I AM YOUR MASSEUSE (five short digressions)
from Pulitzer and Academy-Award winner John Patrick Shanley
(Doubt, 'Moonstruck')
Five short plays designed to aid the digestion and further erode our attention span, performed during The Bridge Residency at the Brooklyn Navy Yards!
Feat. Marcus Naylor, Crawford M. Collins, Carlo Alban, and Bridge Resident Artist Christina Toth.
Direction by Claire Edmonds, Stage Management by Melissa Barry, Lighting Design by Victoria Bain
PRAISE FOR MASSUESE AT THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD:
“A night of laugh-out-loud, razor-sharp comedy … a four-person cast switches adeptly between caricatures, playing the comedy perfectly … Each joke is well-delivered, each situation mined just up to the ideal stopping point. A vigorous pace and a few twists in each sketch ensure that there are no repetitious jokes or pandering punchlines. It's simply sharp-witted comedy. For all that, there's an unspoken darkness underlining each sketch. Rather than robbing the comedy of its value, however, that unspoken something bolsters it. Maybe there's catharsis in this type of black comedy--relief in laughing about things we've come to avoid or fear. Whatever the case, I Am Your Masseuse shows that Shanley is in full command of his comedic powers, and that hardly anyone or anything in this messy human world is safe from being laughed at.” – StageBuddy
“A night of laugh-out-loud, razor-sharp comedy … a four-person cast switches adeptly between caricatures, playing the comedy perfectly … Each joke is well-delivered, each situation mined just up to the ideal stopping point. A vigorous pace and a few twists in each sketch ensure that there are no repetitious jokes or pandering punchlines. It's simply sharp-witted comedy. For all that, there's an unspoken darkness underlining each sketch. Rather than robbing the comedy of its value, however, that unspoken something bolsters it. Maybe there's catharsis in this type of black comedy--relief in laughing about things we've come to avoid or fear. Whatever the case, I Am Your Masseuse shows that Shanley is in full command of his comedic powers, and that hardly anyone or anything in this messy human world is safe from being laughed at.” – StageBuddy
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM
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Claire Edmonds is a freelance theatre director. She is thrilled to be back at The Bridge Production Group after directing Adam Rapp’s Red Light Winter at The Robert Moss in 2017. April through October of 2018, Claire was the Resident Director for the Off-Broadway production of Trainspotting Live, an immersive retelling of the Irvine Welsh novel about heroin addiction. Claire is currently completing an MFA in Directing at the UCLA School of Theatre Film and Television. www.claireedmonds.com |
Christina Toth is an actress and writer best known for her work as Annalisa Damiva in the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black (seasons 6-7). Originally from Montreal, Christina moved to NYC to attend the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre where she graduated from the 2 years Meisner conservatory program in 2012. Some of Christina’s stage work include David Bowie’s LAZARUS directed by Ivo van Hove at the New York Theatre Workshop, (A)Loft Modulation - a play with jazz, directed by Christopher McElroen and produced by the american vicarious at A.R.T. Theatres, The Woolgatherer directed by Chazz Palminteri at the LaTea Theatre.
Christina is the Resident Artist of The Bridge Production Group. She performed in the productions of Richard III, Red Light Winter, The Blue Room and in the United States premiere of SEE YOU, a play by French Canadian playwright Guillaume Corbeil, performed at The New Ohio Theatre.
Christina is currently in production of her short film Talk To Me In Silence.
Christina Toth is an actress and writer best known for her work as Annalisa Damiva in the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black (seasons 6-7). Originally from Montreal, Christina moved to NYC to attend the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre where she graduated from the 2 years Meisner conservatory program in 2012. Some of Christina’s stage work include David Bowie’s LAZARUS directed by Ivo van Hove at the New York Theatre Workshop, (A)Loft Modulation - a play with jazz, directed by Christopher McElroen and produced by the american vicarious at A.R.T. Theatres, The Woolgatherer directed by Chazz Palminteri at the LaTea Theatre.
Christina is the Resident Artist of The Bridge Production Group. She performed in the productions of Richard III, Red Light Winter, The Blue Room and in the United States premiere of SEE YOU, a play by French Canadian playwright Guillaume Corbeil, performed at The New Ohio Theatre.
Christina is currently in production of her short film Talk To Me In Silence.
Marcus Naylor: Off-Broadway include Carnegie Hall with “The Great Black Men of The Great White Way”, “Cool Blues”, “Watin 2 End Hell” and “The Cave Dwellers”. Regional Theatre: Penumbra Theatre, Denver Center, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage and Kennedy Center. “Television and Film: For Life, Bull, Madam Secretary, Boardwalk Empire, Law and Order, Only in America, Juvie, Slings and Arrows, and A Jazz Fantasy. Naylor is A Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio.
Crawford M. Collins was previously seen in The Bridge Production Group's See You (The New Ohio Theatre). Off-Broadway: In the Ebb (HERE Mainstage), St. James in the Field of Stars (HERE Mainstage). Off-Off Broadway: How I Learned To Drive (Theatre 54), Sicks! (Walkerspace). Regional: The Father (Brooke O’Harra, dir.), Far Away (Roger Babb, dir.), & The Bald Soprano. Film: – Lover’s Game (Hudson Valley International Film Festival – Best Actress, 2015); also Blame (Luminaries Film Festival nomination, Best Actress), & a fine | LINE. Television – Upcoming, "The Gilded Age" (HBO), also, “The Path” (Hulu), & “Modern Spies” (BBC). Internet: “Brooklyn is in Love” (LA Web Fest Winner, Best Ensemble 2012). Training: B.A., Mount Holyoke College (Margaret Davis Stitt Prize, cum laude); M.A.T., Drew University; The Neighborhood Playhouse (summer conservatory). To Mom and Dad. www.crawfordmcollins.com
CARLO ALBÁN: Broadway: Sweat. Off Broadway: Sweat, References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot (Public Theater). Tamburlaine (TFANA); A Small, Melodramatic Story, Intríngulis (Labyrinth); A Summer Day (Rattlestick); Pinkolandia (INTAR); Living Dead in Denmark (Vampire Cowboys). Regional: Sweat, The River Bride, Much Ado About Nothing, Timon of Athens (OSF); A Parallelogram, Lydia (CTG); Night of the Iguana (Guthrie); Dreamlandia (DTC). Film: Mile 22, Hurricane Streets, Hi Life, Strangers With Candy, Life Support, 21 Grams, Whip It, Margaret. TV: “Sesame Street,” “Law & Order,” “Oz,” “Thicker Than Blood,” “Prison Break,” “Girls,” “The Night Of,” “Madam Secretary.” 2017 Theatre World Award for an outstanding Broadway debut for Sweat. Member of Labyrinth Theater Company.
Melissa Barry (Stage Management) is a New York-based stage manager who originally hails from New Jersey. This is her third collaboration with the Bridge Production Group, having previously worked on SEE YOU and The Blue Room. Recent stage management credits include The Dining Room (Players Circle Theatre, N. Fort Myers, FL), Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Players Circle Theatre), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Players Circle Theatre), Madama Butterfly (Long Island Lyric Opera), Assassins (The Secret Theatre), and The Tempest (The Secret Theatre).
In the fall, Melissa will be migrating south to Daytona Beach, FL to stage manage Beach Street Repertory Theatre’s inaugural season! https://www.beachstreetrep.org/
