Meet the Team: Marc Ewart, Projection, Props and Set Designer

Marc Ewart has worked in many departments of theatre production throughout his education and start of his career. He attended Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, NH where he graduated in 2005 cum laude with a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a concentration in directing. During his four years at F.P.C. he performed in many productions while also working in the costume and prop shop. There he appeared in productions of You Can’t Take It With You, The Laramie Project, Vertical Talking, Blood Brothers, and The Death of Don Juan. In 2003 he was honored to be a cast member in … but the rain is full of ghostsby Robert Lawson, which attended the American College Theatre National Festival and performed on stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He has worked on many productions around Boston in many different departments including stage management, carpentry, set design, lighting design, costume design, and also selling tickets in the box office. He currently works freelance technical theatre and ushering in the Boston area. He is also production manager of Liars & Believers. He attributes much of his success in technical theatre to owning a pick-up truck.

Meet the Team: Ross Magnant, Stage Manager

What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?

I remember playing sega at my cousins. Mostly because I remember all the time I spent not playing Sega at my cousins because I had the chicken pocks and Mom had taped oven mitts to my hands to keep me from scratching that prevented me from pressing the buttons on the controller.

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
I still use a pocket watch, it was a gift from some close friends.

What is your favorite social network and why?
I guess Facebook because I’m on it so much…I play a lot of video games and the communities on those can be really incredible sometimes. Most of the time the internet is full of trolls but every now and again you meet a genuinely awesome human being and it’s nice.

What has been your most moving experience with technology? Were you overwhelmed, touched, in awe?
I spent a lot of time travelling over the last five years and I think the most moving moments I’ve had via technology have been skype conversations with people I am too far away to connect with physically. I guess that’s a bad example because my reaction wasn’t because of the tech I was using, however, suddenly being able to hear someones voice and see their face is an incredible idea that sixty years ago didn’t exist the same way it does now.

If you could add one new button to Facebook, what would it be?
I like high-fives, so instead of thumbs up a high five would be cool!

Meet the Team: Thom Dunn, Video Guru

Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, homebrewer, and new media artist. He enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey and/or robots). His plays have been performed in New York, Boston, Hollywood, and Alaska, and his comic books have been published by GrayHaven Comics and Ninth Art Press. By day, Thom is the Tony Award-winning Web & New Media Manager at the Huntington Theatre Company, and blogs for a number of websites including Quirk Publishing, Tor Dot Com, and Five By Five Hundred. He grew up in the same town as Eli Whitney, Thornton Wilder, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and currently resides in Jamaica Plain, MA. Thom is a graduate of the Clarion Writer’s Workshop at UCSD and Emerson College, and he firmly believes that Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” is the single worst atrocity committed against mankind. thomdunn.net

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What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?
An Appl Mac LCIII that my dad brought home in 1990. I was the first kid I knew to have a home computer, so naturally my favorite thing about it was everything. It even had 128 colors! Which may have also been the worst thing, looking back….

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
I have a stero receiver head from the 70s that I use to power my home audio system / recording studio monitors. It’s bulky and heavy and gives off such a warm analog tone (and it’s old enough that it lets me kind of MacGuyver together the connections, between the speakers and the inputs). Similarly, I sometimes use a 1962 Sears Silvertone tube amplifier when I play music gigs. It sounds so much warm and fuzzy and only has 3 knobs and no matter what I play, it sounds like an early Kinks or Rolling Stones song, which is a tone I cannot mimic with any other technology.

What is your favorite social network and why?
Twitter, because I am a narcissist with ADHD.

What has been your most moving experience with technology? Were you overwhelmed, touched, in awe?
After one of my good friends passed away in 2009, it was strange watching his Facebook wall become a gravesite, with people posting “flowers” in the form of photos and text on his wall. At first it made me uncomfortable, but now, 4 years later, it’s kind of nice as a way to memorialize a person, and connect with others who are suffering from that same loss (though it is still kind of weird).

