"Chaos is come again"

Last weekend, I saw Atlas Shakespeare Company's production of Othello, starring William Oliver Watkins in the title role.

Watkins was one of the actors I worked with when developing my adaptation of Moby-Dick, and he does a wonderful job as Othello, an authority figure who inspires awe in all who meet him.

His undoing, of course, is Iago, played by Clayton Hamburg. He and Watkins had great chemistry in Atlas's previous production of William Shakespeare's Henry VI plays. As Warwick and the Duke of York respectively, they made a great team. In Othello, we get to see their team disastrously torn asunder by Iago's lies.

Desdemona is played by Charlotte Blacklock, who grew tremendously in the role of Margaret throughout Atlas's productions of the Henry VI plays and Richard III. One of Desdemona's foils is Emilia, who pushes back against her husband even as Desdemona endures shame and abuse from the man she loves. Leah Schwartz, who played Joan of Arc in the first part of Henry VI, sparkles as Emilia.

The rest of the cast is game as well, and Adriana Alter's direction is fresh and original, especially in the final act. The murder scene is shocking, and the final moments get the audience to question if the cycle of violence will ever end.

Othello is playing through June 28th, so make sure to see it while you still can.

Top Shows of 2025

Anyone who remembers the New York theatre scene from before the dreaded covid shutdown knows that this city has yet to fully recover. Theatre today is simply less ambitious, less imaginative, and less interesting than it was before 2020.

Still, there are some exceptions. Last year, there were a few remarkable shows that made my annual top-ten list, including Broadway's re-imagining of The Great Gatsby and a new production of the Giuseppi Verdi classic La Forza del Destino at the Metropolitan Opera.

This year, I have a new list of the best shows I saw in New York City that opened since January 1st. That doesn't include some of the excellent productions I saw outside of New York, including Sunday in the Park with George in Pittsburgh or Dear Liar in Niagara-on-the-Lake, not to mention my own workshop of After an Earlier Incident at Theatre of Western Springs.

10. Nongod - This trio of one-act plays by Leon Lone was a pleasant surprise. Seeing ancient deities from Egypt, Russia, and Mexico come to life on stage turned out to be both funny and emotionally engaging.

9. The Wild Duck - Ibsen classics other than A Doll House or Hedda Gabler are few and far between in the U.S., so I was delighted that Theatre for a New Audience announced they would reviving The Wild Duck. Maaike Laanstra-Corn gave a striking portrayal of Hedwig.

8. The Lady From the Sea - What was I saying about Ibsen classics? Even better was Susane Lee's adaptation of The Lady From the Sea, performed appropriately right on the Hudson River. Lee reset the play in Canada, but kept its spirit, and the outdoor venue was delightful.

7. Pygmalion - Gingold Theatrical Group always does a good job with their shows, and this year's production of Bernard Shaw's most famous comedy was no exception. Synnøve Karlsen, now famous as young Cassie from television's Miss Austen, made her New York debut as the irrepressible Eliza Doolittle.

6. Kowalski - Gregg Ostrin's play about an imagined meeting between Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando was a hit Off-Broadway at The Duke on 42nd Street. There have been plans to move it to Broadway. If that happens, you'll want to see it. In addition to probing into the creation of the American classic A Streetcar Named Desire, it's a great vehicle for two fine actors.

5. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - While it's true that the second act wasn't as good as the first, this new opera based on the Michael Chabon novel of the same name still wowed audiences, in part due to sets and projections by 59 Studio. Fortunately, it's coming back this spring, so if you missed it in the fall, you can still catch it at the Met beginning February 17.

4. Wine in the Wilderness - Classic Stage Company had been planning this revival of the classic Alice Childress drama for quite some time. With direction by LaChanze, it hit all the right notes. The set designed by Arnulfo Maldonado wrapped the audience around the action, making the riot outside feel shockingly close, and Grantham Coleman once again gave an amazing performance.

3. The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse - Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley's new musical perfectly channels pop music from earlier in the century while telling a story of the Internet stardom (and helldom) of today. The New Group deserves kudos for bringing it to Off-Broadway audiences, and for featuring some incredibly gifted young performers, including Patrick Nathan Falk, Keri René Fuller, Luke Islam, and Milly Shapiro.

