emily lyon
director & story editor
Current Projects:
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EXPAND THE CANON:
a call to action to reshape what (and who) we call "classics"
2020-2023
Curator - Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre's new cornerstone program
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Expand the Canon demands space on classical stages for worthy plays by women. Parallel to The Kilroys List, Expand the Canon collects, curates, and publishes a list of timely, producible plays written by diverse women before 1945. Hedgepig's online list will give a breakdown of key production information for the plays, removing the barriers for classical producing organizations to honor the legacy of women playwrights.
This is a call to classical theaters to produce these plays and honor the legacy of female playwrights who have been overlooked for centuries.
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Directing: Bold Stroke for a Husband – an Expand the Canon play
2023
Island Shakespeare Festival
Expand the Canon playwright Hannah Cowley serves up everything you actually want from Taming of the Shrew – a daughter who's difficult to marry off, goofy suitors, a stressed father, musical puns – and packages it into an *actually feminist* play. With 5 dynamic female characters who all have their own views on love and are all taking matters into their own hands, Bold Stroke for a Husband explores the boundaries of agency, wit, and marriage.
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Dramaturg & Co-creator: Bilingual Hamlet
2022-2023
with Reynaldo Piniella, translations by Christin Eve Cato
In this radical bilingual reimagining of Shakespeare’s story, Hamlet is a Black and Latinx prince whose sense of identity has been fractured by the loss of his Black father. His soliloquies, mixing Spanish, English, and Spanglish, reflect his complex relationship with his Latina mother, his identity, and his ability and willingness to express his full emotions.
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This adaptation had a 2023 reading at The Folger, in their inaugural program The Reading Room, as well as previous workshops with The Public and Classical Theatre of Harlem.
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Future Facing Films
Funny Face Film Series
2021-2022
Founder and Executive Producer
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Future Facing Films commissioned a series of writers to craft short, comedic scripts to hit home the variety of consequences around facial recognition and its constant expansion. The FFF Team is now working to produce all three scripts in 2022.
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Past Work:
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Teaching Film Creation: FFF at PAL
Storytelling for Impact: Script Writing for Teens
Oct. - Dec 2021
Program Creator & Co-Teacher, Founder of Future Facing Films ​
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Future Facing Films partners with the Police Athletic League to teach high school students how to write short films to impact their communities. Based off our model for the Funny Face Series, we ask students to identify a behavior they witness in their neighborhoods that they'd like to shift, pin point an argument that would make a difference, and then write that... with comedy.
Men on Boats
Nov. 11-14, 2021
Director
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Heading back to my alma mater, University of Michigan's Theatre Department, I directed Jaclyn Backhaus' Men on Boats featuring undergraduate BFA acting majors at the Arthur Miller Theatre. The play takes on the legacy of John Wesley Powell, a disabled cis white man who lead the US government's expedition down the Colorado River to map the Grand Canyon. Backhaus dictates that the characters - historically 10 cis white men - should all be played by those outside that identity. Inviting in questions about whose histories we tell and whose we ignore, Men on Boats challenges assumptions about who "could" and "couldn't" have accomplished major moments in history... and reminds us that, as always, women and native peoples have always been a part of our legacies.
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2021 Hollywood Climate Summit
Sept. 22 & 26, 2021
Junior Board Member, Design Manager & Consultant
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I was delighted to be a part of shaping this year's Hollywood Climate Summit. While I participated throughout the year as a Junior Board Member of YEA! (Young Entertainment Activists) on the Climate Committee, ultimately I was most a part of the design look and feel of the summit and our website/materials. Bringing fun to bridging the climate-yet-also-media gap, we chose a color bar aesthetic – revealing the natural context behind each slice of our work.
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The Civilians R&D Group
Dissentary: Gamifying Environmental Justice
2020-2021
Co-creator and director
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Social Impact Writers Lab
Oct. 17 & 18, 2020
Co​-creator and co-facilitator
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The October 2020 Social Impact Writers Lab is a weekend that connects creators with experts to develop powerful pitches of social impact narratives. These stories can be told in any medium — television, film, streaming, social media, emerging media, you name it — and are currently open to any topic. By Sunday night, you will have a strong concept, backed up by expert insights, with a plan to measure the impact once released.
