The Flea Theater

BATHHOUSE.PPTX

by Jesús I. Valles
directed by Chay Yew
March 19 - May 5, 2024
Tickets on sale now!
The Flea Theater, 20 Thomas St, New York, NY 10007
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“Poetic and mystifying”
The New York Times
“Stunningly original…simply, thrilling”
Gay City News
"An inescapable political statement about queer culture"
Gay City News
"An artful memorial to gay bathhouses"
The Hangover Report

BATHHOUSE.PPTX is an epic new play that follows Presenter, a queer Latiné student, whose powerpoint presentation on the history of cleanliness and bathing quickly starts to burst at the seams with appearances from the ghosts of a bathhouse at the end of the world, A Conquistador! Wearing One of Those Hats!, A Very Real Twink, and even Laura Linney. Valles describes it as, “a group project for perverts. Somewhere between lecture, re-enactment, and cruising ground. A meditation on queer longing, queer grief, and all our queer worlds that will come to pass, that will come to be.”

Artwork by Perry Picasshoe

Get a free BATHHOUSE.PPTX bookmark

The first 25 tickets sold for each performance from April 23 to May 5 will be accompanied with a FREE BATHHOUSE.PPTX bookmark featuring original artwork by LA painter and designer, Perry Picasshoe! Take home a piece of our bathhouse, featuring one of three unique designs.

Please note: Bookmarks will be distributed at random. Patrons will not be able to choose a design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cast

Claudia Acosta

Claudia Acosta

Actor

Claudia Acosta (Chela and others) (she/hers) is a New York based actor, director, producer and teaching artist. As an actor, she has most recently appeared in Boundless Theater Company’s How to Melt ICE. Other credits include: Page 73’s (Man Cave), Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater (Seven Spots on the Sun), WP Theater (Architecture of Becoming), HERE(Don Cristobal Billy Club Man), Platforma Internațională de Teatru București in Romania (Two Arms and a Noise). She has worked with INTAR, Teatro IATI, Chautauqua Theater Company and many others. Originally from Texas, she has also been in many productions at Hip Pocket Theater, Cara Mia, Artes De la Rosa, and Teatro Dallas. She is a guest narrator for Performing Arts Fort Worth and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in their annual bilingual Children’s Educational Programs at Bass Performance Hall. Claudia is also a guest director at Lehman College for Anna Deveare Smith’s Fires in the Mirror,  Luis Alfaro’s Electricidad at Lehman College, and Macbeth SUNY New Paltz. She also directed Teatro Dallas’s Grave is Given Supper in association with New Ohio’s Ice Factory Festival. Claudia is a founding collective member and former producer of readings and workshops for the Obie Grant winner, The Sol Project. Claudia has co-produced and facilitated Echoes Writing Group for Primary Stages. She has been a teaching artist for over fifteen years serving many organizations including MTC, Arts Connection, New York Theater Workshop and Lincoln Center Education. She is thrilled to join The Flea to be part of Jesús’s world.

Manuel C. Alcazar

Manuel C. Alcazar

Actor

Manuel C. Alcazar (Daniel and others) (he/him) is a proud Mexican-born actor, excited to come back to the stage after a whole P-word. NY Credits: Dream Babies, Love Like a Hun (NY Premiere), Beauty and the Beast, Me and my Girl, Guys and Dolls, Sons and Dogs, 29Lives: The Musical, The Jaguar Woman. Regional: Sister Act (La Comedia Dinner Theatre, OH), Grease (Esperanza Iris, MX). Film: “The Amazing Ray” Web series: “New Height” and “29Lives”. He is a graduate of AMDA NY. IG: @manuelcalcazar. Website: www.manuelcalcazar.com

