Tag Archives: Theatre

Are you ready for some Shakespeare?!?

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This is a call to all performance artists!  It’s a unique Shakespearean performance opportunity!  The Desultory Theatre Club will present a “Secret Shakespeare” performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in August 2017 in an alternative performance space, Whiting Mills Artist Collective, Winsted, CT.  We invite performance artists of all backgrounds to submit proposals to stage a portion.

Selected artists will be able to provide a “finished” product to be viewed mid-June for preliminary review by The Desultory Theatre Club’s production staff for this event.  The final finished piece you have been assigned will then be moved into the performance space leading up to our tech rehearsal and will be part of a flowing interpretation that will take place all over our assigned venue.

Think minimum tech and max DIY artistic imagination!  Selected artists will provide all needed lights, sound, sets, etc. for their final performances.  Although if there is something specific that artists need for their production, the DTC production staff will work with artists to explore solutions to meeting those needs.  Once in the final venue, a lockable space will be provided to keep safe any reasonably sized items of value.

Artists that are accepted will then be assigned portion of the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that they will be responsible for producing a finished product that will be moved into the performance space the week of the show for a Tech Rehearsal and 2 performances.

Performances:  Friday and Saturday, August 25 and 26 in the evening

Tech Rehearsal:  Thursday, August 24 in the evening

Proposals will be evaluated for artistic approach to the material and innovative ideas, to be explored more fully with DTC upon acceptance. Scenes to be discussed and assigned, once all performers have been selected.

Proposals should include

  • Why you are interested in working on this project, and this particular play
  • Description of an example scene from the paly and how you would stage it
  • What production elements you anticipate using, and, of those, what you could provide and what you would need provided to you

DEADLINE:  February 28th.

Send all proposals to Keith Paul, The Desultory Theatre Club’s Artistic Director at desultorytheatreclub@gmail.com

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Halloween Massacra-ade

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This October, The Desultory Theatre Club teams up with Hole In The Wall Theater to bring you…

The Halloween Massacr-ade, featuring Elmwood Productions‘ award-winning puppet horror film, HEAD.

Halloween Massacr-ade at Hole In The Wall Theater in New Britain, October 21, 2016

The evening of terror begins with a screening of the film HEAD, followed by music by The Super Scenics. A cash bar and other treats will be available to keep your thirst and hunger at bay. (We don’t want you eating the other guests, after all…)

It’s not a Halloween party without costumes! The theme for the night is Summer Camp Killers v. Counselors. Dress up as your favorite Slasher (or create one of your own) or one of the Camp Counselors they love to stalk and you may take home the prize for best costume!

Where: Hole In The Wall Theater, 116 Main Street, New Britain CT 06052

When: Friday, October 21, 2016 – 7 pm – 12 midnight

Admission: $10 at the door

Please note that this is not a BYOB event.

For more information, check out the Facebook Event page.

Get Your KP Fix at LOST IN YONKERS

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While The Desultory Theatre Club finishes programming the beginning of their next season, our very own, Keith Paul, has been spending his days and nights working on his next project…  LOST IN YONKERS at the Warner Theatre’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre.

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By America’s great comic playwright, Neil Simon, this memory play brings us back to Yonkers in 1942. The hit Broadway production featured Irene Worth, Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Spacey in award-winning performances.

As the play opens, ne’er-do-well Eddie Kurnitz–recently widowed and financially strapped–deposits his two adolescent sons on his mother’s doorstep to take to the road as a traveling salesman. The boys are left to contend with the stern and terrifying Grandma Kurnitz, their sweet but mentally-challenged Aunt Bella, and Louie, a small-time hoodlum running from gangsters…who also happens to be their uncle. What a strange new world Yonkers is.

Catch LOST IN YONKERS at The Warner Theatre’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre from March 5, 2016, through March 13, 2016.

For details, check out the Facebook Event Page and/or the Warner Theatre’s website.

Directed by Keith Paul


Featuring the acting talents of Michael Rooney, Colby Morkan, Holly Martin, Karen Parent, James Hyland, Eric Hammer and Beverly Delventhal-Sali.

And Original Music from Mr Preston Parish!

Der Vorführeffekt Theatre Returns on November 3rd with Three Kinds of Wilderness!

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We are thrilled to announce the return of the Der Vorführeffekt Theatre company on Monday, November 3rd!

