I Co-Wrote a Play!

Here is an announcement I am so proud to finally be able to talk about publicly. For the past eight months, I have been working on a play with Eric Martindale, something he has been working on for years. Now it is finally coming into fruition.

This July at the Straw Dog Theatre in Chicago you can see the world premiere of EMPTY BOTTLES, an original work written by Eric and myself and directed by Eric. It is being produced by Adam Lord and Cody Nicoletti, as the first work by the On Deck Theatre Company.

It will play on July 18th, 19th, and 20th and I will definitely be letting you know when tickets will be on sale.

It is starring three brilliant actors I couldn't be more happy with: Curtis Becht, Maeghan Looney and Keith Lipke. I was up in Chicago this past weekend to sit in during auditions and I was overwhelmed. My point of reference for auditions have been comedy movies where there's a montage of "wacky" auditions and then the main character loudly sighs and then the perfect audition happens at the very end. That was not the case here where every single person who auditioned wowed me in some way or another, highlighting unseen nuances of the characters I thought I completely knew. I'm now "that guy" where I wish there were more parts for the actors we saw this weekend.

The story of EMPTY BOTTLES is about a young man who finally left the house of a psychologically abusive father and is now ready to start a new life with a beautiful stranger and his distant brother. Yet reality never seems to match the future you envision. It's a dramatic work with comedy, romance, uncomfortable tension and even has a very silly brief song parody about Temple Run.

Once again, I am so proud of all of this. It was my first time being asked to work on something dramatic and something this large. This has been Eric's personal project for so many years and I am honored that he allowed me to tinker with it and be a true collaborator.

It has been so amazing to see my friends work this hard and to make something that's so damn impressive. I can't wait for this play to come out and for everyone to see it.

Get very excited.