2. Dead Outlaw - An even better new musical that premiered this year on Broadway (transferring from an Off-Broadway run last year) was Dead Outlaw, which tells the fascinating real-life story of Elmer McCurdy, who literally couldn't pull off a crime to save his life. Itamar Moses, David Yazbek, and Erik Della Penna were able to hilariously tell the tale while at the same time evoking scenes of sheer pathos. Like Yazbek's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, this show deserves a long afterlife with regional and community theatres.

1. Moby-Dick - The best show I saw this year, though, has to be Jake Heggie's opera Moby-Dick, which made its Met premiere earlier this year. Though the piece first premiered at the Dallas Opera 15 years ago, this was the first time New York audiences were able to see and hear it live. Having written my own stage adaptation of the Herman Melville novel, I have lots of opinions on how to best stage the story, but the union of sets and projections seemed flawless in this staging, and the music is some of Heggie's best. The tenor Brandon Jovanovich also made a profound Captain Ahab.

That's the list. I know! Two operas and only a single work from the Broadway stage, and that one which premiered Off-Broadway first. The dynamics of New York theatre are certainly changing.

Where the Cross is Made

Whaling voyages can make certain men a little obsessed. That's what we learn in Moby-Dick, anyway, a novel I myself have adapted for the stage.

The obsessions of whaling captains also show up in the early plays of Eugene O'Neill. For instance, in O'Neill's play Ile (a New England Yankee pronunciation of "oil") a captain becomes so preoccupied with going after more whale oil that he drives his wife mad.

However, Captain Isaiah Bartlett in O'Neill's Where the Cross is Made has a different obsession. He was on a whaling voyage when he was shipwrecked in the Indian Ocean. There, he and a handful of survivors found a treasure, buried it, and created a map marking the location with a cross.

Bartlett not only obsesses over the treasure, but after the other survivors are killed trying to get it, he passes his obsession on to his son Nat, though his daughter Sue is immune to the madness. O'Neill implies that the treasure exists, but is fake. A bracelet Bartlett returned with turns out to be made of brass with paste jewels rather than real ones. The play makes Bartlett's dream of fortune manifest onstage, though, by having actors playing the drowned crew members cross the stage like ghosts.

Where the Cross is Made premiered in 1918 by the Provincetown Players. Ida Rauh, who directed the production as well as playing Sue, apparently had difficulty staging the ghostly effect that really makes the play stand out as something special. "You'll have to do something about the ghosts, Gene," she reportedly said. "The boys never can look like ghosts, you know it. The audience will simply laugh at them." O'Neill stuck to his vision, and the ghosts stayed.

O'Neill later turned the one-act play into a full-length work called Gold. It opened on Broadway in 1921, but closed after only 13 performances.

Moby-Dick, the Opera

As an opera fan who wrote his own stage adaptation of Moby-Dick, I definitely had to see the Met's premiere of Jake Heggie's musicalized version of the novel.

The libretto by Gene Scheer makes some interesting choices, including having Queequeg open the show. The novel's narrator (who asks us to call him Ishmael) is considerably downplayed, and is referred to as "Greenhorn" rather than by a name.

When I wrote my adaptation, I cut the character of Pip. It's a long book, and something had to go, so as a practical matter, getting rid of the cabin boy meant I didn't have to worry about cringe-worthy moments where adults badly try to perform as children.

The opera uses another solution, that employed by Orson Wells in his stage adaptation Moby-Dick Rehearsed, which is to have an adult female perform Pip's role. Soprano Janai Brugger sings the role of Pip with a voice that soars above the voices of all the men on the ship.

Scheer's libretto focuses, however, on Captain Ahab, portrayed by tenor Brandon Jovanovich. His challenge to the forces of the universe rings out (fittingly) with an operatic intensity. The climactic confrontation between him and the whale is staged assuming that we all know the story, but is powerful, nonetheless.

In many ways, however, the star of the show is not Jovanovich but the design. Never have I seen set and digital projections work together so well as in this production. Performers literally climb the walls, and the projections turn the environment into boats, masts, ocean waves, or whatever else is needed.

The opera is playing this month only, closing on March 29th, so get your tickets while you can! This is a ship you won't want to miss.

Everything's Happenin' in Jersey

It's been a week. This Wednesday was the reading of my play The Love Songs of Brooklynites at Vivid Stage in Summit, New Jersey, and I'm happy to report that it went extremely well.

