Category Archives: Actors

Amy Overman, Justin Plowman, Gyda Arber, and Amy Beth Sherman of “Of Dice & Men”

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More repeat offenders on GSAS! for this episode — last time it was stoned, drunken zombies, but this time the fine people at Dysfunctional Theatre are bringing a story of epic campaigns, saving throws, and decisive D20 rolls to the stage with Of Dice & Men, by Cameron McNary, part of the Game Play Festival at The Brick.

On the mic are Amy Overman, the show’s director, Justin Plowman, who plays a hardcore gamer in the show, Gyda Arber, another gaming enthusiast in the show as well as the producer of the Game Play Festival, and Amy Beth Sherman, who portrays another roleplayer in the show’s D&D adventuring party. Listen in to this episode for more on Game Play, passion, Justin’s super “woop-woop” dance, hating & loving Uni, and the connections between jocks, geeks, and theatre goons.

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Dysfunctional Theatre Company & The Brick Theater, Inc. present
Of Dice & Men

Written by Cameron McNary
Directed by Amy Overman

Starring: Gyda Arber, Rob Brown*, Cedric Jones, Justin Plowman, Adam Swiderski, and Amy Beth Sherman*
*appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

The Brick
575 Metropolitan Avenue (between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street)
Brooklyn, NY

Saturday July 7, 8pm
Tuesday July 10, 8pm
Thursday July 12, 8pm
Sunday, July 15, 2pm
Wednesday, July 18, 8pm
Saturday, July 21, 2pm
Tuesday, July 24, 8pm
Friday, July 27, 7pm

Tickets: $15, available online at bricktheater.com, or by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111

photos by Flaviu Nasarimba

Andrew Goffman, playwright & performer, and director Charles Messina of “The Accidental Pervert”

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The Accidental Pervert

It might seem surprising to hear that an off-off-Broadway show has been running for three years, to consistently packed houses. Then again, when that show is a frank, honest, laugh-filled discussion of a young man’s coming-of-age story via his Dad’s porn collection and his own subsequent addiction to said porn…well, you know there’s going to be a little something in there for everyone.

In this episode of Go See a Show!, we’ve got an interview with playwright & actor Andrew Goffman, the self-described title character of The Accidental Pervert. His autobiographical one-man show is part theatre, part stand-up, (almost) entirely true, and all heart.

The Accidental PervertListen in as Andrew and director Charles Messina discuss the broad appeal of a show about a kid’s connection to his father through porn, the porn-addicts in trenchcoats who are disappointed by the show, becoming an electrician by necessity, and how to keep a show that’s been running for over three years fresh.

Oh, and stick through to the end to hear Andrew’s “sexy voice.”

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The Accidental Pervert, photo by Paul Urban“…if you ever forget your lines, just start moving. Start cleaning up the stage. And a lot of these off-Broadway theaters need cleaning anyway…”

The Accidental Pervert
Fridays & Saturdays @ 7pm
The 13th Street Repertory Company
50 West 13th Street – between 5th & 6th Aves

All Seats $30
Tickets available via OvationTix, or call 212-352-3101
or, visit the 13th Street Repertory Box Office

The Cast & Director of Playhouse Creatures’ “Love Song”

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Playhouse Creatures' production of "Love Song"If you’ve never been to the Access Theater, it might seem a little out of place; it’s four flights up in a nondescript building just south of Canal Street, and if not for the sandwich board out in front, you could easily miss it.

But you shouldn’t miss what’s going on in one of the theaters that lives up those four flights: a lovely revival of John Kolvenbach’s Love Song, presented by Playhouse Creatures.

Listen in to this episode of Go See a Show! as the cast — Eric Doss, Sarah Koestner, Patricia Duran, and Joseph W. Rodriguez — and director, Kenny Wade Marshall, discuss finding your character in yourself, sentimentality vs. being present, and the benefits of working together as an ensemble for years.

Take the stairs.

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Playhouse Creatures presents

Love Song
by John Kolvenbach

June 9-24th
Wednesday – Saturday @ 8PM
Sundays @ 3PM
*Special added Performance Tuesday June 19th @ 8PM!

