June is here and “Women on the Fringe” are again onstage!
There is nothing quite like the buzz that’s created during the Hollywood Fringe. It is a time filled with risk-taking, courage, hope and independent artists creating new work by any means necessary. Each year, I ask women writers a new series of questions influenced by the Proust Questionnaire and Bernard Pivot’s French series, “Bouillon de Culture.” The goal is to understand the artist’s work and their full nature while allowing them a space to reveal their authentic self. It is a great gift and a true honor to introduce women who will be presenting work in myriad genres, exploring a wide range of topics that allow us to examine who we are as individuals and as a society.
Introducing Joy Regullano and her show, “Body Count”
Constance: What do you hope audience members take away after experiencing your show?
Joy: I hope that people learn at least a little something about themselves from my story. Maybe a little a-ha moment of why their relationships ended the way they did or an insight into their own relationship with their parents or family. In my fantasy of fantasies, people who need help would feel inspired to get the help they need, whether it’s through reading one of my recommended books, going to therapy or something else. I also of course hope that they’ll be entertained and laugh.
Constance: What’s been your biggest challenge in terms of your development/creation process?
Joy: It’s such a deeply personal show – more personal than anything else I’ve written and shared publicly, and that’s saying a lot because almost everything I write is very personal. So there’s a part of me that fears that anyone who is mentioned in the show will come to see it, haha! I’ve also been pushed by multiple people to go more into the dramatic and emotional, and as a comedian that’s not always my favorite place to go. But I hope that exploring those areas has helped make it more profound.
Constance: What are you enjoying most as you create your show?
Joy: It’s always really fun to see what the audience laughs at. What the audience responds to. Especially when it’s something I didn’t even think was funny. It’s a feedback loop – their reaction inspires me to tweak the show, which then hopefully causes them to laugh even more. I suppose what I’m speaking of is the workshopping process. I also enjoy connecting with people after they see the show and hearing what they resonate with, whether it’s a relationship with their parents, a way they’ve moved through the world in their romantic relationships, or something else.
Constance: What has been the most surprising discovery?
Joy: Just how many people resonate with what I talk about in my show? A lot of it is such a taboo topic, that it’s not like it’s the typical everyday conversation that always comes up. So I’m really glad to be part of an effort to normalize talking about these issues.
Constance: The work will be given away soon. How does that feel?
Joy: It’s scary!! I already feel the postpartum depression. And once you give it away, you can’t control how people take it. But it will also feel fun, connecting, and… relieving?? Haha. How long have you been sitting with this work? I’ve thought about writing something around this topic for a few years, but I think I needed some distance away from the events that actually happened in my life that inspired it before I was ready to shape it into a public show. So maybe like … 5 years? haha.
Constance: Why Fringe? Why this year?
Joy: I absolutely loved my last experience with Fringe in 2019 with my musical SUPPORTIVE WHITE PARENTS and wanted to do it again! I loved all the “fringeships” I made, and I love the community, and I found it to be an incredibly connecting experience. I had just come out of a solo show class at East West Players with a draft of this show, and it was either do Fringe now or wait until next year, which felt like an awfully long time to wait. So I did drag my feet a little bit, but I eventually pulled the trigger.
Constance: Anything else that must be said – please add!
Joy: Hope to see you at the show! I’m on IG @joyregullano and @bodycountsoloshow.n Our first show on Sun 6/9 @ 11pm is PWYC. No code is necessary! (And if you miss me at Hollywood Fringe this year, I’m taking it to NYC for a couple of show dates in late June as part of Pan Asian Rep’s NuWorks Festival! Check out the program here: https://www.panasianrep.org/nuworks-2024.)
For info and tickets visit https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/10932
