SoHo Shakes, NYC’s most innovative new theater company, alongside communications director Marina Dojchinov hosted a stylish cabaret benefit last week. Intended to garner continued support for free education and programs, plus grants and scholarships for paid courses, the self-sustaining theater company offers free beginner to advanced classes and education to 18+, while producing 4-5 shows a year. It plans to show Anton Chekov Four sisters adaptation in the fall at the critically acclaimed Flea Theater. The motto of the nonprofit is to bestow the theater affordably to the vast public, instead of to the select few. Set in an awesome Tribeca art gallery space—surrounded by eclectic fine arts, photography studio, and city views—singers, actors, and artists alike coalesced fractally.
Speeches, catering by Hot Potato Awesome, live jazz by Broadway superstars Dolly Lewis and Roman Ivanoff, cabaret, Shakespearean monologues, mingling and drink exuberantly saturated the stretch of the evening. Jennifer Fouché of “POTUS”, “Chicken and Biscuits”, “White Girl in Danger” debuting March 2023 and Tony Nominated choreographer Jeffrey Marc Alkins from “Mr. Saturday Night” also gave captivating performances.
Theater fosters a whole range of benefits to both those involved and bearing witness, especially in this technology crazed world: Empathy and tolerance, cooperation and collaboration, social awareness, memory, and confidence. Theater took a massive hit during pandemic, but now it is back and needs our help asserts Alex Pepperman, SoHo Shakes’ founding artistic director.
“Live theatre is back after a long pandemic-inflicted hiatus, and it needs our support more than ever before. Theatre holds a Hamletian mirror up to the world. It shows us who we are and what we’re capable of. It teaches us empathy and makes us better global citizens. Especially here at SoHo Shakes—we’re telling the stories you don’t get to hear and desperately need to.”
A longtime actor, Pepperman partook in the community in college and thought: “I can create this. To give back to community. To treat artists better.”
I also seized the opportunity the interview actor Jeffrey Marc Alkins. Holding the room and time in standstill with his brilliant dramatic Shakespearean monologue, the performer and resident company member starts with SoHo Shakes in its infancy. Participating in readings, Alkins most recently played Richard III in Richard III. Having been invested exclusively in Shakespeare for 5 years, “Alex Pepperman and I went to the same acting conservatory at different times. And we bonded over our mutual love for Shakespeare.”
When asked why they love Shakespeare so much, Jeffrey Marc responds: “Everything is life or death in Shakespeare. Murdering ones loved ones to get what you want, for example.” The actor with a particular knack for “humanizing villains” references Titus Andronicus as the best villain of all time. “When he needs to repent. He says ‘I only wish I would’ve ben more evil’ and that’s amazing. He also highlights Shakespeare’s persisting relevance in today’s world:
“Today it manages to be relevant—so when u get combination of great writing, heightened stakes and are still able to make it relate to world today, it’s amazing.”
Meanwhile, Pepperman jokes: “I’m heavily dyslexic, and the words in Shakespeare are already moved around, so when I read it, they stay perfectly still.”
An illuminating evening with networking opportunities aplenty, it’s certainly fulfilling to support a company so dedicated to storytelling that challenges conventional narratives. By shining a light on the all too often overlooked, we meaningfully resurrect voices of the past and integrate them into the present.
