http://smugbugproductions.com/new-blog daily 0.75 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/new-blog/2019/5/13/never-stop-asking-questions monthly 0.5 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/new-blog/2014/2/18/the-archipelago-howlround-october-2013 monthly 0.5 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/press daily 0.75 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2019/5/13/review-round-up-of-shake-amp-bake-loves-labours-lost-fall-2018 monthly 0.5 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2019/5/13/jersey-arts-tv-segment-on-life-death-life-again monthly 0.5 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2019/5/13/new-jersey-state-of-the-arts-colab-arts monthly 0.5 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2017/3/15/npr-interview-with-dan-swern-on-merchant-of-venice monthly 0.5 2017-03-15 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2017/3/15/njtv-segment-on-48-hour-musicals monthly 0.5 2017-03-15 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2014/6/7/may-2014-kafka-shorts monthly 0.5 2014-06-07 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2014/6/7/woman-around-town-art-of-love-into-the-labyrinth monthly 0.5 2014-06-07 http://smugbugproductions.com/press/2014/6/7/the-daily-targum-i-hope-they-serve-beer-on-broadway-by-tucker-max monthly 0.5 2014-06-07 http://smugbugproductions.com/stage-direction daily 0.75 2019-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489457024948-8F893R0LGFOOV049QMXB/OnlyLLL_300.jpg Stage Direction https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489457024948-8F893R0LGFOOV049QMXB/OnlyLLL_300.jpg Stage Direction https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489457072743-78ZFCTRYGDVHE3ZL22WW/shakeandbake_sword_cinzel.jpg Stage Direction - SHAKE & BAKE SHAKE & BAKE is a chamber production of a William Shakespeare play that combines culinary and performing arts into a two-hour full-sensory experience. The audience enjoys a handcrafted 8-course tasting menu that is created in front of them through the performance. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST by William Shakespeare is a play that features a bit of mischief and misbehavior. It is about camaraderie, and about the joy we find in the company of others. Navarre, Berowne, and Longaville have laid great plans to engage in serious scholarship and have chosen a path of isolation, but are immediately challenged by the question: Can one truly know the world by retreating from it? Is the student more satiated by reading a book or creating his or her own experiences? The sudden arrival of a French emissary including The Princess, Maria, and Rosaline, force the men out of their comfort zone, and seek out joy. Shake & Bake held its first public performances over two weeks in an Upper West Side apartment in August 2016, to unanimously thrilled audiences. This workshop provided the foundation for the development of the concept, and informed the performance and production model for resident theater productions and private bookings in large event spaces as well as private residences. It most recently ran off-Broadway in fall 2018, and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1524283852306-2IR1V069H56QGJ5KQSHL/eleventhour+preview.JPG Stage Direction - The Eleventh Hour! An original and irreverent rock musical comedy born in a New Brunswick, New Jersey basement is making its New York debut at Town Stages in May. It's the end of the world in New Jersey! A burnout basement rocker and his ex-girlfriend, a rising star astrophysicist, may have the key to surviving the black hole bearing down on earth. If they can reconcile their feelings and manage a dangerous journey on the NJ Turnpike, they just may save their music, each other, and the mole people who live beneath them. The Eleventh Hour! features music, book, and lyrics by David Seamon, direction by Jessica Francis Fichter, and is produced by Smugbug Productions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1557806222314-W8BJ849CG7LM2E9Q97O3/LDL+Logo+Title+with+coLAB+spot.png Stage Direction - Life, Death, Life Again Written by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, Life, Death, Life Again: Children sentenced to die in prison is a verbatim play based on interviews with individuals incarcerated for murder and sentenced to life without parole. The play continues to tour, serving as a community organizing tool for conversations around restorative justice, radical forgiveness, and juvenile life sentencing without parole. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1557806160813-IGTO96NJI0PVWVUI4RX5/PastedGraphic-3.png Stage Direction - DUMB LUCK A new musical with book and lyrics by R.C. Staab, and music and lyrics by Michael Sansonia. There are stories about people living. There are stories about people after they die. But DUMB LUCK tells the unlikely, but true, story of the life and afterlife of poor Elmer McCurdy, a small-time Old West outlaw. Despite his love for LuluMae and a promise to do right be her, Elmer embarks on a highly unsuccessful career as an outlaw until he's shot by a sheriff’s posse in 1911. Elmer’s body is “preserved” by a funeral director in Oklahoma -- becoming a local tourist attraction. As a result, Elmer can’t move on from Limbo to his final destination until his body has been properly buried. For another 66 years, Elmer’s body is a fixture of carnival sideshows, movies and road races. In 1976, the crew of “The Six Million Dollar Man” discovers Elmer’s body in the Laff in the Dark funhouse in a California amusement park and the LA coroner uncovers Elmer’s amazing post-death journey. Due to the publicity, the people of Guthrie, Oklahoma, pay to have Elmer transported and buried in the Boot Hill section of their cemetery in 1977. