JDTLab: Artists in the Sandbox
The JDTLab, Guild Hall’s program devoted to presenting work by performing artists from the East End and, occasionally, beyond, will begin its third season on Tuesday evening at 7:30 with a free staged reading of “Extinction,” a new play by Gabe McKinley that explores the evolution of friendships. Subsequent programs will include two new musicals, a one-artist show, three plays, and an immersive deconstruction of the Andromeda myth.
According to Josh Gladstone, the theater’s artistic director, “the program has cast a wide net for artists from the region. We’ve had a really good array of talent and a variety of programming, from choreography to musicals to improv. While we’ve done a number of play readings, there’s a lot of variety within that.”
The theater receives many more proposals than it can accommodate. “It’s an opportunity-based booking — who’s got an exciting pitch, who has a project that would benefit from the lab — basically, who’s the best fit. I try not to do too much of the same thing.”
Mr. Gladstone emphasized that while Guild Hall provides the framework — the theater, rehearsal rooms, promotional and administrative support, an honorarium, housing, and travel, if necessary — “we don’t want to tell people what to do. Whatever happens onstage is up to them. We’re happy to make casting suggestions about local people if asked, but we don’t want to get in there and muck it up. It’s about opening the doors at Guild Hall so artists can come and play. It’s a sandbox.”
“Extinction,” which is directed by Megan Minutillo, who grew up on the East End, is a darkly funny drama about two college friends whose annualouting of male-bonding and debauchery has unexpected consequences that threaten their relationship. Raye Levine, Kelsey Torstveit, Jon Kovach, and Sawyer Spielberg star.
A staged reading of “James Joyce: A Short Night’s Odyssey From No to Yes,” a one-man show written by Joe Beck, performed by Drew Keil, and directed by Elizabeth Falk, will be presented on Feb. 2. Personifying Joyce, Mr. Keil reminisces about his early years, his self-exile from God, Ireland, and family, the books and women in his life, and the vengeful reaction to his work by a prudish public.
The musicals on the calendar are “Perfect Fifths,” Dan Rider’s story of a man whose dormant emotional life is awakened by a talented cellist, and “Eco the Musical,” a play both dark and humorous about a dystopian future, with music and lyrics by Jenna Mate and book by Bethie Fowler.
Other staged readings are “My Girl,” Judy Spencer’s play about two widows in their 60s, one gay, one straight, who come together as roommates to share an apartment and wind up falling in love; “I Married the Icepick Killer,” a new play by Carol Muske-Dukes about the marriage between an actor and a poet that unfolds after the husband’s death, and “What Would Nora Say?,” in which two friends in their 60s, using Nora Ephron as their role model, assess the events in their lives.
The genre-buster of the season’s programs is “Andromeda,” a dance-theater work-in-progress by Kate Mueth and the Neo-Political Cowgirls, an innovative performance group that explores the female voice. The work engages and critiques the myth of Andromeda, who was saved by Perseus after being chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster.