The John Montgomery Theatre Company is an international collective of actors, writers, directors and designers presenting original work with an emphasis on the collaborative process. Founded in 1994 by Patrick Hillan, JMTC is currently a Veteran Resident Company at Horse Trade and has received four OOBR Awards. JMTC has produced over 40 productions in New York City , worked with over 100 theater artists and consumed thousands upon thousands of pints following performances.

SELECTED PAST PRODUCTIONS

The award-winning Off Broadway production of Circle by Suzanne Bachner and directed by Trish Minskoff

Shakespeare's Othello starring Geoffrey Owens

The New York premiere of When I Was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout by Sharman Macdonald, directed by Trish Minskoff and starring Roberta Maxwell, Robin Morse and Fred Koehler

The six month run of the cult hit Icons & Outcasts written and directed by Suzanne Bachner

Ron Hutchinson's Rat in the Skull starring Patrick Hillan

PAST PRESS

“Ingenious…it is no accident that so many of the sharp jokes come as a complete surprise”
-The New York Times

"One of the most theatrically interesting pieces I have seen in years...
The direction is startlingly crisp and clean...The writing is deft and fearless...The cast is incredible...This play should be seen by anyone wanting to know the future of theatre."

-Duncan Pflaster, BroadwayWorld.com

“Deft, Economical, Theatrical Storytelling!”
- New York Post

“Off-Off Broadway at its best!”
-Time Out New York

"The John Montgomery Theatre Company is clearly head-and-shoulders above most of what plays Off-Off Broadway.”
- Mark Druck, DISH Satelite Network's "The New Yorkers"

“Delicious”
-The New York Times

“A writer with such a winning combination of humor and empathy…Bachner hits her social targets with repeated accuracy”
-BACK STAGE

“Without a doubt, Suzanne Bachner is the outstanding playwright of the moment; she is possibly the most commercially promising as well.”
-OOBR

“After Hours, Avant-Garde, Edge-of-the-Envelope Theater!”
-NYTheatre.com

COMPANY BIOS

Suzanne Bachner (Artistic Director) Suzanne's new play, We Call Her Benny , was critically acclaimed as part of the first-ever FRIGID New York Festival. Suzanne's award-winning play, Circle , ran for five months Off Broadway, was produced nationally and optioned for production in Australia . Her cult hit, Icons & Outcasts , which she also directed, ran for six months at The John Montgomery Theatre and The Duplex. Her plays have been seen at PS NBC at HERE, 20 th Century Fox at the Coronet Theatre in LA, The Raw Space, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, and The National Arts Club, among others. Plays include Don't Let Destiny Push You Around, Screwdrivers & Sunday Brunch , Alexandra Triptych , Jump Start, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Sex Ed, Flirting with Reality (conceived by Felicia Scarangello) and BITE . Suzanne studied playwriting with Romulus Linney (MFA, first graduating class of The Actors Studio Drama School at The New School). She is a resident artist at Horse Trade, has received four OOBR Awards and is a member of The Dramatists Guild .

Trish Minskoff (Resident Director) has worked on productions in London, Scotland, Holland, Romania, Hong Kong, Massachusetts and New York. Her most recent production of Circle for PS NBC at HERE, the Kraine Theatre and the Raw Space won an OOBR award.  Other NY credits include: When I Was a Girl, I Used to Scream and Shout, by Sharman Macdonald with Roberta Maxwell and Robin Morse (NY premiere), Don’t Let Destiny Push You Around for PS NBC at HERE, Jump Start, Birthday and Patient 23 for the John Montgomery Theatre Company, Crimes of the Heart (National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped for Emerge Arts), Sirens (The Producers Club for The Harbor), Orpheus on West Fourth Street (New Knitting Factory) and Screwdrivers & Sunday Brunch (Altered Stages and WBAI Radio). Workshop productions include: Sex Ed (The Actor's Institute), As Long as it's Morning (Rattlestick Theatre) and The Child (Vineyard Theatre). For the Harwich Junior Theatre on Cape Cod Trish has directed Bugsy Malone and Jane Eyre.

London credits include Jane, or the End of the World, Quest of the Whooperdink, Lysistrata and The Enchanted Wood, which she also co-wrote, (Arts Threshold Theatre Co.), and The City  - a multi-media dance piece(The Place Theatre & Turtle-Key Arts Centre).  Trish brought Arts Threshold’s production of The Guise to the Edinburgh Festival (Fringe First) and toured through Romania and Hong Kong.
As an assistant director, she has worked with Phil Setren on Wendy Hammond’s Jersey City for the London New Playwright’s Festival, with Jack Klaff on The Secret of the White Rose, with Jonathan Chadwick on The Investigation by Peter Weiss and Art Devine on 9-Ball.  In addition, she assisted John Dexter on the Buxton Opera Festival and West End production of Gigi.

Trish studied at LAMDA completing both the 3-year Acting Course and the 2-year Stage Management Courses, has an MFA in Directing and Playwriting from The Actors Studio at The New School University and is a member of The Dramatists Guild and The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Deborah “Mistress Debbie”Alves (Associate Producer) As Associate Producer and Resident Costume Designer for The John Montgomery Theatre Company, Debbie has contributed to over 30 New York productions. In addition to her work with JMTC, she has designed costumes for The Professional Performing Arts School of New York, Genesis International, The Actors Institute and 20th Century Fox at The Coronet Theater in LA. Debbie received a Spotlight nomination and two consecutive OOBR Awards for her theatrical work. She sends all her love to Charnele, Anisee and Abigail.

