Cold Productions
1998 - 2003
COLD PRODUCTIONS was founded in 1998 by David Elliott (Artistic Director), Patrick Blake (Executive Director), and Jessica Faller. With a mission dedicated to the production of new American plays, we would produce or co-produce over a dozen productions in our five-year partnership. I met Patrick when he hired me to direct Jessica’s new play, Dilettantes and Debutantes, at The Miranda Theatre, a small Off Broadway house in NYC (now Urban Stages).
Soon after, Cold Productions was incorporated. We took up residence at New York Performance Works, a huge theatre, film and art space in Tribeca home to Andrew McTiernan (who would go onto create the Zipper Theatre), and John McCormack, the Artistic Director of All Seasons Theater Company.
Cold’s presence literally transformed NYPW. We redesigned and rebuilt the performance space into a three-quarter configuration with fixed-theater seats, a new deck and booth, and a major upgrade on sound and lighting. We later created a Second Stage we called The Red Line (we were in TriBeCa, at a 2,3 train stop at Chambers and West Broadway), a black box theater, with convertible seating for various configurations.
It was an enormously fruitful residency, and Patrick was a marvelous creative partner. Cold would produce a number of notable shows at both NYPW and elsewhere, and Patrick would be a producing partner of mine for years to come. Sadly, like so many great theatre and art spaces in NYC, NYPW was forced to close after the dot-com boom sparked massive rent increases across NYC. But NYPW was, for several years, a fervent hive for theater and art.
Below is a look at the breadth of Cold’s NYC productions, and my work as the A.D.
Bill Cain, Annie Murray and Jud Meyers on the set of Furious (Design by Mark Nayden)
FURIOUS
by John Soster / directed by David Elliott
presented by Cold Productions in association with New York Performance Alliance
with Jud Meyers, Annie Murray Bill Cain and Christopher Cook
Soster’s psychological thriller was loosely based on The Oresteia by Aeschylus, set in a remote cabin in Wyoming. Furious was Cold’s inaugural production at New York Performance Works.
The play was well received by the critics, (notably by Backstage), who wrote: “Soster's play is filled with smart dialogue and a compelling central storyline. David Elliott has directed the piece with a consistently ominous tone, keeping the tension high as each secret is brought to light. His acting ensemble of Meyers, Cook, Murray, and Cain is convincing and compelling, with Cain a particularly credible standout.”
Chris MCann and Leslie Lyles
IMPERFECT LOVE
written by Brandon Cole / directed by David Elliott (uncredited)
with Peter Dinklage, Eddie Hodson, Leslie Lyles, Chris McCann and John Gould Rubin
This play inspired the feature film, Illuminata, directed by John Turturro. I took over directing the play when we discovered that the playwright, who was tasked with directing the piece, was unable to bring it to fruition. I agreed to take direct the play, uncredited, and did what I could to get us across the finish line. In many ways, we succeeded, but it was certainly a difficult process.
Imperfect Love marked the beginning of the relationship between Cold Productions and Andrew McTiernan, founder of NYPW (and later founded of the Zipper Theatre). From this point forward, Cold would be the resident production company in residence at NYPW.
BEACH PARTY FESTIVAL
presented by Cold Productions and All Seasons Theater Group
Teaming up again with All-Seasons Theater Group, Beach Party offered plays by writers such as Tony Winner Warren Leight, Jonathan Tolins, Rogelio Martinez and Stuart Spencer. Beach Party was our most successful event to date.
I directed the premiere of Lenin’s Omelet, by Rogelio Martinez, with Rosemarie DeWitt, Eddie Hodson, Paul Megna and Chris DeOni, The play, set in 1991 in Havana, takes place at The Writers Union and centers on a meeting between a foreign journalist and two writers.
THE PERPETUAL PATIENT (World Premiere)
by Keith Reddin
directed by Billy Hopkins
presented by Cold Productions, All Seasons Theatre Company, New York Performance Works and Karen Hauser
with Marc Ardito, Linda Halaska, Nile Lanning, Leslie Lyles, Matthew Newton, Tom O'Brien, Ean Sheehy, Matthew Sussman, Anna Thomson and starring David Thornton as “the perpetual patient.”
Keith Reddin's adaptation of Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid brings the story of the hypochondriacal Argan (played here by David Thornton) forward to the early 20th Century, and from France to America. This new setting reveals a treasure trove of newfangled medical remedies and cures that are, alas, no more legitimate than those urged by Moliere's 17th Century physicians. Reddin’s play offered all sorts of surprises, including references as diverse as Ionesco's The Chairs and Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep.
I WANNA BE ADORED
by Marc Spitz / directed by Carlo Vogel
presented by Cold Productions
with Peter Dinklage, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Jonathan Lisecki and Annie Parese
Inspired by a song from the punk band Joy Division, I Wanna be Adored was "a cross between It's A Wonderful Life and Twin Peaks." This production was Cold’s first show on “the second stage” at NYPW and marked the beginning of multiple programming in what was becoming a viable platform for new work. Well received in the Village Voice, Time Out and Paper Magazine, I Wanna Be Adored would open the door for us to produce Robert Whaley’s Wrong Way Up.
THE LAUNCH FESTIVAL - “Fresh Plays, Fresher Writers, Freshest Millennium”
produced by Cold in association with John McCormack’s All Season’s Theater Group,
“Launch” was a festival of new one-acts, new play readings, poetry and solo performance pieces. We programmed both spaces with 3 different programs that spanned a week of performance in each venue. In three weeks over 200 theater artists would participate in this Festival. Playwright included: Warren Leight, Keith Reddin, Jonathan Tollins, Matthew Swan, Cindy Kaplan, Tim O’Brian and Garth Wingfield .
