Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Following a successful run Off-Broadway at the the Barrow Street Theatre (NYC), Brian Dykstra returns to the Kitchen for four more performances of his impassioned indictment of the religious right, THE JESUS FACTOR, directed  by long-time collaborator Margarett Perry (CLEAN ALTERNATIVES, A MARRIAGE MINUET, STRANGERHORSE, OLD TIMES).

Brian Dykstra and Margarett Perry are becoming very well known to Kitchen Theatre audiences. Dykstra’s toxic comedy CLEAN ALTERNATIVES directed by Perry took Ithaca by storm in October of 2006. The pair returned this past summer as actor and director in David Wiltse’s  hilarious bedroom farce A MARRIAGE MINUET and earlier this season the Kitchen staged the world premiere of Dykstra’s explosive STRANGERHORSE. Perry is currently directing Harold Pinter’s OLD TIMES on the Kitchen Theatre Main Stage through April 13.

“During the run of  STRANGERHORSE, Brian did several performances of  THE JESUS FACTOR,” said Kitchen Theatre Artistic Director Rachel Lampert, “and people have not stopped talking about it or asking me when he will return to do it again—so we asked him to bring it back!”

Brian Dykstra’s rage ignites in THE JESUS FACTOR, his outrageously funny one-man tour-de-force about religious hypocrisy and power.

The Village Voice has said, “Brian Dykstra is working hard to turn ranting into a new genre, and if he succeeds, comedy may not be safe.  He can make you think as hard as you laugh.”  Dykstra’s comedy is anything but safe.  His ferocious, stinging rebukes of those who hold this nation hostage with their constant drumbeat of fear have branded him an “enemy” by Rush Limbaugh and the NRA and have placed him on many of the Radical Right’s most virulent watch lists.  If dissent is a hallmark of the American tradition, Brian Dykstra stands in the forefront of a new generation of America’s greatest patriots.

While best known to television viewers from his appearances on Comedy Central’s “Chappelle’s Show” and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, Brian Dykstra is a Renaissance man—monologist, playwright, actor, slam poet, citizen. He’s won awards for regional and off-Broadway productions of his plays, including a 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe First award for his play Clean Alternatives. Reviewers from the United States to the United Kingdom have raved about his political rants and poetic acuity, echoing Variety: “Brian Dykstra wields a monologue like a sword! His work provides the startling immediacy that makes live performance feel so alive!”

BRIAN DYKSTRA (Playwright/Performer) has been seen on stage and screen throughout the US and UK. His play, CLEAN ALTERNATIVES, won the coveted Fringe First Award at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and now he’s out with his latest solo show to unleash his uniquely hilarious poetic rage on the state of this glorious union. Brian made his Kitchen Theatre debut in 2006 with Clean Alternatives and came back last summer to perform in A Marriage Minuet. His play STRANGERHORSE premiered on the KTC Main Stage in October 2007. His last solo show received an extended Off-Broadway run and was hailed by critics but did land him on several watch-lists including the NRA and Rush Limbaugh. The conservative talk show host put the word out against Dykstra as an “enemy”—but of course Limbaugh never actually saw the show. Brian’s play Hiding Behind Comets saw its world premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park during its 2004 Tony Award-winning season. Hiding Behind Comets then moved to NY for an extended run at 29th Street Rep and Brian was awarded the National Theatre Conference Playwright Award.  Notable television credits include: HBO’s “Def Poetry” “Third Watch”, “Law & Order” and  Comedy Central’s “Chappelle’s Show” Brian’s television writing credits include the Emmy-nominated television show The Life on ESPN. Brian was 05-06 Playwright Fellow with the Lark Play Development Center and was awarded The Vault’s It’s the End of the World As We Know It Award for exceptional cutting edge artists who consistently take risks with their art. www.briandykstra.net

MARGARETT PERRY (Director) quickly became a Kitchen Theatre favorite after directing CLEAN ALTERNATIVES in 2006. She has followed that with three more Main Stage productions (A MARRIAGE MINUET, STRANGERHORSE, OLD TIMES) and two Counter Culture shows (MEDIA MADNESS, RUNNING INTO ME) as well as Brian Dykstra’s THE JESUS FACTOR on The Kitchen Sink. Perry, based in New York City, directed the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of CLEAN ALTERNATIVES by Brian Dykstra that won the Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was performed at the Kitchen in fall 2006. She just completed a three-month Off-Broadway run of Brian Dykstra’s THE JESUS FACTOR at the Barrow Street Theatre and this coming May will direct Brian’s play SPILL THE WINE for GayFestNYC. Other recent credits include PAINTING CHURCHES (Human Race/DayTony Award-Best Overall Production), WELCOME TO ARROYO’S (Hip Hop Theater Fest), BRIAN DYKSTRA: CORNERED & ALONE (Off Bway), COMPETING NARRATIVES (GayFestNYC), THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW (Human Race) and her own adaptation of SPRING AWAKENING (Holy Cross College). She is an Artistic Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center where she has worked with a variety of writers developing new plays and produced the Playwrights’ Workshop with Arthur Kopit. She received her MFA in Directing from SMU and is a Drama League Directing Fellow alumni and a member of SSDC.
Performance Dates:
 
Sunday March 30, 7:30 PM
Monday March 31, 7:30 PM
Sunday April 6, 7:30 PM
Monday April 7, 7:30 PM


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