An Interview With
Richard Sheinmel

Post Modern Living

 

These two one-acts are just so very smooth and make for an evening that puts one in a delightful mood.  It all looks so easy. How do you accomplish this?

Thanks, I'm glad to hear you had such a good time.  To me a lot of the delight comes out of the music and of course the story telling.  We get to tell some wonderful stories within this structure; and it has some playful characters that even I find amusing (and I've seen it more than anyone).    

Your collaborator is Clay Zambo.  When and how did the two of you meet and what makes this partnership work?  

We met in 2001 when we were both pulled together by Music in a Box, to write the second episode of the their serial musical Downtown Dysfunctionals—it was great fun.  It played at the Zipper Theater in the Spring of 2002. I wrote the book with a sort of tele-nova meets late night sensibility. It's actually a job I turn downed—I felt burdened by the characters I had inherited from the first episode… worst amongst them was Trip—a pantheist poet with purple hair who would profess serious religious beliefs and then quickly refute them in a comic manner… he made me sick. How can I write for him?—and so I said no and passed. But I woke up in the middle of the night thinking—Ill cure him; I wrote the first scene that morning and I decided I would push him, I’d stretch him to his limits and break him, comically—and that's how the episode came about. I called them up, and luckily they hadn't hired anyone else yet.

I named it "Baby Buddha" and it ended up staring drag superstar Miss Sunrize Highway; as a mischievous drag queen spirit guide tormenting the religiously challenged Trip by stealing everything he owns until he has nothing; even stealing his final towel when he loses on a game show called "Wheel of Karma."  Anyway, Clay wrote music and lyrics and there is a song, one of the most achingly beautiful songs I've ever heard, called "Enough" in which Trip (at Williams Sonoma) has the epiphany that brings the show to it"s end.

That's how we met.  

I can't tell you what makes our partnership work; all I know is I like working with him.  Our process is evolving.  At first I brought him the stories, the plays, and he wrote songs to accompany them.  Then Nicky Pariso, the curator for performance at the club at La MaMa felt he'd like to see the music inside the plays; I was game so on Post Modern Living, we worked together crafting the music in and out of scenes, more like a traditional musical, but still in a non-traditional manner.    

You have a definite reason for writing this play and are working on the, shall I call it sequel? Could you tell us where you got the idea for this and why you think it is an important work to complete/keep working on?  

I think sequel is an apt title—people say it's like "Tales of the City" because you follow the characters from story to story, each one a little adventure.

As far as where I got the idea—that's actually a very complicated question. Modern Living, the over all series grew out of a desire to tell stories, the ones that I would hear in the world around me, but because I'm a playwright it made sense to me to tell them in a play form. I was inspired by the way Spalding Gray could weave a personal story that kept the audience enrapt for over an hour; or listening to Selected Shorts on NPR while driving through Long Island at night. However, after working with Jeff Weiss all those years (I played in his late night Obie award wining cult musical soap opera Hot Keys for over 10 years) it just felt more right to me to share the stage.  I acted with Penny Arcade when she was creating shows about her life growing up in an Italian American family (recently published under the title Bad Reputaion)—and when I decided to tell my own stories—I thought it would be fun to create a performance artist, like Penny—but one with the content of my life. And that's how I found my alter ego Mitch Mitchell.  How I ended up playing him is another story.

In this installment—Post Modern Living, our director, Jason Jacobs, really helped me to understand how Mitch's work is growing and changing, evolving as is mine. In this way Modern Living is like life, with its unexpected twists and surprises coming about in a more organic way.  And although I take artistic license, I use my life as a guide with a desire to find the story with out changing the truth at its center. I think audiences really respond to that. That these are true stories; that's why they call it creative non-fiction.   

And from the very beginning of the project, these were also the stories that tell themselves, the ones that wake me up and beg to be written. So of course I keep writing it—I keep living it—and I already have tons of stories to tell.  I recently came to the realization that I'm an exhibitionist (my friends have known this for years). I mean I write plays about my life and then act in them; and I love to share, it's my nature. I put the goal out there that I'd like to write at least one a year.

