BROADWAY PART TWO

by Jez Bond

I don’t know exactly how hot it was today but we just came out of our evening show and it’s 86 degrees! Let’s rewind…

After the show at the Public yesterday we returned to our hotel and met one of the actors and the staff director from the Donmar’s Lear, that is currently playing at BAM. Alec, who plays Edmund, is quite possibly our closest actor, about three streets away! He had always been excited about the theatre that was coming to Finsbury Park and, failing meeting up in London, we settled for Manhattan!

This morning, on with the shorts and T shirt for an early and hot start to the day. Melli and I sat in a cute little cafe, checking emails and eating a tasty breakfast on 7th Avenue. Following a brief walk in Central Park we then proceeded to our first meeting, with a writer who Melli had worked with in London.

We then headed over to the Public Theater – who had emailed us that morning to say that they could meet. We met with the literary manager and the two producers of their ‘Under The Radar’ Festival.

Later at our meeting with East 59 Theater – with executive producer Peter, who is Scottish, and Nina, who has just come over from the Donmar – it was predominantly Brits around the table. Peter gave us a tour of the building – one more theatre to add to our extensive list of tours! It was great to see the three theatre spaces and public areas, particularly interesting because a) from the moment I walked in I thought it had a great vibe and b) like ours their architects had never designed a theatre before.

Lots more discussion here and all in all, throughout the two days, it was extremely fruitful – not in setting out anything concrete (yet) but in establishing some key relationships that we might build over the years.

We just saw a new play entitled ‘WTC View’. WTC stands for World Trade Centre – and this was an examination of the attacks of 9/11 (now ten years ago). It was a worthy piece of new writing, powerful, funny, painful – but ultimately needing some development work (and cuts).

So there we have it. New York, New York. It’s 86 degrees, pitch black in the sky and the lights of Times Square are shining up the avenue.

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