Wednesday, May 27, 2015

MEET The Simpsons writer/producer MIKE REISS!

Proud to introducer Mike Reiss as our guest playwright, who's short play will be featured at our Spring Gala starring Barefoot Theatre Company Ensemble Members alongside special guests!  Cast announcement and more coming soon...
Monday, June 22nd, 2015 @ 8pm
Spring Gala & Vassallo Awards
American Ballroom Theather (25 W 31st, Street, NYC)
Formal/Festival Attire
VIP Cocktail Hour @ 7:15pm
Live Music, Drinks and more!!!
Running Time: 75 Mins

Vassallo Award Nominees:  Anna Chlumsky (VEEP, You Can't Take It With You), Kamilah Forbes (Hi-Arts), Stephen Adly Guirgis (2015 Pulitzer Prize Winner) & Daniel Talbott (Rising Phoenix Rep, Rattlestick). 

Mike Reiss has won four Emmys and a Peabody Award during his twenty-six years writing for “The Simpsons”.  He ran the show in Season 4, which Entertainment Weekly called “the greatest season of the greatest show in history.”  In 2006, Reiss received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Animation Writers Caucus.  Reiss co-created the animated series “The Critic” and created Showtime’s hit cartoon “Queer Duck” (about a gay duck).  “Queer Duck” was named one of “The 100 Greatest Cartoons of All Time” by the BBC.  “Queer Duck: the Movie” was released to rave reviews in July 2006, winning awards in New York, Chicago, San Diego, Sweden, Germany and Wales.Mike Reiss has been a contributing writer to more than two dozen animated films -- including four ICE AGEs, two DESPICABLE MEs, THE LORAX, RIO, KUNG FU PANDA 3, and THE SIMPSONS MOVIE – with a worldwide gross of $8 billion.  Reiss’ first play, “I’m Connecticut” set box-office records for Connecticut Repertory Theater.   The Hartford Courant called it “sweet and hysterically funny” and named it one of the year’s Ten Best Plays.   Broadway World Connecticut voted it Best Play of 2012. 

 

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Meet ELLIE LEE (Spring Gala & Vassallo Awards Host)

On Monday, June 22nd, 2015 we will gather to celebrate 16 years as an ensemble of artists and honor a few who inspire us on a daily basis.  Stay tuned for more info on tickets, special performances and more but in the meantime, we are stoked to introduce you to our host for the evening.  We are grateful to have such an incredible talent at our event!  

Ellie Lee has been a news host for Anime News Network, MTV K, and is currently a TV host on VH1. You can also catch her every  morning  at 9AM/8c as the pop culture correspondent for VH1's " Big   Morning   Buzz   Live " hosted by Nick Lachey. Aside from TV hosting, Ellie was last seen acting in the independent film, "All the Sunflowers." It's an honor for her to be this year's host for the  Spring Gala and Vassallo Awards. 

Monday, May 11, 2015

Paperless Program (Full Moon Inside A Red Sky)

Barefoot Theatre CompaNY
Season 2014-2015
bareNaked Reading Series
Molly Marinik, Program Director
Jennie West, Co-Producer

proudly presents
FULL MOON
INSIDE A RED SKY
written by
Mel Nieves
directed by
Michael LoPorto

May 12, 2015

CAST
Maitre d’…….…………..……………Charles Everett
Anthony………………….…..Francisco Solorzano*
Lisa………………………………………….Joli Tribuzio
Sylvia……………………....………Daniella Rabbani*
Stage Directions…...........………Alexandra Slater
*Appearing courtesy AEA
  
West Beth Artists Community (55 Bethune Street)
COMING UP NEXT:
June bareNaked Reading
TOWER 5
By Michael Reyes
Directed by Scott Illingworth
Tuesday, June 9; doors at 7:30pm

Music Booking by Darkseed Entertainment

Francisco Solorzano, Producing Artistic Director
Christopher Whalen, Producing Director
www.barefoottheatrecompany.org

 CHARLES EVERETT began his acting career at the age of 9, performing in community theatre in Connecticut.  Since then, he has gone on to work in film ( Assata aka Joanne Chesimard, The Last International Playboy), television ( Law & Order, Rescue Me), theatre ( NEXT, Raft Of The Medusa, Here. This. Now.), commercials ( Wendy's, Verizon, Royal Caribbean, Red Lobster), voiceover ( Coke, McDonald's, Ford, Adidas), as well as video games ( Killzone 3).  Most recently, Charles was a co-host of the daily one-hour show "Off Par" on Back9Network.  A graduate of the 2 year Meisner Conservatory at Maggie Flanigan Studio, Charles is a proud ensemble member of Barefoot Theatre Company. 
 