Laura Ekstrand directed the reading, which featured Christopher Young as Chuck and Emaline Williams as Abbie. Both of the actors were very funny in their roles. We had a talkback afterward, and I have lots of ideas for rewrites.

Unfortunately, while I was getting ready to take the train out to Summit, I found out that my good friend Herb Moskovitz had been put on a ventilator and wasn't expected to make it. I had heard that he was in the hospital, but didn't realize things were quite so bad.

Herb lived in Philadelphia, but used to come to New York all the time, where we would frequently see theatre together. I remember going to Irish Rep with him to see a production of Around the World in 80 Days, and going with him to the Off-Broadway production Irena's Vow, as well as to see numerous plays based on the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe, one of Herb's favorite writers.

Initially, I met Herb through the Dickens Fellowship, so I will always associate him with Charles Dickens, but he loved quite a number of writers. In 2019, I drove down with a friend of mine from New Jersey to attend a marathon reading of Moby-Dick in Philadelphia, but Herb couldn't attend, as he was scheduled to give a talk to the P.G. Wodehouse Society. He always managed to keep busy.

Yesterday, I had plans to see another friend, Cindy Ryan, appear in a production of Mr. Burns by the Studio Players in Montclair, New Jersey. Cindy also knew Herb through the Dickens Fellowship. A number of years ago, the Friends of Dickens New York held a mock trial of John Jasper to see if he really was the murderer in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Cindy's husband Jeff played the defendant, and I presided as judge. We called Herb as witness, and he appeared as the character of Durdles.

Here's a photo of the cast. The tall man in the back is Herb. (He generally towered over everybody.) I'm writing in the past tense, because I received word Friday morning that Herb had passed. I still went to the show that night. (Herb probably would have wanted it that way.) I didn't get a chance to say hello to Cindy afterward, but I did run into Jeff and their daughter Sylvia (the little girl in this photo, who is now a teenager).

Well, Herb will be dearly missed. He was a great actor, a great scenic designer, and a great man.

Act III

I first moved into New York City in 2002. I had a great apartment in Hell's Kitchen. It was there that I wrote Foggy Bottom, which later premiered at the Abingdon Theatre Company, as well as my adaptation of A Christmas Carol done in Saratoga Springs.

Later, when I got married, my beloved didn't want to move into my beautiful Hell's Kitchen apartment. She needed luxury amenities, such as hot AND cold running water. (I always had at least one or the other.) That meant I had to move into her apartment in Harlem at the end of 2012.

Well, during that second act in New York City I wrote Meucci's Message, which premiered on Staten Island. I was also fortunate enough to have my adaptation of Moby-Dick done on Cape Cod and for Detroit Rep to produce my original play Capital. As the years went on, our friends who lived in Harlem moved away and it became time for a new change.

So now I'm beginning Act Three in New York, this time in a co-op apartment in the Bronx. While I can't tell what the future will hold, theatre does seem to be coming back as the pandemic recedes. My play Kew Gardens couldn't be performed live earlier this year, but you can watch it on YouTube.

Kew Gardens begins about an hour and 12 minutes into the video, but it's well worth watching to see Sienna Thorgusen play Kitty. Enjoy!

Remembering Doug Rossi

New York City has lost one of the best friends to new play development the theatre had. After a difficult battle with cancer, actor Doug Rossi has passed away in his childhood home in Cleveland, Ohio.

I got to know Doug working on new plays at the Abingdon Theatre Company, but he actually trained as a classical actor, getting his MFA in acting working with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Over the years, he played the title role in Hamlet, Caliban in The Tempest, Orlando in As You Like It, Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, Orsino in Twelfth Night, Antonio in Much Ado About Nothing, and a host of other Shakespearean roles.

As an actor, Doug was always game for anything, which is what made him such an important figure in the development of new work. The number of new plays he worked on, in readings, workshops, and world premiere productions, helping authors to hone characters and originating new roles, is too numerous to name. Just a few of the plays Doug helped bring to light include Aliens with Extraordinary Skills by Saviana Stanescu, Carlett's Just Carlett by Kat Mustatea, Nell Dash by Doug DeVita, A Brandy Before Dying by Jim Farmer, and Evensong by Christina Quintana.

