Spotlight On:

All’s Well That ENDED Well :(

On October 3rd and 4th, the Underground Theatre Alliance shared our latest production with two sold-out audiences, Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well.

The art-history themed show — performed at the illustrious G-Gallery in SoHo — coincided with a 22-piece art gallery, which included reimaginings of the characters as famous artworks, as well as other original art inspired by the show. And best of all, every piece was created by a member of the Underground Theatre Alliance.

We are truly so grateful to all the wonderful people who made this production possible, including but not limited to: Vilma Hodo at G-Gallery, photographers Alicia Vnencak and Stephanie Roberts, videographers Charley Walton and Rubin Parker, and our friends over at Dominican Academy, who allow us to rehearse there and share our shows with their incredible students.

We’d also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our angel ticket donors — Amine Bensaid, Andrew Clinton, Jacqueline Clinton, John Clinton, Joseph Clinton, Victoria Clinton, Toby Jaguar, Mike Kot, David Kopp, Kevin & Jane Mahoney, Alex Markle, Juanita Ossa, Daisy Phillips, Gigi Phillips, Laurie Ragusa, Shivanie Ramsood, Chris Schembra, Patricia Titland, and Cheryl Untemann — it is because of you that we can share our art with so many people.

Of course, the show would truly be nothing without the hard work and commitment of our amazing cast: Julia Cahn, Matthew Fay, Renee Hapeman, Clarissa Hernandez, Lily Lipman, Neysa Lozano, Jim McMahon, Audrey Owen, Paolo Ragusa, Zaina Shariff, Erin Sullivan, and Rebecca Wolf — your creativity, professionalism, and positivity is unmatched, and we cannot thank you enough for your trust and collaboration.

Finally, we’d like to express gratitude to everyone in the audience who came out to support us. Your claps, gasps, and laughs invigorate and inspire us.

In the words of director and UTA founder Laura Clinton, “We’re so lucky to have been able to share this fever dream of a story with you.”

Check out our Instagram to see some pictures and videos from the night!

Party with Us:

(Unofficial) Thanksgiving Day 5K at Bear Mountain!

Word on the Street:

Interview with Director and Actor Daniel Walton

As an NYU-trained actor and a vital member of the Underground Theatre Alliance for three years now, what do you find most appealing about Shakespearean theater?

Shakespeare gives performers the gift of speaking our feelings with language that meets the size at which we feel them. Where contemporary theatre concerns itself with how we cover up our internal life, Shakespeare externalizes it. Uh oh! Truth bomb alert! Newsflash! We’re ironically detached all the time. Is it not a more interesting choice to fully feel and express a thing? ON THE OTHER HAND, a big reason I like Shakespeare is, I just deeply like messing with y’all. Everybody puts this stuff on such a pedestal, I can't help but get that house cat impulse to push it off the ledge.

All’s Well That Ends Well marks your second directorial project with Laura Clinton. How did your experience with this production compare to Julius Caesar in January?

Lemme start with saying co-directing is a lot of fun. Having someone to bounce ideas off of, to gas you up over a bit of stage magic that you're not sure you can pull off, and to share the handle of the knife that you “kill your darlings” with (an adage about how artists must often let go of their favorite ideas). And Laura and my directorial partnership shares all those joys in addition to knowing each other very well and having built a cache of creative trust in one another. In the process of All's Well, we were able to access that cache with increased consistency. Much of the show was blocked and rehearsed in tandem in two different rooms. And when we would come together and share what we've been working on, it'd be such a joy to see the other's stamp on something, or the way they furthered or clarified a thing you had blocked.

This show was an incredibly visual one. There was not just a 21-piece art gallery to peruse before and after the show, but also multiple on-stage art-based gags. Which on-stage nod to the art history theme was your personal favorite? Which was the hardest to create and/or rehearse?

