About the Company: Puffy Shirt Productions
no frills theatre.
Flowers for Alergernon is the compelling story of Charlie Gordon, willing victim of a strange experiment - an intellectually disabled person, a genius, a man in search of himself. Poignant, funny, tragic, but with a hope for the indomitable spirit of man, this unusual play tells a story you will long remember.
Subtitled "Scenes from the Life of John Merrick," The Exhibition details the crucial events in the life and death of England's famous "Elephant Man." Centers on the interaction of two men; John Merrick (known as "The Elephant Man") and Sir Frederick Treves, the renowned physician who takes him under his protection. So horribly deformed that he must cover his face and body, Merrick is given shelter at London Hospital, after being abandoned by the ruthless showman who had put him on public display, and his friendship with Dr. Treves, who raises funds for his support, becomes the focus of his life. The action is comprised of parallel monologues, interspersed with scenes between the two men as Treves tries to bring a sense of concern and civility to Merrick's tragic existence, and, in turn, becomes increasingly aware of the deep intelligence and sensitivity which lie behind Merrick's grotesque exterior. The climax of their relationship comes when Merrick, who has never known true human love and contact, asks Treves to touch him, to hold him as a father would a son--but the physician cannot bring himself to do so. It is a failure which foreshadows the end of Merrick's short life and, for Dr. Treves, remains a tortured, enduing memory which haunts him for the rest of his days.
There’s no ‘I’ in team. But there is in family. Stephen and Paul Dowd were two of the most highly touted prospects in baseball. Stephen lived up to the hype with an amazing career in the Big Leagues. His bother Paul...never got off the plate. Now, after retiring from the game with an injury, Stephen is divorced, broke, and forced to consider a lucrative offer to film a Reality TV show about his life. But the Producers don’t just want Stephen; they want Paul and their fame-seeking younger brother Kevin as well. Secondary Pitch is a biting new play about brothers, rivalry and staying on top of the game.
Matthew J. Nichols directs a cast of four, including Ryan Dusek, Larry Phillips, Phoebe Leonard, and Peter Buck Dettmann.
“I've always been curious what it must feel like to fail at something you love, only to watch someone close to you, with little to no effort, flourish at it,” said playwright Larry Phillips. “Secondary Pitch is my look at what jealousy and pride can do to someone who's forced to face it on a daily basis.”
From Director Matthew J. Nichols:
The three Dowd brothers, despite their past successes and failures, are all grasping for a second chance, and the stakes have never been higher. Any one of them could emerge victorious or fall hopelessly in the dirt. Our goal in this intimate production is to draw the audience into the players' struggles and let them decide for themselves who are the real winners and losers.
About the Company: Randomly Specific Theatre
Randomly Specific Theatre is a New York City based independent theatre company founded in 2014. Our mission is to produce new plays with an emphasis on excellence in writing and script development and high quality production aesthetic. We do not subscribe to any single method of training or rehearsal technique. We believe that each aspect of a production, both onstage and behind the scenes, is as integral to the production as any other. Above all else we are story tellers. The play's the thing. Spinning a good yarn for the entertainment of an audience is our number one goal.
Out of a raging Alaskan blizzard comes a distraught young woman dressed in satin slippers and a bridal gown. She bursts into the only refuge she can find: the remote cabin of a man who has retreated from society. Trapped in this one room, these strangers warily circle each other, probing each other’s defenses, revealing truths about themselves and each other, breaking down and spinning out of control. Cindy Lou Johnson’s BRILLIANT TRACES is a funny, compelling, heartfelt journey through the tapestry of life, relationships and memory. BRILLIANT TRACES is an intimate theatrical experience that will bring the audience into the emotional landscape of two people running away from so-called civilization and smack into each other, forced to explore the pain of the past and consider the possibilities of the present.
Our fifth Duct Tape and a Dream festival exploring online socializing and the larger battle for people to connect.
Duct Tape Program:
Wednesday, May 16th at 8 PM, Friday, May 18th at 8 PM, Saturday, May 19th at 3 PM
The Wedding Thieves, a play
by Colette La Pointe
Directed by Lauren Rayner
HUD: A Brief History of Communication
by Daniel Carroll
Directed by Barbara Harrison
Logan’s Hollow, a solo play
by Bradley Troll
Directed by Daniel LeBlanc
Featuring: Mackenzie Hawkins, Christine Mottram, Marlena Kalm, and Jeffrey Welk
Festival Stage Manager: Paula Clarkson
Festival Lighting Designer: Lauren Bremen
Produced by the Roots and Wings Board:
Maggie Albert, Caralie Chrisco, Lauren Rayner, Joseph Samuel Wright
Winner of Best of Fringe and Best Ensemble in the 2006 Toronto Fringe Festival, Humans Anonymous is a comedy about a group of young Toronto residents looking for their better halves, despite their biggest fears. Ellen (Jake Lipman*) is afraid she’ll never meet Mr. Right. Jenny (Gusta Johnson) is scared of acting like a total moron. Peter (Kyle Minshew*) avoids visiting his father, despite his sister Gema (Amanda Bruton)’s persistence, and Arden (Geoffrey J.D. Payne) is not afraid to start a family, but is afraid of just about everything else.