I had the pleasure of working with Doug in numerous incarnations of I Hate You! A Love Story, in which he acted in a two-hander opposite Sandra Maren Schneider. He also played numerous characters in the early readings of my adaptation of Moby-Dick. He played Tom in THE STATE OF COLORADO v. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, my send up of The Glass Menagerie, which was fitting, since he had also played that role back in Ohio, winning a Best Actor Chanticleer Award for his performance. More recently, he appeared in a reading of Burns Night at Urban Stages, hilariously appearing on stage in a kilt.

For years, Doug came to monthly meetings of playwrights, first at the Abingdon, and then later with the 36th Street Writers Block. He volunteered his time doing cold reads of new work, and always gave valuable feedback. He took part in the very first table read that Joshua H. Cohen and I did of our musical Burned, and he was a familiar face to anyone who regularly attended readings of new plays. He also gave generously of his time to writers trying to produce their work at small festivals, including the Midtown International Theatre Festival, the Samuel French One-Act Festival, and the NYC Fringe. In 2011, he was named Best Featured Actor for his role in Duncan Pflaster's Sweeter Dreams at Planet Connections.

Doug also appeared on screen, most memorably with Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Deuce on HBO. It is for his stage work that I remember him, though, and as the loving husband of fellow actor Dianne Diep. It seems almost unbelievable that he isn't with us anymore. New York theatre has lost one of its most giving, hardest working, most insightful, brightest stars.

Moby Marathon

This year marks the bicentennial of the birth of author Herman Melville. Though he was actually born in August, November was the beginning of the narrator's journey in Moby-Dick, so it is this weekend that the Rosenbach Library and the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia will be sponsoring a marathon reading of the novel. And I'll be there.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Thus begins the unnamed narrator who asks us to call him Ishmael. I won't be reading those lines, but I am slated to read Chapter 10, "A Bosom Friend," about Ishmael and his shipmate Queequeg.

I wrote my own stage adaptation of Moby-Dick which premiered at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater on Cape Cod. This weekend, though, it will be a treat to experience the full text of the novel as part of a 25-hour marathon.

The reading will commence at 2:00 pm on Saturday, November 9th inside the Independence Seaport Museum. We'll be on the deck of the Schooner Diligence, which is a full-scale replica of a historic ship and is located inside the main exhibition hall. Organizers estimate the reading will end at approximately 3:15 pm on Sunday, November 10th.

I'll actually be sneaking out for part of the marathon on Sunday to catch my friend Herb Moskovitz give a talk at the Philadelphia Branch of the Wodehouse Society about the stage and screen adaptations of A Damsel in Distress, a novel that is admittedly lighter fare than Moby-Dick, but did inspire a musical with songs by George and Ira Gershwin.

Anyway, the Moby-Dick marathon is free and open to the public, so stop by the Independence Seaport Museum sometime this weekend if you happen to be in Philadelphia. It should be a voyage to remember.

Happy Birthday, Herman Melville!

Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick, was born 198 years ago today.

I have a special attachment to Melville, since I adapted Moby-Dick for the stage. My play was developed through the Cimientos playwrights program at IATI Theater and later had a reader's theatre presentation at the Abingdon Theatre Company. Its world premiere was in 2015 at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.

Below is a picture of Lee Seymour as Ishmael and Wesley Volcy as Queequeg in the production at WHAT. The photo is by Micheal and Suz Karchmer.

I Hate You: A Love Story

Today's announcement has been in the works for a long time, but I am pleased to say that my play I Hate You: A Love Story will have its first staged reading at 7:00 on Sunday, January 15th.

The reading will be free and open to the public. It will be held at IATI Theater 64 E. 4th Street. Dev Bondarin will be directing, and the cast will include Doug Rossi and Sandra Maren Schneider.

Though the reading is not affiliated with IATI, I am happy to be using their space. I was previously a part of the theater's play development group Cimientos, and they produced the first reading of my adaptation of Moby-Dick.

Dev, as it so happens, directed that reading, which featured Doug. Sandra and I have worked together before as well, including on THE STATE OF COLORADO v. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS. That play went on to be published in Canyon Voices.

I Hate You: A Love Story follows the tumultuous relationship of two people who meet in New York and quickly discover that they either are soul mates, or want to kill each other. Or quite possibly both. The opening scene of the play was originally produced under the title The Rainbow and is published in The Best American Short Plays 2012-2013.

Please come if you can!

