THE 2015 SHOWS

21st Century Jew

Written and directed by Daniel Cainer

Discovered at: Edinburgh Fringe

Brand new stories-in-song from this award-winning master songwriter. Fringe favourite Cainer explores the challenges and contradictions of being Jewish in 21st century Britain. A show for anyone who has ever wrestled with their heritage, their history, their home and their heart… Jewish or not. ‘At times heartbreakingly poignant, at others laugh out loud funny. Utterly charming, thoroughly recommended’ (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine). ‘Does on stage what I do on the page’ (Howard Jacobson). ‘Must see’ (Daily Mirror). ‘Fast-paced, incredibly amusing, and even a little bit naughty. Genius… an unsurpassed storyteller’ ***** (ThreeWeeks). **** (Time Out).

A SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN

Written by David Foster Wallace | Directed by Suzanne Weber

Discovered at: New York Fringe

David Foster Wallace barely survives the “insanity-producing pampering” provided while on assignment aboard a 7-Night Caribbean Cruise. Meet solicitous fun-managers, Dickensian crewmen, beautiful Petra and Captain Video in this adaptation of his tragicomic tale of Americans adrift.

BEWARE THE CHUPACABRA!

Written and directed by Christian De Gré and R. Patrick Alberty

Discovered at: New York Fringe

The award-winning production team behind the festival hits FATTY FATTY NO FRIENDS, and WHISKEY PANTS: THE MAYOR OF WILLIAMSBURG – is proud to announce the premiere of their brand-new musical, BEWARE THE CHUPACABRA. Seeking to impress his future father-in-law, innocent dressmaker Teddy Baskins embarks on a dark and musical journey from 1920’s New York to the dangerous jungles of Mexico in pursuit of the legendary Chupacabra, a mythical, goat-sucking beast.

CARA JOSEPHINE

Written and directed by Josie Long

Discovered at: Edinburgh Fringe

The three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee and cult optimist is back with her new one-man show about love and being outdoorsy as a bear. This is by far her most personal show to date: with a new niece in the picture, Josie reflects on her own childhood and the resilience of an older sister. Oh, there are also some mentions about the Quakers and Walt Whitman too. Cara Josephine enjoyed a total sell-out run and was the overall best-reviewed comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014.

COPING

Written by Jacob Marx Rice | Directed by Anna Strasser

Discovered at: New York Fringe

The artists behind last year’s hit Chemistry return to the New York International Fringe Festival with Coping, a pitch black comedy about love, family and the absurdity of death. Coping follows the aftermath of 25-year-old Connor’s suicide, as his friends and loved ones try to piece together the smoking remains of his life. His girlfriend, Sarah, struggles with the guilt of inadvertently handing Connor the means to kill himself. His sister, Jessica, attempts to control every detail of the funeral and punish anyone who questions her, while her girlfriend plays peacemaker. His roommate, Lucas, wanders through life in a stoned haze to avoid the horror of what has happened. As each of them tries desperately to make things right, place blame, and confront their own battles with mental illness, they must find a way to come together and accept the unacceptable, or destroy the memory of the one person they all loved. Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence in Acting.

DIVINE INTERVENTION

Written by E. Dale Smith | Directed by Braden Chapman

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Glenn Milstead skyrocketed to stardom as drag queen Divine in John Waters’ cult films. Alone, on the night of his untimely death, the quiet man behind the mascara struggles with his inner demons and his larger-than-life creation, Divine. Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence for Plays.

FABLE

Written by Alexander Wright | Directed by Joe Hufton

Discovered at: Edinburgh Fringe

J runs so fast she bursts into a million tiny pieces, her atoms unknitting themselves and spreading across the universe. Blair stands on a broken pier with a glass of white wine in one hand and a pint of Guinness in the other, looking up at the stars. A story about two very different people who change each other profoundly. Following folk-hit hit Beulah (***** Scotsman) and Babylon (‘Ruddy gorgeous’ Guardian) we return with a tale of freedom, immortality and planting trees for those who come after us. A show wound from spoken word, storytelling, soaring live music and good, honest heart and soul. The Flanagan Collective are critically acclaimed, national company based ay York Theatre Royal, UK. They make work about people, about who and where we are and about how we can change each other profoundly. Their work is wound from live music and spoken word – taking influence from Kate Tempest to Tom Waits. They have taken their work to pubs, railway arches, empty warehouses and London’s West End.

FAR FROM CANTERBURY

Written by Danny K. Bernstein | Directed by Juliana Kleist-Méndez

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Once upon a time, in a land where fairy tales are considered current events, a shy young knight has just one year to find the one thing women desire most, or his fairy tale will be over before it begins! Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence for Musicals.

FEELINGS: because why pretend the show is about anything else?

Written by Tim Manley | Directed by Peter Aguero

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Things ended with the girl I hoped to marry, so I decided to fall for my male best friend. My search for a safe place to rest my too-many emotions, told with hand-drawn gifs to pretend it’s less sad.

HICK: A LOVE STORY — The Romance of Lorena Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt

Written by Terry Baum with Pat Bond | Directed by Carolyn Myers and Adele Prandini

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Things ended with the girl I hoped to marry, so I decided to fall for my male best friend. My search for a safe place to rest my too-many emotions, told with hand-drawn gifs to pretend it’s less sad.

