POP THEATER

Pop Culture Meets High Culture

 Two Gentlemen of Lebowski (2010)

The theater as we know it is descended from the Elizabethan and Jacobean traditions.  The Greek and Roman use of the theater is preserved in the ritualistic pomp and bother of Roman Catholic Mass, pilgrimages to Mecca, modern political conventions, and the like.  The  populist elements of entertainment can be traced to the loud, brash, daring pop art of the Globe, the Rose, and their rivals, who had to compete with bear-baiting, public executions and brothels for punters' attention.  We pretend to a grand, noble, patrician bearing in the theater, but the truth is, we're mongrels.  We're carnival barkers, vaudevillians.  We have more in common with pro wrestling than poetry.

 

That's as it should be.  Theater should be more cinematic, and cinema should be more theatrical.  It's odd that the insular art form, in which people sit quietly in the dark facing a blank wall for two hours, has become the more emotional, sensationally-driven medium;  while the art form that gathers people together to share a tactile, immediate, unreproducible experience is now the more intellectual and philosophical medium.  It's backwards.  That's not to say sensationalistic theater can't be stimulating, or that movies can't be emotionally energizing.  But, I'm saying.

 

It doesn't seem strange now, when Shakespeare vs. pop culture mashups litter stages and bookshops all over the English-speaking world (yeah, that's, uh, partially my fault, sorry), but when we started doing  shows like this?  It was  uncharted territory, using movies, burlesque, rock music, pop culture in general as our texts.  We weren't alone in doing it, but we were sorely outnumbered, and it was an uphill battle getting some folks to accept the idea at first.  I adore live theater, which you can guess seeing as how that's, you know, what I do, but even I don't go to see much of it, since theater, especially States-side, has ossified, like opera, ballet, high literature, fine art -- safely defanged for audiences who want to keep their culture walled off and secure.

 

And thus DMT came to "stick" "it" (whatever "it" is) to "the man".  Also, I am old now.

 

We've been attempting a populist, engaging theater, one that attracts with boom and bombast, surprises with depth and heart.  All of these shows have an eager wish to entertain and engage their audience, to grab you by the throat, the heart, the soul.  To appeal to audiences who would never be caught dead in a theater, and to not only get them there but keep them there for other shows by other artists.

 

There's an episode of the Simpsons where Homer says he'd rather go to a play than have to rescue Flanders from (I think) rabid chimps, and he says "play" as though he were referring to a rash or a sucking chest wound.  That's the way most people think of theater.  I want those audiences.  I want to blast all the dust and cobwebs off of their image of the theater, to get them excited, to make them eager to get back to us every time we mount a show.  I'm very proud that our audiences have been mostly non-theater-goers.  We need more of those.

 

The greatest sin of art is to be boring.  These shows have been loud, quiet, weird, exciting, offensive, moving, brash, immersive, and flat-out nuts, but never boring.

 

 

-- Frank Cwiklik, NYC 2015

 

 

 

 

REPERTORY

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The Red Room, June 2012

  • ABOUT

    This is the show that started it all...  Girls' School Vampire, the horror/comedy extravaganza about coming of age, bloodlust, and how to pick up chicks.  In the remote Middle European country of Carpathia, the former home of the dreaded Count Sebastian the First is now the Browning Carpathian School For Wayward Girls, a second chance at life for the troubled young girls of our modern, immoral society.  Enter Monsignor Emanuel, a mysterious man of the cloth with a deep, dark secret;  Emily Foster, a young girl suddenly becoming a woman, and not knowing how to cope with it; and David Foster, her father, at the end of his rope and possibly his sanity.

     

    Soon, their worlds will be turned upside down as the dreaded Headmistress and her devilish assistant hatch a fiendish plot that threatens to destroy the school, Carpathia itself -- and perhaps all of mankind.

     

    GIrls' School Vampire premiered at the Greenwich Street Playhouse in Spring of 1999, and returned to the venerable Todo Con NADA in Fall of that same year.  An epic instant cult classic, Girls School Vampire launched the DMT repertory, introduced a number of future indie theater mainstays to the New York stage, and predated the pop culture/high culture mashup movement by nearly a decade.