In the Room When It Happened

When I found out that Lin-Manuel Miranda was writing a musical about Alexander Hamilton, I knew I had to see it. Fortunately, it was going to be at The Public Theater, so I clearly would be able to get rush tickets.

Well, I got that one wrong. Instead of rush tickets, the Public had to establish a lottery for the cheap tickets. That was okay, though. I could play the lottery. And I did. A lot. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I went, I never won.

But that was okay, because Hamilton transferred to Broadway, and the producers announced there would be $10 lottery tickets (a Hamilton for a Hamilton) available on Broadway, too. This time, however, I was smart. I would go the very first day of previews. No one would have gotten word yet, and my chances of winning would be pretty good.

So I showed up for the first preview. As did hundreds of others. Someone tweeted a picture of that first day, and if you look very closely, way over to the right you can see me, hoping against hope that my name would be called. It wasn't called that day. Nor the next day. Nor the next. Nor the next.

All summer long, when I wasn't in Cape Cod for Moby-Dick, I was putting my name in for the Hamilton lottery. Nothing. Nada. The summer ended. When I could, I still tried to play the lottery, but after all the amazing review, all the amazing buzz, getting to see Hamilton for a Hamilton became nearly impossible, and ticket prices were, well... Broadway.

But then I heard that President Obama, who had already seen the show once, was coming back for a special presentation of Hamilton as a Democratic Party fundraiser. Well, I've always supported the Democrats, and even worked on a few campaigns, handling phones for Clinton-Gore before I was even old enough to vote, and knocking on doors in New Hampshire for Howard Dean. Here was an opportunity to support a cause for which I believed, and finally see Hamilton at the same time.

So I did it. I paid... well, a lot. But it went to the Democrats, and I finally got to see Hamilton, and the President, to boot. My beloved "Spouse A" went to Obama's high school (a bit after he graduated), so she accompanied me and got to see a fellow Punahou alum... from a distance. We were in the next to last row, but the view was surprisingly good. The show was amazing, and the President was in rare form. He noted that both he and Dick Cheney loved Hamilton, and perhaps the only thing the two agreed on was that Hamilton was a great show. Marci snapped this picture:

So now I never have to play the lottery again, right? Well, no, because now I want to see it again!

Fringe Preview '15

The New York City Fringe Festival opens on Friday, and this year there were quite a few plays I wanted to see. Yesterday I went down to Fringe Central and picked up my tickets. Here are the shows I plan to see, in the order I'll be seeing them:

The Waste Land

This performance piece is a collaboration between two brothers from Austria, actor Christopher Domig and painter Daniel Domig. The Waste Land presents T.S. Eliot's classic poem... with the aid of a giant puppet head. What could be better than that? The Domig brothers have been developing this piece for years, and now New Yorkers are going to get a chance to see it. Though the poem was written by a man, the speaker is (by Eliot's account) the Countess Marie Larisch, so it will be interesting to see the text performed by a man. Fiona Shaw probably did the most famous dramatic performance of the poem.

Lady Macbeth and Her Lover

This play by Richard Vetere (The Engagement) tells the story of two writers who make a suicide pact. One of them lives, while the other posthumously wins the Pulitzer Prize. The dead woman's daughter then demands that the survivor become her literary mentor. Sasha Brat directs this new drama, starring Maja Wampuszyc (Foggy Bottom) and Jenny Ashman (Romance Language).

Fuente Ovejuna

The wicked commander is found murdered. And who committed the crime? "Fuente Ovejuna did it, sir!" Ducdame Ensemble (which was founded by graduates of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) presents this classic play by Lope de Vega. Previously seen in London, the production plays up the parallels between the 15th-century historical incident in Castile that inspired Lope and the Occupy Movement of recent memory.

The Merchant of Venice

This FREE outdoor production by the Hip to Hip Theatre Company is currently touring the outer boroughs, but it will be settling down in Tompkins Square Park for a Fringe Al Fresca run at the park's bandshell. Hip to Hip artistic director Jason Marr and dramaturg Adriana Alter have adapted Shakespeare's classic comedy as a parable about how not to live in a multi-cultural world. David Mold directs a cast that includes William Oliver Watkins (of Moby-Dick fame) among others.

