lives of murdered members of the American LGBT community, particularly black trans women.

HENRIK EGER

Originally published by PGN, July 3, 2015

Cast and crew images, Stagecrafters Theater, Philadelphia, 2015
Images from the world premier, Downtown Urban Theater Festival, New York City, 2012

Violence behind closed doors. Photo by Susan Roghair

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Home Run! Shakespeare at a Ball Park: Interview with Rosemary Hay and Rudy Caporaso of REV Theatre Company, part 2

Building New Audiences for Classical Theater: Interview with Rosemary Hay and Rudy Caporaso, artistic co-directors of REV Theatre Company

The secrets of getting a manuscript accepted: Meshejian interview, part 3

Everything you always wanted to know about PlayPenn, but were afraid to ask: Paul Meshejian interview, pt. 2

“A comfortable place for misfits”: Interview with PlayPenn founder Paul Meshejian, Part 1

Tribute to Omar Sharif

“I want my art to inspire action”: Interview with Asylum playwright Cheril N. Clarke

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