DANIELLA RABBANI is an actress, singer and filmmaker. She has devoted much of her young career to carrying on the legacy of the Yiddish theater. A third generation Holocaust survivor, Daniella has always been passionate about stories of the past as they relate to the present. Daniella has been praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Observer, among others, for her work Off Broadway and in concerts around the world including headlining at Jazz and Lincoln Center, Town Hall in New York City and The State Jewish Theater in Warsaw, Poland. Recently, Daniella has turned her attention to television and film. As an actress, she held roles in the 2014 Sundance Film Festival's  Appropriate Behavior , 2014 Tribeca Film Festival's  Be Here Now-ish,  PBS'  Triangle Fire  and FX's  The Americans . She produced and starred in the sketch  Couples Audition  which aired on FOX's  Laughs  in August 2014 and created the web series  Skirts & Ladders  which landed her a channel partnership with Broadway Video's Above Average. She is currently working on a short film project inspired by the inheritance of family trauma. For more information please check out  danielleabbani.com.  Barefoot Theatre Company Ensemble Member.
 
JOLI TRIBUZIO first had the privelage of working with Barefoot on the critically acclaimed stage adaption of Dog Day Afternoon.  Joli played Deborah and Angie and also served as assistant director.  Most recently Joli had the pleasure of reading opposite Frank Solorzano in Mel Nieves' one act, Between a Hot Dog and A Hard Place.  They will be performing this play at the Downtown Urban Theater Festival with Barefoot Associate Director,  Shira Lee Shalit directing!  
Joli just completed work on the comedic series Thug Passion to be released in 2015 and also enjoys work as an improvisor having completed a nine year run as Tina in the Off Broadway production of Tony N Tina's Wedding and continuing to work as an actor and teaching artist in NYC public schools with the Family Life Theatre.



FRANCISCO SOLORZANO – SELECT THEATRE: stage adaptation of DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Off-Bwy, world premiere, NYC); Horovitz's SINS OF THE MOTHER (GSC, FLORIDA STAGE) and many others.  Collaborated onstage with some of the most prolific companies including: LABYRINTH THEATER CO., RATTLESTICK, ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATER, INTAR, La MaMa, STELLA ADLER THEATER, DIXON PLACE, PUERTO RICAN TRAVELING THEATRE, 59E59, REPERTORIO ESPANOL, GSC.  SELECT FILM:  Barefoot Studio Pictures' THE GIRL WITH THE JACKET (dir. by Caitlin FitzGerald) and FLOATING SUNFLOWERS (dir. and winner of several awards w/ Anna Chlumsky, Lynn Cohen & Christopher Whalen).  Founder and Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed & award winning ensemble, BAREFOOT THEATRE CO. since 1999; Produced the 70/70 HOROVITZ PROJECT, a year-long, worldwide festival celebrating Horovitz’ 70th birthday with 70 of his play.  Actor’s Studio PDU Member.  BFA IN ACTING: CUNY'S Brooklyn College; Recipient of CUNY's Alumnus of the Year Award.  

ALEXANDRA SLATER lives in Brooklyn with her cat Hudson and is currently in her second year of training at Brooklyn College's BFA program. Her past productions have included Camino Real directed by Laura Tessman and Quake directed by Johnathon Musser. Next up, you can catch her at Brooklyn College's production of Paula Vogel's, Baltimore Waltz directed by Noel MacDuffie. She would also like to thank Michael LoPorto and Jennie West for this opportunity! 
 





 
MEL NIEVES born and raised in NYC is an actor/playwright/teaching-artist. He is a graduate of the William Esper Studios and a long time member of the award winning LAByrinth theatre company and a member of the Actor's Studio Playwright-Directors Unit. Recently collaborated with Barefoot Theatre Company both in NYC and LA with the bareNaked Reading Series.  For more info: www.melnieves.com

 




 
MICHAEL LoPORTO - member of 2014-2015 Playwright/Director's lab at The Actor's Studio, founding member of Barefoot Theatre Company, co-creator of Dialogue with Three Chords, drummer for punk band The Deacons,  and an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.  Selected directing credits:    One Night Only: A Benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS featuring Lea Delaria (The Loews Theatre, New Jersey), the off-Broadway world premiere of CJ Thom's Eightballs: A Cocaine Comedy (The Lafayette Theatre), the world premiere of six of the nine plays that make up Israel Horovitz's New Shorts (The Studio Theatre at Theatre Row Theatres), Fiddler On The Roof in 2004, South Pacific in 2005, Grease in 2007, Annie Get Your Gun in 2010, The Producers in 2011, Cabaret in 2012, Spamalot in 2013, and Hands on a Hardbody in 2014   (all at Park Playhouse in Albany, NY), the 35th anniversary production of The Indian Wants The Bronx by Israel Horovitz (Gloucester Stage Company) , a year-long narrative told in monthly installments entitled Shipyard Souls & A Compass Rose (The Den at Mister Dennehy’s), the world premiere of Next (HERE Arts Center) as well as its workshop production (The Sargent Theatre, American Theatre of Actors), a staged readings of The Rebel Sound of F*cking Around (Dixon Place),   a production of The Last Days of the Brave & the Bold (SOHO Digital Arts Gallery),   a staged reading of Mohammad’s Radio (Bleecker Street Theatre),  and  a downloadable radio play entitled The Marriage of a Stone to a Tree:  all written by Stephen Gracia.