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It beats listening to nothing. My goodness is Frank Being Frank right where the only way to be is Frank. Hello everyone, and welcome to Being Frank, where the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host, Frank were going on. I'd like to thank you for joining us on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation podcast, where no conversations out of bounds and all points of view are welcome. You know, we record live pape. When I give you the date so you have context and relevance,
it is the twenty fifth of June. You know, there seems to be no shortage of bad news today. Global conflict, political violence at home in an almost unbearable heat wave have left many people in a state of shock and looking for some kind of relief. Well, we have two great guests for this episode of Being Frank will offer their intelligent conversation and real alternative with some great diversions
this summer and beyond. For the second half of our program, will be joined by Anthony Marinelli, editor, director, writer, filmmaker at an Hill Productions, and he will be discussing his role as director for the Center Players of Freeholds production of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. But before we meet Anthony again, he has been on once before. Our first guest may also be familiar with our listeners, as he appeared on Being Frank a few times before. Please
welcome back for more intelligent conversation. The executive director of the Phoenix Festival Live Arts in the Hudson Valley and Managing director of at Phoenix Theater ensembled mister Craig Smith. So all part of being Frank Craig is a complaining about the weather and then be stumbling through my intro. That's an inside joke between Craig and guys. But anyway, now that we've got that out of our system, Craig,
let's refresh people a little bit. As I mentioned, you have been on the four in your role as executive director. But tell us a little bit more about Phoenix. What is it about, where does it come from, and what are you about these days.
Phoenix Theater Ensemble was started in two thousand and four in New York City and we still operate in New York City. We are basically a performing arts organization in theater. We basically do classical theater or adaptations of classical texts,
so that's what we do. In twenty eighteen, I moved to Nyack and my wife, who was the artistic director at lease Stone, we moved to Nayak and we were I was considering retirement at that time, but I was very taken with Nayak and we started talking about doing a festival, and that got postponed because of COVID and things like that. And in twenty twenty two we had our first Performing Arts festival in Nyack and in twenty
twenty three, twenty four. Coming up this year will be our fourth annual festival, a festival of theater theater companies from New York City, independent New York theater companies that we maybe wouldn't normally see that are very exciting and cutting edge kind of thing about the kind of they
what they have. And then we also have dance and we have music, and this year we have fourteen shows over sixteen days from October second to October sixteen, and all the venues are within the village of Nayak, So we have performances at the Nayak Center, at the library, at the upstairs room of the Hudson House, Rose Hall at Paradise, at the Prohibition River, et cetera. So it really is like a celebration where we want to bring in a holistic celebration of the community as well the
performing arts that we do. So that that's what we do. And I can't believe we're we're on our fourth year doing this. It's been a lot of work, but it's also been very exciting, you know, and.
I want to talk about how ambitious that is. You know, you kind of roll through it, but you talked about the amount of performances, and it's one thing to handle a single stage and staging area, if you will, that presents its own difficulties, but to have all these different productions and all these different venues must present a unique set of challenges for you, Craig, talk a little bit about that and how you handle the logistics must be enormous.
Yes, well, at least really handles all of that. So I know it's a lot of work. You know, women do the heavy lift they do, and you know, it's about eighteen months of work and we have to we have to have all the contracts with all of the performance that are coming in and then we the contract with each of the venues and all of that, and then we have to get the marketing program going and
things like that. So it's it's extraordinary. But we've been doing theater for like a long time, and you know, theater teaches you how to handle many things and have many balls in the air at the same time, and we've adapted to it. So it is an extraordinary amount of work we could. We actually got it all buttoned up earlier this year than we did last year. We were getting close to August when we were dealing with
our final our final performances and things like that. But everything is set now and now all we have to do is sell tickets, which is of course a gargantuan challenge for us as well.
Well, you know what, we have to talk about that and I'm working on something a separate issue of sustainability network, if you will, dealing with all issues sustainable, but we have to sustain the network, you know, to be able
to talk about sustainability. So you know, there's that issue of you know, the reality of running these organizations and I'm want to get that into that a little bit more, a little bit further on in our conversation and how you deal with that, especially with the change in climate that has been presented by the new administration. We'll talk
about that in a minute. But there's one really important point that you made earlier that I really want to get back to, and that's your engagement with the community, you know, and that seems to be really one of the most the paramount of paramount importance in your mission statement. If you will talk a little bit about how that drives you in why community engagement is important and how you directly engage with the community.
Yeah, I thank you. The tenets of Phoenix Theater Ensemble are artistic excellence company, are ensemble of artists, and then community. And when we came to Nayak, we started out early, you know, and talking to community leaders and political representatives and talking about the idea and seeing if they were interested in it, and they thought it would be good
for the community, and they said yes. And then we started talking to the local business owners as well, so I feel like it's a unique collaboration between small business and the arts. You know, they support us. And then we bring in audience members into Nyak and into Rockland, and audience members come into Rockland and ninety percent we take it. We do a lot of surveys. Ninety percent of them said they're going to eat eat in Nayak,
So where else are they going to eat? They're going to be a Niak And eighty percent of them are going to shop in Nayak. Twenty four percent of them are going to spend the night in Nayak.
