2006-2007
“That faraway shore's looking not too far.
We're following every star.
There's not enough time!”
— Stephen Sondheim,
Merrily We Roll Along
In 2006, I met an experimental auteur named Kenneth Collins and began making a regular trek to his Queens apartment, where we developed weird new theatrical worlds in his tiny living room. To my shock, we’d soon be taking these shows to major theaters in Canada, France, and Austria.
That fall, I stepped into The Flea Theater and auditioned for the artistic director. By the end of the week, I was rehearsing a new play by Tony Award-winner Christopher Durang — with Chris in the room, tweaking our lines.
Securing auditions is often challenging, but that one was easy — and it changed my life.
Life-changing also was an irascible acting coach named Gene Lasko, who had studied under Lee Strasberg. Over the next seven years, Gene would teach me how to immerse myself in a play’s imaginary circumstances, and to understand acting as more process than product.
SOMEONE IN THE GHOST BOX TOLD ME IT WAS YOU
Production
February 23-25, 2006
written and directed by Kenneth Collins
with Alisa Burket, Gary Clegg and Anne Source
Temporary Distortion @ The Chocolate Factory
Kenneth Collins puts people in boxes.
He immobilizes his actors within complex compartments of plexiglass, fluorescents and steel. Movement is minimal, text elliptical, and narrative elusive. His work has a meditative intensity unlikely anything else in the New York theater scene.
The idea that I’d ever get paid for any of this seemed absurd. But then again, no more absurd than my castmate Gary Clegg’s plan to design, manufacture, market, and distribute a blanket with sleeves.
A year later, Kenneth Collins was racking up multiple international tours with Temporary Distortion, and Gary Clegg, inventor of The Slanket, was a multi-millionaire.
FORCE: CONVERGENCE
Production
March 29-April 14, 2006
by Bryn Manion, dir. Bryn Manion and Wendy Remington
with Berto Colon
Aisling Arts
The third installment of Bryn Manion's Force Trilogy, which in its entirety clocks in at six-and-a-half hours.
When Aisling Arts mounted all three plays in rep the following year, critic Martin Denton called it “the best new American play of the season” and said “I haven't been this caught up in or affected by a piece of theatre since Angels in America.”
Tied up with Los Angeles at The Flea, I wasn’t available for the production.
playwright/director Bryn Manion
THE REVOLUTION
Documentary (Voiceover)
May 3, 2006 (studio recording)
Role: Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry
At my audition, the guy running the session seemed irritated.
"Hey, man - we need you to do a Southern accent."
"You want something more pronounced?" I asked him.
"Hold on a sec," he said, as he played back the take.
"Oh yeah, no, that was good, actually."
THE ILLUSION
Production
May 27-June 24, 2006
by Pierre Corneille, freely adapted by Tony Kushner
dir. Richard Corley
Zenzele Cooper, Matthew Cryder, Austin Durant, Kevin Dwyer, Sarah Kauffman, Philip Sletteland, Brian Weaver
Role: Pridamant
Berkshire Theatre Festival (now Berkshire Theatre Group)
My first high-profile regional gig.
Mark Nelson, a professional actor/director I’d asked to coffee, secured me the audition.
I played a dour, fastidious lawyer ("with black-suited priggishness," according to The Boston Globe) opposite a terrifying magician portrayed by Austin Durant, a fantastic actor with a rich baritone voice and world-weary eyes.
Rick Corley's inventive direction cycled through disparate theatrical styles — from Group Theater naturalism to French farce to postmodern dance-theater à la Robert Wilson — in the service of Corneille and Kushner's multivariegated valentine to theater.
(I’d work with Wilson himself six years later.)
After catching my performance, casting director Maria de Bonis called me in for a major tv role that eventually went to Josh Gad.
BEN AND JERRY'S -
"IMPROVE YOUR CHUNK-ABULARY"
National Radio Ad (Voiceover)
July 7, 2006
Role: Scientist
"I don't mean to bananalyze this to death...", my character offered, "but it's the crunchy almonds that really make this flavor."
