Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 582
(upbeat music) Welcome back in everyone to a fantastic new Whisper in the Weens from Stage Whisper. We are continuing our coverage of this year's Edinburgh Fridge Festival with two fabulous shows and two familiar faces taking these shows to Edinburgh. Joining us today, we have the creator, writer, and actor, Clara Francesca and the producer, Leo Lyon. They both have separate shows happening at the Shifts Festival. Clara has her show Making Marks, which is playing August 1st through the 25th at 11.35 AM at the Assembly Rooms, and then Leo has his show being presented by his company, The Firebird Project, entitled If I Live Until I Be a Man. And that's playing August 12th through 24th at the Space on the Mile. Both shows you can get tickets and more information by visiting tickets.edfringe.com. Very excited about these two pieces. Just excited to be continuing our coverage with the Edinburgh Fridge Festival. And of course, it's always wonderful to have familiar faces join us. So let's go ahead and welcome back in our guests. Clara, Leo, welcome in to Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Ain't I, Andrew? Great to be here. - I'm so happy you're both here. I'm so happy that we're making this happen in the midst of our melting-ness, that is the summer heat. I'm excited, I'm excited for these pieces. I can't wait to learn more. So let's just dive right in. Clara, first with you and your show, Making Marks. Can you tell us a bit about what that's about? - Yes, I can. Making Marks is about Jenny Marks. Call Marks' wife, the fellow behind Dust Capitale and the manifesto and social welfare programs and restructuring how you're perceived itself with economies. That said, it's not really about her. It's really an homage to specifically her story that was airbrushed out of history and the huge influence she had on how we look at economic structure in the 21st century. But more loosely, it's an homage to all women who have been airbrushed out of history. Einstein's wife comes to mind, Claude Camille Haudam's potential partner, but also potential sculptor comes to mind. And there are many, many, many others in the world, but it's also not limited to cis females. So it's an homage to this kind of way of thinking. And I have a fabulous quote from the British Theatre Guide that I think encapsulates what Making Marks is about. The British Theatre Guide says, Making Marks never pauses and it's imaginative, engaging, often disorienting performance. You are never quite sure where it is heading or what will come next, but I never lost my attention, not even for a moment. And this production had me talking to people about it for hours afterwards. I love that. Love that. Leah, why don't you tell us about your show if I live until I be a man? - Yes. So there's a little bit of a thematic connection because this is also about a forgotten historical thing that has been kind of airbrushed out or at least a story from history that we haven't heard of or heard the full details about. If I live until I be a man, is the story of the princes in the tower for those who don't know, the princes in the tower are two boy princes from England who were young boys, teenage boys in 1483. Prince Edward was in line for the throne and some people might be familiar with Richard III who ascended the throne through a series of alleged bloody assassinations and subterfuge in the royal crown. So the boy princes, Edward and his little brother Richard also called Dickon, the two of them are known to have been imprisoned in the tower of London by their uncle, Richard. And that summer they lived in the tower and then they were mysteriously never heard from again. It's one of the great medieval mysteries of stories of royals and their vying for power. So this medieval mystery is being used to explore the idea of childhood during a state of perpetual war. So children who grow up, the creators of the show, while they're telling a story about England are American and they're young American people who grew up in the shadow of the Iraq war, the war on terror. And so a lot of what this show explores is their own experiences as children watching warfare play out in the news and around them in the culture and considering how the shadow of war looms over children who are growing up and how it affects them. So as we watch the story of these young princes live out their last days in the tower, play fighting with each other, having sibling rivalries and awaiting coronation or execution. - That is also really cool and so amazing. Wow. Well, let me ask you both, what inspired you to create and do these pieces? And Leo, why don't I sit first with you and your show? - Absolutely. So the Firebird Project, which is the company that I'm the artistic director of, has been producing a season called The Year of the Bard this year in 2024. And The Year of the Bard is a year long season of Shakespearean marginalia. So we're exploring the myth beyond the man, Shakespeare and his legacy, of course, looms large over, not only the theater world and the literary world, but our whole culture as English speaking people. And he's defined so many of our turns of phrase and so many archetypes and so many stories and ways of telling stories that we've come to be familiar with. So The Year of the Bard is our attempt as a company to explore this myth of the Bardic tradition that has kind of outgrown Shakespeare as an individual and grown to be this shadow that looms over our whole culture. So The Year of the Bard is comprised of a series of productions that explore variously the fringes of Shakespearean narrative. We produced a couple months ago in March, we had Boy My Greatness, which was the story of the boys who played Shakespeare's Women, The