If you could add one new button to Facebook, what would it be?
Hilariously Ironic Acknowledgement Of How Much That Sucks, Dude

If you were to create a 5-song mixed tape to share with the world via the Internet, what would be on it?
Click to Listen!!
1. “Song For A Mixtape” by The Ataris
2. “Cowboy Song” by Thin Lizzy
3. “El Scorcho” by Weezer
4. “3 Minutes” by 2 Skinnee J’s
5. “Misunderstood” by Wilco

Meet the Team: Max Mondi, Founder, Core Member and Resident Playwright

As a playwright, Max’s work includes You Deserve Me (Wax Wings Productions), Sometimes A Kumquat Is Just A Kumquat (Silver Spring Stage, Abingdon Theatre), The Thing About Pants (Boston Actors Theater) and Todd Honey (Royall Tyler Theatre). His new full-length play, You Deserve Me, is receiving a staged reading with Wax Wings Productions this spring. As a dramaturg, Max has provided support to productions in Minnesota, Vermont, and Boston, his favorites including 44 Plays For 44 Presidents (Bad Habit Productions), The Caretaker, A Christmas Carol, Writer 1271 (Guthrie Theater), Phaedra’s Love (Red Letter Theater) and The Minneapolis Pinter Studies (Mixed Precipitation Theatre). In addition to being a founding Core Member of Project: Project, Max is also a founder of Interim Writers, a Boston-based collective dedicated to fostering and developing area playwrights.

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What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?
The first piece of technology I remember using is a double cassette deck that also had radio. What was great about it was you could play cassettes, including at the time Will Smith and Green Day’s Dookie, and simultaneously record whatever you were playing onto another cassette. So if you wanted just one song from a tape (i.e. “Welcome To Paradise”), you could just record that song onto the other tape. This was the same way with the radio. This was really my first experience not just in listening to music, but also foreshadowed my now life long obsession with cataloguing and arranging music. The one drawback was that CDs were becoming increasingly prevalent at the same time, and once I saw that you could skip songs in a CD, tapes just felt . . . meh.

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
My Apple PowerBook G4 laptop. Got it freshman year of college (September 2004), and it’s still chugging along, though I can’t stream Netflix, and Google can’t keep up with my typing. But every single play I’ve ever written was done on it, so you’d have to take it from me kicking and screaming.

What is your favorite social network and why?
would have to go with Facebook, though reluctantly. Though I think it perpetuates a lot of negative human qualities, such as petty jealousy and insecurities, it’s amazing at allowing people to share and promote events. I feel like I’m so much more in tune with what my friends and colleagues are doing, and it enables me to see more shows, concerts, and plays. Basically, it creates an amazing social and artistic calendar.

What has been your most moving experience with technology? Were you overwhelmed, touched, in awe?
For me, the most moving time of my life was the coincidental timing of the release of Napster and my family’s acquiring of Cable-modem internet. For the first time in my life, I was no longer restricted to what was being played on mainstream, suburban radio nor to what I was able to buy on CD, oftentimes taking a gamble on an entire album based on the appeal of one song or single. Suddenly, I had access to seemingly infinite songs and albums, and I’ve always been an “album” guy, to me a great album being immeasurably more impressive than a great song. It felt like my whole world opened up. I remember the night where the federal courts ruled that Napster was illegal, and my sister and I stayed up all night, downloading as much music as we could think of, at seemingly lightning speed, for fear that this resource was going to be removed forever at any second. This is probably why I have so many Crosby, Stills, and Nash albums (and why my Gateway crashed so many times soon there after).

If you could add one new button to Facebook, what would it be?
“Really?”