Humans Anonymous is stage managed by Allison Lemel. Philip Rothman is technical advisor and sound designer. Canadian playwright and actress Kate Hewlett’s other works include The Swearing Jar(FringeNYC 2010) and Canadian TV series InSecurity. Her short film, She Said Lenny was nominated for the Directors Guild of Canada Award in 2011.
During the dark nights of Humans Anonymous, Tongue in Cheek Theater Productions is pleased to present the Spring 2012 Plus One Solo Show Festival, featuring four original solo shows on both nights, on topics as diverse as a Broadway usher sounding off (How to Behave by Connie Perry), the lessons learned by studying music (Herman Commike Saved My Life by Riley Jason), a rumination on body hair hang ups (Natural Novice by Siobhan O’Loughlin) and an Iranian New Yorker teaching theater in one of the most conservative town in America (The Scars at Night Are Big and Bright by Leyla Modirzadeh). Singer-songwriter Todd Kramer will also perform his latest songs.
About the Company: Tongue In Cheek Theater Company
tongue in cheek theater (tic) is an Off-Off Broadway theater company dedicated to producing seriously funny theater. Our mission is to tell stories which resonate with universal truths, and which make our audiences laugh in recognition of these truths. As the late, great Peter Ustinov said, "Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious."
Welcome to Richard’s world, a world where every moment is a reminder of the past and a portent of the future. Through sarcasm and questionable decisions, he finds himself in the middle of a romantic hurricane of his own creation. As he passes back and forth through the timeline of his various girlfriends, Richard attempts to find if he is truly meant to be with anyone in this romantic comedy set in modern day New York City.
Instantaneous present, continually being transformed into remembered past, as it is replaced by an anticipated future is the through line of "Tripartite Time (three one act plays)". The plays, "A Sailor's Tale”, "d=½gt2", "Epiphany", performed in succession reveal Time past, Time present, Time future, the true nature of what is simply called "Time". TRIPARTITE TIME. A Merchant Marine officer laments a lost love; two World Trade Center clerks relive nine eleven as they look at the emptiness where the North Tower stood; a Naval Officer grapples intellectually and emotionally with a just concluded fire mission off Korea. His frustration and rage at TIME run deep and wide. During an argument with a fellow officer emotions almost turn violent. "A Sailor's Tale” runs 9 minutes, "d=½gt2" runs 3 minutes twice (it is first presented by male actors then reprised by female actors), "Epiphany" runs 38 minutes.
The sins of the father are visited upon the son once again in Sam Shepard's primal family drama Curse of the Starving Class. Perhaps more topical and relevant than when it was first written, the play is set in the American Southwest in the late 1970s. Dysfunctionality, alcoholism, and greed abound as the characters struggle for meaning and survival. The play testifies to Shepard's profound insight into Capitalism's contribution to the decimation of the middle class and the "American Dream."
The family consists of an alchoholic father, a disconnected mother, a daughter precocious beyond her years, and a deranged idealist son. This major award-winning work by Sam Shepard focuses on both the insane family dynamic and the havoc wrecked by the economic greed of bankers, mortgage lenders, and land grabbers. Whether they are ranting at the empty ice box, carrying lambs around the stage naked, sleeping on the kitchen table, shooting up bars on horseback, or having their cars blown to smithereens, this family will keep you laughing or shedding tears at their plight.
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By Adam Bock. With Michael Gene Conti, Reiss Gaspard, A.J. Heekin, Jake Lipman, Shelley Little, and Shana Wiersum.
Directed by Brock H. Hill. Stage managed by Allison Lemel.
Scenic and costume design by Meagan E. Miller-McKeever, sound design by Philip Rothman.
About the Company: tongue in cheek theater productions
Tongue in Cheek Theater is an independent theater company dedicated to producing seriously funny theater. Its mission is to tell stories which resonate with universal truth and which make its audiences laugh in recognition of those truths. About the company’s production of PROOF, Nicole Bournas-Ney of NYTheatre.com called it “first rate. Auburn's story is given vivid life by a quartet of talented actors...exceptional.” Heather Violanti of TheaterOnline.com said, “Tongue in Cheek Theater’s revival of PROOF is delicately nuanced, graced with fine performances and a clear-eyed dedication to the script...a memorable evening of theater.”
