Meet GIRTE Extraordinaire, Evie Aronson

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

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. 

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?

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.  

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  

Happy Birthday, Stupid Kid!

Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. 

May 13, 14, 20 & 21

The Producer’s Club

358 W 44th St, New York, NY

Tickets: $12

From the files of IRTE’s Dirt Digger, Amateur Boner...

Dirt Digger, amateur Bone Buff

For IRTE’s upcoming archaeological adventure show, ‘Dig’, IRTE’s own amateur bone buff, Dirt Digger, sat down with real-life archaeologist and all around good guy, Dr. Geoffrey Undergrass, to pick his brain about the science and faith of archaeology and to sift through the lies and real facts about those who dig human remains.

Here’s part of that conversation…

DD: So, first and foremost, I think I have to ask the obvious question, “what’s the difference between archaeology and anthropology?”

Dr. Geoffrey Undergrass

Dr. GU: (laughs) Ok, well, uh, anthropology is the broad discipline of the study of human beings, and archaeology is a sub-discipline underneath anthropology where you look at the material remains of human culture. Some of us get tired of being asked at parties what we do and when we say “I’m an archaeologist” see the person go off on some wild tangent about dinosaurs. That’s paleontology! Archaeologist’s don’t do dinosaurs.

DD: Are all archaeologists atheists? Or do you believe that God scattered all those dinosaur bones to test our faith?

Dr. GU: (clears his throat to answer)

DD: Or, OR -- that aliens buried all those artifacts to mess with us?

Dr. GU: I think that God is an alien and that in His Infinite Wisdom did try to hide artifacts to test our faith - it all will be revealed during judgment day. So, yeah, I think we’ll find out for sure.

DD: ARE all archaeologists atheists?

Dr. GU: (chuckles) I think most tend to be, uh, and I think it’s typical of what goes along with most sciences. I think people that generally have chosen a worldview that relies more on empirical evidence and employing the scientific method tend to not be more, sort of, faith-based in their belief system. So that tends to lend itself to a more atheist worldview. Most people that tend to have a strong Christian worldview, you know, look at archaeology and tend to see their faith reflected in that, either seeing Noah’s flood or uh, you know, the whole idea of a six-thousand year old world and trying to find justification for that...instead of relying on the scientific method and trusting in things like radiocarbon dating as a legitimate dating technique.

DD: Ooh, yeah! Tell us about carbon dating! And is there an app for that?

Dr. GU: Ha - no. There’s no app for that. There should be! But, no. Carbon dating is a good way that archaeologists tend to use to find out an absolute age of anything that’s organic that you would find, so whether it be a piece of wood or bone or a piece of clothing, perhaps, or something of that nature. Everything alive today is made mostly of carbon, and there’s a small amount of that carbon that is radioactive. And, as you live you take in carbon, and when you die the carbon is sort of frozen in time, uh, the moment that you die because you’re not taking in any new carbon. So that little bit of radioactive carbon that’s in your body decays at a very steady rate and however much of that carbon is left at the time that you date it you can tell how long ago that organic thing died. So it’s a very reliable technique if you do things properly to find out how old something is. But because of the rate of the decay, the time period that you can get a reliable date is somewhere between, you know, several hundred and up to about 50,000 years ago...

Indiana Jones, Not a REAL archaeologist

DD: Sounds like about how long it’s been since I was last dating...

DD: ...Uh. Ok. Um. So, is Indiana Jones the most famous archaeologist or what?

Dr. GU: Haha! Certainly the most famous fictional archaeologist. When you talk about REAL archaeologists, somebody like Louis and Mary Leakey come to mind as maybe some people that most folks may have heard of. And their son, Richard Leakey.

DD: Oh yeah, I know Richard!

Dr. GU: Yeah, uh...So the Leakeys were, you know, sort of the First Family of archaeologists in Africa, that discovered a lot of really significant early human ancestors.

DD: Including “Lucy”?

Dr. GU: Um, no. It was actually a guy named Tim White and a couple other researchers from California, Berkley, that found Lucy. But they were certainly inspired by the Leakeys to go over and do the work over there.            

     

DD: Have you ever been on a dig where you had to avoid booby traps.

Dr. GU: (big laugh) Not so much booby traps, but sometimes we have to avoid a lot of cowpies.

DD: So not booby traps, but doody traps.

Dr. GU: Haha -- yeah, doody traps. Yeah. And you also want to avoid any anti-government types. You know you want to make sure you avoid those folks.

DD: Has anyone ever died on a dig you were on? And was it from booby traps?

Dr. GU: No. No one has ever died from a booby trap on a dig.

DD: Ok.

Dr. GU: But a friend of mine was on a dig where a guy died from heat stroke or maybe a heart attack, so it’s definitely possible.

DD: Ok. Good. Um…

Dr. GU: (clears his throat)

DD: Oh! What’s the most important thing you’ve ever dug up?

Dr. GU: The thing that comes to mind is I was working on a dig in Austin, Texas. And it was a very early archaeological site - probably about 12,000 years old, and while we were there we found an inscribed tablet that appeared to be very early artwork from these folks that they’d left behind. And it was pretty significant because up until this find there’d only been one other artifact like this from this general area from that time period, so this was only the second of such examples of this very early artwork. So, that was pretty cool.

DD: Yeah. Cool.

QUESTIONS, ANSWERS and OBSERVATIONS from REAL ARCHAEOLOGISTS

Several Stupid Questions

"Why did the Indians bury their stuff under so much dirt?"

“Why did they build so far from the road?”

"How did you know to dig here to find those square holes?"

"But why did the Indians bury the bones in these square holes?"

"Did these bison die in Noah's flood?"

"Now these bison, were they dinosaurs?"

