River Rouge @ Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival

I’ll be playing the role of Kalman Leny in the Chorus of Workers in River Rouge by Andy Boyd, in collaboration with Naked Theatre Company for the 18th Annual Page to Stage New Play Festival at the Kennedy Center. The free, public, staged reading of this play with music will be directed by Kevin Place, and will occur on Monday, September 2, at 2:30pm in the Terrace Theater. Learn more about the Page to Stage Festival here. Learn more about Naked Theatre Company here.

One was a communist. The other was a capitalist. One was an artist. The other, an engineer. And yet, for the year between spring 1932 and spring 1933, Diego Rivera and Henry Ford were friends. Rivera came to Detroit on a commission from Ford’s son Edsel to paint a mural on the theme of Detroit industry. Rivera and his wife, the painter Frida Kahlo, arrived in a city on the brink of revolution or collapse: bank failures, violent labor clashes, rallies by Communists and Bible-quoting proto-fascists that drew audiences in the thousands. River Rouge tells the story of the year that followed in a dizzying collage-inspired style of vaudeville, docudrama, folk music, protest theatre, and magical realism.

Black Lizard @ Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival

I am thrilled to be cast in Yukio Mishima’s Black Lizard in which I will be playing Amamiya and other characters to be announced. The piece, translated by Mark Oshima and directed by Yale alum Jesse Jou, stars Yuhua Hamasaki, of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame, as the titular Black Lizard. The staged reading culminates the 2019 season of the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival, where I will already be presenting the previously announced Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers by Williams (and directed by Natsu Onoda Power). The performance will occur on Sunday, September 29, from 10:30am-1:00pm at Town Hall, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Get tickets here.

Each year the Festival places Williams in conversation with another esteemed playwright in the global theatre canon and programs around that choice. This year focuses on provocative Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima, who became good friends with Williams in the late 1950s. Learn more about the Festival here.

The Black Lizard is Mishima’s outrageous camp classic about a glamorous jewel thief and the handsome detective she enthralls. In this psychedelic mystery set in giddy, groovy, 1960s Japan, we track a battle of wits between private detective Kogoro Akechi and the Black Lizard, the glamorous crime boss who has snatched a rich jeweler’s daughter in hopes the jeweler will exchange her for his prized Star of Egypt diamond.

Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers @ Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival

I am joyed to be collaborating again with Natsu Onoda Power (now two-time Helen Hayes Award-winning), after having worked with her on Alice in Wonderland (National Players/Olney Theatre Center), Bronx Express (Theater J), and the Svanda Theatre residency (Georgetown University). Our current adventure will be the world premiere of an early-career Tennessee Williams play titled The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers, in which I will be playing Emperor Nijo. Natsu will both direct and design, and the remaining ensemble consists of fellow National Players Tour 69 alumni Melissa Carter and Jared Graham. It’s a reunion tour!

The piece, though produced by and previewed at Spooky Action Theatre, will be featured as one of the headlining works in this year’s Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival in Provincetown, MA. The production will be performed via bicycles site-specifically at different venues three times a day, each day of the Festival, which runs from September 26 through 29. Click here for a schedule of performances. Learn more about the Festival here. Previews at Spooky Action Theatre in Washington, DC, occur September 20 & 21. Get those tickets here.

Subtitled “a Japanese fantasy,” The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers is a punchy send-up of love, the perils of first impressions, and our earthly attempts to touch something eternal. The power of poetry seals two strangers’ fates in this charming one-act romance set by Williams in ancient Japan. Our pop-up productions will play all around town in the Japanese kami-shibai style using illustrations, some of which will be sketched live by the performers as Williams’ romantic fantasy unfolds.

Unexpected Turbulence @ Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Back in June, drag performer/Lecoq clown Alexander Burnett reached out to me gauging interest in directing a solo show following the misadventures of a French flight attendant for the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I was immediately hooked, and upon chatting with Alexander, knew this collaboration was going to be a great fit.

Unexpected Turbulence by Steven Elliott, performed in drag by Alexander Burnett of the École Jacques Lecoq, and directed by me, runs August 3rd through 9th at 8:25pm (20:25) nightly. The hour-long piece is at Paradise in Augustines (Venue 152) in the Snug Theatre, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL. Purchase tickets here.

Bonjour et bienvenue à bord, bitches! Crystelle Desjardins is a stewardess on a mission to claim the title of “Best Flight Attendant in the Fleet” for the 16th year in a row. The only things stopping her? An old flame, a gorgeous Canadian idiot, and a lemon plant. The captain has turned the fasten seatbelt sign on for the duration of this 60-minute piece of new writing (with more emotional baggage than an overhead bin).

The Infection & The Doors of Impression w/ Longacre Lea

As both pieces were recently made public, I wanted to take this opportunity to share two short films that I collaborated with Longacre Lea on earlier this summer for their Watchlist Festival: The Infection, directed by Séamus Miller, a study of how toxic political discourse has seeped into everyday conversation, and The Doors of Impression, directed by Kathleen Akerley, a whimsical look into how we cross paths with strangers. More about Longacre Lea here.

Summer Intensives 2019 @ iStage, BCS, ETC

I am pleased to announce that I will be teaching theatre-based classes all around the DC/Maryland/Virginia metropolitan area throughout summer 2019. If you have taken a class with me before, I welcome you to join in exploring a new topic this summer. Not sure what the right fit for you may be? Feel free to send me an email and we can chat about the best route for you.

• Musical Theatre (6th-8th). June 11 - 15, 9am-12pm. Imagination Stage (Bethesda, MD).

• Physical Comedy (6th-8th). June 17 - 21, 9am-12pm. Imagination Stage (Bethesda, MD).

• Voice for Actors (8th-11th). Teen Intensive - Camp Center Stage. July 15 - 26, 9:30am-11:30am. Baltimore Center Stage (Baltimore, MD).

• Acting: Building the Character (3rd-5th). July 29 - August 2, 9am-12pm. Imagination Stage (Bethesda, MD).

• Acting Out: Comedy vs. Drama (3rd-6th). August 5 - 9, 9am-3pm. Williamsburg Middle School. Educational Theatre Company (Arlington, VA).

• Page to Stage (3rd-12th). August 12 - 23, 9am-3pm. Fairlington Community Center. Educational Theatre Company (Arlington, VA).

• Acting Out: Stories! (3rd-6th). August 26 - 30, 9am-3pm. Fairlington Community Center. Educational Theatre Company (Arlington, VA).

To register for an Imagination Stage intensive, click here. To register for a Baltimore Center Stage intensive, click here. To register for an Educational Theatre Company intensive, click here. As always, if you are interested in private lessons, especially college audition coachings, please reach out via the contact form linked here or at the tab above.

Decoding Shakespeare, January 2018, The Asheville School (Asheville, NC)

American Spies & Other Homegrown Fables w/ the hub theatre

I am thrilled to be making my Virginia debut with the hub theatre in the track of Tamihei/Neighbor/Buzzard in the world premiere of Sam Hamashima’s new play American Spies & Other Homegrown Fables, under the leadership of Helen Hayes award-winning director Kathryn Chase Bryer. American Spies… will take place at nearby venue NextStop Theatre in Herndon, VA, running from July 11 through August 4. Purchase tickets here. Learn more about the hub here.

News travels across the Pacific on December 7, 1941, resulting in foolhardy claims of Japanese sympathizers. As calls for war permeate the nation, the Ishii family undertakes radical assimilation to calm the local police and fearful neighbors. Mixing family testimony and anime charm, the Japanese Americans’ response to national disaster develops into a sparkling fable on what it means to be family.

The Watchlist Festival w/ Longacre Lea @ CUA's Callan Theatre

Longacre Lea presents The Watchlist Festival, a two-week celebration of collaboration and community in theater, film, and visual arts. I’ve spent the month of June with a phenomenal ensemble of actors in residence with Longacre Lea at Catholic University of America’s Callan Theatre, workshopping two plays and shooting two short films. Each of these pieces, and more, will be showcased throughout this festival. To reserve tickets or to learn more about Longacre Lea, click here.

Richard(s) II. June 24th at 7:30pm & July 1st at 7:30pm. Directed by Kathleen Akerley. Our response to “EDI” trends in casting. Using Shakespeare’s Richard II we engage in a frank examination of how lines, scenes, characters, and character relationships are altered when the casting is altered, working as a group to create a responsible model for representation. The audience can choose to witness the work or actively participate in the discussion and casting choices.

Punching People You Never Met. June 30th at 2:00pm & July 2nd at 7:30pm. Written by Kathleen Akerley and directed by Solomon HaileSelassie. A workshop of a new comedy about call-out culture and the standards to which we hold everyone except ourselves. Sean is trying to create the next generation of superhero shows but has to contend with a bickering writing staff, a lead actor who hallucinates that Twitter is stalking him, a brother who claims to be the leader of the Lizard People, and the sheer number of Americans it’s possible to offend in one 42-minute episode of television.

Short Films Screening. July 6th at 7:30pm. A one-night-only screening of several short films including The Infection, a study of how toxic political discourse has seeped into everyday conversation, written and directed by Séamus Miller; and The Doors of Impression, a whimsical look into how we cross paths with strangers, written and directed by Kathleen Akerley.

Cohort 4 w/ Inkubator On Air Podcast

Inkubator On Air, the podcast series from Inkubator New Works Development Laboratory, has invited me to partake as an actor in their fourth cohort. This marks my second collaboration with Inkubator following last fall’s reading of Bridget Grace Sheaff’s Pilate’s Wife. Designed to develop the “top ten” of new plays, director TP Huth consults with playwrights from each cohort to fully dissect the first ten minutes of their plays, ensuring the best “hook” possible. After these discussions, each is recorded with a cast of professional actors and, along with a brief interview and some feedback, published for the general public, for the playwrights to share as they see fit. To learn more about Inkubator, click on the image below. To tune into published episodes, click here. Plays from Cohort Four include:

• Our Ouija Board, the Games We Played, the Shit We Conjured, & the Dead Dude We Hate-Fucked by Haygen-Brice Walker: reading stage directions

• Fear and Wonder by Jason Tseng: reading for Jabez’s Dad

• Souls Spent by Olivia Haller: reading for Jim

• Remix by Melissa Bell: reading for Jay

• Making Time: The Travels of E.H. Legberg by Lily Kerrigan and Matthew Marcus

• Amma’s Messenger by Alexis M. Skinner

The White Snake @ Constellation Theatre Company

Excited to announce that this spring, I will be joining the ensemble of The White Snake by Mary Zimmerman, directed by Allison Arkell Stockman at Constellation Theatre Company. In addition to the ensemble track, which includes a myriad of characters as our journey forks, I will be understudying Xu Xian and serving as movement captain. With original live music by Tom Teasley & Chao Tian and choreography by Jennifer Hopkins, The White Snake will play the Source Theatre on 14th Street in DC from April 25 through May 26. Purchase tickets here.

Forsaking their lonely mountaintop for just one day, enlightened animal spirits White Snake and Green Snake magically transform into beautiful women in order to experience the human world. There, White Snake meets and falls passionately in love with the humble pharmacist’s assistant Xu Xian, but the secret of her true identity soon comes back to haunt her. Brimming with poetry, humor, and theatrical spectacle, this classic tale will delight and enchant audiences as only Constellation can.