THE DINNER
Independent Film (Short)
August 17, 2006 (Principal Photography)
written and directed by Soraya Gomez Crawford
with Ingrid Kullberg-Bendz (Adrianne), Geoffrey Dawe (Roger), Mary Lehach (Amanda), and Nina Murano (Katherine).
Role: Robert
When Katherine brings her fiancée Robert home for dinner, her father has a confession that threatens to destroy their relationship: Robert is his illegitimate son.
Fortunately, Katherine's mother has good news: Roger, she explains, is not Katherine's father.
You can view our imdb page here.
writer/director Soraya Gomez Crawford (photo by Jim Saylor)
THE FROGS
Performance
September 9-October 1, 2006
by Jason Tyne, adapted from the play by Aristophanes
dir. Rachel Klein
with Sinem Balkir, Elizabeth Burke, Megan Dahl, Josh Hyman, Amir Levi, Tommy Lind, Emily Miner, Aaron Oetting, Jeff Seal, Kathleen Schlemmer, and Zachary Zdunich
Roles: Hercules, Anton Chekhov
Rising Sun Theater Company @ Central Park/Summit Rock
While Meryl Streep played Mother Courage in Shakespeare in the Park, we were less than half a mile away, performing an ancient Greek comedy.
I played Hercules, the strongest man in the universe and Anton Chekhov, a melancholy Russian dramatist.
(Guess which role was more of a stretch.)
(photo by Stefan Hagen)
OFF STAGE: THE WEST VILLAGE FRAGMENTS
THE BRIG
Production (Site Specific - Excerpts)
September 21-October 7, 2006
by Kenneth Brown, dir. David Vining
with Mike Amato, Richard Binder, Stephen Blackwell, Franzika Blattner, Janet Bryant, Sara Buffamanti, Nikki Calonge, Tonya Canada, Lindsey Carroll, Oscar Castillo, Jeff Clarke, Siobhan Dougherty, Patricia Drozda, Evan Enderle, Paul Fiteni, Rob Gaines, Gillien Goll, John Grace, Erik Gratton, Liz Gutman, Steve Hauck, Andrew Hurley, Christopher Hurt, Benjamin Ickies, Derek Jamison, Tom Johnson, Spencer Katzman, Ben Kopit, Alex Lane, Donna Lazar, Samantha Levitt, Jesse Liebman, Ryan Lillis, Rebecca Lingafelter, Melissa Menzie, Shawn Mahoney, Jerry Marsini, Jason Martin, Belinda Mello, Gretchen Michelfeld, Chris Mirto, Joel Newman, Nick Palladino, Stacy Parker, Catherine Porter, Lars Preece, Dan Rabinowitz, Eleanore Scully, Rebecca Sevron, Margi Sharp*, Maggie Steele, Sarah Stephens, Patrick Taylor, Stacy Lee Tilton, Michael Tomlinson, Connie Van Decker, Chris Weikel, Bradley Wells, Max Woertendyke
Peculiar Works Project @ 6th Avenue and 9th Street
A walking tour of the West Village, featuring scenes by the pioneers of Off Off Broadway: The Living Theater, The Performance Group, Maria Irene Fornes, Gertrude Stein, Lanford Wilson, Edward Albee, and others.
My scene, from The Living Theater's The Brig, kicked off the show. Featuring soldiers in a brutal military prison, it involved a lot of yelling ("You touched me, you lousy insect!" "I'm sorry, sir!").
Audiences loved the show, but the neighbors hated us. One even hurled tomatoes from his fifth-story window. When a cop went up to investigate, the guy told him, "I definitely didn't throw anything, officer. But I'm very sympathetic to whoever did."
This production and its counterpart, The East Village Fragments, earned an Obie Award for its producers.
Reviews: Backstage
THE PHARMACIST
Independent Film (Short)
September 17, 2006 (Principal Photography)
written and directed by Ongun Hassan
Creating a dystopian film on a small indie budget isn’t easy, but that’s exactly what Ongun did.
