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Phoning Booth: A Discussion of spit&vigor's The BRUTES and The Booth Family ... with a Booth Family member

spit & vigor presents a very special showing of THE BRUTES for some very special guests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=yoDS6NAzf_Q 
On Friday, November 15, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. THE BRUTES by Casey Wimpee will be presented at THE PLAYERS – once the historic home of Edwin Booth – 16 Gramercy Park S, New York City. Members of the Booth family will be in attendance, and the performance is presented in collaboration with spit&vigor by Paul Valle, the great-great-great grandson of patriarch Junius Brutus Booth, and his wife Jan. 
Nominated for a 2019 New York Innovative Theater Award and seven 2018 Planet Awards including Outstanding Direction, Ensemble, Choreography, and Costumes; and recognized by The New York Times, THE BRUTES is making history while telling it.
THE BRUTES is a look inside 19th century America's most theatrically prolific family, in the months before the youngest son committed one of the most famous assassinations in history. In November of 1864, three sons of the legendary actor Junius Brutus Booth and famed performers in their own right, Junius Jr, Edwin, and John Wilkes Booth, came together at New York's Winter Garden Theatre to share the stage, incredibly for the first and only time, in a benefit performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The funds would be used to erect the statue of William Shakespeare that stands in Central Park to this day.Through the poetic lens of Casey Wimpee, THE BRUTES is a look into a nation divided, and a family divided in turn. Less than six months before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, while rehearsing over the week of Thanksgiving, this family attempts to put politics aside and come together for the sake of art. But violence looms over the family - and the nation - and anger prevails over peace, in a brutal lesson that still resonates today. But this play is not solely about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. THE BRUTES illuminates the individual members of the Booth family before their legacy was overshadowed by Wilkes' violence. Their legacy was one of drama and intrigue and creation, but the violent politics of John Wilkes Booth would work to poison that well for years to come, if not for the efforts of his family and particularly Edwin Booth. This play will be performed at The Players, in the Gramercy Park mansion that Edwin historically deeded to the newly-formed club, along with his extensive library and collections of art and theatrical memorabilia. Eminent figures of theatre, journalism, arts and literature, and commerce, including Mark Twain, Joseph Jefferson, and Stanford White served as incorporators of The Players, which remains in its historic location and continues to promote art, drama, and creation. 

YOKKO Saves the World!

The visionary mind of performing artist, Yoshiko Usami (AKA Yokko), brings another far-reaching movement and dance piece to New York. EN, sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council, running September 13-15 at Brooklyn's Triskelion Arts, 106 Calyer Street in Brooklyn reflects the deep connections we achieve in our lives - intentionally and unintentionally - positive and negative - for just one moment or for our entire lives.
EN - the Japanese word for this, explores the positive effects of connections. EN is more than just people-connections. We create EN with people and all living things and even with locations and objects. EN explores the relationship between Nature and all living beings through Butoh dance and Physical Theatre. It explores whether we - as human beings - can create a relationship with people and things we usually take for granted. Every day we carelessly contaminate the Land and the Ocean and even the Air - and all those who inhabit them. EN shows how we can build bridges instead of burning them? Can we truly care for one another?
 
