In the past few weeks New York has witness a lot: a hurricane, a snowstorm, and a little something called Hotel Suite.

As of this past Sunday, Rising Sun Performance Company completed our most ambitious project yet. Hotel Suite was a site specific theatre piece performed at Hostelling International at 103rd and Amsterdam in the Upper West Side. With most of experimental theatre and Rising Sun's pieces occurring in lower Manhattan, we ventured uptown to find the perfect venue for our project: three full length productions sharing a single hotel room. Our endeavor was no easy task, and it took support from an amazing network of people to make this happen. Here's a few of the factors that went into this project and the folks who made the pieces fall in place.

1. Dramatists Play Service- This company owns the rights to Bug, a show that Akia has wanted to direct for several years. Finally, this past year Dramatists issued Rising Sun the rights to be the first off-off-Broadway company in NYC to produce BUG.

2. Our Company- We have an amazing company this year. Everyone from the Rising Sun staff, the actors, the interns, and our other key support members are what made Hotel Suite deliver a set of awesome shows to the NY theatre community.

3. Our Donors- This project was ambitious in several ways, one of which was finances. We are a small grassroots theatre company with little in the way for budget. Our indie gogo campaign raised over $5000 to be our most successful fundraising campaign ever!

4. Hostelling International- Location, location, location. This was one of our biggest hurdles in producing Hotel Suite: finding a location that fit our needs willing to host us for over a month. Hostelling International gladly took us in, promoted and supported the show, and let us completely rent out a performance space and dressing area for a month. Believe me in NYC that is extremely rare!

5. Our Playwrights- Yes, yes, Tracy Letts and Sam Shepard are amazing, but what about the six playwrights who wrote the one acts featured in Room 128? These guys were chosen from tons of entries for one act plays set in hotel rooms. The entire company was involved in the selection process, and our final product was a diverse set of plays ranging from seductive donuts and raging Elizabethans to a not so happy ex-wife and a kooky clown and bellhop. 

6. The New York Theatre Community- Rising Sun is supported by a huge network of theatre groups including but not limited to: Horse Trade Theatre Group, NY Innovative Theatre Awards, The Field, Fractured Atlas, NYFA, and Materials For The Arts. 

SO...thanks to all of these people we did it! We did cancel a few shows, but we were able to add a couple additional performances for those patrons who missed the show due to Sandy. 

Finally...here is the list of donors!!! Thanks to everyone for making this dream a reality!

Anonymous X 10,  Aaron Balaster, Alison Berry, Andrea  Alton, Andrea Wachter, Anna Gorman, Ashleigh Herndon, Becky Rygg,  Bill Sharp, Billy Stephens, Blake Matzen, Charissa Jones, Colin Lewellyn, Dana Martin, Darsell Brittingham, Deborah Wolfson, Denie Roche, Dennis & Donna DeSimone, Dennis M Moore, Diana Byrne, Donna, Donnetta Grays, EJ Assi, Elena Naskova, Elizabeth Burke,  Emily Elam, Giovanna Fasolino, Henri Socha, Holli Handlogten, Hubley, Jacquelyn Rocha, Jamie Cummings Jason Le Master, Jason Tyne-Zimmerman, Jchoos, Jeffrey Keenan, Jena McRae, Jessica Bhargava, Jim and Barb Aguirre, John K. Hart, Jorel VanOs, Josh Hyman, Josh M Roche, Karen Libman ,  Karron Karr, Kate Foster,  Kathryn Grant, Katy Grimes, Kelley Evans,  Kristen Gonzalez, Kristin Konopka, Larry Gevirtz, Laurel Ryan, Lauren Stockner, Leal Vona,  Lory A Henning, Marian Welch-Evans, Mark Cornell, Mary Hawkins,  MaryAnn DeSimone, Maryellen Burns, Matthew Cornell, Matthew DeCoster, Meg Carstens, Megan R Becker, Meri Minatel, Mia Anderson,  Michael J Richards, Michael Jaros, Michael Walker, Michele Mossay, Mimi  Jefferson, Miriam Goldberg, Nina Psihoules, Paul Fengler, Rachel Klein,  Rich Weksberg, Robin Dennis, Ruth Williams Hennessy, Sahadev  Poudel, Salli Squitieri, Sarah Norris,  Sarah Whicker , Scott Eddlemon, Selina Troesch, Sharone Halevy,  Shay Gines, Shoshana Freisinger, Stacy Alley,Stephanie Plaitin ,Stephanie Pruett, Steve & Cynthia Collier, Susan Bell, Susan Russell, Susan Tarran, Tahra Millan, Tim Butterfield, Toni Rafferty, Tzipora Kaplan, Amanda Berry, Una Osato, Veronica,  Vincent DiGeronimo, Zhubin Parang

What's that? More shows!

