Nancy Manocherian's the cell will present the World Premiere of STOOPDREAMER, a new drama about the lingering effects of gentrification, by Pat Fenton. Featuring an immersive staging by director Kira Simring, previews begin September 4 with opening slated for Thursday, September 10 as part of Origin's 1st Irish Theater Festival 2015. NOTE: this limited engagement is produced on an Off-Broadway contract.
In 1945, Robert Moses began a massive roads project that would displace 1,252 families (a large percentage of them Irish) from Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. Now, seventy years later, haunting memories persist as three stoopdreamers gather in the last remaining Irish saloon from that era. In STOOPDREAMER, drinks are poured, stories are shared and secrets are revealed as this trio of Brooklynites imagine a future that might have been. STOOPDREAMER stars Jack O'Connell, Bill Cwikowski, and Robin Leslie Brown with a production team includes Gertjan Houben (production design), Chris Steckel (assistant production design), M. Florian Staab (sound design), Siena Zoé Allen (costume design), Samantha Keogh (Dramaturg), Louisa Pough (stage manager) and Jane Davis (assistant stage manager). Patrick Fenton was born in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn on St Patrick's Day. After eight gritty years as a cargo loader at New York's Kennedy Airport, Fenton quit to take a civil service job as a Court Officer in Manhattan's courts, and to continue a freelance writing career as a journalist that has brought him publication in magazines and books, including the New York Times, New York Newsday, The Daily News, New York Magazine, and The Irish Echo. He has worked as a New York City taxi cab driver, bartender, and radio host. He is the author of "Confessions of a Working-Stiff," an account of a cargo handlers life, which was published in 1973 in New York Magazine. Fenton's writing has been published in numerous writing anthologies including, "The Irish, a Treasury of Art and Literature," and the "Book of Irish Americans."Videos