Globe in the 1600s, exploring, of course, these actors completely forgotten by history who originated the great female roles of the theatrical canon, Juliet, Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, all of these iconic female characters all originally played by teenage boys. So their culture and their story. We followed that up with an encore run of a beautiful one woman show called Nurse by Anne Halliday who tells the story of Juliet's nurse many years after the grisly events of that play, having kind of a tell-all experience as she goes on the road giving her own take on supposedly the greatest love story ever told. Surprise, she doesn't really see it that way. And then if I live until I be a man, is our third incoming installment of this series. And we've got a New York preview performance in July and then we are headed east to Scotland to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. So this show kind of follows in this larger narrative of trying to put together our new perspective on the Shakespearean mythos and canon as well as zoom in on this forgotten historical mystery and the general question of what happens to kids? What happens to young people who get caught up in the mess that older people are making? If you're a kid and you're growing up in a country that the adults have decided is going to go to war and is going to wage terror on people both at home and abroad. What you, how you see that and what it teaches you about what it means to be a grown up. And if I live until I be a man, is a line that the little boy Prince Edward says in the play Richard III. He says if I live until I be a man, basically I'll go to France and I'll wage war on them myself. So he's kind of a little boy looking to this example that the older people are setting. And I think that's a question that is right in people's minds whenever there's conflict in the world. So we're thinking about how that impacts the youngest and most vulnerable amongst us. - That is wonderful, wonderful. Claire, how about you? What inspired you to pen this piece? - Three things. First was land acknowledgement. Second was affairs. And third was clowning. - How did these all relate to making marks in a solo show you might ask? Let me answer it for you. - So I think it was 2019, but I might be getting the dates wrong. I was hired to act in a play by Anita Nelson called Servant of the Revolution. And it was a three-hander looking at the love affair between Karl Marx and the house servant, Lenschen, and which is a fairly well-documented story. And I was playing one of the children, Tussy Marx, and it was a nice role, really great production, et cetera, et cetera. And then I would go off stage and it would be Friedrich Engels, the actor playing Friedrich Engels and the actress playing Lenschen, who would be on stage for the rest of the time. And then I came on at the very end as a cameo as Karl Marx's wife. And I came on with this sort of ridiculous, this ridiculous, this ridiculous, phony British accent, a giant hat, and this sort of gregarious attitude, which his wife, Jenny Marx, is described to have had. And there wasn't a lot of research about her. And so I had a lot of time backstage in this huge costume, huge hat, and I'm trained in Bufon and clown. And, you know, whilst actors were warming up by backstage, I found myself channeling in essence of this woman, who I'd never really met. There wasn't a lot of literature on her at the time that I'd really found. And I kind of came to understand the entrapment of what she must have felt like, 'cause she's always described as this ridiculous, gregarious character. But how could that woman really have been married to one of the most brilliant minds of economic theory? It just didn't track. And then if, in fact, when you research and come see my show, you realize that it doesn't track. And so I then started Bufonning and clowning, and this idea of a woman body trapped in sort of the core set in this big hat of this idea of what society wanted to make her, trapped inside a very masculine upbringing that she had, a very wail-sis-white way of thinking, trapped inside society. And sort of what it all meant to be the kind of Babushka doll trapped inside all of these elements of self. And so then I went on to research, and there's this great book that is called "Love and Capital" written by Mary Gabrielle, which outlines this story really fantastically. And then it took me because in Australia, we always do a land acknowledgement before a theatrical performance. It made me think about how we oppress and suffocate one another on land, and obviously the trauma that the European colonies have unleashed on so many communities and First Nations peoples. And so then I started to build this show. And so when you arrive as an audience member to making marks, you sit in your seats, very comfortable with his audience, you don't actually have to participate in anything. But if I'm doing my job well, you'll be titillated a little bit to think I am about to get you to do something. And the first thing you have to do is you're gonna wake up the Mrs. Marks puppet. So I start on stage hanging like a puppet, and it's your job to show me how my limbs move and how my voice move. And then we have a conversation about sort of ableism and it's a conscious of all that. So fundamentally, yeah, sitting backstage about to go on to stage to perform this ridiculous kind of a character, I was like, there must be more to this woman. And the more I researched, the more wild I was. - And I have to say then I discovered she and I share a birthday a few hundred years apart, but I do feel a synergy to Jenny Marks. - We're obviously the same person. (both laughing) - I love it, yeah, at another lie, you were Jenny Marks, of course, yes, naturally. - Let