TICKET INFO: $18- for Limited Advanced Sale (until 8/31); $20 Generalhttps://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4305278PERFORMANCES: September 13 @ 8pm; September 14 @ 8pm; and September 15 @ 3pm.
EN is 70 minutes but can give you messages that can last a lifetime.
ABOUT YOKKO
Yoshiko Usami / Yokko (Choreographer, Director / Performer) is an Actor, Butoh & Theatre Artist, Movement & Yoga Instructor from Japan. She has acted in, devised and choreographed a variety of local and international shows, having won several awards, including "Best One-Woman Show", "Best Choreography" "Best Physical Theatre" and "Best Actress" for Butoh Medea (United Solo NYC 2014 & 2015 at Theatre Row, TVolution 2018 Hollywood Fringe Awards). Butoh Medea was selected to perform in Warsaw, Poland. (United Solo Europe 2015, Teatre Syrena), toured Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015, nominated The Asian Arts Award. It has been touring Europe and Universities in the USA since 2016. (www.butohmedea.com) Butoh Medea will be presented at Cheb Festival in Prague, Czech in Oct. 2019. Other Theatre credits include: Lone Wolf Tribe's Body Concert (Labapalooza! 2018 at St. Ann's Warehouse), Hide Your Fires (Pan Asian Rep's NU Works, United Solo 2017: Theatre Row), BALDY (CRS NYC, United Solo 2013, Hollywood Fringe 2013, Fringe NYC 2012), Dance Credits Include: Shira Hime Ryu (NY Butoh Institute Festival 2018 at Theatre For The New City),Hijikata Tatsumi's Last Words (Dance Medium, Noguchi Room, Hijikata Archive, Keio University, 2018), ManJuShaGe:A flower on earth, A flower (Dance Medium, Noguchi Room, Hijikata Archive, Keio University, 2017), FACET (Irondale Center, White Wave, Hollywood Fringe 2013). Her choreographed work, SHINKA has been developed and received several awards such as Outstanding Production, Outstanding Choreography, and Outstanding Ensemble (Planet Connections 2018), and the show was also nominated for Outstanding Premier production of a play along with three nominations for herself (Outstanding Director, Outstanding Choreography & Movement, and Outstanding Actress for featured role) for the season 2018-2019 at New York Innovative Theatre Awards. Yokko also acted in several local and international films, one of which is the Student Academy Winner film, Cloud-Kumo (2016). Recently she has been appearing several music videos as a Butoh dancer including Cage The Elephant (Grammy Winner - Best Rock Album 2017)- Ready To Let Go (2019), NOIA- AUSENCIAS (2019) directed by Amy Gardner, POW! - Dream Decay (2019), and Automatic - Too Much Money (2019). She has been regularly offering workshops (Butoh & Movement, Butoh & Physical Theatre, Transformation) in several places include NYC, Atelier Teatro Fisico Performing Arts University in Turin (Italy), Edinburgh (UK), Warsaw (Poland), Izmir (Turkey), St. Lawrence University (NY), SUNY New Paltz (NY), Amherst College (MA), Actors Studio Dram School MFA, Stella Adler Academy of Acting, The Actors Studio, and at some events such as UNFIX NYC and Ecstatic Dance. She will be an adjunct professor in Movement for Actors at BFA program by The New Group at Long Island University in Brooklyn Fall-Spring 2019. She is the artistic director of a NYC based Butoh & Theatre group Ren Gyo Soh. (www.rengyosoh.com). Other awards: Best Physical Theatre, Best International Award (Hide Your Fires: Butoh Lady Macbeth at United Solo 2017, Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019) A recipient of 2019 Brooklyn Arts Fund for her new project, En. (Sep. 13-15, Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn). B.A in Theatre (UAlbany), MFA in Acting (The Actors Studio) www.yokko-online.com
 

Gerald vanHeerden is DANGEROUS!

Dangerous to Dance With written by Bill Rogers and directed by Gerald vanHeerden, a featured event of DREAM UP FESTIVAL 2019, presented by Theater For The New City, Crystal Field, Artistic Director.
Johnson Theater Space, 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets), NYC for FIVE PERFORMANCES ONLY: 8/30 Friday, 9pm; 09/01 Saturday, 8pm; 09/02 Sunday, 6:30pm; 09/04 Wednesday, 9pm; and 09/05 Thursday, 6:30pm
What's funnier than a play about SEX, GREED, AND SELF-DECEPTION?
A paranoid playwright, a broken acrobat, a adult film star, a neurotic farmer, and a plumber (who may be a hitman), walk in a secluded Missouri farmhouse.
Directed by Gerald vanHeerden and stage managed by Roumel Reaux, featuring a cast that includes Colleen Grate,* Luke Hofmaier,* Mark Hofmaier,* Drew Jordan,* and Mark A. Keeton* portraying a fascinating ensemble of characters descending into a dialogue that asks a question that can encompass everything, everywhere, anytime ... should they laugh or should they die?
Dangerous to Dance With premiered as part of the 2014 Kansas City Fringe Festival at the Off Center Theater in Kansas City's Crown Center. This is its New York premiere. Learn more at https://rogersbill.com/plays/dangerous-to-dance-with
 
