We're thrilled to finally share with the MadShaggers the new premiere that Gabriel has been directing this month -- Charles Borkhuis' PRESENT TENSE, May 23rd and 24th at The Brick Theater. It's a clever and mind-stretching new play; we'd love to get your feedback and thoughts on this multiple-dimension, wormhole-stretching new work about actors, audiences, and the infinite space between the two. It's part of the Tiny Theatre Festival, co-produced by the Ontological-Hysteric and The Brick; there are six short plays in total, 90 nonstop minutes. Come enjoy!
In PRESENT TENSE, two characters find themselves slipping in and out of parallel lives through "wormholes" in the space-time of the play. One believes he has dozed off at home with a book on his lap and the play is a curiously lucid dream. The other is convinced that their performances in front of a live audience are desperately real. Panic starts to set in as the play's complications and reversals become increasingly fascinating and frightening. C'mon, admit it...you're intrigued, aren't you?
PRESENT TENSE
by Charles Borkhuis
directed by Gabriel Shanks
featuring Frank Blocker & Ben Trawick-Smith
Stage Manager: Jeni Shanks
Design: Allen Cutler
May 24 and 25 | 8pm | $15
at The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg
(L Train, 1/2 block from Lorimer Stop)
RESERVATIONS: 866-811-4111 or Theatermania
by Charles Borkhuis
directed by Gabriel Shanks
featuring Frank Blocker & Ben Trawick-Smith
Stage Manager: Jeni Shanks
Design: Allen Cutler
May 24 and 25 | 8pm | $15
at The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg
(L Train, 1/2 block from Lorimer Stop)
RESERVATIONS: 866-811-4111 or Theatermania
Labels: drama, New York City, Present Tense
The premiere of Dennis Blackwell and Jason Hart: In Concert is less than a week away at The Metropolitan Room, and we couldn't be more excited that so many of you are coming to see it! As a special treat, Dennis and Jason recently went into the studio and recorded one of the songs, the unforgettable Lerner/Lane classic "Come Back To Me", just for the blog listeners! You can now hear and download the track for FREE for a limited time.And if you haven't made your reservations yet, call (212) 206-0440 right away (no credit card necessary). Seats are going very rapidly for both performances. I can't wait to see you there!
Labels: Dennis Blackwell and Jason Hart, MadShag News, New York City
In Concert at the Metropolitan Room
0 Comments Published by ModFab on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 3:11 PM.
MadShag has been hard at work on a series of first-ever events: our first-ever musical project, our first-ever cabaret performance piece, our-first ever appearance at New York City's vaunted Metropolitan Room. The fully-staged cabaret piece is for our friends Dennis Blackwell and Jason Hart; Gabriel is directing, while Kay is writing text and helping with the staging. It's an incredibly exciting project...what a thrill to work on songs by Elvis Costello, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Billy Joel, and more! With a few weeks of rehearsal left to go, we can already tell it's turning out better than our wildest dreams.
Reservations are now open, so please call (212) 206-0440 and come enjoy our night of music, laughter, and drama. We promise you'll leave humming!
Reservations are now open, so please call (212) 206-0440 and come enjoy our night of music, laughter, and drama. We promise you'll leave humming!
Labels: Dennis Blackwell and Jason Hart
Have Another with Flux Theatre Ensemble Tonight!
0 Comments Published by Kay on Monday, January 07, 2008 at 7:27 AM.
Join us tonight at Jimmy's No. 43 (43 E. 7th St.) for Flux Theatre Ensemble's 2nd Have Another reading series. Kay has directed a scene from Godsbreath, by Johnna Adams. There will also be scenes from Un Plugged In by Brian Pracht and Icarus of Ohio by Rob Ackerman. There's no cover and a one-drink minimum. Stop in for a drink, stay for the chicken resurrection, and be sure to say hi if you do!
Slogging Through The Winter Months...
