MICHAEL JOHN CISZEWSKI: LOVEFOOL to Play NYC & Boston This December

Following a sold out work-in-progress performance at Jersey City Theater Center in June 2022, New York City-based queer creative Michael John Ciszewski is bringing his third solo show LOVEFOOL to Boston's Rockwell Theater on December 11 and New York City's Asylum NYC on December 15! The show is co-created with Brian Dudley and directed by Noah Simes.

You've heard of LOVE before... you knew it was kinda gay. But just wait till big queer lovefool Michael John Ciszewski gets his limp wrists on it! Join him on an absolute ROMP through flings and flirtations, from first love to forever, as he ritually reassembles the pieces of his heart in a silly, romantic reclamation of heartbreak. An hour that bridges stand-up comedy and confessional, LOVEFOOL brims with heart and humor, and makes a starry-eyed argument for falling head-over-heels through life.

"After the last three years of separation and strife, my mission as a creative and a performer is to be radically anti-suffering," reflects Michael John, "and I am so proud of the joy and whimsy with which LOVEFOOL manages that! It's an exercise in the healing power of wide-eyed queer love, and I can't wait to conjure that with audiences. The performance at The Rockwell will mark my first return to the Boston stage since 2019, after a decade living and performing there. And I'm honored to bring LOVEFOOL to the electric Asylum NYC to play alongside NY comedy's brightest rising stars. Hopefully, some of the glitter from the recent smash run of Titanique is still on the floor..."

Ciszewski is joined by the creative team of Brian Dudley and Noah Simes. Dudley began working with Ciszewski to co-create the show after hearing an early developmental reading of the text in 2021. They were joined by Simes after the work-in-progress performance in June 2022. Both share enthusiasm for the spirit and immediacy of the show: "LOVEFOOL is quintessential Michael John," shares Dudley, who helped shape the show's writing and design. "It marries deep sincerity and thoughtfulness with off-the-wall gay nonsense and invites the audience to the reception. Michael John is an unstoppable whirlwind of humor, poignance, and vulnerability in equal measure." Simes, whose direction has sharpened the piece with wit and style, echoes these sentiments: "LOVEFOOL is everything theater should be-fun, gay, honest, and about an hour long. The show asks the question, 'if love always breaks something, why bother?' And it answers with a clear-eyed conviction, but also with a wink and a nod and a wiggle on the dance floor. It's an impassioned manifesto on the importance and beauty of following love through to whatever life has in store for us."

About Michael John Ciszewski

Michael John (he/him) (creator/performer) is a queer actor and writer born, raised, and returned to New York City after launching his career in Boston and London.

Celebrated as "one of the most promising young actors on the Boston theatre scene" by digBoston, he has performed for all of Boston's theaters including The Huntington, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, SpeakEasy Stage, the Umbrella Theatre, and Hub Theatre Company of Boston.

Ciszewski's solo work is rooted in queer experience and healing, gleefully journeying across genres as sundry as stand-up, storytelling, and ritual. His debut show Everyone is Dying and So Am I premiered in 2019 and has enjoyed sold-out performances in Boston and at Manhattan's Theatre Row and United Solo Theatre Festival, where it was subsequently nominated for the festival's audience award. His second solo project The Sun is Sleeping-a full-length, original film composed and produced entirely by Ciszewski in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic-was premiered in 2020 and hailed as "remarkably ambitious" and "wholly singular" by critics and audiences alike. Virtual screening events for the film were attended by over 300 people across the United States. His third solo show Lovefool premiered in a sold out work-in-progress performance in June 2022 with dates in New York City and Boston on sale now.

Michael is a member of the staff of ArtsEmerson at Emerson College's Office of the Arts. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and is a proud graduate of Boston University's B.F.A. Theatre Arts program.

About Brian Dudley

Brian Dudley (he/him) (co-creator/producer) is a creative educator and theatre artist, specializing in student success, youth development, and theatre education.

In addition to his work as an academic and student success advisor at The New School and Boston University College of Fine Arts, Brian has directed, taught, or facilitated programs with the Boston University Summer Theatre Institute, where he also served as co-program head, Arlington Children's Theatre, the Massachusetts Youth Leadership Foundation, the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, and others.

Brian holds an M.Ed in Arts, Community, and Education with a specialization in Theatre Studies from Lesley University, and a B.F.A in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College.

About Noah Simes

Noah Simes (he/him) (director/script consultant) is a director, performer, and theatrical polymath from Boston, now based in New York City. Noah has collaborated with a number of Boston-based institutions and artists, but is maybe best known as the homme fatale Peter Nureyev in the hit queer sci-fi audio drama The Penumbra Podcast.

Performance Dates & Times

Michael John Ciszewski: Lovefool plays The Rockwell Theater on Sunday, December 11 at 7PM. Doors open at 6:30PM. The Rockwell is located at 355 Elm Street in the heart of Davis Square in Somerville, MA.

Michael John Ciszewski: Lovefool plays Asylum NYC on Thursday, December 15 at 7:30PM. Doors open at 7PM. Asylum NYC is located at 307 West 26th Street in Manhattan.

All tickets are $20 and available via xomichaeljohn.com.

Photo by  @iAmZekeD

 

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