me ask the two of you, I mean, we are about three weeks away from the fringe starting. Your shows are getting ready to go across the sea as it were. What has it been like developing these pieces, especially in their current iteration? And Clara, if I can stick first with you on? - Absolutely, I'm having a phenomenal time. So my director is Guy Masterson, the brilliant famous fella who directed The Shark is Broken, also has a show called Mallon Conspiracy at the moment up in the West End. I'm really lucky, he kicks my ass in the most beautiful, holistic way possible. I adore working with him. It was he who came up with this idea of the puppet strings. Originally I was just sort of clowning and we now have me actually hanging on the bridge. And so that is a treat. I also have an incredible production manager, Samantha Hayphy, who worked with Leo and I on our capture show. And I should also thank you, Andrew, after Leo and I interviewed with you for the Captain Metamorph as a show, our show sold out. We had full houses, so thank you, good start. But yeah, the process has been rigorous. I am very mindful that once I arrive at Edinburgh Fringe, safety and health first has to be paramount. Apart from the fact that the show is very emotional, it starts off very funny. And by the end, if I've done my job right, we should all be in tears. Jenny Marks and Karl Marx lost a lot of children. So we talked about that in the play and sort of these seven children that were born and were through, you know, like various maladies and malnutrition, et cetera. So there's that. And then I'm also really lucky to be doing two performances at Edinburgh Fringe. I have an 11, 35 a.m. with Making Marks. And then it's on the show that I'm acting and called Funny Guy in the Evening. So I will be drinking lots of mushroom tea, I think is good for the health right here, and Echinacea and cognitive oil tablets. I love it. Thank you, first of all, for those kind words. Believe me, the pleasure was all ours. It was a fun show to discuss. But I love this development of your piece. It's so much fun. Leo, talk to us about your development. Like you've mentioned, you're the producer of the piece. You know, you've got this great season, this themed season. So what's it been like developing this as you've had to edit well? Well, it's been a really exciting process. Of course, I am a massive fan of the Edinburgh Fringe. I got to travel for two weeks there all last year, just seeing things. And I was very intent that I would just go and watch before I ever tried to bring anything there myself, which I do recommend saying start producers out there because it is a beast of a festival. I mean, I had a wonderful, I had a great conversation with a local there who was a theater maker too and spoke to me about Fringe at length. And said a really great remark, which I've kept in mind the entire time, which is that there are really two cities alive during that period. There's Edinburgh and there's the Fringe. And while they are deeply interconnected, they are almost two cities in their own right. And that is a helpful way to kind of think of the Fringe is that it's got its own geography and its own massive web of systems and everything. As far as bringing this show there, I think what's really exciting is that this piece was built expressly for Fringe. It's sort of, it's a quick show. It goes by fast. It's bite-sized, but it's meaty. It has a lot of content in a short amount of time. These performers are credible. Sophie Falvian Raybell, who are both resident artists at Firebird Project and who both starred in Boy My Greatness, are friends and they're co-creators of the show. They divide the show along with our associate artistic director, Zoey C.C. Grossberg. They, the three of them, created and devised the show together based on their memories from growing up as kids during the Iraq war, watching their country be at war and watching what it means for grownups to decide kind of the fate of global politics and who would be in charge and things. And it's a really witty and hilarious at times, but also really moving and grim piece. It's tonally really exciting to me. And I think that it's going to be right at home at Fringe in a really exciting way. So I'm eager to see the way that we're all sort of scrappy, indie creators and we love shows that really spotlight the performers and give them the platform to a kind of tell stories that are from the heart, immediate, straight from those people to the audience. And I think this is a show that's like that. It really embraces what is most dynamic about these performers, which is that they are really fast, really funny, really athletic people with a kind of sport-like approach to performance. You know, they're flexible and dynamic and clever, but with a lot of pathos. So as a producer, I think it's really been my pleasure to give them the platform, as it were, to create this thing straight from the heart. They are really, really talented people. I'm ultimately just kind of feel really lucky to be in the room with them. And that they chose to bring this thing under the Firebird banner. Because as a company, what's exciting to us and what I'm passionate about as a storyteller and a theater maker is finding stories that are both timeless, as well as really, really of the moment and really timely. And this is a great intersection of that. It's history and classics and literature, as well as something that is right now really present and immediate and about the audience and the performers. So it's been a perfect fit for Firebird. It's been, I think it's gonna be a real, find a real home at The Fringe. I'm excited to share it at our previews in New York before we go, and then to have this amazing journey as we move forward. - That is