By Jaclyn Backhaus
directed by John Kurzynowski
Feb. 21 – March 9, 2013
Wednesday – Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, Sunday at 7pm
Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at
www.reconstructionensemble.org or by calling 212-352-3101.
Direct ticketing link: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/920324
Walkerspace
46 Walker Street (2 blocks south of Canal), New York, NY
The Theater Reconstruction Ensemble presents SET IN THE LIVING ROOM OF A SMALL TOWN AMERICAN PLAY, a world premiere play written by Jaclyn Backhaus. John Kurzynowski directs a cast of tweleve, including Harlan Alford, Jaclyn Backhaus, Mikey Barringer, Andrew Butler, Nick Fesette, Nick Lehane*, Emily Marro, Sydney Matthews, Anastasia Olowin, Patrick Scheid, Tina Shepard*, and Lauren Swan-Potras. Performances will be held at Walkerspace, 46 Walker Street (2 blocks south of Canal) in NYC from February 21-March 9, 2013. *Actor appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association | Equity Approved Showcase
Realism … the authentic revelation of truth. The Method of acting truthfully under imaginary circumstances.
In this world premiere nod to the heyday of the American drama, the Lorimer family has gathered to welcome home their former golden boy after tragedy has forced him to retreat to the living room of his youth. A revolving door of newly explored stock characters reveal their inner demons while struggling to achieve the American dream – life, liberty and the pursuit of authenticity.
Theater Reconstruction Ensemble’s epic dissection of the American REAL attempts to rebuild the most iconic and praised theatrical style of the past century while simultaneously questioning its core components. Can we ever truly create something REAL onstage? Or is it only in the struggle to do so that we stumble across that ever-elusive TRUTH?
Sound Design: Kate Marvin
Set and Lighting Design: Jonathan Cottle
Stage Manager: Nick Smerkanich
Production Intern: Sam Corbin
Image designed by Muneera Gerald
Publicity: Paul Siebold / Off Off PR
Performances for SET IN THE LIVING ROOM OF A SMALL TOWN AMERICAN PLAY will be held at Walkerspace, 46 Walker Street (2 blocks south of Canal), New York, NY from February 21 – March 9, 2013 on the following schedule: Wednesday – Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, Sunday at 7pm.
Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at www.reconstructionensemble.org or by calling 212-352-3101.
THEATER RECONSTRUCTION ENSEMBLE is a New York based collective of theater artists striving to reconstruct both classical and canonical forms of theatricality through the playful development of works over time. Prior works include The Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA! at HERE Arts Center, Doctor Faustus at The Brick, and A Doll’s House at The Access Theater. Works in development include Salesmen: a meditation on masculinity and the American REAL! and King Lear starring Tina Shepard. www.reconstructionensemble.org
BIOS
JOHN KURZYNOWSKI (director) is the founder and artistic director of Theater Reconstruction Ensemble. Directing credits include The Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA!, Doctor Faustus, and A Doll’s House (TRE), Hamlet (Organs of State), Pullman Car Hiawatha (Target Margin Theater) and workshop presentations of Alex Kveton’s Fat Fat Fatty. As an actor he has appeared in Obskene (The Talking Band), The Really Big Once and The Magic Flute: A Sound-Op Era (TMT), Babes In Toyland (Little Lord),and various developmental workshops and readings for such artists as David Greenspan, Paul Zimet, Jean Claude van Itallie, and Chiori Miyagawa. Upcoming: TRE’s Set in the Living Room of a Small Town American Play and Salesmen: a meditation on masculinity and the American REAL! BFA: NYU.
JACLYN BACKHAUS (playwright, Florence Del Franzia) is an Indian-American playwright and actor raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Her original musical Folk Wandering, a collaboration with composer Mike Brun and director Andrew Neisler, received performances at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest, Walker Space, and Joe’s Pub. Her first playwriting collaboration with Theater Reconstruction Ensemble, The Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA!, played to sold-out houses at HERE Arts Center and was named one of the Best Shows of 2012 by Off-Off Blogway. Other plays include Heartprints (co-written with Preston Martin), Black Canyon City, Shoot the Freak, The Forgetting of Things, What It’s Like When Two Geeks Love Each Other and James Franco Brings the Light of God to the Linguistics Department at the University of Buffalo. As a writer and performer, she has developed works with Naked Angels, Tim Fite and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Ars Nova, Fresh Ground Pepper’s PlayGround PlayGroup, 3LD, The New Ohio, The Bushwick Starr, breedingground, The Hypocrite Reader, Walker Space, The Tank, and Magic Futurebox. She is the co-founder and executive curator of Fresh Ground Pepper, a monthly development series that focuses on emerging artists and new work. She is one half of traveling filmmakers’ collective wuliHAUS and a member of the Cockpit Writers’ Group. She resides in Brooklyn.
HARLAN ALFORD (Bernard Marshall) was the American Dream in Dramaworks (WPB) production of Edward Albee’s Zoo Story and American Dream. He danced for Demetrius Klein Dance Company in Florida and with Ad Deum Dance Theatre in Texas and teaches chess through his company Chess@3. He studied Theatre Arts and Dance at Palm Beach Atlantic University.
MICHAEL BARRINGER (Patrick Lorimer) performed in Theater Reconstruction Ensemble’s The Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA! at HERE Arts Center and is a company member involved in various workshops of upcoming projects. Recent NYC credits include Open Up, Hadrian (Magic Futurebox), The Orange Person (Gene Frankel Theatre), Penknife (Living Theatre), and a self-produced version of David Mamet’s A Life in the Theatre. He is a recurring character on the web comedy series Drunk Talk Show.
