Intentional Theater

Lorraine Olsen is Figuratively Speaking

2012-02-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm producing a new play! A sneak preview of a fabulous one person show by my dear friend Lorraine Olsen! See it now and be among those who can say "I saw it when ..."

February 24th and 25th at 8:00 pm
February 26th at 2:00

Wow Cafe Theater
59-61 E 4th St
between Bowery and 2nd Ave

$18

Told with humor and brio, Lorraine Olsen unveils the world of fine art modelling in this sparkling memoir. Fresh from the San Francisco Fringe Festival of 2011 where it won Best Box Office! Don't miss it!

Miriam Eusebio

2011-07-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

Miriam Eusebio 718-809-0634 meusebio@earthlink.net

Associate, SDC

Current Projects

Intentional Theater Company www.IntentionalTheater

Preparing for a production of The Path of Return Continues the Journey by Thic Naht Hanh for the summer of 2012.

Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Math Maze by Gioia DeCari. Award winning one woman play chronicling DeCari’s hero’s journey through the PhD Math program at MIT. Ongoing. www.UnexpectedTheatre.org for tour details.

Productions Directed

Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through MIT’s Male Math Maze Gioia DeCari Unexpected Theater, NY Firnge 2009

NYFringe Overall Excellence Award, solo

Happy Days Samuel Beckett Intentional Theater, at Wow, 2009

Schadenfreude! The Asshole Differential Explained Moira Cutler Wow Café Theater, 2008

Asshole Differential Moira Cutler Dixon Place, 2007

Faces . . . Voices Doreen Perrine Miriam Eusebio Projects, 2006

Mrs. Miller Cirie and Collins Sounding Theater Company, 2005

Take Care of Yourself Diana Fithian Manhattan Theater Source, 2005

Campus Security Arthur Giron New Jersey Repertory, 2005

Escape From Happiness George Walker Clark University 2005

Where Have You Been? Fiona Jones Bridge Club Productions, 2004

Faces . . . Voices Doreen Perrine Stages Transgender Theat. Fest., 2003

Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare New Perspectives, 2003

Taming of the Shrew* Shakespeare New Perspectives, 2002

The 9th Envelope Gioia DeCari Various venues, 2001

Pericles Shakespeare Midtown Int. Theater Fest.. 2000

Pericles* Shakespeare Carrie Edel, at Expanded Arts, 2000

This production was also brought to New Jersey Repertory for four performances.

The Rain or Moisturizer Christopher Day Expanded Arts, 1999

Private Eyes Steven Deitz Brooklyn College, 1999

Oedipus at Colonus Sophocles Brooklyn College, 1997

Body of Myth Deborah Goodwin Bindlestiff Theater, 1994

Blue Window Craig Lucas Art Rise Studio Theater, 1994

Painting Churches Tina Howe Art Rise Studio Theater, 1993

The Marriage of Bette and Boo Christopher Durang Art Rise Studio Theater, 1993

The Actor’s Nightmare Christopher Durang Plank and a Passion, 1987

Act Without Words II Samuel Beckett Chico State University, 1986

*Off-Off Broadway Review award for Excellence

Plays with Young Actors

Handsel and Gretel (opera) Humperdink Camp Ballibay, 2002

Leviathan and And the Sea Shall Give Up It’s Dead (as teleplays) Thornton Wilder Camp Ballibay, 2002

Controlling the Fashion Victims Jenna Mann Urban Youth Theater, 2001

The Long Christmas Dinner Thornton Wilder Camp Ballibay, 2001

Our Bench Alexis Harbour Urban Youth Theater, 2000

Staged Readings, New York

Winter Light Lionel Kranitz 2006

Hoax Pamela Monk Messenger Theater Company, 2005

The Hard Way Gino Di Iorio New Jersey Repertory, 2005

Sleeping Beauty Carolyn Gage Messenger Theater Company, 2004

Amor y Pesetas Suzanne Gamble New Perspectives, 2002

Free Lunch Lionel Kranitz New 42nd St. Theater, 2000

Train Birds Lionel Kranitz New 42nd St. Theater, 2000

The Spirit House Adam Kraar New Jersey Repertory, 1999

Education/Professional Associations

BA Theater Arts, California State University, Chico

MFA Directing, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Acting and Directing Workshops with Joseph Chaikin

