(HOBOKEN, NJ) -- Mile Square Theatre presents 5 Times in One Night by Chiara Atik from February 19 through March 15. The play is a hilarious exploration of sex through the ages. From Adam and Eve to the last couple on Earth, playwright Chiara Atik riffs on what we talk about when we talk about sex. Five couples are played by two actors, Kelsey Roberts (MST’s A Merry Little Christmas Carol) and Nathaniel Kent (Eat the Devil). The New York Times says of the play, “a lewd title and a tender heart…the writing feels specific and universal.”
“I saw Chiara’s play when it premiered at Ensemble Studio Theatre in 2015, and I knew immediately it would be a great play for Mile Square Theatre.” says MST Artistic Director Chris O’Connor. “5 Times in One Night is both hilarious and heartbreaking, and it dares to address the messy, awkward, and vulnerable conversations we have as couples when we talk about sex. Chiara does it with intelligence and airtight comic writing. The five couples played by two actors is a delightfully entertaining theatrical device.”
Directed by Melissa Firlit (MST’s Dracula: The Journals of Jonathan Harker), the creative team includes Jen Price Fick, who last season designed the sets for I and You and Bunnicula, lighting designer Matthew D. McCarren (59E59), costume designer Alexandria Hoffman (Florida Rep, Rattlestick), MST resident scenic artist and prop master Emmett Grosland (I and You, Pipeline) and intimacy director Judi Lewis Ockler (Dear Dead Drug Lord).
5 Times in One Night begins performances on Wednesday, February 19 and runs until Sunday, March 15. Opening night is February 21 at 8:00pm. Performances take place Wednesdays, Thursday, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00pm with 3:00pm matinee performances on Saturdays and Sundays. All performances take place at 1400 Clinton Street, Hoboken, New Jersey. Tickets are $15-40 • $20 students and $25 seniors. Tickets are available for purchase online, or by calling 201-683-7014. Discount Parking available at The Harlow at 1330 Willow Avenue and at Little Man Parking at 1300 Jefferson Street.
This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. Degise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders.
Publicity photo of Nathaniel Kent and Kelsey Roberts by Joe Epstein Photography.
COMPANY BIOS:
NATHANIEL KENT (male actor) is a Brooklyn-based actor originally from the Bay Area. MST: debut. NY Theater: Eat the Devil (One Year Lease); Trevor (Lesser America); Real Dead Ghosts (Shelby Company). Regional: We Are Proud to Present... (Playmakers Rep); Harvey (Heritage Theatre Festival); Rough Crossing (Cortland Rep); Mother of the Maid (Shakes & Co). Film, TV and V/O: Shrapnel; Dead of Winter (ID); Uber Pool of Death (Hatched); Limetown (the original podcast) and The Fall of the House of Sunshine, a musical comedy podcast (Season 3 available Spring 2020). BFA: NYU Tisch. www.nathanielkent.com
KELSEY ROBERTS (female actor) is a New York City-based theater artist originally from Chicago. She is happy to be returning to the MST stage after previously appearing in A Merry Little Christmas Carol. Additional credits include Mary Poppins and Hairspray (Syracuse Stage). She’s a proud graduate of Syracuse University and thanks her family and friends for their endless love and support.
MELISSA FIRLIT (Director) was last seen at Miles Square Theatre in 2016 when she directed Dracula. She recently directed Marrow by Brian Quirk at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival and the Ireland National Tour of Misterman by Enda Walsh. Her work has been across the US at 59E59, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, New Light Theatre Project, The Princeton Festival, Creede Repertory Theatre, Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts and various other festivals and organizations. She holds an MFA in directing from Rutgers University and a BA from The University of Hartford and the O’Neill National Theater Institute. She is a member SDC. www.melissafirlit.com
JEN PRICE FICK (Scenic Design) is also the Production Manager at Mile Square Theatre, as well as one of the Art Directors for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Previous design credits at MST include I and You, Bunnicula, The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi (2018 & 2007) You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; God of Carnage; Go, Dog. Go!; several seasons of The 7th Inning Stretch. Additional credits: Sprout House (Art Director, Universal Kids); Maya and Marty (Associate Art Director, NBC); Singing Beach (world premiere), Mourning Sun; You are Now the Owner of this Suitcase (Theatre 167, NYC). Associate design: Angels in America (Broadway); Love Never Dies (National Tour); Billy Elliot (Korea, Japan). Member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829.
ALEXANDRIA HOFFMAN (Costume Design) Teseo: Medea, Brenda Huggins (Cantanti Project); “Gwen & Mina’s Puppetopia”, Rachel Wolther (NEON CAVIAR); Euridice, Bea Goodwin (Cantanti Project); Orlando, Bea Goodwin (Cantanti Project); The Seafarer, David Edwards (Florida Repertory Theater); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Robert Cacioppo (Florida Repertory Theater); “Cross”, Gerry Maravilla (Isosceles Media); For A Good Time Call Kathy Blanchard, Kaitlyn Samuel (Outside Inside at NYC Fringe). Assistant Costume Design- Off Broadway: The Architecture of Becoming, Kate Fry (Women’s Project Theater); One Night, Jessica Jahn (Rattlestick at Cherry Lane Productions); F#%ng Up Everything, Melissa Trn. Other: “Second Sun”, Kama Royz (Second Suns Film, Inc.); “Cop Show”, Michael Bevins (M.E.G.A. Films); “How You Look at It”, Stefanie Genda (How You Look at It LLC); Bubble Boy, Liz Groth (American Theater Group); Barnum, Stefanie Genda (Hartt School). MA NYU Visual Culture: Costume Studies; BA UCSB History and Theater, emphasis Costume Design.
