We're All Just Kids
Stephee Bonifacio discusses Adult Film's new production of Sam Shepard and Patti Smith's COWBOY MOUTH and making art in New York City.
Stephee Bonifacio: Oh, hello! I'm sorry I declined your call earlier. It said "spam risk."
Josh Feye: It’s all good. Yeah, it’s weird with the recording app I have. But hi, Stephee! How are you?
SB: I’m good, how are you?
JF: I’m doing well! I’m really excited to be talking with you because when I saw you posted Just Kids on your story and you mentioned you’re reading it in preparation for Cowboy Mouth at Adult Film, I got so excited. That book is so special to me, and Patti Smith means a lot too, so I’m so happy to be talking with you.
SB: Oh, I know, me too! It's been so fun to share this love for her and the book with others.
JF: Did it make you cry like it did me?
SB: Yes! I’m not quite done. I'm trying to time it so I finish right around opening. I think I’m about halfway through now, but I know I’ll rip at the end.
JF: Yeah...
SB: And I didn’t know anything about Robert Mapplethorpe before. This is kind of my introduction to Patti Smith, too. So when I got to the part where she references him dying, I just started weeping. I had no idea.
JF: It’s such a devastating read, but so rich and worth the grief. In the book, Patti said writing Cowboy Mouth with Sam Shepard felt less like writing a play and more like creating a ritual. Is that something you're exploring in rehearsals?
SB: Definitely. The script has so many games the characters play to connect, and each game has specific rules. It's been really fun figuring out where those games are, what the rules are, and when they're broken. We're definitely playing with that.
JF: Who are you playing in the play?
SB: Cavale.
JF: I'm not super familiar with the script. What’s it about?
SB: Yeah, it’s just Cavale, originally played by Patti, and Slim, originally played by Sam, plus a lobsterman. I’m playing Cavale, Chris Martin is playing Slim, and AJ Molder is playing the lobsterman. The three of us formed a band together, and we’ll play a set at the end of the show. The story is basically about the deterioration of a relationship. Technically, Cavale kidnaps Slim off the street at gunpoint to turn him into the next rock 'n' roll savior. While he's in captivity, they fall in love. The play takes place in a hotel room they’ve been in for an undetermined amount of time—they don’t even know how long. Cavale is described as a dying crow, and Slim is a cat who thinks he’s a coyote. And both are described as “mean as snakes.” There’s something so childlike in the way their emotions swing between extremes because of all the games they play. It’s such a fun show to work on. Exhausting, but fun.
JF: I know it’s described as an absurdist play. Have you done a lot of Theater of the Absurd?
SB: No, I haven’t. Maybe some scenes in college, but this process is mostly brand new for me. That’s probably why I’m finding it so fulfilling.
JF: And you mentioned starting a band. What’s that been like?
SB: It’s been such a joy. I’ve been writing songs since I was eight. Not big ones, but it’s always been for me. I gigged a little in college to make extra money, and I even sold a song last year, but that kind of happened by accident. It’s always just been me and my guitar. But Chris, when we started dating, heard my songs and started drumming on them, and it was so exciting to hear how much bigger they could be with other instruments. Then, when we started talking about this show in September, AJ was teaching herself bass and said she’d play with us. We joked at a party about starting a band, and then when the show came together, it all just worked.
JF: It’s always funny how something low-stakes at first can become something magical and real.
SB: Exactly! All the stuff we’d been talking about just came together at the right time. I didn’t go to a big college with a fancy theater program, I just got to do a lot of plays, which I was happy with. I didn’t study Sam Shepard much. But do you know Catherine Spino?
JF: No.
SB: I met her through Adult Film. She’s a wonderful writer and actor. She put together a night of Sam Shepard readings for his birthday and cast me and Chris to read from Cowboy Mouth. That was our introduction to it. I hadn’t even heard of the play before that.
JF: I remember that! I think the first time I met you, you were about to do that reading.
SB: Oh yeah, that’s true! I was working at the door at Expensive Imagination. But that’s how the show came to us, and from then on we were like, “We should really do this.”
JF: What have you been drawing on to build the show? What’s been filling your creative well?
SB: Reading Just Kids during the process has been amazing. Patti mentions so many people—I give a whole monologue about Johnny Ace, I talk about Nerval and Genet—all people I was unfamiliar with. So I’ve been reading Nerval’s poetry, learning about Genet, and listening to Johnny Ace’s music. It’s opened up my world, and there’s just so much to take in.
JF: Just Kids is like a portal into a New York that doesn’t exist anymore.
SB: Yeah.
JF: Do you think New York could ever regain that sense of freedom? These days it feels like you always have to be super professional, like everything’s LinkedIn-ified. But back then, they didn’t know what they were doing. They were just going for it.
SB: Yes.
JF: Do you think we’ll ever get that back, or is it gone?
SB. I think about that a lot. I feel like that kind of freedom still exists. It just exists in pockets. It’s about surrounding yourself with good people who aren’t trying to compete with you, who truly just want to create with you. It’s about finding your people. And I still think one of the best places to do that is New York, even if it's not in the mainstream. I believe it still exists. At least, I hope so.
JF: It does feel like Adult Film is a theatre group that aspires to that sense of freedom, that reckless abandon that once existed in New York.
