Look Ma! I'm BUTCHERING THE BARD!

I have found myself directing again for Coffee Black Productions!

"A Midsummer Night's Tempest" was written by Butch D'Ambrosio and is just one of three one-act plays that make up BUTCHERING THE BARD. I have been lucky to have been joined by two talented actors, Hank Lin and J.J. von Mehren. These guys get to do all the heavy lifting while I stand around in rehearsal and say things like, "Great now can you do it funnier?" The one-act concerns what happens when Puck (J.J. von Mehren) arrives on Prospero's island looking for the little western flower that Oberon has requested. Unable to find the flower easily Puck encounters Caliban, and the two fall into a test of wills that to my mind recalls the best of the Warner Brother's cartoons.

This marks my third time working with Carrie Boehm and Michael Bloom's company. They formed Coffee Black Productions back in 2009 in order "to perform plays simply, focusing on the playwright's intentions without directorial embellishments that distort the playwright's work."

So, please join me next Saturday for:

BUTCHERING THE BARD

Legendary Shakespearean characters collide in one night of theater.
Three One-Act plays inspired by the works of Shakespeare.

Pumpkin Goat Milk
by Sean Behrens
directed by Sarah Simmons
Starring:
Katie Bland, Maggie D'Ambrose,
Bethany McNamara, and Samantha Schecter

Undone
by Carrie Boehm
directed by Michael Bloom
Starring:
Dylan Digel and JF Garcia

A Midsummer Night's Tempest
by Butch D'Ambrosio
directed by Kevin P. Hale
Starring:
Hank Lin and J.J. von Mehren

6pm Saturday
January 28, 2012
Bar 82
136 Second Avenue
Manhattan

Tickets are only $5!

Come early and grab a drink before the show. (Pssst...I hear that there are happy hour prices from 3-8pm.)

Monologues That Go Bump in the Night!

Back in the early nineties when I was a young man out of college with a fancy directing degree I took a directing observership at the Cleveland Playhouse. It was there that Roger Danforth gave me a piece of advice that I have always remembered. “Go where you are invited. You are a young director and you need all the experience you can get.” Now because of an eight year detour into the world of theatrical agencies, I am a director who still has no experience. To that end when Mike Bloom at Coffee Black Productions asked me if I wanted to direct some of the monologues for their …. I said yes.

Coffee Black only came into being six months ago and in that time they have presented a number of readings of new plays. In addition they have been scheduling regular evenings of monologues.

Their most recent monologue night, Monologues that Go Bump in the Night, was originally scheduled for February 15 at The Tea Lounge. When the Tea Lounge decided to book another act for the same evening, they neglected to let anyone at Coffee Black know. So not only was the evening of fear rescheduled, it changed venue too!

If you are in Brooklyn, please come out to…

Written by:

Richard Ballon
Matthew Barbot
Diana Bedoya
Michael Bloom
Carrie Boehm
Danna Call
Lindsey Copeland
Topher Cusumano
Ethan Kanfer
Brendan McLoughlin
Maiken Wiese

Directed by:

Carrie Boehm
Kevin P. Hale
Bobbi Masters

Starring:

Mamoudou Athie, Matt Barbot, Kay Capasso, Kristin Ciccone, Katie Dickinson, Aisling Quinn, Kate Shine, Kymberly Tuttle

There are two chances to check out the show!

8pm Monday March 8th

Freddy’s Bar & Backroom

485 Dean Street, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn

By subway take the 2, 3 trains to Bergen Street; Freddy's is right around the corner. Or take practically any train in the city to Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street Stations; Walk East on Flatbush and take a left on Dean.

or

7:30pm Friday March 12th

Ozzie’s Coffee House

249 5th Avenue (between Carroll St & Garfield Pl) , Park Slope, Brooklyn

By subway take the D, M, N, R, W trains to Union Street; walk up Union Street to 5th Ave and take a right.