0 Comments Published by ModFab on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 5:48 PM.
It's surprisingly looking like a hiatus around the MadShag HQ...trust us, we didn't plan it that way, it just happened! We just closed Nomi Tichman's solo performance piece at Dixon Place, In Ithaca, When Physics Saved My Life...a wonderful experience with one of NYC's most wonderful actresses. Now we're looking to 2008, where we'll stick our first toe into the murky waters of cabaret (at the Metropolitan Room, no less!) and continue developing our new projects. And if things work out, we'll be reviving our award-winning, sold-out smash 2004 hit adaptation of Poe's Fall of the House of Usher...this time in our "second city", Baltimore. Just in time for Halloween! Keep watching this space, we'll be back to full speed soon!
Labels: MadShag News
Labels: Summer in the Garden
MadShag Celebrates Summer in the Garden!
0 Comments Published by ModFab on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 5:07 PM.
We're proud to finally announce our casts for SUMMER IN THE GARDEN, our staged reading series happening next month. MadShag is presenting two classic British comedies that break out of their rooms and hurl themselves headlong into their well-manicured lawns -- comedy so big, it can't stay in the living room! Both plays are celebrations of wit, laughter, and family dysfunction...a most entertaining afternoon, wouldn't you say? Gabriel and Kay are directing, and best of all, they're FREE! Plus drinks and nibbles! Put it on your calendar now, and remember to RSVP by phone (646-220-2520) or by e-mail, because seating is limited.
Labels: comedy, New York City, Summer in the Garden
Labels: Conquest of the Universe, New York City
OBIE Award Grants...and Colliding Queens!
1 Comments Published by ModFab on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 11:00 AM.
We're thrilled to note that our frequent producers and longtime artistic collaborators, Peculiar Works Project, received an OBIE Award Grant yesterday in honor of last October's The Village Fragments. We're doubly thrilled, because the Fragments included a MadShag play, The Madness of Lady Bright by Lanford Wilson, in its run. Which means we kinda, sorta, halfway-won an OBIE too! Huzzah for us, huzzah for Peculiar Works, and huzzah to Gretchen, Steve, Lars, Kay and Gabriel, who created such an marvelous (and apparently, award-worthy) piece of theatre!
MadShag is gearing up for a second run in The Village Fragments next month, in the East Village this time...where we'll be presenting Charles Ludlam's whacked-out intergalactic drag comedy Conquest of the Universe or When Queens Collide. Director Gabriel Shanks will be collaborating with our talented buddy Christopher Mirto to bring two totally different productions to life...and then have the two ensembles throwdown in a theatrical street brawl! It's all loosely inspired by historical facts from the 1960's, and will be a lot of fun. The event begins on June 14th (and Kay is directing a separate piece, too!). For tickets and other info, check out Peculiar Works' website next week.
Labels: Conquest of the Universe, New York City
MadShag's great friends and sometime producers, Peculiar Works Project, are throwing their first-ever benefit, BANG!...and it's a star-studded lineup of downtown performance art legends, including Penny Arcade and Judith Malina. This is a must for everyone who supports quality theatre...and it's a great night of entertainment, too!
Labels: elsewhere, New York City
Sorry it's been a month since we've updated, but we've had a big month at MadShag. First off is that our planned production of Perestroika had to be canceled due to serious family illness. The health of our loved ones comes first, as it should, but the severity of the illness made it simply impossible for MadShag to continue its involvement with the Baltimore production. The good news is that Spotlighters, our producing partner, plans to forge ahead with local artists to complete the production...and we are cheering them on. Go team!
We also put together a reading for Peculiar Works Project of Charles Ludlam's Conquest of the Universe, or, When Queens Collide, which was ridiculously good fun. Since the play has an absolutely enormous cast, we got to work with some regulars of the MadShag family (Gabriel, Shannon, Catherine Porter, Mary Ann Walsh, Melissa House, Helen Bessette), some of our new friends from Baltimore (David Gregory, Richard Goldberg), and a bevy of talented folk who were MadShaggin' for the first time: Brian Gonzalez, Ryan Jensen, Chris Mirto, Wil Reyes, Nathaniel Rogers, Shannan Shaughnessy, Nomi Tichman, and Jason Verga. It was a ball, and we hope to revisit the play in June as part of PWP's Off Stage: The East Village Fragments, which is the follow-up event to the West Village event we did last year.