     

     

  • GALLERY

  • PROMO

  • CREDITS

    Original cast:

     

    Spring 1999, Greenwich Street Theater:

    in order of appearance:  BRITT LAFIELD  *  J. KEVIN TALLENT  *  BROOKE TAYLOR  *  PETER LEUREIRO  *  MOLLY HARRINGTON  *  BOB BRADER  *  GURION MANBER  *  SUSAN SPANO  *  CHARLEY CARFREY  *  CARRIE JOHNSON  *  SANDI MICALI SMITH  *  DAVID TULLY

     

    Fall 1999, Todo Con NADA:

    in order of appearance:  PETER RUSSO  *  JENNY WEAVER  *  J. KEVIN TALLENT  *  BRITT LAFIELD  *  MONICA RUSSELL  *  MOLLY HARRINGTON  *  BOB BRADER  *  CHARLEY CARFREY  *  ERIN CARDILLO  *  CARRIE JOHNSON  *  SANDI MICALI SMITH  *  DAVID TULLY

     

    Written, produced and directed by FRANK CWIKLIK

     

Greenwich Street Theater, Spring 1999

Todo Con NADA, Fall 1999

Girls' School Vampire (1999)

Who in the Hell is the Real, Live Lorelei Lee? (2003)

Todo Con NADA May-September 2000

  • ABOUT

    Three guys. One lesbian. One time machine. And a planet full of space babes.  Oh yeah.

     

    In the year of our Lord 1992, we have conquered the moon and Mars, and now, the US of A sends its finest space pilots to conquer… time! Back, back, back in time they travel to find themselves on a planet inhabited entirely by women! Watch in wonder, horror, awe, and dismay as Captain Buck Fuster, Doctor Rod Johnson, Engineer Randy Willing, and the redoubtable Skippy (with his sock puppet Timmy) venture through this alien world! Can the notorious womanizer Buck Fuster find true happiness with the enlightened political activist Kara? Will Doctor Rod Johnson succeed in his dastardly plan for world domination? Is Randy Willing really the Lesbian Messiah? And will Skippy finally lose his virginity?

     

    The first in a long and seemingly endless parade of high-octane sex farces from DMT, this rollicking, foul-mouthed, big-hearted sci-fi comedy opened at the late, lamented Todod Con NADA in May/June of 2000 and played a demand encore engagement in August and September of that same year during the 2000 Pure Pop Festival.   Inspired by the raunch cinema of the late 1960’s, and drive-in movies of the 1950’s, Amazons in Chains is an inspired melange of audience participation, razor sharp farce, and biting satire on gender politics and the mysteries of romance.

     

  • GALLERY

  • PROMO

    11x17 show poster, scanned from (badly water damaged) original paste-ups

  • CREDITS

    your cast of characters (in order of their appearance on our stage)

    DR. ROD JOHNSON Gurion Manber

    CAPTAIN BUCK FUSTER Bob Brader

    SKIPPY Britt Lafield (role played by Peter B. Brown in revival)

    ENGINEER RANDY N. WILLING Candace Owens (role played by Christiania Cobean in revival)

    KUMM-LA Christiaan Koop

    MIRA-KA Amy Caitlin Carr

    KARA POORTHOUGHT Carrie Johnson

    THE BIRKENSTOCK BRIGADE Tracey Paleo, Sarah G. Thurmond, Christiania Cobean (revival: Marla Yost)

    QUEEN ANUBIS Stacia French (role played by Nicole Marsh in revival)

    TARA R'BOOM DiYAY Michele Schlossberg

    CAPTAIN BUSTER NAYLOR Frank Cwiklik

    AND AS VARIOUS GROUPIES, SOLDIERS, CITIZENS, AND TEENIEBOPPERS: Tracey Paleo, Sarah G. Thurmond, Christiania Cobean (revival: Marla Yost)

    AND TIMMY as himself!