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489457452929-JDQHLMYQIIINVLJWVOCK/Merchant_21.jpg Stage Direction - Merchant of Venice This adaptation of the play by William Shakespeare, strips down the production to two characters, MAN and WOMAN. WOMAN, angry, makes her way to the attic of their home with the intention to pack her bag and leave. In her haste she discovers keepsakes from her past, and a number of copies of the play. She reads: “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad..." MAN arrives, confronts her, and she tosses him a copy of the script. The play begins and at stake is their relationship. This production was first performed with John Keller and Heather Holmes at Franklin Stage Company in August 2016. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489710066789-RMQZE0UWAB88WDKWTGKG/Screen+Shot+2017-03-16+at+8.20.11+PM.png Stage Direction - HICCUPS A new one-man show written and performed by Ben Rosenblatt and commissioned by American Records, the play is based on interviews with real people, and the playwright's own experience living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489457379984-5565FQHBGKHSV9HRLHMR/IMG_4866.JPG Stage Direction - Branch Street Productions FLIGHT by Megan Felix, Heather Holmes, and Shelah Marie Rhoulhac, Dixon Place and NY African Burial Ground, NYC 2015 FLIGHT is a funny and poignant journey through the millenial black female experience. Our three glamorous flight attendants guide the audience through a series of stories that highlight a conflicted reconciliation between cultural past and modern identity. The play’s vignettes and poetry conjure George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum and Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf but finds its own voice through the collaboration of its young writer-performers. Branch Street Productions is a young company whose goal is to create engaging theater for, by and about Black Women. Stories are the building blocks of the human experience and we believe that by deconstructing/reconstructing existing narratives and creating new ones we can change the way we see the world and ourselves. We want to create high quality, innovative theater that challenges normative ideas about race and gender, questions boundaries and inspires critical thought and dialogue.   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489457865943-NE9JVNACNQLBB6PTYBSF/Voice+Afire+logo.jpg Stage Direction - Voice Afire Into the Labyrinth / Art of Love, Tenri Cultural Center, NYC 2014 Ray Luedeke's original, virtuosic score for two pianos, actor and visuals with a text adapted from Ovid's infamous manual, banned for two thousand years. Kafka Shorts, Tenri Cultural Center, NYC 2014 Ray Luedeke's original music-theater piece for 2 actors and live string quartet. Using as its text the intriguing Parables of Franz Kafka, the 2 actors represent Kafka himself and his literary creation, Gregor Samsa, the anti-hero of Kafka's famous story Metamorphosis. Voice Afire celebrates new ways of integrating live music for small ensembles with theater, visual arts, opera, cabaret, and dance. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489457124365-8MYV8Y5PH8JEZQLT3AFI/Beer-on-Broadway-Treatment-Legs-02.png Stage Direction - I Hope They Serve Beer on Broadway by Tucker Max Adapted by Christopher Carter Sanderson from the book, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max, the play revolves around the sexual exploits of the infamous writer. This pseudo-immersive production is designed to be staged in a bar with performances happening throughout the space, all while performers make and serve drinks for the audience. http://smugbugproductions.com/consulting-1 daily 0.75 2019-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1557807624820-PPKX6CUVFBPF8FIE4Z3Z/00+TSC+logo+%28tricolor+flag%29+1000px.png Consulting - The Secret City The Secret City is an Obie-Award winning performance ritual combining art, food, music, storytelling, meditation, singing, performance and community interaction in a joyful event that is part tent revival, part cabaret, part ceremony. With events monthly in New York, quarterly in LA, and annually in Woodstock, we're creating an ever-growing community of artists and art believers connected by the creative spirit. www.thesecretcity.org https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1557807624820-PPKX6CUVFBPF8FIE4Z3Z/00+TSC+logo+%28tricolor+flag%29+1000px.png Consulting - The Secret City The Secret City is an Obie-Award winning performance ritual combining art, food, music, storytelling, meditation, singing, performance and community interaction in a joyful event that is part tent revival, part cabaret, part ceremony. With events monthly in New York, quarterly in LA, and annually in Woodstock, we're creating an ever-growing community of artists and art believers connected by the creative spirit. www.thesecretcity.org