Theatre Is Easy BEST BET: "These creatures feel deep love, quaking fear, and fiery rage as they struggle to survive. Stallings’ verse -- fluid, poetic, and so musical characters often do break into song -- gives Gulf sea life a magical quality, while the specter of death and disaster grounds the show in encroaching terror... Director Heather Cohn is up to the challenges presented by Dark Water. She stages incredibly emotional scenes with sensitivity and respect. She approaches the material with Shakespearean seriousness."
-Amanda LaPergola, Theatre Is Easy
"Dark Water is a breathtaking work, a rich and powerful allegory that is both exceptionally literate and a searing cautionary tale and call to arms of the sort that seldom finds its way onto a stage. It deserves to be widely seen and talked about and acted upon."
-Howard Miller, Talkin' Broadway
"Stallings’ choices are stylistically daring and unusually effecting. By the end we realize we are watching in these characters’ struggles for survival something akin to a Greek tragedy and all the more so because they are innocent creatures and have had no hand in what we have done."
-Carole Di Tosti, Blog Critics
"In this premiere production, director Heather Cohn and designers Will Lowry (set), David Withrow (costumes), Daniel Gallagher (lighting), and Janie Bullard (sound) have collaborated to create a stark, impressionistic undersea world that engages our imaginations."
-Martin Denton, New York Theater Now
MANHATTAN THEATRE WORKS (MTWorks)
in association with the Theater Series at the 14th Street Y
presents the world premiere of
David Stallings’
DARK WATER
Directed by
Heather Cohn
in association with the Theater Series at the 14th Street Y
presents the world premiere of
David Stallings’
DARK WATER
Directed by
Heather Cohn
|
DARK WATER will play a limited three week engagement at The Theater at the 14th Street Y (344 East 14th Street (at 1st Avenue)). Performances begin Friday, March 14 and continue through Saturday, March 29. Opening Night is Monday, March 17 at 7 p.m.
The swampland of Louisiana is hit with the most massive oil spill known to history. Barnacle, an old sea turtle, fights against man’s destruction, nature’s wrath, and her enemies of the wild to save her children trapped in the spill. Poetry, allegory, music, puppetry and movement create this magical world as the animals of Louisiana face the ultimate threat to their lives. The effects of the Gulf oil spill among other spills continue to jeopardize our oceans. DARK WATER humanizes the animals affected by the spill giving a voice to the true defenseless victims. The play also deals with other poignant issues such as immigration, religion and politics. The production stars Susan G. Bob*+, Lily Drexler, Emily Hartford, Erica Lauren McLaughlin, Dianna Martin+, Antonio Minino+, Stephen Conrad Moore*, Kathleen O’Neill*+ , Chester Poon+ and Brian Silliman*. *Appearing Courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association. Equity Approved Showcase. +MTWorks Company Member. |
FINAL WEEK:
Thursday, March 27th at 8pm
Friday, March 28th at 8pm
Saturday, March 29th at 8pm
Opening Night performance followed by short reception.
Advance tickets are $18 ($15 Students/$12 Seniors) and are available online or by calling 866-811-4111. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater ½ hour prior to performance.
Running Time: Two hours. One intermission.
The Theater at the 14th Street Y is located on 344 East 14th Street (at 1st Avenue)
By Subway: L to 1st Avenue
By Bus: M14 or M15 to 14th and 1st
Scenic design: Will Lowry
Costume design: David Withrow
Lighting design: Daniel Gallagher
Sound design: Janie Bullard
Puppetry: Emily Hartford
Choreography: Stephanie Willing
Projection Designer: Hana Sooyeon Kim
Production Stage Manager: Audrey Marshall
Technical Director: Saundra Yaklin, Bad Sandy Productions
PR: Katie Rosin, Kampfire PR
Associate Producer: Robin Madel
Production Assistant: Rachel Denise April
Costume Assistant: Kelli Kardell
Thursday, March 27th at 8pm
Friday, March 28th at 8pm
Saturday, March 29th at 8pm
Opening Night performance followed by short reception.
