HT10

Horse Trade presents

Amusing Lies and Lullabies

A Four Women Show in Two Acts

Written and Performed by Penny Pollak, Natalie Underwood, Marsha Brown and Kelly Dwyer

New York IT Awards

Two Performances Only

July 31st and August 1st
at 8pm

Tickets: $??
Students/Seniors $??


Combining the traditions of Vaudeville, Stand Up, Dramatic Theatre, Dance and Performance Art, Amusing Lies and Lullabies will be a production of varied interwoven one-woman segments and ensemble pieces with frequent incorporation of music, sometimes live, and projection. While each of these talented women are accustomed to performing across these traditions, each of these four also has a special niche that stands out like a powerhouse, engaging the audience in a new way from the beginning of the show until the end.  Long time admirers of each other’s work, collaboration presented a unique opportunity to take a multi-faceted look at the female experience.  A.L.L. addresses vulnerable, but powerful subjects through comedy, character pieces, poetry, video, music, and dance.  It’s a visceral and thrilling ride filled with intensity, intention, interaction and IT! 

In her examination of different states of being, Penny Pollak takes you on a humorous and provocative journey through the mind of a strange little girl in a very strange world to watch her excursion into adulthood, where the definitions of neurotic, manic-depressive, insomniac, alcoholic, and masochist get a little blurry. Get ready to dive into a scary world that feels oddly warm and inviting as she examines self-imposed destruction through delightfully surprising absurdity and wit.

Natalie Underwood's vibrant and emotional characters walk the tight-rope between strength and fragility, creation and destruction, ignorance and choice. Through several pieces running the gamut of interpretive dance and dramatic monologue she connects in a very beautiful and personal way, leaving the audience with a full-bodied resonance of feeling and thought that often has the hair on the backs of their necks standing up.  Dr. Marsha will be presenting her two lecture pieces:  "Evolutionary Psychology as Interpreted by Someone with a Vagina," and "Men and The Things I Know About Them. "        

"Gosh, I mean you just never know with Killy (Kelly B. Dwyer) she's...um, well she's somebody or something...er, uh - different every time I see her!  It's a little confusing and so exciting that sometimes I forget she's a real person at all.  First she's falling all over the place seemingly embarrassing herself and then she's singing an amazing opera from an Oprah magizine and then she's making me giggle and feel incredibly uncomfortable with some weird dance to a song about how she turned me gay.  I'm so gay for her.  She's my hero."                                                                                      -George W. Bush 

 

The Cast



Penny Pollak, the host and producer of Pennie’s Open Mike, a weekly show located at Under St. Mark’s Theater, is a performance artist and writer. She has performed in and co-written several theater productions on the London Fringe circuit. She has won awards for her writing as well as been featured in a number of readings in NYC. Her work often incorporates music in a kind of poetry that bursts into performance art.


Natalie Underwood, a magna cum laude graduate of Columbia University newly emerging from the downtown scene, is a performance artist and writer who enjoys pushing the envelope in psychological and dramatic theater pieces that often incorporate music and dance elements.
Marsha Brown

Dr. Marsha (Marsha Brown), with her Armchair Doctorate of Evolutionary Psychology, has spent 20 years training in the performance arts and traveling across the country disguised as a vagabond/hussy with her keen analytical eye on the human behavior displayed before her.  Known as the Dian Fossey of Dude Nation, having earned her credentials at keggers and hangouts nationwide,

Kelly "Killy" Dwyer, the “Fonzie-Marilyn Monroe of Comedy,” is a sexy clown flower that grew out of a flower-bed of experience in Opera, Dance, Improv, Stand-Up, Theater, Sketch, Music and Potty Training. She (bats her eyelashes, sighs, clears her throat) is a Comedic Performance Artist!  Emphasis on all 3 words!   (Dances around triumphantly.) Honing her skills by hosting her own variety show for the last year, living on the edge and doing theater on the fringe, the audience will relish each refreshing play-date.  She is firecracker, a delicious cocktail of surprise, exuberance, and absolute hilarity.
Mike Milazzo has, in the past, lent his guitar playing and singing talents to bands and singer songwriters such as banjo master, Tom Hanway, "The Juicemen" -heavy alt. rock, "The U.S. Hairforce" -angular art rock, "Dweller"-rock and roll, "The Boardlords" -skate punk to which he is still an active member, and "Meg Griffin's Trainwreck" featuring pedal steel legend Buddy Cage. Mike Milazzo has had the pleasure of being an opening act for Donovan, Richie Havens, Levon Helm, and Vassar Clements. Milazzo plays most of the instruments on his new recording, "The World Outside" himself, with the exception of drums played by Martin Stroh,  Mike can be seen and heard with his band Broken Arrow in and around the Tri-state area. His new CD "The World Outside" is out now on Mighty-Quinn records.