incredible. And actually, I wanna jump right on this and snowball that because kinda with that crossing of time or people or what have you, what is the message or thought you hope the audiences take away from your piece if I live until I be a man? - I think, I spoke about this a little bit before, but really this play uses history as a lens to look at now. We're talking about the medieval English empire and we're thinking about the way that empire functions and the power structures that it creates. And particularly what that structure of power, what impact that has on a really individual human level. We're having a lot of conversations these days about kids and their vulnerability and the danger that global imperialism puts them in. And both the really immediate kind of danger of just life and body and potential of immediate and fatal harm as well as long lasting effects of how it changes the culture. Because this next generation, if they survive the wars that empire wages are going to be the next adults. And I think one of the two big questions that this play asks are how do we try to build a world that is safer for our children so that they may get to adulthood? And then how is the world that we have right now? What kind of adults is it going to shape them into? This play is about little boys who play at war and little boys play at war because they see war out there in the world and for them it's the shape that the world has. They glorify it and it feels mythical and gigantic and important and exciting. And I think this play kind of tackles and wrestles with that kind of grim contradiction between this glorified idea of what it means to be a soldier or what it means to fight and kind of fight for your country. And that sort of thing and the kind of reality of things that children who watch this stuff maybe aren't yet aware of and the shadows of these things that we try to keep from them. So I think the questions and themes that we're hoping people walk away with is asking about that truth and that reality versus the stories that we tell about it and what impact it's going to have on our kids and what kind of grownups they'll be. - That is a wonderful idea right there, wonderful. Laura, I wanna ask you that same question with this fantastic historical figure that you were bringing to the stage. What is the message or thought you're hoping audiences take away from making marks? - So making marks, yeah, I really like what you said Leo about timeless and timely. And I think I aspire that all my pieces have that in them. And I've been recently doing work as a guest with community of Ramapo land elders and some Lenape wisdom as well about this idea of our bodies being of the earth and of the soil and guests on the land. And I think that ties into what you're talking about in terms of many of the England and militia and the present day and the children in the kindergarten. And so when it comes to making marks, this idea of all the isms, the ableism, the biggatism, the racism, the sexism and the airbrushing of as you said, the stories we miss out on when we don't hold space for the manager earlier when we're talking about the importance of listening to one of the stories. I hope that making marks leaves people with a sense of how can I be more curious to things I don't understand and how is my body showing up in space, especially as a white body in spaces that I might have historically caused pain and not to feel tremendous shame per se but how to take actionable steps to be more responsible with the body on the land in space. And I think, you know, I'm talking very big ideas here but I really see the value that if we share in the subconscious of curiosity about a diversity of stories, actionable steps change. Like I became very aware of some of my black friends not wanting to give birth or fear that they would be killed in hospital when you look at the mortality rates for black females. I mean females just generally obviously it's a wonderful experience but it can be a very troublesome experience as well and just natural things happen as well. But then we add the sort of how we harm each other as humans in spaces, how we other one another. And so making marks really is a call to action to love our differences and be curious about them rather than ostracize one another. And if we take this idea that making marks of the story about this formidable woman as you said and she's trapped in the lines of history, history that up until very recently was very cis male and silenced by patriarchy. And I mean that literally like this book that Mary Gabrielle has written about the Karl Marx legacy and family is an incredible book but it's one of the only sources that doesn't describe Jenny Marx as a buffoon with these enormous hats. And it just, I mean she's welcome to be a buffoon but I don't think she's self-identified that way. So my point being how we describe one another did her tremendous disservice. I mean this you learn in the play but I think a fun fact Karl Marx was educated by Jenny Marx's father as he was educating her. And that gives you a lens of, then he went off to law school and unfortunately he navigated some alcohol addiction et cetera, et cetera. But like, and therefore there was a lot of money being wasted on alcohol. That's another conversation. But yeah, you've got this formidable woman trapped inside history books at the time a very cispatriarchal lens. And so the play becomes this homage to anyone trapped inside artificial bigotism or pain. And I hope people walk away going, let me let me let go of delusional limitations that are imposed on my society. Let me be my fool me limiting the harm of others but also being me and also being curious about others. Where does my body land? And it's a question I think because like