“What New York destination do you absolutely have to bring visitors to?”

This question was polled to each of our twenty-six actors in the cast of The Bad and the Better. We got some interesting responses, some of them being personal apartments, the Staten Island ferry, and Brownsville, Brooklyn. We won’t give you the keys to Sarah Lemp’s apartment, but we will give some advice on doin’ up NYC, Amoralists style. 

Our first candidate to air his favorite city spot is the dynamic Clyde Baldo, an Amoralists “virgin” picked up off the streets by James Kau whom we are happy to have playing the megolomaniac Richard Zorn!  

So Clyde…where do you bring folks?

Clyde Baldo (Richard Zorn) “Times Square- Broadway!!”

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Ah ha! It would be like Richard Zorn to bring his visitors to the electric Goliath of Times Square. Nice method work, Clyde…Unlike those Zorn dotes upon, you  will not be chauffeured down Broadway into seats close enough to feel Nina Arianda’s forehead sweat. Too bad. But, you made it here anyway, and since you are coming all the way to Midtown West for our awesome production, here are some pointers on how to enjoy Times Square and not beat up Evil Elmo.

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DO: Stay up until 4, and then go to the square. In the wee hours it is is still bright and magnificent and no one will be in your instagram photos!

Don’t: Eat anywhere from 49th to 40th streets and in between 5th to 9th avenues, unless, like Richard Zorn, you don’t give a shit about money. If you are on a budget there is a top-rated super cheap pizza diner on 42nd and 9th, aptly named 99 cent Fresh Pizza, with the amazing $2.75 two-slices-and-a-soda deal. For a healthier option there is a fruit vendor man* who parks by Port Authority bus terminal, neighboring a bagel cart. An upscale option, literally steps away from the theatre, is the jazzy Chez Josephine*, featuring French and American dishes along occasional live music. Perfect for a pre-matinee brunch. 

DO: Get out of consumer hell. Gently push past the Germans and high schoolers and mosey your way west on 42nd street West, when it was full of trash and disease. Watch out for the pigeons. They will bomb your face like feathery cannonballs. Before you’ve had a chance to come up for air, BOOM! You’re on Theatre Row. Welcome!

Don’t: Go to the Drama Bookshop. Well, do, it’s super rad, but didn’t you know? An exclusive anarchist bookstore lives inside Playwrights Horizons.Only a ticket to The Bad and the Better will allow entrance. It’s exclusive. It’s underground. It’s revolutionary. See you there.

*Fruit Vendor Man: Lives by Port Authority on the south side of 42nd street between 8th and 9th avenues. * *Chez Josephine: 414 W. 42nd street (between 9th and Dyer).             212.594.1925      . Brunch: 12-3 (Sundays feature live music), Dinner noon-10.

-katiek

“The Amoralists have checked in to a hotel room for their titillating site-specific double feature: In Adam Rapp’s Animals and Plants, a mysterious young woman visits two drug runners in an Appalachian blizzard; in Derek Ahonen’s Pink Knees on Pale Skin, undersexed married couples consult a doctor who facilitates organized orgies. Major male nudity and an audience of 20 make the intimacy thrillingly and unforgettably unsettling.”
Gershwin Hotel, through September 19.

“The Amoralists boasts the most dedicated, most passionate and most courageous team of actors, writers and directors you’ll ever find anywhere. Its brilliant staging of HotelMotel is a living proof of this.” http://www.stagegrade.com/productions/840#show=community

HotelMotel= a part of new site-specific works that are cropping up all across town to keep theatergoers on their toes – or at the edge of their seats – in unconventional ways. http://www.metro.us/newyork/entertainment/article/953461—immersive-theater-all-the-world-s-a-stage

T. Michelle Murphy chats with Adam Rapp about his “Savage and Magical” play, Animals and Plants. 

http://www.metro.us/newyork/entertainment/article/952371—savage-and-magical-interview-with-adam-rapp—page0

Derek Ahonen chats with Gothamist about “Pink Knees on Pale Skin,” anorgasmia and his latest work of fiction. Take a read… http://gothamist.com/2011/08/18/derek_ahonen_brings_sex_jealousy_to.php

Check out Lizzie Simon’s article and see how the Amoralists produce “accessible, commercial, but avant-garde theater.”   

Making a Reservation for Two Plays and a Hotel

Monica Simoes

Brian Mendes in the Amoralists’ production of ‘Animals and Plants.’

The founding members of the independent theater company the Amoralists first met in New York in 1999. “At the time, a lot of theater was telling us how to feel—who the good guy was, who the bad guy was,” said the company’s 30-year-old artistic director, James Kautz. “We’re excited about moral ambiguity.”

In producing three to five shows a year since 2007, the troupe has thus far decided to remain non-union; otherwise, according to the Actors’ Equity showcase contract, they’d have to limit their runs to 16 performances and put an $18 cap on ticket prices. “We’re making accessible, commercial, but avant-garde theater,” Mr. Kautz said. “There’s no way that any competitive company can produce under those circumstances.”

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We asked the Amoralists to tabulate the budget for their new show, “Hotel/Motel,” an evening of two one-act plays—”Pink Knees and Pale Skin,” written by Derek Ahonen, and “Animals and Plants,” by Adam Rapp—performed in a room at the Gershwin Hotel. As it turns out, getting a hotel room in Manhattan for a month to do site-specific work is “ridiculously cheaper” than renting a theater, said Mr. Kautz, who also performs in “Pink Knees.” It’s also a better place to challenge audiences not to “disappear from the show in the dark.”

Which they really can’t do: At one point in the evening, ticket holders will be seated at the foot of the bed while two characters are on it talking about their inability to have sex with each other.

This struck us as maybe not the right show for a first date, but Mr. Kautz disagreed. “Go for it,” he said. “You’re going to have so much to talk about afterwards.”

Check out “Grub Street” where Playwright Adam Rapp Relies on Kit Kat Bits, Gets His Veggies From the Juice Press…and the comment section is particularly funny. http://bit.ly/pdNyuk

Adam Rapp chats with Tom Murrin about his play Animals and Plants and calls the Amoralists “workaholic, punk actors, who just want to make work and don’t care about cigarette breaks.” Awesome! Check it out http://bit.ly/r70BkQ

Many of us who live in New York City rarely see the inside of a hotel here, but increasingly, theater is giving us the opportunity to experience how the other half vacations. Read the rest here: http://bit.ly/q6PzEE