Caroline Prugh
Adaptor/Playwright/Lyrics
Caroline Prugh writes for the stage. Recent New York productions include It’s Only Kickball, Stupid (kef productions; The Advocate’s NYC Lesbian Stage Highlights of 2014), No Provenance (written with Kate Holland & produced by Justin Cornell/FringeNYC), and Clear Cold Place (vilde chaya collective & David Carpenter). Recent readings/workshops include: Night at the Big Chief Motel (2016 Great Plains Theatre Conference, Mainstage) and Til Death Do Us Part (with composer/lyricist Bobby Cronin) in 2015-16 Overtures Series at The Gallery Players (directed by Kent Nicholson). As a songwriter, 54 Below/David Carpenter and New Georges have presented her work. Her first collaboration with Jennifer Sandella was her first musical Highway Blue (MSP Emerging Female Playwrights Award) produced by random access, MSP and David Carpenter at the Player’s Theater. random access also presented readings of All You Owe (a loose adaptation of Strindberg’s The Creditors) and Sleep Beauty Sleep; or Oh Please do we Seriously Need Another Musical Fairytale Adaptation? in their RAWR series, both directed by Sandella. Her work has been presented/developed in New York by Abingdon Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Royal Family Productions, Voyage Theater Company, Babel Theatre Project, La MaMa Etc., Vital Theater, At Hand Productions, Captiva Arts, and Boomerang Theater Company. She is a member of Kaimera Productions’ Immortals and resides in Brooklyn with her wife, Chef Paige van den Burg. Amherst College (BA), Columbia (MFA).
A note from Caroline on adapting Pinwheel!...
I thought a lot about F. E. Faragoh throughout this process, wanting to be respectful of another writer’s vision, particularly a dead one. As we move further along in this process, I’ve become more loyal to the spirit than to the letter. Musicals operate differently than plays, even ones with musicality in their language. In order to avoid being deadly, theater can never operate as a museum. Back in 1927, Pinwheel initially received only four performances in one of the busiest seasons in New York theater history. It was published (thankfully) soon after and Faragoh left New York (and theater) for a far more successful career as a screenwriter. While I don’t know about his writing process for this play, I like to think he heard it as a musical, but at the time the form we understand as the American Musical hadn’t been invented yet. I like to think we’re carrying on his work, providing a fresh take on a piece steeped in the era of its inception.
I thought a lot about F. E. Faragoh throughout this process, wanting to be respectful of another writer’s vision, particularly a dead one. As we move further along in this process, I’ve become more loyal to the spirit than to the letter. Musicals operate differently than plays, even ones with musicality in their language. In order to avoid being deadly, theater can never operate as a museum. Back in 1927, Pinwheel initially received only four performances in one of the busiest seasons in New York theater history. It was published (thankfully) soon after and Faragoh left New York (and theater) for a far more successful career as a screenwriter. While I don’t know about his writing process for this play, I like to think he heard it as a musical, but at the time the form we understand as the American Musical hadn’t been invented yet. I like to think we’re carrying on his work, providing a fresh take on a piece steeped in the era of its inception.
Jennifer Sandella
Director/Adaptor/Artistic Director, Random Access Theatre
A Brooklyn based theatre artist with a foundation in classical text and performance, Jennifer holds a MA from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London and a BFA from Hofstra University. Since returning to the States she has been directing independent projects, specializing in developing new works and musicals, and co-founded Random Access Theatre, where she currently acts as Artistic Director. Recent directing projects include: Pinwheel! a new musical(Random Access Theatre, NYITA Nomination: Outstanding Production of a Musical), BlueWindow (The Lee Strasburg Institute/NYU Studio), Rosmersholm (The Old Stone House), The Taming of the Shrew (Brooklyn Bridge Park: Shakespeare at Sunset), Save the Robots (NYMF), Reach (Theater for the New City), Anthem, (Directed/Adapted, Random Access Theatre), Subway Savant, A New Musical (Dramatists Guild) Highway Blue (Manhattan Shakespeare Project), Nesting, (Token Collective, WalkerSpace). Jennifer is an SDC associate, a 2015 Drama League resident artist and a member of the Director's Lab West ('14). www.jennifersandella.com
A note from Jen on what drew her to the initial play...
It was the opening stage directions the drew me into Pinwheel! Reading them made me feel at home, in the teeming, raucous city. Coming from a working class family and growing up in the the NYC tenements, I could genuinely connect with these characters and their daily struggles. When first reading it I was amazed at how contemporary and timeless this play felt. These characters are at the precipice of a new era, there are movements happening all around them, but while they long to be a part of it, really they are just caught up in the whirlwind of it all. Our current society seems to be moving just as quickly. With the constant evolution of technology, where we are constantly connected but perhaps not connecting, it's easy to feel like a cog in the machine. Sometimes I feel just like the Jane, desperate to keep up, but always feeling one step behind where I want to be. And I think a lot of people nowadays can relate to that as well.
