Review Fix Exclusive: Zac Jaffee Talks ‘Heroes and Other Strangers’

Review Fix chats with playwright and actor Zac Jafee about his new run of his critically-acclaimed one-man show, “Heroes and Other Strangers.”

About Heroes and Other Strangers:

It’s 1971. Lenny is perfectly content with his life. He works at a camera shop in New York’s Greenwich Village. He’s not in the war, not fighting against it, not tuning in, turning on, or dropping out. He’s not doing anything but standing on one side of a camera watching it all pass him by. But when a neighborhood girl disappears, Lenny finds himself searching for two runaway teenagers in San Francisco, where he finds hippies, revolutionaries, lovers, killers, heroes and other strangers, and, as it turns out, himself. A noir tale told through a psychedelic lens.

Written and Performed by Zac Jaffee
Directed by Alyson Schacherer Rutter
Produced by Danielle Cohn

Schedule:
All Shows are at 7pm
Fridays and Saturdays
1/15, 1/16, 1/22, 1/23, 1/29, 1/30

The show is approx. 75 min.

The location of the production is at The Barrow Group Studio 3A 312 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor

Review Fix: What makes this version of Heroes and Other Strangers special?

Zac Jaffee: In the play the main character, Lenny, talks about looking at the world through different lenses, and for anyone who saw the older version, it may feel like the same story from a different vantage point. Whereas the original might have been more presentational, or like a wide shot in a film, in this production Alyson Schacherer Rutter has really placed the audience right in the middle of the action and the effect is that you are in the story rather than watching it from a distance.

Review Fix: What have you learned about yourself through this production?

Jaffee: Having done four other productions of this piece, at FringeNYC, at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell in Chelsea, and at The Marsh and Stragewerx in San Francisco, it was interesting to find how ingrained the play was in my mind and body. What has been wonderful about this production and working with Alyson Schacherer Rutter is to shake off some of my old notions about how I’ve been playing some of the roles and scenes and look at it fresh. It’s really good for me as an actor to notice and I think it will be great for an audience to see me rediscover things.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone check out this production?

Jaffee: People should come see it because it doesn’t happen unless audiences are there to be a part of it. The intersection of the storyteller and the audience (whatever the medium) is where the magic happens. The play is a fun ride, an adventure, a coming of age/opening up story, and if you want an engaging night of theater I think this piece will fit the bill.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Jaffee: Heroes has a screenplay that is being developed by Waterbound Pictures and we are planning to take the play to California in the spring. Come see it now and you can say: “I saw that in a 40-seat theater in NYC in 2016.”