Featured Associate Artist: Quincy Tyler Bernstine

Happy New Year, everybody! Meet our January Featured Associate Artist. Many thanks to Quincy for participating! Click HERE to see our 2012 Featured Associate Artists' answers to these questions.

Name: Quincy Tyler Bernstine
Year Joined The Civilians: 2001. I'm one of the original members.
Where you're from: Born in Madison, WI. Raised in Washington, DC.
What City You're Living In: Queens, NY

How did you first get involved with The Civilians?
I actually went to graduate school with Steve. We were in the same class at UCSD. When he was forming the company, he asked me to participate.

What have you done with us, both in terms of investigating and performing?
Let's see...one of my "interviews" made it into Gone Missing. The guy who is desperately trying to explain to the cops (while being arrested) that he lost his id? I overheard that from my bedroom window late one night. I also performed a handful (or less) of performances of Gone Missing (on one of it's tours) back in the day (I went in for Alison Weller). I was in the original workshop production of Paris Commune. I also did the Ladies and (I Am) Nobody's Lunch. Oh, and Mr. Burns (not the Woolly production but I was a part of that original process). I think that's it.

Tell us about something that surprised you, either in an interview, in using the investigative method, or in a rehearsal process.
Few things surprise me anymore. How sad it that?!

Why has it been interesting to work in this way?
It's so easy to get caught up in the mundane details of our own lives. Or, let me not speak for everybody. It's easy for me to do that. What I love about this type of process is that it forces you, if only for a brief time, to think outside yourself. I love that The Civilians celebrates the fact that everyone has a story or, at least, something to say. And that there's artistic value in that.

What is the last project you worked on outside of The Civilians?/What are you currently working on?
I recently closed a production at Soho Rep. WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT A PRESENATATION... The title goes on and on. It was an incredible experience. [Editor's note: The play is by Civilians' R&D Group writer Jackie Sibblies Drury!] I start rehearsals in early February for a show at The Public. It's a play called Neva by Chilean writer/director, Guillermo Calderon.

What artist has had the biggest impact on you?
That's a difficult question for me to answer. I am constantly being impacted by artists...those I work with on a daily basis, and those whom I've never met. But if I had to give one name it would probably be Lynn Nottage.

What’s the last play you saw?
What Rhymes with America at the Atlantic.

What’s your favorite bad movie?
Probably, Dirty Dancing.

Do you like sports?
I love sports. RG3 is all I have to say. I prolonged my Christmas vacation so that I could be in DC when the Dallas Cowboys got their asses kicked. And they did. It was awesome. I expect the Redskins to win the Superbowl this year. GO SKINS. I played soccer for 10 years growing up (and even into my freshman year of college), lacrosse, and softball.

Question from Last Month’s Featured Associate Artist (playwright Bess Wohl): 
What's the meaning of life?
Man, I wish I knew...I guess to make your life have as much meaning as possible. Whatever that means.

What question would you like us to ask our next Featured Associate Artist?
If you didn't work in theater, what would you be doing career-wise?

Click HERE for Quincy's bio!

Mr. Burns: The Podcast

Anne Wasburn's new play is currently receiving its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theater Company in Washington, DC. Almost all of the recollection of the Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons that the characters do in the first act is from a Civilians workshop in 2008, in which a group of Associate Artists led by Anne Washburn and Steve Cosson attempted to recreate the Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons from memory. This podcast episode features some of the hilarious audio taken during that workshop. This episode also has an interview with playwright Anne Washburn, who discusses the role of the workshop in her creative process and her interest in this subject matter. Matt Maher, an actor in the original workshop and a Simpsons savant, then speaks about the exercises in the workshop and even tells us about his personal favorite Simpsons moments. Composer Michael Friedman talks about the music in the play and shares an excerpt of his post-Apocalyptic score of jumbled pop hits, as well as some of the music from the third act in which The Simpsons have spawned a whole new mythology and entertainment.

We're so excited to be able to bring you this behind the scenes look at this show, which has been called "kookily brilliant" and "inexhaustibly brilliant" in the Washington Post!

And don't miss the show's trailer:


TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE LET ME ASCERTAIN YOU PODCAST SERIES ON ITUNES, PLEASE CLICK HERE!

Retelling The Simpsons for Mr. Burns

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play is up and running at the fantastic Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and it's going great! In case you haven't read about it yet, here's the description:

Armageddon has struck and the grid is down: no TV, no radio, no internet—how will life go on? For one group of tenacious survivors, sitting around a fire and reminiscing about The Simpsons proves to be the greatest escape from despair. Miraculously, from their collective memories, a new industry struggles to be born: a crude theatrical re-creation of the digital culture we can’t possibly live without.

