BERKELEY REP: My Father The Speeding Bullet (Nincest)

When I was invited to participate in workshop a new musical with Berkeley Rep, a company I’ve been looking forward to building a relationship with, and it conflicted with another wonderful opportunity, to lead a breakout session at the Theater Communications Group annual conference in DC, I was torn. But the minute I heard that the show, Jen Silverman’s and the inimitable Max Vernon's My Father The Speeding Bullet (Nincest) was written for Pig Iron founder Dito Van Reigersberg, it was a no-brainer.

 I’ve been mildly obsessed with Dito and his alter-ego Martha Graham cracker for over a decade, and have take every opportunity to see him and her in NY. My…admiration began when I saw my first Pig Iron show while they were travelling to CA to perform at Stanford, (and give a Le Coq/collaborative theater-making workshop to our company Rococo Risque,) in 2003, and our paths have crossed several times since then (by which I mean I’m in the audience and am happy as a little clam.)

What a thrill to work with such creative geniuses! Jen Silverman is a much sought-after playwright who’s wildly talented, and the director Mike Donahue and I worked together years ago on a reading of Kim Rosestock’s 99 Ways To Fuck A Swan with Studio 42. The rest of the Bay Area cast and NY creative team were fantastic, and we navigated and explored our gender-bending incest-conflicted Nincest script expertly. Cheers!

NY READING: ALL FOR JOE

Book & Music by Joe Pizza, cast by Stephanie Klapper

Starring Glenn Seven Allen, Patrick Boll, Rita Harvey, Kevin Kraft, Kathleen Monteleone, Ariela Morgenstern, Trisha Rapier, Matthew Rodin, & Jessica Van Kipp