Joan Kane† has directed an Equity Showcase Code production of Meltdown by Toby Armour
Presented by Theater for the New City and produced by Ego Actus with performances October 10 to October 27, 2024
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00pm with a special matinee at 3:00pm on October 12 and two Sundays, October 20 and 27 at 3:00pm
at Theater for the New City 155 First Avenue, NYC 10003
.
description
Current TV news is making Alfie so crazy, he hallucinates about the future. He begs his “guide” for advice. and she conjures up dead presidents. Alfie sees coming times of environmental disaster, destruction, and evolution(?). Or does he?
a review
This unstructured show that Joan Kane directed turned into a fun, silly little show with a big important message in these turbulent times. The acting and singing was terrific: Mike Roche is a great physical comedian as he ranted and raved and time traveled. Beth Griffith reminded me of Constance Schulman, but she has the most beautiful Blues voice. She was a wonderful counterpart to Alfie’s lunacy. Holly O’Brien as Sasha also has a great voice and gives this an optimistic tone. Debra Khan-Bey as Ella FItzgerald got to do some very impressive scat singing. I loved her Cat Fisher costume that matched the puppet version. Bring your friends who are on the fence about voting. Maybe this will inspire them.
HAPPY FACE MINUS
Eva Henneman in Hi Drama on Facebook
another review
This offbeat fever dream is a must-see for those who crave provocative theater. The play, directed by Joan Kane of Ego Actus Theater Company, blends humor, history, and surrealism. The audience experiences a fresh take on modern-day challenges. Additionally, Armour’s Meltdown explores themes of environmental destruction, climate change, the White House, media outlets, and evolution. Meltdown is an exciting, multidimensional experience.
FOUR and a HALF STARS Edward A Kliszus in OpeningNight.online October 25, 2024
program
cast
The cast of Meltdown features Mike Roche*, Beth Griffith*, Holly O’Brien*, Debra Khan-Bey and puppeteers Kervin Peralta*, Paola Poucel, Nico Negron, and Samantha Sing.
*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production
crew
director Joan Kane†
music composer Peter Dizozza
set design & projections by Evan Frank
costume design by Cat Fisher
sound design by Joy Linscheid
puppet design & construction by Jane Catherine Shaw
prop design by Lytza Colon
stage manager Meikayla Thomany
load-in crew Marsh Shugart and Roy T. Chang
public relations by Andrea Alton, AltonPRandProduction@gmail.com
†member of the Society of Directors and Choreographers
.
.
Meltdown first table read. Clockwise from top center Mike Roche plays Alfie, Debra Khan-Bey sings Ella Fitzgerald, stage manager Meikayla Thomany, director Joan Kane, costume designer Cat Fisher, set and projecton designer Evan Frank, Beth Griffith plays Janice, Samantha Sing operates the Ella Fitzgerald puppet, sound designer Joy Linscheid, Nico Negron operates the Abraham Lincoln puppet, prop designer Lytza Colon, Kervin Peralta operates the George Washington puppet. Paola Poucel operates the Thomas Jefferson puppet, music composer Peter Dizzoza. and Holly O’Brien plays Sasha
biographies
Mike Roche* (Alfie) has been seen in In Uniform directed by Joan Kane for Nylon Fusion Theatre Company, Arthur Miller’s The Hook for Brave New World Rep directed by Claire Beckman, adapted by Ron Hutchinson, Night Over Taos at INTAR directed by Estelle Parsons, Doubt directed by Peter Jensen at the Gloria Maddoxm Theatre, The Father, a reading with Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain at The Actors Studio, Room Service at The Actors Studio directed by Arthur Storch, A Clockwork Orange and Fahrenheit 451 both at 59E59, EST, and Edinburgh directed by Joe Tantalo, Billy the Kid at the Flea Theater directed by Jim Simpson, and cul–de–sac for Unquowa/John Cariani Rep. Member: Godlight Theatre Company, 2010 Drama Desk Award, AEA, SAG-AFTRA. Special Thanks to Joan, Bruce and Holly O’Brien www.MikeRoche.net
Beth Griffith* (Janice) has appeared in many shows including Freedom Summer by Toby Armour directed by Joan Kane for Ego Actus, United States v. Gupta by Deepali Gupta for New Georges, Hashtag Infinity by Liz Amadio for Cosmic Orchid, Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill for LaborFest win San Francisco, The Roe Plays by Lionelle Hamanaka, Miss Nowhere Diner by Kathleen Potts for Crossways Theatre, The Butter and Egg Man by George Kaufman for Out of The Box Theater and Waiting for Gal Gadot by Katharine McNair for Irish American Writers & Artists. Thanks to all the Meltdown team!