We're still working on our 2008 original piece, Dragging The Day (Behind You), and we're currently cooking up a fun summer project here in NYC. We'll keep you posted!
We also put together a reading for Peculiar Works Project of Charles Ludlam's Conquest of the Universe, or, When Queens Collide, which was ridiculously good fun. Since the play has an absolutely enormous cast, we got to work with some regulars of the MadShag family (Gabriel, Shannon, Catherine Porter, Mary Ann Walsh, Melissa House, Helen Bessette), some of our new friends from Baltimore (David Gregory, Richard Goldberg), and a bevy of talented folk who were MadShaggin' for the first time: Brian Gonzalez, Ryan Jensen, Chris Mirto, Wil Reyes, Nathaniel Rogers, Shannan Shaughnessy, Nomi Tichman, and Jason Verga. It was a ball, and we hope to revisit the play in June as part of PWP's Off Stage: The East Village Fragments, which is the follow-up event to the West Village event we did last year.
We're still working on our 2008 original piece, Dragging The Day (Behind You), and we're currently cooking up a fun summer project here in NYC. We'll keep you posted!
Labels: drama
I'm such a bad mom! Shoot, if I was the real mom of this blog, child services would have taken it and given it to a nice white family in the suburbs before I could pull myself up off the kitchen floor after a week of vodka, cigarettes and crack cocaine. I tell ya, I have a new respect for those that can come up with not only something to write about on their blogs each day but some of them even come up with several new and interesting posts all at the same time. What's up with that?!
Oh sure, I've sat down to write on several occasions. Maybe something about a show I've seen or a piece I'm working on or at the very least one of the several hundred Netflix movies I've watched, but nothing ever seemed important enough. For instance, I saw a show a couple of weeks ago at a new-ish space here in Baltimore called The Patterson. Actually, I believe the entire title is The Creative Alliance at the Patterson. Anyway, I went down there not knowing anything about the space except what I had read on their website, WHICH, by the by, I thought sounded totally groovy and a place that Madshag might be able to mount less traditional work in the future i.e. the work we prefer to do. But I digress...I LOVE THIS SPACE. It's a totallytotallytotally, great and beautiful artistic and creative space. So why didn't I write about that? And the piece. I saw an original performance/multimedia extravaganza, Air Heart, written and performed by a Towson MFA alum Mara Neimanis, an aerial performer amongst other things, who did the whole piece while climbing and swinging around on a 25' steel sculpture of a plane. Now that sounds like that could be something...good or bad...
It was good.
I just don't know?! I mean, what constitutes an interesting blog worthy post? Listen, I have read some really uninteresting crap. And even worse, I have left comments on these posts like this will somehow ease my guilty conscience for thinking it was crap in the first place. So what makes me think I'm any better than anybody else. Like I can conjure from deep down and write something that will entertain, educate and inspire you all to great things...if I just wait, it will come.
What the hell was I waiting for. Well, I have learned my lesson. No more waiting for interesting subjects, inspirational words, great/bad art or as Allan Kaprow put it: happenings. I hear by promise to write all kinds of crap all the time. No matter what it is or how I'm feeling I will allow the proverbial diarrhea of the extremities to expound all kinds of deep, dark, smelly dookie. This my friends is my solemn promise.
Just to show you how dedicated I am, I don't have a damn thing to say to close this thing...
Up next time: A cheesy slide show from my vacation to Mexico. You won't want to miss this one. Several shots of the same thing, pics of people you don't know or care about and I have found some spirited Mariachi music to use as underscoring. Can't wait...ole!
