Rady&Bloom:
Ding Dong it’s the Ocean

Co-presented with HERE
May 17 - June 3, 2018

An arts collective gathers to celebrate their director's birthday; fueled by Moscow Mules, the partygoers sprawl across the apartment, decompressing from their ongoing rehearsal process. They speculate about the end of the world. They dance. They nap. As the night unfolds, the play that they are building – about our planet's ailing oceans -- pervades every conversation, until the party guests find they are performing it. Ding Dong it’s the Ocean is a play about what people manage to find in each other when the world feels past saving.

Conceived by Rady&Bloom
Written by Alex Borinsky
Music by Joseph White
Directed by Jeremy Bloom
Painted Banners by Brian Rady

​CAST: Eliza Bent*, Matthew Decostanza, Robert Dowling, Jahna Ferron-Smith, Fernando Gonzalez*, Alice Gorelick, Beth Griffith, Yehuda Hyman*, Jacob Perkins, Brian Rady, Ry Szelong, Sade Namei*, Jing Xu*
*AEA

CREATIVE TEAM:
Set: Robbie Bianco
Lights: Jeanette Yew
Sound: Mark Van Hare
Stage Manager: Michelle Navis
Associate Director: Brian Reager

DATES/TIMES:
Thursday May 17 at 8pm
Friday May 18 at 8pm
Saturday May 19 at 8pm
Sunday May 20 at 3pm
Tuesday May 22 at 8pm
Wednesday May 23 at 8pm
Thursday May 24 at 8pm
Friday May 25 at 8pm
Saturday May 26 at 8pm
Sunday May 27 at 3pm
Tuesday May 29 at 8pm
Wednesday May 30 at 8pm
Thursday May 31 at 8pm
Friday June 1 at 8pm
Saturday June 2 at 8pm
Sunday June 3 at 3pm

RADY&BLOOM Collective Playmaking creates theater works, paintings, music events and more led by the collaboration of Jeremy Bloom and Brian Rady. Works include The Gun Show, The Upper Room (NYTimes Critics Pick), The Girl of the Golden West, Lameness of a Horse, The Orange Person, La Boheme Spoken, The Green Knight, and Anchor Women. Each year R&B also produces a Valentine Gesamtkunsverk as artists in residence at the cell. Commissioners and presenters include HERE, The New Ohio, IRT, Ars Nova, The Flea, The Brick, the cell, Walkerspace, and Exapno. R&B has received support from LMCC's Process Space and Manhattan Community Arts Fund/ NYS Department of Cultural Affairs, the Archive Residency (New Ohio/ IRT), The Drama League's Artist Residency Program, and the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).

Alexander Borinsky (Writer) is a playwright and performer, originally from Baltimore. Recently: Weird Classrooms, a plaything, as University Settlement Artist-in-Residence, and Of Government, with Jeremy Bloom and Joe White, as part of Clubbed Thumb's 2017 Summerworks Festival. His plays have been produced and developed by Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, Target Margin, Page 73, Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre, SPACE at Ryder Farm, Son of Semele (LA), Upstream Theater (St. Louis), Masrah Ensemble (Beirut), and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8, is out from 3 Hole Press. Member of the Orchard Project's NYC Greenhouse. MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College. He makes work, too, at Rustchuk Farm.

Jeremy Bloom (Director) is a New York-based theater director and writer. Recently, he directed Of Government at Clubbed Thumb, with Alex and Joe. As artistic director of Rady&Bloom, original collaborations with Brian Rady include The Upper Room and The Orange Person. Bloom’s work as adapter/director includes Peter/Wendy and Wilde Tales published by Playscripts, as well as The Gun Show, La Boheme (Spoken), and Leaves of Grass (Nude). Fellowships and residencies include the cell, HARP, The Drama League, EST, Soho Rep Lab, TS Eliot/The Old Vic, LMCC, and The Archive Residency.

