Really
Really
Really
by Crystal Finn
directed by Paco Tolson
May 1st, 3pm
Houghton Hall Arts Community
Commissioned by Fiasco Theater
From the Director
Welcome!
I’m infatuated with Crystal’s writing, and I’ll tell you why: her plays are cauldrons of human experiences—our contemporary anxieties, our primal desires, our most absurd and hilarious failings elegantly swirl and bubble and rise to the surface in the same manner as we experience them, moment to moment, in our own lives. Her questions of illusion and identity whirl in a majestic contest with questions of fidelity and questions of art, intermingling. In engaging with the worlds she builds, we become partners in her interrogation of familiar forms, working our way experientially through dysregulation and, by degrees, to revelation. We are provoked out of reclining. We are pulled in closer together as bodies in space. As a community. And going on the journey together is the thing. We will all sit here together, wrestling with our world and what capability we have to repair it with whatever talent we may have. We will search within ourselves for what we know to be real about the people closest to us. We will see grand ideas argued on a human scale, in the context of our own lived experience. We will go through it all together.
Today is the first public sharing of this brave new work. Thank you for being here.
It’s a gift to share the journey at your side.
Paco
Commissioning funds for Really Really Really made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers’ Unions:
ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION
AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS
AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS
SAG-AFTRA
through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear in this program.
About the Artists
Crystal Finn (playwright) is an actor and playwright. She is a proud alumni of the Brown/Trinity MFA acting program, where she studied alongside many of her Fiasco peers, including her classmate Emily Young. Crystal has originated roles in over twenty world premiere plays on and off Broadway. In 2022 she received the Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in the play “Birthday Candles.” She is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb where she has workshopped and performed in dozens of new plays and also been produced as a playwright. Her play “Ms. Lilly” was developed with Clubbed Thumb’s early career director’s program and was directed by Josiah Davis (also a Brown/Trinity alum!) and her play “Find Me Here” premiered in Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks, last season and was directed by Caitlin Sullivan. Other plays include “The Faire” produced by Fault Line Theater, and “Becoming Liv Ullman,” which was a hit at the NY Fringe Festival and went on to the New Ground Theater Festival at Cleveland Playhouse. She is thrilled to be collaborating with Fiasco after so many years of shared lineage.
Paco Tolson (director) Off-Broadway: Fiasco Theater’s productions of Twelfth Night and Pericles at Classic Stage Company, and The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Red Bull, 2024 Lortel nom.); Poor Yella Rednecks and Vietgone (2017 Lortel nom.) at Manhattan Theatre Club; SUMO (Ma-Yi Theater/The Public Theater); The Wind and The Rain (Vineyard Theater/En Garden Arts); The Unwritten Song (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Slavey (Clubbed Thumb); The Children of Vonderly (Ma-Yi Theater). Regional: to the yellow house (La Jolla Playhouse); Fiasco’s Measure for Measure (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Winter’s Tale and Vietgone (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Peter and the Starcatcher, Vietgone and Poor Yella Rednecks (South Coast Rep). Film & TV: Billions, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Prodigal Son, Search Party, The Good Fight, Madam Secretary, and 7 DAY GIG. Proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, SEIU, Ensemble Studio Theater, and The Actors Center. @pacotolson
Jessie Austrian (actor) (she/her) is a multi-hyphenate-theater-maker, educator and parent. She is one of Fiasco’s founders and co-artistic directors. With Fiasco: Imogen, Cymbeline; Baker’s Wife, Into the Woods;Escalus/Marianna, Measure for Measure; Julia/co-director, Two Gentlemen of Verona; Balene/co-director, Imaginary Invalid; Olivia, Twelfth Night; Mary, Merrily We Roll Along; Nell, Knight of the Burning Pestle; Thaisa/Bawd, Pericles. Other credits include Broadway: The Importance of Being Earnest, Lend Me a Tenor Off-Broadway: The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Regional: The Guthrie, Emerson Colonial, Actors Theater of Louisville, Cleveland Playhouse, Trinity Repertory Company, Virginia Stage Company, Folger Theater, McCarter Theater, Old Globe. As a director: NYU, Playmaker’s Rep, Trinity Rep. TV/Film: Mistress America, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Made in Jersey, Máxima. Adjunct faculty at NYU Gallatin School. Favorite roles: partner to Noah and mom to Asher and Tabitha. Jessie is currently based in both NYC and Amsterdam.
