MARK BOYETT

BRIAN DYKSTRA


SPRING, 2009


Twilight Theatre Company is the New York producer of the Kitchen Theatre Company’s production of A PLAY ON WORDS by Brian Dykstra for the “Americas Off Broadway” Festival at 59E59 Theaters.  The production receives enthusiastic reviews and plays to sold-out audiences.

A PLAY ON WORDS is a whirlwind conversation, a hysterical entanglement of language that explores the complexity of communication.

BY BRIAN DYKSTRA

DIRECTED BY MARGARETT PERRY

MAX

RUSTY


STAGE MANAGER

ASST. STAGE MANAGER

SETS

LIGHTS

COSTUMES

SOUND

KITCHEN THEATRE

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

59EAST59 THEATERS

ARTISIC DIRECTOR

BRIAN DYKSTRA

MARK BOYETT


TRISHA HENSON

ANNA KULL

KELLY SYRING

E.D. INTEMANN

HANNAH KOCHMAN

NATE RICHARDSON


RACHEL LAMPERT


ELYSABETH KLEINHANS

 

FALL, 2008


Twilight produces a workshop performance of PRELUDE TO THE FIRST DAY, Suite for Four Actors and Percussionist by Ted LoRusso in collaboration with and directed by Sturgis Warner at Teatro IATI, 64 East 4th Street.  It is a fully mounted production, yet still called a workshop.  Press is not invited and there is no opening night.  Rehearsals continue up until the 14th and final performance.  After the production work continues on the script. Twenty minutes are cut and the title is shortened to FIRST DAY, Suite for Four Actors and Percussionist.  The Kitchen Theatre Company of Ithaca, NY decides to produce it for this upcoming season.  First preview:  October 14, 2009. 


Erin Gann, Tom Dooley, Nurit Monacelli, Charles Linshaw.  “I’m walking.  I’m walking.  I’m walking.  I’m walking.”

A young man, Johnny Diamond, excited, nervous, petrified, makes a labyrinth-like journey to the first day of his very first job.  The whole play is viewed from the inside of Johnny's mind.  The four actors and percussionist, make up the singular character.  Three men and a woman articulate the inner voices, thoughts, ideas, fantasies and imagined conversations of this young man.  The percussionist is Johnny's rhythm, his unarticulated moods, emotions, his heartbeat.  It all takes place on a bare stage as Johnny and the Chorus unwittingly make their way toward adulthood and responsibility. 

2002 - 2007


A period of hibernation.  Twilight stops producing.  Fundraising ceases.  A period of zero-budget operation begins. 

Script writing, script collaboration, script development are the primary focus.

Twilight produces Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s ALL FALL AWAY in association with Immigrants’ Theatre Project and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.  During rehearsals the script goes through enormous changes.  Hearing the actors say his lines on a daily basis, Saïd becomes very smart about rewrites.  The set is tailored to the unique dimensions of the Tenement Theatre.  The stage is platformed up to within six feet of the ceiling creating headroom hazards.  The playing area is narrow and deep.  Adult actors are cast in the two children roles.  Six foot one inch Edwin Lee Gibson, playing the six-year-old mute boy, Henry, maneurvers around the stage in a rolling chair.

Mark Farnsworth

TRUCK

THEATRE

WINTER / SPRING, 2000

TRUCK THEATRE’S 1990 Mack Truck with 24-foot cargo box


No truck performances ever take place.  Trucking logistics and parking insanities overwhelm the project.  Mafia-owned parking lots are not of help.  However, the attempt is made, the “failure” embraced, the idea still dangling with some attractive elements attached...

FALL, 1999


THE SECRET MACHINE, A Play of Science, by Gordon Dahlquist

is produced at Walkerspace.


THE SECRET MACHINE is a futuristic tale of female scientists who are searching for the source of desire.  Using each other as guinea pigs, armed with cranial jacks and invasive prosthetics, propelled by cold coffee, cigarettes, sugar and no sleep, subject to bureaucracy and contempt, their work becomes a quest for survival, a narrative of discovery in the face of heartbreaking loss.


Gordon Dahlquist continues to write plays. He is also author of the acclaimed novels, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters  and

'The Dark Volume' published by Bantam.

      Nurit Monacelli, Erin Gann, Tom Dooley,

Charles Linshaw                                           

The Quartet

FALL, 1998


suits, Michael John Garcés’ fascinating play on bureaucracy, is produced at Theatre 3.  It is Twilight’s first major production.  