Advance tickets are $18 ($15 Students/$12 Seniors) and are available online or by calling 866-811-4111. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater ½ hour prior to performance.
Running Time: Two hours. One intermission.
The Theater at the 14th Street Y is located on 344 East 14th Street (at 1st Avenue)
By Subway: L to 1st Avenue
By Bus: M14 or M15 to 14th and 1st
Scenic design: Will Lowry
Costume design: David Withrow
Lighting design: Daniel Gallagher
Sound design: Janie Bullard
Puppetry: Emily Hartford
Choreography: Stephanie Willing
Projection Designer: Hana Sooyeon Kim
Production Stage Manager: Audrey Marshall
Technical Director: Saundra Yaklin, Bad Sandy Productions
PR: Katie Rosin, Kampfire PR
Associate Producer: Robin Madel
Production Assistant: Rachel Denise April
Costume Assistant: Kelli Kardell
“My newest play, DARK WATER, is inspired from the many emotions that raged through me after the 2010 oil spill. I set this play about the Louisiana oil spill mostly underwater and had the primary characters be the animals, because I feel that in many ways, these are the true victims. The other victim of course is our environment, which we as a human race abuse without remorse. The earth does not belong to humans alone, we share her resources with other living beings.”
“There is a lot of allegory in DARK WATER. The animals, in dealing with the tragedy begin to act as humans do: dividing land amongst themselves, drawing lines where other animals cannot pass, exhibiting forms of racism and abusing religion to promote self-power. One animal in particular, a seagull named Gullet, kills more than he can eat in order to hoard food for himself. He has learned this from watching the humans. On the other hand, Daedalus the dolphin, does not blame humans and is in fact in love with a rescuer whom he wishes could help more with the spill. There are love stories in the play as well, like that of turtles Weed & Foam and frogs Lily & Pad. Like every good story there is love and there is hope. But the true heart of the play is Barnacle the turtle, who is seeking shelter for her children. We follow her through the depths of the gulf as she is aided and misguided by other animals.”
David Stallings
“There is a lot of allegory in DARK WATER. The animals, in dealing with the tragedy begin to act as humans do: dividing land amongst themselves, drawing lines where other animals cannot pass, exhibiting forms of racism and abusing religion to promote self-power. One animal in particular, a seagull named Gullet, kills more than he can eat in order to hoard food for himself. He has learned this from watching the humans. On the other hand, Daedalus the dolphin, does not blame humans and is in fact in love with a rescuer whom he wishes could help more with the spill. There are love stories in the play as well, like that of turtles Weed & Foam and frogs Lily & Pad. Like every good story there is love and there is hope. But the true heart of the play is Barnacle the turtle, who is seeking shelter for her children. We follow her through the depths of the gulf as she is aided and misguided by other animals.”
David Stallings
BIOGRAPHIES
HEATHER COHN (Director) is a co-founder of Flux Theatre Ensemble and serves as the Producing Director. Directing credits for Flux include Johnna Adams’ Sans Merci, August Schulenburg’s DEINDE, Erin Browne's Menders; August Schulenburg’s The Lesser Seductions of History (nominated for Outstanding Direction, New York Innovative Theatre Awards) and Other Bodies (FringeNYC Excellence Award for Outstanding Direction); and numerous staged readings. Outside of Flux: David Stallings’ The Stranger to Kindness (Outstanding Overall Production of a One-Act, Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Awards, also nominated for Outstanding Direction Award); Daniel Guyton's Rosie The Retired Rockette (EstroGenius Festival); Aliza Einhorns’s Blood (EstroGenius Festival); Wayne Paul Mattingly’s The Ballad of Lulu and Dad (Artistic New Directions); and numerous staged readings for companies such as: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Lark Play Development Center, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Brick, On the Square Productions, MTWorks, Resonance Ensemble, Jewish Play Project, The Platform Group; Crossroads Theatre Project, and CAPS LOCKS THEATRE. Member - Women’s Project Producers’ LAB (2008-2010). She is a graduate of Vassar College.