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Speakers included:
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Adnaan Wasey, Ann Christiano, Ann Merchant, Caty Borum Chattoo, Dietram Scheufele, Heidi J. Boisvert, Julia Jelenkowski, Reyhaneh Maktoufi, Riki Conrey, Zoe Katz
EXPAND THE CANON:
List Drop & First Reading
September 21 & 22, 8pm
Director
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We are revealing the full list of 9 plays on September 21! Come learn about and celebrate these fabulous plays by women in history, and discover how they can fit into your season. We'll be introducing the titles to artistic leaders and discussing what we love about each one.
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I'm directing a reading of ––– a fantastic play that you'll have to find out the title of on September 21! What I will say: this play is a feminist response to Taming of the Shrew! It's a comedy with hijinks, love, and disguises. Come listen! September 22, 8pm
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[The play was Bold Stroke for a Husband by Hannah Cowley!]
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Creative Climate Leadership
March 8-13, 2020
Created by Julie's Bicycle, hosted by and held at Biosphere 2
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Creative Climate Leadership is a program for artists and cultural professionals to explore the cultural dimensions of climate change, and take action with impact, creativity and resilience.
Artists and the wider cultural community have a unique and critical role: they deal with the art of the possible and influence new ways of being, doing and thinking. Creative Climate Leadership supports cultural professionals to apply these qualities to the climate challenge.
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BLACK DOVES by Reynaldo Piniella
February 29 & March 1, 2020
Workshop with Staged Public Reading as part of an awarded HB Studios Residency
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A modern retelling of The Seagull set amongst a black family in Brooklyn, Black Doves takes on inherited trauma in this dark comedy about love, family, and self-worth. (Black Doves is now an award-winning play, taking home the Barbour Playwrights Award from our last reading in 2019. Congrats, Reynaldo!)
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#yourmemorial by Emily Daly
May 9-26, 2019
for Pigeonholed Theatre, at HERE Arts
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Director
When Lottie dies during her internship in Afghanistan, her story gets splintered across the Internet by friends, groupies, and trolls. #yourmemorial is a play about what we choose to remember, what we refuse to see, and what it means to be real in the Facebook age.
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MARY STUART
April 11-20, 2019
for Hedgepig Ensemble, at The Access Theater
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Director
One queen is in prison, the other is in power. The story of Mary Stuart and Queen Elizabeth dives into the jostling, manipulation, and strategy required when women are in charge... at least, when they still need men in order to keep their power. Looking ahead to 2020 and back to 1587, when will we be ready for a female head of state?
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BLACK DOVES by Reynaldo Piniella
March 14, 2019
Reading for Quicksilver Theatre Company, Episcopal Actors Guild
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Reynaldo and I worked on developing his play for six months or so, before Quicksilver gave us this a first public reading -- and gave him an award! Black Doves is now an award-winning play, taking home the Barbour Playwrights Award. Congrats, Reynaldo!
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ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
December 6 - 15, 2018
for Hedgepig Ensemble, at The Gene Frankel Theatre
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Director
Review: "When done as elegantly as Hedgepig Ensemble’s recent, very brief, run at the Gene Frankel Theatre it’s as inviting as any of Shakespeare’s major comedies. Though considered a “problem play”—one characterized by ambiguity and flecked with tragic notes, making it not quite a pure comedy—it’s full of snappy dialog and a complex enough story that creates genuine anticipation. My only regret, and it’s a significant one, is that this production only played for two weekends."
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A TASTE OF SHAKESPEARE
August 13 @ 7, August 22 @ 7, August 25 @ 12, 2018
at The Brick: Shakespeare in the Theatre Festival
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Director and Adaptor
Three classic plays. Twenty minutes each.
A Taste of Shakespeare is for anyone who has never seen Shakespeare, seen too much Shakespeare, and anyone in between!
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HOW WE HEAR by Emily Lyon
June 18 @ 7pm, June 23 @ 4pm, June 26 @ 9pm, 2018
at The Brick Theatre: The Festival of Lies
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Director/Creator
Inspired by Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, this experimental new work uses political debate as a blueprint to show how we experience forms of media differently. The piece spans the text of the Lincoln/Douglas Debates, the first televised presidential debate (Nixon/Kennedy), and today’s polarized twitter feeds. It asks, particularly when debating such weighty issues as civil rights, how do we value and protect nuance in a world of 140 (or 280) characters?