SB: I’m really grateful for the community I’ve found through Adult Film. It took me about three years of living here to feel like I had a community of artists who inspired me, who made me want to create and collaborate. It’s been wonderful. I keep meeting more and more incredible people. It honestly feels like a gift to be making art in New York right now.
JF: So, how did you find them?
SB: About a year and a half ago, I took an on-camera audition class with Maria Dizzia.
JF: Incredible.
SB: She completely rocked my world. I went to a small college, so I never had a real acting class taught by someone who was actively working. Everything I had before was either theoretical or theatre history. Being around people who were trying to work, or already working, and being taught by someone like Maria was so exciting. I just kept coming back. Every class I took was wonderful, and eventually, I just stuck around.
JF: Whenever I see you on stage, I’m always struck by how fully present you are in a scene. You bring so much of yourself to what you’re doing.
SB: That means a lot. Thank you.
JF: How do you get there? How do you find that place? It’s really compelling to watch.
SB: I really love being a student. I love taking classes, working, and having places that feel like acting gyms—where I can just show up and work out that creative muscle. I try to practice as much as I can, just because it feels good to be doing it. I think the biggest transformation I’ve had in the last few years is learning how to be in my body. Like most women, I’ve experienced trauma, and it can be hard to fully inhabit your body and take up space. That might sound cliché, but it’s real. Being around artists who inspire me, who build me up, has helped me feel more capable. Doing Alexander Technique also really helped me become more grounded and present physically. I'm obsessed with acting. It’s all I want to do and all I feel like I can do, so I’m committed to figuring out how to be decent at it.
JF: What does theatre mean to you?
SB: Wow, that’s a big question. Honestly? Everything. It’s the one place where I feel safe and truly myself. It’s where I can quiet the noise in my head. It’s also about community and bringing people together to share stories and create empathy. That’s always important, but especially now. If you can get people in a room and make them witness something, even if it’s not their own experience, that’s powerful. People have really lost touch with that. So yes, theater feeds me personally in a very selfish way, but I also think it’s deeply necessary for the world.
JF: People really do underestimate theatre. There's so much competing for our attention, and people often think theatre isn’t for them. But it is. That’s what I love about what Adult Film is doing. They’re showing people that this is for them. It belongs to them.
SB: Absolutely. Adult Film gave me agency in my own art. We did a reading of a Sam Shepard play and then said, “Let’s just do it.” You don’t have to wait for someone else to give you an opportunity. You can take charge of the work you want to do. That’s so empowering.
JF: Alright, let me ask some fun ones. Do you have a favorite film about theater?
SB: Oh man, probably Moulin Rouge. I could say something like Opening Night, which is amazing, but honestly, Moulin Rouge is the one that really moved me. I saw it when I was 16, and I’ll never get over it.
JF: I think they’re playing it at Metrograph this week.
SB: No way! That film had such a huge impact on me. Baz Luhrmann’s maximalism is so rare now. And the way the movie goes from this huge spectacle to something raw and tragic. It’s brilliant.
JF: I remember watching it as a kid. The sexuality went over my head, but I was obsessed with the musical numbers, especially “Sparkling Diamonds.”
SB: I have a clip of me in high school performing the “Like a Virgin” number. I dressed as Zidler. I wore this old red wig and performed it a cappella in my theater class. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being embarrassed about it.
JF: No, that’s beautiful! That’s the kind of kid energy we need to hold onto. It just reminds me of that scene in Just Kids where the old couple sees Patti and Robert in Washington Square Park and says, “They’re just kids.” I think about that all the time. Just being young and having fun.
SB: Reading that book has reminded me that anything is possible. Even though it’s hard here, it reignited my romanticism around art in New York. It came at the perfect time; right when I needed that inspiration.
JF: Which playwrights are you drawn to?
SB: Mostly women. But I’m definitely about to go on a Sam Shepard kick. When something piques my interest, I dive all the way in. I’m not super well-read in terms of classic playwrights. I work hard, but I don’t have a huge repertoire. I did The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood in college. I love her writing. We also just did some of Tennessee Williams’s early one-acts. I love his work. It always moves me, no matter how “basic” an answer it might be.
JF: I don’t think Tennessee Williams is basic at all. He’s incredible—and I think we’re still discovering the layers in his work and trying to absorb what he was trying to show us about life.
SB” Totally. We did Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, and I grew so much from that. The monologue I had was this manic fantasy where my character lives out her life until death. Some of the most beautiful lines I’ve ever read are in that piece. I feel that way about all his writing.
JF: He’s such a great poet. Have you read any of Tina Howe’s plays?
SB: No, I haven’t.
JF: You should! Especially if you’re into absurdism. She’s known as the American Ionesco. She taught at Hunter College. Her work is zany and very fun.
SB: Amazing! I’m adding her to my notes right now.
JF: Okay, for my last question, this is one I love to ask everyone that I interview: What are your dreams for the future of American theatre?
SB: That it never dies. My personal dream as an actor is just to not have to have a second job. I just want to act, do music, write, make art, and be able to pay my bills. I want that to be enough. For theater more broadly, I hope it stays intimate and community-driven. I want it to stay accessible and inclusive. I hope it continues to build community and foster empathy. I just want it to be a home where all people feel like they can belong.
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Cowboy Mouth runs at Adult Film NYC June 27th- July 4th.