See NIGHTS ON THE COUCH On- Demand

NIGHTS ON THE COUCH Written by Matt Fotis
Directed by Caitlin Reader

One man’s journey from child to parent, told through five nights spent on the couch.

Watch it ON DEMAND at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/nightsonthecouch

Each ON DEMAND Viewing counts as a vote for your play.

The play with the most On Demand Views wins a spot in the FINALS.

The Top 5 On Demand Plays will get extra votes added to the total votes in the festival.

Voting Ends July 26th at 8pm

The FINALS for the Strawberry One-Act Festival is on

Thursday, July 28th at 7pm at the Theatre at St. Clement's

423 West 46th St, NYC

For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?date=2016-07-28

NIGHTS ON THE COUCH By Matt Fotis; Program Info, Creative Team & Actors Bios

NIGHTS ON THE COUCH Written by Matt Fotis
Directed by Caitlin Reader

Time: Various nights in one man’s life.                                             Place:  The couch.

Characters in order of appearance

Man                                                                                                      Bryson Bruce
Friend/Virginity/Stoner/Girlfriend/Wife                                               Stephanie Juergens

Who’s Who

Bryson Bruce (Man) is originally from Kansas City and graduated from the University of Missouri. NYC credits include: A Band of Angels and Young Charles Dickens with NYC Children’s Theater, Vestments of the Gods from New York Fringe 2014, and he just finished his first season with S.T.A.R. Theatre Company. He is grateful for the opportunity to bring new work to NYC, and would like to thank his friends and family for their support.

Stephanie Juergens (Friend/Virginity/Stoner/Girlfriend/Wife) is originally from a super small town Missouri. She is a graduate of The University of Missouri and the William Esper Studio.  Previous Theatre credits include: Carly in reasons to be pretty and Van’s sister in Dog Sees God. She is thankful for the opportunity to do what she loves with people she loves.

Matt Fotis (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been presented or developed at The Lark, The Playwrights’ Center, The Kennedy Center, Emerging Artists Theatre, City Theatre, and The Great Plains Theatre Conference. His plays have won The Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting, UCM’s Theatre for Young Audiences National Playwriting Competition, and the Sonoma County Repertory Theatre’s New Play Award. He is the author of two books on improvisational theatre – Long Form Improvisation & American Comedy: The Harold and The Comedy Improv Handbook. He is the Co-Chair of the Theatre Department at Albright College and resides in Wyomissing, PA. For more please visit www.mattfotis.com.

Caitlin Reader (Director) studied theater and journalism at the University of Missouri. After graduating in 2013 she moved to New York to work in non-profit theater. This is her first time directing a full production and she’s so excited for the opportunity to explore a new area of theater and help bring a Matt Fotis original to NYC. Enjoy the show!

Kelsey Kennedy (Stage Manager) is a New York transplant from some flyover state. She went to the University of Missouri, Columbia and earned degrees in Performance Theatre and Magazine Journalism. Since moving to NYC, she has been a greeter, a customer service rep, a copy editor, and a stage manager. Off the clock, she’s a writer, a lover of all things brunch, and a casual photographer. She hopes to one day combine her career paths and hobbies with things yet to be discovered to create one glorious dream job.

Peter Smith (Costume and Production Design) has done costumes and production design for theatre, film and commercial photography. Peter is also an actor and performer in NYC. Currently, Peter can be seen as “Catlyn” Jenner in Katdashians: Break The Musical (Off Broadway).

NIGHTS ON THE COUCH By Matt Fotis
Featuring:  Bryson Bruce & Stephanie Juergens
One man’s journey from child to parent, told through five nights spent on the couch.

Thursday, July 14th at 9pm
Sunday, July 17th at 7pm
Thursday, July 21st at 9pm

For tickets go to https://www.therianttheatre.com/item.php?id=252

At the Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46^th Street, NYC
The Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival

NIGHTS ON THE COUCH: Keep Calm, You're Having a Baby

By Jenan Jacobson

Jenan Jacobson

Deciding to have a baby is life-changing. That right there is a game changer—the entire way you have oriented your life is going to shift, and with the birth of your son or daughter comes a rebirth of your own. I have often wondered at my parents’ decision to wait for so long before they had children, and whenever I asked them about it they always talked about how they wanted to be at the point in their lives where they wouldn’t be regretting any paths they hadn’t taken. Your life is not entirely your own after you have kids, at least as far as I can tell from

my observations of family members and friends. This being said, everything that leads up until that baby-having moment is fodder for the self that makes you a mother or a father. Like a chain reaction, all the facets of your life that come together to create your personhood inform the life that you lead jointly with your child. The type of discipline you were dealt as a child by your own parents might inform how you deal with your child’s tantrums, or the adventures in love you experienced in your youth could generate a certain brand of advice-giving when your kid is pining after his or her first crush. Your life is dramatically altered, to the point where the you of the past that partied into the early hours of the morning might not even recognize the person up at that early hour, changing a diaper. However, the person you become is irrevocably tied to the experiences that you see shaping that original personality.

