Corine Cohen: Tell Broadway Showbiz who your character Porto is. What makes her tick?(other than a Malbec!)
Julia Sirna-Frest: Porto is a smart, independent, complex woman with really good taste.
Corine Cohen: In what ways, if any, do you relate to Porto?
Julia Sirna-Frest: Something that I love about this play and Porto as a woman is the celebration of pleasure and desire without shying away from the complex nature of pursuing these wants and needs whether that be eating Fois Gras or hooking up with a handsome stranger at a bar. Porto is an over-thinker, as am I, and the daily dose of questions swimming around in my brain can often be overwhelming, however, Porto does choose to jump into the unknown which is something I have done many times in my life which has resulted in failure but also in triumph!
Corine Cohen: Do you feel that a woman needs a man to be complete?
Julia Sirna-Frest NOPE!
Corine Cohen: Do you consider yourself a feminist, and if so, what are your thoughts on the Me Too movement?
Julia Sirna-Frest: I am 100% a feminist!! The Me Too movement is so powerful and so overdue! We must keep this conversation going especially when we have a president who jokes about sexual assault-despicable.
Corine Cohen: If you could play any role on Broadway what would it be?
Julia Sirna-Frest: Oh Gosh, I always have such a hard time with this type of question. I’m really passionate about new plays so for me it’s not about a role but more about an experience I would like to have on stage. Like I would love to be in a play where I could be on a swing in the rain or play a murderess who ends up covered in blood. I want to play passionate women and speak interesting text and work with kind bad asses who challenge me to really bring it (which incidentally completely describes working on Porto!!)
Corine Cohen: I read you are in a band! Can you tell us about it?
Julia Sirna-Frest: It’s true! I’m in a Dolly Parton Cover Band called Doll Parts! We are a rock band that only sings Dolly Parton. It was my husband’s idea and has become one of the most rewarding things ever! Singing Jolene to a room full of Dolly fans might be the most cathartic experience on earth. Dollylujah!
JULIA SIRNA-FREST
(PORTO) Julia Sirna-Frest was most recently seen as Margit in Seder at Hartford Stage. NYC: [Porto] (The Bushwick Starr); A Tunnel Year (The Chocolate Factory); The Offending Gesture (The Connelly); Comfort Dogs: Live from the Pink House (JACK); Founding member of the Obie award winning Half Straddle Company, productions include: Ghost Rings (TBA/PICA); Ancient Lives (The Kitchen); Seagull (Thinking of you) (The New Ohio, International Tour), In the Pony Palace/Football (The Bushwick Starr, International Tour); Nurses in New England (The Ohio); The Knockout Blow (The Ontological). Composer/Performer for theatre rock duo Chapman/Sirna-Frest: Welcome to the Gun Show (Ars Nova); IceBand (HERE Arts Center/Target Margin) Co-front woman of Doll Parts, Brooklyn’s Premiere Dolly Parton cover band. www.juliasirnafrest.com
THE BUSHWICK STARR
The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award-winning nonprofit theater that presents an annual Season of new performance work. We are an organization defined by both our artists and our community, and since 2007, we have grown into a thriving theatrical venue, a vital neighborhood arts center, and a destination for exciting and engaging performance. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established performance companies come to experiment and innovate. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as The Mad Ones, Clare Barron, Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, the TEAM, and Half Straddle.
“The work they program is boldly experimental. It’s also a lot of fun… a bright spot on the Off Off Broadway map” – New York Times
“A home for gutsy experimental work.” – 2012 Village Voice OBIE Award for Outstanding Work
“Brooklyn’s hottest incubator. One of New York’s best-curated off-off venues.” – Time Out New York
NEW GEORGES
New Georges, founded in 1992, is a strategically small theater company with a national reputation as a productive home and launchpad for exuberantly theatrical women artists – individually, as collaborators, and as a community. We cultivate our boundary-pushing aesthetic in a nimble, artist-driven production environment: committing to projects early on, equipping them with processes rooted in strong collaborations, and providing steady artistic support. We serve and sustain the largest ongoing working community of women theater artists in New York City — more than 200 playwrights, directors, actors and designers – with premiere productions; play and artist development programs (such as the New Georges Jam and the Audrey Residencies); and The Room, our permanent workspace and the year-round hub of our activities. Our 22-year commitment to providing our artists with free or low-cost workspace in The Room is unique among small theaters and has incubated thousands of new plays.
Honors for New Georges, our plays, and our people include 3 Obie Awards, the Lilly Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn and Kesselring Prizes. And the influx of New Georges artists into the field over the last 25 years has had marked impact on the representation of women nationwide in theater, film, television and arts education.
BUY TICKETS
WP Theater
2162 Broadway & 76th Street, NYC, 10024
PERFORMANCE TIMES
Tue-Thu at 7p
Fri at 8p
Sat at 2p + 8p
Sun at 3p
CREATIVE
by Kate Benson
directed by Lee Sunday Evans
Set Design: Kristen Robinson
Costume Design: Ásta Bennie Hostetter
Lighting Design: Amith Chandrashaker
Sound Design: Kate Marvin
Theater
WP Theater
at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre,
2162 Broadway at 76th Street,
New York, NY 10024
