PAST Productions
OnTheRoad Rep Spring Festival 2023
two weeks of work by OnTheRoad Rep
The Studio Theater, Theatre Row
June 13-25, 2023
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OTR Spring Festival 2023 was an extraordinary coming together of the OTR community. More than 30 members of the OTR ensemble appeared in 6 different plays across 14 performances. We produced our first original work as an ensemble company, two short plays, as well as two full length repertory works, and two short repertory works. Directors included OTR Members as well as new collaborators to our company.
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The houses were packed, and we have been overwhelmed with the support of our audiences and donors. Thanks to all of you, we were able to put our actors on the stage where they belong! And to present work that we are extremely proud of.
Selected Plays: Jerry & Tom, Dutchman, Mr. Snicker, A Scene from Shhh, The Business of Nightmares
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Directors: Conor Romero, Lavinia Jones Wright, Monk Hooper, Mick Hazen, Xavier Claude, Christina Shea-Wright
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Casts: Mitch Allen, Bobby Brower, Victoria Byers, Tom Cappadona, Xavier Claude, Youri Cho, Kristin Condon, Kevin Covais, Michael Drayer, Andres Garbito, Mick Hazen, Monk Hooper, Tom Hooper, Kendall Joseph, Laura Kenyon, Jason Lopez, Will Lund, Kaija Matiss, Tyler Miller, Mariana Novak, James Andrew O'Connor, Joe Perrino, Julia Marie Peterson, Conor Romero, Dora Rubin, Arya Alexander Samini, Ayumu Poe Saegusa, Michael Schnick, Christina Shea-Wright, Lavinia Jones Wright, Rick Younger
Production Photos
OTR Fall Festival
a week of work by OnTheRoad Rep
directed by Alice Spivak
The Experimental Theater, Abrons Arts Center
October 11-16, 2022
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OTR Fall Fest 2022 was an exciting week of plays performed by the OnTheRoad Repertory Ensemble. From October 11th-16th, we presented multiple performances of four different plays, both new and from our repertory, in a festival style. The works presented were developed with our late Artistic Director Alice Spivak, and continued in her honor by the ensemble she built
Plays: The Four of Us, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Lou Gherig Did Not Die of Cancer, Kings of the Hill
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Directors: Julia Marie Peterson, Conor Romero, Nick Corley
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Casts: Vinny Anand, Bobby Brower, Jason Dubin, Mick Hazen, Monk Hooper, Lavinia Jones Wright, Steven Meehan, JT Patton, Joe Perrino, Esin Varan
Love All Alices
by Lavinia Jones Wright
directed by Lavinia Jones Wright
The Connelly Theater, NYC
August 11-12, 2022
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Love All Alices tells the story of legendary New York City acting teacher Alice Spivak, who taught for more than 60 years and died in 2020 at the age of 85. While her contributions were made mainly behind the scenes, Spivak’s stories, theories, and radical imagination offer a new way to look at craft and performance. Director Lavinia Jones Wright interviewed Alice Spivak over the course of three years, and wrote Love All Alices entirely from her words. The play premiered in a staged reading event this summer at the Connelly Theater, beginning on what would have been Alice’s 87th birthday: August 11th, 2022, by 40 actors who knew her.
OnTheroad repertory company 2012-2020
under the artistic direction of Alice Spivak
Lone Star
by James McLure
directed by Alice Spivak
The Dobbin Saloon in Dobbin, Texas
September 28 - 29, 2019
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James McLure’s iconic play, Lone Star, OTR’s inaugural showcase production, was performed in Dobbin, Texas, just about 25 minutes from Maynard, the locale of the play.
Cast: Bryan Schany, JT Patton and Mitch Allen
Chekhov Tribute 2018
by Anton Chekhov
directed by Alice Spivak
The Nuyorican Poets Café
March 11, 2018
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A cast of 25 players performed scenes, monologues and letters of Chekhov, conceptualized and directed by Alice Spivak, Artistic Director, and played to a sold-out crowd, enjoying the humor and wonder of the great playwright's words, along with a shot of vodka.​
Cast: The OTR Players
A Walk in the Woods
by Lee Blessing
directed by Alice Spivak
The Studio Theatre in Theatre Row
December 15 - 22, 2017
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A very relevant play from 1987 about one more attempt at a nuclear arms treaty by the world's super-powers, USSR and USA, as humanized by two negotiators on a park bench in Geneva, Switzerland. A much-needed reminder to the ploys governments will use to keep their destructive power intact.
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Cast: Jeffrey Farber and JT Patton
A Betrothal
by Lanford Wilson
directed by Alex Siladi
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The Studio Theatre in Theatre Row
December 16 - 23, 2017
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Originally conceived for Uta Hagen & Herbert Berghof, A Betrothal is a "lark" of a play about a pair of disappointed, middle-aged iris growers who chance meet at a flower show and, after much bickering, discover each other.