LILY DREXLER (Starfish/Tears) is thrilled and humbled to be in such stellar company telling the beautiful story of Dark Water! New York credits include The Empress of Sex (Bleecker Street Theater), American Nightcap (INTAR), Love's Labors Lost (Easy Leap), Rags (Connelly Theater), Baby Ivy (Radio COTE), Honestly Abe (Actors Temple Theater), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare Shakedown). Regional credits include Coriolanus (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), The Power of One (Soren Bennick Productions), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Sonnet Sonata (Shakespeare in the Valley), and Iphigenia at Aulis (Bathwater Productions). Film credits include The Secret Village, The Dictator, Recursion, Black Belt Theatre, Living in Filth. She will be seen this summer playing Florinda in Into the Woods at San Francisco Playhouse. NYU/Tisch/CAP 21. www.lilydrexler.com
EMILY HARTFORD (Sea Urchin/Blue/Lily/Puppet Designer) is a co-founder and Director of Development of Rabbit Hole Ensemble. She is an actor, a puppeteer, puppet designer, producer, grant writer, and aspiring circus performer. Off Broadway: The Contrast (Mirror Repertory Company). Recent indie theatre: As We Like It (Messenger Theatre Company), The Alfred Hitchcock Festival (Radiotheatre), Genesis (Circus Warehouse), Blood Brothers Present: Raw Feed (Nosedive), Leakey's Ladies (Drama of Works). With Rabbit Hole Ensemble: The Tale of Frankenstein's Daughter, Candide Americana, Big Thick Rod, Shadow of Himself, The Night of Nosferatu (NY Innovative Theatre Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble). www.emilyhartford.com; www.rabbitholeensemble.com
WILL LOWRY (Set Design) is a multidisciplinary designer with an MFA from UNC Greensboro. He has designed over seventy shows, with select work including scenery for The Pillowman (Lehigh University), Noises Off (Lafayette College),Ajax in Iraq (Flux Theater Ensemble), Sleepy Hollow (Birmingham Children's Theatre), and Madeline's Christmas(California Theater Center); lighting for The Penelopiad (Lafayette College), Around the World in 80 Days(Playhouse on Park), The Foreigner (Mill Mountain), The Woman in Black (California Theater Center), and South Pacific (Waterside Theater); and costumes for Le Grand Cirque: Adrenaline (Sydney Opera House), Sans Merci(Flux Theatre Ensemble), Spitfire Grill (Mill Mountain), and Peter Pan (Birmingham Children's Theatre). He currently serves as a creative partner for Flux Theatre Ensemble in NYC and as an adjunct professor for Lafayette College, teaching theatrical design. www.will-lowry.com
DIANNA MARTIN (Barnacle) Diánna is an actress, director, writer and acting teacher
who has worked extensively in NYC. Raised in an entertainment household, she
has performed, directed, shot and produced theatre, film, radio and television
over the last 20 years both in NYC and St. Louis. Choice theatre credits
include: Before the Next Blue Norther (Violet),
June Havoc Theatre, dir. Ernie Martin; Hello
Out There (Girl), Theatre Row, dir. Alex Dinelaris, 24/7, dir. Christine Fuchs - Oberon
Theatre Ensemble; The Oath (Deck),
dir. Cristina Alicea,The Family
Shakespeare (Mrs. Tinsley) - MTWorks; Coyote On a Fence (Shawna); The Trial of God (Maria); The Dutchman (Lula); Marius(Honorine),
Storm Theatre Company, dir. Peter Dobbins. Diánna is a proud member of MTWorks,
Oberon Theatre Ensemble, The Workshop Theater Company, and The In-Pulse Group.