So these are.
All very important, you know, pieces of data for us, and we provide that back to our sponsors. Last year we had about twenty five or twenty seven sponsors from the local community, and this year we have a lot of new spats. And it's surprising because I'm a member of Business Network International B and I, and I go to these meetings on Friday morning at eight o'clock in the morning and a diner, and I'm there with plumbers and contractors and attorneys and you know, mortgage people and
things like that. What am I doing here? You know, we're performing arts, but we have really developed amazing relationships. And one of the things that we have to do that when you're talking about public art and supporting the art you have you have to appeal to the higher selves of these people and it's not just about selling windows or doors or siding or insulation. What we're doing is we're trying to make the community a better place, a better place to live, a better place to work in,
a better place to play. And that has Kess catering benefits down from real estate and the contracts. People want to come. They want to come to nyak in Rockland County. They want to live here, they want to develop it, they want to have their families here, they want to go to school here, and they want to take part in the arts. So all of that, if we do it correctly, if we have a robust arts program in Rockland County, that is going to have benefits all to
all of these other businesses as well. You know, in the nineteen seventies, as I understand, I'm still relatively new to Nyakua, in the nineteen seventies, it was antiques. People came to niak to do antiques, and then now it's mostly the nightlife. But the nightlife isn't necessarily the demographics that everybody wants. But what we haven't really really concentrated on are the arts. We have fabulous, fabulous arts organizations
in this county. And if we can start to work together and elaborate and you know, work together on marketing and all that kind of stuff. Come to Rockland County, you know, come and see Arts rock Come and see Penguin rep. Come and see Elmwood, come and see us, you know, and there's no sense of competition. What is good for one is good for everyone, and I think that that could be key. We have already had success.
We have tourists coming. We have sixty percent of other people that come in are tourists from outside of Rockland, from the Tri State area, but also national and we have some international tourists as well. I can tell you right now that that's going to stop because of the administration.
You know.
It's that we've had a festival coming. Festival attendees come from England, from Spain, you know, from Argentina, and all that kind of stuff. And that's very, very exciting to us because that's the kind of growth that we want to do. But right now that that doesn't look so good. So we have to really concentrate on the Tri state
area in the national area. But the arts can be an economic driver if we all start working together, if we get rid of our silos, every organization has their own their own marketing program, their own development program, their own production program, and they're all going after the same money. If it's easy to say this, but but I think that if we can develop a kind of coordination, coordinated effort on behalf, everybody is going to gain by it.
Well, how do you how in a logical sense, how would you create that kind of synergy?
Well, that, of course is the big question I do.
On the microphone. I get to put the hard questions to you, guys.
I've spoken to some of them, and I think, you know, well, we all have galas, we all have fundraising events, UH and uh and we're all you know and and and everybody is going is it possible for uh Phoenix for Phoenix Festival and Bridges for instance, which which deals with
UHL And they seem like two very divergent ones. But could they work together on a single gala and we both got our own mainly list, we would we could save money on all of this, you know, all all of the the event, the venue that we'd have to rent, the catering and all that kind of stuff. But we could work together and do that kind of thing that would work also there could be dual, that could be
multi sponsored subscriptions to different places. Okay, buy a subscription here and that subscription will get you into the Hopper House. Buy a subscription here and that will also get you to the Brick Museum. Buy a subscription here and that will get you to Bridge Music. So that that kind of coordination of marketing I think could be very useful as well. But it takes a lot of work and a lot of you know, cooperation. Uh. And I've been talking about this for about the last six months. See
if people get tired of listening to it. But but I think that there are some answers there.
You know, I noticed, and you have a strong social media presence, you know the Theater of Phoenix as well as yourself. And I noticed something quite in my eye about an acting class that's being offered. I found that interesting. Talk a little bit about that. So, in other words, you're not just doing theater as an education, and again that's part of your community engagement, which I thought it was interesting. Give us some more detail on it.
