 Hey everybody, welcome my show Friday PM. My name is Luigi Scarcelli. I've got a great group here with me This is the folks from the Portland Theatre Festival You can just tell us your names and about the festival. Yeah, sure My name is Dave Register. I'm the founder and the artistic director of the Portland Theatre Festival Which is a brand-new summer season of live professional theater Situated here in the heart of downtown Portland. Yeah, great Shanti Williams. I play the part of Moses. I've lived in Bitterford seven years now from Englewood, New Jersey Yeah, pleasure being here. My name is Jay Mack I play the part of Kitch and I have lived in Portland for about two years from Trenton, New Jersey I should add that these guys are the two leads of our current festival show Which is called Passover by Antoinette Nwandu, which is playing currently this weekend and next weekend at Mayo Street Arts down in East Bayside So we're we had a show that just closed Passover is now open and then we have a third show called Pony written by a guy named Sylvan Oswald That opens a little bit later this month and runs right up until Labor Day. It's your Ashanti, correct sir? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, my name is Ashanti Williams. I'm from Englewood, New Jersey Okay, and I've been living up here for seven years and I mean Portland has a beautiful theater scene So, you know, I had to just go and take the opportunities any opportunity these I had and this is one of if not the best Opportunity I've had so far, especially with the reception we've been getting so this is a pleasure I love it You know, I went to a circle in the square in New York and did a lot of stuff with the Metropolitan Opera House So to come up here and have this type of work up here also in Maine Which has a stigma for not being as theatrical as artistic as you know these other Cities it's I mean we're killing the myth right now what plays like this and they're all over Man, so yeah, so were you doing opera at one point? Are you a singer? I was a super-numeric. No No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm aria. I am not no I was a super-numeric so a lot of the fighting things like that that's what I did up on stage I would like pH Barry and Brad limits those types you mean like so stage fighting. Yeah stage combat a lot of stage combat Which I love yeah, yeah, like what are those more modern plays that do stage fighting or is that? Modern there's some older stuff. We did like Girl of the Golden West Attella we've done we've done a lot of yeah, yeah, so just a ebb and flow of new and older stuff So yeah, and uh like in the play that I just saw Passover you guys had a few of that. It was a very physical play It was definitely a lot of moving around you guys just weren't sitting at a desk We're gonna show a few still photos from the play so you guys can get an idea a little bit of it Before we go too much further. Where can they get tickets to that? Let's make sure we get that out to everybody. Yeah, yeah, so We're the show is called Passover. It's written by a woman named Antoinette no one do It's running This coming well Actually, so this weekend yeah tonight tomorrow Sunday and then next weekend Thursday through Sunday Okay, and you can get tickets at Portland theater festival Dot org Portland. That's theater EAT er okay re but if you Google Portland theater festival Should pop up and we'll put that down at the bottom of the screen as well Yeah, and so this will be playing from because the show sometimes plays at different times You guys are August probably it was like 6th or 7th all the way through to 4th to the 21st 4th to the 21st with this play itself And then there's gonna be another play after that called Pony And then there was a play before which was really interesting as well But tell me a little bit about yourself Jay as well. Oh, well, my name is Jay Jay Mac I'm also from Jersey. I'm from Trenton, New Jersey. Okay. I Moved up to Portland about two years ago. I Came Sort of in I moved up during the pandemic Pretty much. I had like just finished up college and I was working a couple jobs Just to be able to have money because I was extremely broken college I was working at a hospital and a restaurant and I got laid off from both because of the pandemic and so I was just home and My dad was looking at me like You don't have a job and you're in my house, so So I was like, alright, it's time to go. So My girlfriend was already living up here. Like I already loved the area. I loved how How green it was I loved the the people seemed so nice and I heard that that the art scene up here was was great when it came To theater and when it came to music. So I was like, I mean like why not, you know Move up here for a little bit and then as soon as I moved up here somebody who I went to college with actually I went to Syracuse for acting I connected with Dave through a friend of mine from college. His name is Adam Coy and Through Dave honestly, I mean like I've gotten all of my acting in Portland that I've that I've had since like in the past Like two years he connected. I mean pretty much I mean like he connected me with like different like directors out here who like I ended up working for different people I've worked on a movie with Dave. I've done a couple of other projects and Yeah, and then and then now we're in this