I’m working again with Infinite Variety Productions and I am so excited to share this script with the Edinburgh Fringe.
I am working as a dramaturg and UK liaison on Pretending to Fly, a play about two friends growing apart because of the Covid Lockdowns in NYC while exploring the story of Carla, a woman in the WASP program during WWII.
Find out more info about the play and IVP here!
https://www.infinitevarietynyc.org
I was so proud of my fellow classmates and I for officially graduating this past week. The MA Dramaturgy and Writing for Performance has had a year full of creating and imagination, and I am very excited to see all the paths we will take from here. Congratulations!
On Wednesday, June 23rd I was part of a night of readings featuring the plays of Greg Oliver Bodine. I played Nasima, a young, girl’s teacher Johnny had befriended during his tour on Afghanistan. Suffering from an injury and PTSD, Johnny relays his relationship with Nasima to his father in the middle of the night.
I feel such gratitude to have the opportunity to portray a brave educator who is a real casualty of war and to be part of a night filled with beautiful storytelling and community.
Jay Michaels invited Playful substance members to come onto his podcast and talk about playwriting. The conversation quickly turned to arts appreciation, education and the value of indie theater in New York City.
Have a listen!
June 3rd was Infinite Variety Productions’ annual fundraiser. This year’s theme was Flight a la the Golden Age of PanAm. Looking Skyward: A Night of Flight, Frivolity and Fundraising. The evening had a silent auction, cocktail tutorials and even goblins. The audience got a sneak peek of a current piece IVP is working on called Underground Astronauts and meet the real women the piece is based on.
I wrote a monologue for the night. I had so much fun playing Nadeen, the veteran PanAm flight attendant that was asked to step in and help in the busy flight. She handled herself really well.
I got to work with some amazing artist to put together a spectacular night of stories, music and heart. In association with Playful Substance and Bowie Enterprises, my short play Painful Whimsy got to have it’s premiere!
Having so much fun playing Jade, navigating online dating in the time of Covid in Instagram Diaries by KM Jones.
Part of the Zoom Festival with Planet Connections.
The bliss I feel when I get to collaborate with incredible artists.
I met some amazing people doing the Artists’ Way during quarantine and this is our second installment of telling stories in a show together.
Winter Wind will be performed over Zoom on January 12th.
I had to eat a ton of Nutella as a frustrated and depressed actor in Our Town in Mandarin for the Holiday show presented by Planet Connections.
What a fun way to end this crazy year.
I’ve been applying for survival jobs and submitting a ton of applications. I used my angst for comedy.
https://www.ladyspikemedia.com/post/what-i-should-ve-submitted-a-millennial-cover-letter
I get to work with some lovely people at the this month’s Freestyle Lab with NY Shakespeare exchange.
I, along with other with other first-generation and immigrant actors will read a selection of Shakespeare’s work and contemporary writers about immigration. We will then participate in a panel discussion afterwards.
We had the audience roaring with laughter!
A big thank you to my director Michele O’Brien, my actors Alison Preece, James Weeks and Andrew Dobbie, and Amy Patterson on stage direction for being an absolute dream team. Big thank you to the support of Reign or Shine Productions.
The first public reading of my first solo written full-length play will be impossible to forget.
I did an interview with Reign Or Shine Productions about my play Cohesion which is being presented in their Seeing Double reading Series.
ROS: What was the germ of COHESION and would you mind tracing the journey up to this point for us?
NH: COHESION started as a 10 minute play called BREAK UPS AND CRONUTS. I thought it would be funny to show a couple breaking up in public from across the room, while on the phone with each other. Most of my ideas for plays start this way; me finding a particular situation amusing and figuring out which kinds of people might find themselves in those situations. Jake is a culmination of men I’ve dated. I don’t know what that says about me. I think Val has my sarcastic and deadpan sense of humor.
In the short play, Jake and Val are a mess, they are rude and crass, and they are struggling with what they wanted out of life. It started off as a fun exercise and a reason to play with quick banter. After I finished the short play, I just felt that I wasn’t done with Jake and Val’s story. I felt a longing to see what happened to them before they got to screaming at each other in a New York City cafe. The full-length play then became a window into this relationship between two very flawed and imperfect people who could not get out of their own way.
