INTERVIEW WITH CO-DIRECTORS NOAH BRODY AND BEN STEINFELD


Education Dramaturg Ted Sod interviewed the Into the Woods co- directors Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld.


Ted Sod: Let’s start with some biographical information: where you were born, where you were educated, and when you decided to become actor/directors.


Noah Brody: I was born in Bound Brook, New Jersey. I went to undergrad at Colgate University, and I have degrees in chemistry and English literature from Colgate. I performed as a kid and did forensics and school plays in high school, but I got really into performing Shakespeare from my work as an English major. I moved to New York and started studying in New York, before going to grad school in the Brown/Trinity MFA program, where I got my master’s degree as an actor. It was there that we all met. In grad school we all studied acting, directing, and writing and discovered how much we love all those disciplines.


Ben Steinfeld: I was born outside of New York City, in Westchester, and I moved to Boston when I was five, and then I moved to LA when I was thirteen, so I don’t really know where I’m from, but I always feel like I’m from New England. I went to Brown University for undergrad and also attended the Brown/Trinity MFA program, which is where I met Noah and the rest of the Fiasco gang. I actually came into theatre through the music door. I always sang; I’ve played guitar since I was a kid, and my family was musical, so music-making was always in my life. By the time I got to college, I knew that I liked acting and performing as much as I liked music. I dabbled in directing and ensemble play-making in college, but it wasn’t really until grad school when my interest in things beyond acting started to kick in. Noah and I connected because we were both interested in the same sorts of things. I directed a short play in grad school that Noah wrote, Noah directed me in a play at one point, so we had gotten to try on different identities with each other.


TS: And was Fiasco Theater born in New York? Or while you were still at school?


BS: It was born in New York, but the conversations that led to Fiasco began when we were in school.


TS: What is the mission of Fiasco?


NB: It’s an interesting question because we’re in the process of reevaluating that mission. Currently, the mission statement that we have is to create joyful, actor-driven theatre and to put the actor at the center of the art and to offer training at low or no cost to the Fiasco community.


TS: Why such a provocative title for the company?


NB: We took it on for a couple of reasons. The word “fiasco” because it has theatrical roots. It has to do with a moment that might fail, in which an actor might have to fare fiasco, or “make the bottle” that night at the bar.


It’s also a reminder that you have to risk a total failure, if you want to have the hope of creating something wonderful. And it’s a signal to ourselves and to the world that, while we take our work very seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.


4 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY


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