LOOSE CANON

Written by Brian Reno and Gabriel Vega Weissman | Directed by Logan Reed

Discovered at: New York Fringe

From Moliére in IKEA to Chekhov in a Tex-Mex restaurant, this series of short comedies satirizes the world of the American consumer in the style of canonical playwrights. It’s a walk through history…if history was a strip mall. Winner of the TheaterMania Fringe Audience Favorite Award.

LUCKY CHICK

Written by Felicity Seidel | Directed by Padraic Lillis

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Guys with guns. HOT! Plucked from the crowd by Bob Weir at a Dead show. CRAZY! On tour with the band: Lear jets, pythons, Hells Angels. WOOHOO! A pissed-off drug-kingpin boyfriend. UH-OH. Buckle up, sweetheart. It’s one helluva ride.

MAGDALEN

Written by Erin Layton | Directed by Julie Cline

Discovered at: Edinburgh Fringe

The little known stories of the women and girls who were sent to wash away their sins in commercial laundries run by orders of nuns in mid twentieth-century Ireland are revealed in a singular, compelling, multi-character performance. Erin Layton swiftly transitions in and out of time periods, voices and images that ‘breed anger, compassion, sorrow and mistrust’ (TheatreReviews.com), ‘embodying with ease all of these many disparate characters and making them all flesh and blood people in this one-woman show. The performance of the festival’ (HuffingtonPost.com). Magdalen was the recipient of the Best Documentary Script at the United Solo Festival in 2013.

MAYBE TOMORROW

Written by Max Mondi | Directed by Tomer Adorian

Discovered at: New York Fringe

A woman chooses to live exclusively in her boyfriend’s bathroom. Their otherwise “normal” relationship is thriving until someone else enters the scene. Inspired by true events, Maybe Tomorrow is a tragicomical, meta-theatrical experience about love, fame, and a toilet. Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence for Plays.

NAKED HAMILTON

Written and directed by Sky Gilbert

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Naked Hamilton is about working class people – everywhere — and about cities – everywhere — cities that put massive corporate profits above quality of human life. The raw story of an aging sex trade worker (Tee) and her ex-lover (Tom) getting kicked out of their favorite bar. Hamilton is a small city just outside of Toronto — analogous to Queens. Who wins — real people or gentrification? They share a dialogue that is frank, and obscene. And what we realize after spending 40 minutes with them is that despite the yelling, swearing and manipulations they also share a kind of love.

SCHOOLED

Written by Lisa Lewis | Directed by James Kautz

Discovered at: New York Fringe

From acclaimed storyteller Lisa Lewis comes SCHOOLED, a fiercely funny and gripping new play about privilege, ambition, and the lengths we’ll go to succeed. Two students and their professor find themselves in a taut threesome that tests their relationship and their ethics. Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence in Playwriting.

THE AMERICAN PLAY

Written by Ashley J. Jacobson | Directed by Darren Johnston

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Two college students let their obsession with American Psycho and Patrick Bateman lead them down a rabbit hole of destructive and violent behavior. An in-depth look at modern masculinity, entitlement and false idol worship. Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence in Playwriting.

THE BOYS ARE ANGRY

Written by Jillie Mae Eddy | Directed by Sam Plattus

Discovered at: New York Fringe

AJ’s angry. Quinn’s in love. And The Girl might just be perfect. From a small, dark corner of a large, run-down compound, three young millennials try to make a connection. Through conversations both real and imagined, they confront on- and off-line communication; present-day American masculinity; and the violent hatred of women at the dark heart of the ‘Manosphere’—all without ever leaving the living room. The Boys are Angry is a warning against a growing and too often underestimated hate group. We are in the midst of an ongoing epidemic of violence against women “Woman is no better than an animal. Parasite and predator, she is Eve: born of Adam’s rib, or she is Delilah, Jezebel, Yoko: pirating our strength, perverting our faith, and breaking up the fucking Beatles.” Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence in Acting.

THE COMMEDIA RAPUNZEL

Written by Sam LaFrage | Directed by Sam LaFrage and Dennis Corsi

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Expect the unexpected as the Spaghetti and Meatball Players, a troupe of poor traveling “Italian” actors, present a zany musical romp through a twisted version of the fairytale “Rapunzel” done in the style of Commedia dell’ Arte!

THE SUBMARINE SHOW

Written and directed by Jaron Hollander and Slater Penney

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Two men crash their submarine on the ocean floor. You laugh as they cry, swim, fly and go insane, a madcap journey from the ocean to the sky.

WASTED

Written and directed by Kat Woods

Discovered at: Edinburgh Fringe

Based on true events. An engaging and unsettling drama in one act. Wasted explores the grey area in consensual sex and how outside pressures can blur the lines of what did happen and what we think happened. This dark drama puts the audience in the jury seat and forces us to make a judgment on a crime which is based on feelings and emotions rather than fact and evidence. From the writer of Belfast Boy, a winner of the 2014 Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Award.

YOUR LOVE, OUR MUSICAL!

Written and directed by Rebecca Vigil and Evan Kaufman

Discovered at: New York Fringe

Rebecca Vigil and Evan Kaufman interview an unsuspecting couple in the audience and improvise a brand-new musical based off their love story! It’s adorable, romantic, and no two shows are the same! Winner of FringeNYC 2015 Overall Excellence in Acting.