Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
'Connoly' with Stefan Diethelm and Bradly Valenzuela
0 Plays2 seconds ago
Stefan Diethelm is a Swiss and German artist, originally from Uzwil, Switzerland. He fell in love with performing at a young age, was trained in classical voice throughout his teens, and studied musical theatre in Hamburg, Germany. He moved to New York City to further his craft, and studied at the HB Studio under instructors like Lonny Price, Peter Francis James and Theresa McElwee. HB Studio is also where he met Eduardo Machado and started writing plays while in his class. Since graduating from the studio, he has been a working playwright, actor, producer, and director here in the city.
He has acted on various stages, from Off- and Off-Off-Broadway to Switzerland and Germany, and his plays have been performed in a variety of theaters and festivals in New York and beyond, garnering positive national and international reviews.
His biggest influences as a playwright include Sarah Kane, Samuel Beckett, Adrienne Kennedy and the European classics. He aims to create original, human art for our commercialized times.
Bradly Valenzuela is a New York City based director, playwright and producer. He is originally from Rocklin, California and attended university in Southern California at California State University, Fullerton. He graduated with a BA in Theatre with an Emphasis in Directing. Bradly is a recipient of the Honorable Mention Directing Award for Region 8 of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. For the past 5 years, he has worked within many theater companies such as Bated Breath Theatre Company, Mabou Mines and Theatre for the New City. He also has worked in multiple festivals, including the Rogue Theater Festival and the New York Theater Festival.
Along with collaborating in these given spaces, Bradly shows continued commitment to workshopping and developing new works, both as a director, playwright and as a producer, being responsible for 6 debuts in the last 2 years.
This is Something Rather Than Nothing
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Something Rather Than Nothing' Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing. Creator and host, Ken Valente.
00:00:15
Speaker
Hey, everybody. This Ken Valente with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. And I have Stefan Diehelm and Bradley Valenzuela from...
00:00:29
Speaker
The play Connelly that'll be opening in November in New York City. Bradley and Stefan welcome to something rather nothing.
00:00:43
Speaker
Thanks having us. really appreciate it. Yeah.
Exploring Themes in 'Connelly' Play
00:00:47
Speaker
Tell us about Connolly. Either the one of you starred. Drop us in to to to the play and the important themes that it brings up.
00:01:03
Speaker
I can start. on im Being the playwright, Connelly is a play that takes place in current times and in current places. It follows a teenage girl of about 15 years old who is placed in a mental health institution after an attempt on her own life, which she luckily lives through.
00:01:24
Speaker
And it follows her journey through her own future and imagining a future to this and dealing with her own mental illness. But especially it also follows her journey with her sister, Dingo, her older sister, who is both her sole provider, who is also 22 because their parents have passed um recently and also earlier on.
00:01:46
Speaker
And it follows their bond and as that tries to stick together as all the pressures from the outside, from the financial pressures to the realistic pressures of how do you take care of a 15-year-old who is that severely mentally ill um get added to the equation. There are two more characters. One is Georgie, who is a possibly imaginary, possibly spectral ah best friend to our Connolly character, who sort of serves as a...
00:02:13
Speaker
a pick-me-up and a person tries to keep Connolly going, a person who's also dealt with this, as she says in the play. and Then there is Natalia, who is the nurse that is sort of in charge of Connolly and represents the real world and the actual medical way of dealing with a case and a patient like this.
00:02:33
Speaker
and It's a play with a lot of heart, It's a sad play because I think these themes tend to lead to tragedies. And this is a tragedy. I'm not going to spoil how it ends or how it goes, but it opens in media res on a day that should be positive and then goes up and down and just kind of follows them through. I think it's very...
00:02:54
Speaker
human, if I might borrow a quote from Tennessee Williams, great great playwright. ah In a revised version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he describes a moment um where I'm blanking on the character's names, Big Daddy and his son are talking.