.
Holly O’Brien* (Sasha) Favorite roles include; Belle in Disney’s Beauty And The Beast the first regional production at Cumberland County Playhouse, and at The Rev, and Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Goldie in Two By Two directed by Martin Charnin, Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe in Norma Jean Enlightened, Peggy in The Taffetas, Cindy Lou in The Marvelous Wonderettes, Luisa in The Fantasticks, Brooke in Noises Off, Cora in The Iceman Cometh, and Glinda in a Wicked Broadway concert with the Rockland County Choral Society. Thanks to Joan and Bruce, and to my wonderful husband, Mike Roche. www.HollyeOBrien.com
.
Debra Khan-Bey (Ella Fitzgerald) is in development of a one-woman show she wrote and stars in, Alone with Nina Simone, which had its latest staged readings at her alma mater, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and the Palace Theatre in Waterbury, CT. She was featured in staged readings of Ron Beverly’s two person play in development, The Spitting Image, written for her with Chazz Palminteri of Ivoryton Playhouse and Actors Studio, Toby Armour’s Freedom Summer at Theater For The New City, Toby Armour’s Aunt Susan and Her Tennessee Waltz at Theater For The New City; two solo plays in a reading series, Reflections on the Voices of African American Women at the Palace Theater, CT, Speechifyin’ as Stacey Abrams at Theatre West; David Holmberg’s White Woman, Black Boy directed by Austin Pendleton at Theatre Row, Chekhov’s The Seagull opposite Austin Pendleton, staged reading of the Hollywood classic Valley of the Dolls, opposite Austin Pendleton; Jeremiah Kipp’s hit film Slapface, Ron Beverly’s Workshop Production of Paul Robeson to Live in Freedom at Actors Studio, and produced and stars in her short film American Hunger.
Kervin Peralta* (puppeteer) is an actor, puppeteer, and percussionist from the Bronx. He was in They Were called Trees at La Mama. This is his second year in GI60! Kervin has been a veteran puppeteer at Central Park’s Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater. He has been in numerous Indie and low-budget films, such as Shots, screened at The Dominican Film Festival in NYC. On TV he was featured on NBC’s Law And Order. Kervin won the 2022 CRNY Grant via BronxNet and he lends his voice to Eco Leaders, a puppet TV series which premieres in late May. He holds an MFA in theater from Sarah Lawrence College and is a proud member of Actors Equity.
.
Paola Poucel (puppeteer) is an award-winning, bilingual, SAG-AFTRA actress, puppeteer, and voiceover artist. She has an extensive theater career that began in Mexico, where she acted in classical theater, musicals, and new works. She has also performed overseas in Argentina, Spain, and El Salvador. Paola has developed a distinctive voice-over career and has worked for various brands and animated series. She’s a creator, producer, and puppeteer for the TV show Eco leaders, created for Bronxnet with the support of a Creatives Rebuild New York grant. Paola is also a proud member of the Society of Educational Arts.
.
Nico Negron (puppeteer) is a Brooklyn based Latino marionette puppeteer and queer filmmaker/actor. He began puppeteering at Puppetworks Theater in 2017 while attending The New York City College of Technology, where he earned a B.S. in Adapting Stories for Film and Theater. Nico later expanded into more complex shows and roles at The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater. He is passionate about all kinds of exciting storytelling which drives our curiosity, and how we can appreciate technology as art, especially puppets.
.
.
Samantha Sing (puppeteer) grew up in Brooklyn. She currently works as a puppeteer at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater and travels the city performing with Wonderspark Puppets. Samantha has trained and worked with Sandglass Theater, Concrete Temple Theater, and Bread and Puppet Theater. Samantha has also created, directed, and performed in puppet slams around the city under her passion project, Han and Friends. @hannfriends
.
.
.
Toby Armour (playwright) is a national award-winning playwright, including The Lewis Prize, Her plays have been presented in the U.S. from Florida to Alaska, including NYC, LA, Boston, Atlanta, Denver, Key West, and Valdez, as well as in London, Edinburgh, Ireland and Cairo. She has worked as stagehand, dancer, choreographer, and company director, in Mississippi as civil rights worker, and in Sri Lanka as human rights and election observer. Toby wishes to thank Joan Kane, her cast and crew, Crystal and Theater for the New City for this opportunity and for their courageous and wonderful work in our difficult times.