MATTHEW D. MCCARREN (Lighting Design) currently serves as the Resident Scenic Designer and Technical Director for Cleveland Opera Theatre, and is a Teaching Artist and Scene Shop Supervisor for Cornish College of the Arts. Matthew’s designs have been featured internationally at the 2007 Prague Quadrennial, and the ICASTICA Arts Festival, Arezzo, Italy 2013-2016. His regional credits include work at Mile Square Theatre, NYC, The Actors Guild, NYC, 59E59 NYC, The Helen Mills Theatre, NYC, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks Thingamajig Theatre Co., Parallel 45 Theatre Co., Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Evolution Theatre Co., The Crook Theatre Co., NYC, and with Cleveland Opera Theatre. Matt has served on the faculty with Interlochen Center for the Arts, The University of Wyoming and Fort Lewis College in Durango, Co. Select Credits: Blood Wedding, Spring Awakening, The Man of La Mancha, The Blowin of Baile Gall, Stones in His Pockets, A Little Night Music, Night Mother, My Fair Lady, A Streetcar Named Desire, Mr. Burns, West Side Story, Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte, Madame Butterfly. rabbitholedesign.wixsite.com/mattmccarren
EMMETT GROSLAND (Prop Master) is an actor, artist, transgender advocate and graphic designer. Em is happy to return to MST, having previously painted and prop'd Bunnicula, A Merry Little Christmas Carol, 39 Steps, Driving Miss Daisy, I and You, and Vanya and Masha and Sonya and Spike. He currently works as a scenic charge for the theater at the New School, Hoboken Children's Theater and other companies around New York and New Jersey. You can learn more about him @EmGrosland or on www.EmGrosland.com
JUDI LEWIS OCKLER (Intimacy Director) Off Broadway: Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, HATEF**K (WP theater), One in Two (Signature Theater), MsTrial (New World Stages), Bar Dykes (Flea Theater), Fern Hill (59E59), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Classic Stage). Wiliamstown Theater Festival: A Raisin in the Sun (Robert O’Hara, Director), Human, of a Sort (Whitney White, director). She is a certified Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors International; she teaches and directs Intimacy for the Stage and Stage Combat at Eugene O’Neil Theater Center, HB Studios, The New School NYC, NYU Tisch and The American Musical & Dramatic Academy, NYC. www.judilewisockler.com
ARIELLE LEGERE (Stage Manager) is an actor, singer, and teaching artist. She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2014. Arielle teaches classes and works in various other roles for Mile Square Theatre. Recent credits include Dr Faustus, All’s Well That Ends Well & Macbeth (Hudson Shakespeare Company), A Merry Little Christmas Carol and The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi (MST). She is so glad to be part of this wonderful team!
ANDREW DEITCH (Sound Design) has been experimenting with sound professionally for 15 years in different forms. He is a Billboard charting recording artist (Synes), audio engineer and music producer and is currently finishing his degree in Theatre Arts at Hudson County Community College where he was sound designer two years in a row for the college’s Theatre Arts festival. He has also been assistant music editor for film and tv on shows such as ABC’s Quantico, and Netflix’s Bloodline. This is his first show with Mile Square Theatre.
ANDREW BALDWIN (Fight Director) is a fight director, actor, and advanced actor combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. His fight direction credits include 59E59 Theater (Mother Night), Mile Square Theatre (12th Night, Art), and Miami Acting Company (Man of La Mancha). He has also served as an assistant fight director at Asolo Repertory Theatre (Macbeth; FD Bruce Lecure). As an actor he has performed at MST in The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 12th Night, A Year with Frog and Toad, Bunnicula and Core Values. Andrew has also been seen in Scraps (The Flea), Romeo and Juliet (Columbia Stages), Dex!: A Killer Musical (Fringe NYC), What We're Up Against, Bull (New Wave Theater Collective), Taming of the Cats (The Brick), O Walter, My Walter (COW Theatre), and 54: The Musical (Emerging Artists Theatre). TV credits include “Law and Order: SVU”.
CHRIS O’CONNOR (Artistic Director, Producer) Chris is Founding Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre. In 2017, he received an Award of Excellence from the New Jersey Theatre Alliance for his leadership as Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre. As an actor, Chris has performed in such theatres as Franklin Stage Company, Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre, The Culture Project, Soho Rep, The Ahmanson, Gloucester Stage, Provisional Theatre of Los Angeles, The Bathhouse Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, where he originated the role of Peter in Craig Wright’s The Pavilion, and at Maltz Jupiter Theatre in Billy Elliot. Recent TV and film credits include Magic City, Burn Notice, and the new indie thriller Depraved. Chris has directed over 25 productions at MST and has directed at theatres and universities all over America, most recently at Franklin Stage Company where he directed Billy Bishop Goes to War. Other recent work includes The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged at Lyric Repertory in Logan, Utah, and recently at Mile Square Theatre; I and You, The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi, Betrayal, Circle Mirror Transformation and the world premiere of Long Gone Daddy by Joseph Gallo. He played Vanya in MST’s production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Chris chairs the newly formed Hoboken Arts Advisory Board for the City of Hoboken. He is an Assistant Professor on the Theatre Arts faculty at Molloy College. Chris holds a BFA from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MFA from Rutgers University.