Esteban Andres Cruz

Esteban Andres Cruz

Actor

Esteban Andres Cruz (Mx. Vazquez and others) (they/them) was born in Berwyn, raised in Cicero, IL and grew up on Chicago’s stages.  They are thrilled to be making their debut at The Flea in this poem of healing by fellow LPC member, Jesús I. Valles.  In addition to acting, Esteban is also a dancer, improviser, writer, jazz musician, choreographer, poet, playwright and playwright doula.  NY credits: Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (Drama Desk Nomination Best Featured Actor), Cornelia Street, world premiere by Simon Stephens directed by Neil Pepe and featuring Mary Beth Piel and Norbert Leo Butts. Selected Regional credits: St Louis Shakes, La Jolla Playhouse, Milwaukee Rep, Theatre at the Center (IN), Cygnet Theatre (SD), NYSF, Celebration (LA), Pasadena Playhouse, Peninsula Players (WI), St Louis Rep, Miami New Drama, Williamstown.  In Chicago: Steppenwolf, Writers, Victory Gardens (w/ Chay Yew), About Face, The Factory, Urban Theatre, Teatro Vista, Jackalope, Raven plus many more. Esteban is an ensemble member with A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago and a part of the Latinx Playwrights Circle (LPC), in NYC.  Esteban is a 2019 TCG National Fox Fellow Acting Award Winner,  2009 Jeff Award Winner for Best Actor and the 1994 After Dark Award for Best Choreography.  Film: Spa Night (Spirit Award’s Cassavetti Award winner), Rattled, Valley of Bones (starring Alexandra Billings), The Thin Line (with Lily Gladstone), A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. TV: “Chicago Fire,” “Awkward,” “Easy,” “Idiot Sitter,” “The Bridge,” “You’re The Worst” and “South Side.”@estebanandrescruz.actor  www.estebanandrescruz.com  Love to Jimmy & Tes & all the familia, chosen and bloody.

Yonatan Gebeyehu

Yonatan Gebeyehu

Actor

Yonatan Gebeyehu (Shaun and others) (he/him)- OFF- BROADWAY: TFANA: Merchant of Venice,Timon of Athens, MOLIERE IN THE PARK: Tartuffe, BEDLAM: Persuasion, NEW GEORGES/THE THANK: I Thought I Would Die, But I Didn’t. MTC: Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (u/s). REGIONAL: Shakespeare Theater of DC, Portland Stage Company, Montana Rep.TV: Prodigal Son (FOX), Elementary, Madame Secretary (CBS). DIGITAL: Lessons in Survival (Vineyard), 86’d (Bric Arts). TRAINING: University of California San Diego: MFA in Acting. Columbia University, B.A. in English.

Sam Gonzalez

Sam Gonzalez

Actor

Sam Gonzalez (PRESENTER)(he/him) is an actor and native New Yorker based in NYC. He’s an alum of the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School where he also served on the faculty for 6 years. He is a member of the resident acting company at Mercury Store in Gowanus. Credits include Invasive Species (The Tank), Cuck, Cuck, Bull; Vile Isle (Columbia), Big Green Theater (The Bushwick Starr), Salt Kid Watches Brooklyn Burn (Joe’s Pub), Lulu is Hungry, Blue Plate Special (Ars Nova), and The Velveteen Rabbit(Atlantic Theater Company). thesamgonzalez.com

Gilbert D. Sanchez

Gilbert D. Sanchez

Actor

Gilbert D. Sanchez (Carlos and others) (he/him/they) is an actor and cabaret singer based in Brooklyn, New York. His cabaret persona, Ms. Zilbert, has produced multiple original shows including Cats: The Other Cats Musical, Mother Disco: I am the Mother of Disco, and Me & My Good Judys at Good Judy. Theatre: Ritchie Valens in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Bucks County Playhouse), Showgirls the Musical (off Broadway).  TV: Law and Order: Organized Crime, New Amsterdam, Bull and The Path. @gilbertwithaz “for the boys.”