Joan Kane† (director) is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus Theater Company. Off Broadway, she directed Sycorax at HERE, Play Nice! at 59e59 theaters, and I Know What Boys Want at Theatre Row. She directed Six Characters in Search of an Author in Oslo, Norway and Kafka’s Belinda in Prague. Joan was awarded Best Director in the United Solo Festival where she has directed six pieces. She was named to the Indie Theatre Hall of Fame by nytheatre.com. She has also directed plays and readings at the Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Urban Stages, Workshop Theater, Nylon Fusion, Abingdon Theatre, Oberon Theatre, the Samuel French Short Play Festival, T. Schreiber Studio and many others. Joan is an alumni of the LaMama directing and playwriting symposiums in Umbria, Italy. She is a member of the Playwright/Director unit at Actor’s Studio, the League of Professional Theatre Women, the Dramatists Guild, and the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers.
Peter Dizozza (music director) is an American music composer who also produces supplemental material as a writer, pianist, performer, photographer, and filmmaker. Since 2000 he has been the director of the WAH Theater at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center. Since 1964 Dizozza has produced a steady output of primarily musical original material. To contain and administer his creative catalogue, he registered in 1996 a D/B/A and started a website under the name Cinema VII, reviving a collective founded in 1972.
Evan Frank (set and projection designer) is thrilled to be returning to Theater for the New City after recently designing Aftershocks. He got his start in Chicago where he designed for Black Ensemble Theater, Strawdog Theatre Company, Bohemian Theatre Ensemble and Refuge Theatre Project where he was a company member. Recent work includes the Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s 2022 and 2023 seasons (Wilde Award for Macbeth in ‘23), Romeo and Juliet at the Oak Park Festival Theatre and Pride House with TOSOS where he is the resident scenic designer. Upcoming work includes Street Theater with TOSOS. MFA, CMU EFrankDesign.com
Catherine Fisher (costume designer) has designed for theater, dance, film, and television; is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab; a New York State Counsel for the Arts awards recipient, and has received Outstanding Costume awards. This is at least her 20th show designing costumes for productions directed by Joan Kane. Her work has been seen at 59e59th, NYC Fringe Festival, numerous NYC Festivals, and has IMDb credits for both acting and design and is a founding member of Honest Accomplice Theatre. Please see www.CatFisher.Homestead.com
Bruce A! Kraemer (producer and lighting designer) has done lighting design at HERE, Soho Rep, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ensemble Studio Theatre, 59e59 Theaters, the NYC Fringe, Theatre Row, the Snarks and many others. Bruce also does TV and event lighting, audio, technical direction, stage management, production intercom and RF coordination. He has done one or another of those for the Summer and Winter Olympics, the Paralympics, the World Cup, two Papal visits, three Superbowls, six Tony Awards, ten Christmas Tree Lightings at Rockefeller Center, on Broadway, off Broadway, off off Broadway, for dance, fashion shows, art installations and hundreds of corporate events.
Joy Linscheid (sound designer) has been involved with productions at Theater for The New City since 1994. TNC provided her early training in a number of different disciplines. She learned sound design as she worked with the renowned sound designer, Paul Garrity, on several Street Theater productions. She eventually started to design for Street Theater and other productions on her own. Joy enjoys working at TNC and is very happy to be “back-at-it” after Covid! Joy thanks the entire TNC community for their ongoing support and commitment to emerging works and emerging artists.
Jane Catherine Shaw (puppet design & construction) is curator of La MaMa’s Puppet Slam and co-founded the Voice 4 Vision Puppet Festival at TNC in 2004. Ms. Shaw was nominated for a 2014 NYIT Award for her work with Theodora Skipitares on The Chairs. She creates and directs for puppet theatre, including Framed; The Mother Goose Chronicles, Calpurnia Coyote Comes To The Big City, The Blue Marble, Following the Wind, Folktales of Asia and Africa, Pelandok the Mousedeer, Thirst: Memory of Water, The Lone Runner, Bed of Light, and Universe Expanding, all at La MaMa. She is a recipient of the prestigious Ruthie award from Mabou Mines.