Tickets: $18, available via SmartTix

Access Theatre
380 Broadway @ White Street

Playhouse Creatures presents John Kolvenbach's "Love Song"

Playhouse Creatures presents John Kolvenbach's "Love Song"

Playhouse Creatures presents John Kolvenbach's "Love Song"

photos by Justin Dodd

“Cowboy Mouth” director Leah Benavides, and actors Diana Beshara, Geoffrey Pomeroy, and Matthew Mark Stannah

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Cowboy Mouth

Cowboy Mouth was written by Sam Shepard & Patti Smith in 1971, a fantastical meditation on the tempestuous relationship between these two American art/punk icons. 41 years later, One Old Crow Productions has revived this volatile one-act in a Lower East Side apartment.

Listen in as GSAS! talks with director Leah Benavides & cast members Diana Beshara, Geoffrey Pomeroy, and Matthew Mark Stannah about why this play is relevant today, creating the set and sound design together, and how you take a Lobster Man from page to stage.

…and as promised, here’s the blog Diana mentions in the interview, where you can check out some photo stills and thoughts from the cast & director.

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This one’s a lot of fun, and in addition to a free glass of wine with ticket purchase, you also get a free snack when you arrive. Without that snack, you can’t see the show. I will say no more; you should head down to Lucky Cheng’s to check it out.

Cowboy Mouth
by Sam Shepard & Patti Smith
June 7 & 8, 11-14, & 20 & 21 at 8pm
Friday, June 15 & 22 at 8pm and 10pm
Sunday, June 10 & 17 at 5pm
Meet at Lucky Cheng’s, 24 1st Avenue, New York, NY
Tickets: $15, via Brown Paper Tickets (includes a free glass of wine)

Cowboy Mouth featuring Diana Beshara & Geoffrey Pomeroy Photo credit Leah BenavidesCowboy Mouth featuring Geoffrey Pomeroy as Slim & Diana Beshara as Cavale Photo credit Leah Benavides

Brett Epstein, Brittany Taylor Visser, and Sean Kleier of “Based On Your True Story”

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Based On Your True Story, by Brett EpsteinWhat do you get when you put a playwright/director, an actress/singer, a comedian/actor, and a podcaster around a chess table in Washington Square Park late on a Sunday night?

This episode of Go See a Show!, obviously.

Listen in as I speak with Brett Epstein, Brittany Taylor Visser, and Sean Kleier about Brett’s new show, inspired by 30 interviews with friends, acquaintances, and random strangers. It’s called Based On Your True Story, it’ll premiere this week at The Tank, and you can get a sneak peek here on the podcast: tales of klonopin, awkward interviews, arrests in 3D, $7 sandwiches, interrupted interviews, and Sean not playing Hawkeye await.

“Hulk smash.”


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Based On Your True Story
Six short plays PLUS a documentary short film
The Tank
151 W. 46th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY
Wednesday, 05/16/2012 – 7:00pm
Saturday, 05/19/2012 – 9:30pm
Tickets: $7, available via Brown Paper Tickets

Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell, playwright & actor, from “The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos”

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Collaboration Town's The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of PathosGo See a Show! was back at The New Ohio last weekend for some deep, epic thoughts, provided by The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos.

Playwright & actor Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell joined me for an interview on his dinner break between shows — that’s him in the first photo below, red-eyed & blue-mouthed, with his arm outstretched next to the puppet & puppeteer of Mephistopheles.

Listen in as Geo discusses acting in a show he’s still revising, loving & lampooning Brecht, and what’s next for the company he co-founded & leads, Collaboration Town — and I curse Jad Abumrad (not seriously, of course).

Obligatory Shakespeare reference this time? The Winter’s Tale. It never fails to come back to the Bard!

(…sorry for the background noise — it seems Collaboration Town has a big population!…)


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The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos
by Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell
music by Michael Wells
lyrics by Geoffrey Decas O’Donnell, Jordan Seavey and Michael Wells
directed by Lee Sunday Evans and Jordan Seavey

The New Ohio Theatre
154 Christopher Street, 1E
Tickets available via SmartTix

Wednesday, March 14th @ 7:30 – Opening Night!
Thursday, March 15th @ 7:30
Friday, March 16th @ 7:30
Saturday, March 17th @ 5:00
Saturday, March 17th @ 9:00 (WEAR GREEN AND PAY WHAT YOU CAN!)
Sunday, March 18th @ 7:30
Monday, March 19th @ 7:30
Wednesday, March 21st @ 7:30
Thursday, March 22nd @ 7:30
Friday, March 23rd @ 7:30
Saturday, March 24th @ 5:00 & 9:00

Collaboration Town's The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos

Collaboration Town's The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos

photos by Colin D. Young

Martin Dockery & Vanessa Quesnelle of “Oh, That Wily Snake!”

