Oh Tannenbaum, written by Mark Harvey Levine and directed by Rodney Smith, is one of the pieces being performed in our next production, Getting Through the HoliDaze!
This virtual showing will feature short films based around holiday themes, selected from submissions by writers around the country. Directed by Jessica Johnson, Katie Jones, and Rodney Smith, and hosted by George Awad. These performances will make you laugh, make you cry, and will most certainly get you into the spirit of the season.
We reached out to the cast and playwright with a few questions about this production and to tell us a little bit about themselves.
Mark Harvey Levine (Playwright)
1. What is your favorite holiday and why?
Thanksgiving -- The food! Oh, man, the food.
2. Do you relate to your character? How similar/different are you?
Yes, I am also a Jewish guy married to a nice Catholic gal.
3. What's your favorite line in the piece you're working on?
You can't see the forest for the tree.
4. What's your favorite holiday season movie or play?
A Charlie Brown Christmas... you can't beat the classics.
5. How did you get into theatre?
I did a play in third grade and was hooked ever since!
6. Do you have any upcoming projects that we should check out?
I just wrote my first full-length -- Save Hamlet!
Biography
Mark Harvey Levine (Playwright) - Mark Harvey Levine has had over 1800 productions of his plays everywhere from Bangalore to Bucharest and from Lima to London. His plays have won over 45 awards and been produced in more than ten languages. Full evenings of his plays, such as Cabfare For The Common Man, Didn’t See That Coming, and A Very Special Holiday Special have been shown around the world, including a multi-year tour of Brazil. A Spanish-language film of The Kiss (El Beso) premiered at Cannes and aired on HBO and DTV (Japan). His work has been published in over two dozen anthologies by Smith & Kraus, Applause, Routledge and Vintage. He lives in Indianapolis, where he teaches playwriting at the Indiana Writer's Center. He often talks to trees.
Jeff Catanese (Tannenbaum)
1. What is your favorite holiday and why?
My birthday, because it's MY day and I do what I want!
2. What's your favorite holiday season movie or play?
Die Hard. Are we counting that?
3. What makes this experience special for you?
Working with some of my favorite people and some who I hate with a blistering heat. I won't say which is which.
4. What's your favorite winter beverage?
Coffee.
5. How did you get into theatre?
Cast by my 6th-grade teacher as the lead in our class play.
6. How is working with The Magnetic different from working with other theatres?
I don't have ME to deal with.
Biography
Jeff is an actor and director. He is Artistic Director of Attic Salt Theatre Company. He has had the Covids.
Brooks Wallace (Liebowitz)
1. What is your favorite holiday and why?
I was raised celebrating the Winter Solstice, but quite honestly my family more or less made the holiday more a universal day to just be together, even as a kid I always found it very wholesome.
2. Do you relate to your character? How similar/different are you?
The closest thing that I found relatable to Liebowitz was how strange it was to actually have a Christmas tree in the house. Growing up I remember more winters not having a tree or even better having some sort of stand in, either some picture or arts and crafts tree.
4. What's your favorite holiday season movie or play?
Die Hard, you can’t tell me it’s not a holiday movie, I watch it every year.
5. What are the challenges of performing for a filmed show versus a live one?
Film in my experience always has more of a need for detail work as an actor, which has its own style and fun. But the most jarring difference could also be how an audience can help fuel my personal momentum, without them you have to keep that emotion and power all on your own.
6. What makes this experience special for you?
Acting/entertainment is that thing that soothes my soul, to be able to get back to doing the thing I love has made these harder times that much easier, and what could be more special than that?
Biography
Brooks Wallace (Liebowitz) - Brooks is an aspiring local actor, and is excited as always to return to The Magnetic Theatre to help bring some entertainment and escapism in times he feels we greatly need it.
Getting through the HoliDaze is streaming virtually from The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville, NC December 17th-19th at 7:30pm! Grab your tickets here: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=119167