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INDEPENDENT THEATRE

INDEPENDENT THEATRE

Some of my favorite projects in New York's indie theatre spaces

AFTER THE CHAIRS

Koteles and Jacobs, who also brought the award-winning comedy Bald Diva! The Ionesco Parody Your Mother Warned You About to the very first Fresh Fruit Festival 10 years ago, are returning with another Ionesco-inspired play.

WINNER! Best Direction, Fresh Fruit Festival 2013

AFTER THE CHAIRS

Inspired by the Eugene Ionesco absurdist tale, David Koteles' After the Chairs tells the story of two men, Marc and Richard, alone in a quiet hospital room waiting for what happens next. A visit from friends? The telling of stories? Results from a doctor? A big performance? End of life as they know it? It is a play about family, marriage in sickness and in health, death, drag, drugs and (like the Ionesco play) many, many, many chairs.

by David Koteles

Fresh Fruit Festival

THE  BOYCOTT

Jacobs believes the choice of first-person perspective gives the audience an immediate point of entry. It's "that very human, individual response" missing from statistics-heavy news stories."

THE BOYCOTT

Inspired by the ancient anti-war comedy Lysistrata, actor-activist Kathryn Blume plays Kathryn Blume, a woman trying to fight global warming and save the world — by writing a screenplay about the First Lady of the United States launching a national sex strike to fight global warming and save the world. Aided by her impassioned daughter, a high tech Secret Service agent, and a plucky Brazilian tree frog she meets on the Astral Plane, Lyssa bumps and lurches her way into an unexpected, wildly comic, and ultimately successful campaign.

by Kathryn Blume

Arclight Theatre

LAVENDER SONGS

An evening of Jewishly inflected, queer songs brings Weimar Germany back to life with humor and music."

a beautifully realized evocation of a club in Germany in the ‘30s ... a thrilling reminder of the power and strength of cabaret at its best.”

Out of this minimal landscape, director Jason Jacobs creates a vibrant, small-scale panorama with his precise staging. Lawrence glides around, often stands still totally, but remains mesmerizing due to Jacobs’ command of visual technique."

LAVENDER SONGS

2008 Bistro Award Winner!

Originally produced in 2008 and revised in 2016 in response to the Trump ascendency, this cabaret theatre piece had an extended run at Pangea.  Featuring songs originally written and performed by queer aertists in Weimar-era Berlin (with new English lyrics by Jeremy), the piece was based on an evening created by Alan Lareau for the U.S. Holocaust Museum om Washington DC.

by Jeremy Lawrence

Pangea

POST-MODERN LIVING (2010)/LOST IN STATEN ISLAND (2013)

As the story quickly moves from situation to situation, cleverly staged by Jason Jacobs on a minimalistic set ... (Sheinmel) begins to discover the meaning behind initially irrelevant occurrences and that life is full of unexpected."

The antidote to the surfeit of soulless synthetic musical comedies on Broadway awaits you at The Club at La MaMa, in the form of Post Modern Living, a musical (kind of) by Richard Sheinmel, with songs by Clay Zambo, whose casual informality, honesty, and warmth are rivaled only by its dazzlingly high entertainment quotient."

NYTheatre.com

POST-MODERN LIVING (2010)/LOST IN STATEN ISLAND (2013)

I had the pleasure to direct two installments of Sheinmel's "Modern Living" play cycle, which began in 2006 at La MaMa. Much like Armistead Maupin's "Tales of The City", this series of related plays center on Mitch, a gay "downtown" New York performance artist (played by Sheinmel), as he writes plays about his life. The plays incorporate original songs and music by Clay Zambo. 

by Richard Sheinmel

LaMama

MY FIRST LADY

An afternoon of pleasantries quickly turns into a boiling teakettle of tension...he ending of the play is subtle and numbingly powerful."

The REAL First Ladies of Washington City give the dish on the 1801 Election."

I want the audience to look at the Founding Fathers through a lens that includes class, race and gender."

MY FIRST LADY

Presented as part of the Metropolitan Playhouse Founders Festival, My First Lady takes a funny and unexpected turn towards a battle of race, class, and gender in the new American republic when First Ladies Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and Thomas Jefferson’s daughters gather for a "friendly" tea. The gloves come off when Jefferson's enslaved mistress Sally Hemmings claims her rightful place at the table.


by David Koteles

Metropolitan Playhouse

AFTER THE CHAIRS

Koteles and Jacobs, who also brought the award-winning comedy Bald Diva! The Ionesco Parody Your Mother Warned You About to the very first Fresh Fruit Festival 10 years ago, are returning with another Ionesco-inspired play.