MICROSOFT -
"A PEOPLE-READY BUSINESS"
Print Ad
October 8, 2006
One of the only print campaigns I ever did, this Microsoft ad ran in Newsweek and other major publications.
It ultimately made me a couple grand — more money than all the plays, workshops and readings I did in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 combined.
Ben at center left in the glasses and green-striped button down.
director James Dacre
DEATH OF A SALESMAN: REDUX
MFA Directing Project (Scene)
October 13, 2006
text by Arthur Miller
arranged and directed by James Dacre
supervised by Anne Bogart
Columbia University, MFA Directing
Columbia’s MFA directing candidates created two short pieces each week: one for Brian Kulick (the tradition-minded artistic director of Classic Stage Company) and one for Anne Bogart (the groundbreaking founder of SITI Company).
While Brian demanded staging each scene as written, Anne’s projects collaged fragments of text with movement and music.
James Dacre, later to become a major UK artistic director, was the most playful and daring student in his class. This particular scene, if I remember correctly, involved the actors literally walking over broken glass.
ORESTES
MFA Directing Project (Scene)
October 13, 2006
by Euripides, dir. Matt Torney
supervised by Brian Kulick
with Tony Roach
Role: Orestes
Columbia University, MFA Directing
Born in Belfast, Matt has a pronounced Irish brogue, an uncanny knack for delving deeply into a text and a strong sense that the comic and tragic dimensions of human experience are closely intertwined.
He’s now the artistic director of Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta, Georgia.
director Matt Torney
Where Eagles Dare Theater
DOG AND HUMAN
Production
October 25-29, 2006
Role: Dog
Where Eagles Dare Theater
It had been four months since I’d been paid to act onstage (for $100/week at Berkshire Theatre Festival), and working for free as a (literal) dog wore on me.
At least it was a short run.
KREON'S LAMENT
MFA Directing Project (Scene)
November 8, 2006
freely adapted from Sophocles' Antigone, dir. Matt Torney
supervised by Anne Bogart
Role: Kreon
Columbia University, MFA Directing
Over a decade after playing the role in middle school, I finally got a second stab at Kreon.
Matt explored the accumulation of sorrow at the play’s end: Kreon loses his son, his wife, and his kingdom in the space of a few pages.
director/teacher Anne Bogart
RAMONA'S NEW DRESSER
Student Film (Short)
November 12, 2006 (Principal Photography)
written and directed by Bohdana Smyrnova
Role: Mike
New York University, MFA Film
I enter four minutes into the film arguing — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf-style — with my roommate, as we interrupt a tender moment between the leads.
Playing a small role like this is harder than it looks. I should have come in loud and strong, but I was petrified of overacting on-camera and wary of stealing focus from the leads — even though that was literally my job.
I didn’t yet have the confidence to take up space in a supporting film role.
ANTIGONE
MFA Directing Project (Scene)
November 13, 2006
by Sophocles, music by Carl Orff
dir. James Dacre
supervised by Brian Kulick
Role: Kreon
Columbia University, MFA Directing
Third time’s the charm.
James’ approach to the material was grand and raw, like the music from Carmina Burana he used to underscore it.
director/teacher Brian Kulick
a page from our scene from The Bacchae
THE BACCHAE
MFA Directing Project (Scene)
December 1, 2006
by Euripides, dir. Matt Torney
supervised by Brian Kulick
Role: Pentheus
Columbia University, MFA Directing
Young King Pentheus attempts to discipline Dionysus, Greek god of theater and wine, whose frenzied rites both horrify and fascinate him. Pentheus is determined to restore order at any cost, but the appeal of wild, forbidden, and carnal mysteries proves overwhelming, even for him.
The Bacchae may be my favorite play.
Above, Beth Hoyt, Amanda Quaid, and Jon Ledoux; Below, Bat Attack!
'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE -
"NOT A CREATURE WAS STIRRING..."
