As with all IRTE productions, Happy Birthday, Stupid Kid! (opening May 13) features some pretty amazing guest performers. Evie Aronson (Snooty Wilcox) has been a long-time GIRTE (Guest-Of-IRTE, rhymes with "purty") and one of our all-time favorites!IRTE Ensemble member Jamie Maloney, sat down with Evie after a recent rehearsal...
Jamie: So... how did you come to be involved with IRTE?
Evie: I know the founders and members of IRTE from back in the day when we studied and performed together at Gotham City Improv. I was delighted to be invited to perform with them as a "GIRTE."
Jamie: How long have you been a GIRTE? In which IRTE productions have you appeared?
Evie: I've been a GIRTE since 2013 and I have had the privilege of performing the shows in NYC as well as across the country in various festivals!...
That Kick Ass Time Jump Show @ New Orleans Improv Festival
vIRTEgo Circus @ Tampa Improv Festival
Space Probe @ New York Improv Festival
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| Evie in vIRTEgo Circus. Photo courtesy of Tampa Improv Festival |
The Scary @ Boston Comedy Arts Festival
vIRTE Go-Go!
The Magic Zoo @ Philadelphia Improv Festival
Wow Wee!
Adrift
Late Night News
Camp Fitness
Calamity!
Big, Rich & Powerful
Jamie: Do you have a favorite memory of your experiences with IRTE? What do you like most about performing in IRTE shows?
I love performing in IRTE shows because they are character based and very theatrical. We use wigs and props to add an extra element of theatricity (is that a word?).... The IRTE ensemble is very well trained and easy to work with - we have a lot of fun while at the same time being "serious" about the work. They are also very good about the "business" side of show business.... everyone helps out with promoting the show and working to get an audience in the seats.
My favorite IRTE moments were when my character Charlene Nelson Reilly jumped off the cruise ship in Adrift chasing after something shiney in the water - and there was a long drowning scene using the prop of a blue sheet.
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| Adrift (Evie Aronson and Nannette Deasy. Photo: Roberto Tobar) |
My next favorite was at the Tampa Improv Festival when we were acting out one of the audience member's days.... and there was a fantastic Starbucks freak out started by you, Jamie -it was so much fun!!! (If you want to see it, it starts around minute 44:00 here)
Jamie: Do you have any interesting talents or abilities that people might be surprised to know about?
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| The Magic Zoo, (Evie Aronson, Jeff O'Leary, Alena Acker and Marcia Sofley. Photo: Roberto Tobar) |
I love to wear wigs on stage it really helps me with a character. My interesting talents have been showcased in some IRTE shows such as in The Magic Zoo where I played Twitty the Bird and I played by piccolo.
I am also a licensed Zumba Instructor! http://evelyn11.zumba.com/
Jamie: "Happy Birthday, Stupid Kid!” takes place during a child's 12th Birthday party. Has the rehearsal process brought back any cherished childhood memories (or traumatizing flashbacks?)
Evie: Working on HBSK has made me reminisce about lots of Birthdays past....it is funny what stays in your memory. One of my favorite birthday cakes was when I was 10 or 11 - a vanilla cake with white icing and blue and pink icing flowers, and it had a plastic ballerina in "attitude" stuck in the top - she had silver toe shoes and I remember how weird it was that the leg that was sticking in the cake had a freakishly long foot/toe on it so that it could stick pretty deep into the top of the cake, but still look like the toe was resting on the top of the cake. I probably still have her somewhere in a box of stuff.
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| Zoltar (Photo Courtesy of zoltarmachine.com) |
My family spent our summers at a cottage in Upstate NY (Cayuga Lake) so the big birthday party for us and our "lake" friends was a trip to Roseland Amusement Park - my favorite ride was the Haunted House and I always had to get my fortune told by the gypsy in the machine similar to Zoltar in the movie "Big" - or maybe it was actually Zoltar...I'm old and can't remember. After the amusement Park we would stop off at the local Firehouse or Church that was having a Chicken BBQ that night with Biscuits, coleslaw, corn on the cob. That was the life. These days my birthday consists of a shot of tequila and crying in the bathroom for about 30 minutes till my mascara is running down my face - maybe this year I will just focus on my memories of Birthdays at the Finger Lakes :)
Jamie: Do you have anything else happening that you’d like people to know about?
Evie: Look for me in stand up shows in the future around NYC.... ( I started on stage in stand up and then started in Improv around 2001).
My favorite project I've ever done was a parody short of Apocalypse Now - watch it (in 2 parts ) on YouTube:
A PUCKER LIPS NOW
Part 1 https://youtu.be/BmC6vRBIYKg
Part 2 https://youtu.be/3AzD_SrszWc
Thank you for the opportunity to share my GIRTE stories!!!! :)
Jamie: No, thank YOU!
To see Evie in action, join us at IRTE’s production of
Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m.
May 13, 14, 20 & 21
The Producer’s Club
358 W 44th St, New York, NY