Bill Rogers is a writer and educator who has won several awards as a playwright and for teaching history and English in colleges in the United States and Australia. He has written four full-length plays, the book and lyrics for a full-length musical, two sixty-minute plays, and four ten-minute plays. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and now resides in San Diego, California. https://rogersbill.com
*These actors are appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association.

Melissa Mowry plants the seeds of change - in art and life - with IF WOMEN ROSE ROOTED

“Before there was the Word, there was the land, and it was made and watched over by women. Stories from almost every culture around the world tell us that once upon a time it was so.” — If Women Rose Rooted by Sharon Blackie
“The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.” — Maya Angelou
Producers Melissa Mowry and Jessica Fichter bring an organic ensemble-created piece about the wisdom of women as old as time and as fresh as today. Placed in the mythical “Otherworld, the land of the fairy folk,” the true sages are all women. This prompts the Queen of the fairies to invite women – all women – all around the world to come to Otherworld and receive the gift of that great wisdom. If Women Rose Rooted is a piece that explores the femininity and culture through shared wisdom of our ancestors – and our experiences today. Drawn from mythology and folklore, coupled with the personal experiences of women today, ‘If Women Rose Rooted’ explores the power and pain of femininity, and reminds us all of those powerful women who came before us.
What looks like a fantasy is a veiled parable of the true dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
Directed by Melissa Mowry, assisted by Jessica Fichter, the women’s ensemble includes Marcella Adams, Titania Galliher, Jessica Panora, and Lucy Lewis. The special limited run will be Friday, September 6 @ 7pm; September 7 @ 3 and 7 pm; and Sunday, September 8 @ 3 and 7 pm at the cutting-edge arts incubator, The Tank, 312 W 36th Street, in New York. For More information, visit https://www.thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/2019/9/6/if-women-rose-rooted

THE "DANGEROUS" MIND OF WILLIAM ROGERS

"Dangerous to Dance With" written by Bill Rogers and directed by Gerald vanHeerden, a featured event of DREAM UP FESTIVAL 2019, presented by Theater For The New City, Crystal Field, Artistic Director.
Johnson Theater Space, 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets), NYC for FIVE PERFORMANCES ONLY: 8/30 Friday, 9pm; 09/01 Saturday, 8pm; 09/02 Sunday, 6:30pm; 09/04 Wednesday, 9pm; and 09/05 Thursday, 6:30pm 
What’s funnier than a play about SEX, GREED, AND SELF-DECEPTION?
A paranoid playwright, a broken acrobat, a porn star, a neurotic farmer, and a plumber (who may be a hitman), walk in a secluded Missouri farmhouse. 
Directed by Gerald vanHeerden and stage managed by Roumel Reaux, featuring a cast that includes Colleen Grate,* Luke Hofmaier,* Mark Hofmaier,* Drew Jordan,* and Mark A. Keeton* portraying a  fascinating ensemble of characters descending into a dialogue that asks a question that can encompass everything, everywhere, anytime … should they laugh or should they die?
Dangerous to Dance With premiered as part of the 2014 Kansas City Fringe Festival at the Off Center Theater in Kansas City’s Crown Center. This is its New York premiere. Learn more at https://rogersbill.com/plays/dangerous-to-dance-with
Bill Rogers is a writer and educator who has won several awards as a playwright and for teaching history and English in colleges in the United States and Australia. He has written four full-length plays, the book and lyrics for a full-length musical, two sixty-minute plays, and four ten-minute plays. He is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America and now resides in San Diego,California. https://rogersbill.com
*These actors are appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association.