What did this play's investigative process look like? We've got info about that on the Woolly Mammoth Blog HERE. The first act of the play is drawn from a workshop that playwright Anne Washburn and director Steve Cosson led in 2008, wherein our artists tried to recreate the Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons from memory. They also did improv exercises where they had to list names of people they were searching for in the aftermath of the apocalypse.

Another exercise that they did, following the recreation exercise, was that they had to retell the episode to each other. We've got a transcript from that exercise! It's fascinating to read through and see how it morphs in each different telling. Plus if you know the episode really well, you can go through to see which details stick through the retellings even though they weren't in the original episode (hint: was Sideshow Bob writing the notes in ketchup or blood?).

For example, here is a look at how even the description of a relatively small detail morphs in its retelling:

Matt Maher tells the episode with Jenny Morris and Maria Dizzia:

MM:  the second the Deniro  it’s a spoof of the Deniro so it’s like it’ll be he’ll open a letter and suddenly it’ll be like a smash cut on a letter like” I’m going to kill you Bart!” Oiiiing! and then like widen out and then at one point he’s got all of the letters on the kitchen table and it’s an overhead shot of all the letters and it’s like womp womp – well  yeah that’s the sound, that’s the -- whomp whomp wom wom wom -- and it’s all of them sitting around the kitchen table and it’s like  ‘die Bart die I’m going to kill you Bart dah dadh dah dah dah’ and then’s like one written in pen and he’s like this one is written in pen and  Homer’s like oh I wrote that one because when (laughs tumultuously)  when when ah Bart ‘oh I wrote that one because for that time when Bart tattooed this on my butt’ and he like pulls down his pants and his butt is tattooed with the word ‘wide load’ (laughter) and the whole family is like: ‘ahh!’ and starts laughing laughing for like a really weirdly long time Marge, Lisa, the baby are just like:  ha ha ha-ha-ha… it’s very…I just thought it was funny that they would  just take a break from the episode to laugh at Homer anyway...

Then Maria Dizzia and Jenny Morris tell the episode with help from Matt Maher:

MD:  so then he goes home, then he goes home and he puts them all on the kitchen table and they’re all in blood except for one is in pen and do they say who wrote this one?
MM:  this one’s written in different
MD:  this one’s written in different, this ones written in pen -- and Homer says ‘Oh I
wrote that one’ and they say ‘why’ – does he ask why?  Laughs assent Why
MD:  and he goes: oh that’s from when Bart tattooed this on my butt and he pulls his
pants down and it says ‘wide load’ and the family laughs for, 6 minutes
(laughs) MM:  for an inordinately long time
MD:  for an inordinately long time, um – and then from there?

Then Maria Dizzia and Jenny Morris tell the episode to Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Sam Breslin Wright, and Colleen Werthmann:

MD: and this one says die Bart die and Homer says oh, I wrote that one
(laughter)
MD: and they’re like why and he’s like oh I wrote this after Bart tattooed this on my butt and he pulls his pants down and it says Wide Load
JM: and the Simpsons the whole family is like laughing laughing laughing laughing and then
MD: for like a really really long time
JM: for a really long time

Take a look at more HERE!

And if you want to, record yourself trying to recreate the episode and send it over to us! No cheating - you can't watch the episode first!


Check out our amazing reviews!

"As inexhaustibly original as the animated series that inspired it, the kookily brilliant “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” is the sort of once-in-a-blue-moon show that stays stuck in your brain long after it has chilled you to the bone."

"It’s a witty, bizarre, thoroughly riveting inquiry into the comforting -- some might say confounding -- durability of pop culture, as well as a rather sweet exploration of storytelling and how our innocence as a species is rekindled every time we retell or revise an old tale."

- Peter Marks, The Washington Post

4.5 Stars of 5
- DC Metro Theater Arts

"Through a prism of pop culture references and Kelsey Grammer impressions, Washburn reveals our primal human need for entertainment, as well as the hope seemingly banal works can offer."
- Washingtonian

For tickets to the show running through July 1, CLICK HERE!

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play

Check out the blog post on Woolly Mammoth's blog about Mr. Burns, a post-electric play discussing our role in the show's development. Here's an excerpt:

In 2008, a group of Civilians Associate Artists set out to explore the notion of a post-apocalyptic Simpsons narrative. Playwright Anne Washburn, director Steve Cosson, and six actors got together for a one week workshop focused on the topic. They did many different kinds of improvisation exercises, one of which was focused on recreating theCape Feare episode of The Simpsons from memory (and as it turns out, our Associate Artist Matt Maher was incredibly good at this). Anne Washburn then took her notes and audio recordings and started writing what is now Mr. Burns, a post-electric play. The Act 1 recollection of the Simpsons episode is pulled almost verbatim from these exercises. The rest of Act I, and Acts II and III were created by Anne, although very much inspired by the energy and capacity of the original actors and by her discussions with Steve. The characters share first names –and some share a few characteristics—with the actors in the original workshop. We’ll leave you to find out who is who, and to guess which qualities match up with their real-life counterparts!

