Award-Winning MO-TO-THE-ONCLE One-Woman Show Returns To NYC

Mo-to-the-oncle, a nationally acclaimed solo comedy, returns home to New York City to play a limited engagement at The Peoples Improv Theater Underground (123 East 24th St, New York, NY 10010) on April 29 at 9:30 p.m. and May 5 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 at thepit-nyc.com, where more information is also available. The show's running time is 60 minutes.

Mo-to-the-oncle (pronounced MO-to-the-AWN-uh-kuhl) follows Detroit Price, Jr., a Bronx teenager who must wear a monocle to school after his dad loses their vision insurance. Through a succession of rapid-fire costume changes, writer and performer Melissa Cole portrays eight different characters to chronicle Detroit's difficulty as an anachronistically kind of bespectacled student. The show also features musical numbers from an eclectic range of genres, including rap, R&B, and even country.

Mo-to-the-oncle first appeared as part of SOLOCOM, a New York City festival that showcases solo artists premiering new material. "The show evolved from a very silly idea that must have been stored in my iPhone Notes for at least a year," says Cole. "I think audiences have connected with Mo-to-the-oncle because we all had a hard time in high school to some degree, whether we wore braces or a monocle, but now we can all look back and laugh at our pain together."

The show has sometimes been described as a "dark comedy" for broaching more serious subject matter, like bullying, racism and gun violence, but as Cole explains, there's always truth in comedy. "Many times, audience members have approached me after the show to say there's actually some really deep stuff in it, or that it was hard to laugh at times," Cole says. "Sure, it's hilarious that this kid has to wear a monocle to school but on the flip side of that, his dad can't afford to pay for eyeglasses out-of-pocket, and that's an unfortunate reality for many people in our country."

The production has racked up critical acclaim at theater festivals in Pittsburgh, Providence and Rochester, NY, in addition to a Best Actress win for Cole at the Pittsburgh Fringe. The show next heads to the Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival, the longest running Fringe Festival in the United States, for several performances in late May.

For more information, visit monocleplay.com.

More about Melissa Cole: Melissa Cole (Writer/Performer) is a New York City-based SAG-AFTRA actress, improviser and writer. In 2015, Cole was a finalist in the 2015 NBC & Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Diversity Scholarship Showcase, which features rising sketch comedy actors. A Long Island, NY native, Cole is a graduate of New York University.

More about The Peoples Improv Theater: The Peoples Improv Theater is an award winning training center and comedy theater based in New York City. The Peoples Improv Theater was founded by Ali Reza Farahnakian in 2002, in a small blackbox theater located at 154 West 29th Street. After outgrowing its original home, The PIT moved to 123 East 24th Street on December 31, 2010, opening up the PIT Striker & PIT Underground theaters. In 2015 the original PIT theater on West 29th Street was renamed The PIT Loft and officially became the third theater at The PIT. For more information, visit thepit-nyc.com.

Photo credit Shelby Billotti

 

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