Yeah, we're gonna have classes at the Angel. The people who don't know The Angel is the Reformed Church on Broadway, which was purchasing. Now is an event side and it's fabulous. It's the kind of thing that I really needs. We're doing several of our festival performances there, and we're transferring our acting classes to there. We do classical theater. Okay, there's been a I go and I see players and
I can't I can't hear. The people are literally five feet away from me, and I cannot hear what they're saying. And they're not using their voice. The voice this has been lost and and and I'm old school about this. Listen. I when I was a young actor and working in New York City, we took we took voice classes every week. We took dancing classes every week, We took stage stage
comeback classes every week. And what you have is you end up with highly skilled, classically trained actors who can handle most of the of any kind of issues or challenges that they have. They got the chops, the chops to do it. Uh. And what I see right now, and I think it's amplification has really caused there are shows that we really need to have that kind of energy, that kind of sound, that kind of that that is coming out of the performer to the audience and that
that energy will come back to you. But if it is amplified and they're talking like this and they're talking like this, there's no energy going on. So this, this is this is a pet project of mine as well. Uh at least is going to be the key teacher of this year is a fabulous teacher. So it doesn't have to be you know, uh, people who are already actors.
I talked to my B and I people and I said, developing your acting skills are going to help you in your business in whatever you're doing, you know, and it's it's going to give you a kind of confidence, and it's it's and it's also developing the inner self and how you can get your your your feeling, your feelings and your emotions out to people, whether it's presentations or even just sitting back and and and doing your business
on a data data, day by day process. Theater people, theater trained people can do anything because they're smart and nonprofit theater people can really do anything because they do it with nothing. They do it with nothing. I mean when we started this festival, we had nothing. We had we had an idea and we had to create it out of nothing. And it's still it's it's still a tremendous challenge. A lot of people think that because of our social media presidence, our marketing presidents, that that the
Phoenix stated Phoenix Phoenix Festival has money. We don't have money. The last year I got seven thousand dollars because of acting I did for a Phoenix Festival. That was the extent of it, and at least gets about the same amount of money. But the rest of it we volunteer. We push it out because the engine, the engine that pushes us forward is the passion, the passion to do bring these pieces of work to a new audience, and it can be enormously rewarding.
Well, with that in mind, perfect segue into this question, is local theater still relevant and why is it important to continue, especially if it's so difficult.
Absolutely. I mean when we when we came in here one we had connections with Elmwood, h We knew some of the people at Elmwood and all of that, and we had seen Elmwood and I think Elmwood is just terrific.
Wonderful guessed on our show a number of times, a great, wonderful local.
There there are two kinds of theater. There's theater that is good and theater that is not so good, and Elmwood does good theater. So it's it's threefoward. They've been around for seventy years, and yeah, it's part of the fabric, part of the fabric of our community. It's like you go and you have lunch someplace, and then you say, then you go and you're purchasing something, and you say,
what are we doing tonight. Let's go to Elmwood. Let's let you know, let let's let's have a subscription and go there and then let's go out and have drinks afterwards. And that that is part of the whole milieu and the environment of a community, and that that that community theater is part of of that community and that environment.
Now we've mentioned to the current climate has obviously changed. DEI has been eliminated in many cases, which affects so many community organizations, et cetera, funding, National Endowment for the Arts, et cetera. I could go on, I don't need to just say that it's bad. So within this climate, Greg, what what what are you guys doing to try to meet these new challenges? Then you know, talk a little bit about that what.
Can These are real challenges. I mean, you know it, it's extraordinary. We are living through astonishing times, and we're living through astonishing times, and are we going to survive it? You know? I wake up each morning and look at and say, you know, what happened last night? You know what what new challenges are we going to hit?
Yeah?
The National Endowment of the Arts is basically gone. The National Endowment for the Humanities is basically gone for us. That's a loss of twenty thousand dollars plus, you know, and we are founded on diversity, equity, and inclusion. I do not understand how these words have become so negative. It is so wrong. You know, if we hire a Hispanic actor, it doesn't mean that that we're pushing white actress out of the way. You know. We want to
level the playing field so everyone has an opportunity. And we have a resident ensemble, and our ensemble is incredibly diverse, and it is important for us that the work that we do is representational of the audience that comes to see it. One of the things that is very difficult in most of the performing arts is getting people of color into your audience to see your productions and everybody thinks, well, yeah,
they say, well, let's just over the price. Well that you know, that's kind of a slap, isn't it that they don't have twenty five dollars?
It's man.
But what what we have to do is when they go to the theater, they have to see their people on stage and represented equally. Uh, and that that that that has to happen. And when when we start doing that, you know, then you start seeing that that audience starts to filter in as well. There are barriers. There are barriers with underrepresentative, underrepresented communities who don't know about they don't know I say, oh, well, how do you order a ticket? You know? And and how am I supposed
to act? You know? And do I do this? So all these barriers happen. So when we do plays that are outside of a brick and mortar building and they're done in a bar, or they're done in a restaurant, or they're done in something like that, it gets rid of some of those bare So those are some of the things we did. And this doesn't happen overnight. You know, you don't. You don't you don't start seeing that audience
come in overnight. You know, it's it takes time. Building relationships and building trust is so important.
Now. I know you mentioned the festival mostly in October, but you're busy in the meantime. You mentioned the acting class but also mentioned them very necessary fundraiser and you have one coming up soon at the wonderful Hand Mansion, which is this beautiful uh mansion in Nayak, actually in South Nayak. And tell us a little bit about that and some of the things you're doing to to keep driving things forward.