Drama Studio London, Berkeley, Summer Acting Intensive

Member Lincoln Center Director’s Lab

Collective Member, Wow Café Theater

Associate Member Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers

References

Fiona Jones, Manhatan Theater Source fiona@theatersource.org

Emily Davis, Messenger Theater Company emily@messengertheatreco.org

Gino DiIorio, playwright, Head of Theater Department, Clark Univsersity, GINOD42@aol.com

Still Reaching

2010-05-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

Almost a year later and I'm still dreaming. I still feel like Intentional's Happy Days needs a wider audience and a high profile review. I still feel like it needs to be part of the conversation that artists have with this play. The way I had a conversation with productions previous to mine by reading reviews in the Billy Rose Theater Collection at the Lincoln Center Library. It doesn't feel like it's been almost a year but it has.

I've had more talks with people who can give us advice and have new leads on more people to talk to. A packet of materials to give to potential theaters has been developed. It's quite nice - with photos, a quote sheet, an example of our edits and a copy of the chapbook of poems Winnie can't remember. A budget is being created. We're getting closer.

Dreaming Through the Maze

2009-06-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have a dream. A simple but difficult dream that I'm scheming to bring to reality. That dream is for Intentional Theater's Happy Days to run in an off broadway house for a substantial run, for it to be reviewed by the best writers at the Times and the Voice, and for a wide audience to experience it.

I have no experience with how to make this happen and am feeling my way through the process: I have begun a conversation with people at what I hope is a likely candidate.

This seems to be a slow process.

In the meantime, a project I thought would start this fall was given a space grant and accepted to the NY Fringe Festival and so I am rehearsing a new play! The play is Truth Values: One

Girl's Romp Through MIT's Male Math Maze by Gioia DeCari.

It is DeCari's story of her experiences at MIT, in the PhD track studying logic, and why she became an actress instead of a mathemetician. DeCari is an excellent actress and writer and it is a joy to work on it with her.

A 12 minute snippet will be presented on Thursday June 25th at Dance Theater Workshop 219 W. 19th Street, NYC, 7:30 $10.

Fringe performances are not yet scheduled.

2009-01-29T15:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Days by Samuel Beckett

directed by Miriam Eusebio

Wow Cafe Theater

59-61 East 4th Street

Reservations: 212-545-4119

February 26, 27, 28, March 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21 at 8:00 pm, March 1, 7, 8, & 15th at

3:00 pm

Samuel Beckett's iconic 20th century masterpiece of modern isolation and illusion is presented by Intentional Theater using a text specially edited to reflect Beckett's own changes as limned in his production notebook. This production promises to be a groundbreaking event. Asta Hansen plays the trapped Winnie, up to her waist in a mound of earth. She is joined by Dale Fuller as her husband Willie who resides, crawling and grunting behind the mound. The characters, seemingly in separate worlds, are yet connected by shared history and love in this strange and wonderful play.

Check out the Happy Days video on East Village Podcasts! http://www.eastvillagepodcasts.com

A Bunch of Photos, mostly from Open Rehearsal 11/9/08

2008-12-31T13:15:00.000-08:00

Asta Hansen lookin' lovely in costume.

Winnie up to her neck in mock set.

Winnie explaining how one sometimes get through the whole day without having put up at all. The rehearsal sunshade did a fine job, but will be replaced anyway. The sunshade will become smaller and more whimsical. Tassels will be included.

Rehearsal props. Some are done. Some not. It is impossible to rehearse this play without props. The lines and the actions are so intertwined as to be one.

The cover of our chapbook. It is the poems that Winnie tries to remember during the course of the play. The picture on the cover of the book is our earlier postcard photo, with Janet Ward as Winnie. I miss her.

