| Kind Strangers |
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MARK SAM ROSENTHAL (Writer/Performer) is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and now lives in Brooklyn. His path to the arts began in 2000 when his life in corporate advertising became morally untenable and his sick sense of humor cried out for spiritual release. He studied improv with the Upright Citizens Brigade and acting with the Atlantic Theatre Company and the Barrow Group. He was a regular improviser for several years with his group Petrol at the UCB Theater and continues to improvise with various groups at the UCBT, the Magnet Theater, and the People’s Improv Theater. He has performed stand-up at Caroline’s on Broadway and has hosted a monthly comedy showcase in the East Village. His solo show Love Mercy had a sold-out run at New York’s People’s Improv Theater in the fall of 2006. Menage a Trailer, an evening of one-acts he co-wrote, played at Chicago’s Factory Theater in fall 2004. Did We Win?, a two-man sketch comedy show he co-created and performed, ran at the UCBT in September 2004. He has choreographed and performed award-winning burlesque at Joe’s Pub in New York, co-hosted shows on Playgirl TV, and been a guest host on Sirius Satellite Radio’s morning drive talk show, OutQ in the Morning. Other New York writing and performing credits include Beyond the Valley of the Switchblade Pussycats (UCBT), The Indigo Girls vs. George W. Bush (The Cutting Room), and Jollyship the Whiz-Bang’s Little Building (Galapagos). The 2004 Travelocity UK commercial in which he appeared was named the world’s “number three all-time funniest ad.” What acclaim! His new solo show, Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, which had its first reading at the 2007 HOT! Festival of Queer Culture at Dixon Place, will have its world premiere production at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival; he plays the role of his dreams: Blanche DuBois, America’s most broken WomanTM. Mark Sam is currently working as a writer/producer for Comedy Central. TODD PARMLEY (Director) is a multi-faceted theatre artist: a director, actor, and educator. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, he received his M.F.A. in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater. After graduate school, he moved to Salt Lake City, where he was the Theater Department Chair of the Waterford School and directed, among other things, Our Town, The Tempest, and Gnomes (which he also adapted from the book). While in Salt Lake, he was a founding member of Tooth & Nail Theatre, appearing in their productions of Arabian Nights and David Sedaris’ one-man show, The Santaland Diaries, and performed with Sundance Children’s Theater. In New York City, where Todd has now lived for six years, he is a Teaching Artist for the Theatre Development Fund and an acting instructor for the Open Jar Institute. Over the past two years, Todd has shifted the focus of his career solely to directing and to the development of new works. In that time, he has directed two episodes of Blair Fell’s hit live epic series, Burning Habits, a workshop production of the award-winning new play, 99 Degrees, by Stuart Gerber, and the world premiere of Frank Terry’s musical For Love of the Boy at Yale University. This past summer, he directed another world premiere, Katharine Clark Gray’s 516 (five sixteen), at FringeNYC to both critical and audience acclaim. Most recently, Todd directed three shows at Stella Adler Studios, Laura Dennis by Horton Foote with the NYU 4th-year Company and Love’s Labor’s Lost and Three Sisters with the NYU 3rd years. For the past ten years, he has written and directed The Days of ’98 Show, a re-creation of a turn-of-the-century dancehall show (think Disney does burlesque) in Skagway, Alaska. Next month, Todd will direct the world premiere production of Mark Sam Rosenthal’s new solo show, Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, at the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival. KIND STRANGERS (Production Company) was founded by Mark Sam Rosenthal and Todd Parmley. Together the two have worked over the past year to develop the campy, politically incorrect, gender-bending solo show: Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire. For their next project, they have been asked to create something for the 2009 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival. Also in the works is a new musical, Emancipation! Set in the Deep South on the eve of the Civil War, it tells the story of the son of a plantation owner who finds love and spiritual release living and singing secretly (in blackface) among his father’s slaves. |