Susan Trien Published 1:44 p.m. ET June 10, 2017 | Updated 20 hours ago
PUSH Physical Theatre's version of "Jekyll and Hyde," which is a hybrid of both theater and dance. Video by Jamie Germano
Alexa Scott Flaherty of Brighton(Photo: IMMAGINE PHOTOGRAPHY)
Alexa Scott-Flaherty is about to turn a Shakespeare play on its ear. Think original songs, the Jazz Age and not a single male actor.
Her challenging, new production of Twelfth Night will kick off the 68th season of Blackfriars Theatre this September. But auditions take place on Sunday and Monday and remember, no men need apply.
In the play, a shipwrecked twin, Viola, fearing her brother dead, masquerades as a man to procure a job with Duke Orsino. The resulting topsy-turvy love triangle is filled with gender-bending mayhem and mistaken identities. Scott-Flaherty, who lives in Brighton, will stay true to the original plot. But it wont look or sound like traditional productions.
It will be set in the Roaring Twenties, a decision I made because I wanted the audience to find it more accessible than the Elizabethan period, she says.
The audience will feel as if they are in a jazz club, and there will be live music on stage during the entire play.
Five original songs by musical director Andy Pratt will be introduced into the story. And then theres the issue of gender.
In Shakespeares time, men played all of the female roles, like Cleopatra and Juliet, and (audiences) accepted it, she points out. Her all-female production will reverse that tradition.
Im not sure how the audience will react. When you see men being played by women behaving lecherously, maybe theyll be able to laugh more at it.
PUSH collaboration on 'Dracula' highlights Blackfriars season
Twelfth Night poster(Photo: Provided)
Blackfriars artistic and managing director Danny Hoskins trusts her instincts.
Blackfriars Artistic Director Danny Hoskins.(Photo: Provided)
Some directors demand everything should be done their way, he says, but she is a team player, has her own ideas and leads with her own concept, but brings everyone into the fold to create and excite and exceed.
Big-city background
Scott-Flaherty graduated from Vassar in 1999 as a theater major and then headed to New York City and the acting life. She made audition rounds and took acting classes from Betty Buckley, who won a Tony for her role as Grizabela in the Broadway production of Cats.
Temp jobs kept her financially afloat. She helped an irrepressible 96-year-old self-made mogul and supporter of the arts write his memoirs, and at one point did some assisting for designer Ralph Lauren.
But she also managed to perform: at The Public Theatre, SoHo Repertory Theatre, Performance Space 122, the Royal Shakespeare Company of London and The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.
She became (and continues to be) a member of Labyrinth Theater Company in New York City, where she worked with the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and others to support the work of new, groundbreaking artists.
He (Hoffman) was probably one of my greatest influences as an actor and director, says Scott-Flaherty.
She landed a role in the 2007 film Then She Found Me, starring Helen Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick. I had a small role as a mom in a classroom scene, says Scott-Flaherty. But most amazing was the exposure she got to the production.
Id be a stand-in for Helen Hunt during rehearsal scenes so she could be off stage directing, and then she just jumped in when they filmed it. I was by her side the whole time, watching the entire process of putting together a film.
Afterwards, Colin Firth sent her a letter telling her what a great job she did on the set.
The exciting but erratic New York City life lost its luster over time as Scott-Flaherty considered marrying and raising a family with musician Jon Itkin, then her boyfriend. The two returned to their Rochester roots in 2009, and wed a year later.
Dads influence
Scott-Flaherty was hired as donor relations manager at Writers & Books, founded by her father, Joe Flaherty, who retired in June 2016.
Growing up as a Writers & Books daughter, she spent a lot of time working alongside her dad, getting to meet literary luminaries such as Allen Ginsberg, Amy Tan, Maya Angelou and Barbara Kingsolver. While she attended School of the Arts, visiting writers often stopped in to address her classes.
Scott-Flaherty says her dads ability to overcome lifes obstacles has been a remarkable inspiration. His mother who was overwhelmed by the tragic death of her husband from a heart attack, and her daughter a year later from leukemia left 3-year-old Joe and his two siblings to the care of a residential boarding school for charity cases. In first grade, he was transferred to an orphanage for fatherless boys, and his mother signed his brother and him over to the state.
My dad had no parental figures, she says. He was raised in a school and grew up like Oliver Twist. Hes writing stories about it now. But his stories are hilariously funny in the Irish way. Like Angelas Ashes.
A lot of people have goals, but there may be a gulf between having an idea and making it work. They may have fear, or think its never the right time. Our father is a person who creates his own destiny. Working with him was one of the most special things in my life.
To him, his daughters work makes perfect sense.
Ever since she was very young, she was interested in acting, says Flaherty of his daughters theatrical ambitions. Her first role was when she was 5 or 6 and played the part of a dog in a Shakespeare production, and her first lines were Arf. Arf. She rehearsed those lines over and over again, he laughs.
It is only natural and logical that she is following what she loved doing. In college she was a theater major and minored in philosophy. She has always been intellectually curious and that intellectual quality helps her analyze and look at plays in different ways.
Hoskins vision
Scene from Blackfriars Heathers: The Musical, performed in spring 2016. Artistic and managing director Danny Hoskins choice of edgier plays attract younger audiences.(Photo: Dan Howell)
When Hoskins took over as artistic and managing director of Blackfriars in July 2015, one of his primary objects was to entice larger, younger audiences with edgier offerings, and to enlarge the theaters donor base through community outreach.
We made a big shift in our audience with performances like The Wedding Singer, The Flight Before Christmas and Heathers The Musical, he says, adding that subscriptions have risen from 166 (when he took over the first season) to 289.
A Scene from Blackfriars The Wedding Singer, performed in summer 2016.(Photo: Dan Howell)
My goal for next season is 375, but the 126-seat theater sets a limit.
Partnerships with The Big Wigs, PUSH Physical Theatre and comedy groups Unleashed! Improv and Canary in a Coal Mine are meant to add more performance sizzle to the coming seasons lineup.
Hoskins envisions Blackfriars becoming a community center a place where people can gather to discuss important ideas. Watching a play brings up emotions and is a great opportunity for community discussion on important topics.
This fall, in conjunction with Twelfth Night, Blackfriars has reached out to Gay Alliance of Genesee Valley to create community programming that explores gender identity. For later in the season, a Red Cross blood drive is being planned in conjunction with Dracula.
In December, a book drive will be held with the Rochester City School District in conjunction with Little Women the Musical. And in March, a panel of experts will be available for the audience to discuss domestic abuse as a tie-in with the performance of When We Were Young.
Development manager Mary Tiballi Hoffman was recently added to the full-time staff to build its donor base, which she says has grown significantly.
We are switching to patron-centered, high-quality professional theater and engaging with other organizations, says Hoffman.
And a campaign is in the works to raise $40,000 to replace theater seating and other maintenance. So, change on stage and all around it.
Susan Trien is a Rochester-area freelance writer.
Learn more
Auditions take place at Blackfriars Theatre at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 11, with callbacks on June 12.
For more information, go to blackfriars.org or (585) 454-1260. The theaters 2017-2018 season tickets are now on sale.
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Why Alexa Scott-Flaherty says no male actors in Twelfth Night - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle