This February, Project Y premiered 5 short plays in a Workshop Production entitled UNDRESSING CINDERELLA. Director, Andrew W. Smith, speaks with his PY co-Artistic Director, Michole Biancosino about the New York New Playwright Festival production, his idea for the piece, and the upcoming Premiere of the full line up of plays at Middlebury College in Vermont this April. Read the interview below:

MB: Where did you get the inspiration for your piece?

AWS: I started looking to define this project shortly after being hired by Middlebury College in a one-year faculty position, in which I would be teaching students in class and directing them in a departmental show. The New Play Festival was born out of a desire for the student’s experience to be something more than simply being cast in a show and playing the assigned role in a traditional process. I wanted to do something different—maybe a bit more expansive.

At the same time, I also began to explore what is inspirational about theatre- and for some unexplained reason, the Broadway production of Wicked was firmly implanted in my head. The production is adapted from the Gregory Maguire novel, which is adapted from L Frank Baum’s novel in 1900. I love how it is able to deftly play off of a tale that is firmly embedded into the fabric of our society; each audience member (presumably) is able to tap into a preexisting love of the plot and the characters of The Wizard of Oz as they watch the backstage secrets behind that very same beloved story. It is exciting to watch when the back-story of the characters on stage weaved seamlessly into the specifics of the original tale in our heads.

I also recognized how the experience of creating Wicked must have been defined by the need to fit into the specific narratives of The Wizard of Oz. I dreamt of an artistic process that extended beyond these restrictions- and follows this route if so desired, but also recreates the original tale in ways unforeseen to audience and artist alike.

Additionally, in imagining a new play festival, I needed to attract writers. Though I am a theatre-lifer, a writer of dialogue I am not. I searched for a writing prompt that was both simple but expansive; I wanted it to be a trampoline for the writer’s creativity, and also attract a wide range of interpretations. With inspiration from Michael Doyle, Literary Manager of Project Y Theatre Company, a building block of the Festival was discovered: Write a play using a character other than the lead character as the main protagonist of your play.

Fairy Tales, throughout history, have always been open to reinvention, and also contained a universality that might encourage submissions. (What good would a new play festival be without new plays?) Cinderella as the source tale for the project was born out of its lofty status among fairy tales; if not the most iconic of all, it is certainly close to the top.

It is also surprisingly dark. Research into historical versions resonate more like Hitchcock than Disney: step-sisters disfigure themselves, then have their eyes poked out by a flock of birds at the wedding. In one of the most ancient versions, Cinderella is working as a kitchen servant because she is in hiding from her incestuous father. This seemed like good fodder for the artist’s imagination.

And so it came to be: Write a 10-30 minute play using any character from the fairy taleCinderella except Cinderella as the main focus. Connection to the original tale need not be literal, and the play may be set anytime and anywhere. It was quickly namedUndressing Cinderella, as we are stripping away how we have always viewed the fairy tale to see what themes may lie underneath that transcends reinvention.

Initially, I thought the idea to reinvent this fairy tale through this writing prompt was breaking new artistic ground. Quickly, I realized that it is quite the opposite: we are actually falling right into the arms of history. This tale has been reinvented over and over again over the course of 7 centuries and 47 different countries.

MB: What was your experience rehearsing/performing/watching your play in the NYNP?

AWS: Rehearsal was fast and furious, and there was a ready-and-willing cast for every show: NY actors combined with nine current students from Middlebury in a fantastic mix of youthful invigoration and the steady hand of seasoned pro’s.

Watching the show during the New Playwright Festival proved to me that this idea works—but I need to go further. From my audience perspective, simply stringing together these stories can interpreted as solely entertainment, instead of pushing beyond that in some manner. This entire writing prompt is one of reinvention through a common humanity. The audience experience of this show should exude this spirit. I wouldn’t have learned how exactly to apply this lesson to future incarnations of the show without the experience of the New York New Playwright Festival.

MB: How will your piece change/stay the same based on the workshop performances?

AWS: We are adding a framework around all the various plays that mixes the journey of this writing prompt with historical facts of the original tale. We want to provide context as well as perspective to answer the question: Why are we doing this?

In the framework, we seek to bring a balance of modern day reinvention and historical context to the audience.

MB: What is the next step for this piece?

AWS: Undressing Cinderella, A Festival of New Plays will be performed at Middlebury College, Vermont from April 10-13^th, 2013. 14 new plays will be divided into 2 different evenings of theatre, each with 7 plays.

Perhaps the next step after this is to continue to boil down the collection of pieces even more into a single evening—and then to return to New York with it. But as so many of the plays are still in development with the playwrights, with new pages a daily routine, it makes sense for me to keep my head down and simply work on the project at hand. As the New York New Playwright Festival taught me, viewing it in front of an audience is the trial-by-fire that forges the art and teaches more than any incubated rehearsal process can.

MB: Looking back on the NYC Workshop Production and ahead to the Middlebury Production, do you have any final thoughts?

AWS: Having the opportunity to present work in such a collaborative and risk embracing environment as the New York New Playwright Festival is incredibly unique and rewarding. As a Co-Artistic Director of Project Y, I have always known this to be true, but as a the actual Director of the in-process play, I was wholly overwhelmed by a newfound appreciation for the aggressiveness of which the New Playwright Festival encourages the development of new work. I realized with sudden clarity that our job as a theatre company is to provide a platform for the creation of art. We need to create art ourselves, and collaborate with others to create more art. This was the spirit behind the New Playwright Festival, and as a result, three new world premieres were born, and each one is now onto subsequent life. This tells me we are doing exactly what we should be doing, as artists and a theatre company.

For Tickets and info on the Middlebury Festival in April 2013

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