SIDESHOW FRINGE 2015: Byrd & Pryor of MATT & BEN
By: Jeffrey Ellis Jul. 15, 2015
Nashville's Sideshow Fringe Festival gets under way Thursday night, with #ThrowbackThursdayLive (wherein Nashville notables read from their teenage journals and celebrate their former selves in a multimedia atmosphere that includes MTV Unplugged style renderings of once popular songs), and culminating with Sunday night's Script Happens (our annual short play-making project where teams converge to devise and debut a new script within the festival's timeframe).
In between, there's a plethora of performances and events lined up, including a Sideshow-produced rendition of Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers' Matt & Ben, starring Jenna Pryor and Britt Byrd, directed by Patrick Kramer: a what-might-have-happened comedy that considers how the pair of Boston-bred bros created an Academy Award winning screenplay.
We spoke with Pryor and Byrd, asking them to take us with them on their journey with Matt & Ben and to offer us some insights...yada, yada, yada...just read, damn it!
Who do you play in Matt & Ben?
Why Matt & Ben? Why does this show speak to you? Why do you want to play these parts?
Jenna: I have done the show before and had a wonderful time with the script and the storyline. The story is universal, which is why it works to have the famous bromance portrayed by females. It pokes fun at the creative process behind acting, writing, producing, and the entertainment industry as a whole. Also, I simply have spent my life wanting to deeply explore the psyche of Ben Affleck. Now Batman. So, I am Batman. (In addition, I finally get to share the stage with Britt Effing Byrd!!!!)
Britt: I think what most drew me to the script was that it's written by women and sort of unofficially for women. But these guys aren't caricatures and we don't try to play them as such. I think by staging this production with women, you allow the audience more accessibility to the story itself, which is pretty outrageous but also rooted in what creative types struggle with on a daily basis. Also, I've spent most of my adult life hating Matt Damon. I needed to really work out my issues with him and this has been a very therapeutic experience for us both (love you, Matty).
With all the Sideshow offerings, why should audiences come see Matt & Ben?
Jenna: Audiences should pick all of the Sideshow offerings at this year's festival. Actor's Bridge has done a stellar job picking unique and diverse artistic acts that Nashville audiences truly are ready for. Matt and Ben will give audiences a chance to see a work done by a familiar name (Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers), with famous names and characters involved. We are a late night offering, so we will be a great way to end a Friday or Saturday night with laughs and booze.
What intrigues you most about Sideshow Fringe? And why is it the perfect venue for Matt & Ben?
Jenna: Sideshow Fringe offers local artists an avenue to perform art out of the usual norm. It's "easier" for musicians in Music City to find spaces and audiences; however, actors, writers, comedians, tend to have a more difficult time sharing their work. Matt and Ben actually began with Brenda Withers and Mindy Kaling creating their own work to star in at the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival, so it is only fitting that we bring the comedy to audiences at Nashville's expanding Fringe.
Britt: Sideshow's Fringe Festival is a really special theatre event in Nashville, I think, because it opens up the floor to so many other performance style pieces. It's not your typical "evening at the theatre." Audiences can expect anything from aerial shows to puppets to science comedy (it exists!) and I think Matt and Ben fits into it so perfectly because, again, it made its debut at a similar festival and it really captures that modern theatre-going experience that has only very recently begun to make its presence known in Nashville. I mean, it's an exciting time to be a performer in Nashville! Between the fringe festival and the Ingram New Works Lab, there's just this incredible wealth of talent here that's still untapped and the festival really throws open the doors and welcomes that!
Tell me something about yourself that would surprise people!
Jenna: I share a derpy hive mind with Britt Byrd.
Britt: I share a derpy hive mind with Jenna Pryor.
Jenna: I accidentally got cast in a porn on craigslist at age 20.
Britt: I still occasionally write fan fiction.
ABOUT Matt & Ben: Written by Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project) and Brenda Withers, Matt & Ben is the story Hollywood has glamorized, publicized, and bombarded us with - how it all began for the two young men, now famous for the tabloid coverage of their on-again-off-again romances, their big-budget smashes and flops, and their Project Greenlight. It started with a script for the film that became Good Will Hunting, slaved over by the bright young dreamers (portrayed in this play's premiere by the female playwrights) in their run-down apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1996. Or was it? This hilarious, scathing play takes us back to the pivotal moment when the finished script that would change their lives ... fell from the ceiling while they were working on something else. The laughs come at a manic pace, in this delightfully venomous play that took off-Broadway by storm. Matt & Ben is produced by Actor's Bridge Sideshow Fringe Festival and stars Britt Byrd and Jenna Pryor in the title roles. Patrick Kramer directs. 9:30 p.m. at Actors Bridge Studio/LeQuire Gallery Building
ABOUT SIDESHOW FRINGE: Led by program director Jessika Malone and technical director Mitch Massaro - and named by CNN as one of "most intriguing festivals" in the "Best of the U.S." - Nashville's Sideshow @ Actors Bridge unveils its fifth annual slate of performances for July 16-19.
