We’ve been hearing this question a lot lately:
What’s going on with Coffee Cup?

And to this, we now have a definitive answer:
This year will be the last for Coffee Cup as we know it and we are each moving on to other ventures in life/theater.

Over the years, we’ve produced three original shows, ten amazingly entertaining parties and events, and worked with countless talented artists and amazing community organizations. That is a record of which we are proud. So proud in fact, that we want to celebrate our successful five year run with ONE MORE PARTY.

That’s right! We will be going out in style with one more epic bash, full of free booze and food, highjinx, carnival surprises and live entertainment. So mark your calendars for THURSDAY MARCH 31st, you don’t dare miss this one!

As we plan this party, we’d love to hear if you can offer anything to make the night a huge success: We will be holding a LIVE AUCTION, might you have any goods/services to donate (or know anyone who might)? As always we’ll be offering donated food/drink, might you know a liquor distributor/restaurant owner with a soft spot for the arts?

As we are disbanding, all proceeds for this benefit are going to the Coffee Cup inspired company, James & JF, co-helmed by Ishah Janssen-Faith for their Canadian Fringe tour this summer. You can read all about this fab duo here: www.jamesandjf.blogspot.com.

So, get ready for the event, check out James & JF, and open those rolodexes one more time for us!

And most of all, thank you. We couldn’t have done it without you and moreover we wouldn’t have wanted to.

See you March 31st!

-Coffee Cup
(Ishah Janssen-Faith and Jack McGowan)

We’re super excited to be working with some of the best artists in downtown theater today:

The amazingly talented Ike Ufomadu & Rob O’hare will join Ishah Janssen-Faith on stage as the ensemble.
The visionary Brad Krumholz of NACL fame is directing.
The mistress of words Delaney Britt Brewer is our scribe.
Master of lights Peter Hoerburger is illuminating our world.
Composer extraordinare Daniel Kluger is shaping our universe in sound.
Scenic luminary Eliza Brown will conjure our physical world.

We’re circling back around this idea of moments that pass between people on the subway. We are NOT redeveloping Standing Clear (it was too fun the first time, why would we want to fiddle with that?). We are NOT making a “subway play” (everyone’s got a bad subway play in their bottom drawer, don’t lie… we all do…keep it there!) and we are NOT doing anything we have done before (how can we learn if we don’t do something new?). We ARE starting from a point that interests all the artists in the room and seeing where it leads us all collectively. So far, it’s been a wonderful ride and I personally can’t wait to see where it leads us. We’re so happy to have been given this opportunity to be part of a festival that is really for the artists to develop work. It’s a unique opportunity and we’re still pinching ourselves…

So check back in to find out when the dates are and how it’s going!

Also, I was thinking about how similar they are to the sayings we all heard growing up, or even now, just little catch phrase sayings about life and living etc. I bet we all have super different ones though, and I wanted to hear some others from people. I mean, I grew up in Cambridge and there was some funny ones there, but I know there’s got to be others I have never even heard of, right? So. Here’s the deal. I would love to hear from you. Comment here on you fav sayings, or ones you wish were sayings.

Can’t wait to hear what they are! Then we’ll see what we can do with them.

Thanks!

Ishah

Keeping the Lights On: Ishah Janssen-Faith

I opted to take two trains rather than rely on the B/D. (Everytime I try need the B/D it lets me down.) So, I took a risk and hopped on the N to 42nd St. and transferred to the 1. As, I race through the throngs to people overfilling the platform, I hear overtop of my iPod, a steel pan. Personally, I think steel pans should be left in the Caribbean, where there chrams can be fully appreciated. (Quick sidebar, my sister was married to a the music of steel pan in the Virgin Islands. Charming right?)

As you may have guessed, I was not in the mood to wrestle through the ocean of people waiting for the local train let alone do it to underscoring of a steel pan. However, I paused, looked and smiled. Ever hear a Jamican (I’m assuming) play a steel pan, and sing “In the Mood” in a Jamican accent and not know the lyrics. Very funny. If I weren’t hard pressed to get to the other end of the platform, I would’ve shelled out a dollar. (Very unlike me.)