Yeah, just one thing going back, just a little bit. You know about the loss of the federal funding. What we are really doing is we're concentrating on the local and the state seems to be stepping up. They seem to be you know, and and and having more opportunities for us as well. And then and then we're dealing
with our new sponsors and things like that. Is we made our sponsorship is very affordable, so a small business can come in for three hundred and fifty dollars and they get a very robust marketing campaign for that, They get invited to the gala, they get free tickets, they get all that kind of thing. And for nonprofits in
working with nonprofits. The nonprofits, it's one hundred and seventy five dollars and then that and our marketing starts as soon as we get that and goes through December the end of December, so they really get a full package of that. So that and we're looking and saying can we replace what we have lost with volume? And we've taken down the prices, you know, the sponsorship, the sponsorship fees from five hundred dollars to three hundred and fifty
dollars and then we're being successful so far. So that's one of the things that we're trying to do. Yeah with the hand mansion.
A hand mansion, yeah from the area if ever. It's located on Franklin Street. It's a magnificent building and grounds.
The grounds are fabulous and Guy and Lucian are fans at the festival. They came and saw crime and punishment and they've talked to us and they said, what is it that we can do for you? This is all again a part of this you know, community engagement. And we said, oh, well you have a beautiful house, beautiful grounds. That's and they said, yes, you know, just do what you need to do. So we're having this. It's going
to be on Sunday, July twentieth. We decided not to try to promote it today because the temperature is about one hundred degrees and you start telling people, Oh, we're going to have a lovely outside program.
And oh please come, you know, so we're going.
To start that the promotion of that on Thursday. It's going to be great. We're going to have we have an Irish band that's coming in. We got some catering. There's gonna be Prosecca, we're gonna have Bubbly, We're gonna have some snacks that are there, and then we have
these surprise that pop ups. We have members of our company who are coming in and to be at least says I shouldn't say this, but there's gonna be a thing during the course of the afternoon somebody, somebody's is gonna ring a bell and the people and the person that you are sitting across from is going to get up and start doing a monologue or doing the scene.
And then then that's gonna be a two minute scene, and then that one's gonna get then they're gonna drink some more, and then you're gonna ring another bell and then there's gonna be all this this stuff surprises that are gonna happen. I'm really looking forward to. I think it's gonna be lots of fun. Uh So, I hope people will come to that that the tickets start at one hundred dollars fully tax deductible. I want, you know, I want the community to please come and see that.
It's going to be a great time. You should come just to see the hand Mansion, even if you don't care about Phoenix Festival and you don't care about Poppas, just come and see the hand Mansion in the grounds because the views the grounds of spectacular. The views of the Hudson River from there are also spectacular. So we're looking forward to. We have a performance coming up on Saturday's this Saturday, June twenty eighth, of the Forever Walls, which is the Orpheus and Urbidicy program a myth but
there's a twist to it. It's going to be great.
Where is that? Where is that?
It's going to be a Ripley Greer Studios, the performance space on It's on thirty eighth Street. It's in Chelsea in New York City. I'm hoping that we can bring that to Nayak as well. This is one of the things that we found. We have reciprocal. We have a foothold in New York City and then we have a foothold in Rockland, and both are feeding each other. We debuted crime and punishment and drinks with dead poets in
the festival last year. Then they were very successful. So then we took them to New York and we did a short off Broadway run for them. And then we have Wind in the Willows, which we started in New York City, and then we brought that to Nayak to the festival as well. So this kind of reciprocal kind
of thing between the two things. I don't think there's anybody else who has this kind of reciprocal thing between the urban center which is New York City, and of course everybody in New York City thinks that Nayak is next to Albany and is way upstate and in a rural area, and I say, no, it's not really, But we do draw from what we do have a rural
audience that comes and sees our stuff. But this is a very exciting person see this as a path forward, you know, from We have not recovered from the pandemic yet. When the pandemic happened in twenty twenty, you know, people think that we've recovered. It's all over. It's not over. It's not over for ours organizations. We lost artists, artists who left the profess because they it's based on a gig economy. They couldn't afford to say around. And then
we lost audiences over that period. And with that loss of audience, we also lost audience contributions as well. So we're trying to recover from that. And one of the things that we are doing is the festival is more than just seeing a play. It's an event. You're coming to this beautiful, beautiful river village on the Hudson River and it's only twenty four miles of New York City, and you're going to explore the village and you're going
to see productions in the village. And people love going to like the upstairs room at the Hudson House and having drinks and seeing a play. Now it's extraordinarily difficult for us because there are no dressing rooms, there's no prop storage, and you know, we have to make do with all of that. But we we're theater people. We make it work.