Michael John Garcés is an accomplisted playwright and director.  Currently he is Artistic Director of Cornerstone Theatre Company in Los Angeles.  He is also a board member and important advisor of Twilight Theatre Company.

Discrepancies usually happen when there is deviance from "Standard Procedure."  To be accountable for a discrepancy could mean dismissal.  Dismissal is feared worse than death.  Dismissal is death.  Ousted functionaries are sent down to the sub-basement (Storage and Distribution), never to be seen or heard from again.  With accountability such a dangerous position to be in, it is not surprising that no real work ever gets done at all.


suits:  an upper echelon power struggle triggers a clerical nightmare as functionaries madly maneuver to maintain the status quo.  Up or out.  Standard Procedure.  No discrepancies.

DONALD  SILVA ,  JOSÉ  FEBUS,  EDWIN  LEE  GIBSON,  STEVEN McELROY -- THE ELEVATOR

SUMMER, 1998


For Twilight’s very first show, up for air by Michael John Garcés, produced in association with HERE’s American Living Room Festival, we experiment with actor-controlled lighting.  Each actor has a “light stick,” a hand-held device with a light bulb at the end and a thumb dimmer with which to control it.  Other dimmers and pull chain switches are placed around the set.  Colored plastic pitchers and glasses act as gels for the light sticks.  The actors have total control of all onstage light.  No stage manager calling cues, no light board operator.  Light becomes another tool for actors to carry out actions and express emotions.

up for air is a fractured sitcom about the passive aggression that violently erupts when the television is disturbed in the family room.  The play is a single act, about 35 minutes long.

Brenda Cummings,  Taifa Harris,  Kaipo Schwab

David Lavine

Taifa Harris,  Kaipo Schwab

Brenda Cummings

David Lavine,  Brenda Cummings,  Taifa Harris

BY MICHAEL  JOHN  GARCÉS

DIRECTED BY  STURGIS  WARNER

Erin Gann

Charles Linshaw, Erin Gann,

Nurit Monacelli, Tom Dooley

Rebecca Wisocky, Edwin Lee Gibson

Oscar de la Fe Colón

Edwin Lee Gibson, Sarah Moore

STEVEN  McELROY

DONALD  SILVA

GEORGE  SCHIRMANN, JESSE  ONTIVEROS

MICHAEL DEEP

MICHAEL  DEEP

JOSÉ  FEBUS,  FELIX SOLIS

FELIX SOLIS

MICHAEL DEEP

GEORGE SCHIRMANN

ANGEL  DAVID,  FRANK  S.  PALMER -- 13TH FLOOR

FRANK  S.  PALMER

ANGEL  DAVID

Brenda Cummings

David Lavine

Kaipo Schwab

Taifa Harris

Rebecca Wisocky, Richard Whaley

Edwin Lee Gibson

Edwin Lee Gibson

Rebecca Wisocky

Molly Powell

Emme Shaw, Jane Young

Annie McAdams

by

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh


directed by

Sturgis Warner

Oscar de la Fe Colón, Rebecca Wisocky

Françoise

Veronika

Doctor Irene

Delphine

Tatiana


Sets

Lights

Costumes

Original Music

Mask


Stage Manager

Asst. Stage Mgr

Asst. Director

Crew


Walkerspace

Molly Powell, Jane Young

Jane Young

Molly Powell

Judy Rhodes

Annie McAdams

Emme Shaw


Sturgis Warner

Allen Hahn

Mimi O'Donnell

Sam Carter

Stephen Capone


Sara Falcone

Julie Hamilton

Veronica Newton

Ebon Etiopia Richard


46 Walker St., NYC

the secret machine     

                                                   a play of science by Gordon Dahlquist

                                                             

                                                     directed by Sturgis Warner

DONALD  SILVA

STEVEN  McELROY

EDWIN  LEE  GIBSON

JOSÉ  FEBUS

FELIX  SOLIS

GEORGE  SCHIRMANN

JESSE  ONTIVEROS

MICHAEL  DEEP

ANGEL  DAVID

FRANK  S.  PALMER

STURGIS WARNER

MIMI O'DONNELL

PHILIP D. WIDMER


SUSAN D. LANGE

RILEY JONES COHEN

ALEXANDRA LÓPEZ

RUSS EKSTROM

LOUIS MORENO


311 WEST 43RD ST.

NEW YORK CITY

up for air

by

Michael John Garcés



directed by

Sturgis Warner

Girl

Mother

Brother

Friend


Sets/Lights

Costumes

Taifa Harris Brenda Cummings

Kaipo Schwab

David Lavine


Sturgis Warner

Mimi O’Donnell

Johnny Diamond

Man 1

Woman

Man 2

Percussionist

A Voice


Sets

Lights

Costumes

Stage Manager


Producer

Asso. Producer

Costume Asst.