PS- I made it to Lincoln Center in record time. Thank you MTA.

Monday Feb. 4th, 7:00pm, N train from Herald Square to 42nd Street-Times Square transfer to the uptown 1 to Lincoln Center.

**This is part of a series entitled Subway Diary. These anecdotes are based on my real interactions on the NYC Subway. The basis of Coffee Cup (a theatre co)’s upcoming show in May at the Access Theatre in Manhattan.

I had twenty minutes to get from 76th/1st to Grand Central Station. VERY COLD OUT!

The 6 train came right away. I hopped on and pulled my apple out of my bag. As I’m polishing it, the middle door swings open and in he walks. Limp, crumpled cup, long facial hair, appears to have a disfigured hand, but can’t be sure. Raspy voice.

“Excuse me ladies and gentleman. I’m having a hard time. If you can spare any change, or any bit of food it would be greatly appreciated.-”

(I’m paraphrasing, I had my iPod on.) He spots me leaning. “Could you spare anything? I’m crippled.”

I just shook my head. I may have mouthed a, “sorry.” He limped away and started in on a pretty woman reading. It wouldn’t have deprived me of much to give him my apple. I’m having remorse. After I bit into the apple, I realized I should’ve given it away.

I have to do this commute for the next three Fridays. Maybe our paths will cross. Maybe I should leave a craigslist posting for him.

Friday Jan. 25th, 12:14pm, 6 train from 77th Street to Grand Central.

**This is part of a series entitled Subway Diary. These anecdotes are based on my real interactions on the NYC Subway. The basis of Coffee Cup (a theatre co)’s upcoming show in May at the Access Theatre in Manhattan.

I didn’t mind standing; there were too many older people out and about. So, when we pulled into Columbus Circle I gladly let the mêlée of tourists haggle for the spare seats, as long I was still permitted to retain my spot, leaning on the door.

She brushed on with a surprising amount of force for a woman of five feet and plopped herself into a seat she clearly couldn’t fit into, and wasn’t at all ashamed of spilling over to the sleeping man next to her. She rustled in her bag while I watched a man across the aisle give up his seat so two older women could sit next to each other. “I would’ve done that,” I thought, were I sitting. The doors close and we’re off.

I resume with my NY Times Magazine, and start to lean on the handrail. (A quick sidebar- I only lean on a handrail when it’s obvious that no one around me is going to hold on to it.)

As I’m leaning, I feel something poking into my left abdomen. The five-foot whirlwind, in addition to getting a seat, is holding on to the rail. Her knuckles are pushing into my side. I lean off for a minute and shoot her a dirty look, as if to say, “Excuse me, you have a seat. You don’t get the handrail too. Can you let go? This isn’t a roller-coaster.”

She’s oblivious, immersed in her paperback. So, I re-lean, this time pressing my body into the pole. I’m now realizing that the positive effect of not having to touch those filthy poles is pretty much obliterated by rubbing your entire left side of your coat into it, as opposed to maybe just the corner of your shoulder, but that’s not the point. She’s intruding on my standing space, after I was gracious enough to choose not to sit when I got on in anticipation of someone more needy.

She continues to read and my NY Times Magazine is no longer the focus of my attention. I start to huff, to no avail. I groan loudly. So loudly, that the woman across the shoots me a look. She won’t let go. (She reminded me of my grandmother. For some reason, whenever I’m driving and she’s in shotgun she clings to the safety strap above the window. I’ve never asked why.)

We pass four stops and I’ve run out of subtle ways to make her let go short of asking her, which we all know would be unthinkable. Just as I’m retreating to the less desired spot or leaning on the door, she starts to level herself to move. Her hand lets go of the handrail. I’ll call it a draw. She cranes her neck to me and I think she might speak, but her gaze goes right past me. Her entire head is out of her designated sitting section and in front of my stomach. I realize she’s peering out the door to see what stop we’re at. Once she’s got her info, she returns to her book and the hand shoot back up for the rail.

