Rocking and JAMB-ing out the Indie-Theatre way: Evan F. Caccioppoli talks The Jamb and Indie-Theatre with J.Stephen Brantley and Nico Grelli.

J.Stephen Brantley and Nico Grelli photo by Hunter Canning

It’s 2008 and we are just on the verge of President Obamas’ historic election, but for Roderick and Tuffer the best friends in J.Stephen Brantley’s rock star new play The Jamb the aspect of turning 40 is truly the historic event.

I’ve been a huge fan of J.Stephen Brantley’s work as a playwright and producer since I served as assistant director on his play Eightythree Down. J.Stephen is truly a renaissance man of the indie-theatre community. His work as an actor, playwright, producer, support, and champion of this community has proven that anything is possible and magic can be made if you love and believe in the work you are creating.

I recently had the chance to drop in on a rehearsal for The Jamb and the excitement being created in that room by director David Drake, and the kick-ass cast of J.Stephen, Nico Grelli, Todd Flaherty, and Carole Monferdini has holding my breath until I can see the full production on September 1st.  This cast of artists is leaving everything on the stage and have a damn good time doing it.

I had the had the chance to ask some questions of J.Stephen Brantley and his co-star Nico Grelli about The Jamb, theatre, New York’s indie-theatre scene.

Evan F. Caccioppoli: Tell me about the The Jamb? What is the play about?

J.Stephen Brantley: The Jamb is a queer coming-of-middle-age story about two gay punks turning forty. One’s gone completely straightedge while the other continues to party like it’s 1999. Both are addicts, and outlaws of a sort. Neither knows quite how to fit into a world where being gay has become prime-time acceptable, or what it means to be a rebel if there’s no longer a cause. And, yes, it’s a love story. Gag.

EFC: Where did the idea for this play come from? Was there something specific that inspired it? was it and idea you've had for a long time?

JSB:  Well, I was coming up on forty, myself, when I wrote it, and in the early years of recovery. In some ways, that was a second adolescence for me. I was back in that ‘in-between’ place. Hot on a trail that did not seem to have been blazed. It’s astonishing, the level of LGBT visibility we’ve achieved in my lifetime. And yet, I wasn’t seeing much of myself in mass media. There were no thirty-nine-year old queercore heroin addicts on ‘Will And Grace’. I didn’t know where I fit in as an adult any more that I had as a teenager. So I did what playwrights do.

EFC: The play is set in 2008, why that year? 

JSB:  I began writing The Jamb in 2008, and finished the first version in 2009, so it reflects that time. But then, after seven years of near-misses with New York production, I was worried that it might not be relevant anymore. So David Drake and I got some actors together last summer to look at it, and we found that while it may be a period piece, it very much speaks to issues we’re dealing with now. Consider, for one thing, that 2008 was a very tumultuous election year too.

EFC: For The Jamb you are not only the playwright but playing one of the leads and the plays producer. What is it like being in rehearsal with a new play as both the playwright and actor? How to you balance both?

JSB: I’ve done it a lot, actually, so I like to think I’m good at it. I can make revisions in the room, on the fly, even as I’m doing my actor-work. And yet, each time it’s different, and often it’s terrifying. This one feels a bit like when I was in my play Pirira with Theatre 167 - having written it didn’t make any difference, I still had to make the same arduous journey with my character. Being the writer doesn’t provide me with any additional measure of safety or control as an actor. As much time as I’ve spent crafting this story, I still have no idea what’s going to happen. My character and I are both secretly scared to death.

EFC: Tell me about the process of working with your director David Drake? What has the collaboration been like? 
JSB: I trust David completely. When I first came to New York, he was performing his Obie-winning one-man-show The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me. I remember vividly the image of him on a billboard over 7th Avenue in the Village. Years later, I was blessed to have him direct my own autobiographical solo piece Chicken-Fried Ciccone. I can bring him anything, at any stage, and he will receive it wherever it is, and steward it into what it needs to be. David is an actor, so he responds to a play intuitively and emotionally. Before anything else, he feels it. But he’s also a meticulous craftsman, so smart about storytelling, about how to use the tools of space and time. Rehearsing with him can be head-spinning when he gets excited - you have to just jump on his train. In only a few rehearsals, he has refined and articulated my general ideas about staging, and created a wonderfully muscular physical vocabulary for this show. It’s a meta-theatrical, quasi-punk, post-Brechtian mash-up unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

EFC: You've ensemble a rockstar cast for The Jamb! Tell me about finding this cast? What were you looking for? How did you find the perfect actors for this piece?