     

    PRODUCED BY FRANK CWIKLIK AND MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG

    WRITTEN, DESIGNED, AND DIRECTED BY FRANK CWIKLIK

     

    our play takes place in the far flung future year of AD 1992, and during the dawn of prehistoric time...

     

     

     

Under St. Marks, June 2001

  • ABOUT

    I never should have fallen for that dame... I never should have robbed that safe... And I never should have killed my boss...

     

    The minds behind the infamous Masterworks of Edward D. Wood, Jr. series present QUICKSAND, based on the cult classic thriller directed by Irving Pichel, in which a young stud tries to impress the femme fatale of his dreams with a little petty larceny, only to find himself caught up in a web of deceit, intrigue, and bald faced thievery.

     

    In a seaport town reminiscent of both New Orleans and Atlantic City, troubled Dan Brady gets himself trapped in a circle of crooks, scumbags, and out and out whackos, only to be redeemed by the true love of an honest woman and the help of an understanding stranger. Plagued by an unscrupulous boss, a sleazy arcade/casino owner, and his own talent for trouble, Dan must get out of this mess one way or another without getting himself killed in the process...

     

    Quicksand was the first show produced by DMT in the Horse Trade Theater spaces, and the beginning of Danse Macabre's residency with this distinguished organization. It also featured special guest appearances by downtown NYC theater legends Art Wallace (as the despicable Mackay) and Trav S.D. (as The Lawyer).

  • GALLERY

  • PROMO

  • CREDITS

    DANSE MACABRE THEATRICS PRESENTS

    QUICKSAND

     

    starring in alphabetical order

    SARAH JANE BUNKER * RASHEED HINDS * YURI LOWENTHAL * TOM MAZUR * ROGER NASSER * MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG * MOIRA STONE

    TRAV S.D. as The Lawyer

    and ART WALLACE as Mackay

     

    Based on the film written by ROBERT SMITH and directed by IRVING PICHEL

    Stage Manager/Technicals BERIT JOHNSON

    Fight choreography and Direction MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG-CWIKLIK

     

    Produced by FRANK CWIKLIK and MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG-CWIKLIK

    Adapted, designed, and directed by FRANK CWIKLIK

     

     

The Red Room, June/July 2002

  • ABOUT

    "... tight and funny...  great comic moments... ELECTROMAGNETIC!”

    -- Carlo Fiorletta, Stage Press Weekly

    A REAL NICE PLACE TO VISIT... BUT YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO LIVE THERE.

     

    Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Kookamonga Falls… Not too close to where you live. Upstate. Tucked away in the forests, up in the mountains. Some folks around here say the woods are haunted. It is said that at night, when it’s late and you’re all alone, you can sometimes see the spirits of our gorilla ancestors, drifting through the woods… Oh, look, there goes one right now.

     

    Oh, and there’s the e-ville villain, Rudolph Von Hackemore, cunningly disguised as an unusually hirsute woman with an adam’s apple and an eye patch! And his long lost love, the otherwise quite frigid Dr. Ilsa Gruenwald, and her brilliant and terribly repressed husband, the brilliant and terribly repressed Dr. Peter Von Hackemore… the brother of the e-ville Rudolph! And just who is… the Mysterious Woman? No, seriously. Who is she??

     

    Oh, and did we mention the chainsmoking narrator with the bad attitude? Or the popcorn-eating gorilla? Or the movie theater that shows only intermission loops? Or—Nah. Forget it. You wouldn’t believe us if we told you.

     

    It’s all business as usual for Kookamonga Falls, the looniest long-running soap opera you’ve never seen, presented for your delectation and baffled bemusement by playwright Todd Miller, who wrote this madcap comedy exclusively for DMTheatrics, making this the world premiere of this surreal farce. Presented as a live television production, complete with warmup acts and studio audience, this charming, madcap romp is exactly the kind of material audiences have come to expect from DMTheatrics: unhinged, unpredictable, and highly unusual.