which I mean like I said It's probably my favorite product that I've done since I've been up here And I'd spend an absolute pleasure to be involved in this project. Yeah, it was 90 minutes. There was no intermission I mean, it was just all energy. There was a third man. Let's make sure to give him credit to what was that? Oh shout out to Jared Yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, man Joe who's playing the third role of Mr. and Ossifer is kind of a split character almost like a surreal angel of death in some ways kind of strange manner speaking. Yes He'd be interpreted in a number of ways. Yeah, and so with the play itself What how did you guys come about this play was the play already in place? Or were you thinking about the gentlemen who are the actors first and you've kind of figured it out like how was it? We're first year. No, it's a good question. So we We were initially This festival has been in the works for a year And I knew that I wanted to work with our director for the show Barry Robinson who's a good friend of mine and we actually started looking at a couple of different plays before this and We actually auditioned both Ashanti and Jay I'd known Jay as Jay said for almost a couple years now But I had never met Ashanti But we auditioned Jay and Ashanti for this other show that we thought we were gonna do and then we kind of pulled that idea at the last minute, but we knew that Jay and Ashanti were available and Both Barry and I had been looking at Passover for a long time like this show Originated at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. Yeah, it transferred to Broadway. It was the first play back on Broadway after the pandemic It was nominated for best new play for a Tony Award and it just It's a really magical piece that we thought well if we can get the rights to do this We've got the two guys that could do it. They're here right now Let's go for it and honestly our little festival, which you know is in its first year of business We didn't expect to be given professional rights to do this play, but we made a strong case for it and And we we made our you know put in our application. We got the rights and that was that and so Also selfishly I was going to be in this play with these guys Ah, and then I ended up getting another job TV job that's kind of pulled me away from Portland part-time now this summer down in New York But that was another thing too. It was like I was thinking selfishly like how can I work with these two guys? Right summer on something that I really love it makes sense But then when I got that part we found Jared who I said the other night after the opening like in a way I almost feel as though Jared was always destined to play that role I think Jared does some stuff in that play that frankly I couldn't do you wouldn't done right, but that's how those things work out So, I mean, yeah, these guys We're kind of game to work on Whichever because we had a few projects in the works and all those scripts you guys were like yes Yes, yes, and then when we came on this one it was Well, you guys can speak about coming to the screen black black plays are very hard to find in the New England area Let alone Maine itself specifically let alone Portland more specifically I've been you know looking for stuff to really you know dig my teeth in nails, etc. And and This play was perfect white noise Which is another great play is out there also and that's something and I hopefully will have the opportunity to do in the future Also along with all these other plays that we just do not do here I hope this some play if anything helps other theater companies, you know around this area go So we can do plays like this that have like really good social political you know metaphors ideals etc. And just put it out there and we can also make a profit out of it, but also, you know Gain engage with our audience and go. Hey, you know, you know, let's talk about this play Which is what we're gonna do on Thursday this Thursday. We're having a discussion about it I hope that it just helps to generate more plays like this where we can have more discussions about you know Things like this and so is is the plays are usually Friday nights and Saturday nights and Sunday earlier But you'll be doing the play. It's also Thursday nights every Thursday through Sunday Thursday through Sunday And so after the Thursday night play or before the discussion after and is that that's something that's open to the public a lot You know folks can get go to that. Yeah, anybody who comes that night can can just stay and there's talk back it'll be moderated by Person here named Maya Williams, who's actually Portland's poet laureate, okay? Interesting interesting person with hands in a lot of different arenas in Portland's cultural sphere So we're happy to have them as our as our moderator And so Jay you went to Syracuse or you're from New Jersey. You guys didn't know each other in New Jersey now So you were in Syracuse did were you doing plays when you were younger or you want? Yeah, yeah, I started acting when I was in middle school and like it was just like, you know Okay, one of those things like you do like after school and then like you know You'd like end up like doing it and then I did all the plays through high school and then towards the my End of my like my junior years when like, you know, you