Bob Brader (Artistic Associate) Bob was born in Allentown , Pennsylvania and he received a scholarship to The Young Actors Studio when he was in High School. He came to New York to attend the Tisch School of the Arts, working with the Stella Adler Conservatory. Some of his New York Theatre roles include Girls School Vampire playing the roles of Harold Kumel and Johnny , Salome as Herod, Impromptu playing Ernest, Bitch Macbeth as Rbiter , Who in the Hell is the Real Live Lorelei Lee? Playing Burgess Link, and playing Caesar in the OOBR award-winning production of DMTheatric's Antony and Cleopatra . He just finished a five month run of BITE playing Parker Lyman followed by Peter in We Call Her Benny as part of the first-ever FRIGID New York festival, both with The John Montgomery Theatre Company. www.bob-brader.com

Francis P. O'Flynn (Artistic Associate) Francis has been involved with JMTC since 1998, be it onstage, or taking other actors' clothes off, outside on the street in his infamous red vinyl pants, and recently in BITE as Mr. Arseless Chaps Man (you had to be there!). He played the lovable Vincent in Icons Y2K , Michael in Screwdrivers & Sunday Brunch , Justin in Jump Start and most recently Brother in We Call Her Benny . Outside of JMTC, he was Lockwood in the worldwide smash hit musical, Wuthering Heights , and did lots of other theatre here in NYC and in London . Film: he was a “featured” extra in Woody Allen's awful movie, Celebrity . His voice-over breakthrough came in 2001 when he became the voice of L'Oreal, supporting his dear friend, Beyonce. He was heard from coast to coast during Saturday Night Live , then dropped…He is still working on his politically incorrect play, I Can't Be Bothered , and hoping to be bothered during the reading of it sometime in 2007!

Douglas Shearer ( Technical Director) Doug has been with The John Montgomery Theatre Company since 1996 and has been in the theatre for almost 30 years. In that time he has acted, designed both lighting and sound, stage managed and directed. JMTC productions include Othello , Patient 23 , Icons & Outcasts , Icons Y2K , The Collard Green: Contributions by Cornbread Diva s and Run to the Roar (both co-productions with The Cracked Plate), Flirting with Reality , BITE and We Call Her Benny . Recent stage managing credits include Timmy the Great directed and choreographed by Savion Glover and Finer Noble Gases by Adam Rapp, directed by Michael John Garces. Companies Doug has worked with include Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center , Rattlestick, Ensemble Studio, The Play Company, The Acting Company, Primary Stages, American Globe, Vital, Signature and Amas. He has had the pleasure of working with both seasoned professionals and the future famous. Many thanks to Suzanne and the JMTC family.

John Tees, III ( Resident Lighting Designer) John has designed many shows for JMTC including the OOBR award-winning Circle , Alice Through the Looking Glass , and When I was a Girl I Used to Scream and Shout . Other NYC design credits include productions at The Atlantic Theatre Co. , Vineyard Theatre, American Opera Project, Triad Theatre, National Shakespeare Co. Pulse Ensemble and Queens Theatre in the Park. Regional Theatre Designs include The Madison Repertory Theatre, Florida State Opera, Dayton Opera, N.C. Shakespeare Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Live Bait Theatre (Chicago), New American Theatre, Helen Hayes P.A.C., and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. His Assistant credits include shows on Broadway and in more than 20 cities and throughout the country. John has recently been working on many Fashion Shows and in Television. John is a member of United Scenic Artist Local 829 and NABET Local 16 .

Scott Wynn (Resident Photographer) Scott is the beloved Resident Photographer for The John Montgomery Theatre Company and has been since the beginning. (He hates writing his own bios).

www.scottwynn.com

Julie Rosier (Associate Artist ) Julie first worked with JMTC as assistant director and choreographer of experimental movement for the premier of We Call Her Benny (FRIGID New York Festival). Other directing credits include her own play, Hand/Flash/Back (Bowery Poetry Club) Male Gaze , Kymbali Craig's one-woman show (Bailey's Café), and AD for The Bones (Theatre-Studio, Inc.). Originally from Detroit , her childhood was full of acting, dancing and dreaming of New York City . Her favorite NY acting credits include Piecework (Theater for the New City ) and her work with PlaybackNYC, a company that combines Hip Hop music and movement with improvisational theater to transform the stories of the audience into the art of theater. She has a BA in History and Spanish from the University of Michigan and sees theater as a form of activism, a means to effect social change.

 

 

Archives:

   

We Call Her Benny

A dynamic 10-actor ensemble tells the story of an adopted woman's victory through manic-depression, sexual dysfunction, a broken marriage and the reluctant search for her birth parents.  We Call Her Benny is a brand new piece created expressly for the first-ever FRIGID New York festival.

 

Dysfunctional Theatre, The John Montgomery Theatre Company and Horse Trade present the World Premiere of BITE. This new comedy of dentistry and domination is written and directed by Suzanne Bachner , author of the Off-Broadway hit Circle.

 

“Sonia Sanchez is a lion in literature’s forest.
When she writes she roars,
and when she sleeps other creatures walk gingerly.”

- Maya Angelou

Learn More..

 

 

Casting some light on Casting Reality

Go behind the scenes of Love Limo, a reality dating show, and follow a producer and her cameraman as they choose from hundreds of wannabe reality stars. .. Learn More



January 2005
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February 2004

 


Spring 2002