For the whole post, click HERE!

The show is starting it's first day of tech today, with the first performance on May 28. This new show by Anne Washburn with music by Michael Friedman directed by Steve Cosson is not to be missed - get tickets HERE!

Mr. Burns - Workshop at Playwrights Horizons

A few years ago, a group of actors along with playwright Anne Washburn and Steve Cosson got together for a kind of a workshop - not a traditional one, in that they weren't working with an early draft of a script. There was no script yet, so the actors were working together on exercises as led by Anne and Steve. In one of the week's activities, Anne asked the actors to try to retell the "Cape Fear" episode of The Simpsons. This sparked what has become her new play, MR. BURNS. The play had a traditional workshop last week at Playwrights Horizons, which culminated in a reading. Per the program notes:

"The recollection of the Simpsons episode in the first act is largely verbatim, arranged from material collected in sessions with the actors Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Maria Dizzia, Gibson Frazier, Matthew Maher, Jennifer R. Morris, Sam Breslin Wright, and Colleen Werthmann. Special thanks to Matt Maher for his superior recall."

The cast was:
Matthew Maher as Matt
Gibson Frazier as Gibson
Jennifer R. Morris as Jennifer
Colleen Werthmann as Colleen
Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Quincy
Sam Breslin Wright as Sam
Rebecca Hart as Maria

You'll probably notice that five of the original actors returned for the reading. It's worth noting that they aren't actually playing themselves, but rather fictionalized characters originally inspired by work that they did in the original workshop (and Rebecca as a fictionalized character originally inspired by Maria Dizzia's participation in the workshop). Michael Friedman has written the score, full of references to some of the really iconic pop songs of our time. For more, check out the wonderful feature in Seattle's publication, The Stranger, which was written about a workshop that we did in July of this year.

Photos by Sam Breslin Wright. For more, check out his flickr HERE!

Here's the view from the rehearsal room.

Writer's Assistant Josh Luxenberg and Playright Anne Washburn in the back
left, Director Steve Cosson and AD Jay Stull

Colleen Werthmann, Jennifer R. Morris, Josh Luxenberg, Rebecca Hart,
Gibson Frazier, Michael Friedman, and Matthew Maher

Jennifer R. Morris, Matthew Maher, and Rebecca Hart

Working on the stage where the reading was held

MR. BURNS Workshop in Seattle

Earlier this month, Steve Cosson along with Associate Artists Anne Washburn and Michael Friedman were out in Seattle for a two-week workshop of MR. BURNS: A POST ELECTRIC PLAY at Seattle Repertory Theatre. Below are some cool photos from rehearsal, plus some of the Space Needle!

The readings got a fantastic write-up by Brendan Kiley in The Stranger. It contains a really interesting discussion about the script (which is still a work in progress) and points to some of the fascinating questions raised by the text. Here's an excerpt:

"The conceit of Mr. Burns—a single episode of The Simpsons growing from light entertainment into an epic, given the proper cultural/material conditions—is simultaneously cheeky, touching, and sad. Did the Iliad come from such circumstantial, vicious origins? Or the Oresteia? Or the Bible? Or everything we call culture?"

For the article, click HERE! There's also a very cool illustration inspired by the show drawn by James Yamasaki at the top of the article - check it out!

And for more info about MR. BURNS, click HERE!

The Civilians at the Humana Festival!

Civilians' artists are all up in The Humana Festival for New American Plays this year (where This Beautiful City premiered in 2008)!

Artistic Director Steve Cosson is directing Anne Washburn (playwright of Mr. Burns - which was recently named a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize!)'s new play, A DEVIL AT NOON - more info HERE!

Also, Maple and Vine will be receiving its world premiere at Humana this year. This new play by Jordan Harrison is based on an investigation by Civilians' artists into communities resistant to modern technologies - more info HERE!

The festival starts in two weeks!

Welcome!

This is The Civilians' company-wide blog, where you can find out about The Civilians' many projects and investigations about real-life topics. For older posts, you can check out our Individual Show Blogs:
Brooklyn At Eye Level (Atlantic Yards Investigation, 2008)
Pretty Filthy (must be over 18 years old)
The Great Immensity (Princeton Residency, 2009-2010)
YOU BETTER SIT DOWN (with WNYC)
And you can always find more info at www.thecivilians.org.

Please comment and let us know your thoughts. Ask us questions, voice your opinion, give us feedback. Nothing that The Civilians does is a one-sided conversation, and blogging is certainly no exception, so don't be a stranger!

Thanks for visiting!