“A Splashy Musical Opening Number”
music by Dave Ogrin lyrics by Martin Strenczewilk directed by Maggie F. Levin featuring Emma Canalese, Chris Hayes, David Rubin, and Lauren Schacher
presents
"Wired"
by Brian Dykstra directed by Rebecca Hengstenberg AXTELL: STEPH: Michael Hirstreet James P. Stephens
"The Believers"
death by
by Anton Dudley directed by Jason Tyne-Zimmerman
HEATHER: CAMMIE:
Diana DeCarlo Elaine Moran
POP!
Riffs, Rants, and Ramblings on the Current State of Popular Cultural Affairs... and Our Own Mortality
“An A-to-Z Pop Culture Gripe FaceOff, With Ascending, and then, at Midpoint, Descending, Word Count”
by Michael Hartney
MAN: MAN 2: REFEREE:
Jeff Scherer Michael Hartney Rachel Korowitz
"Hartshorne"
by Mike Batistick directed by Greg T. Parente SARAH: MADELEINE: Colby Minifie Sharon Halevy
"Big Love"
by art.party.out.reach directed by Kyle Davies
created and performed by Mary Birnbaum, Megan Campisi, Kyle Davies, and Mark Fisher
"The Back Line"
by Rob Ackerman directed by Jessica Browne-White
DIERDRE: Julia Giolzetti Mr. BLANKENSHIP: Greg Blatto TIM: James Redfern
“My Future Husband is Dead!”
Conceived and Curated by Daniel Horrigan Hosted by Michael Hartney
(An Ode to River Phoenix) choreographed by Sarita Louise Moore
featuring Sarita Louise Moore, Erin Tracy, and Emily Turner
"Combat Dating"
by C.S. Hanson directed by Sara Sahin MATT: SARAH: Michael Judson Pace Morgan Lindsey Tachco
May 8th - 10th, 2009
The Robert Moss Theatre @ 440 Studios
440 Lafayette Street (across from the Public Theatre)
Stage Manager: David Sugarman
BIOS
ROB ACKERMAN wrote Tabletop (Drama Desk Award, Best Ensemble Performance), Disconnect (The Working Theater, Classic Stage Co), Icarus of Ohio (hotINK, Tisch Mainstage) and Volleygirls (American Conservatory Theatre). His first play, Origin of the Species, became a feature film starring Amanda Peet. This is his 3rd piece for POP and he does not plan to STOP. MIKE BATISTICK is a NYC-based playwright who grew up in New Jersey. Heʼs received critical acclaim for his three Off-Broadway plays, Port Authority Throw Down (at the Culture Project), Chicken, and Ponies (at Michael Imperioliʼs Studio Dante). His work has been produced in London, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Texas, Washington, DC, and New York. MARY BIRNBAUM is a NY based director and the artistic director of art.party.theater.company for which she directed Schooled, a plop art adaptation of Moliere's The Learned Ladies set in various apartments around NY. Training: Ecole Jacques Lecoq (2008), Harvard University (AB, English Language and Literature, 2007). GREGORY BLATTO After leaving law, Greg studied at NYCʼs American Academy of Dramatic Arts, H.B. Studios and The School of Film and Television. Credits include: This Story of Yours, The Hand That Feeds, Memorial, Loyalties, Hot L Baltimore and The Art of Dining, as well as several film and commercial credits. Thanks to Norma & Daniel. JESSICA BROWNE-WHITE is happy to be working on her second production with At Hand Theatre as she thoroughly enjoyed Assistant Directing Trickster at the Gate. Other directing credits include Macbeth and Talking With (Stratford Players). As a performer, Jessica was most recently seen clowning around Manhattan promoting Cirque du Soleil's Kooza. MEGAN CAMPISI Training: Lecoq; Yale (B.A.); commedia dell'arte with Antonio Fava; puppetry with Philippe Genty; Shakespeare at RADA. Recent devised works: Nutmeat: a vaudeville fairytale; Floating Brothel. Last seen: Immediate Medium's Chuck Chuck Chuck. For kicks: teaches annual theater workshops in China. EMMA CANALESE graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse and Western Australian Academy of the Arts. Shows include Love Labours Won (Edinburgh Fringe), Feel and Respond (Taiwan), Impasse (Australia), Burning Cities (NY Fringe), Hair (Real Theatre, NY). Drink and be merry! www.emmacanalese.com KYLE DAVIES Recent shows directed: Last Supper (starring Penny Fuller, Dan Lauria), Survived By… (Theatre for a New City), In the Name of Bob (New Dramatists). Assistant directed numerous shows on and off Broadway. Training: Syracuse University (B.F.A.) and LʼEcole Jacques Lecoq. DIANA DECARLO trained at The Stella Adler Conservatory in NYC. Diana appeared in numerous theater productions, independent films and on TVʼs “One Life to Live” and “Guiding Light.” She loves traveling, cooking, dancing till dawn, movies, photography and considers shopping a sport. ANTON DUDLEYʻs plays include Substitution (Soho Playhouse), Getting Home (Secondstage Theatre), Slag Heap (Cherry Lane Theatre), Honor and the River (Walnut Street Theatre, Luna Stage, SPF), Davy & Stu (EST), Cold Hard Cash (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Circumvention (Keen Company), and 6 seasons with NY Stage & Film. BRIAN DYKSTRA writes things (like Wired.) He also acts in things he writes (like A Play On Words at 59E59, America's Off Broadway Festival running May 12-29, $18.00.) Yes, this bio is really a first-person advertisement. Weird, huh? MARK FISHER is happy to make up stories and act them out using masks. Jersey Shore native, BFA from Syracuse University. Next: The Full Monty at Paper Mill Playhouse.
JULIA GIOLZETTI has a BFA in Theatre from NYU. She's appeared in baseball-themed commercials for Bank of America and billboard campaigns for "Big Love." She'll also be in the world premiere of T.A.B., part of the Downtown Urban Theatre Festival, on May 13. SHARON HALEVY is glad to be working with At Hand again (first was reading of End of the World Button). Credits include: The Hatpin (NYMF), Lift: The Musical (the York Theater), Twelfth Night (Hudson Shakespeare Company), and 7 Stories High (NYC Fringe Festival). C.S. HANSON Plays developed at EST, Abingdon, NJ Rep, LaMaMa, Naked Angels. Plays produced by 3Graces, Theatre for the New City, Metropolitan Playhouse, American Globe/ Turnip, Pittsburgh New Works, Living Image Arts. ATL Heideman finalist for Extremes and Falutin. MICHAEL HARTNEY serves as a board member for At Hand Theatre, where he played William Shakespeare in Cake and Plays... Michael is on the house sketch team High Treason at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Film/TV: over a dozen commercials, webisodes for Skoal, a Nick at Nite pilot, and Nickelodeonʼs “WACK”, as The Big Cheese. CHRIS HAYES is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Most recently, he was seen in Caesar & Cleopatra at Theatre Row. Other roles include Bobby in Company and Joe in The Long Goodbye. REBECCA HENGSTENBERG received her bachelor's from University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point with a directing emphasis. Directing credits include: Keely and Du, Horse Country, Songs For a New World, as well as A Fresh Start, Conversation with a Kleagle, SNAFU, and Calculating Route in NY. MICHAEL HIRSTREET Credits include: Working It Out (Horsetrade Theatre), ANIMALS (NY Fringe), The Art of the Pick-Up (Riant Theatre), and War in Paramus (HB Playwrights Foundation), and readings and workshops of Dream of the Burning Boy, ANIMALS, Chu and Blossom, and Class Mothers '68. BFA in Acting from Rutgers University. RACHEL KOROWITZ Founder, producer and co-host of Ash Wednesday, the Magnet Theaterʼs long-running variety night. She has studied with and performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade and The PIT, and is a member of Chicago City Limits. TV: numerous commercials, short films, and AMCʼs Date Night. Film: American Standard. MAGGIE F. LEVIN is founding artistic director of The Real Theatre Company. Favorite projects include Hair (Theatre Row) and Alice Through the Subway System (Lucky Chengʼs). She is book writer for Peter Gabrielʼs Us and the Heart musical, Allies. www.maggielevin.com COLBY MINIFIE: Broadway: The Pillowman. Off-Broadway: Landscape of the Body, Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Regional: The Shaker Chair, High Society, Three Sisters. Film: The Greatest, The Winning Season. TV: “Law & Order”. SARITA LOUISE MOORE choreographed and performed in At Handʼs most recent production of Trickster at the Gate. She has traveled throughout CA, to NY and Europe, dancing and choreographing for film, theatre and music videos. She hosts outdoor classes (“Dance Picnics”) and teaches Roots Modern dance technique. For more info, visit myspace.com/mooresarita. ELAINE MORAN POP! debut. Her recent New York productions include Manhattan Children's Theatre's If You Give a Pig a Party, Sondheim's Putting It Together at The Cell, and Project Opera Manhattan's Die Zauberflote. DAVE OGRIN produced and engineered albums for the Beastie Boys, Paul Simon, Mick Jagger, and Run DMC. He also wrote the music and lyrics for Wild Women Of Planet Wongo (NYMTF, YES Fest and Red Barn Theatre) and Hell Hole Honeys (Eugene OʼNeill Music Theater Conference, 2006 TRU New Voices Award, currently running at the Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo, NY).
MICHAEL JUDSON PACE NY Theatre: The Rivals (Ampersand), The Hand that Feeds You (Do Not Disturb). Regional: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth (KY Shakespeare Fest), The Mercury and the Magic (Humana Festival), and Twelfth Night (Shakespeare & Company). Film: Glen. He has studied with SITI Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Shakespeare & Company. GREG PARENTE Assoc. Artistic Director of the Professional Performing Arts School and the artistic director of The Strain Theatre Company. Strain credits: 7 Stories (in rep with At Handʼs Cake and Plays), Fully Committed, Proof, The Indian Wants the Bronx, Specter (IT NominationBest Actor), Tape… JAMES REDFERN previous ensemble credits include Devil in Wonderland In Alice, Emperor in Wounds To The Face; Pontius Pilate in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; Lucky in Waiting for Godot; Player in Hamlet; and The Lost Colony. DAVID RUBIN is a graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Recent work includes: Edgar in King Lear and is a member of Really Sketchy monthly at Shetler Studios, and various readings and short films. He is excited to be singing again in this piece! Thanks to Mags, friends, and family! SARA SAHIN Directing Credits: All Fall Down (reading) by Selda Sahin and Greg Turner, The Eastern Standard Time Series, Tea, Revival and The Hand That Feeds You. Sara has assisted Carl Andress, Bartlett Sher, Joe Calaraco, Julianne Boyd, and worked for the NYC Opera, the Goodman Theatre, Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA, and the Barrington Stage Company. LAUREN SCHACHER is a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Recent work includes King Lear, Hair, Company, and Tennessee Williams' The Long Goodbye, as well as a variety of indie films and viral videos. Love to Mags for yet another musical adventure. www.laurenschacher.com JEFF SCHERER has written four screenplays, including Skeletons (semi-finalist at Austin Film Festival and Project Greenlight), produced 3 plays with Toolbox Productions, (2 at NY Fringe), and has been in over a dozen improv teams and shows. He has appeared in several commercials, and is currently writing a childrenʼs book, a novel and a TV series. SECRET HOSPITAL is a NY-based sketch comedy group featuring writer/performers Michael Hartney, Rachel Korowitz, Dan McInerney and Jeff Scherer. Theyʼve performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, The Magnet Theater, Gotham City Improv, Manhattan Comedy Collective, and, most frequently, at the Peopleʼs Improv Theater. www.secrethospital.com JAMES P. STEPHENS Theatre: Crimes of the Heart, Bloodknot, and most recently, Conversation with a Kleagle. Film: REVENANTS, The Understudy, Appearances. James studied with Stephen Henderson, Ward Nixon & is a founding member of the Sledge Project. Thanks to Rebecca for her knowledge, passion, & professionalism.