Production (Short)
December 13-December 30, 2006
by Christopher Durang, dir. Kip Fagan
with Elizabeth Hoyt, Leslie Meisel, John Fico, David Skeist, Tanya Fischer, Evan Enderle, Pernell Walker, Jonathan Ledoux, Barnett Cohen, Bobby Hodgson, Emily Hyberger, Joseph McLaughlin, Amanda Quaid and Liz Wisan
Role: Father
Flea Theater
While working part-time as a paralegal in Tribeca, I heard from my co-worker that a nearby theater was holding open auditions.
I'd never seen a show at The Flea, but I walked down to White Street and performed a couple of monologues an hour later for then-artistic director Jim Simpson. I got a callback, booked the job, premiered a new play with Chris Durang, got singled out in a stellar New York Times review, and felt certain I was destined for instant fame and fortune.
I wasn’t. I couldn't even secure representation.
And The Flea paid less than nothing. Even today, after moving into a thirteen-million dollar theater, they demand actors volunteer their time, not just for rehearsals and performances, but to scrub floors and tend bar and run box office.
Still, for the moment I’d found an artistic home, and in a business where progress is often elusive, a path forward.
actor/director Blair Brown
playwright Tommy Smith
SEXTET
Closed Reading
January 21, 2007
by Tommy Smith, dir. Blair Brown
Role: Carlo Gesualdo
Flea Theater
I'd seen Blair Brown play Prospero at McCarter Theatre, and I was star-struck to be working with her.
The more profound artistic partnership to come out of Sextet, though, was with playwright Tommy Smith. For the first time, I began to develop a close working relationship with a playwright whose words and worldview resonated deeply with me.
Tommy and I would go on to work together on productions of White Hot, Sunrise, and The Break-Up, workshops of Sextet, Air Conditioning, The Wife, D.B., and Little Rock, and two film collaborations with Reggie Watts.
Sextet (later retitled Fugue) follows Gesualdo, Tchaikovsky, and Schoenberg — three composers on the edge of sanity. Their unsettling stories unfold simultaneously, as if each were an instrument and the play a musical score.
You can read the complete text of Fugue here.
LOS ANGELES
Production
February 12-March 17, 2007
by Julian Sheppard, dir. Adam Rapp
with Dan Cozzens, Cooper Daniels, Roy Edroso, Evan Enderle, Tanya Fischer, Meredith Holzman, Emily Hyberger, David Skeist, Katherine Waterston, Rob Yang, and Amelia Zirin-Brown
Role: Lyle
Flea Theater
I played a tough-minded movie producer opposite soon-to-be-movie-star Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them), who led the cast as a troubled young starlet named Audrey. Struggling to navigate LA’s treacherous waters, Audrey drowns herself in drugs, sex, and wasted dreams.
Adam had taken home an Obie for Red Light Winter the year before, and his direction was taut, clear and inventive — including live music by cabaret star Amelia Zirin-Brown.
Reviews: Variety
Ben opposite Katherine Waterston
Perfectman with his nemeses: Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N Roll
THE NEW HOPEVILLE COMICS
Workshop Production (Musical)
February 25-26, 2007
by Nate Weida (music, lyrics and book), dir. Isaac Klein
with Ruthie Ann Miles and Trevor Vaughn
Role: Mayor
45th Street Theater
Nate's epic comic book musical showed how even Perfectman can be taken down by Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'N Roll.
Eight years later, Ruthie Ann would win a Tony for her performance in The King and I.
707 PINE
Closed Reading
February 26, 2007
by Deron Bos, dir. Kip Fagan
with Teddy Bergman, Donal Brophy, Cooper Daniels, Julie Ferrell, Bobby Hodgson, Elizabeth Hoyt, Bobby Moreno, Vadim Newquist, Erin Roth, Rachel Rusch, Sarah Sakaan, Sarah Silk, and Maureen Sebastian
Flea Theater
I played a mellow and melancholic mayor.
The great thing about The Bats, The Flea’s resident nonequity acting company, was that we had a tight-knit community of strong performers to draw on for an ensemble play like this one.