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Cast: Alice Spivak and Steven Hauck
Late Bus to Mecca
by Pearl Cleage
directed by Alice Spivak
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The Studio Theatre in Theatre Row
December 16 - 23, 2017
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A very touching ode to black sisterhood by Atlanta playwright Pearl Cleage. Set in 1971, it's about a prostitute fleeing 'the life' in Detroit and is on her way to Atlanta (the Mecca of the title). Ava waits for a girlfriend she plans to run away with, but instead meets a younger homeless woman in the Greyhound bus station.
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Cast: Cecilia Flagg and Ash Tai
The Show-Off
by George Kelly
directed by Alice Spivak
TBG Theatre
May 2 - 7, 2017
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First produced in 1924, it was received as the best comedy as yet written by an American author. The wonder of it is that it remains so relevant in its central character, Aubrey Piper - liar, braggart, egotist - who by the play's end, makes the point that when you allow yourself to dream fantastically and, most importantly, stand by it, you can change the world.
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Its relevancy is further established by the middle-class family chronicle of getting by and getting ahead in Philadelphia. The dollar amounts may have changed but the struggle is the same.
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Cast: Bobby Brower, Robert Cappucci, Damen Corrado, Jeffrey Farber, Clara Heller, Steven Meehan, Mary Palermo, Bryan Schany and Karen Eleanor Wight
Chekhov Tribute 2017
by Anton Chekhov
directed by Alice Spivak
The Nuyorican Poets Café
January 29, 2017
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A cast of 26 players performed scenes, monologues and letters of Chekhov, conceptualized and directed by Alice Spivak, Artistic Director, and played to a sold-out crowd, enjoying the humor and wonder of the great playwright's words, along with a shot of vodka.
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Cast: The OTR Players
The Husk
by Jake Quinn
directed by Alice Spivak
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Urban Stages
December 21 - 23, 2016
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In a city-owned building tucked away from the watchful eye of Police Headquarters, is the office of the D.O.A. Squad, an obscure unit attached to NYPD's Missing Persons Squad. The unit's primary goal is to bring dignity to the unidentified in death: unearthing the names of New York's neediest and loneliest, then tracking down their relatives to afford them the chance to provide a proper burial. When a priority case comes to the office, a mingling of personal and professional conversations are interwoven, revealing not only the victim's past, but also laying bare the troubled, haunted lives of the three detectives.
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Cast: Jeff Fahey, Billy Smith, Vincent Piazza, Nick Corley, Damen Corrado, Keri Uribe,
Elly-Anne Ehrman, Eric Michael Gillett and Mary Doyle Palermo
Orphans​
by Lyle Kessler
directed by Alice Spivak
The Studio Theatre in Theatre Row
May 24 - 29, 2016
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A comic drama about two brothers, one a recluse, the other a pickpocket, living in North Philly, and a wealthy businessman who becomes their long lost father.
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Cast: Joe Perrino, James Grant and Eric Michael Gillett
Frozen
by Bryony Lavery
directed by Alice Spivak
​The Studio Theatre in Theatre Row
February 9 - 14, 2016
10-year-old Rhona goes missing. Her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state of frozen hope. Ralph, a loner, looking for some distraction, lures, then murders seven little girls. Agnetha, an American academic, comes to England to research a thesis on "Serial Killing - A Forgivable Act?." Drawn together by horrific circumstances, these three embark on a long, dark journey which finally curves upward into the light.​
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Cast: Vincent Piazza, Cecilia Flagg, Cody Horn and John Sialiano
Tea in the Afternoon​
by Vanessa Shealy
directed by Nick Corley
The Studio Theatre in Theatre Row
February 2 - 7, 2016
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Elizabeth discovers that her late, much beloved grandmother has bequeathed her entire estate not to her, but to an unbeknownst great aunt, Bes. Her grief now twinged with betrayal, Elizabeth arrives on this mysterious great aunt's doorstep looking for answers. What unfolds is an exploration of mutual need and reciprocal antagonism as each woman seeks in the other some echo of the woman they are missing
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Cast: Alice Spivak and Tayler Beth Anderson
Matt & Ben​
by Mindy Kaling & Brenda Withers
directed by Alice Spivak
The Studio Theatre in Theatre Row
June 10 - 20, 2015
Matt and Ben depicts its Hollywood golden boys, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, before Oscar…when the screenplay for Good Will Hunting drops mysteriously from the heavens. A highly successful, profitable and well-received ten performances.