It was the opening stage directions the drew me into Pinwheel! Reading them made me feel at home, in the teeming, raucous city. Coming from a working class family and growing up in the the NYC tenements, I could genuinely connect with these characters and their daily struggles. When first reading it I was amazed at how contemporary and timeless this play felt. These characters are at the precipice of a new era, there are movements happening all around them, but while they long to be a part of it, really they are just caught up in the whirlwind of it all. Our current society seems to be moving just as quickly. With the constant evolution of technology, where we are constantly connected but perhaps not connecting, it's easy to feel like a cog in the machine. Sometimes I feel just like the Jane, desperate to keep up, but always feeling one step behind where I want to be. And I think a lot of people nowadays can relate to that as well.
Geoff Barone
Original Score
No stranger to the stage, Geoff starred as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar in 2005 & played the role of Perchick in Fiddler On The Roof in 2006 in Upstate New York. However, this is the first time he is on the other side of the table so to speak. His compositional influences include James Horner, David Arnold, Danny Elfman, Trevor Jones, Frank Zappa, Benny Andersson, Anders Eljas, Giorgio Moroder & Klaus Doldinger. He also draws songwriting influence from such artists and bands as Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jeff Buckley, Devin Townsend, Big Wreck & Eleven. Geoff also writes music for use in TV, Film & Video games. Has released several solo albums and is currently working on a few of his own original musicals. For more information please visit www.geoffbarone.com
A note from Geoff on his inspirations while writing Pinwheel!...
I listened to a lot of music from the 1920's & 30's to get more of a feel for songs from that era. Although I have a modest background in jazz standards, there were specific chordal and harmonic aspects that I wanted to capture that were inherent in the tunes from those years. I used what I learned from my listening sessions as well as my aforementioned jazz background and just went for it. I wanted the music to sound like it could've actually come from the past but still have one foot in present. Also, lots of coffee.
I listened to a lot of music from the 1920's & 30's to get more of a feel for songs from that era. Although I have a modest background in jazz standards, there were specific chordal and harmonic aspects that I wanted to capture that were inherent in the tunes from those years. I used what I learned from my listening sessions as well as my aforementioned jazz background and just went for it. I wanted the music to sound like it could've actually come from the past but still have one foot in present. Also, lots of coffee.
Esther Widlanski
Choreography
Originally from Bloomington, Indiana, Esther is a New York City based choreographer and director with degrees in Dance and English Literature from Indiana University. She joined the Random Access Theatre Company artistic family in 2013 and has served on the board since 2014. She's so happy to be revisiting Pinwheel! and continuing this amazing collaboration.
A note from Esther on how movement helps to tell the story in Pinwheel!...
The movement in Pinwheel! works as a stand in for New York City as a character. The rush, excitement, and personified hope that is so timelessly and quintessentially New York gets expressed in this show through movement that feels explosive, dynamic and at times even dangerous. It is important to me that we exist in a time and place that (both for us and for our esteemed colleague Farrago) could be at any moment devastating or celestial. My hope is that the choreography gives us the sense of this pulsing and alive place.
The movement in Pinwheel! works as a stand in for New York City as a character. The rush, excitement, and personified hope that is so timelessly and quintessentially New York gets expressed in this show through movement that feels explosive, dynamic and at times even dangerous. It is important to me that we exist in a time and place that (both for us and for our esteemed colleague Farrago) could be at any moment devastating or celestial. My hope is that the choreography gives us the sense of this pulsing and alive place.
Francis Edward Faragoh
Playwright
Born in Hungary in October 1895, Faragoh immigrated to the United States in 1909 at age 14 to begin a career as a screenwriter, playwright and short story writer. Educated at City College of New York and Columbia University he began writing short stories for various magazines upon graduation and had his first contact with the world of theatre when he was dramatic editor of Pearson's Magazine. Best known as a screenwriter, he wrote 20 films between 1929 and 1947 which included the 1931 James Whale directed version of Frankenstein, Her Private Affair (1929) and My Friend Flicka (1943). He also co-wrote the 1931 classic Little Caesar starring Edward G. Robinson for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Adaptation. Faragoh was one of the founders as well as a director for the New Playwrights Theatre and Pinwheel (his first full-length play) opened at the Neighborhood Playhouse on February 7, 1927. Closing on February 28, 1927 after only 4 performances, Pinwheel was none the less an important moment in Faragoh's career and an expression of his love for New York City. A note in the original play confirms that, stating "Although he has lived in most of the European capitals during his twenty-nine years, he still prefers Manhattan to any of the Continental cities. Pinwheel, the expression of his intense interest in New York, is his first full-length contribution to the field of drama."