https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489455224015-G72P4LZ8C7VYI39PALPR/1215_PTP_LOGO_REVA_STILL_Alpha.png Consulting - Poetic Theater Productions Poetic Theater Productions seeks to define the modern genre of “poetic theater” by connecting and fostering a community of artists who are passionately creating relevant and accessible work and reinvigorating a conscious theater of language. Poetic Theater Productions offers resources and opportunities for poets, playwrights, and theater artists to create new work and see it through to production via educational workshops, developmental readings and performance. PTP seeks out and creates opportunities to connect with communities affected by the issues of topic within our productions, in NYC and nationwide, through collaborative projects and exchanges of art and ideas. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489456076248-TG6MAVIJMC84RDQ9PO8M/TSO+Logo.png Consulting - The Secret Opera In 2015, The Secret Opera commissioned a new one-actor production of A Christmas Carol, directed and performed by Annie Rutherford Lutz, and was additionally performed by the company's producers. Smugbug was brought on to provide artistic direction for the project. The Secret Opera is an innovative and vibrant company committed to new socially relevant readings of classic and new vocal works. Providing opportunities for emerging singers, conductors, directors, dancers, orchestra musicians, designers, and visual artists, The Secret Opera encourages multidisciplinary performances that unite artistic excellence with musical and literary analysis of traditional and contemporary compositions. Our mission is to utilize opera as a means to promote and inspire positive change in the community.   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489454698547-UQ5PF8GASRLA90JMUPPM/truth+cover.jpg Consulting - Foster Entertainment In 2014, Smugbug Productions supported Foster Entertainment's presentation of Neil Gaiman's The Truth Is A Cave in the Black Mountains at Carnegie Hall. The production featured the short story written and performed by Neil Gaiman, with projected artwork by Eddie Campbell and music written and performed by Fourplay. Foster Entertainment serves artists whose work excites us. We’re passionate about pop culture as live performance. We produce theatre on Broadway and Off and present concerts at venues like Carnegie Hall in New York, and in cities throughout the US and Australia. Our signature is mashing together genres, artists and venues in new ways–hybrids that combine music, theatre and comedy. We help artists work in ways they usually can’t, like Rufus Wainwright’s Judy Garland concerts, that most people dismissed–until it was a hit. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489454085774-KYRAJB2E303FTFVF088J/Sprat+Photo.jpg Consulting - Sprat Artistic Ensemble From October 13th to the 27th, 2014, HENRI premiered at the Smith Center for Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada. HENRI, featuring a cast of actors ranging from age 8 to 80, follows the life of a musician from childhood to old age. Sprat Artistic Ensemble, in collaboration with the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, presented Henri, an intimate theatre experience about the beauty and complexity of Alzheimer’s and aging. Henri featured a cast ranging in age from 8 to 80. United, they create a composition of moments, feelings, and images from the title character’s life.Thanks to a grant from Nevada Humanities, talk backs with leaders in Alzheimer’s research and treatment followed each performance. Sprat Artistic Ensemble is a multi-generational ensemble under the artistic direction of Ryan Elisabeth Reid that uses interdisciplinary artistic approaches and community partnerships to tell the stories of those who have been marginalized. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489454337108-J3XPBHFHYYEM88IBGOPO/Prudencia+Hart.jpg Consulting - National Theatre of Scotland In 2014, Smugbug served as the producing consultant in New York for The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart. The site-specific production would eventually go on to find a home at The McKittrick Hotel, home of Sleep No More. The National Theatre of Scotland was established in 2006 and has created over 200 productions. Being a theatre without walls and building-free, the Company presents a wide variety of work that ranges from large-scale productions to projects tailored to the smallest performing spaces. In addition to conventional theatres, the Company has performed in airports, schools, tower blocks, community halls, ferries and forests. http://smugbugproductions.com/shake-and-bake daily 0.75 2019-08-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/smugbug-homepage daily 1.0 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/about daily 0.75 2019-05-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1489709168680-GYE1UA4K1JMLA8O782PY/image-asset.jpeg About http://smugbugproductions.com/consulting-2 daily 0.75 2017-03-15 http://smugbugproductions.com/projects daily 0.75 2017-03-15 http://smugbugproductions.com/contact daily 0.75 2019-05-14 http://smugbugproductions.com/dan-swern daily 0.75 2019-08-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5235e462e4b0bfcfa19bf819/1496197272385-F6BDGL8OL2WQD79X45O7/image-asset.jpeg Dan Swern Photo by Brad Resnick