Joseph White (Composer) is a composer and performer based in Ridgewood, NY. He co-founded and directed the Sweat Lodge concert series, and the Performer’s Forum lecture series, running from 2011 to 2013 at Exapno New Music Center. Since 2011, he has been composer and musical performer for Rady and Bloom Collective Playmaking, with performances of original work at venues/festivals, including New Ohio’s Ice Factory, Ars Nova’s ANTFest, and the Brick Theatre’s Soundscape festival. He composed the score for, and music-directed, the Clubbed Thumb production of “Of Government” at Summerfest 2017 (NYTimes Critics Pick, Time Out ★★★★★ ).He has additionally composed for workshops and performances at LMCC, Target Margin Theatre, and the Gene Frankel theatre. Joe has played all over New York City as guitarist and vocalist for numerous rock bands, and his musical storytelling work, Boomwaggle was released on Gold Bolus Recordings in 2016.

Robbie Bianco (Set) is thrilled to be joining the creative team at Rady&Bloom. Set design credits include: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Gallery Players), The Drowsy Chaperone, and Oliver! (RSTC). In addition to scenic design, Robbie is a practicing Architect specializing in historic preservation, religious and cultural facilities throughout New York City.

Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (Lights) designs for theatre, dance, opera, musical and music performances and installation. NY Times described them as “clever” and “inventive”. Recent: KPOP with Ars Nova with Ma-Yi Theater Company and Woodshed Collective, Distant Star with Caborca, Thomas Paine in Violence with Paul Pinto, Kristin Marting and BYC’s Silent Voices at BAM, Kamala Sankaram’s Thumbprint with LA Opera, Gloria - A Pig Tale with Alan Gilbert and Doug Fitch, The Idiot with Kristin Marting and Robert Lyons, Raúl De Nieves and Colin Self’s The Fool at The Kitchen, Aya Ogawa’s Ludic Proxy (Bel Geddes Design Enhancement award), Company XIV’s Rococo Rogue and Nutcracker Rogue (various Drama Desk nominations), Torry Bend’s The Paper Hat Game Game (Drama Desk nomination), Matthew Paul Olmos’ So Go the Ghosts of Mexico Part One (Best Lighting Design nomination), Lot Vekemans’ Poison (American Premiere), Julia Jarcho’s Nomads, and Erik Ehn’s commemorative cycle Soulographie: Our Genocides. Recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program.

Mark Van Hare (Sound Design) is a composer and sound designer working in New York City. Recent credits include Oh My Sweet Land and Villa with The Play Company, 3/Fifths at 3LD Art & Technology, Loving and Loving with Radical Evolution Theater, Destiny of Desire at The Garden Theatre (Winter Garden, FL), Paris! and Nutcracker Rouge! with COMPANY XIV at Irondale Theatre, Anna Christie at The Wild Project, DIRECTORFEST with The Drama League at The Barrow Group Theatre, Men On Boats and The Wild Party with The Dramatic Association at Yale University, and Lost Boy Found in Whole Foods at Portland Stage (Portland, ME). Mark is the sound supervisor at New York Theatre Workshop.

Brian Rady (Painted Banners) has written works with Rady&Bloom including The Upper Room (also co-director, The New Ohio), Lameness of a Horse (Exapno/ The Brick), The Green Knight (Bleecker Street Theater), La Boheme Spoken (the Flea/ the cell), The Orange Person (The Gene Frankel/ IRT), and Anchor Women (the cell). In addition to his own solo shows which weave together acoustic pop covers, confessional storytelling, and his painted banners (NYTW Next Door, Target Margin, Performeteria), Brian has performed for Dave Ruder (Experiments in Opera at Roulette), Panoply Performance Laboratory (Institute Institut), Performa (2013, 2015) as well as in many R&B productions. His paintings have been shown at R&B’s annual Valentine Gesamtkunsverk at the cell, and have been featured in The Girl of the Golden West and The Upper Room.

Ding Dong It's the Ocean was commissioned and developed through the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP).

Ding Dong It’s the Ocean is the recipient of a Mental Insight Foundation Grant.

Photo by Paula Court.