I mean, Laura did a beautiful job choreographing that “Birth of Venus” at the start of the second act: which was always a favorite character/art-piece pairing– the goddess’s birth as a sexually mature naked woman tells an interesting male-gaze-y story that parallels Bertram’s relationship to Diana quite nicely. The Soldier’s hitting “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” while Parolles does “The Thinker” both consistently cracked me up. I don’t know if there is one that was harder per se, but there were a LOT of art pieces that we just loved and kept looking for ways to fit in. Some of which didn’t make it as stage pictures but just informed the show: Helena as Madame X, Bertram as Wanderer. Some of which took different forms: “The Treachery of Images” was nearly a moment where Parolles tried to light a paper pipe and ad-libbed “this is not a pipe” before we landed on the pregnancy test. Helena brought out a painting that said “Ceci est une test de pregnancy” which in a reversal of the original Magritte message demanded of our audience “look, we know it’s not a pregnancy test, that’s not even real French, just suspend your disbelief a little please.”

You also personally created and spearheaded almost half of the gallery creations. Which of your pieces are you most proud of and why?

Oh wow, is that true? That can’t be true. I mean of a lot of them I began and passed off, shared, or they took a different life. It’s not often as a visual artist that one collabs and passes pieces off for others to work on and that was a really cool experience in relinquishing control and watching things flourish in other's hands. To paint that enormous Rothko and then to bring in the cast to splatter paint it was such a thrill. Actualizing Laura’s vision with the color-changing hidden image piece, “The Deception” was so cool. As far as personal pride, I mean, Diana’s portrait, “Titled Goddess,” was just so fun to work on. I love Klimt’s “The Kiss”: the abstraction & flatness of the golden scene & clothing set against the lovers’ depth creates such a distant intimacy. And what a fun sandbox to play in as an artist.

All’s Well featured multiple classical music covers of famous pop songs, including “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Bittersweet Symphony.” How did you and Laura determine the musical tone for this show?

We landed on string/classical covers pretty fast and “Dancing On My Own” became a real pillar to build the rest off of. Such a perfect unrequited love song, that is. It's cruel really how easily that one pulls the heart strings. We almost did a live musician— and I'm glad we didn't with how deeply embedded the transitions were in the rehearsal process. It would've meant months of Laura or I singing violin or cello at our actors as they do ballet or splatter paint each other. As is, we put our actors through the ringer with the tracks that we did land on—or rather one track that fortunately didn't make it into the show. It wasn't far into blocking a scene to a string cover of “Dance Monkey” that we realized “oh no, we can't possibly put the audience through this.” The actors on the other hand 🤷🏼‍♂️. Good sports. We must've played that song 8 times that rehearsal.

Now, curious minds who saw you kill it as Falstaff in Merry Wives want to know, when can audiences expect you to grace the UTA stage again? Do you have any Shakespearean dream roles?

Oh, that can’t be far away! But I wouldn’t jinx it by telling you when and what roles I have my sights on. Laura & my directorial partnership is certainly also far from over, but there are definitely shows that could have room for me both on the stage and off. But, yeah, I mean watching such skilled and playful actors doing their thing in these last two productions has definitely had me chomping at the bit to get in there. I’ll say I’m craving drama. I’d love to play a role with some real teeth.

Okay… so then who’s the toothiest Shakespeare character?

Reaching for the Bottom of the barrel with Shakespeare character traits, I see…

Double, Double, Ghostly Trouble:

A Ranking of Shakespeare’s Ghosts

by UTA Founder Fiona Egan

Back when Billy was writing his iconic plays, a ghostly appearance let the audience know it's time for spooky revenge and our main character was about to get some hard truths from beyond the grave. Ghosts are used 5 times in the Bard’s canon; sometimes as vengeance seekers, sometimes as omens, or to give prophecies, and other times as a personal hype squad. So in honor of Spooky Season, I’m figuring out the best ghostly visitors based on: “Importance to the Plot,” “Spooky Factor,” and “Is it Memorable?”

What Willy Said