WINNER! Best Direction, Fresh Fruit Festival 2013

AFTER THE CHAIRS

Inspired by the Eugene Ionesco absurdist tale, David Koteles' After the Chairs tells the story of two men, Marc and Richard, alone in a quiet hospital room waiting for what happens next. A visit from friends? The telling of stories? Results from a doctor? A big performance? End of life as they know it? It is a play about family, marriage in sickness and in health, death, drag, drugs and (like the Ionesco play) many, many, many chairs.

by David Koteles

Fresh Fruit Festival

THE  BOYCOTT

Jacobs believes the choice of first-person perspective gives the audience an immediate point of entry. It's "that very human, individual response" missing from statistics-heavy news stories."

THE BOYCOTT

Inspired by the ancient anti-war comedy Lysistrata, actor-activist Kathryn Blume plays Kathryn Blume, a woman trying to fight global warming and save the world — by writing a screenplay about the First Lady of the United States launching a national sex strike to fight global warming and save the world. Aided by her impassioned daughter, a high tech Secret Service agent, and a plucky Brazilian tree frog she meets on the Astral Plane, Lyssa bumps and lurches her way into an unexpected, wildly comic, and ultimately successful campaign.

by Kathryn Blume

Arclight Theatre

LAVENDER SONGS

An evening of Jewishly inflected, queer songs brings Weimar Germany back to life with humor and music."

a beautifully realized evocation of a club in Germany in the ‘30s ... a thrilling reminder of the power and strength of cabaret at its best.”

Out of this minimal landscape, director Jason Jacobs creates a vibrant, small-scale panorama with his precise staging. Lawrence glides around, often stands still totally, but remains mesmerizing due to Jacobs’ command of visual technique."

LAVENDER SONGS

2008 Bistro Award Winner!

Originally produced in 2008 and revised in 2016 in response to the Trump ascendency, this cabaret theatre piece had an extended run at Pangea.  Featuring songs originally written and performed by queer aertists in Weimar-era Berlin (with new English lyrics by Jeremy), the piece was based on an evening created by Alan Lareau for the U.S. Holocaust Museum om Washington DC.

by Jeremy Lawrence

Pangea

POST-MODERN LIVING (2010)/LOST IN STATEN ISLAND (2013)

As the story quickly moves from situation to situation, cleverly staged by Jason Jacobs on a minimalistic set ... (Sheinmel) begins to discover the meaning behind initially irrelevant occurrences and that life is full of unexpected."

The antidote to the surfeit of soulless synthetic musical comedies on Broadway awaits you at The Club at La MaMa, in the form of Post Modern Living, a musical (kind of) by Richard Sheinmel, with songs by Clay Zambo, whose casual informality, honesty, and warmth are rivaled only by its dazzlingly high entertainment quotient."

NYTheatre.com

POST-MODERN LIVING (2010)/LOST IN STATEN ISLAND (2013)

I had the pleasure to direct two installments of Sheinmel's "Modern Living" play cycle, which began in 2006 at La MaMa. Much like Armistead Maupin's "Tales of The City", this series of related plays center on Mitch, a gay "downtown" New York performance artist (played by Sheinmel), as he writes plays about his life. The plays incorporate original songs and music by Clay Zambo. 

by Richard Sheinmel

LaMama

MY FIRST LADY

An afternoon of pleasantries quickly turns into a boiling teakettle of tension...he ending of the play is subtle and numbingly powerful."

The REAL First Ladies of Washington City give the dish on the 1801 Election."

I want the audience to look at the Founding Fathers through a lens that includes class, race and gender."

MY FIRST LADY

Presented as part of the Metropolitan Playhouse Founders Festival, My First Lady takes a funny and unexpected turn towards a battle of race, class, and gender in the new American republic when First Ladies Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and Thomas Jefferson’s daughters gather for a "friendly" tea. The gloves come off when Jefferson's enslaved mistress Sally Hemmings claims her rightful place at the table.


by David Koteles

Metropolitan Playhouse

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