If you were to create a 5-song mixed tape to share with the world via the Internet, what would be on it? What would you title it?
My mix tape would be the five songs I’ve loved the most through my life as follows, titled “Songs to Play Me Before I Die”:
Click to listen! 
1) Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melodies)” – the version from Stop Making Sense
2) Bob Dylan – “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”
3) David Bowie – “Rock ‘N’ Roll With Me”
4) Pavement – “Gold Soundz”
5) Weezer – “My Name Is Jonas”

Meet the Team: Danny Martin, Graphic Designer

Danny is currently studying for his Masters in Advertising at Boston University, or as he likes to call it…BU. Originally from Oregon and a graduate of the University of Oregon’s Journalism program (Go Ducks), his wife Julia and he made their way east in order to, well, get away from Oregon. As a young lad he dreamed of becoming a professional skateboarder, and now he work in a very similar field, Marketing for Real Estate. He loves creating things, so, you might say he’s creative. He is an underground hip-hop prodigy yet to be discovered and a Graphic Designer for such notable projects, as, well, How May I Connect You?…thanks for the chance Jeff. He hopes to someday be a copywriter for an ad agency where he can use his, you guessed it, creativity for the good of corporate America…he means…mankind.

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What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?
Everybody remembers the game Oregon Trail, in fact, since moving to the East Coast, I think most people my age who hear I am from Oregon mention memories of the game. So, I guess the answer to your question is, I like the game, but I have never had dysentery and I don’t think you should ford the river.

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
I still use my Apple IPhone 5, stupid apple always coming out with something new right when I just upgraded. Oh well in 2 years Ill have the iPhone 20S.

What is your favorite social network and why?
My favorite social network is Myspace via 2007. I was on the verge of becoming a Hip Hop star, each song on my music player had over 1000 listens, then I realized I was the only one listening. I was my biggest fan.

What has been your most moving experience with technology? Were you overwhelmed, touched, in awe?
When I was finally able to upgrade my phone from the Droid to the iPhone I watched the episode of Futurama with Fry’s dog on Netflix, saddest episode ever.

If you could add one new button to Facebook, what would it be?
I would like to somehow tell everyone that I like what they are saying without actually having to communicate at all…wait…

If you were to create a 5-song mixed tape to share with the world via the Internet, what would be on it? What would you title it?
Name: Miley Cyrus ft. Billy Ray Cyrus…Achey Breaky Twerk (click to listen!)
Dilated Peoples: Worst Comes to Worst
Beastie Boys: Intergalactic
Sage Francis: Makeshift Patriot
Bad Religion: Suffer
Sapient: Diamond Snares

Meet the Team: Vicki Schairer, Co-Director, Founder, Core Member

Vicki Schairer (Co-Director) Vicki is a founding core member of Project:Project Theatre Ensemble. Directing Credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire (Wax Wings Productions); Rocky Road (BTM, Nora Theatre Company); Even As I Go (Swan Day 2013); Melancholy Play (Clark University Players Society); One Minute Play Festival Boston 2012 (Boston Playwright’s Theatre); What Are You Doing Here? (Project:Project); The Cracking Hour (Boston University); Comes a Faery and Perfect Strangers (BTM, Huntington Theatre Company); Robin’s Nest, My Mother the Nun (SWAN Day 2012); Pretty in Pink, Minot Light (SLAMBoston); The Murder of Lidice (Berkshire Theatre Festival); Runner the Novel the Play, Aloha, Say the Pretty Girls, Measure for Measure (Brandeis University). Staged Readings include Owl Girl (Central Square Theatre); Raising David Walker (Independent); Meet Me In The Bathroom, Four Riffs: Calypso (Interim Writers). Production Managing credits include Romeo and Juliet directed by Paula Plum (Happy Medium Theatre) and The Mistakes Madeline Made directed by Krista D’Agostino (Holland Productions).

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What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?
The tv that was so old it didn’t have a remote. The channel dial made a very satisfying click as your rotated the large knob. Very mechanical feeling. We played SNES on it. Duck hunt!

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
I don’t even know…does the radio count?

What is your favorite social network and why?
I use Facebook the most, but that doesn’t mean it’s my favorite. I think tumblr would take the #1 slot.

If you were to create a 5-song mixed tape to share with the world via the Internet, what would be on it? What would you title it?
Title: Breathing Leaves (Click here to listen!)
1. This Head I Hold – by Electric Guest
2. Demons – by Imagine Dragons
3. Out of My League – by Fitz & the Tantrums
4. Royals – by Lorde
5. Concrete Bed – by Nada Surf
6. What you know – by Two Door Cinema Club
7. Natural Anthem – by Postal Service

Meet the Team: Alli Engelsma-Mosser

Alli Engelsma-Mosser studied theatre and dance at Winona State University and earned her master’s degree in Arts Administration from Boston University. Her choreography was most recently seen in 44 plays for 44 presidents (Bad Habit Productions) and T: An MBTA Musical (Club Oberon).

Meet the Cast: Mikey DiLoreto

Mikey DiLoreto is elated to be making his Project: Project debut. Recent credits include: Provoloney in Psycho Beach Party, Harold Gorringe in Black Comedy, Van in the Elliot Norton Award winning Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and D in the IRNE-nominated/My Entertainment World-winning Polaroid Stories. Upcoming acting gigs include: Mickey Marcus in Zeitgeist Stage’s The Normal Heart (November) and Cupid in Happy Medium’s The Eight: Reindeer Monologues (December). Many thanks to the fantastic team of tireless writers, this awesome cast and crew, my ladies who lunch, the Mediums, the Daggers, the beasts, the Eastie gals, and Monsieur Jeff Mosser. He’s a proud founding of Happy Medium Theatre (HMT). #bragging #sorrynotsorry.

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Name:
Mikey DiLoreto

Position:
Actor, or Reverse Cowgirl

What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?
A Speak and Spell. My favorite thing about it was the voice. So deliciously creepy and robotic.

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
There are times during the Christmas holiday that I sneak downstairs to my cellar and do my best to set up my old Sega Genesis. Yup. There’s a huge “L” on my forehead.

What is your favorite social network and why?
Is Instagram a social network? If so, I love it. I can look like Ansel Adams and not even really try!

What has been your most moving experience with technology? Were you overwhelmed, touched, in awe?
I don’t know if it was necessarily moving, but I remember every movement of mine when 9/11 happened. I was in my Intro to Theatre Arts, and a Dean came in and said, “Evacuate now.” All these people were pulling out cell phones to call loved ones, but not one was getting through. And at the time I was one of 16 people in the world without a cell phone. So, I went over my best friend’s (Molly Kimmerling) house and called my Mom from *gasp* a land-line. I found a way to communicate via a means that was being phased out, and I found that a tad awe-inspiring/overwhelming.

If you could add one new button to Facebook, what would it be?
I’d add a “Stop posting on Facebook and answer my f*cking email” button.

If you were to create a 5-song mixed tape to share with the world via the Internet, what would be on it? What would you title it?
I’d make it as eclectic and as smart as possible to show the world that some music can actually make you think and feel. I’d title it “It’s okay not to like it…” With that, I’d find one song (like Sweet Dreams), and find 5 different versions of it to show how much talent there is in the world and how much you change a person’s perception of meaning through song. Click Here to Listen!!

Meet the Cast: Sheldon Brown

Sheldon Brown is B.A Theatre Studies Acting major at Emerson College (Class of 2014). His credits include vocal performances in 99% Stone with the Theatre Offensive of Boston, Green Eyes with Company One & the Kindness. Numerous productions through Emerson College. His other credits include the Grand Inquisitor directed by Peter Brook through ArtsEmerson and the Shakespearean Jazz Show with the Outside the Box Festival & ArtsEmerson!

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What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?
The first piece of technology I remember using may have been those kid computers you’d get as a child to  learn your alphabet and math.

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
Nintendo 64 because it’s the best gaming system in the world and nothing beats Mario Kart and 007 Golden Eye!

What is your favorite social network and why?
The only social network I have is Facebook, wouldn’t say it’s my favorite thing but it’s amazing how relationships and ways of staying connected with people has change so vastly through Facebook.

