INTERVIEW: ‘New Memory’ explored in festival of 10-minute plays
Ready, set, act.
Athena Theatre is gearing up for its annual festival of 10-minute plays. This year’s theme is “A New Memory,” and the evening is set for Monday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. at New York City’s Peter Norton Symphony Space. Eight playwrights will have their work on display, and Noa Egozi serves as the show’s director.
On the bill is a varied, eccentric slate of theatrical offerings, including a play about friends getting back together and planning a three-mile race (Fun Run by Nora Sørena Casey), an alien race descending upon the world (The Incident at Sirius D by Julienne Hairston) and an American backpacker making a stop in Buenos Aires (The Bluest Sky by Rachel Mann).
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Egozi about the 10-minute plays. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can audience members expect at A New Memory?
The audience members can expect eight exciting new plays that explore the theme of a new memory in completely different ways. Some plays deal with our collective memory in political ways, while some question the influence of our memories on personal relationships and on our behaviors, while others explore the roads not taken and the memories we didn’t create.
What are the particular challenges of directing an evening with so many theatrical offerings?
The main challenge of this evening is to find a way to transition the audience between different stories smoothly and quickly. Another challenge is to create different worlds and realities with minimal set pieces and props. I find both these challenges create a great opportunity for me to focus on the writing and let it lead my work with the actors.
In your biography, you state that you want to explore ‘theatre’s ability to replace indifference with compassion.’ When choosing projects, do you keep this in mind at all times? Is it a difficult goal to achieve?
When I choose projects I try to find plays that connect the audience to people that in other cases they might not connect to. I believe that stretching our ability to feel compassion to a larger and more diverse group of people is one of theatre’s main goals. This translates to an ability to feel that way outside of the theatre towards a larger group of people and therefore take better care of each other.
On one hand, creating compassion is challenging because in our daily life many times we want to protect ourselves from truly engaging with the difficult realities we see around us, but on the other hand, I believe that compassion is a very natural human feeling. And it’s just a matter of practice.
When did you realize that theater would be a lifelong passion? Does love of the art form go back to when you were a child?
I have loved listening to and telling stories for as long as I can remember, and I felt a special connection to theatre ever since the first show I saw when I was 3 years old. Ever since, I have always found ways to make theatre a part of my life, first through games and play as a child and later as a profession.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Athena Theatre presents A New Memory: An Evening of 10-Minute Plays Monday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. at New York City’s Peter Norton Symphony Space. Click here for more information and tickets.
