IN THE PONY PALACE/FOOTBALL

Written + Directed by Tina Satter
Music Arranged by Chris Giarmo + Bobby McElver
New York City debut presented by the Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn, NY, February 10 - 26, 2011

photo by Shameel Arafin.

Running time: 70 minutes

An all-female cast portrays the players, coaches and cheerleaders of a high school football team. With the historically-male and highly American backdrop of football, the piece considers what it is to be a female athlete; the shifting stakes, relationships and power dynamics of a team on and off the field; and the concept of placing belief and commitment in something bigger than oneself. The text combines the specific lexicon of football, sports and coaching with the awkward realism of high school-speak. A live score blending deconstructed pop songs accompanies the performance arranged by Chris Giarmo (Big Dance Theater) and Bobby McElver (The Wooster Group).

Casey Yorke | Assistant Director
William Burke | Football Choreography
Zack Tinkelman | Lighting Design
Andreea Mincic | Set Design
Michael De Angeles | Costume Design
Liz Nielsen | Stage Manager

Starring | Moe Angelos, Jess Barbagallo, Eliza Bent, Nikki Calonge, Emily Emily Davis, Erin Markey, Glennis McMurray, Kourtney Rutherford, Julia Sirna-Frest

The Pony Palace Marching Band is Justin Dayhoff, Jon Lijoi, Bobby McElver, Mary Rasmussen

photo by Hunter Canning.

“a giddily exuberant confection that manages to conjure a distinctively eccentric theatrical world”
Jason Zinoman, New York Times Critic's Pick!

“launching a goal-line drive to a new feminist form”
Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

“The specific vision and big, playful imagination is something our theatre will need in spades.”
Matt Roberson, nytheatre.com

Tina Satter and Half Straddle named as an Off-Off Broadway Innovator to Watch! by Time Out New York

photo by Hunter Canning.

NURSES IN NEW ENGLAND

Written + Directed by Tina Satter
Music by Chris Giarmo
A co-production of The ICE Factory 2010
Performed at the Ohio Theater, New York City, July 28 – 31, 2010

photo by Hunter Canning.

Running time: 75 minutes

The language of television hospital dramas is given an unexpected comedic and bittersweet spin in stacking up life and death against our most mundane desires. A female head of surgery and her nursing staff secret smoke, bitch and moan, and find the magic in their starkly beautiful small-town hospital.

Zack Tinkelman | Lighting Design
Andreea Mincic | Set Design
Michael De Angeles | Costume Design
Eliza Laytner | Stage Manager

Starring | Jess Barbagallo, Eliza Bent, Emily Emily Davis, Erin Markey, Annie McNamara, Lena Moy-Borgen, Kourtney Rutherford, Julia Sirna-Frest, Greg Zuccolo

The Nurses in New England band was Chris Giarmo, Matt Bogdanow, Shane Chapman

photo by Hunter Canning.

“Nurses in New England is a funny, charming show by a theatre company I want to see more of … most successful is the way in which playwright Tina Satter manages to create a smart, comic mirror of the medical show genre without every venturing into spoof.”
nytheater.com

“With great music, humorous lyrics and comically creepy medical jargon, Tina, a native New Englander, tells her New York audience what it’s like to run a hospital in a small town by the sea.”
Lina Zeldovich, womanaroundtown.com

photo by Hunter Canning.

RELATED MEDIA:

NURSES IN NEW ENGLAND (EARLY VIDEO)
Video element from an early incarnation of Half Straddle's Nurses in New England. Originally, this short piece involved two live performers and one performer on video.

FAMILY

Written + Directed by Tina Satter
Music by Chris Giarmo
A co-production of The Ontological-Hysteric Theater
Performed at the Ontological-Hysteric, New York City, August 13 – 22, 2009

Running time: 75 minutes.

photo by André Callot.

Twenty-year old Lily is about to be impregnated with Rudolf Nureyev’s frozen sperm to make her mother happy. Little sister Frarajaca wants to stage an artistic gangbang. And Mum doesn’t want to deal with anymore goddamn idiots. It’s a family drama. Sort of. Writer/director Tina Satter’s new one-act is an unexpected, musically-enhanced, and close-up look at the ridiculous and inexplicable nature of families and the kinds of love we can’t escape.

Zack Tinkelman | Lighting Design
Nathan Lemoine | Set Design
Normandy Sherwood | Costume Design
Wayne Petro | Stage Manager

Starring | Eliza Bent, Sarah Copeland, Emily Emily Davis, Joseph Keckler, Erin Markey, Katherine Scharhon, Julia Sirna-Frest, Rae C Wright

Named a Top 10 Show of 2009 by Time Out New York

“Ridiculous, enchanting musical Family... full to the brim with killer talent.”
Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

“Family re-invents downtown experimental theater for the new millennium—and has a tremendous lot of fun doing it.”
Heather J. Violanti, nytheater.com

photo by Yi Zhao.

RELATED MEDIA:

MY CARTOUCHE MUSIC VIDEO
Promotional music video for Half Straddle's 2009 production of FAMILY.

SKITTZIE! (FAMILY PROMO)
Promotional video for Half Straddle's 2009 production of FAMILY, starring Skittzie, Latvian pop-star.

SKITTZIE! (RAW FOOTAGE)
Raw footage of Skittzie dancing on St. Mark's Place in NYC's East Village.

THE KNOCKOUT BLOW

Written + Directed by Tina Satter
Music by Chris Giarmo
Produced in part with HERE Arts Center and The Ontological-Hysteric Theater
Performed at the Ontological-Hysteric, New York City, August 2008
and HERE Arts Center, February 2009

photo by Kevin J. Frest.

Running time: 55 minutes.

Three girls inhabit an infectiously weird and dissonant, yet raucously sing-along world where the story of a contemporary werewolf explores dislocation, heartbeats and saying really stupid things when you want to say the most important thing of all.

Zack Tinkelman | Lighting Design
Asta Benne Hostetter | Set Design
Wayne Petro | Stage Manager

Starring | Jess Barbagallo, Eliza Bent, Julia Sirna-Frest

“The Knockout Blow paired babes in off-the-shoulder lamé with winky, wistful dialogue (Jess Barbagallo played a depressed werewolf) and set it all to Chris Giarmo’s synthesizer-mad, '80s-esque avant-ballads.”
Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

“With terrific music by Chris Giarmo, this concert-cum-performance-piece is a delightful piece of work, and the performers, to coin a phrase, can knock a song out of the park; highly recommended.”
George Hunka, Superfluities Redux

photo by Kevin J. Frest.

RELATED MEDIA:

THE KNOCKOUT BLOW (CLIP)
7 minute clip from Half Straddle's 2008 production of The Knockout Blow.

THE KNOCKOUT BLOW (FOUND FOOTAGE)
Found footage from the Nunivak Island Wash and Fold.

THE KNOCKOUT BLOW (EARLY WEREWOLF VIDEO)
Video component from the development of The Knockout Blow as part of IAP's Short Form.