BWW EXCLUSIVE: Steve Buscemi & Jo Andres on ISSUE PROJECT ROOM

Last week I had the exceptional privilege of interviewing newly minted SAG and Golden Globe-winner for Best Actor In A Drama Series for his work on HBO'S BOARDWALK EMPIRE, Steve Buscemi, along with his wife, artist/choreographer Jo Andres, about their participation in the experimental music/theater space in Brooklyn, ISSUE Project Room. For those that are not aware, ISSUE Project Room is a community performance space for up-and-coming musicians, artists, performers and choreographers at 110 Livingston Street with the goal of creating a centralized space for all the arts - avant garde and otherwise. In addition to discussing their shared beginnings in the fringe theatre scene in the East Village in the eighties and the artists who inspired them, Buscemi and Andres also talk about the ultimate goals of the venue, both new and old, and the reason that now is the perfect time for a space such as this to flourish, as new artists get the opportunity to see their work produced. Further information about the venue - and how you can become a member - can be found here.

Also, be sure to purchase tickets to ISSUE Project Room's many exciting events coming up, including the gala performance ELLIOTT SHARP AT 60 on March 4 in a ceremony hosted by Buscemi and Andres. Tickets for that event are available here.

Additionally, in the extended conversation coming later this week, Buscemi and I touch on his numerous film and stage appearances over the years and ponder what his screen legacy could ultimately be - and what roles he will be remembered for most.  ISSUE Project Room to PARTING GLANCES and RESERVOIR DOGS; creating live theatre to helping create an actual theatre space; working with Quentin Tarantino, Scarlett Johansson,  James Gandolfini, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro - all that and much, much more in this exciting two-part interview! Also, stay tuned for his comments on acting and directing on THE SOPRANOS, new to Blu-Ray, as well as the upcoming feature film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD and the highly-awaiting second season of HBO's BOARDWALK EMPIRE, which just resumed filming in New York.

Boardwalk To Brooklyn

PC: Would you ever consider taking on a role in a musical onstage?

SB: Well, actually, I used to back in the days when I used to perform and do performance work in the East Village. Jo is also a choreographer and a dancer, but she always melded that in with her film work and slides to do these really beautiful and unique performances. And, I actually danced in two of her performances.

PC: I was just reading about choreography that Jo contributed to a film Stanley Tucci directed.

SB: Right. That was for Stanley's movie THE IMPOSTERS. Jo choreographed the very end scene, during the end credits, when the whole cast...

JA: ... danced off the set.

SB: Out into the street.

PC: That's a great scene. How did you adapt the choreography to the performers and bring naturalism into it all?

JA: Well, I'm not sure I did all that! (Laughs.) But, it was really fun working with those actors. I really love doing dance for actors because, obviously, everyone is still in their characters. So, the movement is not like working with dancers where you try to get something exact - you know, one movement to the next body, to the next body; where everyone is exactly the same. With actors, each character has their way of doing the movement. So, it's exhilarating to see and watch that all come alive right before your eyes. I was so very, very fortunate to be able to play - so to say - with those great actors.

PC: Who were your influences - were you ballet? Jazz? Modern?

JA: That's a good question. (Pause.) I was definitely modern dance. I mean, I would take ballet as a sort of structure for the modern dance, but it was really modern dance that stuck with me. I did study Nikolia and the Graham technique and Eric Hawkins.

PC: Most dancing today seems to take freely from all forms.

JA: Yeah, it really does.

PC: I wasn't aware you two had worked together before.

SB: Yeah, we've also both worked with the Wooster Group a little bit.

PC: What did you do with them?

SB: I worked with them as an actor in their production of NORTH ATLANTIC.

JA: And I was a dance consultant to FISH STORY and some others.

SB: But, usually, in all of their work there is music and dance - and, if not dance, movement. But, often, dance. I guess I've been interested in the more non-traditional forms of musical dance.

PC: Such as?

SB: A lot of the theatre that I did back in my East Village days in the early eighties was experimental theatre - and, also, certainly a lot of the work Jo did at these clubs that were sort of blossoming back then in the East Village. It was all experimental in nature.

PC: And, now, you both are bringing experimental music and theatre back to New York in a big way with ISSUE Project Room.

SB: Yes, to New York - and to Brooklyn! Of course, when Jo and I first moved to Brooklyn there wasn't much of a performance scene. But, in the past - I'd say - ten years, Brooklyn has really become a cultural center for music, art and theatre. Any way that we can help foster that and support that here in Brooklyn, the better. The new space, actually, will be more widely accessible to people coming in from Manhattan because it is located at 110 Livingston Street. That will make it a lot easier for people to come in from all the boroughs, too.

JA: Every subway stop is right near there. Every line ends up near there.

PC: Do you consider yourself to still be a stage actor first given these downtown roots?

SB: When you go onto IMDB and these things, they only list the film credits. But, I did a lot of theatre before I ever got any film work.

PC: What did the theatre teach you?

