'The Navigator' Receives Rare Off-Off-Broadway Revival

The WorkShop Theater Company will stage a four-week revival of their NY Innovative Theatre Award-winning manufacture of Eddie Antar's "The Navigator," beginning February. 11.The play finds Dork indebted and unemployed, and the wife is going to leave him. Then his car's Gps navigation navigation system all of a sudden gives him the solutions to everything. "At its core, there is a story in regards to a family attempting to survive in uncertain economic occasions," artistic director Scott Sickles states. "'The Navigator' demonstrates the kind of wish fulfillment everybody wants from your wise phones and pills and computer systems, but takes it to the logical extreme. Let's say you no more need think?"The show initially received a developmental production this year, having a $300 budget. "The Navigator" was probably the most nominated show in the 2011 NY Innovative Theatre Honours with eight nominations, including Outstanding Manufacture of a Play and Outstanding Original Full-Length Script. Director Leslie Kincaid Burby won the NYIT Award for Outstanding Direction, and it has came back to direct this production.Back Stage spoken with Sickles and Burby concerning the challenges and rewards of creating low-budget theater, developing original work, and appreciating good stars.Back Stage: How did this new manufacture of "The Navigator" become? Leslie Kincaid Burby: The play is a superb illustration of how a bit of solid writing could be perfected with the encouraging development process that the WorkShop Theater Company provides. Their process includes blood pressure measurements, staged blood pressure measurements, the chance for any small production, and lastly for any primary stage production. I do not check this out kind of development happening enough in nowadays of limited finances.Scott Sickles: The NYIT award nominations really came as we made the decision to create it around the Primary Stage, to ensure that was very validating. I am wishing our nominations and honours for "The Navigator" afford audiences the rare chance to determine an off-off-Broadway revival. I additionally hope such revivals dwindle rare. Back Stage: What were the greatest challenges in mounting the show having a $300 budget? Burby: I am accustomed to creating theater on the shoestring, and so i wasn't too put off through the small budget. It simply can make you end up with creative and call in most types of favors from designers, buddies, and family. It seemed like the script was sufficiently strong by using the best cast it might use minimal props, costumes, and hang. Sickles: Duane Pagano is an extremely innovative scenic and lighting designer and could produce a simple yet efficient set that incorporated real, practical child car seats. A few of the budget also visited Quentin Chiapetta's remarkable seem design, which grew to become another character within the play. (Chiapetta was nominated for Outstanding Seem Design and Pagano won this year's NYIT Award for Outstanding Lighting Design.)Back Stage: This revival of "The Navigator" features exactly the same four-person cast in the 2010 production. Have you consider re-casting the show? Sickles: Kelly Anne Burns and Nicole Taylor were both nominated for NYIT honours Michael Gnat introduced the play towards the WorkShop to begin with and Joe Franchini walked in to the role for that three-day staged reading through . And also you don't throw over an actress that has commited to memory literally almost every other type of a complete-length play unless of course you possess a good reason. They have all been so integral within the development superiority the piece, it will be a shame to get it done without one.Burby: I'd no need to re-cast. They're doing an incredible job with very hard material, and also have been incredibly devoted towards the production. Personally i think this ensemble has truly developed the feel from the play, and that i feel their effort should ensure they reach keep playing the roles they've produced with your mastery.Back Stage: Do you consider it may be simpler to mount a show on the shoestring compared to a larger budget? Sickles: From the creating perspective, it's much simpler to express "no" to individuals if you have a $300 budget. You would like more gels? No, we can not afford it. We want lumber! No, we can not afford it. Animals is unthinkable.Burby: Getting a little budget has a tendency to pressure everybody on the creative team to create workable, stylish choices. I had been fortunate to possess some really ingenious folks to utilize, who were not afraid to beg scrap materials from suppliers and order junked products from Craig's list.Sickles: It's my experience that, at the outset of your day, creative individuals will always want more income and assets, and also at the finish during the day they'll find inspiration inside the restrictions of what they've. Sometimes, the higher the restrictions, the greater ingenious the innovation. "The Navigator" will run from February. 11-Marly. 3 in the WorkShop Theater Company's Primary Stage Theater, 312 W. 36th St., fourth floor, New york city. To learn more and also to purchase tickets, visit world wide web.workshoptheater.org.