00:03:10
Speaker
And it becomes about, is the son secretly gay? And was he in love with his best friend who died, who I believe also took his own life? And Tennessee Williams in The Margins, like decades later, wrote this note that's like, the bird I am trying to catch in this play is what happens to a family in turmoil.
00:03:29
Speaker
And that is very much what Connery is too. It is the sisters in turmoil with all these outside and inside stresses. And how do they deal with it? And where
Production Insights and Theater Company's Mission
00:03:38
Speaker
do we go from there? And where do people fall short? And where do people rise to the occasion?
00:03:42
Speaker
And how does it all turn out in the end? Oh, thank you so much. Bradley, you're working on producing Connelly. Can you tell us about your contact with this work and your thoughts and work around it?
00:03:58
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. So um I founded a theater company at the very beginning of this year called Audacious Owl Productions. Thank you.
00:04:09
Speaker
And i to launch it, I did a week long theater festival in which I was able to work with 15 new plays and put it up for a week of performances.
00:04:22
Speaker
And Connelly was something I commissioned from Stefan because he and i worked together at a previous play called The Devil and the Playwright. And I've always just been a big fan of his work and the way his mind tackles problems.
00:04:36
Speaker
So I told him the theme of the play or the theme of the festival, which was ah finding... It's like telling bold stories that investigate what it means to be alive.
00:04:49
Speaker
And Stefan was like, I have the play for you. It's such a bummer, but I do have it. And I'm like, let it be a bummer, bring it over. And so um they did the first act at like the one act version of this play in that festival. So about 70 minutes long.
00:05:08
Speaker
And um from there, it's just been, attaching myself and offering as much support as I can as it moves forward to Theatre for the New City.
Theater's Role in Mental Health Discussions
00:05:16
Speaker
So exciting. Nice to catch you in this process.
00:05:22
Speaker
And
00:05:25
Speaker
one of the things I wanted to ask about, um and Many of us are significantly impacted by mental health, but whether it's our own, close to us addiction, i have.
00:05:40
Speaker
um And it's such a difficult territory. um And I think we can look at it through processes to help ourselves analytically. sociolog a and and reading about the the play and what it gets gets into, um can either of you speak to what a how a play can engage these themes in this day and age and it in what it provides maybe that other maybe mediums processes maybe don't get at?
00:06:23
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Stefan, do you mind if I take this? Yeah, go ahead. absolutely Thank you i I really agree. It's such a prevalent thing. Mental health is something that's so in our world right now. And I feel like this the circumstances of the world are just compounding any of these problems and making them more present and more painful and exacerbating them.
00:06:47
Speaker
The reason I think that theater can be such a good medium for it is...
00:06:53
Speaker
So many people are tired of being talked at or taught or yeah like um feeling that someone's above anyone in any of these opinions.
00:07:05
Speaker
When in the truth, we're all just trying to get to the next day. We're all doing our best to move forward to the next moment and to the next day. And with theater, what it does is it allows you just to see humans in a space together struggling to get to that next day.
00:07:23
Speaker
And you don't, you don't get preached out by them. You're just experiencing with them. And in that experience allows an opportunity for empathy and can allow for moments of understanding of your own, um, concerns with yourself from these characters, from what these beautiful characters do by just being on stage and living with you.
00:07:45
Speaker
That's why I think theater can be such a valuable medium for social issues and emotional issues and, uh, in just allowing empathy through a human on the stage.
00:08:00
Speaker
Love it. Stefan, the play format and what it does that might be different in your mind? i I very much agree with that. I think Bradley hit the nail on the head. My big thing, and we might get into this later with the esoteric question, my big reason why theater is magic to me. It's one of the few things that I would consider magic in the world. i tend to be quite a a skeptic person, but theater is magic to me because as Bradley said, theater is, however many people are watching it, breathing the same breath in the same moment.
00:08:33
Speaker
if if you do your job right and seeing the same humanity i think the play format also really lends itself to it because a play at least the way i understand a play and that this is something that bradley and i share is a play is inherently forward moving it is inherently dramatic not in the sense of dramatics not in the sense of of um for for lack of a better term, like soap opera, melodrama.