Acting instructor for Martin Acting Studios and Hunter College. Special
Events staff member: The Innovative Theatre Foundation.www.DiannaMartin.com
ERICA LAUREN MCLAUGHLIN (Foam) is a NYC based actress, award-winning playwright and arts management consultant originally from Washington DC. Recent roles include: (Regional) Minna Boyd in A Young Lady of Property at Rep Stage; Saint Monica in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and 2010 New York Innovative Theater Award winner for Outstanding Production Balm in Gilead, both at T. Schreiber Studio. She is also the lead of the multiple award-winning film Cold April, a short drama about the genocide in Rwanda. Other credits: Ensemble, Seven Against Thebes, Faux Real Theatre Company; Carrie Murphy, Amerissiah, Amoralist Theater Company; Pattie Mae Wells, Home, Serenity Players DC; Iberin, Roundheads and Peakheads, Catalyst Theater Company; (Regional) Worm, The Oracle, African Continuum Theater; and many more. Currently Chief Operating Officer at Tranquil Water NY Inc., she has also consulted numerous individual artists & celebrities, guest lectured at universities and held multiple seminars on the business of theater. For more information, including photos, news and reviews, visit www.ericamclaughlin.com
ANTONIO MININO (Daedalus) is an award-winning artist and publicist. Antonio is a native of the Dominican Republic where he studied theatre at the School of Dramatic Arts, co-hosted/produced and directed for the award-winning television show FashionTV, was a contributing writer for M.S. Magazine, an art director for various fashion campaigns, and a director/performer for various national productions. Favorite NYC acting credits include: Adrift, Andy@62, Confessions of a Cuban Sex Addict, Triptych and All About Meat at the Duo Multicultural Arts Center; Limelight (Access Theater), The Other Day (Wild Project), Parts of Parts & Stitches (Theatre at the 14th St Y), The Stranger to Kindness (Robert Moss Theater; Winner Congeniality Award, Nominated Best Actor), The Empress of Sex (Audience Favorite National NewBorn Festival), Arpeggio (45th St Theatre), Intermission (HERE), Trojan Women (MHS), Elevation (Payan Theatre), OOPS! (Manhattan Theatre Source), 4 Variations of Mee (Manhattan Children's Theatre), Ilka's Dream (Payan Theatre). Favorite directing credits include Scene/Unseen (Nominated Best Director PCTF Awards), The Family Shakespeare, The Shadow Project, Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Rafael Morla's Joan. As a singer he has performed at The Town Hall of NY, Symphony Space NY, The Time Out Lounge, The Triad NYC and The Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He is the owner of Fab Marquee Productions; a founding member, company actor and Co-Artistic Director at Manhattan Theatre Works. He is a member of the League of Independent Theater. His photography has been featured in the NY Times, the NY Post, Backstage, Show Business Weekly, among others. Currently he studies voice with Susan Baum and continues his performance studies at The Juilliard School. He works as a publicist at Kampfire PR, one of New York's premiere Marketing & Public Relations agencies specializing in the Performing Arts. www.AntonioMinino.com
STEPHEN CONRAD MOORE (Charmer/Pad) is a native of Kansas City, MO, a Yale School of Drama graduate and currently a denizen of Harlem, NYC. In 2013, he appeared in the World Premier of Ni**er/Fa**ot (HERE Arts Center), In The Cypher (Wow Cafe) and Visionaries, a piece he co-created with Yvonne Coneybear, celebrating the life of LES resident and former Black Panther, Shirley Campbell (The Metropolitan Playhouse). Fall 2012, Mr. Moore made his Lincoln Center debut as a Special Guest Solo Performer at Conde Nast's Visionaries Awards (not connected to aforementioned piece of same title). He has also been an originating member of two New York theatre companies: Bone Orchard Theatre Company and LDTG (Lelund Durond Theatre Group), where some of his other original works have been produced. While working on his M.F.A. at Yale, he was fortunate enough to have worked on the original production of August Wilson's last play, Radio Golf. His most exciting role so far, has been as a laundromat singer on Sesame Street! Other New York Theatre: Lincoln Center, Flux Theatre, Access Theatre, Red Fern Theatre, The Civilians, Classical Theatre of Harlem, WOW Cafe, Working Man's Clothes, The Playwright’s Theatre, The Lark Theatre, Columbia Stages. Regional: Philadelphia Theatre Company, Shakespeare Theatre in D.C., Kansas City Rep, Arizona Theatre Company, Virginia Stage Company, O'Neill Theatre Center, Yale Repertory Theatre, Hope Repertory Theatre, The Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts. Hong Kong: The Lion King (The Festival of). Film: Margaret (dir. Kenneth Lonergan), Wedding Daze (dir. Michael Ian Black), The Painting and Yield. Mr. Moore is a also a proud member of Actors Equity and Screen Actor's Guild/AFTRA.