The tough thing about The Bats is that The Flea exploited us constantly. We were not only unpair, but asked to contribute five or six hours of volunteer labor for every reading and workshop we did, in spite of the theater’s large and growing annual operating budget. This created a lot of financial stress for most members of the company, myself included.
It did, however, give me plenty of fodder for playing a melancholic mayor who felt the community he loved was ultimately doomed to fail.
playwright Deron Bos
director Kip Fagan
director Jim Simpson
AIR CONDITIONING
Closed Reading
March 19, 2007
by Tommy Smith, dir. Jim Simpson
with Evan Enderle and Elizabeth Hoyt
Role: Jerry
Flea Theater
My second reading with Tommy Smith.
Air Conditioning — which has still never been produced — is a brutal, brilliant satire assaulting both the illusions of the wealthy and the illusions of the working class.
THE THYME OF THE SEASON
Staged Reading
March 29, 2007
by Duncan Pflaster
Role: Demetrius
Janus Theater Company @ The Film Center
A sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Titania and Oberon need a human soul to sacrifice, while Helena is pregnant, Demetrius jealous, Lysander exploring his feminine side, and Hermia unsatisfied. Bottom is now very famous, very rich, and, of course, a complete ass.
playwright Duncan Pflaster
playwright Annie Scott
I MAKE NO PROMISES
Performance
April 1, 2007
written and directed by Annie Scott
with Drew Hildebrand and Meghann Murphy
Labyrinth Theater Company
Tony Award-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley commissioned I Make No Promises for a Labyrinth Theater Company party he threw at his apartment.
We performed Annie’s play, watched the film of The Importance of Being Earnest together, and drank wine. It was a weird night.
WHITE HOT
Staged Reading
April 16, 2007
by Tommy Smith, dir. May Adrales
Mary Jane Gibson, Joel Israel, and Patricia Nelson
Role: Brian
Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab
Tommy's most scathing and unsettling play, which is saying something.
You can read the full play here.
Carlo Gesualdo
SEXTET
Closed Workshop
April 21-May 22, 2007
by Tommy Smith, dir. Blair Brown
Role: Carlo Gesualdo
Flea Theater
Carlo Gesualdo was a monster who made sublime works of art.
It’s a subject I think about often, now that I’ve worked with two or three monsters of my own.
TINY THEATER FESTIVAL -
WELCOME TO NOWHERE
Production (Excerpt)
May 2-5, 2007
written and directed by Kenneth Collins
video design by William Cusick
with Stacey Collins, Brian Greer, Lorraine Mattox, and Jessica Pagan
Role: Hunter
Temporary Distortion @ The Ontological-Hysteric Theater
Tiny Theater required each excerpt to run no longer than ten minutes in a 10'x10'x10' space marked off at the center of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.
Several of the other pieces were over ten minutes, so when Kenneth's box ended up being a few inches over 10 feet, he assumed they'd let it slide. They didn’t, and he had to redesign it.
composer Sergei Dreznin
OPHELIA: OPERA IN BLUE
Production (Musical)
May 5-8, 2007
lyrics by William Shakespeare, music by Sergei Dreznin
dir. May Adrales
with Lucas Howland, David Matranga, and Marissa Michelson
Role: Polonius
Prospect Theater Company
Every word in Ophelia: Opera in Blue is taken straight from Hamlet, but the structure of the piece—a jazz-infused operetta—bares little resemblance to Shakespeare's great tragedy — or anything else, for that matter. Sergei, who flew in from Paris to see the production, conceived the action of Ophelia as taking place entirely in the mind of the title character: a nightmare dreamscape of words, words, words that dramatizes Ophelia's enthrallment to and ultimate liberation from the patriarchy of her brother, father and lover.
I opened Ophelia: Opera in Blue in the afternoon, then dashed across town for the closing performance of Tiny Theater that evening.
COMMANDER SQUISH
Production (Musical)
May 17-May 19, 2007
music, lyrics and book by Nate Weida
with William Day, Coleen Huley, Carolyn Cole, Ian Merrigan, Trevor Vaughn and Andy Stewart
Role: Commander Squish
45th Street Theater
When I first saw Commander Squish at Chapel Hill High School, I was stunned that a fellow sophomore had written a riveting full-length musical.
