Anna Gothard and Kate Foster have joined forces to make music and beautiful theatre together in NYC. Their new work “i run with you” will be featured in the Women Center Stage Festival this summer. They took the time to talk to us about their current projects and reminisce about their time at the ADA.

When did you attend the Accademia?
Kate Spring 2009, Anna Fall 2009 – just missed each other 😉

What did you study there?
We were both theatre track.

What University were you coming from?
Kate – Boston University, Anna- Muhlenberg College

What was your favorite thing about the program?
Kate – The people. I met so many of my future collaborators, Some of which were in my year and others studying in other semesters.

Anna- I miss everything that awakened my five senses, which was everything. But more specifically, I could take classes from Claudia and Kevin forever.

Can you share a favorite memory or story from your time in Italy outside of the classroom?
Anna- A few of us made good friends with the women at the kebab place. They taught me how to say the word cucumber in Italian because I always wanted it on my sandwich but always butchered the word. On our last day in Arezzo, we had a half hour before our train was coming so we sprinted to the kebab place. They weren’t open but heard us knocking. They opened the shop just for us and made us personal sandwiches. That was definitely the last time I said “cetrioli.”

Do you have any “must sees” while in Arezzo?
Kate – Communist Bar, Aurora….The pizza and beer place… I forget the name…running towards the vineyard.

Anna – The view from The Teatrino, that’s all I want. Claudia once told me it was worth walking up the hill instead of taking the escalators. She was right, the ascension and top were some of the most beautiful views I saw in Arezzo.

What were some of the biggest “take aways” from your time at the Accademia?
Kate – A celebration of collaboration that set me on a path for future collaboration in NYC. In addition to CrisisArt and Scott McGehee’s classes, I found a trend in activism that I continue to explore in my art today.

Anna – I left with a love for my body, a larger vocabulary and new life long friends.

What have you been up to since the Accademia?
Kate – Since graduating ADA, I have been involved with the arts activist queer communities of NYC. As an artist I have collaborated with several ADA friends in my dual roles as produced playwright and singer in New York. The truly rewarding collaboration with Anna Gothard, who is my songwriting parter in Anna/Kate and scene parter in “I run with you.” As an activist I cofounded Occupy Wall St. 10 minute play Festival, Occupy the Empty Space, facilitated a national arts campaign #artssuperpac as a resident artist at Culture Project, and was since the producing community for Women Center Stage Festival 2013 facilitating workshops and Think Tanks to generate and jump start a Female-Identified arts movement in the USA. As a queer performer in NYC I make Queer Folk -pop with Anna and dance at queer parties.

Anna- Graduated college and then moved to Brooklyn. Living, starving and surviving as an artist and pre-school teacher.

Check out one of Anna and Kate’s songs: Magic Time Presents: “Am I Your Woman?”

Do you stay in touch with anyone from your class?
Kate- I live with Sleep No More dancer, Emeri Fetzer and collaborate regularly with soul sister, dancer Shara Harad, I miss physical theatre and choreographer G. Ben Fred terribly (you stole him from me ADA!!) And will likely be attending the nuptials of a few other classmates within the next year.
Anna- Yes, with a few, regularly. Elizabeth Gannon and I live one block away from each other.

Can you tell us about your new piece “I Run With You”?
We explore that moment when you choose to run with your (for us it’s queer) community, run with love, run with relationships and run with humanity instead of staying curled up in a ball forever, after a really shitty day. It is jam packed with our original music, spoken word, storytelling and silliness.

Can you tell us a little bit about your creative process together?
We met two years ago and on our first date we found out that we both attended ADA, in the same year, but different semesters. That was an instant connection for us. We just started collaborating in December of 2012 and then in February, created our Queer Folk-Pop Duo. The show we are developing is the first installment to a larger project that will ultimately be an interactive musical theatrical experience with our original music. We work really well together and balance each other out when the other is stressed and/or overwhelmed. We write and write and edit and edit and rewrite. The structure is constantly changing but the theme has always stayed the same. We don’t live together but in order to get work done we usually camp out at each other’s places. And in NYC language that means starting at 8pm and probably going into the wee hours only to wake up for your 9-5’er. Hamster wheel of fun. . . After this show, we have a slot lined up for Dixon Place, which is a dream theatre for both of us.

Here’s just a taste: i run with you

When and where will it be performed?
It will be performed at Culture Project in the 2013 Women Center Stage Festival.

Tell us more about the Women Center Stage Festival?
Wonderful festival that allows women to create, produce and direct original and in-development work. There are not enough spaces for women to create new, original and never before seen work. Come on people we are living in the 21st century!

How has the Academia helped shape who you are as an activist/artist/creator?
Kate- ADA was the best foundation I had as a young artist for being intentional, nurturing and contextual with the art I want to produce and the collaborations that will get me there.

Anna- For the first time in my life I was taught to truly love my body and learned ways to communicate with it. I also learned the idea of the “ensemble” and realized I loved collaboration and developmental work.

What would your advice be for people considering attending the Accademia?
Your time abroad goes by in a blink of an eye. I would do anything in the entire world to relive it again. Enjoy every single minute, even the tough days when you really realize you are thousands of miles away from the familiar.

In your opinion who is a good candidate to get a lot out of the program?
Compassionate human being. Loves collaboration. Is looking for intense classroom hours. Loves good food.