Julie Fitzpatrick ‘s acting Credits include: Anniversary (Ensemble Studio Theatre, Marathon ’10), Wolves (Kids with Guns),Almost Exactly Like Us (Theatre of the Expendable), Graceful Living (EST, Living Image Arts), PTSD (EST), Close Ties (EST), A Very Very Short Play (EST), Breakfast and Bed (EST); Talley’s Folly (Pittsburgh Public Theater),RiddleLikeLove with a side of ketchup (Town Hall Theater), Valparaiso (rUDE mECHANICALS), I Coulda Been A Kennedy (rUDE mECHANICALS), Clockwork Orange (Godlight Theatre Company), Crave (Bosley Theatrical Productions), Talley’s Folly (Pittsburgh Public Theater). TV: “Law & Order.” Film: “Cold Tea, Very Sorry”. Julie is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, Living Image Arts, and rUDE mECHANICALS. MFA: American Conservatory Theater.
EST…Quite a place.
Claire wrote me last week wondering if I’d jot down some ideas about working consistently at Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) in New York City and about how working there over the past 7 years has shaped me as an artist. Such a great question… I have quite a fondness for that dusty stalwart-of-a-theater-making machine on 52nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in Hell’s Kitchen. I’ve worked with a bunch of theater companies in the city, but EST is the one that’s my theatrical home. Even now, while I’m out of town doing “Talley’s Folly” at Pittsburgh Public Theatre, I find myself wondering how it’s all going over there – how are the regulars doing? Billy, Graeme, RJ, Annie, Paul, Jack, Scott, Abigail, Maria, Holli, Linsay, Polly, Haskell … writers, actors, directors, musicians.
I stumbled into and onto EST it on a freezing February day in 2003. I was working on a reading of a play by Mojie Cringler – she and I had been connected in San Francisco through ACT and it turned out we were both in New York the following winter – EST was looking to do a reading/possible production of her play “Fzzn Grrl” as part of their Sloan play series (which focuses on plays that weave scientific elements into their fabric). Mojie asked me to reprise the role of Ineke, the impulsive, smart, emotionally crinkled-up young scientist who I’d loved playing the year before. Mojie hooked me up with Abigail, the director, who said, “Let’s meet at EST at noon tomorrow – 6th Floor – Head west on 52nd Street til it feels like you’re going to end up in the Hudson River, and then you’ll see it on your right. Blue sign. White lettering.” And then she hung up. “EST? What’s that?” I asked the air.
I’m walking. It’s 52nd Street. I’m headed west. It’s cold. There’s wind. Finally: that blue sign with white writing “Ensemble Studio Theatre.” There’s scaffolding in front of the facade. (It seems there’s always scaffolding there. Always a work in progress – just like the plays that are being churned out inside of that old building’s walls.) It’s a tall-ish brick edifice. Eight, nine, ten stories…There are studios, galleries, theaters inside. EST resides on the 2nd and 6th floors.
Elevator has a sign on it: “Broken.” I take the stairs to 6.
Once “Fzzn Grrl” got going, I met Curt Dempster, who founded EST (and had run it for 35 plus years at that point), he was a lanky, strong-seeming man in a baseball cap and track pants. He had huge hands and a warm smile. I didn’t know who he was when we first spoke. I’d arrived early for “Fzzn Grrl” – I was setting up my/Ineke’s basement laboratory with a Periodic Table of Elements and some beakers when Curt walked in after having seen a run-thru of “Fzzn Grrl” the night before. We just dove into talking about the work – my work, the work at EST, Ineke’s work, creative work in general – how I felt about getting to play a scientist… He introduced himself to me and that was that – we connected. He said he ran the place. And then the snowball just started rolling.