Exciting things happening for Hotel Suite. It's not over yet! Please share the word with everyone:

Room 128 Fri Nov 9th @8pm

Room 128 Sat Nov 10th @ 2pm

Fool for Love Sat Nov 10th @ 5pm

Also grab a copy of this week's Time Out magazine and flip to the back to see the photo of the week!

And a Room 128 Cast photo!!!

Tiffini just got married! Insert wedding photo!

Name: Tiffini Minatel

Hometown: Roxboro, NC!

Favorite Color: Sage green

Favorite Food: All of it, except maybe octopus.  Def no octopus. And bunnies, or ducks, sheep, goat, deer.  And absolutely no squirrel, possum, frogs and snakes!

Superhero power: Reading minds! People assume I can do this already so might as well wish for it ;-)

Role with Hotel Suite: Wardrobe & Finances, in that order!

What inspires you:  A bottle of awesome red wine at the end of the day

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite:  SLEEP!

Photo Call1

The clouds have parted, trains are slowly chugging through parts of town, and Hotel Suite relaunches tonight with Room 128! Here's a special peek into Room 128's photo call!

Stephon and Sammy for Slap Happy

Carl and Samantha for One Room Over

Director Sarah Norris places Lady Macbeth

Pose 1

And now from a slightly different angle...

Stephon finds photo call boring

Strange bedfellows

AW...

Oh...ok...

The Bellhop needs to be held close when Izzy is around!

This woman is crazy!

Me too guys, me too...

What...just the insanity of Sunday...

Name: Juni Li

Hometown: Syracuse, NY

Favorite Color: Purple

Favorite Food: Lasagna (like Garfield the cat)

Superhero power: Enhanced regeneration

Role with Hotel Suite: Stage Manager for Fool For Love

What inspires you: 1960s music; Chopin; Grieg; Debussy; French, British and Japanese films from the 50s/60s;1930s films (pre- and post-code); Spring and Autumn; history; cloudy days; sorrow; birds; Sylvia Plath; loss; conspiracy theories; silent films; foreign films; silent foreign films; folk tales and urban legends; sniffing ball point pen ink on paper...and Peter Sellers.

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite: Finding out what crew member I have each performance

So...today was our second show cancellation for Hurricane Sandy. Of course, we still have power and internet! But with all routes of mass transit shut down, it seemed a little silly to have a show! But the cast is all safe and sound with enough booze to inebriate a small army!!!

Name: Ashleigh Herndon

Hometown: Myrte Beach, SC

Favorite Color: The color of Grimace. The McDonald's character.

Favorite Food: Anything but donuts!

Superhero Power: Well, the invisibility cloak isn't exactly a superhero power. But I have a knack for finding bellybuttons.

Role With Hotel Suite: Actor in "Welcome to the Hotel Doughnut" and "The Bellhop"

What Inspires You: Pumpkin beer, People on New York subways, Life, Bat signals

Biggest Challenge With Hotel Suite: Eating so many doughnuts. And being super vulnerable so close to people.

Today a special new friend/enemy (definitely not a frenemy) joined the Hotel Suite gang. 

Name: Hurricane Sandy

Hometown:  The Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, but I travel a lot.

Favorite Color: the color of destruction

Favorite Food:  whatever comes in my path

Superhero power: Shutting down the entire MTA and most methods of mass transportation

Role with Hotel Suite:  Show Cancelation Specialist
What inspires you:  Cold fronts from the west and high pressure systems from the north! 
  
Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite:  Those damn actors are so determined to put on a show even after I take out all ways of getting there. Talented bitches. 