What has been your most moving experience with technology? Were you overwhelmed, touched, in awe?
During the bombings, phones weren’t working and the only way to let people know you were safe was through social media. All you could see were constant statuses of people sharing that their safe, consoling each other, never such a huge sense of community. A community bound by fear, sadness, and love.

If you could add one new button to Facebook, what would it be?
The “NEXT!!” button which would tell people this is unimportant, no one cares, or more importantly don’t dwell on certain things. The “BOOM, *drops the mic” button is a close second!

If you were to create a 5-song mixed tape to share with the world via the Internet, what would be on it?
Click here to listen to Sheldon’s mix tape, “Feeling Good.”
Smile performed by Janelle Monae
How High the Moon by Ella Fitzgerald
Night Time is the Right Time by Ray Charles
Feelin Good by Nina Simone
Whipping Post by The  Allman Brothers

Meet the Team: Harry McEnerny V – P:P Core Member

Harry McEnerny V is a founding member of Project: Project and a local actor in Boston.  Area credits include Lumberjacks in Love (Stoneham Theatre), My Fair Lady (Reagle Music Theatre), One Man, Two Guv’nors, and Avenue Q (Lyric Stage Company of Boston), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Wax Wings Productions), The Rocky Horror Show (Turtle Lane Playhouse), Bat Boy, Heart and Music, and Party Worth Crashing (Metro Stage), Book of Days (Bad Habit Productions), and others.  He has acted in two national commercials, a regional commercial, and two Hollywood films in the last two years.  Harry has appeared on the House Teams at Improv Asylum, and is a graduate of the training center there.  He is a resident actor with the Interim Writers Workshop in Cambridge.  Harry holds a B.A. in Theatre and Film from the University of Vermont.

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What was the first piece of technology you remember using? What was your favorite (or least favorite) thing about it?
Wow… probably my Sega Genesis… I remember spending HOURS playing Mortal Combat and Aladdin… actually I still remember the special cheat code to skip a level in Aladdin… START, A, B, B, A, A, B, B, A.   Seriously… check it out… you can get right to Jaffar without collecting all those stupid apples…

What piece of obsolete technology do you still use? Why?
Hmm… tough one… I have a house phone.  No one uses those anymore right.  Actually – come to think of it, I don’t use it either.  Its actually unplugged at the moment because the only people calling it were telemarketers.  Ooo!  I think I still have a game boy somewhere…

What is your favorite social network and why?
Facebook, mainly because its the only one I use.  I’m not on Twitter or Instagram or anything like that.  Which kind of makes me uncool.  But c’est la vie.

What has been your most moving experience with technology? Were you overwhelmed, touched, in awe?
I guess that would be when I saw the Eiffel Tower light up at night.  At 11pm every night, it sparkles with thousands of timed lights… so awesome.

If you could add one new button to Facebook, what would it be?
I think everybody is going say that they would want a “dislike” button, but I’m going to be a bit hipster about this and chose the path less taken.  I’m thinking a button that would filter out all the crap I don’t care about from my newsfeed.  Yah know?  I’M SICK OF PEOPLE POSTING BUZZFEED ARTICLES ON FACEBOOK!  I can just GO to Buzzfeed myself if I really want to waste my time!  And the worst part about it is that its always kind of interesting, so I’ll click on it, and five hours later I have no idea what happened.

If you were to create a 5-song mixed tape to share with the world via the Internet, what would be on it?
Wow… ok… my first impulse here is to put on mostly showtunes… so thats what I’m doing! Its called… umm… “Sexy Showtunes and Other Myths.” Click here to listen! 

• “Mixtape” from Avenue Q
• “You and Me (But Mostly Me)” from Book of Mormon
• “Little Tiny Mustache” by Stephen Lynch
• “And I Am Telling You”  from Dreamgirls (as sung by Jennifer Holliday)
• “As Long As You’re Mine” from Wicked

The first three are hilarious… the next two are just awesome.  It just kind of paints a picture of my life… Showtunes… funniness… love.  And AMAZING singing.