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BRIC Open: Borders - HIJAB
April 28, 2018
at BRIC - 647 Fulton St
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Hijab: Director for Stage
BRIC's Open: Borders festival featured Hijab, the short film I directed for the stage for Intimate Eye. Featuring Nikki Massoud and Grace Bernardo, the piece is a high school view of the way Islamophobia and implicit bias shape the way we deal with others -- and how willing we are to believe gossip and fake news about them.
HOW WE HEAR by Emily Lyon
April 6 & 7, 2018
at LPAC's Rough Draft Festival
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Director
Inspired by Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, this experimental new work uses political debate as a blueprint to show how we experience forms of media differently. The piece spans the text of the Lincoln/Douglas Debates, the first televised presidential debate (Nixon/Kennedy), and today’s polarized twitter feeds. It asks, particularly when debating such weighty issues as civil rights, how do we value and protect nuance in a world of 140 (or 280) characters?
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ADVENT by Montgomery Sutton
March 5, 2018
Industry Reading at The Players
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Director
Two brothers survive an apocalyptic event... because they’re trapped in the walk-in freezer of a rural superstore. As they try to piece together a recognizable life within their cell, one is torn apart by anxiety and a rigid fixation on the arbitrary new rules of their world, while the other secretly pushes further and further outside, determined to rebuild on a larger scale. When an emaciated young woman collapses at their doorstep, she initially brightens their world -- but ambition, faith, and lust reignite their repressed tragedies and threaten to shatter the fragile foundations of their new society.
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THE KING-ANNING by Veronica Cooper
January 11-30, 2018
at The Secret Theatre, Act One: One Act Festival
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Director
Meet Mary Anning, an underappreciated historical figure who changed our thinking about the history of the Earth. In this serio-comedic short, she meets The King of Saxony -- or rather, he meets her. A new play by Veronica Cooper.
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THE SECRET IN THE WINGS
December 13-17 2017
at The Access Theatre, Hedgepig Ensemble
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Director
Mary Zimmerman takes on grim fairytales in this playful, dark retelling of children's stories. Looking to shine a light on the monsters under the bed, Zimmerman unravels the myths until we see the truth – perhaps the monsters are something else entirely.
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A TASTE OF SHAKESPEARE
August 8-13, 2017
at Industrious Brooklyn, The Well, Prospect Park
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Director and Adaptor
Three plays. Twenty minutes each. All paired with a tasty treat!
A Taste of Shakespeare is for anyone who has never seen Shakespeare, seen too much Shakespeare, and anyone in between!
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Intimate Eye: HIJAB
July 25, 2017
at BRIC - 647 Fulton St
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Director for Stage
Intimate Eye is an innovative and experimental course that explores the boundaries between filmmaking, cinematography, and black box theatre for the production of a compelling short film.
I directed the piece, which was then filmed!
THE SUMMONING
July 14 & 15, 2017
at The Connelly Theatre, sheNYC Festival
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Director
**WINNER: Best Production, Best Direction, Best Actress (Colleen Litchfield)
A new play by Charlotte Ahlin, this dark comedy unpacks how women see each other,
use each other, and care about each other. And there might be demons involved.
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TIMON OF ATHENS
May 9 - June 11, 2017
at The Folger Theatre, DC
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Assistant Director
One of Shakespeare's least produced plays, Robert Richmond's Timon of Athens incorporates technology to update the themes of greed and loneliness. This new cut of a thorny script highlights the problems with "altruism" in our capitalist society.
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NY Madness: Women's History Month
March 26, 2017
at The Kraine Theatre
Director: Dress Code by Sarah Bernstein
Page to Stage within a one week time span. They write a short play and cast it, rehearse it, bring it in on its feet. The collected works create a kaleidoscope of cultural moments reflecting this moment in time, framed by a THEME that is chosen by the Featured Guest Artist.
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Living with the ABSURD: An Interactive Night of Booze, Plays & Madlibs
March 19, 2017
at The Gemini & Scorpio Loft, 255 Douglass Street, Brooklyn
Director
Grab a cocktail, relax with an adult coloring book, and watch some truly absurd plays by Ionesco, Pinter and Edna St. Vincent Millay. In this time of uncertainty, #AlternateFacts, and #SpiceySpinnings, these theatre of the absurd plays resound uncannily.
