The third show of Mosaic Theater Company's ambitious third season will be The Real Americans, a one-man show written and starring Bay Area sensation and now NYC-based performing artist Dan Hoyle. In an effort to escape the liberal urban bubble, Hoyle spent 100 days traveling through small-town America. The cast of characters he met and interviewed are vividly brought to life in this hilarious, poignant performance.
"We are so pleased to have Dan bring this play to Mosaic," said Founding Artistic Director Ari Roth. "Dan is a razor-sharp writer and an extraordinary chameleon of a performance artist, in the best tradition of artists like Ana Deavere Smith, performing transcribed interview material with absolute fidelity. This play exemplifies the importance of seeing the world through someone else's eyes. We are confident this show will make audiences laugh but also spur conversations about our country's political and economic climate. To that end, we are pairing this show with a robust series of post-show discussions, including with Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher, co-author of Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition."
Originally written during Barack Obama's first term as president, this version of The Real Americans includes updated material based on travels during the summer of 2016 and updated reflections on last year's presidential election. Hoyle is currently testing out his latest version of the script at The Marsh in San Francisco, fine-tuning new scenes before arriving in Washington DC in November.
The production is directed by Charlie Varon, a San Francisco-based writer and director, who DC audiences will remember as the acclaimed creator and performer of Rush Limbaugh in Night School, which played at Woolly Mammoth in 1995 before its Off-Broadway run.
The Real Americans will play in Lab II at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, and will overlap with Vicuña & The American Epilogue. "These two productions are absolutely linked," continued Roth. "While different in style, both plays ask about the moments and sentiments that led to our current political climate. Dan's play is a particularly intimate, personal experience, which is why we decided to stage it in the smaller Lab II black box space. We hope that audiences will come and enjoy both shows for a truly remarkable pairing created by some brilliant writers, performers, and directors."
Beginning in December, The Real Americans will be running in rep with Draw the Circle, a moving one-man show about how the creator's (Mashuq Mushtaq Deen) gender transition affected his family and friends. Together, The Real Americans and Draw the Circle make up the series "Transformational Journeys: Inspired Singular Explorations." (press release to come).
Additional Information about The Real Americans
Opening Night: Sunday, November 12 at 7:30 PM
Special Performances and Post Show Discussions: PWYC preview on November 10 at 8 PM; Weekday Matinee at 11 AM on December 7; Open Captions provided at 8:00 PM on December 9 and at 3:00 PM on December 10; Post-show discussions with Marc Fisher on November 11 and November 15. A full list of discussion dates and discussant bios will be available on mosaictheater.org/discussions.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, VISIT: HTTP://WWW.MOSAICTHEATER.ORG/THE-REAL-AMERICANS
VALET PARKING NOW AVAILABLE FOR ALL PERFORMANCES
About Dan Hoyle
Dan Hoyle is an actor and writer based in New York City. His solo shows EACH AND EVERY THING, THE REAL AMERICANS, TINGS DEY HAPPEN, FLORIDA 2004: THE BIG BUMMER, and CIRCUMNAVIGATOR-all created and premiered at The Marsh Theater in his native San Francisco-have had more than 800 performances around the country and overseas including at The Public Theater, Culture Project, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Cleveland Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Playmakers Repertory Company, The Park in Kolkata, India, a five day tour of Nigeria, and many universities including Columbia, Stanford, USC, and NYU. As an actor, Hoyle recently appeared Off-Broadway in Samantha Chanse's FRUITING BODIES at The Sheen Center (The Claque). He has been featured in several web comedy series, playing everything from a struggling tech entrepreneur to a guy named Skeezy Steve. His multi-actor play GAME ON, co-written with Tony Taccone, won the TBA award for Outstanding New Play. His second multi-actor play, THE BLOCK, had a critically acclaimed World Premiere Off-Broadway in Spring 2016, produced by The Working Theater. His third, GROW, about growers in the cannabis industry, was produced by Mendocino College in the heart of cannabis country in Northern California. He is currently an artist-in-residence at the Heyman Center for Humanities at Columbia University working on a piece of solo journalistic theater called BORDERS/NO BORDERS. Hoyle has taught workshops at colleges and theaters around the country. He has been recognized with many awards, including the Will Glickman, Prize of Hope, Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel (Nomination), been supported by grants from the Edgerton Foundation, the Pew Theater Initiative, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Zellerbach Foundation, and been commissioned by Working Theater, Aurora Theater, First Person Arts, and SF Playhouse. He holds a double degree in Performance Studies and History from Northwestern University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Nigeria in 2005-2006.
About Mosaic Theatre Company of DC
Independent, intercultural, entertaining, and uncensored, Mosaic Theater Company of DC is committed to making transformational, socially-relevant art, producing plays by authors on the front lines of conflict zones, and building a fusion community to address some of the most pressing issues of our times. Dedicated to making our theater a model of diversity and inclusion at every strata, on stage and off, Mosaic invests in the new as we keep abreast of our changing and challenging times to ensure that our theater is a responsive gathering space, all the while nurturing and producing art of the highest order. Visit us at mosaictheater.org.
Other Opening Nights for Season Three:
Sunday, December 3, 2017: Draw the Circle
Monday, January 8, 2018: Queens Girl in Africa
Tuesday, April 3, 2018: Paper Dolls
Monday, May 7, 2018: Hooded, Or Being Black for Dummies
Monday, June 11, 2018: The Vagrant Trilogy
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