Dining With Ploetz

September 5 – 22 2019

Theater for the New City

CAST: *Wynne Anders, *Elizabeth A. Bell, *Christopher Borg, Claudia Fabella, *Steven Hauck, *Jamie Heinlein, *Ryan Hilliard.

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION STAFF: Alex Bartenieff. Lighting, Mark Marcante, Set Design, *Elizabeth Ramsay, Production Manager/ Production Stage Manager.

*appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association.

A feral child, a burnt-out musician, and a mysterious woman run amok in

DINING WITH PLOETZ

Three new one-act comedies by Richard Ploetz

September 5 – 22 at Theater for the New City

Written by Richard Ploetz

Directed by Steven Hauck and Richard Ploetz

Presented by Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Director, in association with Nedworks, Inc. 

GOLDFISH

Sabrina, a feral child, just turned 6 and her parents are throwing her a party in their shabby loft in the desolate rug district. After the cake is eaten, the parents and their only friend Beth, wait for an aristocratic couple to arrive. The couple arrives minutes before midnight with a strange “poet” they just met on the street. Now, as a goldfish presides, the evening begins.

MEMORY LIKE A PALE GREEN CLOCK

A husband surprises his wife with a romantic dinner at an extravagant restaurant. Across from them is a woman sitting alone that he remembers but can’t place. As his distraction persists his wife becomes increasingly irritated. While the evening unravels an ancient waiter serves as an enigmatic master of ceremonies.

BONE APPETITE

A tale inspired by a true story. One character focuses on a special dinner, the other on how it will be served. What is at “steak” here, a simple meal or something of a more existential nature? Enlightenment--served as desert?

Old Flame

23 April - 17 May 2015

Theater for the New City

Playwright: Richard Ploetz

Director: James Glossman

Actors: Frank Anderson, Prentiss Benjamin, Jerry Matz, Paul Murphy, Linda Setzer

When Mike Ripley, Barbara Marchand’s bad-boy high-school boyfriend from half a century ago, surprises her with a phone call on their shared birthday, Barbara and Frank’s 50-year marriage is shaken.  Carrying a torch for “Babs” all these years, Mike arrives from Florida with his much younger Serbian girlfriend, Leonora.

Feeling the chill of mortality Mike wants a last look at his old flame.   

The two couples form an unlikely --and increasingly untenable-- friendship that causes them each to question who they are and what they want.  Marshall, the Marchands’ 50-year-old son, awash in his own marital confusion, finds himself the reluctant arbiter in his parents’ ménage-a-quatre.

Old Flame considers the question “What is Love” - and does it change over time.

Versailles

20 February - 9 March 2014

Playwright: Richard Ploetz

Director: Ian Streicher

Actors: Elizabeth Bell, Ron Bopst, Eric Chase, Charise Greene, Drew Ledbetter, Charlie Moss, Nick Ruggeri

Sharon, a 28-year old single mother, is waking up to the hard reality of her life.  Her youth gone, her beauty and power going, she is caught in a web of dead-end relationships while working as a stripper.  As her house is slowly sinking into the swamp a mysterious figure, Mr. Mason, appears.  Will he bring resolution to Sharon’s problems or …….

Cezanne On a Clear Day

12 October 2013

Playwright: Richard Ploetz

Director: Gary Shrader

Actors: Frank Anderson, Laura Fois

Cezanne sought balance in the compositional elements of his paintings—colors and forms: a flask, a blue rug, a Chinese vase, Monroe, Gable, a cork—arranging and rearranging them to achieve a pictorial mot juste.  His most successful efforts, he said, were achieved on a “clear day”.

Old Love & The Letter

27-28 July 2013

Playwright: Richard Ploetz

Director: Rasa Allan-Kazlas

Actors: Joe Evans, Katie Hyde, Richard Ploetz, Nancy Sinacori

Old Love

In search of time lost... They reconnect after a long absence. Will an old passion rekindle? Or, are they two ships passing in the night?

The Letter

He comes home from the office. She produces a love letter from his secretary. Is it an affair, or simply foreplay?   

Deceit

10-27 January 2013

Playwright: Richard Ploetz

Director: Andreas Robertz

Actors: Glory Gallo, Mario Golden, Ethan Haberfield, Steven Hauck, Joshua Zirger

Frank has a good life: a wife and son whom he adores, a successful career as an investment banker, a penthouse on Riverside Drive.
He also enjoys a secret life, enabled by the internet.  He is successfully managing his two lives when he responds to an investigative reporter’s ad thus beginning his third life.
However the walls between his separate lives grow increasingly thin, threatening to bring all the players face to face.  DECEIT is a dark and fiercely provocative comedy that will make you rethink the nature of your own existence.