00:08:58
Speaker
But a play is reality heightened to the point that characters talk to themselves and to God and to the furniture. it It's putting these human beings in the most extreme of situations, ah which lends itself well to these things because these are big themes that I think need discussing and we're quite reluctant to discuss because they can be as impactful as any human emotion can get.
00:09:23
Speaker
you can get happy to the point of being the happiest person on earth. You can get um excited to that point. But if you get existential, if you get sad, if you get depressed to that point, that is can prove fatal.
00:09:38
Speaker
And I think that's why we try to shy away from it, which is why the theater gives us both the confrontation with it on the stage and finding the humanity in these characters, ah while also giving us the safety of It's pretend.
00:09:52
Speaker
The beautiful thing about a play like this is at the end, the actors bow and everyone goes home. And you get to experience story with them. But this is something we talked about a lot, Bradley and I, and also our director, Lanes May, who was not able to be with us here today, that our biggest mantra in all this is to never go for shock, never go for shock value, because it can be so easy to do something that grips the audience's hearts and freaks them out. and I think it is our job as as theater artists to move people and to make them uncomfortable sometimes, but just doing it for shock, for people are like, oh my God, I can't believe that just happened, especially with a subject like this, I think goes against that in a major way, I think.
00:10:35
Speaker
As Bladley said, people get to see the shared humanity. People get to deal with something that's painful, that's hard, that they might have personal connections to, that that makes them think of. But it's always in a way that's forward-moving.
00:10:45
Speaker
It's always in a way that gets us to the next day, that gets us to see this a little bit more human.
Reflections on Previous Work and Indie Theater
00:10:50
Speaker
And at the end of the day, everyone bows, and they get to go home together, which is quite nice. Yeah. I love that sentiment. Well, the action.
00:10:59
Speaker
I'm not a ah theater expert. As a matter of fact, through the core, of this show, I've been able to learn and in contact with with with theater, with dance, with all these creedor creative arts.
00:11:16
Speaker
And it led me to, there's a podcast, Freakonomics podcast, and they had like five parts on like, you know, it's provocative titles, but it was incisive.
00:11:30
Speaker
know how was theater still around then you know like And they went into the heart of a production and like kind of followed how it happened and things that went wrong or cast members left.
00:11:46
Speaker
it was it was thrilling. um But it really re-engaged me in the part that I found that I adore about theater. There's something I'm tantalized by live performance.
00:12:03
Speaker
The fact that people working together, are all discrete roles, things pulling together, it has to happen and at a time, and it's always a bit different. And that fascinates me. And and I like that um vitality. and i think the Freakonomics like investigation around this, that's really what it ran into. It's like, I don't know why, but put humans together, go back forever. They're going to sit and watch people...
00:12:38
Speaker
packed out stuff and or you know in a basic way. um Something human. something Something really human about it. um We're speaking with Stephan D. Helm and Bradley Valens regarding the play Connelly.
00:12:57
Speaker
And you two mentioned you had worked together. And I was just a little curious about that. Can you tell us a little bit like um about your previous work?
00:13:09
Speaker
Pretty much in the way I was thinking of, like, how you pull things together and and and make something. I was just curious about that. Yeah, absolutely. absolutely um So our first project was a play called Devil and the Playwright, which was a take on like the Faustian myths of deals with the devil um in which a playwright jumped around different play ideas with the devil's magic help and ended up falling in love with the character um and completely going off the rails and breaking all the rules.
00:13:44
Speaker
Yeah. And that was very fun because not only was it my directorial debut in New York, it was also my producing debut in New York. whoa So what happened was Stefan sent me the first two thirds of the play. He's like, it's not done, but here's what I've got so far. And I was like, oh, that sucks. Now you have to finish it.
00:14:04
Speaker
actually need you to finish it within the next couple of weeks because I need to like get started because we're going to do it. Um, And I think what we really, at least speaking for myself, one thing I really learned was um when it comes to the act of creating, of like producing work, directing work, things like that, you just got to get your hands dirty and do it.