That first conversation with Curt encapsulates what I have always loved about EST and why I look forward to getting back in there again soon after I return from Pittsburgh – it’s a theater where work is created, dissected, reworked, mounted, and enthusiastically explored. It’s a place where you can wear a baseball cap and your hiking pants and just hurl yourself into the play at hand. Yes, it’s good to have some stuff on your resume and to have an agent, but more importantly, what are you bringing to the table? You got your brain? Your heart? Your ears? Your guts? EST is a quirky and gritty place. It’s a place where writers write juicy roles that demand intelligence and care from the actors/actresses portraying them. Yes, the dressing rooms often need brighter light bulbs. Yes, the heat in the pipes goes crazy winter after winter adding a clanging soundtrack to the drama-of-the-day. Yes, there is another theater upstairs from the main-stage at EST in which Suzuki séances seem to be happening… c’est la vie. That’s EST.
EST also says “You wanna write something? Do it. Meet you here at 5pm – we’ll read your stuff, you’ll get notes on it and there will be an audience here Thursday so you can learn instantly what needs cutting and tweaking.” I took a playwriting course/lab with Curt for several year in a row. I had been a bit of a creative writer before that – dabbling in essays, short stories, and poetry – but when I started being in readings and watching the playwrights do their thing at EST, I found myself wanting to put a dramatic pen to paper. Curt taught a lab for writers, actors, directors and we all rotated through each role – sometimes awkwardly – but always prodded by Curt’s encouragement to dare to fall down and get back up and fall again and stand up more quickly the next time. I will always remember his dictum: “Places. Relax. Action.” I took that to mean (and still do) – “Get in place, Julie. Be where you need to be. Chill the frig out and do what you came here for.” Through that lab I wrote several character speeches, scenes and two full length plays, which all were staged there at EST.
As an actress, once I played Ineke, that led to acting in the new plays of Youngblood writers (the playwrights under 30 unit at EST) who do a kooky Sunday Brunch festival each month. There is a theme and 5 new plays written around it – then they are fully staged and performed and served up alongside mimosas, Bloody Marys, and eggs. It’s an all-out romp. The theater is packed. In these brunches I’ve portrayed funny, smart, idiosyncratic, unique women and from those kinds of gigs, I was asked to audition for EST’s main-stage productions… my favorite characters have included the sometimes-lesbian named Lex, a cerebral and morally-anchored academic named Connie, a British scientist named Rosalind, a love-lorn Oregon organic singing shopper named Bean, a sassy prostitute whose name escapes me, a heartsick cashier called Cindy, and a jailbirds’ frustrated wife…
My work in New York has been generated partly from my exposure at EST. My “Law & Order” gig came out of my performance of the aforementioned Bean – a L&O producer was in the audience, saw my work, and wanted me to send over my headshot/resume to Suzanne Ryan over at Lynn Kressel Casting for an audition. I booked a part soon after. A recent film I made, “Very Sorry” was shot by a woman who’d seen my work in a few Sunday Brunches and asked if I was interested in working on her film. My current job is through a director, Pam Berlin, with whom I worked at EST several years ago on a family drama called “Close Ties” – from my work in that, I was called in to read for “Talley’s Folly” and booked the gig. As I meet writers who then write elsewhere and directors who do the same, I get called in to audition because of our EST experience together – my work in New York has been really enriched/supported by EST.
It sure attracts some remarkable and dedicated artists – young, old – from all over the place. They’re people I admire – actors with whom I hope to always work and know. They’ve become my friends. EST pushes me through my comfort zone and keeps me on my toes – ready for the next audition and gig… being there has taught me to work quickly and to trust my instincts. It gives me the opportunity to try my hand at new work – to meet writers, actors, directors and to just dive in with them.
Curt passed away in 2007 and now Billy Carden is filling Curt’s shoes with such grace and humor that it’s remarkable. The same integrity and dedication to creating new plays echoes through that old elevator shaft and onto the 2nd and 6th Floors.
Ensemble is what is honored and cultivated at EST. And, at the end of the day, it feels really good to belong somewhere. Acting can be a lonely and sometimes solitary pursuit, but at EST I’ve found that I’m a part of something. A company that wants to make theater and wants me to make it with them. It’s such a gift, really. Yes, I plan to continue to work at other theaters and in television and film, but do I think I’ll often be walking west on 52nd Street to read a fresh script? Yes.
EST… Quite a place.