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Cast: Ryan Willard and Conor Romero
Laundry & Bourbon Lone Star
by James McLure
directed by Alice Spivak
TBG Theatre
January 29 - February 1, 2015
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Laundry & Bourbon
Elizabeth, forlornly waits for her husband, Roy, hoping “he is safe.” She is visited by her best friend, Hattie, a raucous distraction, and by Amy Lee, the town gossip.​
Lone Star
Roy is drinking himself into a stupor, while his brother, Ray, attempts to pull him around. The two of them are set upon by Cletis, who has some horrible news. Physical violence erupts.​​
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Cast: Lavinia Jones Wright, Julia Marie Peterson, Kristina Erikson, Bryan Schany, JT Patton
and Mitch Allen
The Show-Off
by George Kelly
directed by Alice Spivak
TBG Theatre
January 22 - 25, 2015
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First produced in 1924, it was received as the best comedy as yet written by an American author. The wonder of it is that it remains so relevant in its central character, Aubrey Piper - liar, braggart, egotist - who by the play's end, makes the point that when you allow yourself to dream fantastically and, most importantly, stand by it, you can change the world.
​
Its relevancy is further established by the middle-class family chronicle of getting by and getting ahead in Philadelphia. The dollar amounts may have changed but the struggle is the same.
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Cast: Vanessa Shealy, Mary Palermo, Rebecca De Ornelas, Mitch Allen, Jeffrey Farber, Bryan Schany, Bobby Brower, Ryan Willard and Robert Cappucci
Breaking Legs
by Tom Dulack
directed by Alice Spivak
The Soho Playhouse
July 10 - 2, 2014
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The Place is an Italian restaurant owned by a successful mobster and managed by his beautiful unmarried daughter. When the daughter's former college professor arrives to ask for financial backing for his play about a murder, the fun begins. Lou, the restauranteur, and two of his partners, all mobsters, become intrigued by the idea of producing a play. His daughter, Angie, falls for the professor, who gradually discovers that his backers are gangsters, but becomes entwined when he witnesses the "accidental" death of a lesser thug. Plenty of pasta is served up during the course of the play.​
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Cast: Christine Evangelista, William Mattiello, Robert Cappucci, Jeffrey Farber, Gordon Silva
and Tom Cappadona
Frozen
by Bryony Lavery
directed by Alice Spivak
TBG Theatre
March 12 - 22, 2014
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10-year-old Rhona goes missing. Her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state of frozen hope. Ralph, a loner, looking for some distraction, lures, then murders seven little girls. Agnetha, an American academic, comes to England to research a thesis on "Serial Killing: A Forgivable Act?" Drawn together by horrific circumstances, these three embark on a long, dark journey which finally curves upward into the light.​
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Cast: Vincent Piazza, Cecilia Flagg, Sonja Mauro and John Sialiano
Laundry & Bourbon Lone Star
by James McLure
directed by Alice Spivak
TBG Theatre
September 12 - 23, 2012
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Laundry & Bourbon
Elizabeth, forlornly waits for her husband, Roy, hoping “he is safe.” She is visited by her best friend, Hattie, a raucous distraction, and by Amy Lee, the town gossip.​
Lone Star
Roy is drinking himself into a stupor, while his brother, Ray, attempts to pull him around. The two of them are set upon by Cletis, who has some horrible news. Physical violence erupts.​​
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Cast: Robyn Rikoon, Keri Uribe, Christina Brucato, Bryan Schany, JT Patton, Mitch Allen
and TK Durham
Danny & The Deep Blue Sea
by John Patrick Shanley
directed by Alice Spivak
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Nuyorican Poets Café
June 12 - 19; July 31 - August 5, 2012
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The setting is a rundown bar in The Bronx, where two of society's rejects, Danny and Roberta, strike up a halting conversation over their beer. He is a brooding, self-loathing young man who resorts more to violence than reason; she is a divorced, guilt-ridden young woman whose troubled adolescent son is being cared for by her parents. What follows is a sexual encounter, which inspires them to probe into themselves and each other to find forgiveness - and a future touched with hope.​
"The best theatre teases us with the knowledge of its artificiality, even while it pulls us into a state of credulous surrender. All evidence suggests this production, from OnTheRoad Repertory Company, is vividly wise to this understanding, and sharp about how to convey it."
- Geoffrey Paddy Johnson, The Happiest Medium
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Cast: Joe Perrino and Allison Plamondon
Lone Star
by James McLure
directed by Alice Spivak
The Philip Coltoff Center
February 21 - March 7, 2012
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Roy is drinking himself into a stupor, while his brother, Ray, attempts to pull him around. The two of them are set upon by Cletis, who has some horrible news. Physical violence erupts.​​
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Cast: Bryan Schany, JT Patton, Mitch Allen and TK Durham as The Troubadour​