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THE RESISTER PROJECT
January 4-15, 2017
at The Kraine Theater
Director: Trump Rally
Responding to a divisive political campaign, THE RESISTER PROJECT is a variety show of performances featuring 10-new plays, stand-up comedy, music and poetry. By and for the community of indie theater artists to partake in peaceful resistance through the power of live performance, every night will also feature dialogues and talkbacks.
RICHARD III/ARTURO UI
November 8, 2016
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Director and Editor
I wove together these two politically-charged scripts to spark a discussion about what the world would look like the next day. With a passionate talk-back afterwards, we thought about compassion, hope, and the threat of fascist rhetoric. Two stories that show tyrants come to power – and also eventually fall - gave us plenty to ruminate on.
WOMEN OF WILLIAMS COUNTY
Oct. 26- Nov. 2, 2016
at The Jewel Box Theatre, Midtown International Theatre Festival
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Director
**WINNER: Best Ensemble
Tennessee William's famous female characters finally meet face to face in Karly Thomas' comedic one-act romp. But will they end up learning more about their creator, or themselves?
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SWORD & THE STONE/THE TEMPEST - Hudson Valley Fall Tour
Sept-Dec, 2016
at various elementary schools
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Director
A touring production of two stories, three actors take on tons of roles to show elementary students in the New York area that "might doesn't make right." Two plays adapted by HVSF's own Mona Smith.
BEDLAM'S MADLAB - Round 2
August 29, 2016
at The Access Theatre
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Creator, Producer, Dramaturg
MADLAB: A development program designed to support directors/collaborative teams asking bold questions, this series 'performs' two pieces per evening and actively invites audience feedback.
Round 2: Gabriel Stelian-Shanks directing SELF-ACCUSATION: The Remix and
Alex Mallory directing The Refuge Project.
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BEDLAM'S MADLAB
April 6, 2016
at The Access Theatre
Creator, Producer, Dramaturg
Our first round of MADLAB! A new development program designed to support artists asking bold questions, this series 'performs' two pieces per evening and actively invites audience feedback.
This round: Brian Myers Cooper's Sonnet Play and Dan Hasse's The Valley of Decision
DEAD DOG PARK
February 11 - March 6, 2016
at 59E59 Theaters
Assistant Director
A play about police and race relations, Dead Dog Park is an incredibly relevant piece. Eric Tucker directs this piece as Bedlam's first truly contemporary play. Helping with text work and giving notes, I've been both watching and participating as the story takes shape. He balances realism with abstraction to make an intense 70 minutes.
AS YOU LIKE IT
December 4 - 12, 2015
Geva Theatre Directing Fellow at SUNY Brockport
Director
With theatre students at SUNY Brockport, I'll be tackling one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. The Forest of Arden will become a Hooverville from the 1930's, looking at the social effects of rough economic period -- and getting Rosalind, Duke Senior, and Jacques' perspective on a timely topic.
SOME OF THE SIDE EFFECTS
October 15, 2015 - 9 PM
at United Solo Festival, Theatre Row
Director and Editor
A reprise! As winner of "Best Premiere" at the 2014 United Solo Festival, we were asked to return. The play details the writer's experience at an outpatient intensive therapy program when he was 16. Depression, prescription drugs, suicide and divorce are all dealt with honesty and humor in this fast paced dark comedy.
This play is for anyone who has ever dealt with mental illness or knows someone who has... So basically everybody.
VANITY FAIR by Kate Hamill
August 20, 2015
at The Depot Theatre
Director
Part of HVSF2: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's new play reading series
A new adaptation by Kate Hamill (of BEDLAM's Sense & Sensibility), this strong, beautiful script focuses on the parallel stories of Becky and Amelia. Asking us to look at ourselves, the play dissects: are we really so different than the people we judge?
SOME OF THE SIDE EFFECTS
July 24 & 25, 2015
at 13th Street Repertory Theatre
Director and Editor
The winner of "Best Premiere" at the 2014 United Solo Festival, the play details the writer's experience at an outpatient intensive therapy program when he was 16. Depression, prescription drugs, suicide and divorce are all dealt with honesty and humor in this fast paced dark comedy.
This play is for anyone who has ever dealt with mental illness or knows someone who has... So basically everybody.