Upon a recent tragedy that hits close to home, CB seeks comfort in his childhood friends, reconnects with a distanced childhood friend, and discovers new layers to himself.
About the Company: MosesMogilee
To provide a creative outlet within a professional setting where the aspiring artist is free to explore the theatre. In keeping with our name, this freedom of exploration will range from the roots of theatre as a holy ritual, to the very basis of animal exploration of one’s environment. We will be fearless in all exploration in between these extremes.
To provide a collaborative environment for the artist to explore his or her full artistic potential, encompassing all aspects of the theatre.
To provide audiences with a theatrical experience both entertaining and inspiring.
To provide artists an opportunity to reach out to the community. We believe in sharing both our art and our humanity.
A Year In The Trenches Of Teaching | Open: 10/06/10 Close: 10/16/10
Meet Janet, a rookie history teacher who goes from idealist to burnout as she fights insidious internal politics in her effort to truly affect her students. During her tenure Janet learns how to write a proper self-evaluation, censor musicals, and cultivate paranoia in a system dominated by constant accountability and deep corruption.Tongue in Cheek Theater gives William Missouri Downs' biting satire its New York City premiere.
An evening of four funny and smart original solo shows. Two performances only!
JACKed Up by Mark Gessner, directed by James Angiola
A hilarious and whimsical look at one man's journey from Dude to Dad.
I’m Fired! by Margie Suvalle, directed by Matt Hoverman
A comedy about getting let go, laid off and fired and finding a place to belong.
Can’t the Revolution Wait? by Jamila Webb
The daughter of two revolutionaries sets out to find her own rebellious voice.
Call Me by Katherine Williams
In a sea of texters and Facebook stalkers, one woman challenges her potential suitors to unplug.
With special musical guest Erica Russo
Campy, catty, and uncontainable, My Big, Thick Schtick is a collection of comic shorts including snipping sorority “girls,” buffed boys, and the greatest battle of all time: Joan Crawford vs. Bette Davis. The night features “Welcome to My Haze,” a spoof of the spoof of Brenda Dickson’s infamous lifestyle video, “Jack in Vain,” the fable of four ambitious bartenders competing for their chance to bed a pop star, “Hot Mess High Tea,” the sensation of a sorority tea with a trannie at the table, “Mommy Drinkest,” a male Mommy Dearest faces his adopted daughter, and “What Ever Happened to Baby in the Corner?” a No Exit with Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Vivien Leigh trapped together. Schtick is an extravaganza with song, dance, drag, camp, shirtless boys, a taxidermied cat, and an otter puppet as host.
8 Voices
30 Characters
15,170 Words
110 Minutes
Directed by Adam Patterson
Featuring
Edward Bauer, Matthew Cohn, Quincy Ellis
Lulu Fogarty*, Laura Bess Jernigan, Caitlin Rose McMahon
Claire Morrison, Michael Dix Thomas
Assistant Directed by Fernanda Hess
Costume Design by Stephanie Cluggish
Sound Design by Gregory Jacobs-Roseman
Stage Managed by Elizabeth Seldin
*appears courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association
Catherine’s having a rough week. Her father Robert, a gifted but troubled mathematics professor, has died. While her older sister Claire returns to sort out his affairs and her father’s protégé Hal searches her father’s papers for work of unpublished brilliance, Catherine struggles to solve the most perplexing problem of all: how much of her father’s madness -- or genius -- she has inherited.
PROOF won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play in 2001.
An evening of funny and smart original solo shows. Two performances only!How I Became An Astronaut by Fara Greenbaum:
One night, in the depths of despair, a woman gets hungry, buys a sandwich, and is inspired to change her life—discovering that she is allowed to pursue any dream she has...even becoming an astronaut if she damn well wants to.
Dirty Paki Lingerie by Aizzah Fatima:
Dirty Paki Lingerie gives a heart-breaking glimpse into the complicated lives of American Muslim Pakistani women at the juncture of two different cultures.
The Make-Out Queen by Bronwen Prosser:
Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss, but when it’s not…damn.
No Talking Heads Staged Reading Series presents new works by Artists of the African Diaspora.
We take NEW PLAYS to the next level!
The Collective presents
The painter Jean Paul Credeaux has just been rediscovered by the art world. Meanwhile, back in the East Village, Jamie's father has died; he and his starving-artist roommate, Winston, don't even have a kitchen sink. To make matters worse, Jamie's father forgot him in the will, leaving his legacy of art dealings to charities and friends. Jamie's girlfriend, Amelia, can't keep a job to support her singing career. They are out of options, until Jamie has an idea for the three of them to forge a Credeaux painting (a nude portrait) and sell it to fund their dreams. Only one problem: Jamie doesn't paint... "The Credeaux Canvas" is a complex love story, shining a sharp light on the things we give up in the fight for what we want.