WTE Presents STINKY FLOWERS AND THE BAD BANANA, 10/7-24

Sinclair, Sam, and Stu discover the audience in their attic. Clearly, these quiet strangers are going to eat them, so they distract the hungry savages by telling them their grandfather's original fairytales. With these vivid, multi-media stories the siblings discover the answer to, "are we still loved after the person who loved us is gone?".

STINKY FLOWERS AND THE BAD BANANA was developed out of short fairytales playwright Croft Vaughn created through The Field's "Fieldwork" program. The first incarnation of Stinky Flowers was a solo play performed by Croft Vaughn, presented as part of Six Figures Theatre Company's Artists of Tomorrow Festival at The Westside Theatre in December 2006. In 2007 WTE and Drawing Board Arts Project co-produced the Edinburgh Fringe Festival production of Stinky Flowers and the Bad Banana and in 2008 WTE brought Stinky Flowers to the Indianapolis Fringe Festival. The new 5-person version of the play was presented in 2008 as part of The Management's Salon Reading Series. This will be the first fully staged production of the ensemble version of Stinky Flowers and the Bad Banana.

"An endearing and enchanting meander through the excitable mind of one exceptional child"
Ishah Janssen-Faith, nytheatre.com (East to Edinburgh)

"This is storytelling at its best, and suitable for all ages - the children in the audience were mesmerized, as were the adults. And to top it off, you get a home-baked cookie at the end."
Indianapolis Nuvo (IndyFringe)

"Evokes the humor and angst of being a third grader in a world that isn't always like a fairy tale."
Amy Stark, Smaller Indiana (IndyFringe)

STINKY FLOWERS AND THE BAD BANANA will feature Dorothy Abrahams, Chuck Blasius, Michael J. Conolly*, Robert James Grimm lll, and Lauren Sowa*.

The creative team will include Lightning Design by Kate Ashton, Original Animation by Matt Burnett, Costume Design by Bradley Erickson, Sound and Music Design by Alana McNail and Set Design by Jennifer Varbalow. The production will be Stage Managed by Barbara Dente*. 

*Appearing courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association

The production, presented by WTE Theatre will play at UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A) October 7-24, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm. Tickets ($18, $15 students/seniors, $10 for kids) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.smarttix.com.

CROFT VAUGHN (Playwright) is a Company Member of Wasted Theatre Education, (WTE) which specializes in bringing new shows to International and National Fringe Festivals. WTE recently created the Multi-Media Dance- Theatre Play, SportSexDeathPorn, which premiered at the Montreal Fringe Festival. He Co-Produced and starred in Nicky Silver's The Altruists, in the European Premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005, to 4 and 5 star reviews. Other original works include Shepherd a classical hero myth and gay love story, Glauce or Without Fear From the Abyss, a dance theater piece inspired by the Medea myth and the Chernobyl disaster, and Flight Light a dance meditation on the paradox of a kite's string. He wrote and directed They Want Us Dead, We Can't Stay Here! which saw a sold out performance in the Hot! Festival at Dixon Place. His performance venues range from P.S.122, The Duplex Cabaret, and 59 E. 59 Theaters, to Dance Space Center, Dixon Place, Blue Heron Arts Center, Galapagos, and throughout the U.S. He toured with WTE Theatre to Edinburgh's Fringe Festival in 2003. He performed at P.S 122 in Twas the Night Before the Twelve Days of a Nutcracker Christmas Carol, directed by Ken Nintzel. Newsday.com singled him out as "gloomy perfection" for his role of Fritz/Ignorance. Croft is on the Advisory Board for Skybetter and Associates, the contemporary dance company helmed by Sydney Skybetter. He has worked with downtown performance artists Ken Nintzel, David Neuman, Stacey Dawson, Penny Arcade, Synaesthetic Theatre, the T.E.A.M, and Jonathan Adam Ross. Croft was the Assistant Director for the Snoopy! Benefit Concert at Symphony Space starring Broadway's Sutton Foster. Croft earned his first off-Broadway credit as Assistant Director for Joy, at the Actor's Playhouse, with Ben Rimalower Directing. Other Assistant Director credits include the Unity Concert for Cover the Uninsured Week, BroadwayWorld.com's Benefit Concert for Broadway Cares, Equity Fights Aids, and numerous staged readings at Manhattan Theater Club, Second Stage, and others. Croft studied Clowning with Giovanni Fusetti, Chris Bayes, and Orlando Pabatoy, Commedia with The Flying Machine, and Street Theater with Steve Wangh. He enjoyed a four-month performance- internship with Big Dance Theatre, where he assisted in the creation of Plan-B, and performed the work in progress at Jacob's Pillow. He is a proud member of The Manhattan Prairie Dogs, NYC's Premier LGBT Country-Western Dance Performance Troupe for 2 years running. He has performed with them across the US. Croft is a graduate of NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing at Tisch School of the Arts.

DAVID A. MILLER (Director) most recently devised and directed Brooklyn Underground: Theatrical stories from the Green-Wood Cemetery with The Artful Conspirators.  Other recent and past directing: The Book of Liz (Piper Theatre), Gutenberg! The Musical! (Amphibian Productions, Fort Worth, TX; Company Member), Dead Man's Cell Phone (Wagner Theatre; faculty member), Prospect Theater Company, Dixon Place, The New Acting Company, Vital Theatre Company, Annex Theatre (Seattle), Seattle Children's Theatre.  Upcoming projects include directing a reading of All This Intimacy by Rajiv Joseph with Amphibian Productions and the reading of The Restoration of Sight by Richard Hirsch, winner of the Stanley Drama Award at Wagner College, and The Identity Project, a devised play at Wagner College dealing with issues of identity and diversity.  As an educator, actor and administrator David has worked with Seattle Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Festival, Wooden O Theatre, Printer's Devil Theater, George Street Playhouse, McCarter Theater, Syracuse Stage and The Kennedy Center and Roundabout Theatre Company.  David is currently Artistic Director of The Artful Conspirators (www.artfulconspirators.org), a Brooklyn-based theatre company dedicated to new works, which involve the audience as a participant in the theatre making process. MFA Directing, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Drama League Directors Project Alumni. www.mrdavidamiller.com

WTE THEATRE was founded in 2003 by Fritzie Andrade, Melissa Zygmant and Daisy Rosario, all graduates of New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. They continue to bring together up-and-coming playwrights and actors in an effort to present the highest quality of provocative and engaging theatre to a diverse audience. WTE brought to the Edinburgh Fringe The House of Yes to much acclaim in 2003 and the highly praised (4 stars, The Scotsman) production of Nicky Silver's The Altruists in 2005. In 2007, WTE co-produced with Drawing Board Arts Project the Edinburgh Fringe production of Stinky Flowers and the Bad Banana, ("Utterly adorable and entrancing!" nytheatre.com).  Stinky Flowers then toured to the Indianapolis Fringe in 2008 where it received glowing praise (4.5 stars - NUVO, "the sweetest show ever presented at Indy Fringe"). In 2009, WTE traveled to the Montreal Fringe where they premiered, SportSexDeathPorn, an original dance-theatre, multli-media spectacle conceived and created by the company. Now, WTE brings Stinky Flowers to NYC for a 3 week, equity showcase run!

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