The Launch Festival also included late-night solo performances by Nancy Giles, Cindy Kaplan, Rich Egan and Rosie Bacchi. Among works undergoing some level of development were Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Warren Leight's Glimmer Brothers.
WRONG WAY UP
written by Robert Whaley and Tony Grimaldi
sirected by Trent Jones / musical direction by Frank Spitznagel
choreography by Thomas Mills
Cold teamed up again with Andrew McTiernan (joined by Tom Trulio) to present Wrong Way Up, a rock musical written by and starring Robert Whaley and Tony Grimaldi from the high energy performance rock band, The Niagaras (called the "most entertaining cult band in the country" Michael Timm, SPIN Magazine).
The show tells the story of a small town boy navigating his way through the rough and tumble world of the big city. Wrong Way Up combined the unique energy of a live rock n' roll show with the feel of improvisational theater, vaudeville, stand-up, and a little revival meeting thrown in for good measure.
The reviews were as fun as the show:
"Lunacy? Spectacle? And music too?" - The New York Times
"The best rock show I've seen in months!" - New York Post
Wrong Way Up nearly sold out its all-too-short run.
FANTASTICAL VOYAGE
in association with 5th Amendment Theater & The British Council
Teaming up again with NYPW, we co-presented a week of theater in rep imported from England as part of the APAP Festival. Fantastical Voyage was originally commissioned for and opened in Tokyo, Japan in 1995. It then appeared at the 1996 Edinburgh Festival and the 1997 London International Mime Festival and toured in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and South America.
Devised by Gavin Robertson and Andy Taylor, and inspired by Ray Harryhausen’s stop-frame animation techniques from films like ‘Clash Of The Titans’ and ‘Sinbad’, it told the story of Commander Harry Pepper and his Petty Officer Tom Allison whose submarine crashes on the ocean floor. Finding a way into the undersea world of Tyreme, they battle dinosaurs, living statues and warrior skeletons trying to find their way back to the surface, all of course played by 2 actors!
This show was brilliant storytelling by two of the most imaginative actors I have ever worked with. But most notably, this show would introduce me to my future business partner, Martin Platt, with whom I would start Perry Street Theatricals, then, one of the partners at 5th Amendment.
WHERE EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING
written and directed by Stephen Spoonamore
presented by Cold Productions and Ranson Productions
with Tony-Award winning actress, Daisy Egan and Drama-Desk nominated Actor, Paul Sparks.
Where Everything Is Everything is the story of two people, from two different worlds in one relationship. Dan, a powerful, fast-talking confident financial consultant; Tracy, a well-mannered not-so-confident graphic designer: They meet, they date, they fall in love. The fate of the couple is determined by a flip of a coin. Will they defeat the odds and live happily ever after? Or will their relationship, like many others, fall by the way side.
This was another show we did with Stephen Spoonamore (as well as lighting designer, Robert Williams, who would light everything I directed until he left the business). The actors were brilliant, though the critics were less-than-kind to the playwright.
JOE FEARLESS
by Liz Tucillo / directed by Craig Carlisle
p[oduced by Patrick Blake, Andrew McTiernan, Beth Schacter and Allyson Spellman
at the Atlantic Theatre, NYC
Producing in partnership with NYPW founder Andrew McTiernan, Joe Fearless played 96 performances at the Atlantic Theater to rave-reviews and raucous ovations. A story of one man's obsession with his favorite basketball team on their first trip to the NBA finals in 25 years, Fearless was called “an unheralded show that shoots and scores” by Bruce Weber of The New York Times and received raves in the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Time Out and New York 1 News.
NOAH’S ARCHIVES
by Stephen Spoonamore / directed by Darcy Marta
produced by Cold Productions in association with Ransom Productions
at the Ohio Theatre, NYC
with Lou Carbonneau, Gregory Norman Cruz, Tracy Christian, Lydia Fiore Tim Moore, William Peden, Caroline Strong, Lisa Thayer
Cold’s first co-pro with Ranson, we presented this showcase at the Ohio. This was the only production on which Patrick and I disagreed. I report with no joy that the critics unfortunately sided with me.
CUT TO THE CHASE
conceived and performed by Scott Nankivel – based on the Life of Buster Keaton
produced by Cold Productions at the New York City Fringe Festival, 2000
at the Harry du Jur Theatre, NYC
Scott Nankivel and Buster Keaton
Featuring all the pratfalls, gimmicks and grace that Keaton brought to his stone-faced film persona, writer-performer Scott Nankivel highlighted in his solo turn, Cut to the Chase (The Life of Buster Keaton), played at the Harry De Jur Playhouse as part of the New York International Fringe Festival.
Nankivel traveled to an old timey town (the name of which escapes me) and filmed miles of black-and-white footage, which he brilliantly sped up to create the background moving images for this one-man show. Interacting with the ‘silent’ film, Scott created a rather thrilling evening of theatre with his tour-de-force piece.
ONCE A MAN, TWICE A BOY
written and performed by Joe Lucas
directed by Mark Travis
produced by Cold Productions at the Irish Arts Center
Joe approached Patrick with this one man show and we presented it at The Irish Arts Center. The play is an autobiographical examination of a man’s efforts to break out of his family’s deep-rooted ties to working the mines of the Anthracite regions of Eastern Pennsylvania. In the show, Joe humorously examines his Irish heritage, the drudgery of laboring underground, and a history of the Irish American experience from the late nineteenth century through today.