JSB: It’s always such a puzzle. When we workshopped the play last summer, the role of Tuffer was played by Anthony Johnston, who is just a wizard of a performer. When he moved on to other projects, there was only one other guy I thought of doing it. But I emailed some fellow playwrights, asking for recommendations, and two of them, without prompting, mentioned that very person: Nic Grelli. Still, we saw other guys, we talked to casting directors, we went through Actors Access…but Nico was the one. Our Abigail, Carole Monferdini, came to us in a similar way. She actually worked with David years ago, in Charles Busch’s Vampire Lesbians Of Sodom. Todd Flaherty, who plays Brandon, has been doing readings of this play since 2010. He’s one of my best mates. We’ve done several shows together but, weirdly, this is the first time we’ve really shared scenes. And then I just decided that I should play Roderick myself. I didn’t write the role with that in mind but…let’s just say I know the guy very well.

EFC: Tell me about working with your onstage partner in crime Nico Grelli?

JSB: Nico is a firefly. Or a ghost orchid. Something like that. There are moments in rehearsal, during scene work, when I turn around and find myself surprised and delighted by the fullness of his presence. Suddenly he’s hovering there before me, and I just want to reach out and take hold of him with both hands. But such magic cannot be so contained.

EFC: You've been a champion and superstar of the indie-theatre world. What do you think the state of it is now? Why is it important in theatre world? how have you seen in change? What do you hope for it to become?

JSB: New York indie theatre is huge now. There’s something like 5000 productions every year. I would never ever say there’s too much theatre but…I mean, really. We’re going to have to find new ways of presenting and paying for this work. The key may be in embracing what we often see as the limitations of indie theatre – short runs, lack of space, all that. If I’m going to have a fulfilling creative experience with The Jamb, I have to be okay with the fact that it will likely live and die in nine performances on East 4th Street. No transfer, no commercial production starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Aping Off-Broadway on a Showcase budget is not sustainable, or even interesting. The artists building this community and shaping its identity are not using indie theatre as some kind of launching pad for something else. I do this because I love it. I need it.

EFC: What do you think about the current state of Queer plays and stories on stage? How do you feel about that label? What do think about how far its come and where it still needs to go?

JSB: Not long ago, I thought the whole idea of ‘gay theatre’ was on its way out, and good riddance. I felt it was time to move beyond ‘identity theatre’ of any kind. That as a diverse and inclusive community we should, in a sense, desegregate. I was wrong. Because the world is not so inclusive. Because there are still places where being queer will get you killed. Because Orlando. We still need to beat our drums and, at least for now, we have to make use of certain labels in order to be heard. Until LGBT people have equal rights and accurate representation, we’re going to need gay theatre, and gay theatre companies, and gay theatre festivals. The notion of what makes a ‘queer play’ is expanding, and that’s mostly good, though sometimes confusing. Now we have gay plays in gay festivals where the central character happens to be gay but it has absolutely no bearing on the storyline whatsoever. Hell, I was in a gay play in a gay play festival with not a single gay character in it! But the artists who did the work were gay. So does that qualify? Is every Shakespeare production with a gender-reversed character automatically queer? I don’t know. Hopefully we continue to see greater cultural diversity in queer theatre, that we get more plays that take on global issues – race, poverty, revolution! – from LGBT perspectives. Look, I’m a middle-aged cis-gender white male. Guys like me had our turn, I know. I hope The Jamb puts a slightly different lens on the contemporary gay white male love story - I think it does. But contemporary queer theatre must reflect the entire spectrum of who we are. Commercial producers are not likely to champion that kind of radical inclusivity, so we have to do it ourselves. We have to do it for each other. That might mean a little less tribalism and a bit more coalition in our big gay alphabet soup.

EFC: What is next for you and Hard Sparks?

JSB: We have a residency next March at IRT, and we’re going Greco-Roman! It looks like we’ll be presenting Bob Bartlett’s strange and sexy interpretation of the Ganymede myth, Bareback Ink. And, during the Ides, it will be Melody Bates’ latest Shakespearean redux, a Julius Caesar-inspired cabaret. But I can’t think about any of that right now. I’m still not off-book for The Jamb!

