Meet Sofia Johnson
Writer of Kelfia Productions’ 22 Stories

$5 tickets to 22 Stories at FringeNYC

What’s next on your Netflix queue?

I don’t watch nearly as many movies as I should. I am currently  accepting recommendations.

What’s playing on your  iPod right now?

“Life During Wartime” by Pinhead Gunpowder

Last good book you read was…?

Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons. (I’m going through a female
psychology phase.)

Your favorite restaurant in the city is…?

Since I am a student, I must say I frequent coffee shops more often  than restaurants. Of those, Podunk on E. 5th st. between 2nd avenue and Bowery is my favorite. The people who run it act like relatives,  and their tea and coffee selections are great. It’s a it on the expensive side, but when iced tea comes with mint leaves and fruit, and hot tea comes in a tray with the whole shebang of cream, sugar, scones and jam, you get what you pay for.

All-time, hands-down favorite piece of theater:

I have to be one of those people who says “I don’t have one.” Sorry  guys. I’m too much of a nerd to single out one show above all the rest. I will say, though, that since Shakespeare was my first theatrical love, I will always gravitate towards him. I will also say, that because of purely personal reasons, American Idiot rekindled my love of theater. I owe that show so many thanks.

What’s the best thing about FringeNYC?

I always hear that in the theater world, people are running out of new ideas. In mainstream theater, people choose to ignore them for the sake of financial stability. The indie shows I have attended seemed too wrapped up in their own concepts to produce a piece of work that people can connect to. Needless to say, I was one of those jaded thinkers, until I heard about some of the other shows at the Fringe. There was absolutely no limit to the level of diversity or creativity that the Fringe shows exhibit every year. If you are writing theater, no matter what it is, the Fringe is a great place to give your work the audience it deserves. If you are merely a spectator, the Fringe is living proof that theater is alive and well.

What’s the #1 reason people should come see your show?

We are all confused to some extent. Confused about where we stand with the world, where we want to go from here, even if we are happy with ourselves.  This confusion is especially prevalent in a teenager’s live, as he or she is first getting a taste of what independence truly means. Many, many adults try to accurately capture that adolescent turmoil, and while some may succeed, most of them cannot completely grasp the emotional intensity of that tumultuous period in a person’s life.  In order to capture it, you must be living it. Whenever we are confused or stressed, we need to know that we are not alone. The characters in 22 Stories are insecure. They rethink things. They are under tremendous pressure to conform to a specific identity that they don’t totally embody. That’s universal among teenagers, and in the case of this show, told through someone who is, indeed, living it. I know exactly how you feel.

Do you have any opening-night rituals?

I like to treat every night as opening night, so I don’t really have any rituals. Unless you count, of course, the ball of excitement deep in my stomach that lasts the entire show.

What are the craziest performance conditions you’ve had to work under?

In the summer of 2006, I was part of a theater troupe/camp. We performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream on an outdoor stage right outside
the Old Stone House in Brooklyn. The first show ran the definition of  smoothly. The night of the second show, however, the weather decided   to make things interesting. By interesting, I mean torrential downpours. The only open space for us was an old church down the street with no means of air flow whatsoever, and a completely different stage setup. We had to relearn a whole new set of blocking, sweating underneath our Shakespearean getup, for a show in two hours. Fun? Fun.

How did you get involved with the arts?

Growing up, I was always in my own little world, creating new characters for myself every day. So reality never quite satisfied me. Maybe the fact that other kids didn’t interact with me had something to do with it. When I was in second grade, however, I was asked to be a maypole dancer in Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of Alan Ayckbourn’s House & Garden. I was only on for five minutes, but the first time my feet hit that stage, I was hooked. Here it was, a place in which people effectively created worlds with each other! Needless to say, since then, I have made it my goal to integrate myself into these worlds as much as possible.