Me and Asta Hansen in costume, listening to someone after our scenes presentation. We got some good feedback that day. We learned some things that were working well and some that needed tweaking.

Dale Fuller in the Willie hat. I love this hat - it is just right - except that it is a little too small for Dale. I made it from aluminum foil and paper mache. I'll have to make another and I hope the new one comes out as nicely as the first!

Moving along Apace

2008-12-01T15:34:00.000-08:00

The Happy Days crew is moving along in our journey toward our production. After an open rehearsal at which we showed off some well prepared scenes, we have invigorated confidence. (You see here a bit of our mock set, and Asta Hansen as Winnie, deciphering the toothbrush while Dale Fuller as Willie fans himself with the newspaper.) We have no illusions about how difficult the road ahead is, and we look forward to the journey. The play is so complex, so rich, and so good that the work is a joy. Each time through a new detail becomes clear or a new sense of a moment asserts itself.

We are joined on our journey by set designer Darya Geerisimenko. Below is her first draft rendering of a back drop. We are thrilled to have such a talented and enthusiastic designer on the ride with us.

Poetry Reading a Success!

2008-10-29T15:05:00.001-07:00

A wonderful evening was had by about 40 people in the basement of Lolita Bar at the Poetry Fundraiser for Intentional Theater's Happy Days!

The atmosphere was relaxed as poets Jeff McDaniel, Rachel M. Simon, Hila Ratzabi, Cristina Izaquirre and Chris Hansen-Nelson each wowed the audience with amazing words. Ms. Simon graciously donated some of her books "The Theory of Oange" for sale, and we had early copies of "Those Wonderful Lines; the poetry of Happy Days" available.

Alba Garzon brought baked goods to sell; whiskey cake and the stunning "Winnie in the Mound Guinness Cupcakes" pictured here. They were clever and delicious! Two bottles of wine, a Sarah Lynch cd, and a Fourth Arts Block canvas bag with compact fluorescent bulbs were all raffled off to the delight of the winners!

Thanks to the generosity of those people, Intentional made over $200.oo toward the production, and the tallying is not done yet! Some folks who could not come have sent donations in the mail, so far another $250.oo! If you would like to join these fine donators please see the post titled Donate! for how to do so.

If you are interested in a copy of "Those Wonderful Lines", contact me: meusebio@earthlink.net

Poetry Poetry Poetry (Fundraiser!)

2008-09-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

Come one and all to Lolita Bar on Broome and Allen, October 22nd at 6:oo pm for poetry, prizes and fun to raise funds for Intentional Theater's Happy Days! $10.00 entry.

This project has been suffused with poetry since it's inception; from the time Janet and I discovered that Beckett's text could be scanned as Shakespeare's text can to our finding and reading all the poems that Winnie can't remember and more. Beckett was a poet. Janet was a poet. Asta's husband is a poet. So . . . poetry reading!

On the 22nd of October, downstairs at Lolita Bar, we will have several New York poets read new work on a theme suggested by the play, commissioned by Intentional Theater. They will also read other pieces of their own. I have given each poet a choice of theme for the new poem; either "the allure of death" or "the unknowability of time".

Other fun to be had will be a raffle with great prizes, a poem that you may add to (for a small fee) projected on a wall, baked goods for sale and . . . drum roll please, "Those Wonderful Lines", the chapbook of poems that Winnie can't remember will be on sale!

It promises to be a great evening and you should all come!

