Feelin' Fringey?

Hey Friends! Here's a note from Andrea Caban about her upcoming FringeNYC show Questions my Mother Can't Answer! Check it out!

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52 days until FringeNYC kicks off and I’m yet again jumping into the role of the lone wolf in the spotlight facing a pack protected by the dark. That notion used to scare me a lot more than it does in this moment. I think the story I’m telling in this piece and the journey of creating this piece for myself has helped me face a lot of fears about life & art. So laughing at myself and bearing my soul in front of a crowd of strangers, family and friends seems more like fun than anything else.

I’m in California now, reading the play for old friends and getting ready to learn it. Yes, I do have to make time to memorize the words I wrote. You’d think it would be a given, but no.

Through May and June, Rachel Eckerling, my lovely director helped me develop the arch of my story as it threads together the stories of the eight women I interviewed. And as soon as I get back to New York, I start rehearsals with Rachel, and the rest of my amazing team, including my Grammy award winning sound designer and my company manager who just happens to be my loving husband. So I’m a lucky woman, I know that.

But for now, I’m here in California re-connecting with old collaborators, classmates from grad school & dear friends, most of whom are women. In QMMCA, I’m searching for answers about how to be a good wife, when to be mother, and how to heal myself after a tragic event. As I snuggle into my old friendships here in Cali and indulge in some of this most-needed quality time that I’m ashamed I didn’t make a priority before now, I’m realizing in a very visceral way that all my friends are struggling with the same things I’m exploring in this piece. I knew that instinctively before coming out here, but now I really know. And I know the specifics. And I think we early thirty-somethings are taking a look at our lives and what we had expected our lives to be by this point, and it’s not always easy to take in the whole truth. Some of us are achieving everything we set out to and still haven’t found happiness, some of us are still looking for that one person to share life with, and some of us are in life or death situations because what we are is not at all what we expected to be.

I’m more inspired than ever to tell my story and be as honest and simple as I can be in hopes that it will push my girlfriends to face their stories and move beyond them. And their girlfriends and their boyfriends, and their mothers and their fathers. I have high hopes.

So I guess I’m really not very alone after all is this ‘solo’ piece. I can’t wait to share it with you.

Meet Mike! Our New Literary Manager

It's the week for special announcements at Coyote REP!

And here's a great one.


Mike Caban has been named CR's new Literary Manager! He's smart. He's experienced. He ours! Meet the man who will help shape seasons to come at CR.


Welcome aboard, Mike. We are lucky to have you.



Get to know Mike Caban:

Mike Caban is excited about joining Coyote REP as Literary Manager. He first became involved with Coyote REP through his wife Andrea, also a company member, in late 2007 as a volunteer working on their annual Rising Moon Fundraiser. Since then, he has worked with CR as an actor in their successful radio play Deception, and is now honored to take on a more substantial role in the Company.

Mike brings considerable experience in working behind the scenes of a theatre company, as he was co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Jobsite Theater, an acclaimed theater based in Tampa, FL. From their humble beginnings playing at a minuscule art gallery that once was a row home in a bad neighborhood, to their present home in a state-of-the-art black box space at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Mike was there for the first two years and came to appreciate the work involved in rallying a group of like-minded artists -- all of whom were close friends from university --into working as a company and cultivating an audience. As an actor, he knew he wanted to do shows that spoke to him, that were politically and socially relevant. As a co-founder, he was influential in working with the other members by encouraging them to pick interesting, under-celebrated works by
established playwrights, and presenting them with a fresh, innovative perspective.

But by far his favorite part of that group’s repertoire was the Original Works program, which invited new voices -- starting with the founding members of the company -- to create plays and present them in their October-November slot. Now as a writer, director and company board member, Mike learned first-hand the challenges involved in fostering brand new work and sharing it with their nascent, hungry audience.

To Mike, the most alluring aspect of Coyote REP is their ambition and courage to look from within, to encourage the company to create what they present, and to do so with tremendous success. It is his hope that as Literary Manager at Coyote REP, he can continue in that track with this impressive group of artists and help to discover new playwrights -- be it the person across the table from him or even in the mirror -- and to cultivate an audience that will be back again and again, knowing that they will always have a home for fresh work at Coyote REP.

FringeNYC 2010: Questions my Mother Can't Answer by Andrea Caban

Coyote REP is proud to announce that Andrea Caban's beautiful new solo endeavor Questions my Mother Can't Answer has been named an official selection for the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival! You might remember that Questions was recently presented as part of our Works-in-Development Series and was a huge hit with our audience.


Coyote REP will mount 'Questions' as part of FringeNYC at New York Theater Workshop's 4th Street Theater (79 East 4th Street).

The Fringe Festival dates this year are August 13th-August 29th 2010.




Please stay tuned to our blog and website for details on dates and times.


About The Show: (From the show's official website: www.questionsmymothercantanswer.com)

Questions My Mother Can’t Answer, a moving and funny one woman show written by and starring Andrea Caban, recipient of the 2008 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, will be part of the 14th annual New York International Fringe Festival starting August 13 through August 29 – presented at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theater.

Andrea’s on a mission: she interviews eight “women-of-a-certain-age” including a sexy Moroccan ballroom dancer, a donations-only prostitute, and her Aunt Shirley, about getting pregnant, staying married and finding a flow. As she embarks on a healing journey after a personal tragic event, Andrea looks for guidance from a variety of female role models, only to find that there are no role models…that we are all flawed and that life isn't about avoiding accidents, or tragedy, but how we deal with it.

Produced by Coyote REP Theatre Company www.coyoterep.org, directed by Rachel Eckerling, co-director of this season’s acclaimed The Diary of a Teenage Girl at 3LD Arts & Technology Center and frequent collaborator of Francis Ford Coppola on both theatre and film projects. The creative team for Questions My Mother Can’t Answer will also include Grammy Award-winning sound designer Marcelo Añez and lighting designer Jason Teague.

CHASE COMMUNITY GIVING

Well Kids,

They're doing it again and, yes, we may be a long shot but I encourage you to vote for Coyote REP in the Chase Community Giving event happening right now on Facebook.




It only takes a second and it will help us keep our programs running. The smallest prize of 20k will help the Works-In-Development Series continue for oh, ten years!!

SO give us a vote won't you??

Thank guys,
Donnetta