KATHLEEN O’NEILL (Blue Heron) has been working as an actor, director, writer and producer in New York, Boston and Miami. Her most recent NYC TV credit is for Law and Order: SVU and the theatre credits include creating the roles of The Older in Planet Connections premiere of Neil LaBute’s play Over the River and Through the Woods and the role of Su in A Collapse by Vincent Moreno. Other favorite credits include Lyubov in Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekov, Clytemnestra in The Greeks (an adaptation of the Classics), Jessica Lyons in Cat’s Paw and Olympia in The Conduct of Life (for which she won The Hispanic Festival’s Best Supporting Actor award). She is a proud member of the Estrogenius Festival of Manhattan Theatre Source, MTWorks, SAG-AFTRA and AEA. Kathleen started her own production company, BOO-Arts Productions, in 2007. Please check out her websites at www.kathleenaoneill.com and also www.boo-arts.com
CHESTER POON (Weed) is a recent graduate of The Studio/New York 2-year conservatory. Recent credits include Adam Szymkowicz's Hearts Like Fists (Flux Theater Ensemble), Thomas Bradshaw's Job (The Flea), Charles Busch's Psycho Beach Party (The Workshop Theatre), Arthur Miller's The Crucible (The New Ohio Theater), and Claire Tran's Doi Moi (PRTT)
DAVID STALLINGS (Playwright) migrated from the South (Georgia, Texas and New Mexico) to NYC over ten years ago and has been working consistently as a playwright and actor both in the city and regionally. The author of 15 full- length plays and numerous shorts, David's plays have reached audiences across the US. Most recently, Barrier Island, his play about the 2008 Hurricane Ike that hit his hometown of Galveston, TX, received its regional debut at Acadiana Repertory Theatre in Lafayette Louisiana. As a writer, David is influenced by his Southern roots and contemporary politics. For example, his play, The Re-Education of Arizona, deals explicitly with the effect of Arizona's brutal profiling policies and their immediate influence on the local Hispanic communities. As well as bringing an informed Southern voice to theater, David also focuses on female protagonists and relationships within family dynamics--with a dash of poetry and magical realism for good measure. He has worked with several theater companies including The Culture Project, Intravenous Theatre, Prospect Theater Company, Boo-Arts and Oberon Theater Company as well as having had readings of his work across the country from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Boston, Massachusetts. In 2006, he co-founded Maieutic Theatre Works (now Manhattan Theatre Works) with his play, Folie a Deux: Insanity in Pairs as their inaugural production. Brandon Voss of HX Magazine called the play, “Riveting” and named Stallings as the “playwright and actor to watch”. Other plays include Anaϊs Nin Goes to Hell (1st Prize Winner Boston Theatre Works Unbound Festival 2007, Winner of the Arthur W. Stone New Play Award Louisiana Tech University 2009, Semi Finalist for the Princess Grace Award 2008), Arpeggio (produced Fall ‘07 at the 45th Street Theater, NYC), The Stranger to Kindness (Winner of Planet Connections Playwriting Award Short Form and Best Production of a One Act Play for the 2011 production at The Robert Moss Theater), and The Family Shakespeare (produced Spring 2011 at the June Havoc Theater, NYC). On MTWorks’ 2008 NYC Fringe production of Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell, the Village Voice said, “Thank the gods for David Stallings’ Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell... a uniquely polished presence at the Fringe”, and The New York Press said, “For a play about women but written by a man, it captured the greater female psyche.” David has a BFA in Theater from the College of Santa Fe, NM.