SB: The theatre is where I really learned how to be an actor. I am so grateful to so many people - like John Jesurun, who is an amazing theatre writer/director. I also had a partner, Mark Boone Junior, and we used to write and perform our own short plays.

JA: And Boone's now on SONS OF ANARCHY.

SB: Yeah, Boone's on that show SONS OF ANARCHY, so he's doing all right.

PC: Who else?

SB: Oh, Rockets Redglare was a comedian who used to do a lot of shows. Our friend Tom Murrin, the Alien Comic who used to do the Full Moon shows at PS122 with Jo and the performance duo DANCENOISE.

JA: And Mimi Goese.

PC: Wow, so you were both a part of that whole amazing experimental scene back when New York was the cutting edge. Now, of course, you're bringing it back - but it did once actually exist after all!

SB: It was really vibrant and we were right in the middle of it. And, although we didn't know her at the time, Suzanne Fiol, the founder of ISSUE Project Room, was also in the middle of it - and she knew a lot of the same people we did, one of whom was Elliott Sharp. Jo and Elliott Sharp used to work a lot. Jo would often choreograph to his music, or he would play live during one of Jo's shows.

PC: Like a big family.

JA: Yeah. Definitely.

SB: So, years later, when we met Suzanne and she told us that she was starting a performance space and asked us would we help her out and support her - at her first benefit, believe it or not, Elliott Sharp played.

PC: No way! What a wild coincidence - or was it fate?

SB: All I know is that we were so thrilled to see that this was the kind of music that she wanted to support and foster, and new talent coming up would also have a venue - you know, for people like Elliott and Mark Rebo and Butch Morris; that they could all have a place to call home.

PC: Building a family for the home you are building.

SB: We both think that it is really important to our culture that we support all kinds of music, all kinds of theatre and all kinds of art because you never know what moves people. We've always believed that there should be a strong voice outside the commercial world. Certainly, the commercial world has a huge place in our culture and we also support that - but, we also want to support the stuff that lives outside of that.

JA: And informs it.

SB: Definitely informs it, also. Absolutely.

PC: A give-and-take.

JA: Everyone borrows. The avant garde is always being borrowed from - everyone borrows from them, but they don't quite always get the credit.

PC: You can say that again.

SB: Oftentimes you'll see stuff that makes it into the mainstream that has been influenced by things that are clearly not from the mainstream.

PC: Sort of like what Julie Taymor did by bringing Indonesian puppetry to Broadway with THE LION KING and, now, SPIDER-MAN.

SB: Absolutely.

JA: Yeah! Exactly.

SB: We love what she's doing.

JA: But, you see, it's all like a cauldron - we need to provide the cauldron to see what comes bubbling up.

PC:  What a great simile.

JA: If we don't have those cauldrons, then we as a culture are less - we are diminished as a people.

PC: Artists represent society, but if there is no place for artists in society then there is no society.

JA: Right.

SB: Absolutely. And, it's a little frightening now with all the budget cuts to see how things are going to get really slashed. It always seems like the arts are the first thing that people want to cut because they don't think it is important to support, but it is.

PC: What's the plan for ISSUE over the next year?

SB: To continue the great programing they've been doing all along in the current space and preparing to make the move into the new space which is still in need of funds for renovation. One of the ways to support ISSUE is to become a member, and in doing so you'll be supporting all the arts.

JA: All the arts.

PC: All together in one place.

SB: We just can't stress how important the arts are to our culture - and to our children.

PC: How did you first become involved?

SB: Actually, that was how it all started: we came to know Suzanne because our kids are in school together and they were in a band together. Suzanne was just amazing at inspiring these kids to take their music to another level. I think if a child can learn to express themselves through any of the arts, they can use that for the rest of their lives.

PC: Do you believe a live performance is the most visceral and the most instantly inspiring for young people?

SB: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I love movies, but it's one thing to see a movie and it's another to see something live. It's really just being that close to it that moves you.

JA: It's a visceral experience that you can't get off of a screen in the theatre.

SB: There's just no other experience like it.

Further information about ISSUE venues, new and old - and how you can become a member - can be found here.

This marks the first benefit event to be held at ISSUE's future location at 110 Livingston in Downtown Brooklyn, a beautiful 1925 McKim, Mead, and White theater space to which ISSUE was awarded a 20-year rent-free lease. In 2009, ISSUE was awarded a $1.133 million grant from the Brooklyn Borough President towards the estimated $2.5 million necessary. ISSUE has been working with WORK Architecture Company and ARUP to develop the design concept for the space. March 4 Benefit attendees will enjoy the first public preview of the new designs for the space.

Also, be sure to purchase tickets to ISSUE Project Room's many exciting events in the Spring, Summer and beyond, kicking off with the gala performance ELLIOTT SHARP AT 60 on March 4 in a special ceremony featuring the world premiere of musical pieces dedicated to Buscemi and Andres, who also host. Tickets for that event are available here.

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