FEMALE PERSUASION
July 23 & 24, 2015
at WorkShop Theater Company's Mainstage Theatre (312 W. 36th St., 4th floor) -- 7 PM
Director: Gram Folds the Laundry and A Womb With A View
9 short comedies & dramas by Rich Orloff
These plays have been produced in over 30 short play festivals, getting such reviews as:
"the high point of the evening" - DramaLogue "a wonderful piece" - Santa Monica Evening Outlook
"keeps us entertained" - Houston Press "a gem" - Capital Gazette
“an original, imaginative, consistently funny comedy.” - Edmonds Enterprise
TWELFTH NIGHT
June 21 - July 26, 2015
at The Old Globe's Festival Theatre, San Diego, CA
Assistant Director
The first of my two Drama League Directing Fellowships: Rebecca Taichman's updated production of Twelfth Night. I saw her production at The Shakespeare Theatre in DC in 2009, which you can read a bit more about here.
DRAMA LEAGUE DIRECTING FELLOW
Summer 2015
Classical Directing Fellow: Old Globe Theatre/Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival
The Classical Directing Program contains multiple components:
Fellowships begin in New York City with PROFESSIONALS WEEK, a six-day intensive introduction to the professional theater. Then an assistanceship on a Classical Play at The Old Globe, an assistanceship on a Touring Production at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and a reading in HVSF2 Lab Series.
FAIR PERSUASIONS: An Evening with the Shakespeare Society Ambassadors
May 11, 2015 at 7 PM
At The Pearl Theatre, 555 West 42nd St.
Director: Julius Caesar, I.ii
An evening of scenes from Henry VI, Part III, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, and Twelfth Night, all featuring The Shakespeare Society's talented and spirited Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are a 21-member corps of young working theater artists who share The Society's passion for the warmth, wit, and wisdom of Shakespeare's works. The event celebrated their artistry as we considered what draws audiences again and again to some of the most challenging, fascinating moments in Shakespeare's plays.
THE WINTER'S TALE
Feb 10 - March 15, 2015
At The Pearl Theatre, 555 West 42nd St.
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Assistant Director
Michael Sexton's The Winter's Tale stars Peter Francis James, Adam Green, Tom Nelis, James Udom, and Pearl Theatre members Jolly Abraham, Rachel Botchan, Bradford Cover, and Dominic Cuskern.
A moment of jealousy and an act of anger lead to a lifetime of regret for Leontes, the rash king who destroys his family on a whim. But as time glides gently on, fate , love, and a few true friends, are ready to work wonders to restore happiness to his world. In THE WINTER’S TALE, Shakespeare’s later-career wise and winsome fairytale, nothing is truly lost—certainly not love—if only we know where to seek it.
PICK YOUR POISON: Sinners' Salvation
Nov 23, 2014
At The Pearl Theatre
Director: Within The Law by Bayard Veiller
United by a theme, The Pearl's one-of-a-kind reading series samples five-minute segments of three classical plays...but only one of the shows will be chosen by the audience to be performed. Which play? Well, that's up to you. -- staged readings
*Last time, my play was not only picked, but got a standing ovation. Come see what happens this time around! It's up to you!
SOME OF THE SIDE EFFECTS
Oct 31 and Nov 8, 2014
At The United Solo Festival, Theatre Row
Director and Editor
This memory play and dark comedy is told from a 30-year-old’s perspective on his 16-year-old self — struggling to understand his depression, his parents’ divorce, and his time in a mental health facility.
Written and performed by David Shaw
PICK YOUR POISON: Forbidden Love
Sept 28, 2014
At The Pearl Theatre
Director: Just to Get Married by Cecily Hamilton
United by a theme, The Pearl's one-of-a-kind reading series samples five-minute segments of three classical plays...but only one of the shows will be chosen by the audience to be performed. Which play? Well, that's up to you. -- staged readings
INTERIOR: PANIC
August 8 - 24, 2014
At FringeNYC, Teatro LaTEA, LES
Director
**Gwendolyn Kelso (Blanche) won the Fringe award for Best Acting
A precursor to Streetcar Named Desire, this Tennessee Williams' one-act dips in and out of Blanche's consciousness – and her paranoia. Between guilt, social pressures, and basic human urges, what is a good girl supposed to do? PANIC.