Eleven years later, I played the title role.
SOME THINGS CEASE TO BE WHILE OTHERS STILL ARE
Closed Reading
May 22, 2007
by Karinne Keithley, dir. Sherri Kronfeld
with James Blanshard, Donal Brophy, Jamie Effros, John Fico, Jocelyn Kuritsky, and Maureen Sebastian
Role: Knut
Flea Theater
A chilling theatrical meditation on the ephemeral nature of time.
You can read the full play here.
THE MERCURY MENIFESTO
Production (Voiceover)
May 23, 2007 (Studio Recording)
written and directed by John del Signore
with Jeff Seal and John del Signore
Role: Narrator
Pretentious Festival @ The Brick Theater
I recorded a seven-minute voiceover for the opening of The Mercury Menifesto, which chronicled John del Signore's experiences performing in the subway as a living statue (or "Mercury Man"). During the performance, John stood absolutely still in full "Mercury Man" makeup as my words played out in their entirety.
For a clip of John as "The Mercury Man" click here.
John del Signore in full Mercury Man regalia
Ben and Mary Jane Gibson in White Hot
WHITE HOT
Production
June 20-July 7, 2007
by Tommy Smith, dir. May Adrales
with Mary Jane Gibson, Joel Israel, and Patricia Nelson
in rep with The Curse of the Smart Kid
Role: Brian
HERE Arts Center
Years later, The Flea claimed to be staging the premiere of White Hot, though they knew we’d premiered the show at HERE in 2007.
I’m not sure I blame them. With a short run and no press agent, only a handful of folks saw our production, which was first-rate.
Mary Jane is now a marijuana icon, and Trish Nelson a high-profile comic/activist in Los Angeles.
THE CURSE OF THE SMART KID
Production (Solo Performance)
June 23-June 25, 2007
written and directed by David Vining
in rep with White Hot
Role: Smart Kid
HERE Arts Center
My first one-man show: the self-told tale of a guy whose superior intelligence leaves him ill-equipped for life outside the classroom.
When my character takes the audience through a slide show of his ex-girlfriends, I used pictures of my actual exes.
playwright Normandy Sherwood (photo by Jody Christopherson)
CERTAIN WORDS IN FRENCH (WHICH I SHALL NOT NAME)
Closed Reading
July 17, 2007
by Normandy Sherwood, dir. Sherri Kronfeld
with Jane Elliott, Parrish Hurley, Jocelyn Kuritsky, Alexis Macnab, Theresa Ngo, Erin Roth, Annie Scott, Sarah Silk and Maren Ueker
Role: Gil
Flea Theater
Wet Hot American Summer meets Mac Wellman.
I based my performance as Gil, the camp counselor, on Flea artistic director Jim Simpson.
TWELFTH NIGHT
Production
August 4-19, 2007
by William Shakespeare, dir. BEN BECKLEY
Holla Holla Productions
After college, I stopped directing because I didn't want to self-produce.
So when producer/actor Clara Barton Green offered me the chance to direct one of my favorite plays, I didn’t hesitate — even though I'd have no say in the concept, costumes, or casting.
This was just months after I'd turned down a similar offer from Legitimate Theater Company to direct Twelfth Night. That production would have come with even more strings attached: they'd insisted I stage the whole thing as a drinking game.
actor Lindsay Goranson
CHATEAU ROSALINE 1937
Independent Film (Short)
September 15, 2007 (Principal Photography)
written and directed by Maja Milanovic
with Lindsay Goranson, Carly Movizio and Rafi Sakur
Role: Howard
More than seven years later, my castmate Lindsay Goranson — whom I hadn't seen since the Chateau Rosaline shoot — contacted me about auditioning for the feature film Crooked and Narrow.
You never know!
TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE THINKING
Independent Film (Short)
September 16, 2007 (Principal Photography)
written and directed by Ozu Takahari
Ozu Takahari was the alter ego of one of my castmates at The Flea.