The Broccoli Murder, DiCaprio Dance and Other Stories From My 20 Years as a NYC Cop

The title says it all. Peter Michael Marino directs this one-man play by Mark DeMayo, a retired NYPD detective with an arresting past. Now a comedian, DeMayo previously worked at the 26th Precinct in Harlem. The New York Post recently cited him in a snarky article about fanny packs. Though this one-man show might not have the gravitas of Freight, it is precisely the type of show the Fringe loves to do.

Venus and Adonis

In this production by Los Angeles-based New Circle Artists, Misha Bouvion adapts and performs Shakespeare's erotically charged poem with the help of director Daniella Caggiano. The show got good reviews in California, and a similar project, a one-man performance of Shakespeare's other long poem, The Rape of Lucrece, recently took Philadelphia by storm. (But Shakespeare's twist on the sexy story from Ovid is probably easier to take than a tale of rape and suicide!)

So there you have it! The Fringe Festival is always hit or miss, but I'm hoping this year my selections won't leave me disappointed.

Two Chances Left to See MOBY-DICK at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater

My stage adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick closes on July 18th. That means there are only two chances left to see this amazing production at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.

The production, beautifully directed by Christopher Ostrom, stars (pictured below from left to right) Lee Seymour, Joseph Pietropaolo, Freddie Biddle, James Marin, Wesley Volcy, and Gordon Stanley. (Photo courtesy of Michael and Suz Karchmer.)

Curtain is at 8:00 pm Friday and Saturday. For tickets go to:

MOBY-DICK at WHAT

Last weekend to see MOBY-DICK on Cape Cod!

All good things must end, and sadly, this weekend will be your last chance to see my stage adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater on Cape Cod.

Final performances will be this Thursday through Saturday, July 16th through 18th, at 8:00 pm. Christopher Ostrom did a wonderful job directing this production (not to mention designing the spectacular set), so if you haven't seen it yet, I hope you will soon.

Should you need any further incentive, check out these wonderful photos by Michael and Suz Karchmer of the production! First off, here's Gordon Stanley as Father Mapple (far right), delivering the famous sermon on the Book of Jonah:

Queequeg, played by Wesley Volcy (center with harpoon), signs up to ship with the whaler Peequod.

Stubb, played by Joseph Pietropaolo (far left), looks on as the crew lowers to hunt a whale:

Ishamael, played by Lee Seymour (center), narrates as the whale meets its grisly doom:

The old cook Fleece, played by Freddy Biddle, tries to speak to the murderous sharks:

The mad sailor Gabriel, played by James Marin (far left) delivers a chilling prophesy:

And here is the whole case assembled:

Remember, there are only three more performances, so catch this show before it sails away!

Aboard the Pequod

I've returned from Cape Cod, where Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater has now opened their wonderful production of Moby-Dick. The first weekend went well, and performances resume tonight. Moby-Dick runs at WHAT until July 18th.

The radio program Arts Week on WOMR earlier did an interview with Gordon Stanley and Lee Seymour who play Captain Ahab and Ishmael respectively. Of course the Boston Globe, not surprisingly, gave the show a less than stellar review, but they hate anything and anyone local. The Cape Cod Times gave a somewhat more balanced reaction.

What does the play look like? Well director Christopher Ostrom, who also designed the set, created some wonderful stage moments, utilizing Bailey Costa's lighting design and Nancy Leary's costumes, which appropriate modern clothing to invoke a mythic past.

Photographers Michael and Suz Karchmer took some wonderful photos during our dress rehearsal. Here is Lee as Ishmael confronting the Landlord (played by Joseph Pietropaolo) at the beginning of the play:

Ishmael then encounters Queequeg, played wonderfully by Wesley Volcy.

The two sign up with one of the owners of the Pequod, Captain Peleg (played here by James Marin), to join the crew of the ship.

Aboard the Pequod, the entire crew vows to hunt Moby-Dick, even the reluctant first mate Starbuck (played by Freddy Biddle) whose honest eye falls downright.

After many adventures, Captain Ahab sights the white whale!

The crew is off in hot pursuit.

Alas, the ill-fated Pequod has but one survivor.

Excited to see it? All performances are at 8 pm, except for a special 6 pm Independence Day showing on July 4th, so make sure you get your tickets!

And our first review is in!

Last night was the opening of my stage adaptation of Moby-Dick at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. The folks at WHAT, led by director Christopher Ostrom, did a great job, and I'm very proud of our fabulous actors.