00:14:28
Speaker
like you just like You got to take the risk. You got to gamble. You got to panic and think, oh my God, no one's going to see this show. Or, oh my God, everyone's going to hate this show. Or you got to do it. And then you just got to do it anyway.
00:14:41
Speaker
I think that's something that that experience with Steph really taught me was like, just do it, man, grow up and just do it. You're going to be so much better for the doing than for the thinking about doing.
00:14:57
Speaker
And like, it has completely changed my trajectory of my career that now I, i produce new work as often as I'm directing it. Um, and I write new work and the value in just creating something fresh for the world, um, really happened because of, uh, my time with Steph with devil and the playwright, uh, like three years ago.
00:15:22
Speaker
So yeah. yeah Awesome. Thanks for that. Yeah. So Stefan, uh, He had that play. And yeah talk about how it came to life, connecting with Bradley.
00:15:37
Speaker
Absolutely. i to to To fill in some of the details, because this is just such a fond fond memory of collaboration. I mean, we're still here. We're still collaborating. i i had this...
00:15:49
Speaker
Okay, how farship back should I go? My first ever play in the city was at this theater festival downtown, and it was about the Swiss military, and I wrote it in my writing class. I started writing plays in 2021. This is a rather recent endeavor for me compared to like having acted a couple of years longer than that. and Two good friends of mine were directing it, and one of my good friends was- correct me if I'm wrong on this, Bradley, acting in a show Bradley was like co-producing and and assistant directing and involved with, ah which was an immersive play.
00:16:21
Speaker
Actually, the only play, I believe, running in New York City at one point because it was during the shutdown, correct? Because it was outdoors. yeah It was like an outdoor walking walking play. And so ah and and my my friend Luca really talked very highly about about Bradley and about his his eye as a director and ah He was like, i really want him to come see this play we're working on.
00:16:45
Speaker
that This was called Neutrality. This was a couple of years ago now. um And I want to get his thoughts. And so Bradley came to see it and we talked after we got a couple of drinks and I just loved the way he thought about the stage and about theater. And I thought he was so insightful.
00:16:58
Speaker
And I approached him after and I said, and I did this quietly because I was sitting next to the two people who were directing the play I was currently doing. And said, I have another thing I'm working on that think you and I would be a perfect match for this. And I sent to him The Devil in the Playwright because I've been obsessed with Faust, or had been obsessed with Faust ever since like high school. Because I'm from Switzerland originally, so my my native language is German. And so Faust is our Shakespeare, or Kutche is our Shakespeare, and Faust is our Hamlet.
00:17:23
Speaker
And was like, want to my own thing with that. And so Bradley and I worked on that. and it was very exhilarating because i I'm getting better at it. I'm kind of no good. ah writing when I don't have a deadline.
00:17:35
Speaker
And so having someone who's waiting for pages has always been the cheat code for me. If someone's waiting for pages, I will get those pages out. If not, don't talk to me. it will take three years. And i so we we had it and we were both like, hey we could really make something with this. So we grabbed a couple friends. We did a reading of it because the the getting your head started part.
00:17:56
Speaker
ah We both really believed, we just got to do this. like There's so much theater in the city and this is something we might get into. ah we i distinguish a lot between commercial theater and independent theater.
00:18:07
Speaker
ah Indie theater for short. And and commercial theater is your Broadway and is your your big off-Broadway houses with the celebrity cast and the budgets of $4 million. dollars But New York City yeah breathes and and has grown from the American theater, grew from the independent theater scene from people who, like Bradley said, just did it.
