Interview With Mark Brian Sonna
Posted by Jana Edele | Filed under News
What is your role in the Velvet Kittens?
I play the role of the MC, Johnny Johnson
How did you determine your onstage personality for the cabaret shows? Are there any actors who inspired you?
I thought it would be fun to play the character as flamboyant yet straight to confuse the audience as to what the heck is this man’s orientation? Though I play him differently then Joel Grey and Alan Cumming, both who appeared in the musical Cabaret I liked the odd sexual protrayal they gave, and tailored it to my “out there” side of my personality.
By night you are the Emcee for TVK, but by day you are an actor, director and playwright. (did I leave anything else out?) How did you get involved in burlesque and cabaret with your classical background?
I had worked with Jana Edele, the creator of The Velvet Kittens, in a play. She knew of my classical dance background – I used to be a professional ballet dancer- and knew I was an actor with strong improv skills. When she was first developing the show she contacted me with the thought of having me as the MC. Back then the show was more of a hybrid of a play/nightclub act, for it had a small storyline thread. While the show was modestly successful it became apparent that what worked best was the revue aspect of it versus the storyline. Due to my very busy performing schedule as an actor I wasn’t able to continue with The Velvet Kittens as they develop till about a year ago when suddenly she found herself without an MC one night. The MC role had been taken over by the lead comedian Dawn Diamond. She called me in desperation because she needed a fast replacement for the evening. I happened to be free. By then the format had changed pretty much what it is now. The show, though very sexy to men, always has had an empowering appeal to women because of the strong confident presentation of the characters the female dancers presented. Suddenly having a male MC helped counterbalance the estrogen level on stage, and it allowed for the men in the audience to connect to the show in a different way: As a guy I was making comments, puns, and jokes about the obvious attraction men found in the dancers. By making him sexually dubious it also made the emcee’s comments be seen as outrageously frank but not sexist.
You are also a trained dancer. Do the Kittens ever put you in any dance numbers? Do you do any dancing in any of your other work?
Though I hung up my dance shoes years ago on the professional level I frequently am used to advise on choreography or to choreograph shows around town. There was once a dance number the velvet kittens did which was a parody of ballet. Being classically trained, I so happen to be able to still do some of the moves, but what is shocking is that I still can do some en pointe work. Seeing a guy balance on toe shoes is hysterically funny and jaw dropping at the same time. for the show The Beulaville Baptist Book Club presents: A Bur-les-Q Nutcracker! I play the role of Dickey, the country hick that discovers how to dance, and proceed to do so quite well. The fact that I’m in my mid 40s and far from slim takes everyone by surprise when I end up doing split leaps in mid air. They just don’t expect that.
Do you have a favorite moment from working with The Velvet Kittens?
I always brag how professional everyone is in this group and how uber talented everyone is. This fact was proven beyond a doubt when the music cut out during one of the torch songs. the singer kept going a capella. then the music about 40 seconds later kciked back in. The singer was on pitch and on the exact beat. It was electrifying.
What do you enjoy about working in the burlesque/cabaret setting?
I never know what will happen next. Each audience is different. I have to gage the audience and determine how blue I can go. This requires alot of improv skills since nothing is scripted. Each performance becomes unique. I have done improv before, and long form improv (which usually is trying to create a scene that lasts 15 minutes or so) but I had never done a really long form improv which is basically 2 hours! There’s no other place that would require this level of skill, and it’s most challenging, and I welcome it.
You wrote a play inspired by the Kittens, could you tell me more about that?
I was asked to come up with a last minute Christmas show for the Stone Cottage Theatre last year. I was having lunch with Jana from The Velvet Kittens and was telling her my predicament about having to find or write something last minute and I had no inspiration. We were laughing about life, theatre, dance, and the entertainment world when inspiration hit. The title simply popped into my head. the play then wrote itself.
The Beulaville Baptist Book Club Presents: A Bur-les-Q Nutcracker! The women of the Beulaville Baptist Book Club are in dire straits financially, and as a last ditch attempt to save their book club they decide to do a fundraiser and hire the Beaumont Ballet to perform Tchaikovsky?s ?The Nutcracker?. Madge?s Piña Colada Casserole unfortunately sickens the entire cast with food poisoning and they are unable to perform. Luckily, there is another dance troop in town. It seems the Velvet Kittens Burlesque Dancers are stuck in Beulaville because their van broke down on their way to New Orleans. Madge has never heard of Burlesque, or as she pronounces it ?Bur-less-Q?, and in an act of necessity hires the dance troupe to do ?The Nutcracker?. The end result? The most original, unusual, and comical Nutcracker you have ever seen! It’ll run this December at the Stone Cottage Theatre in Addison. More info is at my production company’s website and at the show’s website.
How was the reception? Do many people want to see a naughty Christmas play?
The show as a huge hit with the public and the critics. We sold out every weekend and had to turn people away! The play went on to be receive the Column award nomination as Best new Play of the Year, which is a REAL big honor.
Do you have any plays that you are working on now?
I just finished casting my next play Dream Awake which will run in October. Tickets are now on sale for that here. It’s an eerie and thriller of a play. A court appointed psychologist is assigned to determine the sanity of a babysitter who is being charged with brutally murdering two children. Since the young woman has no recollection of the shocking event, to facilitate remembrance, the psychologist places her under hypnosis. The crime she proceeds to describe confirms her involvement in the brutal murder but not of the two children she’s accused of but of two others. The mystery deepens as the young girl proceeds to reveal more details of this new crime and the police are unable to locate the victims. Is her recollection faulty? Has the psychologist inadvertently created a false memory thus making an innocent person now guilty? Or is the girl actually a serial killer caught? Thrill as the mystery unravels and you discover if her memories are part of a dream or if they happen while she was awake.