LOVEPLAY / PLAYMONEY
La MaMa Presents: a Double-Bill World-Premiere
WRITTEN BY SAM ALPER | DIRECTED BY KNUD ADAMS
A pair of immersive performances that blend humor, poetry & audience interaction in order to talk about the basics: love and money. You might leave with a date and a pocket full of cash to pay for it. LOVEPLAY seamlessly blends theater, poetry, and improvisation to build intimacy between audience and performer and destroy inhibitions. PLAYMONEY is a gameshow spectacular that will fill your pockets while toasting the twilight of the American dream.
Written by Sam Alper
Directed by Knud Adams
LovePlay/PlayMoney Company Producer: Patti Anne Miller
Featuring: Sam Alper, Allison Brainard, Sarah DeLappe, Ronald Peet, Ned Riseley, Zach Segel, Max Posner, Madeline Wise & Peter Mills Weiss
Lighting Design by Oona Curley (LovePlay) & Mike McGee (PlayMoney)
Sound Design by Harrison Adams | Stage Manager: Cait Weisensee
LOVEPLAY has previously been workshopped at Cloud City, Dixon Place & BAX (Upstart Festival).
Sam Alper is a playwright, poet and performer living in Brooklyn. His plays have been performed in NYC at: BAX, Cloud City, The Brick, Dixon Place, 13th St. Rep, Jimmy’s No.43 & Fonda Nolita. His writing has appeared in: BOMB Magazine, Toad, The Susquehanna Review, The Writing Disorder, Glasschord and Gambling the Aisle. He is a member of the Bookshop Workshop ’14-’15 Writers Group. Sam holds a degree in Literary Arts from Brown University, where he studied playwriting with Erik Ehn, Lisa D’Amour and Greg Moss.
Knud Adams is a director of experimental and new plays. He assisted some of the world’s foremost theater artists: André Gregory, Elizabeth LeCompte, Richard Foreman, Sam Gold & Sarah Benson. Knud has directed or developed plays with Soho Rep, Ars Nova, NYTW, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown, PRELUDE, Dixon Place, Columbia, Rutgers & dell’Arte Opera. His upcoming projects include new works by Nick Jones, Eliza Bent, Amelia Roper, Torrey Townsend, Emma Goidel, Celine Song & Jason Kim. Drama League Directing Fellow. Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Playwrights Horizons Directing Resident. www.KnudAdams.com
Allison Brainard is a Brooklyn-based artist who blends experimental dance, theater, comedy, and multimedia together to create spontaneous performances that forgo traditional choreography. She’s performed at venues like e-flux, Madison Square Park, and the Abrons Art Center and has worked on projects with the likes of Ryan McNamara, Rachel Feinstein, and Marina Abramovic.
Zack Segel: Recent theatre credits include The Sensuality Party (New Group), Nurse Nora Menorah Saves Christmas (New Ohio Theatre), Yermedea (La Mama), The Last International (Performa 13), and The Aliens (Production Workshop). Zack assistant directed the New York premiere of Straight White Men (Public Theatre), and he plays drums for a band called powpow. Education: B.A., Brown University.
Ronald Alexander Peet: New York: Clare Barron’s I’ll Never Love Again (Drama League), Annie Tippe & Ryann Weir’s Debutante (Ars Nova), New Saloon’s I’m Miserable But Change Scares Me (The Brick), Nate Weida’s BYUIOO (Pipeline), Tilly the Trickster (Atlantic Theater Company), Stiven Luka’s The Little Chaos (The Brick). Readings/workshops: LAByrinth, EST, LCT Directors Lab, NYTW, Ars Nova, Clubbed Thumb, and Lark. Regional: The Golem of Havana (Barrington Stage); American Shakespeare Center in Virginia performing 30 roles in 13 plays over 3 seasons. BFA: NYU Tisch. www.ronaldalexanderpeet.com=
Ned Riseley is an actor and musician. Recent acting credits include: Old Paper Houses (Prelude Festival), Good Friday (film), Jeff Whitty’s Head Over Heels (reading) The Mysteries (The Flea; NYTimes Critic Pick), The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway (M-34), and Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (3LD, IT Award). Ned is also a songwriter, and co-wrote music for Nelly/Nelly (Philadelphia Fringe) with Michael Costagliola, and Nicky Park Memorial Park (Boston Playwrights Theatre) with Deepali Gupta. He is a graduate of Brown University.
Madeline Wise is an actor and co-founder of New Saloon Theater Co (newsaloon.org). Recent credits include Parabola at JACK; New Saloon’s TROPES, I’m Miserable But Change Scares Me, William Shakespeare’s Mom, and others; regionally she’s appeared in Galápagos at the Parrish Art Museum, The Murderer in Sag Harbor, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Millbrook Playhouse. Film/Web includes Adam Goldman’s Whatever this is., Lilian Mehrel’s The Loneliest, and New Saloon’s SMUSHKISS. Readings include Emma Goidel’s Local Girls (directed by Knud Adams) at Playwrights Realm and Sarah DeLappe’s Master and Marg and DID SOMEONE ORDER A PIZZA at the Drama League. madelinewise.com
Peter Mills Weiss is a monologuist and performance artist. His work has been seen at Little Theatre at Dixon Place, CATCH Performance Series, the Incubator Arts Project, Fresh Ground Pepper, and the Silent Barn. Collaborators have included: Richard Foreman, John Jesurun, Mallory Catlett, and the Wallace Shawn/Andre Gregory Project. Peter, along with his performance group, GRANDMA, was a Short Form Artist at the Incubator Arts Project in 2011. They are currently in residence at LMCC as part of the 2014 – 2015 Workspace program and are working towards a full length to premiere in June 2015.
Max Posner is a playwright. He lives in Brooklyn.
Sarah DeLappe is a playwright. She lives in Brooklyn.
Oona Curley is a New York based lighting and scenic designer. Recent NYC credits include: Found Dog Ribbon Dance (Columbia University), After the Fall (NYU Tisch), Escher’s Fish (NYU), The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway (M34 Productions), Yermedea (Soulographie Festival, La MaMa), Love in the Seventh Kingdom of Wrath (FRANK Theater Co.), 4.48 Psychosis (M34 Productions). Philly credits include: Andy: A Popera (Bearded Ladies), Henry IV (Shakespeare in Clark Park), JapanAmerica Wonderwave (Team Sunshine Performance Co.), Animal Animal Mammal Mine (Penn Dixie Productions – PIFA 2013), Wide Awake (Bearded Ladies – PIFA 2013), My Romantic History (Inis Nua Theatre Co.), Marlene and the Machine (Bearded Ladies), BANG (Live Arts 2012), (Kate Watson Wallace). Recipient of the Weston Award for Design and the Zonta Award for Theatre Arts. MFA Candidate NYU Tisch 2016.
“Staged effortlessly, fluidly moving from solo, trios and duets on the theme of love, then suddenly transforming into a late night game show without missing a beat. The performances are top notch across the board… an ambiguous performance piece that truly blurs the line between what is real and what isn’t.”
– Teddy Nicholas, New York Theater Review
“Sam is thoughtful, articulate, and effortlessly open of spirit – he’s funny without trying, intelligent without being showy, and has an exciting sense of what his performance can be and can do.”