00:18:25
Speaker
Just got their hands dirty. Who, like a Tennessee Williams, put up their plays in a parking lot. Who, like Sam Shepard and Maria Irene Fornes, got produced at Cafe Chino ah with with a couple chairs. The space we're doing Connelly in, Theatre for the New City, started up as one of the hubs for new work by emerging playwrights. and they did it and they helped people up and they built all these big careers. so That was really the impetus of it. so We had it, we did a reading of it with with friends of ours who acted in it, who were we were fantastic and we fundraised and then we were like, oh, we have a budget to actually like put this up. so We rented ourselves actually into the space I'm currently sitting in and calling in from, which is the community space theater at Theatre the New City, which is where Connelly is going to be running. and
00:19:09
Speaker
When people hear this, the next day essentially but we're recording yeah exactly and so um And we did it here. We just did it. We we got the money together. We made it work. we We were texting everyone we knew, like, come see this show. And by the time we had just talked about this, Bradley and by the time our final show rolled around, we had a but really big audience because people had heard from their friends, like, hey, come see this little play that they're doing down in the village.
00:19:36
Speaker
and And that's kind of the magic want to capture. when When you get to, hey, come see this play in the village, you know you've gotten got a pretty good shot in with the indie theater crowd. Then you're like, okay, there's people who don't know me.
00:19:47
Speaker
and who might not even know one of the actors who've heard about this play from someone who have come to see it. That's that's really special.
Introducing the Cast of 'Connelly'
00:19:54
Speaker
I'd like to overhear that.
00:19:57
Speaker
You're going to go to see this play in the village. Yes. Exactly. we gotta say there this one I love it. um and Could you tell us, you know, not extensively, but tell us about some of the other folks who were involved in the production, actors, actresses, primary folks, just, you know, tell us a little bit more.
00:20:22
Speaker
Sure. I'm happy to take this one. Yeah, go ahead. Or do you want to? Okay. No, um I can take it. Sure. um So we have Delaney Lanes-May, who is our lovely director, who um has really just built such a soft human voice into the staging and of the movement, which has just been so lovely.
00:20:44
Speaker
i And our four... Main cast members have been there since June for the one act version in the festival. And luckily they've had, they have such lovely faith in the project and they've put on such beautiful work that they've transferred over to the production staff. Would you like to talk about them at all?
00:21:08
Speaker
Absolutely. um we We have a wonderful... It's a six-headed cast. We have four characters. So we have four lee main main cast members and then two swings. So the um ensemble features Nikki Neuberger, who is playing Connelly, this title role, which is quite ah challenging. I'm taking all of them are challenging, but she really brings such a beautiful depth and a aliveness, but also an innocence to the character that just makes all the things that she goes through all the more heartbreaking.
00:21:40
Speaker
Abby Messina, who plays Dingo, the older sister, just but first and foremost, one of the best stop and starter actors I've ever worked with. There's a lot of stop and start dialogue that she has to do, and she just nails it.
00:21:52
Speaker
And she brings such a heart to the character as well that both of them just break your hearts every time they're on stage. You're like, you just want them to be okay and watch and do you know that they might or might not be.
00:22:04
Speaker
Um, yeah emily cohen Emily Kendall Cohen, who who plays r Georgie, who is the sort of um spectral character, is, again, the entire ensemble is brilliant. She brings a really playful energy to a part that's like not quite real, which is really really interesting and really adds to this sort of absurd layer over it all.
00:22:25
Speaker
And then Alessia Sikli, who plays Natalia, the nurse, ah plays a role who might type is a little bit older than she is, but she just has an amazing groundedness and a a heart forward way of of playing this nurse that really makes you empathize with her even when the things you might have to talk about or do are not necessarily what you would want for there to be. Because sometimes caring for um people with intense mental illness means making hard decisions, even when the decisions aren't the most comfortable or not the most smooth.
00:22:52
Speaker
And then we have two amazing swings. um Elena Bozart and Maddy Danning, who are both covering two roles and are actually going to be stepping in for select performances. So if you want to see different takes on both the sisters ah come through on those dates, going to be also on our Instagram.
00:23:09
Speaker
So you can actually see different melanges. We're currently planning it. So you get to see different alignments. So the two main sisters and then one s swing, one main sister and then the other. So there's three reasons to see the show ah because you get three different couplings of sisters on different dates.
The Evolving Role of Theater in Society
00:23:26
Speaker
That's fantastic. I'm listening to you. I'm thinking about the production, and like how to pull it off. That's the fascinating piece about it, like how the newness or something you might see from one day to the next.
00:23:40
Speaker
All right, we're going to switch gears here. I'm going to ask Bradley. you know This is an art philosophy program, and we're certainly talking about a lot um rather of big things.
00:23:54
Speaker
But Bradley, I wanted to ask you as a creator, what who what what is art, or if you want to be more specific, like what is a play?
00:24:09
Speaker
um but also we're talking here.
00:24:18
Speaker
Is art's role changed? So what is art plays and is the role
00:24:28
Speaker
the same as it's been or is something different going on now? That's a lovely question. i would say, speak specifically specifically about plays, there is a deeper truth that I think will always live in plays and what their purpose is, which is to reflect the world and to make the audience look at themselves in a way they wouldn't always. i think that is um something that's been happening forever. I think since seeing Medea in ancient Greek times
00:25:05
Speaker
There was people seeing a version of themselves they don't want to believe is true, but know is true based off the circumstances they're in I think there's always been a place of um hard truths and beautiful opportunities in theater, a chance to grow, a chance to challenge yourself, a chance to be the best version of you um that always has existed.
00:25:31
Speaker
i think in present time, What I would say is theater has ah larger, and I say larger considering like the time I'm aware of, um a larger obligation to ah reach out to the current modern hand of the people of the time.
00:25:55
Speaker
i think we're in this age where people think that everything is a fad that's going to pass. There's always, there's always something constantly the new thing.
00:26:07
Speaker
yeah Everything is the new replacement down to frankly, the bullshit chat GBT of it all. Like in, and yeah, and There's a reason theater has lasted thousands of years and is still doing so because it us now and it's us then and it's what we could be if we give it a chance.
00:26:34
Speaker
And so my opinion is that as a theater maker, theater right now needs to be more direct and clear of what audiences it wants to connect to and reminding them that they are here right now and that they're present because we're like chasing the next fad. And I think instead we need to be present in the moments we live in.
00:26:59
Speaker
um So that's where I think theater as an art form is traveling at this moment. Thank you, Bradley. Wow. i Not that I wasn't converted before. I'm a full convert to what you said. ah Stephan, play and art, this day and age, the role...
00:27:24
Speaker
so It's so hard to find because what Bradley just said blew me away. You took all the words out of my head. and but I will try to find some anyways because I do love to talk, which is why I write blank because no one can interrupt when I write on my little ah my low computer.
00:27:42
Speaker
um I couldn't second that more. I think theater, I'll say something about where theater has been going, I find, and take this as the perspective of an indie theater maker who does not yet get paid the big commercial bucks for his plays, who does go to commercial plays and who talks to people and and thinks about commercial plays a lot.
00:28:04
Speaker
I think to Bradley's point, theater has that magic, the constancy, the not chasing the next fad, the gripping people and putting them into a room together for two hours and making them aware of their own humanity, aware that they're here now. But I also think that that is a responsibility.
00:28:21
Speaker
And I think that it is all too easy to do away with that in favor of Flash, in favor of escapism, which can have its own use. I'm not saying every theater piece has to make you go out and be like, what is happening?
00:28:35
Speaker
But it's very easy to... Not easy. it's It is an exit to shirk from the responsibility of making people aware of that and of putting people in that room by just going for what sells, what is comfortable for the showbiz of it all.
00:28:52
Speaker
and I think sadly that a lot of theater has been doing that, which is also why I think a lot of theater tends to struggle sometimes. like you You were mentioning the ah the podcast you were listening to about like how is theater still around I mean just what a couple weeks ago there was an article in the New York Times about how every musical on Broadway losing money and part of that is very high budgets and and rents of spaces and all that and tourism and ticket pricing and all that but I think it's It has a lot to do with what Bradley said. Theater shies away from naming the audience it wants, and also theater shies away from trying to move or shake something.