I brought it with me to a week long dramatic writing workshop taught by Halley Feiffer at Lighthouse Writers in Denver last June. It has had some dramaturgical development from casual readings done at my apartment, and there have been elements that have been added or taken away. It even got a new name. The essence of Jake and Val has always been the same. This is the first time the play will be heard by an audience and I’m very excited about that.
ROS: The show very much examines the idea of chemistry between people. How would you define that kind of chemistry and how did you decide to explore it in this story?
NH: The play’s title, COHESION, is a call back to an event that happens in chemistry; it is the action or property of like molecules sticking together, being mutually attractive. I would say that the chemistry depicted in the story between Jake and Val is brought about because they are similar people who also happen find each other attractive. They are each other’s match when it comes to wit. Jake and Val surprise and tease each other through similar, sarcastic humor; they make each other laugh. They have a specific energy when they are around each other. But they are similar in other qualities as well; they avoid certain conversations, they don’t want to appear vulnerable, and they have a fear of abandonment. All of these traits are equally what binds them and what tears them apart.
Cohesion focuses on a very intense long-term connection between Jake and Val. How would you describe their relationship?
My over-arching goal in writing Cohesion was to show what fear can do to a relationship. If these two people had met at a different time in their live’s, when they had worked through their own struggles and insecurities, would it all have worked out? It’s funny, because all through the
play, Jake or Val are reluctant to call what they are participating in as a relationship. Val calls it hooking up at first, Jake calls it a friendship, they both don’t want to call it long-distance when that is definitely what it is. They push and pull at each other all the time. They joke and laugh, they have sex, they let each other in on some things, but not on everything. For some reason neither one can say, “hey, I like you. I want us to be together.” Fear of being rejected, of getting too close, of the other person leaving is underneath all their interactions. They use humor and sex to mask it until things are just not funny or sexy anymore.
ROS: There’s a rapid-fire pace to the dialogue! Is that something you like utilize often? And what makes that such a great fit for this piece?
NH: I like using banter in my plays, especially in ones where things take a dark turn. We use humor to survive through some awful things in life and I use that defense mechanism in my scripts. I also think its fun to write smart and clever characters. For this play, I thought it was important to show how differently Jake and Val talk with each other than with everyone else. They have a special rhythm and they’re on each other’s level. You almost can’t keep up. It shows their unique bond. I describe it as a tennis match; they are playing a game and they only drop the ball when one of them messes up or tries to cover an insecurity.
ROS: What’s next for COHESION and Niki Hatzidis?
NH: I hope COHESION has a full production someday and that I have the opportunity to tell this story again. For now, I have a lot more scripts in my head I want to put on paper. I wrote a one act, SETTING THE SKY ON FIRE, about the wives of the scientists living in Los Alamos during the creation of the atomic bomb. In my research, I found so many stories of women who were a part of the Manhattan Project that the play feels negligently unfinished. I want to write a series of one acts about all the women that I have learned about and their participation in the project. I also have an outline of a feature film inspired from one of my short plays called THE C WORD, about a young woman struggling with the possibility of a cancer diagnosis and the adventures she goes on in order to cope. My goal is to make a dent in that script too, so hopefully there will be a lot more typing in my future.
Come see the first reading of Niki's new play on Friday, October 11th at 7:30pm at The Drama League!
Anyone need tips on giving your friends FOMO when you don’t have the funds?
Click on the extremely long link below!
My first solo written full-length play Cohesion will be getting its first staged reading on Oct 11th.
Cohesion, about two people who are perhaps maybe perfect for each other, but who can't get out of their own ways long enough to make it work. They fall back on wit to mask insecurities, sex to distract from hard subjects, and make impulsive mistakes to hide from vulnerability. Basically they make a total mess of things
I was invited to join a group of funny people on The Brick Wall on Sept 11th, a comedy panel show on PATV Long Island where guests comment on current events in the media.. The episode is available to view via the link below!
So I guess I can add satirical comedy writer to me resume now?!
I’m happy to announce that I’ve joined the writing team of hysterically clever women at Lady Media! Check out my first article via the link below!
Pictured here with my amazing team after the performance of my short play Traces. Chandler Gregoire, Constance Cooper and our director Illana Stein.
It was such a pleasure to be a part of Ladyfest at The Tank!
I am joining a group of badass womxn playwrights in the Not a Pipeline Problem Festival as art of Ladyfest at The Tank.
My play Traces will be performed on August 22nd at 4pm. More info at The Tanks website link below!
