The Cast and crew |
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Bob Brader (Writer/Performer) Bob’s debut monologue, Spitting In The Face Of The Devil, received a critically acclaimed two and a half month run at The Red Room, with Encore Performances in NYC last fall and at The Fletcher Gallery in Woodstock, presented by Authentic Writing, last December. Bob appeared in the first-ever New York FRIGID Festival last year as Peter in We Call Her Benny, and will reprise his role in the full-length production at The Michael Weller Theatre in April. Some of his other New York Theatre credits include Girls School Vampire, Salome, Bitch Macbeth, Who in the Hell is the Real Live Lorelei Lee? and Caesar in DMTheatric’s award-winning production of Antony and Cleopatra. He also played Parker Lyman in the five-month run of BITE with The John Montgomery Theatre Company, of which he is now Managing Director. He came to New York to attend The Tisch School of the Arts, working with the Stella Adler Conservatory. Bob is a member of AFTRA and The Dramatists Guild. www.bob-brader.com |
| Suzanne Bachner (Director/Developed by) Suzanne is thrilled to be Bob's co-conspirator on his new creation after working with him on the acclaimed and even darker Spitting In The Face Of The Devil last season. Suzanne directed her play, We Call Her Benny, to critical acclaim, as part of the first-ever FRIGID New York Festival. The new full length production will premiere at The Michael Weller Theatre this April. Other directing credits include Frank D. Gilroy's The Subject Was Roses at The Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles, the short film Jennifer Monroe, P.I. (Finalist, Flicks on 66) and her cult hit, Icons & Outcasts, which ran for six months at The John Montgomery Theatre and The Duplex. Suzanne's award-winning play, Circle, ran for five months Off Broadway and was called “ingenious” by The New York Times. Her plays have been seen at PS NBC at HERE, 20th Century Fox at the Coronet Theatre in LA, The Raw Space, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, and The National Arts Club, among others. Plays include Don't Let Destiny Push You Around, Screwdrivers & Sunday Brunch, Alexandra Triptych, Jump Start, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Sex Ed and BITE. Suzanne studied playwriting with Romulus Linney and received her MFA from The Actors Studio Drama School at The New School. She is an Alumni Veteran Resident Artist at Horse Trade, has received four OOBR Awards and is a member of The Dramatists Guild. |
Douglas Shearer (Lighting Design and Technical Direction) has been with The John Montgomery Theatre Company since 1996 and has been in the theatre for almost 30 years. In that time he has acted, designed both lighting and sound, stage managed and directed. JMTC productions include Othello, Patient 23, Icons & Outcasts, Icons Y2K, The Collard Green: Contributions by Cornbread Divas and Run to the Roar (both co-productions with The Cracked Plate), Flirting with Reality, BITE, We Call Her Benny and Spitting In The Face Of The Devil. Recent stage managing credits include Timmy the Great directed and choreographed by Savion Glover and Finer Noble Gases by Adam Rapp, directed by Michael John Garces. Companies Doug has worked with include Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, Rattlestick, Ensemble Studio, The Play Company, The Acting Company, Primary Stages, American Globe, Vital, Signature and Amas. He has had the pleasure of working with both seasoned professionals and the future famous. Many thanks to Suzanne and the JMTC family. |
Graphic Design by Michael Koch
Photography by Scott Wynn
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The John Montgomery Theatre Company
is an international collective of actors, writers, directors and designers presenting original work with an emphasis on the collaborative process. Founded in 1994 by Patrick Hillan, JMTC has produced over 40 productions in New York City, worked with over 100 theater artists and consumed 1,000’s of pints following performances.
Past productions include the award-winning Off Broadway hit, Circle, by Suzanne Bachner, directed by Trish Minskoff; Shakespeare’s Othello starring Geoffrey Owens; the cult hit, Icons & Outcasts, written and directed by Suzanne Bachner; and the New York premiere of When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout by Sharman Macdonald, directed by Trish Minskoff and starring Roberta Maxwell, Robin Morse and Fred Koehler.
JMTC has presented work at PSNBC at HERE and 20th Century Fox at the Coronet Theater in LA and has received four OOBR Awards. In addition, JMTC has participated in many festivals—The Midtown International Theater Festival (“Best of Fest” two consecutive years), The Spotlight On Festival at The Raw Space, The Bare Bones Festival at HERE and Flicks on 66 Wild West Digital Shootout (Finalist). JMTC ran its own theater space in Chelsea for four years, is an Alumni Veteran Resident at Horse Trade and is currently producing new work at The Michael Weller Theatre.
We Call Her Benny, which JMTC created expressly for the first-ever FRIGID Festival last year, will premiere in its new full-length incarnation at The Michael Weller Theatre in April 2008.
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PRAISE FOR JMTC’s Past Productions |
Spitting In The Face Of The Devil
Written and Performed by Bob Brader
"Bob Brader keeps the audience at their knees with an engaging knack for storytelling adorned with smart humor and a shattering kind of sadness that will linger in the mind."
-OffoffBway.com
“Very much a hit...Mr. Brader is an incredibly versatile and engaging performer...Suzanne Bachner's direction is flawless...I highly recommend
this piece."
-Broadway World
"Brader’s confident, candid storytelling manner and his vivid, earnest writing keep us compelled throughout…rich with intelligence and humor...a gripping, elegantly conceived event."
- NYTheatre.com
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We Call Her Benny (FRIGID '07)
Written and Directed by Suzanne Bachner
"One of the most theatrically interesting pieces I have seen in years...
The direction is startlingly crisp and clean...The writing is deft and fearless...The cast is incredible...This play should be seen by anyone wanting to know the future of theatre."
-Broadway World
"The John Montgomery Theatre Company is clearly head-and-shoulders above most of what plays Off-Off Broadway…We Call Her Benny features an outstanding cast...a very visual evening, with an excellent cast, played with force and conviction."
-DISH Satelite Network's "The New Yorkers"
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JMTC’s Past Productions
“Off-Off Broadway at its best.”
-Time Out New York
“Ingenious…it is no accident that so many of the sharp jokes come as complete surprises.”
-The New York Times
“A writer with such a winning combination of humor and empathy…Bachner hits her social targets with repeated accuracy.”
-BACK STAGE
“Deft, Economical, Theatrical Storytelling…Bachner’s writing [is] witty, knowing, compassionate.”
-New York Post
“Without a doubt, Suzanne Bachner is the outstanding playwright of the moment; she is possibly the most commercially promising as well.”
-OOBR |