Name:  Mark Cornell

Hometown:  Carmichael, CA

Favorite Color: Orange

Favorite Food:  Butternut squash ravioli

Superhero power:  Omniscience

Role with Hotel Suite:  Playwright, Tell Me You Love Me

What inspires you:  The open road.  

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite:  Getting to see it.  I live in Chapel Hill, NC.

Our fearless leader...

Name: Akia

Hometown: Princeton, NJ 

Favorite Color: Purple 

Favorite Food: Anything with tomatoes

Superhero power: The Ability to stop time 

Role with Hotel Suite: Producer and Director of Bug

What inspires you: My fellow ensemble members, NYC 

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite: Falling in Love with everyone on the project..That much love is exhausting

Two posts for today! Two of our directors for Room 128! Not too mention Jak is the man who transformed our lovely room into a viable theatre space!! Oh...and as I just learned there both from the distant land of New Jersey.

Name:  Jak Prince

Hometown:  Totowa, NJ    

Favorite Color: Blue    

Favorite Food:  Personal recipe Chicken Pockets

Superhero Power: Staying up all night!

Role in Hotel Suite: Director ("Just Another Sappy Slap Happy Face") Scenic

design and Technical Director

What inspires you:  Working with the very talented members of this ensemble

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite:  Other than dealing with the randomness

of the NJ Transit bus schedule, my biggest challenge has been turning a

hotel room into a theatre which is supposed to look like a hotel room!

Juggling the needs of 8 very different scripts into one design that works

for everyone and keeping the blood off the floor!  But it is a labor of love

as I look forward to each meeting, rehearsal and performance with great

anticipation because of the wonderful people I work with.  

Name: Tim Errickson

Hometown: Vineland, NJ

Favorite Color: Blue

Favorite Food: Sushi

Superhero power: Unlimited daily calorie burnoff

Role with Hotel Suite: Director of GREENLIGHT by Angela C. Hall, part of Room 

128

What inspires you: Positive people, people who see that anything is possible. Also Jack Daniels, good music, and Friday Night Lights

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite: Being open to what the Hostel would really be like while we were rehearsing. I've never directed a show in a hostel before (scratch that off the bucket list) so staying flexible enough to still find happy accidents and new things in the hostel while in tech.

The reviews are in for Bug! Check them out!

http://showbusinessweekly.com/article-2151-%E2%80%9Cbug%E2%80%9D-by-tracy-letts-directed-by-akia.html

http://nypress.com/doug-strasslers-west-side-theater-roundup/

He's pretty darn athletic.

Name: Carldinho (pronounced carleanyo) Fengler

Hometown: Burlington, VT

Favorite food: Wild grilled salmon and fresh mashed potatoes

Favorite color: ocean blue & forest green...I'm being so crunchy

Role in Hotel Suite: Leonard, the newly wed guy  in One Room Over and Dr. Sweet in Bug

What inspires you: two days ago when I was arriving for show call, I saw this Michael Jackson impersonator outside a random bodega and he was...awesome! His moves were sharp, laser focus, you could tell he had rehearsed hours and hours and was absorbed in the moment & enjoying sharing his enthusiasm. That was pretty inspiring.

Biggest challenge with hotel suite: the female lead opposite me was double cast so both have their own rhythms, energy & blocking. But they're both wonderful actors & our director did a great job creating a solid structure we could still have a lot of room to play in. So my biggest challenge is also a lot of fun.

AND... a special look backstage during Room 128. Starring Carl and Mike Burns

ANDDDDDD....It's our lovely stage management intern from the summer Louisa's birthday today! 

Louisa was originally stage managing all 8 shows for Hotel Suite! It took three people to replace her. She's pretty awesome!

Tim is the handsome gentleman on the left, that other good looking guy is Fool for Love cast member Jonathan Ziese!

Name:

Tim Butterfield

Hometown:

Phoenix, AZ (but please don’t hold that against me)

Favorite Color:

Viking Purple

Favorite Food:

Tomatoes

Superhero power:

Invisibility. No, really. I’m standing behind you right now.