start looking at colleges and stuff like that My director came up to me and he was like, you know like you can you could do this like professionally And I was like really and he was like yeah, man Like you I think you might have like the chops for it Like, you know if you wanted to try it and like I thought about it and I was like I'm not really passionate enough about anything else That's like pulling me, you know one way or another besides just this like I love this. I love Getting a new script. I love I love acting. I love being on stage. I love performing. I love everything about it So I was like, yeah, I'm game. Let's do it. And so he helped me with my audition materials And I started auditioning for different colleges Ended up picking Syracuse because it kind of like had everything I wanted in a college and a program and Yeah, I mean so been acting for a little bit now. Yeah. Yeah And so like let's talk about what goes into the preparation for something like this This is a lot of a lot of Memorization a lot of work. I mean it's mostly you guys again Jared I agree with you in the sense that he brought a very kind of strange character to it Kind of hard to even really figure out after watching it, you know exactly what his story was But you know, how long was the preparation for this? We've you guys been working on this for a couple months or how does how do you go about the craft? I would we start rehearsal the beginning of July and I think we had the four weeks We had the script before that for maybe a month something like that So a lot of the stuff we did at home. Yeah, you know a lot of research We did we took and we just looked at and you know through our schooling. We you know Just generated these beautiful people and it just happens that Jay and Jared and myself we in Barry beautiful beautiful director Black director. He just put it all together and we Automatically had this trust with each other. We all this chemistry is just it's like being part of a band so to speak because I mean The the words I was gonna say lyrics, but the words of the play It just it takes you and then all of a sudden you're improvising with this gentleman right here Then officer or mister comes in later on then it becomes something totally different So we did a lot of preparation our work thinking, you know, who are these actors? Why do we why characters beg your pardon? Why are we bringing them out here? Like who do they represent? Why is this so necessary right now? You know and then through the work you you find it out and then you just bring who you are to play time Basically, we're in the sandbox and oh, hey, Jay. Hey, we're gonna do this part in a hey Jared, you know and you know Barry just put it all together for us So that was my preparation long story short is just you know Just having fun with it and just taking my training and doing a lot home and just just put it in the work every rehearsal Let's talk a little bit more about the overall view of the of the festival I mean, is there a thread to all of these plays? I mean well interestingly enough the The thread between these three plays This year Seems to be and it's probably not a coincidence because it's stuff that I'm interested in as a person as the artistic director I probably have a biased or as the kind of shows that I'm drawn to but all three shows are in some way or another examining Masculinity and it the ways in which it functions in society and so, you know the the when it works and when it doesn't run why it doesn't when it doesn't and Alternative narratives to the dominant narrative of masculinity And that's just stuff that I guess I've been interested in as a person and as an artist You know looking around at the violence of the world and not Being able to not notice that most of it is perpetrated by men and wondering what is up with this What is up with guys and why can't we figure this out and interestingly enough? The three shows one to both two are written by women and the third is written by a transgender man And so these perspectives on masculinity Which are so spot-on are actually you know coming from these unique voices and You know non-dominant masculine voices let's say in in cultural terms and so that's been really interesting to me I think in general the the Festival itself is sort of the goal of this festival, you know If you're if you're a creator, I believe that there's a responsibility as a creator of theater in 2022 to respond to the calls for action and change towards Deeper representation greater diversity in the arts. You can't just start something new and perpetuate old forms You have to you have to meet the moment that you're in and it's just Impossible to live in a city where people like Jay and Ashanti are here living here, too And not do a play like Passover, right? I mean so we're trying with pony with body awareness with with With Passover, you know and in our future should we continue which I you know with any luck we will You know to push forward To push forwards and elevate stories that have gone for too long kind of unheard and in the shadows and and to choose shows that are very different and You have that unique opportunity when you do three in a season To really span a broad spectrum. You don't you don't have to just stay in one lane And we're certainly not staying in one lane. It's like body awareness could not be Pony