Photo Flash: ESPA's Site-Specific Directing

This spring, the students in Site-Specific Directing at Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) have staged theatre all over New York City: from Shakespeare in Central Park and on the High Line to Chekhov in the Russian and Turkish Baths to Sarah Kane on rooftops, libraries, and street corners. The directors concluded their class this week by fully producing eight new short plays by a group of incredible writers in and around the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The eight-week course instructed by Daniel Talbott (Artistic Director, Rising Phoenix Rep), which will be offered again this summer, challenges directing students with a hands-on exploration of the theatricality in any environment: indoors, outdoors, public, private, or somewhere in between. Students have the opportunity to collaborate with ESPA acting students and other actors on short pieces and scenes, using material from the classical and contemporary cannons including plays by Shakespeare, Strindberg, and Sarah Kane, and bring them to life in unexpected locales. Previous sites have included the High Line, Lincoln Center, the Staten Island Ferry, and the Seventh Street Small Stage at East Village restaurant Jimmy's No. 43.

This semester's student directors are Aria Alpert, Ben Mac Brown, Philip Gates, Carly Hoogendyk, Alex Mallory, Ashley Brooke Monroe, Chinasa Ogbuagu, and Chris Tyler.

The new plays produced in Dumbo at the culmination of the class are by Jonathan Blitstein, Troy Deutsch, Emily DeVoti, Jessica Dickey, Florencia Lozano, Crystal Skillman, Gary Sunshine, and Ken Urban. The full list of plays and actors follows:

DOWN DOG by Gary Sunshine, directed by Philip Gates and featuring Philip Callen, Renata Hinrichs, Dylan Kammerer, and Samantha Walsh

THE AUDITION AT THE PARK by Jonathan Blitstein, directed by Ben Mac Brown and featuring Stephanie Ellis and Steve Ward

THE CLEARING by Jessica Dickey, directed by Aria Alpert and featuring Karl Bury and Maureen Mueller
SHEILA, JACK, CLARE DANES AND THE MAN ON MY ROOF by Florencia Lozano, directed by Chinasa Ogbuagu and featuring Michelle Beck and Joe Lanza

MIGRATION by Emily DeVoti, directed by Alex Mallory and featuring Stuart Green and Joe Roland
WILD by Crystal Skillman, directed by Chris Tyler and featuring Matthew Bauman and Hunter Canning

I AM A GREAT BIG BALL OF SADNESS AND I WANNA HURL MYSELF FROM YOUR ROOF by Ken Urban, directed by Chris Tyler and featuring David Bernstein, Brian McManamon, and Jen Taher

THE BURKA PLAY by Troy Deutsch, directed by Ashley Monroe and featuring Lloyd Mulvey, Sarah Matteucci, and Kristina Mueller

Daniel Talbott (Instructor) most recent work as an actor includes the Theatre for One project in Times Square and around NYC, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis), Master Builder (Irish Rep), Rocket City (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Tartuffe (McCarter Theatre/Yale Rep), Marat/Sade (Classical Theatre of Harlem) and the feature film Pretty Bird and The Big C on Showtime. Recent directing work includes Footprint by Mac Rogers (part of +30NYC for Red Fern Theatre), Afterclap by Daniel Reitz, Birthday and Nobody, both by Crystal Skillman (Rising Phoenix Rep at the Seventh Street Small Stage at Jimmy's No. 43), The Umbrella Plays (the teacup company/FringeNYC - Overall Excellence Award: Outstanding Play), Fall Forward (Sitelines/River to River Festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council), and The Reaching (Rising Phoenix Rep). His play Slipping was produced at Rattlestick last summer with Piece by Piece Productions (named one of the top ten plays of 2009 by The Advocate), premiered in Chicago at The Side Project in Chicago , was part of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and will be published this year by Dramatists Play Service. His play What Happened When was produced at HERE Arts Center and The Side Project and was published as part of the Plays and Playwrights 2008 anthology. He received a 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for directing, a Drama-Logue Award, two Dean Goodman Choice Awards and a Judy Award for acting, and was also named one of the 15 People of the Year 2006 by nytheatre.com. He is a member of last year's 24Seven Lab, a graduate of Juilliard and of Solano College Theatre's ATP, and a teacher at the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA). He is one of the literary managers of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and is the artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep (recipient of the 2007 NYIT Caffe Cino Fellowship Award).

Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) is a multidisciplinary educational institution with departments in acting, writing, and directing. Since its 2007 inception, ESPA has become a leader in performing arts education through its excellence in training, unique collaboration & networking opportunities, and its community-based approach to a life in the arts. ESPA is open to all artists, in all stages of their careers. www.primarystages.org/ESPA