Theater Online

CAN I HELP YOU? dismantles the television editing process, as well as our complicity in giving this official storyteller its power.

The text of CAN I HELP YOU? is a video transcript inspired by a medical reality TV show. The action of the video transcript takes place in a hospital's Trauma unit, and is transferred to the stage, complete with rewinds, fast-forwards and jump cuts. Multiple narratives compete for the audience's attention: doctors formulate pat speculations about the shockingly banal death of a heart attack victim; a videographer gets annoyed by bad lighting and becomes distracted from a critical event; exhausted transcribers grow repulsed by the gore of the Trauma Room and take a break while the tape in the player is still running, and an ancient Texas farmer tells the story of his recent tractor accident and his multiple brushes with death, but only because he thinks no one is listening.

Intermittently, doctors and nurses confront a single, unruly patient, Lisa Campbell. As new "footage" of Lisa is revealed, it becomes evident that there is much more to Lisa's story than hospital personnel or the production crew will see, and that the audience may come to understand more about the horrific events that brought Lisa to the ER than she does.

The real story that patients, personnel, videographers and transcribers miss is available only to the audience and must be culled from the action that falls outside the frame of the transcript. Some spectators may see it; others will not. They are given a wide breadth of material from which to glean their own narrative vision—scenes are depicted in miniature diorama, "surgery" is performed onstage using meat, the brutality of Trauma protocol is emulated with the abrupt tonal changes of live action and high-volume video.

Viewers are ultimately left to examine not only their own logical processes and biases, but the bargain we initiate when we allow someone to form our vision of reality for us.

"The production features sets, costumes, video and lighting that are designed through a collaborative process by the company." Composer Kamala Sankaram has worked with Exploding Moment to create a multi-layered musical soundscape of medical and video sounds for "Can I Help You?"

"In "Classic Cole," writer-performer Dan Callahan sings a selection of the best known Cole Porter songs loosely in the order that they were written, from "What is This Thing Called Love?" to "True Love" and many more. Paying close attention to the sensual images in the Porter lyrics as well as their complex musicality, Callahan stresses the erotic longing of these great standards, expressing both their humor and their lust for the kind of worldly pleasures that make up for all loss.

No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs, is the story of a Black family in the South living under the rigors of racism. Rawl Cheeks is a loving family man devoted to his wife Mattie and children Joyce and Matoka. The Cheeks are a close-knit church going family struggling to make ends meet. In order to supplement their income they allow Yaveni Aaronson, a sociologist, to do research on their family. Yaveni, a Jew, is gathering material, comparing the trials and tribulations faced by the Blacks under racism with that of the suffering of the Jews under racism, both in Europe and in America. (Oregan Coast News Signal)

Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants—a big epic naked ridiculous Shakespearean fairy tale for adults (comedy)
written and directed by Duncan Pflaster
presented by Cross-Eyed Bear Productions
featuring: Eric C. Bailey*, Patricia Comstock, Jon Crefeld, Keith Patrick Dunn*, Carlos Rafael Fernandez, Paula Galloway, Clara Barton Green, Jason Alan Griffin, Kelly Nichols Jonathan Weirich, Jess Cassidy White
An Equity Showcase
http://www.duncanpflaster.com/trevor.php
June Havoc Theater (312 West 36th Street).
Running Time: 90 Minutes

Prince Trevor is a satire of Contemporary Politics,
reflected in the Magic Mirror of Fairy Tales
injected with 42 ccs of Shakespearean Verse,
and dissected through the Ridiculous Theatrical style of Charles Ludlam.

When good King Kartoffelpuffen gives up his kingdom to his oldest son Tater and marries off his other children for peace (and for political gain), Prince Trevor, his youngest son, trades places with his manservant Grumbelino in order to escape his fate and find his true love, Toby the stable boy. Meanwhile, will Princess Lana find love with King Soignée of the Blind Sybarites, or will she continue pining for Geoffrey, her lost love? Will Grumbelino make friends with his new wife Queen Bluebella of Chryselephantinople and her harem of eunuchs, or will he foolishly poke his nose into the Forbidden Ballroom? Can anyone keep King Tater from starting a new war and destroying all their Kingdoms? Are the rumored Elephants of Style more than just a fable? Find out in Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants!

(Warning: the show contains nudity, sexual situations, foul language, and iambic pentameter- may not be suitable for all audiences)

CityParks Theater presented by Time Warner - Rock, Paper, Scissors, three short plays written by Ben Snyder and directed by Kamilah Forbes, explores a relationship between the U.S. Army and the hip hop industry, teamed up to enlist young people who live in depressed areas into the military. Snyder says of this recruiting tactic, "They have a whole hip hop marketing ad campaign that includes driving Hummers, playing hip-hop music, holding freestyle contests, and giving away video games at historically black colleges." The show has intrigued sold-out audiences at Center Stage New York, P.S.122, New York Theater Workshop, and HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. For more information go to http://www.cityparksfoundation.org

After the death of her husband, Bernarda Alba imposes a traditional mourning period of eight years on her household. Bernarda has always ruled her home with an iron fist and kept her five daughters on "short chains." Now that she is the sole dictator, her daughters are left with little escape from her oppression. As a consequence of their father's death, the eldest daughter is left wealthy, while the younger sisters are left with little. This new wealth attracts a suitor, which ignites jealousy and passion among the sisters whom have never been allowed a romance of their own. Each of the sisters copes with their mother's violence, their sisters' jealousy and their repressed desires in her own way, but when the youngest decides to break free at all costs, her actions threaten to destroy them all.