Longtime Creative Partners Bring Collaborative Theater to Armonk With ‘Two Junes and No July’

By Elaine Clarke

When actor Michelle Concha moved from New York City to Ossining in 2009, she was seeking an artistic community.

She found that creative comfort and chemistry in playwright Susan Jennifer Polese, a Mount Vernon native and longtime fixture of the Westchester arts scene.

The pair met at a local theater company, clicked instantly, and began a creative partnership that has lasted nearly two decades.

“She has such a nuanced, beautiful way of capturing female characters when they’re broken and when they rise above that brokenness,” Concha said in a recent interview with The Examiner, also noting that the two have worn many hats together—writer, actor, director, and producer. “The level of trust and respect that I believe we both have for each other is just so wonderful.”

The admiration goes both ways.

“The minute I saw her acting, I was like, ‘Okay, she’s professional, and I want to work with her,’” recalled Polese, a North Salem resident.

Their collaborative artistry has led to Polese’s most recent project: Two Junes and No July, directed by Concha and produced by State of Play theater company. The show will premiere at Whippoorwill Theater in Armonk the first weekend of September, the result of years of work between Polese, Concha, and State of Play. Tickets are available online now.

The show, which is the first production by State of Play since moving to Westchester, follows Frank and Angie, an Italian-American immigrant couple, in the summer of 1951 after they have to move to Augusta, Georgia, when Frank is drafted to be a GI in the Korean War. Living with an eccentric Southern woman and her dangerous husband, Angie finds herself in a world full of secrets and questionable morals.

Polese explained the story is loosely based on her own parents and their experiences as New Yorkers in the South. She said she writes stories that are character-driven.

“I like to write a lot about people that are very familiar with each other, that have known each other since childhood and as adults,” she said. “I’m very interested in friendship and family.”

Although a writer, Polese also works as a psychotherapist, which she says blends well with playwriting and her interest in human nature. She emphasized the stories she writes involve social justice issues and, although Two Junes and No July is a period piece, its underlying themes of women’s reproductive rights resonate with the present.

“It’s connected, even though it takes place 70 years ago,” she said. “The play is not easy. It’s fun, but it can make you uncomfortable. And that’s what my favorite theater does.”

Heading North

Led by Concha’s initiative, the artistic director of the company, State of Play made the move from New York City to Westchester during the pandemic to explore the county’s theater community. State of Play Executive Director and co-founder Adam La Faci believes the caliber of talent they have found in the region has been on par with that in New York City.

“Especially these, either emerging playwrights or individuals who are developing new scripts, they just have really interesting things to say,” he said. “Thus far, it’s really been a fantastic transition for us.”

Briarcliff Manor’s Laura Shoop, an actress who plays the character of Maybelline in the show, has also found a great audience in Westchester. She believes area residents are exposed to more theater than other parts of the country and can appreciate a good show.

“They understand good theater—they actively go and support it,” she said. “The audiences up here are really hungry for great theater, and that is something remarkable and special.”

Concha is especially excited to show Westchester audiences their first work since the big move. She stressed the importance of the ambiance of the theater as part of the whole production of a show.

“From the moment you walk in, I want you to feel and experience, whether it’s the music, whether it’s the cocktails we’re serving,” she said. “All of it, all of it, has to be an experience for me and for what I really want Westchester audiences to feel when they come to a State of Play production.”

Developing Great Art

Creating a State of Play production, Polese said, has been an incredible experience. She was introduced to the company by Concha, who has been a member since 2007.

State of Play is an incubator for playwrights, allowing them to hone their work through a process that collaborates with the director, actors, and a real audience to flesh out scripts and give plays movement and life. Polese explained State of Play is writer-focused and approaches creating theater collaboratively.

“Even at this point, we’re working on it and honing it. It’s like ultra-collaborative,” she explained. “It absolutely 100% gets enriched by the actor’s choices and interpretation, by the direction, and by the vision of the director.”

Collaborative theater-making is nothing new to the industry—however, one that is focused on the playwright, rather than director or actors, is less common. That was the goal of State of Play since its inception in 2006, La Faci said.

“There are definitely some programs for playwrights as well, but not many that would directly connect playwrights with a group of other professionals that they could collaborate with to refine and develop a piece when it’s early in its development,” he explained.

After working together in the Miniature Theater of Chester, now known as the Chester Theater Company, in Massachusetts, La Faci and other actors wanted to continue collaborating and founded State of Play, with the idea of matching emerging playwrights with a dramaturg, director, and group of actors to develop new works. All, La Faci explained, with one aim in mind.

“Even if it was just for a single staged reading, to get it up in front of an audience, so that the playwright could have real, live audience feedback,” he said. “What jokes are landing, what emotional arcs make sense? What characters could use a little bit more sharpening?”

Shoop emphasized what an incredible resource it is to have the writer there to develop the show alongside the rest of the company.

“With every day, I’m discovering aspects of my character and this play that I just have been enjoying so much,” she said. “It just gives me so much energy to be in the room and be working with these tremendous actors and with this creative team. It just feels like the sky’s the limit.”

Concha noted the importance of working with living, breathing playwrights to develop new theater. She believes creating spaces for new voices to start is the only way for the art to continue. At State of Play, she wants to build that space for playwrights.

“I want them to feel supported. I want them to feel that there’s somebody there that is willing to take the time if they want to commit to it, to furthering their voice,” she explained. “Because, at the end of the day, it’s cyclical. We all feed on each other, so how else are we going to keep it going if we don’t make space for others?”

Performances of Two Junes and No July run Thursday, Sept. 4, through Sunday, Sept. 7, at Whippoorwill Theater in Armonk. Preview tickets are $25, opening night with reception is $40, and other performances are $35. The 90-minute show, with no intermission, is recommended for audiences 13 and older.