Creative Team

Playwright

Jesús I. Valles

Jesús I. Valles

Playwright

Jesús I. Valles they/them is a queer Mexican immigrant, educator, storyteller, and performer from Cd. Juarez/El Paso. Valles is a 2023 Princess Grace Award recipient and a 2024 Tow Playwright in Residence at The Flea. Jesús is a 2021 CantoMundo fellowship recipient at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, a 2019 Lambda Literary fellow, a 2019 Walter E. Dakin Playwriting Fellow of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a recipient of the 2019 Letras Latinas Scholarship from the Community of Writers’ Poetry Workshop, and a poetry fellow at Idyllwild Arts Writers Week. Jesús is also a 2018 Undocupoets Fellow, a 2018 Tin House Scholar, a fellow of The 2018 Poetry Incubator, and the runner-up in the 2017 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest. Their work has been published in The Shade Journal, The Texas Review, The New Republic, Palabritas, The Acentos Review, Quarterly West, The Mississippi Review, Palette, The Adroit Journal, BOAAT, The McNeese Review, and PANK. Their poetry has also been featured on NPR’s Code Switch, The Slowdown, The BreakBeat Poets’ LatiNext Anthology, and the Best New Poets 2020 anthology. As an actor, they are the recipient of four B. Iden Payne Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama (2018), and Outstanding Original Script (2018) and they were nominated for the Mark David Cohen New Play Award for their play, (Un)Documents. They most recently starred as Penny Marshall in Victor I. Cazares’ Pinching Pennies with Penny Marshall: Death Rituals for Penny Marshall for New York Theatre Workshop. Jesús was the OUTSider festival’s OUTsider-in-residence and holds an MFA in playwriting from Brown University.

Director

Chay Yew

Chay Yew

Director

Chay Yew he/him is a multi-award-winning theater director, playwright and producer. As a director, Chay Yew’s New York credits include Mojada, Oedipus el Rey, Durango (OBIE, Outstanding Direction), Universes’ Ameriville and Low (Public Theater); Cambodian Rock Band (Signature); The Architecture of Loss (New York Theatre Workshop); A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick (Playwrights Horizon); Draw The Circle (Rattlestick, Mosaic Theater Company, InterAct and Playmakers Rep); My Manana Comes (Playwrights Realm); Where Do We Sit On The Bus? (Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playmakers Rep, Boise Contemporary Theater, Teatro Vista, City Theatre and Victory Gardens); The House of Bernarda Alba (National Asian American Theatre Company); and Last of the Suns (Ma-Yi Theatre Company). Chay served as the Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago from 2011 to 2020.

Scenic Design

You-Shin Chen

You-Shin Chen

Scenic Design

You-Shin Chen (Scenic Design) You-Shin Chen is a USA-based Taiwanese scenic designer. As a theatre collaborator, she is committed to diversity and humanity. You-Shin centers humans, both the characters and the viewers, and their experiences in her process of creating a three-dimensional space. Her design works have been seen across the continental US and Europe. Some of her favorite credits include: How To Defend Yourself (NYTW); Wolf Play (SohoRep & MCC, Lortel Awards); Red Velvet (STC, DC); Dragon King’s Daughter (Kennedy Center, DC); Mlima’s Tale (St. Louis Rep); Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (ArsNova, Lortel Awards); Troy Anthony’s The Revival: It Is Our Duty (The Shed, NYC); Walden (TheaterWorks Hartford, Connecticut Critics Circle Awards). Collaborator with the feath3r theory. Assistant professor at Muhlenberg College. Local USA829, IASTE. www.youshinchen.com

Lighting Design

Reza Behjat

Reza Behjat

Lighting Design

Reza Behjat (Lighting Design) Reza Behjat is an Obie Award-winning lighting designer for live performances based in New York. Off-Broadway: THE ALLY (Public Theater), POOL PROJECT (59E59), BEES & HONEY (MCC Theater), HANG TIME (Flea), ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM (Redbull Theater), GOOD ENEMY (Audible), VAGRANT TRILOGY (Public Theater), WISH YOU WERE HERE (Playwrights Horizons), ENGLISH (Atlantic Theater), OUT OF TIME (NAATCO), P.S (Ars Nova), HENRY VI (NAATCO), HAMLET (Waterwell), etc. Regional: Milwaukee Rep, Seattle Rep, Steppenwolf Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Guthrie Theater, Hudson Valey Shakespeare, Wilma Theater, Arizona Theater Company, Actor Theater of Louisville, Geva Theater, Long Warf, Alabama Shakespeare, etc. Awards: Obie Award in Design category for ENGLISH and WISH YOU WERE HERE (2022), Knight of Illumination Award for NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN (2019)