Craig. So now and closing, how can people get find out more information, get in touch with you? Now's the time, you know.
The easiest thing to do is you go on Google and you type the word NYAK and you type the word Phoenix and the festival is going to pop up right away. That is that's the easiest way to do it. And our box office is eight three three six eight one four eight zero zero. We are selling tickets now that some of these are going to some of these shows are going to sell out because we because of
the venues. We have Lady Day at the Emerson's Bar and Grill with his extraordinary, extraordinary actress who's doing Billie Holiday for us, and that's it. That's upstairs at the road Vision well it it's about fifty people, you know. And and if people are going to come to this, they have to get their tickets early. I keep telling them. If they're going to wait till, you know, late September to get their ticket, they're not going to be there. And it's the same with some of the other ways.
We've got Reggie Wilson doing Sugar Ray. We have this public works event of of the Crucible, which is going to have professional actors and then members of the community all coming together to do this performance of Arthur Miller's A Crucible and the House on American Activities Committee Larry Parks. We have a play written about his taken from his testimony in the House an American Activities Committee and written by a Hudson Valley playwright, Ron Marquette, who has passed.
But he's from king He's from Kingston. So then we have we have I won't go through all of the fourteen shows. So it's it's it's it's really cool.
It's a it's a really wonderful festival. You guys, you at least do a great job your hopes staff does, your team does? I highly recommend it. Craig Smith, the managing director of Phoenix Theater Ensemble at uh in the Live Arts in Hudson Valley. As always, Craig, we really appreciate your intelligent conversation here on being Frank.
Well, thank you, Frank, and I'm glad you're going to do something about the weather.
Yes, I'm working on that. It'll change tomorrow, don't worry. I put in a special guys, inside the choke. Those who know will know. Don't go anywhere yet. We've got a whole half a show coming up with a really another fascinating interesting guest, Anthony Maronelli, who's with the Center Players and the Millstone Performing Art Center. He'll be here to talk about his new play that he's directing, Neil
Simon's Barefoot in the Park. It's going to be challenging, I'm sure, and he'll have a lot to say with us when we come back. Right after these brief commercial messages, This is Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. Don't go anywhere yet. We'll be right back.
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Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. Thanks for sticking with us. You know, I'm your host, Frank Leboro of course, and our engineer is the mailman because
he always delivers. Mister Neil Richter. You know, we bring our audience a fresh topic just about every week and stream from Hudson River Radio, which is located in beautiful and historic Stony Point, New York, and I do mean that, but you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts, that includes Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio and the others. And because every Being Frank is archived, you can listen
to any of our programs anytime you like. Find the link to Being Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at our website, Hudson River Radio dot com. Find the icon, just click on it and you're there listen to any one of our archive programs. All right, it's a great pleasure to introduce our next guest. It's
mister Anthony Marinelli. He is a editor, director, writer, filmmaker at an Hill Productions and he's going to discuss his role as director for the Center Players of Freehold production of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. Anthony, welcome back. As I mentioned once before, you have been on the program in a slightly different role, but today we want to talk about your role as a director for this play, Barefoot in the Park. Thank you for having.
Me, Frank, it's always great seeing you and talking to you.
Let's talk a little bit about Anthony first, as I said, people met you briefly, and we're going to talk a little bit about an a role as an actor with our friend Paul Evinson and his book It's Real Life and you're an actual character. And now we're talking a little bit about that later and what that's like a little bit later on in a discussion, and we did a reading at the Big Read Books here at Nayak. It was a lot of fun. I did a little reading with you as well. But anyway, so tell us
a little bit about bout Anthony. How your involvement in theater began. You know, a little bit of a background beyond enough.
Yeah, so I'm an editor. I've been editing commercials for over thirty years, so working on advertising for thirty plus years. And you know, I filmmaking has always been my passion. It's what I've always wanted to do, and I was lucky enough to be able to do that for a living.
And some went along the line.
Maybe about fifteen years ago, I started developing another passion I had, which was which is theater. It's something I'd always wanted to get involved in, and I did have an opportunity in two thousand and four to direct my first play in New York City, and then a few years went by and I wanted to do you know. It was about two thousand and nine and I was putting together a feature film that I was trying to raise money for, and during that process, nothing was happening.
So I said, I want to do something. I want to do something creative with some of the actors that I'm working with on the film. So I decided to produce and direct a production of Fool for Love by Sam Shepherd. So we did that, and it just reignited this passion, this passion for theater that I had. And it was then that I decided that at least once a year, I was going to do at least one non advertising project a year. It was either be a film or a play, and sometimes it's both. So so yeah.
So then after that I did a production of I directed a production of Frankie and Gein and Declared Alone in the City, and I produced that as well. And then about twenty ten, I live in New Jersey. I live in an Allepena Jersey, and a friend of mine introduced me to a Theosmal Theater Company in Freehold, which is like fifteen.