Electrics



Teatro IATI

Erin Gann

Charles Linshaw

Nurit Monacelli

Tom Dooley

Mark Farnsworth

Lynne Rosenberg


Sturgis Warner

Scott Bolman

Meghan E. Healey

Megan L. Dittmann


Louis D. Moreno

Kathryn Pierroz

Amanda Shafran

The Lighting

Syndicate


64 East 4th St.

New York City

The Quartet

SETS

COSTUMES

LIGHTS


STAGE MANAGER

ASST. STAGE MGR

ASST. DIRECTOR

BOX OFFICE

POSTCARD


THEATRE 3

NUNO

BENITEZ

KRSYNOWSKI

QUESBRÚJULA

SCHNITZER

CASTRAÑEDA

ECHEVERRIQUEN

GUTTLES

YAGODA

PARNOK

Henry

Samantha

Mr. Pottage

Esmeralda

Carlyle


Sets

Lights

Costumes

Stage Mgr.

Edwin Lee Gibson

Rebecca Wisocky

Richard Whaley

Sarah Moore

Oscar de la Fe Colón


Sturgis Warner

Colin D. Young

Danielle Castronova

Ryan Berg

Marcy Arlin

Artistic Director

Immigrants’ Theatre Project


Tenement Museum

97 Orchard St., NYC

Judy Rhodes

Emme Shaw, Molly Powell

Molly Powell. Jane Young

Twilight Theatre Company’s TRUCK THEATRE is created in response to several producing quandaries:  (1) the high cost of renting a theatre;  (2) the costs and challenges of getting an audience to walk through the doors of the very expensive theatre;  (3) the lack of theatre-going by most of the New York City population;  (4) the lack of opportunity for playwrights to have their work in front of the public.


Twilight purchases a 1990 Mack Cargo Box Truck for $8,200, the same amount paid for a four week theatre rental the previous fall.  Plans are drawn up to reconfigure the structure of the box so that either side can fold open, thereby creating an instant proscenium stage.  A “quiet” generator is purchased to power simple lighting and low-volume miking.


The truck is to simply pull up to a location, swing open it’s doors and start performing.  The plays:  new work by some of our most talented playwrights.  The audience:  pedestrians going about their business.  We would see who stops and watches,  and  who passes us by.  We would find out very  quickly  what  works

and what does not.  No schedules, no listings, no audience development, no administration.  Just concentration on the work and its presentation to a most impartial audience.


Initially, a series of short original plays, twenty minutes or less, is planned.  In time, some longer pieces.  Musical theatre, too.  Also on the agenda is a series of readings and open rehearsals.  The bill of fare could change daily.  Many playwrights would be served.  New plays would continually be tried out and worked on.  Flexibility would be key:  the ability to react quickly and spontaneously to the needs of the work, to the participants, and to the audiences.  The plan:  to dive in and see where it all takes us.

SPRING, 2001

ALL FALL AWAY went on to be produced by Theatre 503 in London.  Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s memoir WHEN SKATEBOARDS WILL BE FREE was recently published by Random House to high acclaim.



Giant cockroaches with ulterior motives.  An exterminator who converses with them.  A single mother who woos the exterminator with a rare glass of milk.  A mysterious nine-year-old  girl who needs a cup of honey.  A six-year-old boy with amazing sleight of hand.  A tenement in New York City with no exit...

suits takes place inside an unnamed bureaucratic institution/company where rules and procedures hover like watchdogs over all human activity.  Paper trails follow every movement, decision and transaction.  For the individuals within the system, survival is key.  It is what they spend most of their time doing -- guarding their turf, maintaining status quo, avoiding accountability.  The worst thing that can happen is to be caught in a discrepancy -- when forms and paperwork are not in alignment with reality.