The play Nights on the Couch by Matt Fotis deals with this transition into parenthood in a way that shows just how connected all the different parts of your life are, and how these pieces build on each other to follow us through the process of growing up. The play focuses on the character of David, 30 years old with a brand new baby in his life. Looking at the new life in front of him, feeling his own life shifting, the flashbacks that take him through the stages in his “previous” existence tell the story of the man who is just now becoming a father. From very young and arguing with a best buddy to older and struggling with the whims of women, we see the pieces that fit together to create a life. While the snapshots stand in their own sphere of a story, the conflicts particular to a specific time in his life, there is an undeniable accumulation of complexity of being. Additionally, the play ushers in a new life by packing in the history of the lives that came before it. It is recognition of life in the grand scheme of things, and our connection to each other across time and space. At its center, the play reveals the tight spider web of connecting lives and peoples, and shows how each intersection is an essential shaper of who you become, and how you go on to impact the people you interact with.

Are you having a baby soon? Will you want kids? If you have children, how do you think the life you’ve led will impact your interactions, and how will your life change after you’ve had one? Comment below!

Nights on the Couch will be performed as a part of the Strawberry One-Act Festival on Thursday, July 14 at 9pm, July 17 (Sunday) at 7pm, and July 21 (Thursday) at 9pm. The performance will take place at the Theatre at St. Clement’s at 423 West 46th Street, NYC, between 9th and 10th avenue. Tickets can be purchased online at www.therianttheatre.com.

Congratulations To Playwright Matt Fotis, Whose Play NIGHTS ON THE COUCH, Kicks Off The Strawberry One-Act Festival On July 14th @ 9pm

Matt Fotis (Playwright, NIGHTS ON THE COUCH) is an award-winning playwright whose plays have seen stages from coast to coast. His plays have been presented or developed at such places as The Lark, The Playwrights’ Center, The Kennedy Center, Emerging Artists Theatre, City Theatre, and The Great Plains Theatre Conference. He is a former Playwrights’ Center Core Apprentice and has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Albright Creative Research Experience. His plays have won The Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting, UCM’s Theatre for Young Audiences National Playwriting Competition, and the Sonoma County Repertory Theatre’s New Play Award. He’s been a finalist for the Heideman Award, The David Mark Cohen Award, and is a current finalist for The Inkslinger Playwriting Competition. He is also the author of two books on improvisational theatre – Long Form Improvisation & American Comedy: The Harold and The Comedy Improv Handbook. He is the Co-Chair of the Theatre Department at Albright College and resides in Wyomissing, PA. For more please visit www.mattfotis.com.

NIGHTS ON THE COUCH By Matt Fotis

 
Featuring:  Bryson Bruce & Stephanie Juergens
 

 

One man’s journey from child to parent, told through five nights spent on the couch.

Thursday, July 14th at 9pm
Sunday, July 17th at 7pm
Thursday, July 21st at 9pm

 

Tickets: $25 Online, $27 at the Box Office
Premium Seats (Rows A-F): $30 Online, $35 at the Box Office

BUY TICKETS NOW CLICK HERE

Thursday, July 14th at 9pm
Playing with:

THE G69 TRIPLE X-TREME OSCILLATOR By Peter M. Carrozzo
A couple’s discussion about the arrival of a newly purchased sexual device is complicated by the wife’s accidentally misplacing the instructions.  Their search for the whereabouts leads them into several unanticipated discoveries.

PSYCHIC CAFÉ By Anthony Fusco
Lorenzo Duefacci, a flamboyant, renowned psychic in NYC, needs to hire an assistant to help draw in new business.  He hires Athony Fontana as the new weekend tarot card reader.  Anthony has no idea what he’s in for until he meets the most unique clients he has ever read with the most bizarre over-the-top confessions.  Get the inside look at the most intimate of conversations people have with their psychic.

CROCKETT’S LAST STAND By George Cameron Grant
Directed by Joy Kelly
Aqueduct Productions, Inc.
Following his political career-ending speech before the House of Representatives, Colonel David Crockett encounters an escaped slave boy named Joseph, who teaches him that there is more to courage than flowery words, fancy shooting, and overblown legends.

Sunday, July 17th at 7pm
Playing with:

THE OLD STATES By Lain Kienzle
Directed by Lain Kienzle
As the snow storm of the decade hits her small farm house, Mildred finds a stranger collapsed at her door step.  But once she opens that door, she may not want to close it.

THE SHINING WORDS By Thomas M. Walsh
Directed by Thomas M. Walsh
Featuring:  Chablis Quarterman
An introduction and appreciation of poetry.

THE UNKNOWNS By Kacie Devaney
Can an unexpected visit from the new next door neighbors repair the damage of a twenty year, passionless relationship between Scarlett and Jeb? Everything is about to change. Or does it?

Thursday, July 21st at 9pm
Playing with:

REALITY SUCKS By Sonia Cordoves
A plastic surgeon and a stripper finally decide to meet at a restaurant after communicating on Match.com.  The realities of online dating makes this a hilarious spoof about the things people make up on this popular Dating website.

LIKE THROUGH A MIRROR By Joseph Lizardi
What could happen when “make believe” dominates reality?

Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46th Street, NYC