If you were presented with a box that you were told was full of wasps, would you be shocked? Outside your comfort zone? A bit wary, but drawn in by curiosity? Relax. The only Box Full of Wasps that I present to you today is a New York City-based theatre group. Members Jenna Lauren Freed and Emily Floyd tell us what puts the zing in their collective sting…

Jenna, please tell us about your group’s work in three or four sentences.

We are a bunch of young, pliable minds who want to shut ourselves in a room for three hours and play. We want to create unsafe work in a safe environment. We want to do everything, maybe even take over the world. (Seriously, we wrote a cartoon pilot.) And this is more than four sentences. Did we mention we like to break rules?

How does a typical (if there is such a thing) Box Full of Wasps production come to be?

Every one of Box’s pieces is built in a different way. Typically, a Box piece will start from a single source of inspiration. In many cases, a piece of children’s literature (Jenna is not-so-quietly obsessed with twisted children’s novels), but it can sprout from anywhere. (We once started a project because two of our company members decided they wanted to devise a piece where a man, at some point, exits, a gun shot is heard and a deluge of blood spills across the stage.) We take that and play with ways of turning that source of inspiration on its head.

There is a string that ties every one of our projects together, and that is the process of backwards adaptation, an unusual method we created which takes elements of the chosen source and allows them to morph into something completely different. Whereas regular adaptation converts A to B, backwards adaptation jumps from A to C and then works its way backwards to B, so that B is a bastardized version of A. (This somehow always reminds us of the transitive theory of math.)

From there, the collaboration of the group is very important. We may spend a very long time working on a new piece, but we allow ourselves to indulge in the process of creation and the knowledge that said process will, in the end, produce a richer body of work. We may use improvisation, script or both in order to find where the piece takes us. Or we may simply play.

Who or what are your biggest influences, collectively or individually?

Many of the collective’s founding members attended the same theatre studio at New York University: Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. Our training at Playwrights encouraged a focus on process over product, as well as the use of the ensemble to strengthen and support a work. The biggest influence on our company is undoubtedly Marleen Pennison, without whom this company would still be just a dream. Marleen headed up the Creating Original Work track at Playwrights and fostered Jenna Lauren Freed’s work and process for three years. It was through this work that the members of Box met, molded and fused.

When it comes to individual influences, we are supremely blessed. After all, the great thing about working with such a diverse (and crazy) group of people is the wide variety of trinkets each member brings into the room. And these influences are an enormous part of the way Box develops work: the collective is nothing without its people.

Improvisation is a big part of your repertoire, but you’re not an improv group per se… What does improv lend to a scripted/structured performance?

Improvisation is an interesting tool to carry because it can be shaped to fit any exercise the company needs, kind of like one of those many-headed power tools. If we need to fix two boards together, it has that attachment. If we need to remove a broken screw, it can do that too. Improv has lead to every important discovery in every piece we have created. It has also given us the rules and obstructions of each piece, and so we’ve learned to trust it to show us the way.

When it comes to scripting, every piece has a different structure. In some cases, dialogue that is improvised between the characters is added directly into the script. In others, the entire piece may be scripted outside of the rehearsal process, and rewritten through improv. And, in some cases, we’ve found it fit to abandon the idea of a script altogether.

How do you decide how much improv to have in a project?

It’s definitely a case-by-case basis. It always comes out of play. Play is a giant concept for us. We need and crave it. Marleen [Pennison] once said, “The question is always, ‘Knock, Knock,’ and the answer is always, ‘Who’s there?’” So we ask our question and get our answer. From there, we take it step-by-step. We find that the piece will tell us what it needs.

Why is the name “Box Full of Wasps” right for you?

It was actually a line taken from the script of one of our past productions. In true Box fashion, the line itself came straight out of an improvisational exercise during one of our rehearsals. It actually wasn’t our first name either. We were originally going to dub ourselves the Backwards Theatre Collective, but it just didn’t fit. Sure, we’re backwards (you should meet our parents), but we wanted something that describes our work: pretty normal looking on the outside, but when you open it, it stings you in the face.

What has been your greatest success to date?

Yikes. Success. Hmm. We’d have to say that the work we are most proud of is a piece we created while at Playwrights called The Wayside Documentaries, which took seven characters adapted from Louis Sachar’s children’s series and aged them to their mid-twenties. The piece was a “deliciously twisted” documentary-style look at their lives. It was our first work together as a full ensemble.

Do you have a pipe dream performance? (unlimited budget, collaborate with any actor or writer you want…that kind of thing…)

We’d love to perform The Wayside Documentaries again! We’d want to keep a small budget (it gives the piece its charm), but we’d love to be able to restage it with more advanced technical elements. Perhaps a real projection screen! (The original production was put together for $250 and materials donated from MFTA. We created a projection screen using an old white sheet and curtains out of black fabric scraps. All of our costume elements were found second-hand. Our filmic moments were crafted on our media designer’s Mac.)

And, in our wildest dreams, who wouldn’t want to collaborate with The Wooster Group? Just saying.

How did you find out about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to become a member?

We first learned about Fractured Atlas during a producing class at Tisch. The community around Fractured Atlas is what motivated us to become a member. We respect and follow so many of the companies involved and, if anything is important in today’s theatre, it’s community. Fractured Atlas offers so much to its members and we are honored to be a part of that!

How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

Since we’re a fledgling company, we are still getting the hang of our wings. We have a 5-year-plan (like the cool kids do) and Fractured Atlas is allowing us to get all of the gears working. The foundation of our house is cemented and solid and now, being fiscally sponsored, we can begin to build the walls by raising funds for our new work and getting it out there to the eyes and ears of the theatrical community. Basically, we are using our membership to learn to stand up on two feet and not mix our metaphors.

What are you currently working on and what’s next on your professional horizon?

We just started a piece inspired by Mike and the Magic Cookies, a children’s novel about a kid whose family turns into animals after eating enchanted cookies. (We seem to enjoy putting children into dangerous and potentially harmful situations.) This piece will be our first foray into self-producing and we are very excited about it!

Learn more about the work of Box Full of Wasps on their website, www.boxfullofwasps.org, or find them on Twitter!