     

    SPECIAL ADDED ATTRACTION! Before our long-running soap opera begins, enjoy our opening entertainment, America 2.0, a puppet show extravaganza about the adventures of Brad, former actor, now salesman, and his determined efforts to return home from a wrong turn in Mexico. See him befriend South American supervillains, Tyrannosaurus Rexes, and many others! Longtime DMTheatrics collaborator Ian W. Hill designed and directed this delightful slice of sublime ridiculousness -- a kid's show most definitely not for kids, and most definitely not your average kiddie show...

     

  • GALLERY

  • PROMO

  • CREDITS

    DANSE MACABRE THEATRICS

    in association with HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP

    presents a new comedy by Todd Miller

    KOOKAMONGA FALLS

     

    Starring

    PETER B. BROWN * BRYAN ENK * IAN W. HILL * MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG * MOIRA STONE

     

    Produced by FRANK CWIKLIK and MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG

    Sound and lighting design by FRANK CWIKLIK

    Publicity SCOTT MAKIN

    DIRECTED BY MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG

     

    with special opening attraction...

    AMERICA 2.0

    Written by TODD MILLER

    Puppet construction by BERIT JOHNSON

    Sound Design by IAN W. HILL and YOUTHQUAKE!

    Performed by IAN W. HILL and BERIT JOHNSON

    Designed and Directed by IAN W. HILL

     

The Red Room, May/June 2008

  • ABOUT

    There is a legend spoken of in hushed whispers amongst connoisseurs of mystery, adventure,  romance, and fine living… a legend of an island paradise inhabited solely by a tribe of powerful and beautiful women… Amazons! Deep in the forbidden tropics they reside, their existence a closely guarded secret, their location an inscrutable mystery! It is this legend that spurs an over-the-hill actor-turned-nature-show-host and his beleaguered, put-upon sidekick to their greatest adventure yet! Aided by a sexy young starlet hungry for fame and fortune and a young photographer with a chip on her shoulder and nothing left to lose, their journey begins – only to be cut short by plane trouble and catastrophe! Now, the womanizing Jake Manley is about to learn that you should be careful what you wish for, when he finally encounters… THE WILD, WILD WOMEN OF WAKKY-NUNU!

     

    Following up on the comedy smash successes of 2005’s Orgy of the Dead! and 2006’s The Sinister Urge!, this was writer/director Frank Cwiklik's first original comedy since the acclaimed Sugarbaby! of 2002.   Backstage Pop culture mayhem! Sex, skin, and debauchery! Violence! Grass skirts! Tikis! Really tasteless jokes about sexual anatomy! Hot chicks pummeling dumb guys with blunt instruments! All this and an intermission!  An ambitious, over-stuffed comedy about the war between the sexes and the war against intelligence, and one of the most daft, delirious works we've ever staged.

     

  • GALLERY

  • PROP IMAGES

  • CREDITS

    starring

    PATRICK PIZZOLORUSSO * BECKY BYERS * SAMANTHA MASON * KEVIN MYERS * SARAH E. JACOBS

    and DOUGLAS MACKRELL as Hickory “Toot” Sweet

    with JESS BEVERIDGE * SARAH BRODSKY * LEAH DIETRICH * LAURA MUZERALL * CELESTINE RAE * CANDACE YOSHIOKA

    and FRANK CWIKLIK as Jake Manley

    Publicist EMILY OWENS PR

    Choreography SARAH E. JACOBS

    Co-Producer MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG

    Written, Designed, Produced, and Directed by FRANK CWIKLIK

     

  • ABOUT

    "A torrent of sensory invention...  The cast is uniformly terrific...  Knock-down, drag-out, tight and versatile...  Cwiklik's fertile imagination is evident from the moment the audience enters."

    --  Michael  Criscuolo, NYTheatre.com

    Cabaret on steroids, the Badass Record Collection launched with this electric, eclectic tribute to one of the most acclaimed and revered of modern songwriters, the mighty Elvis Costello.  A late-night rockfest launched at the legendary Brick theater in Williamsburg, Taking Liberties was a live event, part concert, part performance, part theater, part cabaret, a fast-moving, energetic revue using Costello's music as a starting point for daring visuals and high-energy performances.  Playing to packed houses, DMT's first live musical in five years successfully bridged the gap between the music in your head and the world of live theater, and earned rave reviews and enthusiastic audience response.