ABDICATION: If you're not careful, you'll see a HANDMAID'S TALE in your VIRTUAL reflection in a BLACK MIRROR

The tongue-in-cheek anthology, Abdication!, will be a featured event for the 10th anniversary THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY DREAM UP FESTIVAL 2019. Performances will be at the Johnson Theater Space at 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets), New York City on 09/03: Tuesday, 9pm; 09/04: Wednesday, 6:30pm; 09/05: Thursday, 9pm; 09/06: Friday, 6:30pm; and 09/07: Saturday, 8pm. https://abdication.brownpapertickets.com/
Abdication! written by Naya James, directed by Lucia Bellini, produced by Lucia Bellini, Naya James and Trenton Clark, sports a Multi-Media Team that includes Raylla Chan (Animator) and Loredanna Vacario (AV tech) and is the first presentation of Three-Headed Lion Productions. It's fitting to have a multi-media team when your show is a multi-cultural, multi-media dark comedy more than reminiscent of Black Mirror, The Handmaid's Tale, and VR.
Abdication! delivers a tongue-in-cheek three-episode anthology shining a light on social media, human interaction, and finally - as depicted in The Handmaid's Tale - lack of individualism. These Black Mirror-type tales illustrate potential versions of what life will look like if we give away even more of our autonomy in exchange for convenience. What makes this company so forward thinking and what makes this series of plays so fascinating is that it sits on a scale where fantasy and reality are evenly matched.
Abdication! manages to depict technocratic society not only with dystopian gloom, but with a heavy dose of wit and comedy.
Ripped from the headlines of lonely people all over the world marrying their VR "girlfriend" or simply checking out of reality (called "going into the goo" in this episode), STUCK - through wry humor and charm - shares how a close-knit Italian-American family grapples with the idea that one of its family members plans to remove from society by hooking up full-time to a virtual reality network. What dreams may come.
Riffing on the news stories of how people are now having less sex thus fewer children, LOVE LOBOTOMY relates the story of two hapless souls deciding to undergo Amigdalar Resurfacing, (a "Love Lobotomy") making them immune to romantic feelings and more productive... maybe.
Running alongside A Handmaid's Tale, COLOR SCHEME takes us to a society where everyone has been classified into a specific color-red, green, blue, etc., and the implementation of this system has ostensibly led to perfect harmony. Until someone mixes and matches.
Filled with gallows-humor, song, dance, and multi-media, each episode shows how abdication of a portion of human existence pulls a piece out of the house of cards that we call our lives.
Appearing in this triumvirate of techno-tales is Amanda Cannon, Trenton Clark, Alan Cordoba, Janet Donofrio, Naya James, Stephen Keyes, Cesar Lozada, Mike Ivers, Sid Ross, Meredith Rust, Tony Scheer, and Topher Wallace.
The production/design Team is an amalgam of theatre and video professionals: Naya James (playwright); Lucia Bellini (director); Charles Casano (stage manager); Raylla Chan (animator); Loredanna Vacario (AV tech) and Trenton Clark (producer).
The Three-Headed Lions themselves:
Writer Naya James is a writer/actor/producer in New York City. She is a resident actor and writer in the Wednesday Repertory Company and owner of Anjali Productions, an independent film production company focused on stories of the evolution of human consciousness. Writing credits include 12 original one-act plays produced in festivals all over New York, including Theater 54, The Paradise Factory, The Algonquin, and the Richmond Shepard Theater, and three short films, which she also produced. Naya can be seen this summer as the lead in the film "Indigo" by Garfield Boston, and this September in the World Premiere of Abdication! at Theater for the New City, which she wrote and co-produced.
Director Lucia Bellini aka "Lu" is a director/actor for film and theatre originally from Viareggio, Italy. Member of Wednesday Repertory Company and NY Madness. Lu is proud to have won the award for Outstanding Direction of a Staged Reading for Who Mourns For Bob The Goon? at the 2015 Planet Connection Festivities, followed by a run of the show at the HERE Arts Center in the Summer of 2016. Her collaboration with the Festivities continued assisting Glory Kadigan for PFAC 2017 and 2018. Recent credits include direction of the 2018 Planet Connection Festivities Award Ceremony at the Abrons Arts Center's Playhouse Theatre, direction of Naya James' one act play Stuck for Wednesday Repertory Company and assistant director to Glory Kadigan for The Floor is Lava at La Mama Experimental Theatre.
Producer Trenton Clark is an actor/writer/director in New York City. He is a member of and resident director with the Wednesday Repertory Company, for which he has mounted several one-act plays. A graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NY, he has studied the craft for over 20 years on both coasts, as well as his home state of New Mexico. New York Theater credits: Hamlet, Hamlet; Lucius, Titus Andronicus (Hudson Warehouse); Rope; The Head Hunter; Wilde Nights (St. Francis College). Tours: 42nd Street. Regional and other: 42nd Street, Beauty & the Beast (Papermill Theater); Happily Whatever After (New World Stages Hollywood, LA). In addition to Abdication! Trenton is currently developing a television series based on a true story of murder and corruption. Stay tuned.

