6 Questions: Nicky Paraiso - Spring Time Edition

photo: Theo Cote

Nicky Paraiso's annual holiday show, Spring Time in Nickyland take over The Club at La MaMa April 11th & 12th, 2015. This spring's show includes: David Cale, Edgar Oliver, The Floatones, Joseph Keckler, Salley May, Jon Kinzel, Jennifer Miller, Yvonne Meier, Mike Iveson, Heather Litteer, Susan Murphy, Ronald Peet & Shane Shane. We spoke with Nicky about the solstice, mercurial artists and shudders of the spirit.

1. What feeling do you want to share with a room full of people as springtime begins? 

The Springtime show, now in its second incarnation, represents the spirit of rebirth, renewal and the resurrection of the spirit, celebrating all things new as well as all things old made new again.

2. You've been hosting 'Christmas in Nickyland' for some time, and only more recently introduced 'Springtime in Nickyland.' Why add a spring performance?

LOL! See Question 1. But the Springtime show did come about last year because folks were so enthusiastic about seeing another Nickyland show in the same season. The Springtime show made so much sense, also because we were also celebrating the memory of the great performance artist Tom Murrin last Spring. The Springtime shows fall right on the Spring Solstice, the day(s) when there are equal amounts of light and darkness within a 24-hour span.

3. You're presenting a lot of very personable artists, people who are easy to talk to as well as great onstage. Do you find it's important to work with easy-going people, when possible? 

Uh, well. DUH! I've worked with all kinds of personalities, artists are so well, mercurial, and predictably unpredictable that way. But the artist-performers on NickyLand have by-and-large been such a joy to work with. They are who they are, with their own great artistic strengths and flaws, an unbelievable combination of ego and generosity of spirit.

4. How can the theatre help us re-focus on the themes of spring: rebirth, resurrection of the spirit, etc? 

Theater is historically and traditionally a forum and vehicle for great catharsis and healing. Earthquakes, hurricanes, ice and fire-storms and shudders of the spirit, all conspiring to put the hurting earth back together again to face, hopefully, another new morning. Oh god, does that make any sense? I think I've completely lost my mind and bearings.

5. You're always out at the shows - What have you seen in this past season that stuck with you? 

The OBIE-winning play from last season, AN OCTOROON, sticks with me, for all the reasons that you might think. This nation called America is at odds with itself. The people, the culture and the politics are all hurting and in need of reevaluation and rethinking, i.e., what democracy and freedom and responsibility mean to us as a society and nation at the beginning of the 21st century. I also loved new dance & performance work by Neil Greenberg, Rashaun Mitchell, Andrew Schneider, Sally Silvers, Meredith Monk, and performances by Melissa Toogood and Ellen Fisher.

6. If Nickyland were a country, and you were its sole and absolute ruler, would you make any crazy laws?

See Question 5. I think someone else said it perfectly 2000 years ago: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself.

La MaMa presents
Spring Time
in Nickyland
Curated and hosted by Nicky Paraiso

April 11, 2015 - April 12, 2015

The Club @ La MaMa

74a East 4th Street

(between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10001

Tickets: $18 Adults; $15 Students/Seniors; ten tickets priced at $10 are available in advance for every show - first come, first served.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE