6 Questions: GRANDMA

MAKE PEOPLE, Parts 1 & 2 by GRANDMA comes to The Club @ La MaMa for six performances: October 23 - November 1, 2015.  MAKE PEOPLE, is a monologue for shared voice. It lies formally between stand up comedy and the confessional monologue. It's a show about the horror of intimacy, and our collective need to consume, acquire, and destroy. There will also be some fun surprises, and fresh beats.  We got to ask GRANDMA, (which is made up of: Tim Platt, Mike McGee, Ben Gansky, and Peter Mills Weiss) 6 Questions and here is what they said:

1.    What was the original inspiration for making MAKE PEOPLE Parts 1 & 2?

Tim: Coercion and Blank Performance

Mike: Male-Male Friendships: masculinity generally.

Ben: There was a part of our last show, SATURDAY, that felt like maybe it didn’t belong in that show, but we really liked it anyway. So after we finished with SATURDAY we started making more parts that felt like that one part had felt to us. And then we just kept on doing that until we had created a bunch of material that became the basis for MAKE PEOPLE .

Peter: There are a ton, but the most salient for me right now is the feeling of “destiny”. Not as in what your actual “destiny” is, but the feeling that you have one and that society wants you to have one. No matter the cost.

2.    What should audience expect from the show?

Tim: a Horror Story from a Template.

Mike: Laughter is the best medicine :)

Ben: Tasteful beats, childhood nightmares, and a collection of stories based on the adolescence of Peter Mills Weiss.

Peter: Some Music, but not a whole lot! Perhaps some surprises!!

3.    Will there be more parts?

  

Tim: Our next piece will focus on movement and farce. If Make People can bear the weight of our bodies and our humors then: yes, there will be more parts.

Mike: Yes! Parts 3 and 4 will be a companion piece covering similar material but told through rhyming couplets.

Ben: Seven is the magic number.

Peter: I’m not sure.  

4.    Do you have an idea for a project that hasn’t yet come to fruition?

Tim: I want to to turn the stage into a halfpipe.

Mike: I want to play Blanche Dubois at some point.

  

Ben: Yes. The main one is a shot-for-shot remake of High School Musical (the film). I’m not kidding.

Peter: I would like to do some sort of less conventional radio play. But my ideas don’t really go much farther than that!

5.    What book/books are you currently reading?

Tim: Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, the short stories of P.G. Wodehouse, The Door by Magda Szabo, Interaction of Color by Josef Albers.

Mike: Oh Dang. Always three to six things at once. I just finished Nevada by Imogen Binnie. Currently jumping between Binary Star by Sarah Gerard, and The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson, while picking my way through The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony and Post Dramatic Theater in the background.

  

Ben: Like Mike, I’m constantly juggling a pile of books. Currently have bookmarks active in Seeing Power by Nato Thompson, Read My Desire: Lacan Against the Historicists, Susan Sontag: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview, Artificial Hells by Claire Bishop, The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, Our Aesthetic Categories by Sianne Ngai. Finished Volume 4 of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle over the summer. It was great.

Peter: I tried to read this book called The Vorrh. I couldn’t finish it, however. It reminded me of a book I love, called Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake. I reread some of that recently.

(Mike: We're a ton of fun at parties.)

6.    What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

Tim: Working at La MaMa means I can continue to explore the remarkable community of artists and theater makers in the east village.

Mike: I really love La Mama. There’s just such a wonderful sense of history and generous energy to the entire organization.

Ben: It’s thrilling to work in such close proximity to B&H Dairy. Also, what Peter and Mike said, for real.

Peter: Every artist I really admire has been affiliated with LaMaMa in one way or another, and I’m super excited to be a small part of that history.

La MaMa presents

MAKE PEOPLE, 
PARTS 1 & 2
By Grandma - Mike McGee, Tim Platt, Ben Gansky, and Peter Mills Weiss

October 23 - November 1, 2015
Friday & Saturday at 10pm; Sunday 6pm

The Club @ La MaMa
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $18 Adults; $13 Students/Seniors; ten $10 tickets available for every performance, in advance only

For Ticket and Info: CLICK HERE