DANA BLOCK chats with Barry Birr of Eagle Radio

“I grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri, where my father was an actor, my mother was a classical pianist and artist, and my brother was a kid-comedian.  We were a house full of art and artists.  I don’t think we fit into the St. Joseph mainstream very well but somehow we were there and we thrived in the community for three generations. Then, life took a chaotic turn.  My little brother became schizophrenic.  “Monkey Man” is about Marc Block, a rebellious, mischievous and brilliant kid who went down a rabbit hole and morphed into a gruff, obsessive, schizo-man, alienated from society, compulsively writing in notebooks and drawing pictures of a dark, underground world populated by “small character humans.” Eventually, Marc began hitchhiking around the country and became a cowboy of the highway.  “Highway Man” kept drivers awake at night, he said, by telling them his stories:  “The combustion engine has three moving parts which can be controlled through the aspiration of the concern in location of the apprehendi…”  
 This show begins and ends at The Trail’s End Motel in Niagara Falls, where Marc holed himself up and I went to visit him after twenty years.  Sections of the show are taken directly from his rants and revelations in his notebooks. "Monkey Man” is a powerful show, entertaining, funny, and heartbreaking.  It has been selected by The United Solo Festival, 2019, to be performed Off Broadway on Nov. 2nd @ Theater Row on 42nd Street, NYC.  Tickets and information can be found at http://unitedsolo.org/us
Dana Block
 

André Vauthey: IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE! Um-Yeah... and he's a great actor!

André Vauthey, a doctor turned actor, had a truly unique story to tell. 
“I am a young Swiss doctor-turned-actor who moved to the states about two and half years ago. My parents are polish and I was born and grew up in the French part of Switzerland before moving to the German part to study med school. After graduating and working as a doctor, I realized that even though I was doing a very meaningful work, I wasn’t living in harmony with myself, mostly due to the amount of administrative work in comparison to the actual patient’s time. I decided to quit the hospital to take time to myself and make sure I was where I wanted to be and it wasn’t just a consequence of my past decisions. As I wandered in my inner self, I remembered that as a kid I used to love acting and would even force my older brother to perform in front of our parents. So I decided to give it a try. I went to the pinewood studios in London for an acting workshop and loved it. Back in Switzerland I started acting in some films but felt like I need more guidance and decided to move to NYC to study at the Lee Strasberg’s Theater and Film Institute. When I first moved here, I thought it would be just to complete a one year program at my acting school and go back to Europe to work as an actor. But I fell in love with both the city and the school and decided to complete their entire two year conservatory program and stay here. I would say I learned as much about the craft of acting as I have learned about myself. This has been an incredible journey and my state of mind has changed forever. By knowing myself better, I am now so much more expressive and open to this world and to the art. It is a wonderful feeling.