I was also lucky to get to interview J. Stephen’s co-star Nico Grelli. Nico is one of the most talented and fearless artists in the NY theatre scene and an amazing person. Nico dives heart, gut, and head first into every character and the transformation is breathtaking. Nico like J.Stephen is a champion of the New York indie-theatre community and has time and time again created some of the most magical moments I have seen on stage.

Evan F. Caccioppoli: Tell me a little about The Jamb and your role in it?

Nico Grelli: The Jamb is a story about the confrontation between two best friends approaching middle age, one of whom has gotten clean and gone straight edge, while the other is still partying and doing drugs like he was in his 20s. The title refers to a concept that my character comes up with (rather impromptu) to explain the narrow and challenging generational gap he feels he and Roderick exist in as queer men.

EFC: How did you become involved in this piece?

NG: I’ve known J.Stephen for many years and have always admired his work as an actor and writer. We’ve always wanted to work together on something and when he was auditioning the role of Tuffer, he asked if I would come in and read for the team.  I auditioned twice over the course of a couple weeks and here we are! 

EFC: What was your first thought after you read the script and your role?

NG: I thought it was the best thing I’d read in a while. It starts like a cannon shot and is relentless like a great punk rock song. Like J.Stephen, it manages to have muscle and heart and the same time, and the writing is smart and comes from a deeply felt place. It’s a real punk rock play and I love punk, not just in terms of music but as a way of life. In regards to my character Tuffer, I responded to his being this sort of force of nature, or Dyonisian type of human who has always struggled to function in the “normal” world because it’s just not how he’s built. I also could sense the immense pain he was experiencing. I also loved the deep and complex connection and love between Tuffe and Roderick because I’ve always been fascinated by the dynamics of chosen family.

EFC: What excites you about you about the role you're playing? What are most looking to dive in and explore? Does anything about it scare you?

NG: I love that Tuffer is a bit of a tornado that’s doing most of the damage to himself, while at the same time, is this very exceptional and intuitive human that just doesn’t wanna land on earth out of fear of it killing what he loves about his life. I tend to do roles that are physically and emotionally challenging and this one is definitely both and then some. It also allows me to incorporate my love of clowning and doing realistic fight scenes.

EFC: The play is set in May 2008, what do you feel the importance of setting it that year is?

NG: Well, first off it’s an election year like we are in now. And it resonates to us often in rehearsal just how much and how quickly the world and our country have changed in under a decade. Before 9/11, the world changed much slower I feel, and it’s interesting to me that the play examines how the speed of this change can be very positive, but also can leave some people in the dust, so to speak.

EFC: Tell about working with your rockstar playwright/co-star J.Stephen Brantley. What has the collaboration with him been like? 

NG: It’s been delightful. J.Stephen balances being actor, writer, and producer with an admirable alacrity. It’s not an easy task, and he manages to distinguish each parts of himself in rehearsal quite well. As a writer, he works very quickly, and smartly, and is a natural collaborator and trusts his team. As an actor, he’s incredibly smart, emotionally available, physically adept, and most of all generous, as he is in general as a human. We have similar approaches to working also, which has made the process very enjoyable and is producing rich results.

EFC: What has it been like working with your director David Drake? What has it been like working with the other members of this kick-ass ensemble?

NG: David is a delightful human and has huge emotional and intellectual smarts, and brings a wonderful frame of reference and tons of experience to the table. And because he’s an actor and writer, he has a sensitivity to our experience as performers that makes this intense story much easier to take on. I never feel like he’s asking me to do anything that he wouldn’t do himself. And I just adore Todd Flaherty and Carole Monferdini as people and as artists, which has created a very open, safe, and generous creative environment that again allows us to really go to the deep and intense places this play takes us and also allows for rehearsals to always be fun.

EFC: As an actor with an exciting resume that covers so many different fields, what is exciting to you about working on a new play? What does that experience give you that the others don’t?