I said, the show from a storyline perspective is you meet me on stage, I'm a cis wide appearing femme and you have to puppeteer me. You have to learn how to move my body. You have to help me learn how my body exists in and in and through space. So yeah, that's a long answer. But I think the core of the answer is how can we be more curious about one another? - I love that answer though. That is wonderful. Well, for my final question for this first bar, I wanna know who do you both have access to your pieces? And Clara, why don't I start with you with your show being performed at the assembly rooms? Who do you hope have access? - Everyone, I want the solo show sold out. I want everyone there. No, seriously, I thought when I was writing this piece, I started this piece, gosh, 10 years ago now. And it's now in a form that is ready to tour. So I would call out to the world. I'd love, you know, people's signature theater, the mama and you did a workshop, like, come see it, book it, we'll tour it, we'll take it around the world. - I thought the piece originally when I wrote it was for cis-presenting European ancestry females as a sort of angry feminist play. And then in various forms that I presented in, I realized it's not, that is not the audience. I, and I think it's important to only explain demographics here to see where I learned to remove my biases. I took the play in it, actually in this version, the final version that Guy Mastos and I worked on with Julia Holden. We took it to Kansas City. And again, I thought the target audience were femmes, you know, even really honestly, like 50, 60, 70s. I thought it was when the audience was. The audience, we had a lot of males. We had a lot of males who were of the global majority, non-whites, and we had a lot of these men come up to me at the end in tears, giving me hugs, saying that they identified with Jenny Marx's oppressive story and how the narrative took them on a journey that they were so glad their counterpart white colleagues were in the audience to hear. That to me meant that I was doing something beautiful and to keep navigating that. And also taught me my limited beliefs of like target audience and my bigattism. So yeah, I mean, I know, yeah, I think people who love history about Marx will love it. I think people who love clowns will love it. I think people who love one, people's shows will love it. I think people who want to have a really like juicy, informative, visceral experience with little education as well will love it. But fundamentally, these two of these men who approached me have never seen a theatrical play in their lives. I was their first theater play in Kansas City in their life. And they were in tears hugging at the end. And now go see musicals and reports me, they say other stuff. So everyone, I want everyone to see it. But yeah, if you love communism, if you love history, if you love women, if you love clowns, I love that. That is what we love to hear. That's what we love to hear. Leo, what about you? Who do you hope have access to your show, which will be playing at the space on the mile? Well, I'll open with an homage to Clark's great answer there and say, everyone, I hope everybody has access. I hope that people who are interested in history have access. I hope people who are excited by fast-paced, comedic, sort of rye, dark humor, people who are into like dark comedy, people who are inspired by anachronism and kind of mixing of history. And now that's in terms of taste, I think in terms of like mission and where I hope the show goes and who I hope it reaches. I think every all of us on the team would be thrilled to see parents see the show, people who teachers see the show, people who are going to have an impact on the way that young people grow up and what kind of world they grow up in. Change makers, activists, historians, organizers, people who have a hand in the way that stories are shaped and the way that stories are passed down to our kids. I think in the show has a real fondness for young people at its heart. It jokes about them and it acknowledges the ways in which they are kind of silly and the things that they are ignorant about and that they haven't learned yet. But ultimately, it really loves and has an empathy, I think, for like little, you know, young boys, which is who the play is about and or young people with a boyish aspect with who at any point in their youth thought about or dreamed about or maybe even thought that they shouldn't think or dream about being a soldier, being a man who goes out and fights wars, being someone who is some kind of hero. You know, there's a love for the archetype of the little boy at the heart of this play and I think that we're really hopeful that it reaches people who are gonna have a hand in what those people's lives look like, right? We're thinking about the next generation of this play and we're thinking about how perspectives are shaped and what kind of stories we tell to kids about what empire means and what war means. 