Founded in 2011, The Sideshow Fringe Festival unites progressive art and adventures audiences featuring theatre and related live presentations with a special emphasis on innovative formats. Theatre, dance, music, puppetry, aerial arts, spoken word, comedy, and more are showcased in this multi-venue setting with special free outdoor events and family friendly offerings.
According to Malone, performances range in running time between 10 and 90 minutes, which she said should encourage audience members to see multiple shows in one day or to visit restaurants and merchants while watching street performances and participating in hands-on art making.
Performances in the 2015 festival, Massaro says, will take place at Belmont's Black Box Theatre and the Actors Bridge Studio with secret "pop-up" performances in unexpected locales. Tickets are $15 (50% of all box office proceeds return directly to participating artists) and may be purchased at www.sideshowfringe.com or at all festival venues. A complete performance schedule and further information is available at www.sideshowfringe.com.
RETURING FAN FAVORITE EVENTS: The 5th annual First Time Stories @ The Fringe (now a monthly happening at Actors Bridge that first began at the inaugural fringe in 2011), #ThrowbackThursdayLive, (where Nashville notables read from their teenage journals and celebrate their former selves in a multimedia atmosphere that includes MTV Unplugged style renderings of once popular songs), Script Happens (our annual short play-making project where teams converge to devise and debut a new script within the festival's timeframe).
INCREDIBLE AERIAL PERFORMANCE: Aerial is exploding in the Black Box this summer with a trio of groups taking to the sky and challenging our perceptions of what's possible. Acts include five-time festival featured artists FALL presenting a new live collaboration with local harpist Timbre and her band, Suspended Gravity presenting Evolution In The Air featuring a variety of circus apparatus work as well as ground performance, and Altitude featuring frequent Aerial Fabricators collaborator Lizard Walker and her mother, Thérèse Keegan, accompanied by aerial violinist Alicia Enstrom, Melinda Lio on the traditional Chinese pipa, and Karen Renée Robb, sound healer and founder of Frame Drum Wisdom.
FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENTS: A block of four unique programs that are appropriate for the whole family on Saturday afternoon will run the spectrum of imagination, Malone says. Acts include SENSE Theatre (pairing children on the Autism Spectrum with their typically developing peers to create original theatrical offerings), Zero The Clown (including mask, French mime, and American Vaudeville stylings paired w/ music and dance), local alternative classical ensemble Chatterbird (performing a favorites from their inaugural season by as well as a few new works for flute/recorded theremin and a tribute to jazz great Charlie Haden) and the return of the wildly successful puppet duo, Sailors & Maidens, who will present their delightful Shmergas Bird (a collection of whimsical original short form vignettes of puppetry, music, dance and a signature blend of comedy and sweetness to invite the audience into their world of play).
NATIONAL ACTS: Sideshow presents "the best of what the national fringe festival touring circuit has to offer" and this year opens the Actors Bridge studio to both Tricia Rose Burt and her smash hit solo show fresh from NYC Fringe acclaim, How To Draw A Nekkid Man as well as Dr. Pete Ludovice's New Orleans Fringe favorite, Feel The Power of The Dork Side, which incorporates science and stand-up comedy in a unique blend of fun theatricality.
FRINGEY FUN: The fringe is all about exploding the box and innovating new ways of working, and will feature the world premieres of new experimental work such as The Guardian: I Am Edward Snowden (created by local performance artist, Matthew Marcum, based on major media coverage on the Snowden revelations) and the hilarious BEING BETTER AT BEING: TOOLS TO TRANSFORM YOUR MODERN LIKE - AN INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE SYMPFORIUMJOI (which must be seen to believe).
HISTORY OF FRINGE: Fringe theatre is a term used to describe theatre and related performing arts that are not of the traditional two or three act play format. The term has been adopted by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and by alternative theatre festivals internationally.
About Actors Bridge: Actors Bridge Ensemble is a professional theatre company and actor-training program celebrating 20 years in Nashville. The company's mission is to tell the stories that impact our community by producing provocative and socially relevant theatre, creating new theatrical works, showcasing emotionally authentic ensemble acting and fostering a nurturing environment where theatre artists at any stage in their development may train and assist in the production of professional theatre.
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