could not be further from from from body awareness and Passover. So and that's a wonderful thing, you know, because a You get to you get to put up a lot of different artists towards making those projects happen and Be you get to draw in a very wide ranging audience a lot of people who have never seen theater before because Maybe they didn't see its relevance in their life or People who you know, oh Wow, this is actually something that that speaks to me versus like, you know Some old dusty play that you know doesn't mean anything anymore doesn't mean as much anymore. And so You know theater when it's at its best can Ken and should entertain and provoke, you know in the best possible ways Well, so let's talk about also the one coming up because I don't know if we'll have an opportunity But hopefully we will take to bring you back with the guys from Pony. Yeah, and and women whoever's in it Yeah, but what's what what should we know about that a little bit as well? Yeah, so Pony is best way to explain Pony is pony surf centers on a trans guy who's recently paroled out of prison trying to start a new life in a small town community not unlike maybe some small towns that you would find here in around Portland and He very quickly gets kind of embroiled in the small town drama falls for falls for a girl named Marie and they connect though it seems like maybe Marie has another agenda and Ponies spent their life Struggling to trust people, you know and is coming to terms with their own identity in the process and Meeting other people who are doing the same thing So it's a real seminal work of trans theater And it's directed by one of my really good friends. Jess Barbara Gallo who I was in Harry Potter and the cursed child with in New York for two years Who along with Sylvan the writer Sylvan Oswald are two kind of key instrumental? Voices in trans and queer art around the country and Sylvan teaches playwriting at UCLA and Jess teaches at NYU and they're both very entrenched in the theater world So it's just like a real honor to be given the rights to be able to do this play here in Portland Tap into Portland's queer community, which is vibrant and robust and like Passover stars An entirely local cast, you know, it took us a while to find people who you know, Pony calls for Pony is a story of you know, shifting gender norms and right and in various sort of of our current moment and We really went the length to find people who identified as their characters and we were able to do that And so we're really happy about that and happy to bring that show again another, you know Another side of the representation spectrum that just in Portland for whatever reason It doesn't get a lot of play and so we're happy to be able to to do a show that you know elevates these voices and isn't that one taking place because These the plays currently right now and before are at the Mayo Street arts theater It's a very small kind of like it look like maybe it was a church or something before as old church Been around for over a hundred years. Yeah in East Bayside. Yeah Mayo Street arts ten Mayo Street Ten Mayo Street. Yeah, make sure to find that But this one I think you're saying part of it takes place or all of it takes place at Mechanics Hall. Is that correct somewhere else? Yep, we're actually leaving this our third show is Is at Mechanics Hall on Congress Street across the street directly across the street from the studio in fact, right? Up in their grand ballroom, which if you've never been to that space before it's like truly one of the great Architectural relics of Portland if it's an old Union meeting house, it's where the shipwrights used to and sailors and Fishing people used to hang out and eat right before they would let go out to sea For months at a time and it's this giant open ballroom beautiful Refinished hardwood floors and we're Manipulating the space for our purposes but working with the folks over there Mechanics Hall is co-presenting the project to and so we're Pretty excited. It's kind of leans into the festival aspect of having multiple venues for these players You know, it's not just in one place, but kind of utilize as much of the city as possible in our efforts Yeah, it seems very collaborative. I think you guys have we have a lot of partners in the art world different foundations Helping you guys that you want to give any shout out to any of those. Yeah, I should definitely thank my my fiscal sponsor creative Portland and their executive director Dine of my knot the onion foundation and then we've actually been able to got a lot of support from the small business community So, you know, we've got generous fiscal sponsor financial sponsorships from, you know, coffee by design tandem coffee roasters oxbow brewing gorm savings bank main in Loire wine the press and canopy hotels and the folks at fathom companies and Those are just to name a few so we're we've been we've been we've been fortunate in that regard to have other people vouching for us and Literally putting funds in our pockets to make these plays happen and they're putting their money where their mouth is right there They're actually, you know behind this as a local festival So like what's gonna be upcoming for you guys like this is this is, you know, really, you know Solid solidly on your plate now, but like what are you guys thinking about down the road? Or