00:29:28
Speaker
I think a lot of theater is happy being in a comfortable little box. A lot of theater is happy being, oh, thing you go to for a good time. and i i love that sometimes too, but I think theater is alive.
00:29:41
Speaker
but it's only alive if we want it to be alive, and that means taking risks. That means putting people in the position to be to have the mirror being held up to them, as Bradley said. It is the mirror to reality, and sometimes reality is messy.
00:29:53
Speaker
Sometimes reality is really ugly, and sometimes I don't want to confront reality on a Saturday night at 8 p.m. at a theater on 42nd Street. But sometimes it's good for you. And the plays that last, the plays that are being revived over and over and over on Broadway and in theaters around the nation are plays that do that.
00:30:12
Speaker
Plays that hold up to mirror to our worst parts. and make us sit with that. And I think that's something that we need to be aware of. That's something we need to seek out. And that's something that we owe our audience because why they're giving us their time, they're giving us their attention, they're opening up their hearts to us what are we going to do with that are we going to fill it with fireworks and flash or are we going let seep through the humanity that we have poured into these pages into these uh actions into this direction into this set design into these costumes uh are we going to let that simmer through and are we going to go and what are you going to do with it
00:30:54
Speaker
Because the beautiful answer is they don't have to do anything with it. And most people won't, and that's also okay. I don't march out of a theater piece that really moved me and next thing I'm going to, I don't know, run for office. like That's not the purpose of theater. The purpose of theater is to make you think on the way home.
00:31:10
Speaker
ah Luca, our our friend who first introduced me to Bradley, once quoted a teacher of his who who was doing a lot of movement theater, who had said, theater is political because it makes you expand and consider the world around you, and it's expansive.
00:31:29
Speaker
so If I go see True West, a classic Sam Shepard play, two brothers who just do each other not right, who who betray each other and and all that, it makes me ideally think about how I treat my siblings. I don't have brothers, but I might think about that. I might think about how I treat my friends. yeah um I might think about how I treat my neighbor or my fellow man. and Even if that doesn't change every time I go see a play, just the act of thinking about it, of being held up the mirror of, as Bradley said, being brought to the you exist here now, there's people around you.
00:32:02
Speaker
I think that's the magic theater. I think that's the responsibility we need to take. and I think people are, but I think we can do a better job of it.
Logistics: Venue Directions and Ticket Information
00:32:09
Speaker
and That's where I think it should be headed. I think um it's always fascinating, the conversations that I have, when you know you talk about magic.
00:32:19
Speaker
you know it's like this the we end up and When we're talking about art, I find a lot of times it's like, what can we say about what's difficult to put words to or like is is is feeling and such? and Sometimes people think art is you know like the sublime, the ineffable, it's tough.
00:32:44
Speaker
You know, these are all ideas around it, but it's always like where language is is struggling a bit. And of course, the primacy of language and motion and humans peter um and it is a nice synchronicity there.
00:33:04
Speaker
Yeah. I want to ask this question, and I'll start ah with you, Stephan, and go to you, Bradley. And this is, um I want you to both end up covering...
00:33:21
Speaker
Tell us where to find but the play, ah all the different places, so everybody can know, but then also drop down into by New York City and like where the play is and get they gritty like that, too, because I want everybody to come in contact with Connelly.
00:33:46
Speaker
Thank you, absolutely. ah so the The easiest way to find us, as with most things these days, is on the internet. and We are on different corners of the internet. The first corner we are on is on the website of Theatre for the New City, who is co-producing this show with us. so If you go to Theatre for the New City, theaterforthenewcity.net,
00:34:05
Speaker
um But if you Google Theater for the New City, it will come up and then there'll be ah Now Playing and we're going to be in the coming soon. If you see a little plush monkey on a white background where it says written by Stefan D. Tellm, directed by Delaney Lanes May.