'Cause the kids in this play, you know, I think there's a really interesting poetry to this idea of the boy king, the boy prince, right? And little Edward, who's the older brother in this play, has been told his whole life that he's supposed to be king. You know, he's a little boy, the son of the king and he's gonna be king one day and it's that kind of symbol archetype of a young king, young prince who doesn't even really know what that means. He just thinks, one day I'm gonna be in charge of everything. I'm gonna rule the world. I'm gonna do war just like my dad did before me and he doesn't, you know, know what that means exactly. And then you've got this little brother who is maybe a little bit on the gentler side and kind of not so classically warlike and masculine and has a different idea of what it means to be, to what it might need to be king or what it would be good to see in a ruler. And I think that, you know, it's all about these kids kind of fantasizing who they'll be when they'll grow up. And the truth is, in the case of these little boys who were so important to history, they didn't even get to grow up. They probably were killed because they were an obstacle for the grownups making the world that the grownups wanted. So I'm hopeful that grownups see the show. It is, it's a little dark, it's a little grim, but it is not on family and friendly as a show. And so there is a potential for families to see it as well. And I think that would be really interesting as a conversation. But I think it opens up a lot of questions about, you know, what kind of stories do we tell our kids? What do we share with them? What kind of hard truths do we have to break to them? And when do we brag, what age do we break those hard truths to them and stuff about how the world is set up, you know? And these kids grow up with the idea that it's good to have a king and it's good to be at war. And I think it challenges both of those principles pretty heavily because while these young princes believe that neither of those things were very good for them in the long run and they're probably not good for our kids either. So I think that's what I hope is that I hope everybody sees it. I especially hope, you know, if you have kids in your life in any capacity, I hope you see it 'cause it'll probably make you think about what you tell them and how you deal with them. (upbeat music) - Well, on the second part of our episode, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better, pull the curtain back, if you will. And I know we're a little short on time, but I can't let you go without asking my favorite flesh, which is what is your favorite theater memory? Or since we have had you both on our show, but what is another of your favorite theater memories? - My friend, Avon Versek, who runs the Manas Student Theater in back in Australia, actually was just visiting New York. She just left a couple of hours ago. And I'm reminded of a memory she created for me. When I must have been 16, it was this play called Bog, and it was this sort of Brechtian heightened absurdist theater that then launched a bunch of other very now well-known actors and artists and writers. And Declan Green's work is the name I want to put in this space. But anyone feels like Googling Australian work. Declan Green's work is just amazing. It's invigorating. And now that I think about it, a lot of Mrs. Marx, a lot of making Marx has that sort of Declan Green imaginative kind of grotesque absurdism in it. So yeah, that's a memory I want to share with the space. - I love that. That name is ringing a bell for some reason. I'm going to be doing a Google search after this. Declan Green, it's amazing. Thank you so much for that. Lita, what are you? - Yeah, I think while we're, since we're talking about fringe, and since we're cooking on fringe, I'll take the opportunity to share one of my favorite experiences just from last year going to fringe and seeing the kind of work that gets made there. There's an amazing company who are contemporary. They're doing work right now. And they tour, I think they were just on like a world tour, or certainly I think they did a Europe tour recently, but they're called Volo's Collective. And they're an international physical theater company who did a show at fringe that was hands down my favorite thing I saw there, which was called The Life sporadic of Jess Wild Goose. And it was, it's a story about a young Wall Street broker, a young woman Wall Street broker who's trying to break into Wall Street as a woman, kind of at the peak of Wall Street right before the financial recession. And she is climbing her way to the top. And it is an insane dynamic journey that is like an action movie. It's like Wolf of Wall Street meets Pixar meets like Forest Gump. It's like she goes everywhere and does everything. And the play has, I think like a hundred locations. They're like on a boat and on a skyscraper. And, you know, they go in an underground club. And there's all these different crazy Wall Street adventures that they go on, but the play is bare bones, four actors and suitcases. And there's no other, basically no other props and no costume pieces or anything in the show. It's just these four performers in kind of business attire and their briefcases. And between the four of them and those props and the raw physicality and ingenuity and storytelling, they take you on this insane journey with all these locations and places and set pieces and everything that they conjure, which is one of my favorite theatrical principles that I like to quote, I sort of have a list of like things that to me are like my aesthetic touchstones for what inspires me and what makes powerful storytelling for me. One of my favorites I call create something from nothing. And I think this is this show and a lot of shows at fringe just to call out the whole fringe community is the something from nothing philosophy. Usually if you're going to fringe, you're loading in real quick, you have, you know, there's another show that loads out right before you, you go in, you set up, you put your thing on and then you hit the road again. And the whole fringe philosophy is that theater is stored in the immediate magical relationship between people and performers and audience and that electric moment where we're together and we get to imagine something is happening in the space with us. So to me that show exemplified it and kind of really showed me what kind of theater is exciting to bring to fringe? Is this, you know, electric bare bones, really like a skeleton crew stripped down theater that's all about us performers and you audience in the space making magic, summoning something right from the ether. So that is a definite favorite highlight for me. I love it. Oh my gosh, this show sounds amazing. Wow, thank you so much for, thank you both so much for those memories. Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know do either of you have any other projects or productions coming on the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? - Yes, diva therapy opens November 1st. I play Judy Garland's ghost surrounded by many, many famous drag queens. Come. Where, where, where? - I believe, so now we're testing you. November 1st opens, type in diva therapy in September. I'm sure someone come up on Google. I think it's theater for the new city. Joan Kane is directing and it's gonna be a really special experience. - That's so amazing. Oh, I'm gonna be there. - Well, I'll say if you're in New York in the coming weeks, if I live in Philadelphia, man has a preview at the Chain Studio on July 18th and 19th. So swing by if you're not making it out to Scotland. Come on out. There's more info on our website, it's fireberg.nyc. And then for me personally, I know we're mostly talking New York here, but I'm out in Seattle because I am directing an amazingly wild production in the Shakespeare Dice series by Dacha Theater, which is an amazing experimental theater series where a group and ensemble of actors learns all the parts in a Shakespeare play and then performs, gets randomly cast every night by a role of the dice. And I am directing a mid-summer night stream or as this version is called a mid-summer dice dream where a new cast performs mid-summer every night. We are, it's an immersive production that travels to three different locations. We go to a theater, then we go out into a field and then we go to a balcony stage where we see the play within a play at the end. So it's an amazingly wild time. No two shows will be the same. If you're in Seattle and show opens at July 25th and runs through August, we'll also tour to Port Townsend in Washington to come on out if you're on the West Coast. - That is amazing. That sounds so cool. That show needs to come to New York. I'm just saying. - And that is a great lead into my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about your shows or about you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you, how can they do so? - Absolutely reach out. Website is clarafranchesco.com. There's a contact page, my Instagram, actors access for all the casting directors who wanna hire me on film TV and theater. I'm always available. - And if you're looking for me, my name's Leo Lyon, like the animal. I website leolion.com. My social handles are who's Leo Lyon? Trick question, the answer is, it's me. And then if you wanna know about Firebird as a company and the Shakespeare season that we're doing, we're the Firebird Project. TheFirebirdProject.org is our website. Firebird.NYC is also a short version of our website as well as Firebird.NYC is also our social handle. So you can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. We are excited to tell stories to you and with you. - Wonderful. Well, Clara, Leo, it was so wonderful seeing you again. Thank you so much for bringing more amazing theater to our show. This is so exciting. I love these shows. I can't wait to see what they do at Edinburgh and I can't wait for you to bring them to New York after the festival. So this is fabulous. Thank you both so much for your time today. - Thank you, Captain Andrew. - Last Captain Andrew, stay cool. Stay cool, Captain Andrew. - Thank you both. My guests today have been the amazing artist, the creator writer and actor Clara Francesca and the producer, Leo Lyon. They joined us to talk about their shows that are crossing the ocean and heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Clara's piece Making Marks is playing August 1st through the 25th at 11.35 AM at the assembly rooms. And Leo's piece being presented by the Firebird Project entitled If I Live Until I Be a Man is playing August 12th through the 24th at the Space on the Mile. You can get tickets and more information about both of these shows by visiting tickets.edfringe.com. We also have some contact information for our guests which will be posted in our episode description as well as on our social media posts. But number one, make sure you do follow them 'cause they're changing the world and creating brilliant art. And you're gonna wanna see on top of all the amazing things they do. But number two, head over to the website tickets.edfringe.com. Get your tickets now. I've got a sneak and suspicion. These shows are gonna start to sell out when the word gets out of how great they are. So again, check out Making Marks, August 1st through the 25th. And If I Live Until I Be a Man playing August 12th through the 24th. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies. And keep talking about the theater. In a stage whisper. Thank you. (upbeat music) If you like what you hear, please leave a five star review, like and subscribe. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at stagewhisperpod. And feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at stagewhisperpod@gmail.com. And be sure to check out our website for all things stage whisper and theater. You'll be able to find merchandise, tours, tickets and more. Simply visit stagewhisperpod.com. Our theme song is Maniac by Jazzar. Other music on this episode provided by Jazzar and Billy Murray. You can also become a patron of our show by logging on to patreon.com/stagewhisperpod. There you will find all the information about our backstage pass as well as our tip jar. Thank you so much for your generosity. 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