Double-duty on "Pharmaceutical: The Musical"

     Theatrical drinking games.  Apparently this is a thing.  And I'm a fan.  After my SDC Observership on Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, I had a brunch recap with a few other director/choreographer people who had done the observership program.  And I met the amazingly talented Katie Lupica, the SDC Observer to Daniel Goldstein on Broadway's Godspell.   She was putting together a ten-minute musical for TinyRhino.  We wanted to work together.  And we made a little magic.

     TinyRhino is a monthly festival of ten-minute plays/musicals at the Brooklyn Lyceum under the umbrella of UglyRhino.  With the festival, authors are given 5 prompts at which the audience is instructed to drink from their beverage of choice.  Those prompts are then incorporated into brand-spankin'-new plays and mounted as a theatrical free-for-all evening of drinking and art.  For the July edition of the show, the audience had to drink whenever 1) someone analyzed a dream 2) someone had a pratfall 3) someone impersonated a celebrity 4) someone flipped off the audience or 5) someone mentions the temperature of the room.  Katie shepherded the blending of these prompts into the total awesomeness that was Pharmaceutical: The Musical.

     In the show, I played Mr. Worthington, a suburban drone unhappy with his life.  I was being psychoanalyzed by a therapist, but instead of treatment I got a prescription.  Returning home, I  was confronted by my unhappy housewife and, upon taking my medication, we entered a trippy fantasy finale with a kickline of dancing pills.  It was out there.  It was fabulous.  And it was so much fun being both the lead role actor guy and the dance-making choreographer guy.  The show was a hit and a new collaboration was a total success!