do you want to do more plays here or maybe try to some other things or writing anything on your own or yeah? I have a couple of writing projects that I'm working on nothing I really want to put out there right now to you guys because I jinxed myself all the time I'll put it out there then I'll stop doing it and you stop doing Well, I mean it's in a is there different as actors like is there acting groups or their ways to stay fresh and and have You know your own things. I mean, I know that that's been a problem for Maine is that it's just it's like There's just not enough things happening and this is what we talked about before and I think while we have a minute or two We can always just touch on it is You know, I know you're working with picture main a little bit now I had Eric Van Wick on my show And and we're trying to get the films, you know tax credits here so we can get more films playing here Just actually doing more films here. Is that something that you guys would be a proponent of? But for being in New Jersey, I mean you must have seen that probably movies being shot there all the time Absolutely, I mean in my town the towns surrounding yeah, absolutely And you go out there as an actor to be like hey, can I just walk in do you need help in a background? Whatever it takes, you know, so yeah, absolutely We could sport well I got spoiled between New York and New Jersey because that's all there was right, you know So to come up here and be like whoa, Maine's beautiful. Why aren't they doing stuff up here? This is a big loss, right, you know and hopefully You know people get there, you know act together and go. Oh, yeah This is actually a wonderful place to shoot and for people to take advantage of it's not just in Oklahoma or Atlanta or LA or you know The tri-state area, you know, it's here too up in New England where look at all this, you know Well, and it's really the as because you work in New York currently sometimes as an actor Yeah, so what it is and it's the locations are all right here It's all because Augusta and they don't want to give this tax credits So even Stephen King can't get I mean the last movie that was made here with a big budget message in the bottle with Kevin Costner in the 90s Nobody's fool with Paul Newman for HBO in the 90s So it's been a long time because Canada took over a lot of it and it looks kind of like Maine or you could go to New Hampshire Massachusetts Massachusetts period right Boston same landscape or similar landscape much better tax credit Which yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense and it's hard to convince People who you know, it's hard to convince people of the is a delayed gratification Scenario, you know, you you take the hit as the state upfront knowing or trusting rather that This money returns tenfold twentyfold in time, but it doesn't just happen overnight. It takes years But you what you're doing by by bringing this business here is is Necessitating more infrastructure. So you're necessitating more jobs run more economy more lodging more food As a result more peripheral entertainment, you know, it's good for the hotels. It's good for restaurants It's good for the culture in general just to have people here putting creative energies into the state and that money I mean the numbers in states that have these high incentives speak for themselves, right without exception So we should look for the next season as well and that's gonna be next summer. You think yeah I think we're gonna roll with this July through Labor Day model I mean, we you know, we're learning a lot in this first year about Audience behavior and when people come and see shows and what are the ideal conditions under which somebody would come and see a Show so I'm thinking already next year about potentially having one of the shows be outside an outdoor venue and kind of creating an Experience around that so you get people outside and join the summer You know serve some food and drinks there Maybe and just kind of turn it into a sort of a more obvious summer thing But it's really contingent on the play. You can't just do any play outside It has to be a play that ideally takes place outside takes place And and can be in a contained environment that you could actually produce it in not too many Variables that you can't foresee because you don't want that But you know, what's fun about this is that there's really kind of an endless The options are endless for where this could go and I just hope that the more this catches on the more support will get from the community the more talent will want to be around in the summer and stay in Portland want to work on these shows and And we just grow it from there. Yeah. Yeah, sounds exciting. Yeah Well, thank you guys. I appreciate it. Watch them coming up It's gonna be again just give them the the where they can find the tickets out again Yeah, so tickets can be purchased at www.portlandtheatrefestival.org Or and we'll put that on a little ticker down below. You can see but yeah This show runs past please come and see Passover run for two more weeks And it's the show that just should not be missed. It's I saw it. It was excellent I recommend you go check it out. This is Friday night. You can see it tomorrow night You can see it Sunday or the next Thursday through Sunday. Thank you very much. Thank you guys Take care. Thanks. Bye. Bye