Ellie Aslanian, BA–MA Liberal Arts, Has Edinburgh Fringe Festival Debut with ‘Supermarket 86’
As far as summer jobs go, directing your first theatrical production is not a bad gig. It got even better for Lang student Ellie Aslanian. She directed Mia Pelosi’s play Supermarket 86, which, after a short run in July at The Tank in New York City, ran for 21 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
“The experience at Fringe was great, and it was more than I could have hoped it could be. We had a big audience every night, and to be able to show it to a different audience every night was the only thing Mia and I wanted,” says Aslanian.
Like many Lang students, Aslanian chose a major that is not what you might expect. Although Lang offers programs in Theater and Arts in Context and the College of Performing Arts offers a Drama program, Aslanian decided to pursue a BA–MA in Liberal Arts. “I initially thought I would enroll in the Arts in Context program, which combines an art discipline with a liberal arts discipline, but I realized my interests were a little broader. I spoke with Cecilia Rubino, an associate professor of theater, who has been an advisor and mentor for me during my entire time at Lang. I explained to her how I wanted to be able to study a range of academic disciplines equally, and she told me about the Liberal Arts major. I’ve been able to design a program that has three concentrations that I focus on equally: theater, music, and American history and politics. It’s all aimed at making me a better director, filmmaker, artist, and student.”
A fortuitous connection with Pelosi gave Aslanian her first opportunity to direct a play. “Mia and I grew up in the same town in Northern California. She went to school at NYU, and we connected when I moved to the city. She did a production of Supermarket 86 at the New York Theater Festival back in October 2023. I was the stage manager then, and that gave me the chance to see the story and character development and the rehearsal process. I told her that if she ever staged this again, I would love to direct it. She hired me on the spot.”
The duo spent the past year and a half revisiting the script, talking it through and making changes before deciding last December to bring it to The Fringe. “Submitting it to this festival was something that had been sitting in our brains for a while. One of the actresses, Ariana Perez, who was also in the New York Theater Festival production, suggested to us that we should take it there. At first it seemed like a crazy idea, but then we decided to just go for it.”
Although there are several festivals in New York City that provide almost a direct line to The Fringe, spots are highly competitive. “We weren’t accepted to the first couple of festivals we applied to, so we decided to just put on our own show. Someone involved in the production had a connection to The Tank and was able to put us in touch with the right person. I love The Tank because it really tries to support emerging artists. This was very helpful to us, because we were able to see how the play worked in front of an audience, and we were able to use the money we made to help fund going to Scotland. Also, not only did the production serve as a trial run, but many of our friends, family, and colleagues were able to come see it. They weren’t going to travel all the way to Scotland for it,” says Aslanian.
Although Aslanian is currently making a splash in the theater, her long-term goal is to become a filmmaker. She credits Rubino and Lang for providing students with the freedom to explore a range of disciplines. And she is particularly grateful to Rubino for her guidance on benefiting from opportunities available in New York City. “I would not have understood how to get there without Cecilia. She has a good perspective on how to work in the city, how to work on different projects, and has been very enthusiastic in encouraging me to take on different opportunities. In the classes I’ve taken with her, I’ve learned through acting how to get into the brain of a director. And a lot of the things I use as a theater director were ones she taught me.”