ANDREW R. BUTLER (Ollie O’Shannon)’s writing and performance spans muli-genred music, live and video comedy, collaborative new theater, unconventional puppetry, science fiction, storytelling and combinations thereof. Andrew performs regularly with the Mettawee River Theater Company, Political Subversities, Kristine Haruna Lee, Theater Reconstruction Ensemble, The Story Pirates and recently, The Talking Band, Stephanie Johnstone, and Folk Wandering at venues including Joe’s Pub, HERE, Ars Nova, The Brick, The Bushwick Starr, The PIT, Dixon Place and THE INTERNET. His current solo project is future-folk singer Rags Parkland.
NICK FESETTE (Frank Lorimer) is a TRE ensemble member and performed in The Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA (HERE) and Fat Fat Fatty (Theater for the New City). He will next be seen in TRE’s Salesmen: a meditation on masculinity and the American REAL! Fesette frequently collaborates with Astrolab Films, appearing in Changes in the Gulfstream, Everyday (Slamdance Film Festival) and the forthcoming short films “Salad Days,” in which he convulses while nude, and “The Pressure,” in which he gets his head exploded. In the past he has performed with Company XIV, Horse Trade Theater Group, WorkShop Theater Company, and Terry Schreiber Studios.
NICK LEHANE (Ned Gershwin): Off Broadway: The Old Man and the Old Moon (PigPen Theatre Company). Off-Off: Victor Frange Presents Gas (The Incubator); The Beautiful Beautiful Sea Next Door (EBE Ensemble/Ars Nova); Arok of Java, These Seven Sicknesses (Exit, Pursued by a Bear, of which he is a founding member); Platonov, The Cherry Orchard (Columbia Stages); Look Back In, Play America, The Screens (Sister Sylvester); You May Be Splendid Now (Shelby Company). Regional: The Electric Baby, When the Rain Stops Falling (Quantum Theatre). Film: Warrior. Nick studied at the Moscow Art Theatre School, was a resident artist at the Rhodopi International Theatre Laboratory in Bulgaria and holds a BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University.
EMILY MARRO (Emily Vicks) is a Brooklyn-based actor and member of Theater Reconstruction Ensemble. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and has since performed at venues throughout the city including HERE Arts Center, 59E59 Theaters, Riverside Church and others.
SYDNEY MATTHEWS (Dotty Gershwin) is a member of Theater Reconstruction Ensemble member. She is also a founding member of Pipeline Theatre Company, Organs of State, and Fabrefaction Theatre Company. Sydney performed in a new Bekah Brunstetter play, Run, with the Atlantic Theater Company as part of their 10×25 festival. TRE producing credits: The Three Seagulls, or MASHAMASHAMASHA!,Doctor Faustus & A Doll’s House. In New York, Sydney has also performed with SharkMother Arts Collective, DeFacto Dance, Fresh Ground Pepper, The In-Between People and more. BFA: NYU Tisch.
ANASTASIA OLOWIN (Marla Lorimer) is the Executive Producer of Theater Reconstruction Ensemble, and was most recently seen in The Talking Band’s production of Obskene. Other credits include Olga in The Three Seagulls (TRE), Irene inDICK by Alex Kveton, an opera-singing Curtain in Desire Caught by the Tail, a play by Pablo Picasso, and Violet in the short film “The Pressure” (dir. Will Welles), in which her head explodes. BFA: NYU Tisch. www.anastasiaolowin.com
PATRICK SCHEID (Carlo Berlesculia) is an actor and theatre-maker from Ramsey, New Jersey. Recent credits include: The Three Seagulls (TRE), The Bedbug (Target Margin Theater), Spoon River Anthology (The Invisible Dog), Ghost Sonata (Homunculus), Pest Actors (Dixon Place), a 2 man Hamletmachine (Homunculus), and Ming Wong’s Persona Performa (Performa’11 Festival/MOMI). He is also the associate artistic director of Homunculus Inc. He studied dramatic literature at Queen Mary College, University of London; and is a graduate of Muhlenberg College where he received a BA for Theatre and for History. Upcoming: Salesmen: a Meditation on Masculinity and the American REAL! (TRE).
TINA SHEPARD (Edna Gardiner) is a theater actor, director & teacher based in NYC. She worked with director Joseph Chaikin in The Open Theater (1967-1973), The Winter Project (1978-1983), and The Other Theater (1994-1998), as well as in productions of The Seagull, A Fable and Electra directed by Chaikin. In 1974, together with fellow Open Theater members Paul Zimet and Ellen Maddow, she formed The Talking Band. She was awarded an OBIE for her performance in The Talking Band’s 1987 production The Three Lives Of Lucie Cabrol. The company continues to create theater pieces based on the interplay of language, music & image. She has worked with Otrabanda Company, Breadloaf Theatre, Via Theater, SITI Company, Warehouse Repertory Theatre, A Hungry Theatre Company, Escape Velocity, Theater of a Two-headed Calf, Target Margin Theater. Tina teaches acting and aikido at NYU/ETW.
LAUREN SWAN-POTRAS (Penny Lorimer) is a graduate of the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has perfomed at Dixon Place, the 45th St. Theater, Ars Nova, Columbia University, and the Accidental Theater Festival, London.
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