Last seen here in Torrington almost 2 years ago when they performed The 7 Person Chair Pyramid High-Wire Act, the Der Vorführeffekt Theatre troupe returns with a brand new piece of entertainment…

Three Kinds of Wilderness - Der Vorführeffekt Theatre Troupe

Three Kinds of Wildness

A play by Donna Oblongata

Directed by Sarah Lowry

Music by Travis Sehorn and Chenda Cope

Designed, Created, and Performed by: Donna Oblongata, Patrick Costello, Cricket Arrison, Chenda Cope, and Travis Sehorn

Three Kinds of Wilderness - Der Vorführeffekt Theatre Troupe

In the maze of tunnels that make up the deepest gold mine in the world, there exists an underground city—home to an ice baron, a telegraph inventor, and a doctor who’s dubious about the inherent value of the human heartbeat. The inventor’s daughter hears so much that it’s as if she can’t hear anything. The ice baron returns from debtor’s prison and becomes mayor. The mayor has a secretary who once gave birth to a pile of rabbit parts. The doctor seems certain that all of her patients are miners, though no one can remember the last time anyone saw a miner. The inventor hires a specialist, who arrives just in time for the Great Civic Parade, to which, of course, you’re all invited. Perhaps you might want to wear red?

Three Kinds of Wildness is the newest play from Der Vorführeffekt Theatre, a company under the artistic direction of Donna Oblongata. Featuring an all-star company of multi-disciplinary artists hailing from Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Charlottesville, VA; this production is the company’s first to be completely built and rehearsed in our new home at the Sherwood Oak in West Philadelphia. The play is 100% handmade and homemade, with exquisitely crafted puppets, intricately layered soundscapes, and unconventional theatrical lighting made from salvaged and repurposed materials gathered from around the neighborhood. The play enjoyed a two-week tour of the Northeastern US in May, and will go as far west as Minneapolis and as far south as New Orleans in November.

Three Kinds of Wilderness - Der Vorführeffekt Theatre Troupe

Der Vorführeffekt Theatre is a Philadelphia-based theatre company that operates under the direction of Donna Oblongata. Housed in the 150-year old Sherwood Oak building in West Philadelphia, Der Vorführeffekt works to create radically beautiful live performance. At the core of the company’s work is a celebration of creativity, imagination, resourcefulness, and liveness. These four qualities are certainly not the only things needed to create the kind world we want to live in, but as artists dedicated to social and environmental justice, we believe they’re a good place to work from.

In a world where technology is so ubiquitous as to become invisible, we treasure the lo-fi, the analog, and the painstakingly handmade. In a culture that creates such an abundance of waste, when natural resources are finite, we dedicate ourselves to using salvaged and recycled materials for all of our sets, props, and costumes. And in a society where the loss of personal connection is constantly lamented, where multitasking is a given and our relationships are mediated by technological devices, we offer the opportunity to take a breath, to be together, and to participate in an evening of warm, ridiculous, unpredictable theatre that is unabashed in its humanity; even before the curtain goes up, the space buzzes with all of our collective liveness.

We believe that experiences like those we create for our audiences and for ourselves as artists should be accessible to all. As such, we tour our work to geographic locations and venues underserved by the regional theatre system and by other touring models. Admission is always at or below the price of a ticket to the cinema, with no one turned away for lack of ability to pay. We offer donation-based performance classes during the year, as well as artist residencies to support to work of other performing artists living in West Philadelphia.

VENUE: The Arts Desire, 97 Main Street, Torrington

Pay what you can at the door (suggested: $5-$15).

Doors open at 7:30 PM; show starts at 8:00 PM.

Find more details on the Facebook event page.

Play On: Two Festivals at The Warner Theatre This Weekend

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It’s a busy weekend for The Desultory Theatre Club’s own, Keith Paul!

International Playwrights Festival

First is the International Playwright Festival, a celebration of new work from playwrights around the world. From over 200 entries, 12 winning one-act plays were selected to be showcased Thursday through Saturday, October 16-18. Tickets are just $15 a night, or $30 for the entire festival, and can be ordered online from the Warner Theatre or purchased at the Box Office. Saturday night features a play directed by our very own Keith Paul–you don’t want to miss it!

Connecticut Artists & Playwrights Festival

On Sunday, October 19th, the drama continues with the Connecticut Artists & Playwrights Festival, a unique event combining visual art from the University of Connecticut and Five Points Gallery with ten-minute plays inspired by these works. Keith Paul dons his director’s cap once more for a trio of tales spawned by the painting, Omens Organum Triplum, by Pam Bramble. Tickets are also only $15 and available for purchase online.

With 4 days in a row of performances–a total of 22 plays!!–there’s no cause for complaint. There’s plenty to do this weekend!

Catch Jumper This Weekend at The Warner Theatre!

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Do you remember Jumper, The Desultory Theatre Club’s first production? If you missed it, or if you’re just nostalgic to relive the past, you can catch Matthew Doyle’s play about the story of a man who has lost everything and one day debates jumping off a building this Saturday, September 27th at the Warner Theatre at the CT Community Theatre Assoc. Festival. The Festival starts at 1PM and The Desultory Theatre Club’s own Keith Paul will go on with Rodney K. and Jamie Weisberg at 3PM. Winners are judged on the spot and then possibly JUMP to the finals held in Grand Rapids, MI next summer to compete against all of New England! Tickets are just $10 and can be purchased from the Warner Theatre’s Box Office.