I admit defeat and curse her inside my head. Next stop was mine, so I pack up. As I’m exiting the train I start to ponder why someone (who isn’t under the age to ten) choose to hold the handrail when they had a seat.

Does she have separation issues? Has she fallen out of her seat once when the subway jerked? Is it a medical thing, her back maybe? Does she not know the rules of riding the subway: if you take a seat, you don’t get a handrail as well, and you can’t get mad if my backpack comes within an inch of your face? Or is she just and oblivious old lady?

Clearly one of us is too neurotic to ride the subway during rush hour.

Monday Jan. 23rd, around 4:30pm, 1 train from 66th Street/Lincoln Center to 23rd Street.

**This is part of a series entitled Subway Diary. These anecdotes are based on my real interactions on the NYC Subway. The basis of Coffee Cup (a theatre co)’s upcoming show in May at the Access Theatre in Manhattan.

(Cue that sliding door in between the cars.  It rattles open and somehow manages to not fully close.)

“It’s never too late to late for God.  God loves us all and He wants us to enter his kingdom.  We have to prepare.  He is upon us…”

I’m dying to look up and inspect the sign that’s draped across her chest that’s less than a foot from my face, but I feel this might invite direct contact.  To continue reading is now next to impossible.

“…each one of us is sinners.  We have to feel His love.  He loves us.  He wants us to feel His love.  If we don’t prepare, we ain’t gonna make to his kingdom.  We have to make it…”

I can’t tell if anyone else is as bothered as I am.  She’s no match for the iPod, but the out-of-towners (not foreigners, I’m guessing North Easterners) are carrying on an across-train-conversation without missing a beat, albeit her sign is less than two feet from them.

“…we must show the love.  For each other too.  Satan wants us too.  We have to reject the temptation…”Stop one, the doors open, but she doesn’t budge.  Out-of-towners pass the subway map across the aisle and say something about the Christmas tree.

“…if you let Satan in, you can’t enter the kingdom…”

The doors close, and I realize I’m on an express and should be on a local.  Out-of-towners pass a generic black shopping bag across the aisle.  

“…how are you gonna enter if you let Satan in?  We have to love our brothers.  Love our sisters.  And we have to show Him how much we love him…”

iPod stops. Out-of-towners pull out an un-opened bottle of wine. I put my magazine back in my bag.

“…I want to take you there…”iPod starts again, just as loud.

“…He’s waiting for us-is that olive oil?”

Out-of-towners are examining, what looks like, an expensive olive oil bottle, with herbs trapped inside it.

“That looks nice.” 

Apparently a $20 bottle of olive oil is welcome in the kingdom. True story.  

Tuesday Jan. 8th, around 8:00am, B train from Broadway-Lafayette to Herald Square. 

**This is part of a series entitled Subway Diary.  These anecdotes are based on my real interactions on the NYC Subway.  The basis of Coffee Cup (a theatre co)’s upcoming show in May at the Access Theatre in Manhattan. 

I know it’s been a while, but believe it or not, we are still here. We have been in a company reorganization mode for far too long and we are ready to come back into the light! It was like hibernating. Roooooaaaaaaaarrrrrrr. We are waking back up. The website it being updated from the last show, and we are gearing up for another showing this fall. We are all really excited and can’t wait to get back in the swing of things. Keep an eye out for more news. But fear not, we are not a flash in the pan, we are here to stay! We are looking for directors and actors, so if you know of any, send them our way! More soon…

Come see for yourself!

here’s all the info:

TURNING TABLES

Sept 28th-Oct 15th

Thur-Sun 7:30pm, Sat& Sun 3pm

Collective:Unconscious, 279 Church st. off White St. in Tribeca.

go to www.coffeecuptheatre.org for all the details.

Tickets: www.theatermania.com

Can’t wait!