Minutes from where I lives, further birthplace of Brooks Springsteen. All the Jersey boys know that, of which I am on. You know, Richter is another.
We're everywhere exactly exactly. Ye at a company called Center Players, and it was always one of it was the small store front place with a head of an awning and said Center Players, and I always looked at it and said, someday I want to work with those guys. And then I had an opportunity to do a stage reading of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and that was sort of
my entry into working with them. And then over time I directed my first production there in twenty fourteen, played against Sam by Woody Allen, and then every year or every other year, I was directing a play with them, and I love working with them. The artistic director is or was at the time, Bernice Garfield ZTA. She's now the president. And Michael Toda was a good friend of mine and also a wonderful actor and director. He's the artistic director at the theater.
Anthony. You work in many different mediums, you just said, commercials, film, You act, you direct, you write, you edit, you know, having dabbled in some of those things, you know, they were all sometimes they cross over as disciplines and sometimes they're different. What might you say, you know, is there a common thread that runs through all of them for you? And and what what does what particular challenges does each present to you?
Yeah, I mean you mentioned acting. I only act when I absolutely have to, like when Paul, when Paul, when people people, When Paul contacted me and said, you know, I made you a character in my book.
Are you okay with it?
And I said, of course, you know, And then later on he called and said, we want to do a lot of reading with you performing as yourself.
Are you okay with that?
I'm like, yeah, so I'll do it for my friends, and I'll do it for you know when absolutely half to my son. You know, he's a he's a young filmmaker. He's going to the school Girdl Arts, and he was going to hell A High school. They had a great film they have a great film program there. And occasionally I would act for him or his friends and their film, but definitely only to oh there was another maybe there's a feature film that I mean, also have one scene
by a filmmaker named Jeff Mazillo. So you know, I do I act only you know under you know dress exactly fair. It is fun and it is you know, it gives me. It gives me the experience of putting myself as a director into the actor's shoes, which is great. But as far as crossover goes, what's cool about it is what's cool about doing having a hand in all these disciplines is I always find that somehow when I'm working on a commercial, if I'm editing a commercial, they
feed each other in some ways. This there may be something that happened in rehearsal. If I'm doing a play or a film, something that happened, you know, during rehearsal that I can I can apply in a to a commercial some way, even if it's finding music for a film or play. It's it's it's just it just unlocks so much, you know, you become this this creative tuning the fork you know for everything, and it's just one thing just always informs the other. It's really it's incredible when that happens.
Let's let's talk about your current material this play, Okay, Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park. Why why did you choose obviously you must have a choice of material. Why did you choose this particular play at this particular time.
So I'll back up a little bit about like Center Players and what's going on with them, and I'll get into why I chose Barefoot. So the Center Players, they've they've been in this space and Freehold for over twenty five years up until last year when they lost their lease and a company came in and bought the building and kicked them out, made it a grocery store.
And they think a.
Year has gone by and I think now they're starting construction on the grocery store. So it's been empty for a year, which is annoying. But what we've been doing this past over this past year is monthly readings play readings that that we've been doing at the American Hotel, which is also in Freehold, and that's been great. So I got the first Monday of every month will be a play reading and that's been keeping the theater active and the community active, people participating in keeping the name
out there. There have been a few other venues that we've been in contact with and have been able to perform in a black box situation in Freehold, as well, and while looking for a new home and permanent home, I stumbled upon the Millstone Performing Arts Center, where a couple of friends of ours saw a production of Into the Woods and told we're telling my wife and I
about it, and thought that we should go. I should go check it out and talk to them about maybe doing something with Center Players over there.
So I did.
I contacted them, and it ended up being the exact right time because they were looking for another theater company to partner with, which is great, and they had an open slot in October to the the first two weekends in October. So and this stage, like Center Players the theater in Freehold, it's a small theater, forty nine seats maybe you know, seventeen by fifteen or something. It was a small stage. This place is like triple the size.
So in considering what production might be done there, I decided that Bearform in the Park by Neil Simon would would be conducive for you know, the stage and that audience, and would bring people in and and also sort of
be a tonic, you know, for our time. You know, it's basically, you know the world is kind of on fire right now, and I thought that doing something light and something from a more innocent time in the early sixties, before the world changed, you know, in nineteen sixty three, like a week after Barefoot opened on Broadway, JFK was asassinated and from there on the world just you know, ignited in flames, like one thing after another. But the play, to me, it's sort of reflected a more innocent time.
And I chose that because there's there's so many other Neil Simon plays I could have chosen, but I chose that one because I just thought it was it would be an antidote.
To you know, the.
Kind of the way the world we're living in right now, Like people need that kind of escape, and I felt that it was the right time for that.
I'd like to hear your perspective on you know, Neil Simon is extremely well known. Therefore in the Park is known you mentioned amongst his other works. Is it is it more challenging as a director to to direct a play that is so well known, that has been performed so many times in the in the past. Does that help or does that hurt?
