BWW Interviews: A Conversation with Beautiful City Theatre's Natalie Gershtein
By: Noelle Hannibal Jan. 28, 2015
Natalie Gershtein, Beautiful City Theatre's (BCT) Artistic Producer, is taking on another role, directing BCT's upcoming CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Annie Baker. CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION marks the first time BCT will open a show in New York City and transfer to Montreal.
Orignially from Richmond Hill, Ontario, Gershtein's mother exposed her to theatre at a young age. She has immersed herself in theatre, even though her mother wanted her to become a lawyer. Having attended both an arts elementary school and an arts high school, Gershtein realized acting wasn't her true passion and she began to experiment with stage management and design. Gershtein's post graduate studies brought her to Montreal and McGill University. She fell in love with Montreal, met her business partner, BCT's Artistic Director, Calli Armstrong and began directing at McGill. Gershtein, to appease her family, planned to become a lawyer, got into law school and realized that law wasn't her true passion and she needed to follow her heart. Gershtein was accepted into New York City's Columbia University's Theatre Producing program, where she currently studies.
I had the chance to catch up with Gershtein about the evolution of BCT, directing CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION and what's next for BCT.
HANNIBAL: When I first met Calli, she expressed to me that BCT's goal was " to create and celebrate community through the sharing and exploration of theatre processes and the performance of theatre productions." Is that still true today?
GERSHTEIN: Oh, yes. If anything, more so. I think that we have been blessed to have been able to work with wonderful people and wonderful shows that have allowed us to go deeper into that mandate. CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION is a show that is uniquely catered to our mandate. The show is about a six week drama class and how the five participants of the classes lives become intertwined from beginning to the bittersweet end. Anyone who has participated in theatre or who has been immersed in it their whole life can relate to the processes that are going on in the play. It's very BCT. It's a very awkward and beautiful play.
HANNIBAL: How would you say the company has evolved since it's inception just three years ago?
GERSHTEIN: I think artistically we have definitely grown, but what I love about us is that we have maintained consistency with our mandate while also being able to explore vastly different shows. For example, we started with GODSPELL and the next year we jumped right into THE FULL MONTY. At first glance, you would think that those shows have nothing to do with each other, but I think if you look at them through the lens of BCT's mandate, it makes total sense. They are about community building. They are about relationships between people who struggle and how to deal with that struggle and accepting yourself. I think that this play we are doing now is in that realm of exploration. Our biggest growth is on the business side. It has been great working with Calli and the various people we have on our team. The first year Calli and I started working together, we were both thinking, "how do we make a theatre happen?" We were learning as we went. Now that we are in our third season, we have a firmer base to work from. We have practices that have worked for us in the past and have learned from the things that haven't. It's a lot easier to be able to grow, but then at the same time, we are afraid it will grow bigger than us. We need to keep it at a level that we can work, just the two of us along with our small team. Especially considering I am based in New York and Calli is based in Montreal.
HANNIBAL: Tell me a little bit about your decision to produce CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION in New York. Was this always the plan for BCT?
GERSHTEIN: It wasn't always the plan. We started off thinking CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION was just going to be part of our Montreal season, but I had a strong inclination to direct it having been given the play by a friend to read a couple of years ago. I just loved the play. I gave it to Calli and we both agreed the show is so BCT. I saw Calli in the role of Theresa (Calli Armstrong plays Teresa using her stage name Renee Hodgins) and so naturally we just fell into those positions where I wanted to direct and I wanted her to be in the show. I tried to think whether I could take a month off to go do the show in Montreal, but it just wasn't feasible. We started brainstorming who else could direct and one day, kind of as a joke, I said, 'well, if you come to New York, I will direct it in New York." I saw Calli's eyes light up and she said, "Why not? Why can't we do that?" Then we started thinking about it seriously and that's how we created this co-city production where we have half the team from Montreal and half the team from New York. We had auditions in both Montreal where we cast Eleni Matrakos (Lauren) and New York where we cast three wonderful actors to play James, Schultz and Marty (Gene Santarelli, Douglas Rossi, Mary Liz Lewis). Our stage manager is from Montreal and we have a designer from Philadelphia. We figured out the logistics of where we were going to rehearse and how we would bring Calli and Eleni to New York to rehearse and for the run and then how we would bring the New Yorkers to Montreal for the run there. That's how the baby was born.
HANNIBAL: How long of a rehearsal process have you had for the show?
GERSHTEIN: In total, it's a month in New York, then we will bring the New Yorkers to Montreal for a week for our run. It's been easier to bring the Montrealers to New York, because I have a lot of resources that I can provide for them. It's great to give them a kind of New York experience an opportunity through BCT. Giving them understanding of the community that I am a part of in New York.
HANNIBAL: Do you have any other information about the show or anything else you would like BroadwayWorld.com readers to know about?
GERSHTEIN: There is one more thing I would like to add. I think we are doing a really unique take on CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION. The show is site specific and it is set in a rehearsal room at a community centre, so rather than setting it at a theatre like we usually do, we are setting it in an actual rehearsal room. What's exciting about this is that the audience becomes like a fly on the wall and feels inside the space with the actors. One of our actors went to a reading by Annie Baker, the writer of this show, and he was telling her that we are setting it in a studio. She got really excited and she said she was hoping somebody would do that. To set it in the setting in which it was written. That was a really exciting thing to hear.
HANNIBAL: What's next for BCT?
GERSHTEIN: The second show of our season is NEXT TO NORMAL, directed by Calli and in collaboration with Ghislaine Dote's company, Virtuo Danse. This is a new step for BCT, collaborating with another company. We are very excited to be working with Ghislaine in that capacity.
CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION opens January 29 and runs through February 1 at Schapiro Studio, 605 W 115th St, New York and continues in Montreal from February 6-8 at Studio 303, 372 rue St-Catherine W. #303, Montreal. Tickets are available at www.beautifulcitytheatre.com
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