00:34:19
Speaker
And then there's more info at the bottom. That is where you'll get our ticket link. um Tickets are one of the beautiful things about TNC, about Theater for the New City, is that their tickets are priced at a movie ticket. So you can get in general tuition for $20.
00:34:32
Speaker
And if you are a senior citizen or a student, you can get in for $15. We might also at some point do ah ticket deals and the like, so keep an eye out for that. That is all going to be on our Instagram, which is Connelly underscore play.
00:34:47
Speaker
Connelly underscore play, the same icon, that monkey that you'll find. In terms of how to get there, if you'll allow me, Bradley, I am in my day job in York City Tour Guide, so I love talking about all you're um So here's how you're going to get there. So if you're already in the city, and I say you're going to take the L train to First Avenue, you're going to know what I mean.
00:35:06
Speaker
Basically, you take the L train as far as you can go before it hits Brooklyn. And you're going to be in Manhattan on this eastern corner. you're going to go to First Avenue. You're going to start walking down. you're going to walk from 14th Street to 13th and further down. You're going to be passing a lot of great restaurants. There's a lot great Vietnamese spots, some great late night food.
00:35:22
Speaker
ah There's a school there as well. And as you hit the... ah street whatever the block that is between 10th and 9th Street at 155th First Avenue. you're going to be seeing a red and white building, which has a yellow sign that I believe has been there for about 30 years.
00:35:38
Speaker
It says theater for the new city. And that is how you'll find it. You'll walk straight through the doors up to the ah the will call, up to the box office. There's going someone waiting there for They're going to be able to sell you a ticket on the spot. You can buy them online. I believe you buy on the spot.
00:35:54
Speaker
They do prefer cash. And I think they do credit card. i don't know if they do a Venmo or something like that. I don't believe so. So be ready with that. But that is how you'll find it. If you don't know how to find the L train, you're going to take any of the major subway lines running through the borough of Manhattan that go north and south, and you're going to go to 14th Street, you're going to transfer to the L train.
00:36:13
Speaker
If you're coming from Times Square, you going to find it. If you're coming from Port Authority in New Jersey, you're going to find it. If you're coming from Long Island, you're going to find it There's no way to miss Connolly at 155th First Avenue, Theatre for the New City Community Space Theatre this November.
Conclusion and Farewell
00:36:32
Speaker
That's my steal. ah That's the first time used the drums in my podcast. I had to. And it was after that. um've listen to i'm listening to I've been in prom talking about the... yeah and I'm like, I'm going to have to hit the drums at some point. Jeez.
00:36:52
Speaker
It's incredible. I feel like I'm there. I feel like I can't get lost. Yeah, I know. yeah you know how to find it. Otherwise, call me. I'll tell you where it is. I'm not going put my number on the podcast, but you'll find my number.
00:37:07
Speaker
Wonderful. um i just want to let you know both know Bradley and Stephan. It's been a real treat connecting with you and talking a bit about our power of theater.
00:37:22
Speaker
I mean, really, like power of theater. And I want to thank you both for being involved in you know, in particular with this play and what it can do for people, you know, whether it's, you know, seeing yourself, seeing somebody you know. um I just think it's so important anything we can do to kind of help each other and particularly during these times because the stress for many of us
00:37:58
Speaker
It's like, well, ah that stuff can be there and there's a bunch of stuff piled on because walk around in 2025 America and be like... um um I wanted to thank you both. ah Listeners, ah ah please support Connolly and if many of our and New York listeners, if you can see a lot. would be fantastic or a short trip for those folks out there.
00:38:30
Speaker
Best of luck to Connelly and to both you, Bradley and Steph. and And thanks for your time coming on this Art and phil Philosophy show.
00:38:44
Speaker
absolutely Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you for having It's been an absolute pleasure. and Thank you so much. It's been so fun. Wonderful. Wonderful. Best of luck to Connelly and and get get over to your rehearsal.
00:38:59
Speaker
Indeed we shall. Indeed we shall. Thank you so much.
00:39:11
Speaker
This is Something Rather Than Nothing.