DAYLIGHT TRANSACTION
Independent Film (Short)
September 27, 2007 (Principal Photography)
written and directed by Ozu Takahari
with Vadim Newquist
This park was later featured in Russian Doll.
I’d like to say that Daylight Transaction is what put it on the map.
WELCOME TO NOWHERE
Production
October 12-October 27, 2007
written and directed by Kenneth Collins
video design by William Cusick
with Stacey Collins, Brian Greer, Lorraine Mattox, and Jessica Pagan
Role: Hunter
Temporary Distortion @ The Chocolate Factory
Rehearsing for months in Kenneth’s tiny living room in Sunnyside, Queens to perfect the set, lighting, text, and performances, I certainly never expected to get paid anything for my work with Temporary Distortion.
When a European artistic director tapped Welcome to Nowhere for a three-week tour of France, and Kenneth offered us salaries on par with those of a commercial Broadway tour, I was stunned.
a fellow In Pursuit participant
IN PURSUIT: ART ON DATING
Performance Art
October 21, 2007
conceived and created by John Miller
As a photographer snapped pictures from a concealed location, I stood on a street corner wearing a sandwich board that listed all my great qualities as a potential date.
Over the course of the afternoon, I got a lot of backward glances, more than a few strange stares, and one or two folks approaching with well intentioned advice about finding a mate.
No one seemed to notice that some of the details on my board were contradictory (e.g., "social drinker...alcoholic"), others inaccurate (e.g., "Eyes: Brown").
AFTER THE WAR
Student Film
November 24-27, 2007 (Principal Photography)
adapted from Under the Blue Sky by David Eldridge
dir. Brian Quist
with Brooke Delaney
Columbia University, MFA Film
My first film at Columbia University. I'd now worked with students from every major film program in NYC: New York Film Academy, The School of Visual Arts, and both the undergraduate and graduate film programs at NYU.
After the War, an emotionally charged 25-page screenplay shot in a small apartment over the course of four consecutive days, was the most intense and challenging of any of these projects.
a clip from After the War
director Portia Krieger
SUNRISE
Production
November 30-December 6, 2007
by Tommy Smith, dir. Portia Krieger
with Teddy Bergman and Jocelyn Kuritsky
Mackwell Productions @ The Lark Annex
The heartwarming story of two cold-blooded vampires and the priest who comes between them.
COOLER
Reading
December 9, 2007
by Gary Winter, dir. Kip Fagan
with Havilah Brewster, Elizabeth Hoyt and Annie Scott
Role: Jack
Flea Theater
The single best thing about The Flea was the opportunity to meet so many first-rate playwrights and directors.
After working with Kip in ‘Twas the Night Before, he brought me in for this reading with Gary, a playwright with an experimental sensibility and a knack for articulating the shape of human longing.
playwright Gary Winter
actor Beth Hoyt
THE MUMBLINGS
Closed Reading
December 9, 2007
written and directed by Dan Kitrosser
with Elizabeth Hoyt
The first-ever reading of Dan’s terrific two-hander about a gay man who marries his best friend.
I played opposite Beth Hoyt, who had been my wife in ‘Twas the Night Before.
I did readings of The Mumblings for over five years — with a variety of different directors and co-stars — but when the play finally premiered in August 2013, I was out of town on tour.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING FAMILY JEWELS
Performance
December 21, 2007
by Andrew Keating, dir. E. Randahl Hoey
with Chrissie Amorosia, Shawn Dempewolff, Jimmy Schwatzman (Sherlock Holmes), and BarbaraAnne Smilko
Role: Jack
Brain Brew Entertainment
We performed this interactive, pun-filled murder mystery at the Christmas party for a furniture reupholstery company in southern NJ.
When Jimmy quipped “I’m Sherlock Holmes, of Camden, NJ,” a drunk audience member started heckling us. “This is not Camden. THIS IS NOT CAMDEN!”
We were lucky to escape with our lives.
a promo for Brain Brew’s corporate-friendly mysteries