Lytza Colon (prop design) was born and raised in the south Bronx and is a passionate multi-talented visual artist, youth advocate, community leader and activist. She was introduced to the live theatre in 2008 and got hooked. In that same year she was invited by Crystal Field, Executive Director of Theater for the New City, to do their award winning Street Theater Summer Program as special props master. Lytza’s work has been featured in many theaters throughout New York City and the New York City Fringe Festival.
Meikala Thomany (production stage manager) is an emerging creative multidisciplinary artist proudly representing the new generation! In 2019 she was a box office intern at The Black Lady Theatre and in less than six months became Assistant Director, Production Assistant and now has a permanent position as their Youth Theater Instructor. In 2023 she received her MFA in Directing at The Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. After graduation, there have been nonstop opportunities working both on Broadway and Off Broadway theater companies around New York City including Black American Working Woman for Good Light Production. Stay connected with her on IG: storyof.mickey and Linkedin.
Andrea Alton/Alton PR (press representative) is thrilled to be working with Ego Actus! Alton PR was formed in 2011 and provides press services for off and off-off Broadway Theatre, comedy, and theatre/arts festivals with an emphasis on new works. Past clients include the off-Broadway productions Love Quirks for AMT Theater, and Anne Being Frank, Doris Day: My Secret Love, Sex Work/Sex Play all with Emerging Artists Theatre. Andrea has worked on productions with La MaMa, SoHo Playhouse, Peculiar Works Project, Spark Theatre Festival NYC, Rising Sun Performance Company, Retro Productions, among others. www.AltonPRandProduction.com
Meltdown in rehearsal
This is early construction by Jane Catherine Shaw for the puppets that will be featured in Meltdown.
Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), founded in 1913, represents more than 50,000 actors and. stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks. To advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence. www.ActorsEquity.com
SDC is the theatrical union that unites, empowers, and protects professional stage directors and choreographers throughout the United States. Our mission is to foster a national community of professional stage directors and choreographers by protecting the rights, health and livelihoods of all our Members; negotiating and enforcing employment agreements across a range of jurisdictions; facilitating the exchange of ideas, information and opportunities; and educating current and future generations about the critical role of directors and choreographers in leading the field.
A Brief History of Theater for the New City
Crystal Field and others founded Theater for the New City in 1971 to form a theater of for poetic work that would also encompass a community ideal. The impulse to form a company coincided with the availability of a space at the Westbeth Artists Community in the West Village. The name Theater for the New City was inspired by a speech in which then Mayor John V. Lindsay envisioned a New City for all.
TNC’s initial two seasons included plays by Richard Foreman, Charles Ludlam, Miguel Piñero and Jean-Claude van Itallie. Theater for the New City also began its Annual Summer Street Theater, and founded the Village Halloween Parade with puppeteer Ralph Lee. The Parade won an Obie Award under TNC administration. TNC also inaugurated its Village Halloween Costume Ball, which it still holds to this day. TNC cemented its reputation for being the most avant of avant-garde theater, offering radical political plays, experimental poetic works, dance theater, musical theater and even film. Mabou Mines found a home at Theater for the New City as did playwrights such as Romulus Linney, Harvey Fierstein, H. M. Koutoukas, Arthur Sainer, Howard Zinn, and Maria Irene Fornes. A musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince in 1973 featured a young Tim Robbins in the title role. The 1976 play Dinosaur Door by Barbara Garson featured a young Vin Diesel.
Notable productions in the late 1970s and 1980s included Buried Child by Sam Shepard in 1978. That TNC production of moved off-Broadway to the Theatre de Lys and in 1979, and became the first off-off-Broadway play to win the Pulitzer Prize. TNC also presented the American premiere of two of Heiner Muller’s plays, Hamletmachine in 1984 and Quartett in 1985.
TNC continues to produce 30-40 new plays per year, along with its Annual Summer Street Theater, the Annual Village Halloween Costume Ball and the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts.
Through its Resident Theater Program, TNC produces 20-30 new American plays per year, providing a forum for both new and mid-career writers to experiment with their work and develop as artists. For newer writers, TNC offers an Emerging Theater Program that commissions and produces 10 plays by fledgling writers each year. The newest division of the Resident Theater Program, New City, New Blood, is a reading series for worthy plays in earlier stages of development.
Coming in November 2024 from Ego Actus and Theater for the New City