Well?
I try to look at I try to avoid as much as possible any like the movie, and then the other production, that that's that's been done, and I focus on the script and the text and what the what the intentions are. So in terms of if if I could, if I could shut everything else out and forget everything that's been done and focus on you know, the characters and the and the you know, the circumstances, then uh, it's that part of it is is uh that that
that goes away. The challenging part is you know, making it, making it fresh.
But so.
You know, staying true to the time, to the period, and you know, and and the you know, the innocence of it, you know. So yeah, so it's it's it's sort of it's a double edded sort because I mean, what's great about it is because it's so well known that we hope that that's a draw that brings people in. And I'm hoping, I mean to the actors. We haven't
begun rehearsal yet, but we've been very actively speaking. I said, you know, my hope is that you know, people say they've never seen Barefoot like this before.
Interesting, interesting perspective. Now some of the things that Craig said similar questions obviously, guys in very similar positions in your mind, Why is it important to have community theater. I mean people could go to Broadway certainly if they could afford it. Uh, but yet there there's a thriving local theater community that persists. Why should it persist?
Well, I mean the word community says it all. It brings people together, and it gives people a way to express themselves. Like there are so many people like you know, everyone with everyone wants an outlet. Everyone needs an outlet. You know, whether it's it's it's music or or acting or or you know, painting or drawing. It's like everyone needs to create an outlet and it makes it makes us all better as individuals. So I think having a theater is a community theater is the best of all
worlds because it brings all of those disciplines together. You know, if you're an artist and maybe you want to help with set design. If you are an actor, well obviously want to be on stage if you're there, you know, so even musicians, if you if you're doing a musical. So it's the best way to bring you know, people together. You know in a way that you're all you know,
working towards the same goal. You know, you want to do something great, you want to share it with an audience, and the audience, you know, there is this great communal thing that happens with an audience when you know, when when actors are performing, it's just it just it makes it really does make everything better. And what Craig was saying earlier is is all relevant as well in terms of like what a community theater does for the community.
In terms of businesses, people go out to dinner, you know, the there's just so much more that that it brings to you know, to everyone. So it's it helps everyone drive.
I think you know Craig mentioned and I'm sure the unique set of challenges. These are not big profit making organizations and so they've always had challenges in terms of existing. Again, and I mentioned the idea of sustainability. Even if you have a sustainability network, it's the key is can you sustain the network? So you know that that's a big
part of it. But so how do you how do you deal with, especially now in the changing environment mentioned already the blow that the theater company took in terms of losing their actual theater and things are getting worse not better. Does that failure with trepidation? How will you deal with.
That yeah, you know, it's it's it's strange not having a home, you know, because we're always looking for places to perform and ways of doing what we love. One of it is, you know, applying for grants. Uh, that's that's always an ongoing process. Looking for sponsorships, that's that's an ongoing process right now as well. And for this production,
I decided to launch a go fund campaign. They've never done anything like that before Center Players, but I suggested it because it's, you know, this is a it's a it's the largest production that they've ever done. It's you know, the scene capacities double the amount of people that they've they've had, you know, they've had before, and the stage is triple just just about triple the size of what they had before. So I want to take as much
advantage of that as possible. So rather than relying on ticket sales to fund the production, I'm trying to raise I'm trying to help raise money to augment whatever you know, comes in from sponsorships or or grants, which may, you know, may or may not happen. You never know. So I started a go funding campaign onto the theater. You know, it's a five to one C three so it's tax deductible.
They'd be tax deductible donations. And actually we started it a couple of weeks ago when we've already raised over one thousand dollars, so it's already gotten off to a really good start, and we're we're trying to raise six thousand dollars to fund the you know, the production for for the rights, for building materials, everything that goes into the physical production. So yeah, money is always the biggest challenge.
It's like, and I you know, I've been dealing with this for many years because whenever I do a film, if I'm f I'm directing a film, you know, the money's got to come first. So as far as like fundraising campaigns, I've been doing this for for years. So it's, uh, it's a necessary evil that we have to, like, we have to deal with.
It's like the big bucks I make for doing this podcast Anthony, which is which is none but I do Yeah, but you do that, but it's most serious. Did you do it because you love it? Very interesting?
It's like people ask sometimes people ask you why, you know, why do you do this? And I find myself when when I'm not doing it, there's there's an empty I have to do it. It's it's like the money is like the money doesn't matter. It's like it's the satisfaction of taking something, bringing it to life and sharing it with people. And that's you know.
Yeah, I was. I was whining to being frank with an artist friend of mine said, oh, you know, I wish I had been ratings and it's a lot of work to put in and just whining away. And she looked to me very simply and said do you love it? And I said yeah, kind of dude, She said so, and that was the end of the conversation. It was all that was neat. So can you say, uh, I want to talk a little bit about the production itself, how people can eventually see and how they can contribute.