     

    Starting as a live taping of an imaginary Ed Sullivan-style variety show, the slow slowly morphs into a subconscious journey through heartbreak, hope, love, and the little dramas of daily living, all sung and performed by a talented cast of musical theater powerhouses, and framed with DMT's typical radical style and daring verve.  Referencing everything from girl groups to Marlene Dietrich to silent comedy to punk rock to past, present, future, and beyond, Taking Liberties was bold, loud, and bracing.

  • GALLERY

  • PROMO

  • CREDITS

    starring

    CAROLYN DEMISCH * ADAM ENRIGHT * AARON FUKSA * COLLEEN HORAN * ELAINE MORAN * ADAM SWIDERSKI * EVAN TOTH * BRIANNA TYSON

    and THE BADASS STUDIO ORCHESTRA:

    Adam Swiderski, guitar/musical director

    Stacy Rock, keyboards

    Jamie Boyaca, bass

    Sharon Fischman, drums

     

    Inspired by and featuring the music of Elvis Costello

    Musical Director ADAM SWIDERSKI

    Choreographer BECKY BYERS

    Co-Producer MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG

     

    Conceived, Produced, Designed, and Directed by FRANK CWIKLIK

The Red Room, October/November 2003

  • ABOUT

    “AN EXTRAORDINARY WORK OF THEATRE...

    As fascinating as it is unexpected, subversive

    in such a startling way...”

    --  Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com

    WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORLD'S GREATEST PINUP QUEEN WAS A MYSTERY... EVEN TO HER.

     

    She was one of the most desirable, recognizable pinup queens of the late 1950’s. She appeared on dozens of magazine covers, calendars, photo spreads… And then one day, she simply vanished, disappeared, leaving behind a legion of fans and a tantalizing mystery… Who in the Hell is the Real, Live Lorelei Lee?

     

    Veronica “Ronnie” Marshall is about to find out. Ronnie is a struggling writer, burlesque stage mother, and avid collector and dealer of rare Americana, specifically 1950’s and 1960’s sexploitation and pinup memorabilia. One of her contacts, legendary girlie photographer Burgess Link, gives her an unopened box of old photographs to sell on commission – and within that stash are previously unknown photographs of the mysterious Lorelei Lee. When confronted with these photographs, Burgess finally confesses to one of the best-kept secrets of the pinup era: Lorelei was his one true love, his muse, unbeknown to his wife and the world at large. Now an old woman, mad, damaged, watching her life play out before her in a bizarre vaudeville circus existing solely in her mind’s eye, the real Lorelei Lee sits alone in an asylum on Long Island, nursing her wounds, pining for her lost love and her lost life, while Burgess, wracked with guilt over her illness, and still not understanding what drove them apart years ago, visits once a year, on the anniversary of her disappearance, hoping that she will one day finally reveal why she left him in the middle of the night all those years ago.

     

    Featuring a bevy of luscious chorus girls and starring DMT favorites Bob Brader, Bryan Enk, and Michele Schlossberg, and starring new DMT regular Marguerite French as the alluring Lorelei Lee; with a riotous soundtrack chock full of jazz and doo wop classics; and graced with DMTheatrics' trademark energy, wit, and candor, Lorelei Lee was an unqualified artistic success, and played to SRO houses in Fall of 2003.

     

  • GALLERY

  • PROP IMAGES

  • CREDITS

    DANSE MACABRE THEATRICS

    presents in association with HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP

    the new burlesque from the director of Sugarbaby and Antony and Cleopatra

    WHO IN THE HELL IS THE REAL. LIVE LORELEI LEE?

     

    CATE BOTTIGLIONE * BOB BRADER * MERCEDES EMELINA * BRYAN ENK * MARGUERITE FRENCH * LARA HUGHES * BOB LAINE * MARISA MOSS * CHERYL PUENTE * MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG * JESSICA WELLS

     

    Sound design by Youthquake!