Costume Design

Haydee Zelideth Antuñano

Haydee Zelideth Antuñano

Costume Design

Haydee Zelideth Antuñano (Costume Design) Haydee is a Chicana artist and costume designer. Clothes carry on public conversations with others and share stories about who we are, who we are not, and who we wish to be. They are a means of exploring how image can open up perceptions of race, class, socioeconomic status, and more – all of which is what most interests her. She grew up on both sides of the Mexican border and these experiences inform her point of view and how she approaches her work, giving depth, dimension and color to the specificities of someone’s life. www.haydeezelideth.com

Sound Design

John Gasper

John Gasper

Sound Design

John Gasper (Sound Design) John Gasper is a sound designer, musician and performer. He has made sounds and performed with Elevator Repair Sevice, Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble, Advanced Beginner Group, Bailey Williams, Sarah Blush, Sibyl Kempson, New Saloon, Lisa Clair Group, Karinne Keithly Syers, Salon Seance, and more. His work has been seen and heard at Playwrights Horizons, The Bushwick Starr, Abrons Arts Center, NYU Skirball, The Chocolate Factory, JACK, The Brick, and theaters around the country. His music for theater is available on cassette via Kapha Selections. MFA: PIMA at Brooklyn College.

Projection Design

Nicholas Hussong

Nicholas Hussong

Projection Design

Nicholas Hussong  (Projection Design) is a designer for live and digital performance and events. Creative Producer at Dwight Street Book Club. Broadway: Skeleton Crew (Tony Nomination). Off-Broadway: Skeleton Crew, These Paper Bullets (Atlantic, Drama Desk Nom) Wet Brain (Playwrights Horizons) On That Day in Amsterdam (Primary Stages, Drama Desk Nom) White Guy on the Bus (59E59) Chick 6 (LaMama) Until the Flood (Rattlestick) Other credits include: The Wizard of Oz (Geva) RENT! (Paper Mill Playhouse) Vietgone (The Guthrie) To the Yellow House (Lajolla) Kleptocracy (Arena) Until the Flood (15 regional and international locations); Haint Blu, Hair & Other Stories (Urban Bush Women); Woman’s Party (Clubbed Thumb); Grounded (Alley); Arden Theater, Playmakers Rep, Berkshires Theatre Group, Other work includes; Atlanta Opera, Virginia Museum of Art, David Zwirner Gallery, Marc Jacobs, Mass MoCA, Complex Magazine, AMC+, San Diego Shell, San Diego Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Tony Awards (CBS), Ask Ronna Podcast. He also designed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, China, Canada and Vienna. Co-Creator of FEAST, an immersive dining experience with Listen&Breathe (Nantucket & Ireland). Yale MFA. UAW & USA829 www.nickhussong.com

Intimacy + Fight Direction

David Anzuelo

Production Stage Manager

Beatrice Perez-Arche

Assistant Stage Manager

Abi Rowe

Abi Rowe

Assistant Stage Manager

Abi Rowe (Assistant Stage Manager) (she/her) is so excited to be at the Flea for this incredible show! Off Broadway credits include: Islander, Jersey Boys, Sleep No More, Is There Still Sex in the City, Wolf Play (MCC Theatre). A Bright New Boise, My Broken Language (Signature Theatre). As You Like It (The Public). Cyrano (The New Group). Regional: Fiddler on the Roof (Papermill Playhouse) Candide (Skylight Music Theatre). Cinderella (Geva Theatre). A View From the Bridge, Yasmina’s Necklace (Goodman Theater). International: West Side Story (IHI Stage Around Tokyo).

Dramaturg

Morgan Jenness

Morgan Jenness

Dramaturg

Morgan Jenness has worked in dramaturgical capacities at theaters (including The Public Theater, NYTW and LATC) and developmental situations throughout the USAmerican theater for four decades. They also served as a creative consultant at both the Helen Merrill and Abrams Artists agencies. They have taught at many educational theater programs (currently on the faculty of Columbia, Fordham, The Actors’ Studio and Pace University) and have been on multiple theater funding and award panels. Morgan is also a recipient of several awards including an Obie for Long Term Support of Playwrights and is currently Creative Director/Founder of In This Distracted Globe – a dramaturgical and management consultancy. They are honored to have been invited into the steam of this bathhouse with all these bold and glorious people.

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