I performed in a workshop of the new musical-in-progress Elephant & Castle by Rick Lake at the Rich Forum, in Stamford, CT
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s timeless Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, this musical transports some of Carroll’s characters to World War II London, where a young girl named Alice may be the only one who can defeat the forces of evil and bring hope back to wartime England. I’ve also participated in the two previous readings of this piece at the Rich Forum, always playing “The Professor” (Lewis Carroll). Scott Schwartz (director of the Off-Broadway hit Bat Boy and co-director of Broadway’s recent Jane Eyre) presided over the audience talk-back.
May 2001
I returned for my fifth consecutive year as a Performer for the Vermont Young Playwrights Festival in Burlington, VT
This extraordinary program is offered annually by Vermont Stage Company. Professional actors and directors present two solid days of performances and cold readings of short scripts written by Middle School and High School Students from Vermont. The quality of the writing is thrilling, as is the whole experience. This year, I performed in four short plays and more than 12 cold readings.
February 2001
I performed in the US Premiere of The Brecht File at the Clarence Brown Theatre, Knoxville, TN
This production was directed by Veronika Nowag-Jones of the Berliner Ensemble, with an original score by New York jazz artist Sirone. The play is written by George Tabori, world-renowned Brecht expert and long-standing luminary of the Berliner Ensemble. The Tabori approach to rehearsal and performance is entirely based on improvisation, which made for an exciting, ever-changing experience. I played 5 roles: the boxing arena Emcee, Peter Lorre, Father Mulligan (a Catholic priest cheerfully presiding over a gay wedding), Fleischman (an ex-patriot German working for the FBI), and Tattleman (a master wiretapper with a sadistic streak). Great fun!