8/3/2019 The Year of the Rats, Dirty Durty Diary

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MOS DEF, JEFFREY WRIGHT,& GEORGE C. WOamerican theatre still matters Written by Tom H

 PATTI LABELLE

THE ALWAYS 

REGAL REBEL 

ALAN CUMMING, SANDRA BERNHARD+  MPLAYING IT 

STRAIGHT 

 spring 2011— issue two—broadway 

8/3/2019 The Year of the Rats, Dirty Durty Diary

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Eleven members of the LabRats sat in a circle in Studio B of the 

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events and outlining group duties. After the business part of the meeting,

Sal Massari handed out pages of a work in progress. Within moments,

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Sal’s depiction of a traditional Italian-American family discovering that 

their lesbian daughter is dating a stripper.

the labrats theater company 

THE YEAR OF THE RATSWritten by ELLEN MOYNIHAN Photography by  JAMMI YORK 

7776the ddd : spring 2011

chapter two the outer techniqu

  Three of the Rats act as artistic directors—Ana

Maria Jamolca, Daniela Mastropietro, and Stephen

Palgon—while playwright and director Padriac

Lillis and writer, director, and choreographer

Gerry Trentham operate as company advisors,

 without taking part in the regular meetings.

  The Rats’ collective credits and experiences

are diverse: between them, they have trained or

 worked in London, Moscow, Berlin, Atlanta, Los

  Angeles, Philadelphia, Austin, and Washington,

D.C.; members have appeared in regional theater

tours, off-Broadway productions, independent

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a few of them have perfor med at Manhattan

  Theatre Source. There have been stints with the

Edinburgh and New York Fringe Festivals as well

as appearances on television shows, including  30

Rock, Rescue Me, and Flight of the Conchords , while one

member is the owner of a television productioncompany that has won 15 Emmy awards. A

couple of the Rats came together to perform

Promise Tomorrow Today , which was also written by a

LabRat, Lawrence Dial, and named Best New Play 

at 2010’s Downtown Urban Theater Festival.

Bringing all this knowledge together is not

only a private, weekly journey. In October, the

LabRats promoted their company on a radio show 

broadcast on the Centanni network, during host

 Johnny Mandolin’s slot. Nine of the rats had met

up at the broadcast site—a small, pleasant Italian

restaurant at the top of a steep, hilly portion of 

Lexington Avenue in East Harlem—and were

going over their script in the last minutes before

their segment.

“Can we swear?” Ana Maria wondered, looking 

across the room at three young women who were

set up in the front window with laptops, mics, a

mixer, and headphones.

“Yes.” Replied Jessica Sherr, sounding pleased.

“We can say ‘fuck’.”

Presently some of the Rats began to creep up

to the window as a jazzy, wordless intro played,

signaling the beginning of the show. After a brief 

round of questions and a short break, four of the

group began to read from the script Daniela had

 written, which was in the style of an old-fashioned

radio play, complete with stage directions being 

Some listened with heads bowed in concentration

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  watched the readers, their eyes darting from

one actor to the next, sometimes snickering inappreciation of the scene. After the last lines of 

dialogue, workshopping began. Almost everyone

had something to offer—an opinion, suggestions,

observations—and a discussion of character traits

led into one of possible plot developments, as Sal

prodigiously took notes. In this way, it very well

may end up that this work becomes, in a sense,

co-written by several of the other group members.

  This is how the LabRats work together—as

a collective. There are no leaders in this multi-

disciplinary group, and the common aim is to

protect, nurture, and promote the work of each

member, as well as the group as a whole. Indeed,

their mission statement is about as plain as it gets:

[To] provide a home that sustains, inspires, and

empowers individuals to push beyond boundaries

through the courage, creativity, and support of a

multi-disciplinary artistic ensemble.

  With that spirit, the LabRats formed in 2009,

having met during a summer intensive at Bard

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Company. After the weeklong program, 15 of 

them (of the 45 at Bard) began to meet on a regular

basis when they returned to New York. Over a

year later, they continue to do so at their home

base, Center Stage in Chelsea, coming together

each Tuesday to workshop writing, singing,

karate—anything that has to do with their craft.

read along with the dialogue. Later in the show,

eight of the rats squeezed into the corner, in

some cases sharing mics. In addition to a lengthy 

discussion of their upcoming Monster Prom

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also talked about their winter Experiment Session,

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Each season, in order to showcase their work,

the company holds an Experiment Session— 

an all-day open-studio event, fully accessible to

the public. Readings continue around the clock 

  while observers come and go. In that way, the

Rats are literally opening their doors and putting 

their work out into the world. Another session is

in the works for the spring. Meanwhile, Daniela

Mastropietro’s play  Harry & Pep is set to open

at Center Stage on March 3rd. Having been

previewed twice in staged readings, the work tells

the story of the burgeoning friendship between

an agoraphobic war veteran and a sanitation

  worker in 1950s Hell’s Kitchen, and will be

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their headquarters.

Practically everything that’s come to fruition

for the company—or will, in the future—begins

to take real shape at Center Stage. Workshopping 

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 without a break. T here is laughter, but no time is

 wasted. Scripts get passed around, read, discussed,

and then the cycle continues. It’s clear that a big 

part of the LabRats’ process is collaboration— 

at one meeting, they even shared a single snack,

passing around a bag of mixed nuts someon e

had brought.

  The writing produced by the company is

  varied—while they are a close-knit group,

there is no unifying concept behind the subject

matter, voice, or style. One evening, a series

of interwoven monologues written by Danielle

  Vettraino was read; the characters range from a

recent transplant to New York, her embittered

father, a neglected yet hopeful child, and her later

incarnation, an angry bodega clerk who had been

sexually assaulted. In the same meeting, a script

by Lawrence portrayed the thawing-out of an icy 

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male cop who is clearly a fan of her work, and of 

her, while Melissa Rosenberger gave direction for

her piece—a fast-paced, heated exchange between

a young couple who have given up on trying to

have a child.

  When asked what he sees being done with

the LabRats that’s different from other theater

companies, Matt Brown

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collaborative nature of th

utter fresh work…differe

explorations. My favori

it’s so supportive, and fro

in here, it’s been incredib

I brought in some of my

had motivated me to wr

a few weeks, you know?

itself that’s just complet

fresh voices, a lot of ene

everybody needs.”

 At the end of a Tuesd

  wind raging on the oth

and a space heater hum

congregated in the cente

expressed thanks to eac

  work, and Melissa refer

family. True camarader

other were evident; as t

receded, they formed a

eyes and breathed deeply

they all joined hands

 More!  It seemed to be as

as a desire, and, I’m bett

LabRats to us.

Perry Lewis, Jessica Sherr, Jam