Wed-Sat. 8pm
The Greenwich St. Theater - 547 Greenwich Street

Tickets - normally $35.00 Special: $20 for Versus Subscribers (use password: "versus" when making reservation). Call (212) 255-3940

Reviews
"See Syndrome. It's insightful, it's moving, it's smart, it's profound, and it's off-the-wall hilarious."
- NYTheatre.com

"Try to let your attention drift. It's almost impossible. Syndrome is theatre at its best."
-Talkin Broadway

"Complemented by Bromley's rich, poetic – and often humorous – script, Berg adeptly commands the spotlight."
- Digital City New York

Selections from The New York Times (1/25/01)
"Inside View of Tourette's as a Lifelong Companion"

By NEIL GENZLINGER

When people with disabilities turn up in plays and films, the story is often only partly about them; the real drama involves the struggles of the disabled person's teacher or lawyer or loved ones. "Syndrome," a one-man play at the Greenwich Street Theater through Feb. 9, aggressively avoids that model. Not only does the lone character in the play have Tourette's syndrome, but so does the actor playing him.

That by itself would make this a risky work, but the premise is only the beginning of the chances taken by Kirk Wood Bromley, who wrote the script, and Joshua Lewis Berg, the actor who helped him shape it.

It would have been easy to put Mr. Berg onstage and have him tell the straightforward story of his life and its challenges. Instead, Mr. Bromley has provided an impressionistic, fragmentary script that bounces around from interior monologue to flashback to screaming fit to telephone conversation.

It is an attempt to view Tourette's from the inside, to mimic the syndrome itself, rather than having a Touretter (to use the play's term) describe himself in the language of non-Touretters. That's an ambitious agenda, and "Syndrome" doesn't always work, but the mere attempt makes for an intriguing, often bracing evening....

Mr. Berg, whose character is named Egon though the script is partly biographical, says in an accompanying essay that he is able to stifle his real-life tics when onstage, and it is quickly obvious that he is in complete control in "Syndrome," since his many split-second personality changes are carefully coordinated with lighting effects.

There's something unsettling about watching an actor who does have Tourette's pretend to have Tourette's, and this feeling never quite dissipates. Gradually, though, it is overtaken by another realization: that Mr. Berg, in a demanding, intermissionless show, is giving a very fine performance.

Wed-Sat. 8pm
The Greenwich St. Theater
547 Greenwich Street

Tickets - normally $35.00 Special: $20 for Versus Subscribers (use password: "versus" when making reservation)

Reservations: (212) 255-3940

Click here for more information.

Actor Info
Check out this section each month for tips and information for actors.

Speaking Modern Plays - Rhythm
By Kirk Wood Bromley

Mr. Bromley is the Artistic Director of Inverse Theater Company, and a published verse playwright.

The essence of speaking modern plays effectively has much to do with rhythm. I know that in my texts, the words are crafted completely out of a rhythmic sense, and the actors I know who have "hit it" with my language have done so because they have either found the rhythm I used to create
the lines or they invented a new rhythm. Either way, rhythm is key.

Modern speech is imbued with a variety of rhythms. Spoken poetry, rap, folk songs, rousing speeches, expressions of anger, emissions of excitement, harangues, cries for help, infomercials - all and everything have their own internal rhythm.

In fact, each character has her/his inherent rhythm, which changes depending on what she/he is doing/saying. Finding that rhythm is pivotal in transmitting that character to the audience.

How to find that rhythm? Say each sentence over and over again with the emphases in different places until you find the rhythm that gives the maximum mixture of significance, intention, and lilt.

Ask yourself - what's the most important word in this sentence? Emphasize that word. Then, what's the most important phrase? Emphasize that phrase. But realize that "emphasis" implies a lot of things. It involves your lips, your teeth, your throat, your limbs, your breath, any tool
you can use to give that "thing" a "beat."

Acting modern plays should be much more like rapping than speaking. Get on a flow. Find a pace. Grab a wave of intentions and put yourself on top of it while at the same time letting it lead you forward. First and foremost, give a rhythm to the audience. They will translate this rhythm
into character.

Rhythm is to the actor like the infamous 1's and 0's are to computer code. In a long combination, these simple "ons" or "offs" come together to make something very complex. The audience will read your rhythm much like a computer program reads basic data and converts it into something meaningful.

The actor as transmitter of rhythms. That is part of what it means for me to be acting modern plays.

-Kirk Wood Bromley

SPECIAL: Feel the rhythm first-hand by reading one of Kirk Bromley's plays.

For a limited time, only $9.95. And if you order within 48 hours, we'll include a FREE CD of Faust, Kirk Bromley's musical starring Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors.

Click here for ordering information (http://www.inversetheater.com/store.html)

Contact Chad Gracia if interested (please send resume).