6 Misconceptions Corrected

1.  Most people think archaeologists "dig" dinosaurs.  They don't.  Those are paleontologists.  Archaeologists don't do dinosaurs.

2.  Archaeologists are often thought of in two disparate groups:  professor/adventurers (Indiana Jones), and avocational hobbyists who go out on weekends to collect cool shit.  Neither is particularly accurate.

3.  When people volunteer to go out and actually do archaeology, they are horrified by how boring and tedious it is.  The actual digging is very slow, and the paperwork and documentation is enormous.

4.  Religious people always ask questions that try to validate their preconceptions.  "So that dirt there looks like it came from Noah's Flood, eh?"

5.  People are terribly disappointed to find out that archaeology does not usually involve monumental ruins, secret passages, and burial curses.  Instead it most commonly involves tiny pieces of broken stone tools and pottery.

6.  Archaeologists' biggest secret:  if we don't know the purpose of some artifact or structure, it is "ceremonial."

For more exciting and hilarious archaeological artifacts unearthed, join us at IRTE’s production of Dig

Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m.

April 15 & 16, 22 & 23

The Producer’s Club

358 W 44th St, New York, NY

Tickets: $12

Special thanks to Jeff Overturf, REAL Archaeologist, Brewer, and all around good guy! And thanks, as well, to all of Jeff’s archaeologist friends and colleagues who contributed to the writing of this article.

A Peek Inside "Dynasty"

 When IRTE decided to start the 2016 season with the show "Big Rich & Powerful" we thought it would be fun to ask Curt Dixon's good friend Lezlie Deane a few questions about her time on the hit tv show.  She was more than happy to take time from her busy schedule to let us know what it was like to be a part of such an iconic series.

What was your roll on Dynasty?
My role was Phoenix Chisolm.

What was the process like, for example, did you get a lot of rehearsal time with the other actors or did you just need to get your stuff down and started filming?
There was usually 2 or 3 run throughs of a scene so it could be blocked and lit, then shoot the scene.

Do you have any favorite stories from the shoot or any fun interaction with the other actors?
Joan Collins was awesome!!  Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) was a grouchy dick who yelled at me for pointing the fake gun too close to him.  Adam Carrington (Gordan Thomson) was really cool as shit.  I spent most of my time with him and Joan.

How was the fan reaction to your character?
I actually got a lot of fan mail.  If the series would have continued, I most likely would have become a regular.

Was there an audition process or were you offered the roll?
I did the audition process.  I think I went back 3 times before I was hired.  All the producers and casting people were exceptional!

What was the reaction from your family/friends?
My friends and family were really excited!  They felt they had bragging rights!  Haha!  Being from Dallas, everyone when telling people about my job would get "Dallas" and "Dynasty" confused!

How did you feel about your character?
I liked my character.  She was troubled a bit and somewhat of a con, but she started to open her heart...that's what I intended for her, anyway!

Did you feel nervous or intimidated before you started filming?
I'm always nervous before filming, still to this day.  Same with getting on stage with (her band) Scary Cherry And The Bang Bangs. I'm naturally a bundle of nerves!

What was the average time you spent shooting on a daily basis?
I was usually on the set from about 6am until 3-4pm!

Thanks so much Lezlie!  You can check out The Lezlie Deane Fan Page on Facebook to learn more about her other television and movie appearances.  And check out her band Scary Cherry And The Bang Bangs.  Their debut album is available on iTunes and they are currently in the studio working on some brand new music!  You can visit their web site at www.scarycherry.com for more information and you can even score some free music!

Big, Rich & Powerful

Friday & Saturday, March 25 & 26, 8:00 pm at

The Producer's Club

358 W 44th St, NYC

between 8th & 9th Ave.

Tickets: $12.00

IRTE Looks Back on 2015

It's January 31st and everyone is (wondering why they came into the office today) counting down the last remaining hours of 2015 and taking stock of the vanishing (office Christmas cookies) year.

As we prepare for a brand new season of shows and memories yet to be made, the members of IRTE look back on their favorite moments of the 2015 Season...

My favorite show of the season was when the rats took over NYC led by the rat King Charlemagne during an episode of Calamity! It was a super fast paced show with Nate Betancourt as the rat king, and Nannette Deasy as a loose cannon cop out to save the day. The cherry on top happened with the observation that Steely Dan had written a song for King Charlemagne... Even though the song being referenced was "Kid Charlemagne". :)

- Robert Baumgardner

There were many high points for me in the 2015 IRTE season. I loved playing the washed out, coked up news anchor in Late Night News, and briefly being Barry the alcoholic badger for my little taste of The Magic Zoo in the Del Close Marathon was a delight, but for me I think the creme de la creme was being part of our heroic cast slaughtering each other as a multitude of celebrities during our stellar 5-day run of The League of Extraordinary Blondes at the Dream Up Festival. - Bill Berg 


 

I loved playing Gerald Ford in "League of Extraordinary Blondes", but what I loved even more was in one scene during rehearsals for the show I was Richard Nixon eating a baby on the beach.

- Jamie Maloney




 
I really loved the moment in "Adrift" when I was about to throw the baby overboard. I could feel the audience anticipation just as I was about to launch her into the crowd.  And when I did finally toss her the audience would scream. That was so much fun!

- Curt Dixon 

One of the most memorable characters of the season, in my opinion, was musical guest David Johnston's alter ego Mr. David Jay who popped up in all but one of our shows. In his own words - " If Rip Taylor & Frank Sinatra had a baby and let it live, it would have been David Jay. Without training or ability, he pleases his handful of fans with gay jazz." He had the best costume changes, the most glitter and recorded probably the best theme song and video in IRTE history.

- Nannette Deasy