Coming Back

2008-05-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

On January 9th of this year I signed a contract with Georges Bourcahardt agency for the rights to produce “Happy Days” with Janet Ward and Dale Fuller at Wow in 2009. Two weeks later Janet was diagnosed with stage four, metastasized lung cancer.
Immediately I didn’t care about the play anymore. I just wanted my friend to get better. There were optimistic doctors and whenever I told someone they had a story of their mother or their uncle or friend who beat the same disease. Janet’s spirits were good and she wanted to keep working on the play. She said it would help her heal. We scheduled some rehearsals but it quickly became clear that fighting cancer is a full time job. I dove in to a side project we had all discussed: the production of a chapbook of the poetry that Winnie tries to remember.
I should have written here then, when she was sick and we all had hope. But I didn’t write. I couldn't bear to put it down that she was in danger of death even as I tried to believe she was safe. I didn’t want to have to answer the next question: if she dies, will you go on with the production?
Though we all kept optimistic (myself perhaps blindly so) each visit to the doctor brought a change of outlook. After one round of radiation, chemotherapy was stopped as she was too weak. New symptoms revealed new tumors. More radiation, and again too weak. On April 24th she was moved from Sloan Kettering to Calvary Hospice in Brooklyn. On Wednesday April 30th, on my second visit to her there, I read poetry to her, tried to sing a little, and talked in a stream of consciousness about what she had meant to me and how mad and sad I was that she was dying. That afternoon, with her sister and her niece next to her she died.

Janet was my good friend for over 15 years. She introduced me to wonderful people, to music, to poetry. We talked plays, books, plays, whiskey and boyfriends. Even at almost 20 years her junior, I could not keep up with her jazz-club-playgoing-almost-every-night-out routine. She was hungry for life and all it’s joys always learning and growing, heart always open, always excited about an artist, a film, a piece of music, a musician. I’m stunned that I will never again experience meeting her for brunch and having her pluck her notebook out of her bag and read me a new poem. I will never again hear her laugh, or see her purse her lips and raise her eyebrows as she makes a deft analysis of a film or a play, which she did so well (the analysis, not the eyebrow raising, though she did that well too) that I encouraged her to start reviewing for papers. I will never again see her in a play. She was a terrific poet, a marvelous actress and a wonderful woman and I miss her more than I can say.

Even before she left us though, the horrible question was looming: what will happen with the production? It could no longer be put off. Janet’s sister Judy was the first to bring it up, suggesting the project as a cause people could donate to in her memory. The suggestion made me frightened, proud, hopeful, guilty, trusted. In the swirl of these contradictory feelings, realizing that for some, continuing was an assumption, not a question, I started thinking: can we continue? How? It felt to me almost a betrayal of Janet to recast her but also like a betrayal to drop the project. Janet loved the work, she loved Beckett and she loved us.
Dale and I talked about it. He was adamant; we can’t possibly go on, the project was Janet; meaningless without her. I asked Janet’s daughter Sarah what she thought and her reaction was immediate; Janet would want us to continue. At Sarah’s home a day or two later, surrounded by a crowd of folks who loved Janet, Dale and I spoke again and we decided to go on.

We can’t go on. We must go on.

We asked Janet’s friend and ours, Asta Hansen to join us. Asta was in the workshop with us when Janet and I first worked on the play. She worked, in fact, on the same section of the play directed by the leader of that workshop, Joe Chaikin. Asta is a also marvelous actress. Luckily for us Asta is available and willing to take on the part.

Instead of producing it with Janet, we will produce it dedicated to Janet.

Big Thanks, Big Scary and Small Publishing

2008-04-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all who made our post funddraiser funddraisng successful! On January 9th I went to the offices of George Bourchart, literary agents, and signed a contract granting Intentional Theater the right to produce Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days" in February and March of 2009! We are truly on our way!

Unfortunately we are not able to begin working as the wonderful Janet Ward, our Winnie, is very ill. She will recover, but not quickly, so our plan of having, in April, an invited presentation of a couple of sections of the play is scotched. This is the Big Scary mentioned in the title of this post. She'll be okay, but she is very sick now and I worry evrey day over her.

In the meantime I am working double time on a publishing aspect of the project!
When Janet, Dale, Alba and I were going through the "Happy Days" notebook of Beckett's we were delighted to find citations and quotations of the literary refrences made in the play. All the times Winnie can't remember a poem, Beckett has something particular in mind, and he wrote down what they were! It was very exciting and illuminating and we said to each other that it would really be great to make a little booklet of the poems! We'd call it "Those Wonderful Lines" and perhps use it to raise funds. So that is what is happening! I've compiled the poems, and Winnie's attempts to remember them and I'm putting together a little chapbook of poems! It's all coming together with the help of The Women's Press Collective, an all volunteer alternative media outlet in Brooklyn. "Those Wonderful Lines" will be completed in early Summer, with illustrations by Erin Hiser

Intentional Theater Rights Party!