And now we have our first review! We've gotten a rave from international media juggernaut Wrong Side of the Camera! Okay, so WSOTC happens to be run by my friend Natalia, but the world-famous blog raves: "head over... to check out this wonderful cast"!

Here's a picture of that wonderful cast, photographed by Michael and Suz Karchmer. Pictured left to right are Lee Seymour, Joseph Pietropaolo, Wesley Volcy, James Marin, Gordon Stanley, and Freddie Biddle.

Moby-Dick runs until July 18th, so I hope you can make it!

We've Set Sail!

Last night was the first preview of Moby-Dick at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. We had a small but enthusiastic audience. Tonight, we have our second preview at 8:00, and then tomorrow we open!

Also, Steve Desroches wrote a lovely article that appeared in Provincetown Magazine. Hopefully it will get lots of people to come see the show. He even interviewed yours truly. (Hopefully that at least won't keep people away!)

Moby-Dick plays through July 18th. The cast features Gordon Stanley as Ahab and Lee Seymour as Ishmael, along with an ensemble that includes Freddie Biddle, James Marin, Joseph Pietropaolo, and Wesley Volcy. Christopher Ostrom directed the production.

Theater on Cape Cod

Yesterday was our second day of rehearsal for Moby-Dick at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. Before we had rehearsal, however, Gordon Stanley and Lee Seymour, who play Ahab and Ishmael, did a radio interview with our fearless captain, director Christopher Ostrom.

The interview was up in Provincetown. I had never been there before, so I snagged a ride with Gordon and Lee and walked around the place. The architecture is beautiful, and I was particularly struck by an old church that has been converted to a public library.

Apparently, the interview went well, as Lee and Gordon seemed happy afterward. We got some lobster rolls and clam chowder and headed to the theater. It was the second day of rehearsal, but I quickly had a couple of tweaks to make to the script. We mainly just did table work for Act One, but we'll be working on Act II today.

After rehearsal, the cast headed over to Moby-Dick's Restaurant. (Where else would we go?) There was more good seafood, and we got ready to see Seminar at W.H.A.T. Seminar stars Alan Campbell, but also features some of our housemates here in company housing, Satomi Blair, Rachel Casparian, and Jacob Heimer, as well as local actor Ben Berry.

Seminar was great. I missed this Theresa Rebeck play when it was on Broadway, so I was glad to see it here, wonderfully directed by Christine Toy Johnson. The production is only running until June 13th, so if you'll be out on Cape Cod anytime before then, make sure to check it out.

I'm looking forward to rehearsal for Moby-Dick today. Tomorrow, I head down to New York, and I won't be back on the Cape until tech week. Fortunately, the cast is excellent, so I'm sure it will be a great production!

Moby-Dick, Day One

Today was our first rehearsal of Moby-Dick at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. I finally got to meet the director, Christopher Ostrom, in person, and to see his magnificent set design. Audiences are in for a treat!

We had our first read-through of the script, which has had a few changes since the last staged reading at the Abingdon Theatre Company. Fortunately, Gordon Stanley, who played Ahab in that reading, is back to play that role again.

The rest of the cast includes Lee Seymour as Ishmael, Freddy Biddle as Starbuck, Joseph Pietropaolo as Stubbs, Wesley Volcy at Queequeg, and James Marin as Gabriel. Of course, other than Lee, everyone is playing multiple roles, so it's great we have such a versatile cast.

Tickets are on sale now at W.H.A.T., so get them soon! The show runs from June 18th through July 18th.

One-Act at Gallery Players

Next month, Gallery Players in Brooklyn will be performing my short play The Trade as part of their Black Box New Play Festival!

This past weekend, I met the actors, who are fantastic. Dennis Gleason is directing. If you've never been out to Gallery Players, you should go. They have a lovely, intimate space, and they do good work.

The performances of The Trade will run from Thursday, June 4 to Sunday, June 7. Performances are at 8pm Thursday through Saturday and at 3pm on Sunday. You can find out more about the Black Box New Play Festival here:

Gallery Players

In addition to The Trade, this year's festival includes plays by Bara Swain, Lily Rusek, Natalie Bates, and Stephanie Keys. I won't be able to see all of them, as I'll be up in Massachusetts most of June for rehearsals of Moby-Dick at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. However, I will be coming back down to catch the performances of The Trade, so if you come, stop by and say hello!