Role with Hotel Suite:

Director – Fool for Love

What inspires you:

What really inspires me? People who don’t believe in “can’t”. People who’s vocabularies seethe possibility. People who tilt at windmills and people who know what tilting at windmills means.

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite:

Actors. These damn actors… have… feelings… and ideas. They rarely stand where you tell them to. They want to express themselves and bring parts of themselves to these roles…

I’m starting to understand the allure of puppets

I didn't make it to post yesterday! So we have two for today!

Name: Stephon Pettway

Hometown: Bridgeport, Ct/ Durham, N.C.
Favorite Color: Green

Favorite Food: Chinese

Super Hero Power: Invisibility & Super Speed

Role with Hotel Suite: Just Another Sappy Slap Happy Face

What Inspires You: Chris Gardner, never let anybody tell you that you can't do something. If you got a dream you protect it. If you want something go get it period.

Biggest Challenge with Hotel Suite: Making people believe that I am not a frightening clown.

Gotta love those Stage Managers!!

Name: Meg Dowling

Hometown: Glenside, PA (suburb of Philadelphia)

Favorite Color: Pink!

Favorite Food: perogies and kielbasa

Superhero power: patience (which I WISH i had more of!)

Role with Hotel Suite: Stage Manager of Room 128

What inspires you: music and life

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite: not having chocolate until the last day of tech!

This post comes from one of our guest artists!

Name: Kervin Peralta

Hometown: Bronx, NY

Favorite Food: Pizza

Superhero power: Puppeteer

Role with Hotel Suite: Joel in "The Bellhop" 

What inspires you: Watching talented Individuals live up to their potential

Biggest Challenge with Hotel Suite: being silly but maintaining truth.

Today's post comes from another playwright from our show Room 128!

Name: Linda L. Rand 

Hometown: Born in Glendale CA and not living that far from it STILL! I have to write plays to get in touch with the world since I won’t move my “arse” to get there!

Favorite Color: Autumn colors. You pick. But I look great in browns, greens, rusts. As I age…I’m told blue and pink look real good on me. Think I’m losing blood and need color?

Favorite Food: Anything except okra. That’s the problem.

Superhero power: Still trying to find one.

Role with Hotel Suite: Playwright of JUST ANOTHER SAPPY SLAP HAPPY FACE. If you’ve seen it…it will explain my comments. If you haven’t maybe this will lure you in to see the production.

What inspires you: Helping people and seeing them have their dreams come true.

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite: Getting there to see the production in person and taking pictures with the cast and crew and seeing my play and name on a marquee or something that resembles a marquee.

Today's post comes from one of our acting company members!

Name: Samantha Olivia DeSimone 

Hometown: Brooklyn, New York

Favorite Color: Leopard print

Favorite Food: margaritas 

Superhero power: to wear six inch heels and never get blisters 

Role with Hotel Suite: donut in welcome to the hotel donut and Abby in just another sappy slap happy face

What inspires you: Zach Morris in Saved by the bell season 3. He inspired me to get highlights and taught me to always talk straight to camera.

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite: Hotel Suite has been my first new York production since graduating college (Wagner Holla) this May. The transition into this real world has been eased by being around this extremely talented and welcoming group of people, who have always allowed me to be myself. So...then I guess the biggest challenge was learning to do my laundry on my own out of a dorm room.

Name: Ian T. Wehrle

Hometown: Fanwood, New Jersey

Favorite Color: Vermillion

Favorite Food: Grilled Octopus

Superhero power: Inspiring Virtue in Others

Role with Hotel Suite: Sound Design

What inspires you: Ancient Mysticism

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite: The Latch on the Door to the Second Floor from the stairwell. 

so... Today begins our meet the cast and crew series. Each day I will post information about a cast, crew, production or artistic staff member. We will start off with one of our six playwrights for Room 128, a series of six original one acts.

Name:Matt Hanf  

Hometown: Elk Grove--home of neither elks nor groves

Favorite Color: beige--I live in the suburbs

Favorite Food:  chorizo--but not to eat--to study

Superhero power:  I can see through people's windows

Role with Hotel Suite: playwright for Welcome to Hotel Doughnut

What inspires you:  deadlines

Biggest challenge with Hotel Suite:  I'm a writer--I don't face challenges--I avoid them.