Can't Get Started

Written by Tom X. Chao
Directed by Dave Dawson

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Tickets: $14

Dates

Times

Thursday 3/8	6pm
Sunday 3/11	1pm
Monday 3/12	6pm
Thursday 3/15	10:30pm
Friday 3/16	7:30pm
Sunday 3/18	8:30pm

"Can't Get Started never feels like anything less than one man's sincere attempt to get to the bottom of an endless conundrum...Jayson McDonald is endearingly tortured as Tom, and gives Can't Get Started the oddball jolt it needs."

Michael Criscuolo

Tom X. Chao’s CAN’T GET STARTED gets revisited by Canadian theatre-veteran at Frigid New York.

One of Tom X. Chao's most moving, infuriating, heartbreaking, and coherent
works is not to be missed at FRIGID New York. Tom is a writer who can't talk
to women, let alone write for them. Sarah is an actor who needs the job. But
what is this play? Ethnomusicologists in love? Abstract geometric puppetry?
Unendurable loneliness has never been funnier!

Dave Dawson
(Director)

Dave Dawson is a director, playwright, performer, and teacher from Ottawa. He’s an 11 year veteran of the Canadian Fringe festival Circuit, as a performer and director.
Recently he has directed touring productions of Tom X. Chao’s Can’t Get Started, John Patrick Shanley’s The Big Funk, and Sterling Lynch & Sam Varteniuk’s The Root of All Squares, as well as Ottawa productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Morris Panych’s 7 Stories and Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. His plays Cabin Fever, and Snacktime for the Uninitiated have received readings at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. Black Sheep Theatre heads out again this summer to tour Six festivals on the Canadian Fringe Circuit.

After a break from his wildly successful 2006 Canadian Fringe Tour, director Dave Dawson brings NYC performance artist and playwright Tom X. Chao's exciting work Can't Get Started to the first ever Frigid New York.

"Playwright Tom X. Chao's little gem is a definite sleeper hit"

- Toronto Sun

Featuring Jayson MacDonald and Anne Wyman, the play gives us rare insight
into the thought process and lifestyle of the lonely guy that you see on the
subway, meticulously articulated by a sharp writer who can help you
understand how anybody could be alone amidst a sea of eight million people.

The Cast
Jayson McDonald as TOM	Jayson McDonald is a writer and performer from London, Ontario. He’s the creator of *The Adventures Of The Boneyard Man, an ongoing radio noir parody, and is a member of alt comedy outfit Fully Insured. His company Stars And Hearts produced the thriller Jigsaw* in New York in 2005, and his plays *Mercury* and *The Deluxe Illustrated Body* (co-written with Lil Malinich) were produced by Spiral Inc. in NYC that same year. Upcoming performances include his solo show *Giant Invisible Robot* at Theatre Off Jackson’s SPF1 in Seattle in March and the Ottawa Fringe in June, *Blow This Popsicle Stand* with Black Hand Theatre at The Prague Fringe Festival in May, and Fully Insured’s *Vacations With You* in July at The London Fringe Festival. A Stars And Hearts production of his play *Legitimate Cinema* is slated for NYC in the fall. Visit him at www.myspace.com/jaysonmcdonald, and if you have any cake, bring it.
Anne Wyman as SARAH	18 year old Anne Wyman is really just using this show as an excuse to come to New York City. Anne is an accomplished member of the improv circuit in Winnipeg, traveling to the Canadian Improv Games national competiton for three years in a row. Anne has also spent a year coaching and performing longform improv with her troupe *Scriptless in Seattle.* In 2006 she performed at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival in Fancy Molasses’ *Stuck, also the first show she’s written, and in 2005 she directed a one woman show titled In Between* . Look for her in six different Canadian cities in 2007 fringe festivals. Anne has been teaching and performing with Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg for three years and has done such shows as Edward Bond’s *Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Consequence of Sound* and *In Tolerance. If you’re ever in Winnipeg come see her murder mystery dinner theatre show Rehearsal for Murder,* but while you’re here in New York make sure to check her out in Frigid Fest’s *The Root of all Squares.* And, if you want to give Jayson’s cake to her instead she’ll probably love you forever.

Press Quotes from the 2006 Fringe Tour:
"Playwright Tom X. Chao's little gem is a definite sleeper hit." --Toronto Sun "It must be said that New York writer Tom X. Chao is a magnificently sick man." --Planet S (Saskatoon) "A personal story of heartbreak from playwright Tom X. Chao. . . . His brainy banter . . . is entertaining . . . including a hilarious puppet show between geometric shapes which has 'no allegorical content'." --Eye Weekly (Toronto) "New York playwright Tom X. Chao certainly deserves a lot of respect just for finding a new take on the “smart, misunderstood, antisocial guy wonders why girls don’t like him” premise. . . . It’s self-referential in a surprisingly funny way. . . . It’s very clever, thought-provoking, at points very funny. . . . If you’re like me, and you like your Fringe shows extra-fringey, you’ll probably thoroughly enjoy Can’t Get Started." --CBC Manitoba (Winnipeg)