“I love the weirdness and urgency of a festival. No theatrical setting as an adult has so re-captured for me the feeling of doing a play in the middle school cafeteria.”
Responder: Dani Herd, Friendly Neighborhood Dani
Name of Company: Friendly Neighborhood Theatre Co.
Name of Show: gender euphoria: a story in three peters parker
- Why should people see your show?
Oh, gosh! Are you the kind of person who also uses pop culture as a means of trying to find yourself? Do you ever convince your friends to play “Okay, Who We Would Be in THIS Movie/Show/Franchise/Etc.?” Do you think gender is sort of messy and dumb and wish it could be more playful and liberating? Did you have the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack on CD in high school? If you have answered “yes” to any of the above, you should come to my show!
- What about festivals intrigues you? And why the Atlanta Fringe?
I love the weirdness and urgency of a festival. No theatrical setting as an adult has so re-captured for me the feeling of doing a play in the middle school cafeteria. Like, yes, I want to get dressed in a random bathroom and wander empty hallways and eat pizza with my best friends and fret and dream and feel like I’m doing the most important thing I will ever do. And I’ve been lucky enough to serve as an Atlanta Fringe judge for the past three years, and, honestly, I deserve a taste of my own medicine at this point.
- What inspired you to create this?
So, okay. We all saw Spider-Man: No Way Home, right? I remembered that I wrote a piece for a 2013 live lit/cosplay show where I tried to dress up as Peter Parker and I read this really dorky letter about multiverses and poetry and apologizing to Gwen and MJ. 1) Did I predict No Way Home? Hard to say. 2) Was I looking for any excuse to dress up as a boy and didn’t know what that meant yet? Totally. I have so many more thoughts about gender and Spider-Man, and I need to get them out of my brain.
- This year ain’t normal and there’s no sense pretending it is. How has Covid affected what you’re doing for this festival?
You know, as a solo storyteller, this particular piece for me has been pretty unaffected. Well, that’s not true. The writing of this piece has taken me a lot longer than I anticipated, because depression and fatigue still bring me down a lot these days. I don’t always have the post-work energy to devote to my script, even though it’s about some of my favorite subjects.
- What have you learned from working on your show so far?
Be open to changing impulses. I pitched something very different in my initial Fringe application, but my brain kept returning to another idea. Eventually, even though now I’m shorter on time, I’ve realized I’ll make something better if I make the thing that excites me.
- There’s a mysterious stranger in the back row of your show, wearing a big ol’ N95 mask and a baseball cap and there’s something weirdly familiar about them, and then they come up afterwards to tell you they loved your show. In your WILDEST DREAMS, who is this mysterious stranger? (Bonus points if your mysterious stranger is an Atlanta celeb.)
Oh, an Atlanta celeb, you say?
It would be my greatest honor to perform for Shuffles, one of the Aldabra Giant Tortoises living at Zoo Atlanta. He is estimated to have hatched in 1965, but who can say because he is a GIANT TORTOISE? He was rightfully elected the President of the Zoo in 2016.
[Above: Pure joy!]
- Fringes are the place to really push the boundaries so we gotta ask: are you inviting your family to this show are “Hey, maybe sit this one out you guys…”
Look, sometimes weird private thoughts are easier to share with total strangers before you share them with your parents, am I right?
- We’ve asked this question every year for the past ten years or so but it hits different this year: Will your show change the world?
Actually, yeah! I think anytime someone stands up to tell the truth about who they are– especially when there are some people out there who want that truth crushed and stamped out– that it changes things. When we tell stories, we invite consideration and empathy. I look forward to telling you this piece of my story and I hope you will comfortable enough to tell me yours.
- Zoom meetings: dress up head to toe or Donald Duck it?
Okay, I didn’t immediately understand the question, and I interpreted this as donning a full Donald Duck costume for Zoom meetings. Since Sir Elton John is my hero, I would have to go Donald Duck.
[Ed. note: Dani is the only one who answered this question correctly, good show, 90 points awarded to Dani.]
- We’re making an excellent Fringey Feelings playlist. Describe your show in two or three songs we can add to keep the jams flowing.
“Spiderman,” The Ramones
(sigh) “Boy Falls From the Sky,” Reeve Carney from the original cast recording of SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK. DID I SEE IT? I ABSOLUTELY DID. AMA.
Sounds incredible, right? Gonna need to nab those tickets, right? Click here to reserve your seats today!
Recent Comments