Noah Brody (actor) is an actor, director, teacher, and writer, and is a founding co-artistic director of Fiasco Theater. For Fiasco he has directed Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout, Drama Desk nom., Best Director), during which he was privileged to collaborate with Stephen Sondheim. He has co-directed The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Fiasco/Red Bull at the Lucille Lortel) and the national tour of Fiasco’s production of Into the Woods. He has co-directed and acted in Fiasco's productions of Into the Woods (McCarter, Old Globe, Roundabout, Menier Chocolate Factory, Lortel Award, best Revival), The Imaginary Invalid (Old Globe), Measure for Measure (New Victory, Long Wharf), Twelfth Night (Classic Stage), and Cymbeline (TFANA, Barrow St. Theatre), and has acted in Fiasco’s productions of Stand In (BAX Annex), Pericles (Classic Stage), Imogen Says Nothing (Connelly), and Two Gentlemen of Verona (Folger Theatre, TFANA). He directed a concert reading of Sondheim’s Saturday Night for Second Stage Theater, appeared in As You Like It (Classic Stage, John Doyle, dir.), and directed Lungs at the Wolfe Street Theatre. Writing credits include Bartleby (co-adapted with Paul L. Coffey, Old Globe commission), My Antonia (Theater Latte Da Next Generation commission with the Kilbanes and Jessie Austrian), and Pleasure Never Lies (co-conceived with Marshall Hagins, Sloan/EST commission). He teaches acting and rehearsal technique through Fiasco and the NYU Gallatin School summer Shakespeare Intensive. Lucky husband of Jessie Austrian and silly father of Asher and Tabitha.
Ben Steinfeld (actor) (he/him) is an actor, director, teacher, writer, and musician. He is one of Fiasco Theater’s Co-Artistic Directors and founders. For Fiasco: Iachimo/Arviragus/Co-director, Cymbeline; Baker/Co-director, Into the Woods; Lucio/Froth/Co-director, Measure for Measure; Co-director, Two Gentlemen of Verona; Composer and Music Director, Imaginary Invalid; Feste/Co-director, Twelfth Night; Frank, Merrily We Roll Along; Director/Composer/Gower, Pericles. Broadway: All In: Comedy About Love, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Cyrano de Bergerac. Off-Broadway: One Thousand Nights and One Day, Bloody Bloody... Regional: Westport, Williamstown, Trinity Rep, McCarter, Old Globe, CTG, Long Wharf. As a director: Into the Woods national tour, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Folger Theatre. TV/Film: Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, Callahan, "Power Book III: Raising Kanan", "The Deuce", "The Good Wife", "Law & Order: Crimimal Intent". Ben is writing the book for the new musical, Diamond Alice (music & lyrics by Alexander Gemignani), and has written book, music and lyrics for an adaptation of the children's book, Twelve Kinds of Ice. Since 2007, Ben has been an adjunct professor and artistic associate at NYU's Gallatin School, where he has twice received the Excellence in Teaching Award and co-directed several productions. He also teaches at Brown and Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English.
Emily Young (actor) (she/her) is an actor, musician, writer, director and educator. She is one of Fiasco Theater’s original company members. For Fiasco: Queen/Belaria, Cymbeline, Little Red Riding Hood/Rapunzel, Into the Woods, Isabella/Mistress Overdone, Measure for Measure, Sylvia/Lucetta, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Toinette, Imaginary Invalid, Viola, Twelfth Night, Gussie, Merrily We Roll Along; Broadway: How I Learned to Drive u/s, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Off-Broadway: The Servant of Two Masters, Romeo and Juliet, Colorado Regional: Trinity Repertory Company, Folger Theater, McCarter Theater, Old Globe, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Illinois Shakespeare Festival. As a director: Spring Awakening at Ohio Northern University, Fiasco readings, The Lucky Chance, Sight Unseen. TV/Film: Living With Yourself, The Knick, God of Love.
Katie Pelensky (stage directions) is always happy to participate in all things Fiasco. NY: Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Ensemble Shakespeare Company: Works in Progress), Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ESC). LA: Almost, Maine (Rubicon) Samsara, The Secret in the Wings, The Sparrow, Andronicus (Coeurage Ensemble) Macbeth (A Noise Within), Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sierra Shakes) King Lear, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare by the Sea) The Chimes, Wake Not the Dead (Wicked Lit). She received her BA from Santa Clara University, and has recently studied with Fiasco Theater. Katie is a proud member of Ensemble Shakespeare Company. She tries to escape to the woods and mountains whenever possible and does a pretty solid Miss Piggy impression.
Stage Management Team: Madison Lane, Gabriel Neumann
FIASCO THEATER is an ensemble theater company based in NYC that offers dynamic, joyful, actor-driven productions, and the highest quality, accessible, and affordable training for emerging artists. Partner theaters in NYC have included Classic Stage Co, TFANA, New Victory and Roundabout Theatre, where Fiasco currently serves as the first-ever Company in Residence. Fiasco’s training programs offer emerging artists the chance to train in Fiasco’s joy-based, actor-centered approach to theater-making. To date the company’s award-winning work has been seen by over 200,000 audience members in NYC and across the country, including over 13,000 school children, and The New York Times has called Fiasco “a force to reckon with in the American theater.”
Coming Up
Play|Ground
Adults deserve the opportunity to play, and play is integral to our growth and sustenance as humans and as artists! We know how difficult it can be to find the time and resources to prioritize play. Enter Play|Ground! Taught by members of Fiasco’s Faculty, Play|Ground workshops will be rooted in play, embodied practice, and community. Each workshop and gathering will include refreshments and time to reflect on our artistic processes.
Registration is based on a sliding scale, and participants can apply to our Access Fund for reimbursement on expenses incurred in order to participate (childcare, eldercare, or other accessibility-related expenses).
Play|Ground is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.