Rehearsing While Writing: A Word From Our Actors

This October, TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS celebrates our five year anniversary with an ambitious project, presenting four plays by foundress Emily C. A. Snyder: The Other, Other Woman in rhyming couplets, and a staged reading of the entire LOVE AND DEATH TRILOGY: Persephone Rises, The Seduction of Adonis and Cupid and Psyche.  (Read more at BroadwayWorld.)

We wanted to know what some of our wonderful cast thought about this process: where they were able to develop their own characters and have the show written for them, under Shakespearean conditions.  Here's what they have to say!

TICKETS: The Other, Other Woman (Oct. 4, 5, 11, 12 @ 8 PM)

The Love and Death Trilogy (Oct. 6 & 13 @ 12, 4 & 8 PM) 

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“When I submitted to join this project it was for the chance to work with a playwright I admired and a company whose work excited me. What I did not realize was how much this relatively short process would affect me and my understanding of both my own art and what is possible in the theatre. The experience of, not only watching a marvelous character and a wonderful story rise up around me, but of getting the chance to contribute to their growth and have my ideas heard and considered in a real way, has been one of the most joyful and significant I can remember.”

- Joe Raik (Impetueux, Charon, Thanos), Occupy Verona, author of All One Forest

“I have enjoyed this process immensely. It has been absolutely lovely to feel ownership in the project I’m in. It never felt like my insight has been insignificant or unvalued; I felt like a collaborator, not a chess piece to be moved. The cast and director have been warm and welcoming. I trusted everyone completely. I have loved every minute of the process - even if it required a lot of me and my schedule!"

- Regina Renee Russell (Comptess Renee, Persephone)

“This has been a totally unique experience – getting to co-create in the truest sense of the word. The opportunity to offer my own insights and see the characters taking the shape they wanted to throughout the rehearsal process has been inspiring and deeply fulfilling. I feel that I have gained a greater understanding of my own art through the window that Emily has offered us into hers.”

- Bridget Randolph (Enchantee, Stage Directions)

“Working on The Other Other Woman, in rep with Love and Death has been a wonderful introduction to the vast breadth of Emily’s talent, both as a writer and director.  As an actor, we are often called on to inhabit characters, but I have never been so involved in the process of creating one.  It has been an unforgettable endeavor that I will learn from for a long time to come.”

-  Sigmond Varga (Beaudemonde, Hades, Chrysos)

"I shan’t soon be forgetting my time working on these pieces so replete with humor, heart and staggeringly well-hewn poetry (and sex puns)."

- Justy Kosek (LeBoeuf, Cupid)