You classify yourself as a performer/playwright.  Which came first, how do they interact, and why do you call yourself a performer rather than an actor?  

Well—I find the title of actor, often falls short of the description of what you are asked to do when performing in Indie Theater.  Like, for example: lip syncing and moving through the part of a pre-recorded robot in a John Moran opera at the Kitchen; or dancing in a movement piece based on contact improv; or even if you look at Post Modern Living itself.  Yes, I’m acting—I'm not Mitch Mitchell, but Mitch Mitchell is me—and this is a play about my life. Am I acting? I’m reliving the actual experience of finding out my Mom has breast cancer, and the audience knows this. So I don't know if acting is the best way to describe it—it is however definitely performance. That's why I prefer performer.

Interestingly enough, I've been writing as long as I've been performing, and all that started long before high school. I even wrote one of my two monologues I used to audition to get into the High School of Performing Arts (HS Fame as my friends call it—but I prefer to think of it as the progenitor of Glee).   My first full length play was the Christmas show performed there my sophomore year (no, I wasn't in it too)—and yes it had big dance numbers with original music written by fellow student jazz pianist and composer Billy Charlap. So this is my thing. I don't think either came first.

You played the lead in Post Modern Living.  Did you write the part with that in mind and how would you feel about another actor playing the role?  

One of the strangest twists for me in the whole experience has been playing Mitch Mitchell. No, I did not originally write him for me to play. In fact, at first I was one hundred percent against playing Mitch. I kept thinking of Spalding, how no one wants to do a Spalding Gray play without Spalding. I want these plays to live without me—which is why I was so glad the Metropolitan Play House included one of the plays, Shelia Mom in the East Village Play Festival, without me.

 Nope, actually I wrote the part of Robby with myself in mind I mean that's a great character; and when I went to Michael Baron (who directed the first installment of Modern Living at La MaMa ETC in 2006) and told him I wanted to play Robby, he said "let me think about it." Two weeks later came back with " think it would be more fun for the audience to see you play the guy who writes the story."—and well, he didn't have to twist my arm very hard. That decision affected so many things. 

All through the development and reading process with the Naked Angels—Joe Danisi, one of the curators of the Tuesdays at Nine series, insisted I listen to the play and not be in it; so I've seen the pieces with many terrific actors playing Mitch Mitchell; and I've done my best to steal all of their best business.

I absolutely look forward to seeing lots of actors play Mitch. I want him to live and breath and walk across the stage anyplace and every where he can —maybe even in other languages.  But let me ask you—It makes me wonder—Do you think any one else could be better at playing me than me?

It must be exciting to perform at La MaMa.  How did you make the initial contact and what has it been like to be part of the La MaMa family?  

I had my first professional acting gig there, in 1989—cast by Virlana Tkacz, in a play called An Altar to Himself. I think one of my teachers at Experimental Theater Wing posted a listing about the audition on the wall. It was, and is a great place to work. Back then you had to use the stairs to go to the rehearsal halls, sometimes you'd have to walk up to the sixth floor—but that was a great way to meet people, everyone hung out in the stairwell. Which lead to so many fun projects. I've always had a game for anything in terms of performance.

I got to say it's been great having such a long relationship with a place; and working with Ellen was always a memorable experience. Still, we wouldn't be there now without Nicky Pariso; he's my go to person there when I need anything, he curates the club where we do the show.    

When will the next Modern Living be around and can you give an enticing hint about it?  

We're slated for next season in the club but we haven' set the dates yet… Clay and I are already at work on it. Unfortunately life succor punches our hero Mitch Mitchell in the gut with tragic consequences—so my guess is it's a comedy.

We are currently seeking new production partners who might be able to help take this project to the next level, so if any of your readers out there are interested—tell them to feel free to contact me through my website Sheinmel.com.  As well as anyone who might want to be on our email string for the next show; there’s a link there for that as well.

I just want to say—thanks so much for having me here—via cyber interview… I'm really glad you enjoyed Post Modern Living so much… I'll be sure to let you know when the next part comes around.

 

 

Interview with Richard Sheinmel was conducted by NYTE Small Press April 2011

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