NG: I love working on new plays. I’ve done a few plays professionally from the cannon but most of my work has been in developing new work. I fell in love with doing so in my years at the Experimental Theatre WIng (of which J. Stephen is also an alum) and then my love for it got taken to a whole new level when I apprenticed with Labyrinth theatre company for about 3 years in my 20s. Creating new stories is essential to our evolution, and I feel is a form of activism because at its best, we are attempting to create stories that not only arvhive human experience, but push it forward and that gives people, especially those on the margins in any way, a way to see themselves and their own lives reflected

EFC: You've also worked on stages all over the country, what makes working on stage in New York so special?

NG:  I feel very blessed for my regional theatre experiences, but performing in NYC is special because its the city where I feel I truly grew up and became myself. There’s also an inherent diversity and community to NYC audeinces that makes telling a great story mean so much more.

EFC: You've been a larger part of the New York indie-theatre community in many different roles (Actor, Playwright, Director, etc.), what do you think the state of indie-theatre is now? Why is it important in theatre world? How have you seen in change? What do you hope for it to become?

NG: I think that NYC indie theatre in the last five to ten years has become such a fecund landspace for artists to cut their teeth and push the boundaries of what’s possible, especially in an era where counter culture doesn’t quite exist in the same way it used to. I  love that indie theatre in NYC is this liminal space where a lot of artists get to have this laboratory to experiment with all the things that storytelling can be, and have a chance to create an authentic voice before emerging into the commercial world. I also love that it’s limitations causes artists to figure out how to tell a story without a budget, and without spaces that are always ideal, and forces everyone to delve deeply into their creativity in order to create something that can be transcendent. I also love that indie theatre is accessible to all people, and isn’t controlled by things like subscribers, corporations, etc. 

EFC: What do you think about the current state of Queer plays and stories on stage? How do you feel about that label? What do think about how far its come and where it still needs to go?

NG: That’s a big question that’s hard to put down in short. Here’s what I will say: My one concern with the label is that it implies that Queer storytelling is not as valid as other storytelling, when it and queer artists have always been among the more influential catalysts for the evolution of storytelling. This may be a radical thing to submit, but i always felt that the arts, whether admitted or not, are an inherently queer territory. I’m of course looking at queerness in this case from a theoretical point of view, and in terms of the idea that queerness inherently defies the idea that the world is black and white, or on a binary, and that paradigms and structures of old can be dismantled and that nothing will be lost that didn’t need to get lost. It still has a long way to go because I feel that the commercial theatre world is still a very heteronormative patriarchy that tries very hard to deny the ubiquitousness of queerness, although it will still steal and appropriate things from the queer world whenever useful to it. But I’m very excited to see more complex queer stories depicted that reflect the world we actually live in. 

EFC: What's next for you after The Jamb?

NG: My first featured role in a full length film is coming out sometime in the Fall. It was directed by an awesome young filmmaker named Sasha Gordon, who is also a composer. It stars Cristin Milioti and was produced by Chris Columbus. And my entire role is in Italian and I get subtitles and everything, which made me super proud! I’m also very focused on getting my own writing produced and developed this year. I have a full length called Private Catholic Mixtape ‘’89-’01 and a collection of short plays that I’m hoping to stage this coming year, and also wrote a ten episode TV series while I was traveling in the last couple years that I’d like to start moving out into the world. 

So I’ll end by saying everybody get down to The Kraine Theater and we’ll party like it’s 2008!!

The Jamb
Written by J. Stephen Brantley
Directed by David Drake

Presented by Frigid New York @ Horse Trade in association with Hard Sparks.

Featuring J. Stephen Brantley, Todd Flaherty, Nico Grelli, and Carole Monferdini.

Scenic Design: Andrew Diaz
Lighting Design: Jonathan Cottle
Sound Design: Mark Van Hare
Costume Design: Audrey Nauman
Stage Management: Leah Montesinos
Publicity: Emily Owens PR
Photography: Hunter Canning

Thursday, September 1st at :00pm
Friday, September 2nd at 7:00pm
Saturday, September 3rd at 7:00pm
Thursday, September 8th at 7:00pm
Friday, September 9th at 7:00pm
Saturday, September 10th at 7:00pm
Thursday, September 15th at 7:00pm
Friday, September 16th at 7:00pm
Saturday, September 17th at 7:00pm

Tickets: $25

The Kraine Theatre
85 East 4th Street
Between 2nd & 3rd Avenues, First Floor
New York, New York 10003

www.horseTRADE.info
www.hardsparks.com