Oh sure, I've sat down to write on several occasions. Maybe something about a show I've seen or a piece I'm working on or at the very least one of the several hundred Netflix movies I've watched, but nothing ever seemed important enough. For instance, I saw a show a couple of weeks ago at a new-ish space here in Baltimore called The Patterson. Actually, I believe the entire title is The Creative Alliance at the Patterson. Anyway, I went down there not knowing anything about the space except what I had read on their website, WHICH, by the by, I thought sounded totally groovy and a place that Madshag might be able to mount less traditional work in the future i.e. the work we prefer to do. But I digress...I LOVE THIS SPACE. It's a totallytotallytotally, great and beautiful artistic and creative space. So why didn't I write about that? And the piece. I saw an original performance/multimedia extravaganza, Air Heart, written and performed by a Towson MFA alum Mara Neimanis, an aerial performer amongst other things, who did the whole piece while climbing and swinging around on a 25' steel sculpture of a plane. Now that sounds like that could be something...good or bad...
It was good.
I just don't know?! I mean, what constitutes an interesting blog worthy post? Listen, I have read some really uninteresting crap. And even worse, I have left comments on these posts like this will somehow ease my guilty conscience for thinking it was crap in the first place. So what makes me think I'm any better than anybody else. Like I can conjure from deep down and write something that will entertain, educate and inspire you all to great things...if I just wait, it will come.
What the hell was I waiting for. Well, I have learned my lesson. No more waiting for interesting subjects, inspirational words, great/bad art or as Allan Kaprow put it: happenings. I hear by promise to write all kinds of crap all the time. No matter what it is or how I'm feeling I will allow the proverbial diarrhea of the extremities to expound all kinds of deep, dark, smelly dookie. This my friends is my solemn promise.
Just to show you how dedicated I am, I don't have a damn thing to say to close this thing...
Up next time: A cheesy slide show from my vacation to Mexico. You won't want to miss this one. Several shots of the same thing, pics of people you don't know or care about and I have found some spirited Mariachi music to use as underscoring. Can't wait...ole!
The First Rule of Write Club Is...
1 Comments Published by ModFab on Friday, January 26, 2007 at 9:16 AM.
Sometime MadShag collaborator Jeffrey James Keyes (who performed in our production of Edward II, and whose play Orange Alert we developed in our reading series in December '05) is part of the playwright's collective Write Club NYC, and they are throwing a mixer for any and all artists who work in New York theatre...especially those of us at the fringes in Off-Off-Broadway. We'll be there, and you should be too! It's a chance to exchange ideas and information, to network, and to socialize with fellow off-off-Broadway artists.
Write Club NYC Mixer
Write Club NYC Mixer
When: Monday, January 29, 2007 @ 8PM
Where: Upstairs at The Irish Rogue, 356 W 44th Street
Where: Upstairs at The Irish Rogue, 356 W 44th Street
Admission is free! So come drink your face off.
Labels: New York City, other theatre
Baltimoreans, be sure to catch Going To St. Ives, directed by MadShag guru Juanita Rockwell. It got great reviews, and is running through February 25th at Everyman Theatre. Juanita seems very happy with the production, and the actresses are reputed to be marvelous. If you go, let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Labels: elsewhere, other theatre
The premiere of Charles L. Mee's latest play, GONE, begins February 1st at 59E59 Theatres, under the direction of MadShag buddy Kenn Watt and co-produced by Kenn's company The Fifth Floor. Mee is one of the most interesting playwrights of our era, and this piece, featuring Proust, Ginsberg, obituaries and made-for-TV movies, promises to be truly exceptional. They've put up a You Tube trailer for the play (so cool!); watch it and grab tickets at TicketCentral.
