Interviewing the Audience OFF-BROADWAY REVIEWS

NY TIMES
DAILY NEWS
TIME OUT
NY POST
AP

Opening Night:: February 10, 2011
Closing:: February 27, 2011

Theater: 37 Arts Theatre / 450 West 37th Street, New York, NY, 10018

Synopsis:

Playwright and filmmaker Zach Helm ("Good Canary", screenwriter/director "Stranger than Fiction" and "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium") brings a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience to The Vineyard. Based on a method originated by pioneering author, actor, and storyteller Spalding Gray, Zach invites individual members of each evening's audience to be interviewed by him on stage. The result is an improvised, intimate, and immensely compelling evening that expands our perception of theatre and narrative. By turns lighthearted and moving, strange and surprising, Interviewing the Audience is a not-to-be-missed special event.

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NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF Interviewing the Audience

If You Go to the Show, You May Just Land a Role
Charles Isherwood

February 10, 2011: Time to face it. You are probably not going to be making an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The waning days of that celebrated syndicated chatfest are upon us, and if you have not yet received the call, it is unlikely that you will be joining Ms. Winfrey on the plush couches under the comforting lighting to discuss your memoir of a miserable childhood, your new aromatherapy line or your discovery that sex just gets better in middle age.
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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS REVIEW OF Interviewing the Audience

Zach Helm's Spalding Gray-inspired concept gives audience voice
Joe Dziemianowicz

February 11, 2011: Shows aimed at getting the audience in on the act are enjoying a mini-moment. Rebecca Northan's recently wrapped "Blind Date" found her improvising with an unsuspecting guy each night. Now, in "Interviewing the Audience," Zach Helm spends an hour on stage at the Vineyard Theatre doing exactly what the title describes.
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TIME OUT NEW YORK REVIEW OF Interviewing the Audience

Zach Helm talks to strangers in a low-key theatrical stunt
Adam Feldman

February 11, 2011: Interviewing the Audience is a curious little show. Trim, unhurried and unthreateningly attired in shades of gray—with a hint of color poking out in his socks—Zach Helm begins by explaining that the piece is inspired by a stunt Spalding Gray used to pull: Instead of talking about himself as usual, the late monologuist invited audience members to converse with him onstage, guided by a set of standard questions. Best known as the writer-director of the heavily whimsical children’s film Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Helm goes a step beyond Gray by preparing only one query in advance—the opening one—and playing it by ear from there.
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NEW YORK POST REVIEW OF Interviewing the Audience

Staged Q&A session is a Gray area
Elisabeth Vincentelli

February 11, 2011: In the early '80s, the late mono loguist Spalding Gray created a show called "Interviewing the Audience" in which he did just that. He brought random theatergoers onstage and got them to open up. Writer-director Zach Helm ("Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium") saw the piece, and it made such an impression that he's revived it, with himself as the host.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS REVIEW OF Interviewing the Audience

Genial host shapes 'Interviewing the Audience'
Jennifer Farrar

February 10, 2011: This is a review of Tuesday's performance of "Interviewing the Audience," a thought-provoking show that will be different every time it is staged — and you might very well be in it. Yes, you, if you're an audience member of this fascinating, spontaneously created production.
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