By Adam Cohen…
Creator Carl Holder captivates the audience with bold charm and embrace of story and life’s randomness
In a salmon covered basement, the audience largely faces one another. The seats are close, house lights on. One is given the sense that we are all in this together. Over our heads, there’s a string connected to a cardboard box. A volunteer pulls the string and an array of index cards comes pouring out.
Actor/playwright/teacher/aspiring bon vivant Carl Holder reads and reacts based on the card prompts – fostering “an interactive parlor game.” Whether it is lining up from most brave to least, the audience is involved in the fun from the jump. He asks the audience for help for himself, he extends that and then asks the audience if they want to ask for help in their own lives. Each show is different.
The instructions on the cards range from character prompts (Farmer, Chicken, Peacock) to a tutorial on dramatic structure. He explains exposition is followed by an inciting incident, rising action, a climax and falling action. The evening is pre-selected randomness. The card marked “Climax” might arrive before one the labeled “Exposition” and Holder will tell his story chapters based on the cards. The “Talkback” or “Curtain Call” could be anywhere in the line-up.
Clad in a blue track suit and white running shoes, Holder runs in place before he selects each card, announcing the title of the segment: “Exposition” is the story of a motormouthed child hungry for attention. “Inciting incident” is about that kid’s first audition for a children’s theater. “Rising action” covers his entrance into amateur productions, a BFA program, his unexpected fight against cancer.
The heart of the show is Holder’s journey as an artist from childhood to the precarious struggle of life in New York City. Like many artists, every odd job doesn’t always prove one can have nutritious meals and pay your cell phone. The commentary on artists hustling looms as the audience posts photos at Holder’s behest or promotes the show by yelling into the street.
There’s a bold charm and embrace of story and life’s randomness. A referee, Simon Henriques, rings a bell ending each segment. Things move quickly. There is dance, dramatic readings, and searching questions. We shift from candlelight to searing fluorescents which jolts us back into the present moment.
Another section has Holder and an audience member “Review the Possibilities.” They read cards where he had written things he considered possible before turning 40. Between them he placed a garbage can. As the audience member read out the card, Holder flirted with the belief of possibility or reality.
The evening is brave, bold and full of heart. Holder is boundlessly charismatic. His honesty and vulnerability make the audience want to return the favor.
Now through July 30th at the East Village Basement Theater.
Photos: Rebecca J. Michelson
