By Mike Daisey
FREE NPSS Reading | Monday, March 12 @ 7 pm
Company Jason Bowcutt, Nicki Nixon, and Robert Scott Smith
Director Alexandra Harbold
Salt Lake Acting Company is thankful to the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Dramatists Guild Fund for their generous and vital support of our New Play Sounding Series program.
MIKE DAISEY (PLAYWRIGHT) has been called "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation" by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His latest work, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, was called "the best new play of the year" by the Washington Post, and was recognized as one of the year's best theater pieces by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and will return to the Public Theater in 2012.
Since his first monologue in 1997, Daisey has created over fifteen monologues, including the critically-acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the twenty-four-hour feat All the Hours in the Day, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, the four-part epic Great Men of Genius, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Other titles include If You See Something Say Something, Barring the Unforeseen, Invincible Summer, Monopoly!, Tongues Will Wag, I Miss the Cold War, and Teching in India.
He has performed in venues on five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to an abandoned theater in post-Communist Tajikistan. A partial list: Cherry Lane Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Victory Gardens, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Barrow Street Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Intiman Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, ACT Theatre, Performance Space 122, the Noorderzon Festival, the T:BA Festival, the Under the Radar Festival, the Flynn Theatre, the Lensic, and Chicago's Museum for Contemporary Art.
He's been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, as well as a commentator and contributor to the New York Times, This American Life, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something is currently in post-production. His second book, Rough Magic, a collection of his monologues, will be published in 2012. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, five Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation's Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn with his collaborator and partner Jean-Michele Gregory.
Company
JASON BOWCUTT (ACTOR) For years Jason worked primarily as an actor and was on the stage of many great theatres including McCarter Theatre Company, The Guthrie Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Shakespeare Theatre in DC, and our very own Pioneer Theatre Company. In New York Jason played Nathan Leopold Jr. in the Outer Critics Circle Award winning production of NEVER THE SINNER, for which he earned a Drama Desk and Helen Hayes Award nomination. Jason is also proud to be one of the Founding Directors of the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation (the IT Awards) which honors excellence in Off-Off-Broadway.
Since returning to Utah Jason has had the pleasure of working with Plan B Theatre Company and Pygmalion Productions as an actor and director. Jason currently works at Utah Arts & Museums in Community and Performing Arts.
NICKI NIXON
(ACTOR) is excited to return to SLAC for her first reading after having the privilege of playing Antigone in TOO MUCH MEMORY. She was most recently see as Annelle in Pinnacle Acting Company's STEEL MAGNOLIAS. Other local credits include Michella in Off Broadway's TRANSMORFERS and Princess Justine in PUSS'N'BOOTS at the Children's Theatre. She is a proud graduate of Weber State University's Theatre Arts Program, where some of her favorite roles include Tess in SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, Angie/Dull Gret in TOP GIRLS, and Eve in WAITING FOR THE PARADE. She was also give the opportunity to perform as a Weird Woman in MACBETH at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. She has been a proud and faithful subscriber at SLAC for the last 4 fun-filled years.
ROBERT SCOTT SMITH (ACTOR) NYC: Pericles (SLANT). SLC: CHARM, Swimming in the Shallows, Six Years, Big Love, BATBOY:The Musical (Salt Lake Acting Company); Pains of Youth, Santaland Diaries (Tooth and Nail Theatre); BASH (PlanB). Film and TV: Blessing, Animae, "Guiding Light". Print: The Unfortunate Moment of Misunderstanding (Jim Fiscus). Training: MFA Old Globe Theatre San Diego.
ALEXANDRA HARBOLD (DIRECTOR, ARTISTIC & LITERARY ASSOCIATE) At SLAC, Andra directed the world premieres of (A MAN ENTERS) and THE PERSIAN QUARTER and the New Play Sounding Series readings of T.I.C. (TRENCHCOAT IN COMMON), THE PERSIAN QUARTER and PROPHETS OF NATURE. Local directing credits: ROMEO AND JULIET, RABBIT HOLE, THREE DAYS OF RAIN (PAC), and SLAM (Plan-B); Assistant Director: EMMA (Pioneer Theatre Company) and CHARM (Salt Lake Acting Company). Education: BA, Middlebury College; Master's in Performance Studies, University of London Goldsmith's College. Training: SITI Company's Summer Intensive at Skidmore. Upcoming directing projects include BETRAYAL by Harold Pinter (Pinnacle) and SLAM (Plan-B Theatre).
MIKE DAISEY (PLAYWRIGHT) has been called "the master storyteller" and "one of the finest solo performers of his generation" by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His latest work, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, was called "the best new play of the year" by the Washington Post, and was recognized as one of the year's best theater pieces by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and will return to the Public Theater in 2012.
Since his first monologue in 1997, Daisey has created over fifteen monologues, including the critically-acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the twenty-four-hour feat All the Hours in the Day, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, the four-part epic Great Men of Genius, and the international sensation 21 Dog Years. Other titles include If You See Something Say Something, Barring the Unforeseen, Invincible Summer, Monopoly!, Tongues Will Wag, I Miss the Cold War, and Teching in India.
He has performed in venues on five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to an abandoned theater in post-Communist Tajikistan. A partial list: Cherry Lane Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Victory Gardens, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Barrow Street Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Intiman Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, ACT Theatre, Performance Space 122, the Noorderzon Festival, the T:BA Festival, the Under the Radar Festival, the Flynn Theatre, the Lensic, and Chicago's Museum for Contemporary Art.
He's been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, as well as a commentator and contributor to the New York Times, This American Life, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something is currently in post-production. His second book, Rough Magic, a collection of his monologues, will be published in 2012. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, five Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation's Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn with his collaborator and partner Jean-Michele Gregory.