EMILY TURNER holds a degree in dance and entertainment business from Oklahoma City University. TV: “Gossip Girl”, “All My Children”, “Law & Order”, and most recently, a commercial for ALL Detergent with Melissa Rivers. Theatre credits: Will Rogers Follies, Music Man, and The World of Magic and World's Greatest Magic. JASON TYNE-ZIMMERMAN trained at Northwestern University. Currently performing in Queen of Sharks' CHOMPetition and Special Ops and is preparing to direct in Rising Sun Performance Company's One-Act Festival as well as their summer outdoor piece Found. Special thanks to Rebecca Tyne-Zimmerman for sharing her living room with us.
AT HAND THEATRE COMPANY
Board of Directors: Lisa Lebofsky, President Nick Catania, Secretary Sean Free Michael Hartney Daniel Horrigan Justin Scribner Meghan Strenczewilk Kathleen Zebzda Artistic Director: Daniel Horrigan Executive Director: Justin Scribner Co-Founder: Marty Strenczewilk Advisory Board: Rob Ackerman, Brian Dykstra, Arian Moayed, Greg T. Parente, Margarett Perry, Daniel Whitman Artistic Associates: Jessica Browne-White, Sara Sahin, Liz Schurra, Gary Slootskiy
AT HAND THEATRE COMPANY was created 3 years ago as a company dedicated to presenting new and relevant plays to New York audiences. Past productions include the critcally acclaimed NY premiere of John Patrick Brayʼs Trickster at the Gate, as well as the world premieres of Andrea Lepcio's One Nation Under, Brian Dykstra's Silence! and Cake and Plays...Without The Cake by Jono Hustis. In addition to these productions, At Hand continues to nurture new work through their Staged Reading Series, helmed by director Sara Sahin. At Handʼs annual spring fundraiser, POP!, brings over 35 theatre artists together to participate in creating an evening revolving around pop culture themes. As of 2008, At Hand Theatre has altered our mission to adopt a greener approach. At Handʼs mission is to produce original plays that activate the imagination of its audience using sustainable theatrical practices. We use only what is immediate and necessary to tell new stories on stage. Our actors, writers, directors and designers explore original works collaboratively in the rehearsal room, focusing on story and performance rather than production elements. Our productions are intensely rehearsed and visually emblematic, and although minimally technical, totally vivid. Through this stripped style, At Hand is able to reduce materials, reuse resources, conserve energy, and produce more affordable, eco-conscious theatre. To make a tax-deductible donation to At Hand, please visit our website: www.athandtheatre.com
MARTIN STRENCZEWILK co-founded At Hand Theatre Company with Daniel Horrigan. He is
constantly surprised that writing musical theatre is something he spends most of his time doing. He lives in Rochester, NY, with his wife and animals. MORGAN LINDSEY TACHCO is active in the independent theatre community as an actress (The Expatriates, We Call Her Benny) an administrator (Associate Artistic Director, JMTC; Cofounder, FRIGID Festival; Brooklyn Arts Council) and Outreach Manager with the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation. www.morganlindseytachco.com ERIN TRACY is a choreographer, director, and performer. Her dances have been performed at Galapagos, Dixon Place, and Green Space. In addition, she has choreographed dances for such shows as We Built This City, Uncontained, and Who am I When I Wake Up? Erin received her BFA from NYUʼs Experimental Theatre Wing.
Special Thanks to:
Genie Printing, David Sugarman, Daniel Whitman, Maria Koulioufas and At Handʼs Board of Directors. Postcard and Graphic Design by Jeff Hardy.
Program Design by Justin Scribner.
A digital playbill is available online at www.athandtheatre.com