2007-12-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

On November 14th, 2007 We at Intentional Theater threw ourselves a party! We threw it to celebrate the obtaining of the rights to "Happy Days"! We had the party at Wow Cafe Theater, our eventual performance space, which we decorated with twinkle lights. Amusingly, our tester props were hung over the food table!

Guests enjoyed a lovely and varried spread of cheese, crackers, cookes, fruits and vegtables and all manner of dips. Wine, too was enjoyed.

Sarah Lynch and Pete McCann sang and played beautiful music and a wonderful time was had by all!
The celebration included some fundraising and we made money which will go toward paying for the rights which we have been given permission for!
We will be throwing ourselves other parties to celebrate our progress and we hope to see you at one soon!

Donate!

2007-11-18T15:29:00.000-08:00

Intentional Theater can accept tax deductible donations through our fiscal sponsor, The Field*. If you would like to donate to us in this way, please write a check made out to “The Field” with “Intentional Theater” in the memo line. Mail the check to Intentional Theater at the address below.

Intentional Theater
175 5th Avenue #26
Brooklyn, NY 11215

*The Field is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization serving the New York City performing arts community. Contributions made to the Field and earmarked for Intentional Theater are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information about The Field contact: The Field, 161 6th Avenue, 14th floor, New York, NY 10013, (212) 691-6969, fax: (212) 255-2053, www.thefield.org. A copy of The Field’s latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, from The Field or from the Office of the Attorney General, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

The Whys of Intentional Theater's Happy Days

2007-11-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

The Whys

I’m producing Happy Days because I need to. I do not entirely understand that need, but I feel it.

I’m producing Happy Days at Wow Cafe Theater because I feel the work needs an intimate space.

Happy Days speaks to our isolation in the world - how some of it is imposed and some of it chosen. Why doesn’t she dig herself out? Her nails? Not wanting to break her nails perhaps. More likely she so disbelievs she can that she cannot even think of it.

In the year 2000, in a workshop with Joe Chaikin, Janet Ward and I worked on the first three pages of the second act of Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. The work was hard and intense as we wrestled with the horror of Winnie’s predicament and her apparent happiness. Yet we found cathartic joy in the rhythms of her speech. This little taste, this little nibble left us hungry for the meal of it, hungry to do the whole play.
As the producer/director of the two of us, I knew it was up to me to start the ball rolling. The play was often in my thoughts, tickling my consciousness, whispering to me to be done. Janet occasionally mentioned it to me and I knew she was hearing the same whispers.

In the summer of 2005 I was finally brave enough to give the push. I told Janet I was ready to produce the play but that I wanted to work on it for a long time. I wanted the ball I was pushing to roll gently. I wanted us to be able to savor, explore, and test without having to run in terror toward an impending opening night. We invited Dale Fuller, who had been in the workshop with Joe, to take on the role of Willie and Alba Gomez to stage manage.

The lead time has become longer than we originally anticipated and I couldn’t be happier about that. We have had time to be meticulous. We have gone page by page through the published notebook that Beckett prepared for his own production of the play with Billie Whitelaw in 1979. We have read some of his novels and have time to read more. We have read biographies, and watched a film which may have inspired him. And we have time to do more.

I have chosen Wow Cafe Theater as our performance space. Wow is this nations only collectively run women and transperson's theater space. It has a rich history which I am proud to join. It is a blackbox theater wherein I can have the small audience close to the action; exactly where I want them.

Please join us at Wow Cafe Theater, in the spring of 2009, for our production of Happy Days, by Samuel Beckett.
February 25th through March 21st
Wow Cafe Theater
59-61 E 4th Street
$18