But before that we mentioned your role in It's Real Life and Alternate History of the Beatles, which is our friend doctor Paul Levinson's novel, which great fun. We did a reading. We've had him on to talk about a little bit. So talk a little bit about your experiences with its real life and what is it? What did it feel like? Because you're not a fictional characters, this is your.
Name, all took some liberties, but you know, it was really it was, it was it was so much fun to be a part of that. You know, when when he mentioned that I've known Paul for twenty years at least. I met him when I was I was writing a play at the time called Acoustic Space, which is based on Marshall McLuhan a one of his terms for you know, for media, and in order to I and I had just read Paul's book Digital mccluan, which is kind of
what the film is saying. It's like it's it's it's like, you know, McLuhan's concepts in the in the modern digital world, and I wanted to I reached down to him to just really to ask if, you know, if I was accurate in my in my depictions. And he wrote back and then, uh, you know, he gave me some of some feedback and I made adjustments, and you know, years we've been friends, we stayed in touch, we've been friends
ever since. So he you know, he's come, he's come to some of our productions, and uh, one day I knew he had written its real life as a short story, and he won some awards and he expanded into the novel. I didn't know he was including me as a character until after it was done and he wrote to me and said is it okay? Like, of course, it's okay, you know. And then and I think it's been it's been doing really well for him and it deserves me so because it's a really it's a it's a it's such a fun read.
It's so it was it is it is really it is really fun. Uh yeah, I think let's talk a little bit about how people can get involved. You mentioned a go fundme campaign. Tell us a little bit how people can get involved, and a little bit more about the production and when it's going to be happening and where it's going to be happening.
You know, we wte people to come up to Nayak. People from NYA can go down and see great theater and freehold New Jersey as well. So tell us a little bit more about the nuts and bolts, if you will.
So, the go fund me campaign is live and it's if you if you find me on Facebook or or Instagram, there'll be a link you could you could you can find it. You can and make it tech again to a tax deductible donation because Center Players is if I will one C three nonprofit. The play Bear from the Park opens this October third and runs the first two weekends of October, so runs through October, from October third
to the twelfth. And we're just about we're gonna be starting rehearsals July fourteenth, so pretty soon we'll be starting rehearsals and a great cast, really good. The two leads are Olivia are Arendt and Darren Carfano, and then Onetiful. I actually met them during a reading of Beyond Therapy at the American Hotel. Like I said, we have these monthly readings, and I you know, I always love to find talent, you know, in in the in the situation. So rather than an audition, I'd rather say from from
seeing a film or seeing a plant. I don't want to work with those people. And that's exactly what happened with them. I saw them in this this reading of Beyond Therapy, and I filed them in the back of my head. It's at noment of where I had to work with them one day. So when the opportunity came up with Barefoot, I offered them the roles and they were super excited. To be a part of it, and I'm super excited to have them.
So it's going to be.
It really is going to be a lot of fun, and it is going to be it's going to be different from what you might have seen in the past, that's for sure.
And if people needed to get in touch with you directly to ask questions, do you have a site or an email that people might be able to use to contact you.
Oh yeah, my email is Anthony Marinelli at mac dot com. My website is Anthony Marinelli dot net. And to get tickets, actually tickets for Barefoot rou on sale now, you could go to Centerplayers dot dot org, center players dot org or tickets Anthony Marinelli.
I want to thank you for your intelligent conversation. This was great.
It was so much fun to you know, to speak with you again.
Yeah, well we'll we'll have you come back when when the play is running and we'll see how how how how it's rolling and everything. That would be great. It would be my pleasure absolutely, Thank you. Thanks, of course, our pleasure. Of course we want to thank Craig Smith from the Phoenix Theater Ensemble as well for his intelligent conversation. And remember we offer a special thanks to our listeners who take time to give us a voice in their lives.
Remember we offer a fresh topic every week. Catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts That includes all Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio, and all the rest. Check us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. Now you know, I was leave you with two fool things. A slogan that I think is relative to our conversation, and then some music which is also relative to our conversation. And Anthony, I gotta tell you, I stole this from
your Facebook page. It's from John Cassavetes, and he said, as an artist, I feel that we must try things, but above all, we must dare to fail. You must have the courage to be bad, to be willing to risk everything, to really express it all. I really I try to. I really try to do that. I risk being bad and I usually fulfill a weekly bits.
I'm definitely not afraid of failure.
Definitely. That's why we call it being practiced being Frankett. All right, we've got some closing music from the doctor Professor as I called Paul Levinson, and of course work for our engineer mister Neil Richter the Mailman. I'm your host, Frank Lobono. We hope to have you join us for the next being. Frank. We're the only way to be is Frank.
Thanks everyone, love your name.
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