Labels: New York City, other theatre
BroadwayWorld has given a bouquet full of plaudits to MadShag's production of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches in their Best of Baltimore 2006 Awards. They include:
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play - Richard Goldberg, Patrick Kilpatrick
Outstanding Costume Design - Shannon Maddox
Honorable Mentions:
Outstanding Production of a Play
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Towanda Underdue
We're also happy that two of the Angels family were notated for another great show this season, Southern Baptist Sissies. Our assistant stage manager, Andrew Syropoulos was named Outstanding Supporting Actor for that play, and Terry Long, who played our Roy Cohn, was singled out for his direction of it. Congrats to all!
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play - Richard Goldberg, Patrick Kilpatrick
Outstanding Costume Design - Shannon Maddox
Honorable Mentions:
Outstanding Production of a Play
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Towanda Underdue
We're also happy that two of the Angels family were notated for another great show this season, Southern Baptist Sissies. Our assistant stage manager, Andrew Syropoulos was named Outstanding Supporting Actor for that play, and Terry Long, who played our Roy Cohn, was singled out for his direction of it. Congrats to all!
Labels: Angels in America, awards
Finally, we've got pictures to share of our incredibly fun, site-specific, outdoor production of Lanford Wilson's The Madness of Lady Bright from last fall (part of Off Stage: The West Village Fragments, produced by Peculiar Works Project). For those of you who didn't get a chance to see the performances, you can relive the cold weather, the street traffic, and the yellow pasty street lamps lining Cornelia Street. (And to the resilient, dedicated cast -- Steve Hauck, Gretchen Michelfeld, and Lars Preece -- we miss you very much!)More photos, reviews, and other goodies about Lady Bright can be found on our Productions page. Seeing these images again, we can't wait to start working on the East Village Fragments, coming in June 2007.
Labels: drama, New York City, The Madness of Lady Bright
Great news: the MadShag production of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches has been named by Baltimore Out Loud as the Best Local Theatre Production of 2006! In addition, they awarded Best Ensemble to our astonishing company of actors -- Richard Goldberg, David Gregory, Patrick Kilpatrick, Suzanne Knapik, Terry J. Long, Shannon Maddox, Don Mullins, and Towanda Underdue. We couldn't be prouder, and can't wait to start Part Two!
Labels: Angels in America, awards
American Repertory Theatre in Boston just opened a stage adapation of Wim Wenders' exquisite movie Wings of Desire, and I can't imagine a more beautiful idea for a stage transfer. The video above is a 10-minute documentary on the production, which is directed by one of the most exciting new directors on the global scene right now, Ola Mafaalani. The show is a co-production with Toneelgroep Amsterdam , which is led by Ivo van Hove, who directed that utterly magnificent experimental version of Hedda Gabler two seasons ago in New York. (Wings of Desire was, coincidentally, reviewed by the New York Times today, and surprise surprise, they didn't get it.)
The images are stunning -- beautiful ways to reinterpret the idea of "angel." Very inspiring for Perestroika, methinks. (And if you haven't seen the movie, you really should.) It's also amazing what you can do with a massive budget, isn't it? ;-)
$30 boo-fey, Angels, and Masturbation
0 Comments Published by shannon h. on Sunday, December 03, 2006 at 9:07 PM.
Just a quick note to appease the blogger gods... Today's meeting and festivities before and after were fantastic and really made me feel creative (really, I can be creative) again.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy having some free time for the first time in months, but I do miss the amazing talent (and company) of the entire Angels crew.
How was Little Dog Laughed? Two words: Shannon. Maddox.
Show was great, dinner was great, even standing in line for TKTS for almost two hours was great.
It was great to see Gabriel, Allen and Chris again (it's seemed way too long) and to meet Kay.
Great.
Obviously bedtime.
But, I have a question... :)
xoxx,
sh
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy having some free time for the first time in months, but I do miss the amazing talent (and company) of the entire Angels crew.
How was Little Dog Laughed? Two words: Shannon. Maddox.
Show was great, dinner was great, even standing in line for TKTS for almost two hours was great.
It was great to see Gabriel, Allen and Chris again (it's seemed way too long) and to meet Kay.
Great.
Obviously bedtime.
But, I have a question... :)
xoxx,
sh