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Oh, That Wily Snake!On this episode of Go See a Show!, we’ve got our first returning guest: actor & playwright Martin Dockery, who is joined onstage by actress Vanessa Quesnelle for his show Oh, That Wily Snake! (it’s nice to see another title with an “!” in it).

Oh, That Wily Snake! is, on its face, an often surreal one-act play about a man trying to convince a woman to take a trip with him on his flying bed to Aruba (and, to get her to eat brussel sprouts). But there’s a lot more going on, too — listen in as Martin and Vanessa discuss this “allegory of an allegory.”

And sorry for the clanging.

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Oh, That Wily Snake!
thru February 10th
Under St. Mark’s (St. Mark’s & 1st Ave.)
Thurs, Fri, and Sat. 8pm
$18/$15 Student and Senior

Steven Carl McCasland and Mallory Berlin, of “A Doll’s Life”

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Nora in Rep, by The Beautiful Soup Theater CollectiveWe all know the story of Nora & Torvald from Ibsen’s classic A Doll’s House (wasn’t it the first thing every directing student worked on in class?). But have you ever wondered what happened to Nora after she shut the door?

Betty Comden & Adolph Green, who wrote the book & lyrics to the musical (yes — musical) A Doll’s Life, wondered just that — and the result was one of the better-known Broadway flops of the 20th Century, running for only 5 performances.

Steven Carl McCasland, Artistic Director of The Beautiful Soup Theatre Collective, has brought the musical back to NYC with a production at The New Ohio Theatre, running it in rep with the original Ibsen. In this episode of Go See a Show!, I interview McCasland along with Mallory Berlin, who portrays Nora in A Doll’s Life.

Producer’s Note: Very sorry for the lateness of this episode! Had some uploading difficulty; hope everyone can catch one of the remaining two performances!


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The Beautiful Soup Theater Collective presents
Nora in Rep
thru February 5, 2012
The New Ohio Theatre
154 Christopher Street, New York, NY
Wednesday January 25th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Thursday 26th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Friday 27th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Saturday 28th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Saturday 28th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Sunday 29th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Sunday 29th – 7:00pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Wednesday, February 1st – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Thursday, 2nd – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Friday, 3rd – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Saturday, 4th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S LIFE
Saturday, 4th – 7:30pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Sunday, 5th – 2:00pm – A DOLL’S HOUSE
Sunday, 5th – 7:00pm – A DOLL’S LIFE

“Into the Woods,” a fundraiser for The Sylvia Center

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Into the WoodsThis episode of Go See a Show! may not be about a technically “off-off-Broadway” show, but the impulse behind this production is very much in the vein of my favorite kinds of OOB shows — a bunch of people getting together, on their own terms, for the sake of making something beautiful.

And it’s for a good cause, which makes this all the more awesome.

Director Kevin Horne and actor Joshua David Bishop (“Jack”) are two of the folks behind a special charity performance of Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Along with their fellow employees at catering company Great Performances, Kevin and Joshua are putting on this classic musical for two performances as a fundraiser for The Sylvia Center, a not-for-profit that teaches young people about food and nutrition from the farm to the kitchen. Good stuff.

Take a listen to the interview, then go help these cats out with a buck or twenty at their Kickstarter page; and follow their progress on Facebook.


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Into the Woods actors

Martin Dockery, and his new show “The Holy Land Experience”

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Martin Dockery's "The Holy Land Experience"Playwright & performer Martin Dockery is one of those guys who seems, to me, to have the most interesting life — his stories are always full of wild adventures and profoundly meaningful interactions with fascinating people, all true, all from his life.

I interviewed Dockery after a performance of his new show The Holy Land Experience at The Kraine Theater, and he answers the question of “just why is your life so awesome and mine so mundane?” beautifully. That, and more, in this episode of Go See a Show!


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There’s sadly just one more chance to see this run of The Holy Land Experience — Monday, December 19, 8PM at The Kraine. Check it out if you can; watch one of his appearances at The Moth to get a sense for the kind of storytelling you’re in for, like this one below: