The MW Theatre Company

MW Past: Events and Productions

• The Zoo Fiesta at 13 Fundraiser Party.
  
• The world-premiere of Zoo
  at the Access Theater, April 12-22, 2001.
  

Zoo Fiesta at 13

Our latest fundraiser blew the roof off Bar 13 on July 21st, 2001. Here are some pix to prove it.

Renee Benson, Jessica Rotondi and Margarita Manwelyan (MW Board of Directors) are keeping tabs on it all.

Mariza Baker (Media Relations Coordinator) spins some fresh tunes to get the party started, as Megan Linde ("Zoo" Stage Manager) looks on.

Zoo at the Access Theatre

an MW Theatre Production
written by Margarita Manwelyan and Jessica Rotondi

Premiere����Synopsis����Reviews����History

Zoo Premiered on

April 12^th through 22^nd

at the Access Theater

Directed by
Jessica Rotondi
Choreography by
Renee Benson

Featuring: Jeromy Barber, Jimmy Bopp, Jay Curtis, M. Donelson, Alva French, Ladan Jafari, Haskell King, and Margarita Manwelyan
and also: Michael Andrews, Andy Brown, Emily Gustafson, Mia Lottringer, Alyson Riffey and Crystal Williamson

***This production incorporates the elements of theater, film, dance, music, and visual art to heighten the visceral effect of the storytelling on our audience.

�Reviews

-- Artem M., Artistic Director of The New Enterprise Theater (Boston, MA) wrote:

������"The play is a rich and sometimes funny, intense and dramatic. Two hours passed as if 15 minutes. I wish I lived in New York so I could go and see it one more time. The production with a big cast, tons of equipment to run, film, light and sound, -- all working together in a perfect harmony -- is not a small achievment for the beginners.

������Zoo, by Manwelyan and Rotondi is a direct and compelling antithesis to Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit. As in the French existentialist's play, we encounter a realistic rendition of the surreal situation. But while the characters of No Exit illustrate the idea, that "hell is other peolpe", the Zoo characters make us think that "it is our inability to reach other people and share with them is what creates hell".

������Zoo presents 4 young new-yorkers, trapped in a subway car, where in front of those "others" they are confronted with videotaped images from their own lives. These people became unwilling guinea pigs of the experiment, that some mad scientists concocted to prove the "hell is other peolpe" pattern, and to sell their sensational results to the real-life-drama hungry media. Opposite to their expectations, the subjects are able to find the emotional exit out of the trap."

-- Jillian W., theater critic for NYC Drama Now, wrote:

"The future is here. Stand clear the closing doors."

And at their closing begins the MW Theatre Company's debut production, Zoo. With a grounded cast, an integration of drama, film, sound design, movement, and a social consciousness, the fledgling company has done Mama Non-Profit proud.

Four New Yorkers, trapped in a subway car, become the unwilling guinea pigs of a scientific study of violence and human behaviour. The four are made to watch surveillanced video footage of their most harrowing moments. Their struggle to make sense of brutality is viewed not only by the scientists, but also by the nation, broadcast reality-sitcom style. The result is a mottle of the dramatic and pop culture, of Survivor-meets-Sartre.

As stated by foundresses Jessica Rotondi, Renee Benson, and Margarita Manwelyan, MW promotes "affordable and imaginative theatre which reflects the contemporary young American experience as it is influenced by current events." Through "multi-medium" productions, they seek to "make theatre as fast-paced and varied as popular entertainment." As MW questions the way in which the "media provides focus on problems rather than solutions..... by sensationalizing images of aggression," so Zoo celebrates action's unraveling of human isolation.

Co-written by Rotondi and Manwelyan, ZOO is fresh. The video clips, dialoguing voyeurism and the notions of "public" and "private," are a welcome device. Theatrically, it's just plain fun to watch the ensemble [as scientist and home viewers] watch the four watch themselves. Also interesting is the limitation of the subway car as contrasted with the circus media's limitlessness.

Individual work is of note. Haskell King's grounded, honest Caleb adds pointed realism to more dramatic moments. Jay Curtis' Philip is subtly nuanced, particularly effective onscreen. Alva French blows the bellows for a fiery Tanya, while Margarita Manwelyan plays Maureen with fragility. The ensemble, tripling as toddler or talk show host or tycoon, is a romp. Kara Zeigon's minimal set skillfully highlights the actors. Rotondi directs with completeness.

Zoo attests that art is hope, and hopes that solutions can be imagined through art.
Go West, young company, and best of luck.

History

When MW was first established we had weekly meetings that were open to our friends, to artists, and writers, creative peoples of all sorts. We would get together and discuss the state and role of theater in our modern all-too-pop world. And the more we talked -- the more we acknowledged the need we all felt for a "new" kind of theater. What do WE want to watch on stage? What sorts of characters move US, and others of our generation? And how do we keep the audience from falling asleep in their seats?

And so the idea of "multi-medium" productions was born. ***If we made theater as fast-paced and as varied as the pop entertainment that we cannot help but be saturated with in our modern consumerist society -- if we used those tricks to promote our ideals -- we could perhaps have an audience awake enough to take in our message�***

And what is our message?

We have all felt so much� and so often, the cruelty and injustice of our world. A world which sadly enough does not reflect our highest hopes and ideals. So� what we want is no more and no less than to CHANGE that world, CHANGE OUR WORLD. How do we do that?

By stating what it is we want. By demanding that which we deserve. And by choosing the situations, relationships, and projects which ARE in sync with our high ideals.

We started by looking at current events� or at least the events of which we are made aware by the mass media. We watch CNN, read Newsweek and the New York Times, and again and again we are confronted with the VIOLENCE that is everywhere. The high school shootings, the police brutality, the genocides, the ignorance, the hate, the religious clashes, the genital mutilation, the haves vs. the have-nots� all over the world.

Jessica and I started working on the script which we now call Zoo in May 2000. We finished the first draft on December 2^nd, 2000. We have a lot to say, and we are lucky to have many mediums at our disposal. It is so exciting to be able to mix film, and drama on stage, with dance and songs and music�. We've got the seeds planted, and they have taken root in fertile soil.

We got tons of feedback after the Staged Reading on December 4^th, from our friends, members of our production staff, and mentors. Then it was on to rewrites� rewrites� rewrites� letting all the ideas germinate in our minds, infuse our bodies, and feed our souls... In the words of a respected artist/teacher/mentor, Christine Farrel, "We're really cookin'."

-Margarita M.
12.11.00