Sunday, October 26, 2014

Blogging About: Karen Elliott in Plus 1 Solo Show Festival

Tongue in Cheek Theater's November 2014 Plus 1 Solo Show Festival runs for 2 performances, from Sunday-Monday, November 2-3, 2014 at 8 pm.  All shows are at The Bridge Theatre @ Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street, 12th Floor in midtown NYC.  Tickets are $20 at www.tictheater.com and by calling 212-868-4444.

We are thrilled to welcome Karen Elliott to the festival.  She is an incredibly gifted actor who has toured the country in some major musicals and it seems only fitting that her piece is about finding a place to call home.

What inspired you to create your piece?
At I started telling the story of an event that really happened to me while I was living in an exceptionally dangerous apartment building in Brooklyn. When I started writing I thought the story was about the insane people I had to deal with on a daily basis. The more I wrote, the more I realized that this was a much bigger, personal story that hangs itself well upon the world of the "crazy house."

Tell us about another solo show that influenced you.
I saw a production of No Child when I was doing Les Miserables at The Weston Theater in Vermont. This piece is a true tour de force and if anyone has a chance to see it they should run, not walk to the theater. The story alone (a young teaching artists in a challenging New York City school setting, tries to rise to the occasion and introduce the power of theater) is magnificent and needs to be told as often as possible. Add to that the artistic marathon that the actress runs in the course of the piece to bring this world alive--exceptional theater!

If you turned your piece into a movie, who would you cast in the film?
I would love to turn Home (or a variable of it) into a film! I've actually thought about it and sometimes I lean toward casting a male, I think Johan Hill, would be hilarious in the male version. But I think there are far too few awesome, female protagonists in film so if I do finish a screenplay it will be for a female and my fantasy actress would be Amy Poehler.

Have you ever had a major goof up onstage?
After a while of working on stage the odds are some kind of crazy is going to happen. There was one time, when I was doing a production of She Loves Me when, me and my friend George were playing opposite each other and got tangled up in our lines. Fortunately we had been staged to look at each other so we could see that blessed moment of panic in each others eyes. We tried so hard to get back to square one. At some point I think we started looking like a movie musical as we were throwing out lines trying to catch important pieces of expositions and get back on track. We may have lost our lines but we gained a priceless moment of true on-stage companionship.

Sounds like an amazing feat of theatricality!

If you like great storytelling and music, you're in for a treat with the talented artists in our 12th Plus 1 Solo Show Festival, so get your tickets here and catch the following pieces and musical guest Ellia Bisker of Sweet Soubrette:

Social Studies by Elizabeth Phillips 
How far would you go to make history?

Home by Karen Elliott 
A woman's on-going search to find home leads her to unexpected places. 

Just Leave Me Here by Caralie Chrisco 
If you’ve given up all vices to no big prize, should you stop doing burpees and go back to burgers? 

New Year's Eve Party Crash by Dale Davidson 
The biggest party of the year entails facing your fears.

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