    Special prop and set graphics design by Faint Hope Graphics

    Choreography by Michele Schlossberg

     

    Produced by MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG

    Written, designed, and directed by FRANK CWIKLIK

     

     

The Brick, July 2009

The Kraine Theater, January-February 2011

  • ABOUT

    The third installment in the BADASS RECORD COLLECTION series, Bible and Wine was an extraordinary blend of music, movement, dance, story, and design, using the music of pop maestro Eric Matthews as inspiration for a meditation on history, faith, lust, and immortality. Loosely inspired by Chaucer's masterwork The Canterbury Tales and the art of the high Middle Ages, Bible and Wine was a daring and unique event which combined director Frank Cwiklik's trademark immersive theater mindscapes with movement, dance, and performance, set to the music of one of the most engaging and exciting recording artists of the past twenty-five years.

     

    As night falls on a museum of Medieval artifacts, the souls and spirits of the ancient past slowly materialize, embarking on a haunting pilgrimage through the tattered remnants and haltingly reassembled fragments of the art and architecture that once surrounded and defined them. As we follow them through the halls of the quiet cloisters, their lives, loves, deaths, dreams, and desires once again become flesh and substance in a compelling and moving journey through time and faith.   This show also served as the world premiere of two new tracks from Eric Matthews, recorded and prepared especially for the project.

  • TRAILER

    Original trailer for BIBLE AND WINE (December 2010)

  • GALLERY

  • CREDITS

    starring SAARA FALK * ADAM FILES * AZUMI FUKUMURA * SHILOH KLEIN * ERIK MAGNUS * HEATHER MEAGHER * RAYMOND MILLER * LARA JEAN MUMMERT * KEVIN ORZECHOWSKI * DENISE OZER * MARISSA STANIEC

    Words and music by Eric Matthews

    Scenario by Frank Cwiklik

    Co-produced by Michele Schlossberg

    Costume Fairy/Fabric Warrior:  Jillian Tully

    Sound mixed to 6-channel DMT fancypants surround sound at Youthquake! Studios NYC

    Props and special costumes by Elaine Jones

    Choreographer/Co-Director Shiloh Klein

    Produced, Designed, and Directed by Frank Cwiklik

     

  • ABOUT

    "Really funny and expertly staged...  very entertaining, heartfelt...  It literally takes the material to new places... Tom O’Connor gives a fine performance as the tragic villain ...  THIS ONE HAS IT ALL.”

    -- John Spingola, NYTimes.com

     

    The culmination of DMT's relentless ransacking of the Ed Wood repertory came in the Summer of 2012, when the second of DMTheatrics' festival tributes to Wood, FINAL CURTAIN: THE LAST OF ED WOOD, played as the company's bittersweet swan song to its longtime home, the Red Room.  Consisting of five startlingly different productions of Wood classics and obscurities (see below), this month-long extravaganza was both the most ambitious and most audacious project yet attempted by director Frank Cwiklik, its unique and daunting scope attracting press attention from the New York Times, Time Out New York, and others.  Seemingly the final word on the glory of Ed from his most unlikely postmortem collaborator, this extraordinary festival was among the last of its kind, a heartfelt farewell to a misunderstood artist and a vanishing era.  See our Ed Wood repertory page for individual show listings (Bride of the Monster, Night of the Ghouls, The Violent Years, Hot Ice, and The Sinister Urge!)

  • GALLERY

  • CREDITS

    DMTHEATRICS IN ASSOCIATION WITH HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP PRESENTS

    FINAL CURTAIN: THE LAST OF ED WOOD

    Production Stylist ANN BREITBACH * Fight Director ADAM SWIDERSKI

    Choreographer SHILOH KLEIN

    Based on works by EDWARD D. WOOD, JR, ALEX GORDON, and A.C. STEPHENS

    Co-Producer MICHELE SCHLOSSBERG

    Produced, Designed, and Directed by FRANK CWIKLIK

    June 20th thru July 1st 2012

    The Red Room, 85 E 4th St, third floor

     

  • TRAILER

    Original trailer for FINAL CURTAIN (May/June 2012)

 

ED WOOD

SHAKESPEARE

AMERICANA

BITCH MACBETH