Charlatan Nominated for a Drama Desk Award.
I’m proud to announce that my show Charlatan has just been nominated for a prestigious Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.
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The Drama Desk Awards: What Makes a Unique Theatrical Experience?
We spoke to several people at the Drama Desk nominees reception to find out about the Awards' most unique category.
Every year, the Drama Desk honors a group of boundary-pushing shows with a competitive category that doesn't exist for any other theater award. You might call it "unique" to the Drama Desk Awards. This is the category of "Unique Theatrical Experience."
This year's nominees include two magic shows, two circus shows, a sexy Christmas bacchanal, and a smart-aleck take on one of America's most prolific playwrights. [Click here for a complete list of Drama Desk Nominees.] But what exactly makes these shows so unique? We spoke to representatives from three of them at the annual Drama Desk nominee reception to find out.
The first person to show up and claim his nomination was magician Vinny DePonto, whose show at Ars Nova, Charlatan, had critics raving last month. "It's part-research project, part-magic show, part-mentalism show, and part-immersive theater," DePonto explained.
DePonto requests something unusual from his audience when they enter the theater: Each person is given a card and asked to write a confession to place in a sealed envelope at the foot of the stage. "We live in an age where we tweet, tumble, pin, and post everything. Genuine Secrets have become even more valuable," he elaborated. "They're a taboo thing. When you bring them out into the playing space, you get under people's skin, which is a nice thing."
Ars Nova Associate Artistic Director Emily Shooltz knew that DePonto was a talented magician, but she picked up his show because of his willingness to collaborate with other artists. "Vinny is a magician who was working with a theater director and a playwright," she said. "That's the kind of theater we like to make: hybrid pieces that bring artists from different disciplines together."
“DePonto’s charm and good humor shine through when he interacts with the audience, and he has a preternatural ability to put participants at ease. His occasional eye-popping sleight-of-hand performances also conjure the familiar realm of a traditional magic show.”
