The Mission
The Bridge Project is a force of performing artists rooted in Long Island City and aimed at creating, producing and presenting workshops of new and exciting theatrical pieces to the communities of greater New York City. The long-term goal for the Bridge Project is to plant itself as a performing arts center in Long Island City from which workshops are launched while bringing the audiences into this diverse and promising neighborhood on the brink. Such a cultural center is key to the vitalization of this community where skyscrapers are popping up on every other corner.

The Story
The founders and members of The Bridge Project have been collaborating and having fun together for the last ten years. In 1997, the group migrated from Queens to Austin, Texas, where they founded the Fabulous and Ridiculous Theatre, which successfully played through the summer of 2000, when FART decided it was time to return home to NYC. The artists returned boasting numerous fantastic reviews for various productions, as well as nominations from the Austin Theatre Critic’s Table. Since then and in addition to being involved in various different companies and individual projects, FART has morphed into The Bridge Project, the seed for a full-blown performing arts center in Long Island City.

3 Women in Indecision
After a very full year and a half of readings, workshops and developmental presentations of Mike Albo’s new play, 3 Women in Indecision, The Bridge Project’s production is ready to be presented by the East Village’s Horse Trade Theater Group, for the long awaited World Premiere to take place in February 2004 at the Kraine Theater.

The Volunteer Project
During their spare time, the artists at the Bridge put together play workshops for the mentally challenged and bring their talents into group homes to work with them on a piece of theater. One such work was presented to the families of the group at a Chanukah party in 2002. A new project is being prepared for the Purim celebrations of 2004.

The Near Future
In the Spring of 2004, The Bridge Project will shift it’s focus to sending 3 Women… on tour, beginning the workshop process with a new piece entitled Prince of the Dolomites, an adaptation of the book by Tomie dePaola, and finding a space to call home.

www.bridgeproject.com

Mike Albo has performed three critically acclaimed, sold-out solo shows: Mike Albo, Spray, and Please Everything Burst, co-written with his longtime friend, Dr. Virginia Heffernan. Fast-paced, hilarious, highly emotional and punctuated with dance, his performances have been praised in many publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paper, Time Out, The Independent in London, The Boston Globe, the Pittsburgh Tribune, and recently in an article in an LA Times about writers who perform.

As a solo artist, Albo has performed at PS 122 in New York, the Soho Theatre in London, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, at the Kunsthall in Copenhagen, Center Stage in Baltimore, and at Highways in Los Angeles as well as New Orleans, Chicago, Toronto, Park City Utah, and others. Selections of his work appear in Extreme Exposure: An Anthology Of Solo Performance Texts From The Twentieth Century (ed. by Jo Bonney).

Albo also performs with Nora Burns and David Ilku in "Unitard," a show of comedic monologues with critically raved, sold-out runs in New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Albo's first novel, Hornito: My Lie Life, was published by HarperCollins in October 2000, receiving critical acclaim from Entertainment Weekly, People Magazine, The Village Voice, Publisher's Weekly, and many others. He is now working on another novel, Threefold.

His first play Sexotheque was produced in Austin Texas and here in New York City with Horse Trade Theater Group in 2000. His most recent play Three Women in Indecision was recently workshopped at The Space in Queens, NY. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, Out (the column "What's Your Problem?"), Surface (the column “What Now?”), Nerve, Word, Paper, New York Magazine, and The Village Voice.

Albo is co-founder of the legendary downtown dance troupe, The Dazzle Dancers, who spread their message of sexy freedom in venues all over the city -- from Joe's Pub to the Odeon-as well as with Blondie in their millennial Miami concert.

He recently appeared on VH1’s “Viva Divas” special. He was the voice of Billy in Todd Downing’s widely applauded animated short “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Trick.” He will be appearing as reckless cad Joe Rand in reknowned video artist Peggy Awesh’s upcoming film “Certain Women” and as a therapist in Brian Sloane’s upcoming film “Bumping Heads.”

Mike’s website: www.mikealbo.com

AnnaCatherine Rutledge Although born in Japan and spending early childhood in Singapore, AnnaCatherine is a native New Yorker from Queens. After graduating from Queens College in 1996 she moved to Chicago and started her career working for such companies as The Joffrey Ballet, New Tuner’s Theatre, The New Music Workshop, Hubbard Street Dance Company, and many more.
In 1997 she was invited Austin, Texas and co-founded the Fabulous And Ridiculous Theatre (F.A.R.T.) where she served as Artistic Director for three years. During her time there she directed Clive Barker’s Grand Guignol romance Frankenstein in Love and A Clockwork Orange, a play with music by Anthony Burgess, which was cross cast with scantily clad women in peek-a-boo PVC playing Alex and her droogs. Other highlights include David Ives’ All in the Timing, which was nominated for an Austin Theatre Critic’s Table Award for the 1999-2000 theatre season, and a series of Samuel Beckett one-acts titled In the Void, which included among others Footfalls, What Where and Catastrophe. In the early part of her tenure she also helped create a popular festival piece titled ASS, which played Fronterafest and Momfest. Her most acclaimed work in Texas was the World Premiere of Mike Albo’s Sexotheque performed at Emo’s a legendary Texas punk rock venue.
AnnaCatherine originally directed a one-act version of Sexotheque in Stockbridge, MA at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in1999 with the acting apprentice company. The following summer at BTF she directed an entire series of new play readings with the 2000 apprentice company.
Upon returning to NY in 2000, AnnaCatherine reprised A Clockwork Orange at ShowWorld as the world premier production in that space, also at ShowWorld she directed Daniel on a Thursday by Garth Wingfield, a one-act included in the acclaimed Worldly Acts, produced by Urban Empires and Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope.
As a Co-founder of the Badlands Theatre Company, Rutledge directed the companies premiere production of The Bad Seed, by Maxwell Anderson, a highly stylized period piece set in 1956. Upcoming work with the Badlands includes a staged reading of Dracula, as well as the exploration of thriller theatre.
AnnaCatherine has worked with the LookingGlass Playwrights/Directors Lab and The SwampKing Festival developing new works by female playwrights.
Currently AC is directing two shows by playwright and co-conspirer Mike Albo. The one-man show I Can Only Come So Far performed at Teatro la Tea in November 2003 and will enjoy a month run at the Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco in January 2004. Following two workshops produced over the past year, 3 Women in Indecision, Mike Albo’s latest play produced by the Bridge Project, will be presented by the Horse Trade Theatre Group for a four-week run at the Kraine Theatre in February 2004.
She is currently employed with Lincoln Center as Production Coordinator for the Lincoln Center Festival.

Ronit Schlam

Ronit is a founding member of the Bridge Project and has been collaborating with the artists on board the Bridge for years. Ronit studied classical piano for 70% of her life and switched gears to theater at Queens College where she was awarded her Bachelor’s Degree in Drama and Theater in 1996. In 1997, she moved to Austin, Texas and co-founded the Fabulous and Ridiculous Theatre company with her current cohorts, AnnaCatherine and Jeremy. Her duties included acting, producing, set designing, musical direction, and coordinating sponsorships. Together the members of FART wowed Austinites with their various collective abilities to create entertaining and thought-provoking theater. Two years brought seven solid theatrical creations, including an evening of Samuel Beckett one-acts played in a downtown gallery, Frankenstein in Love or The Life of Death by Clive Barker, a hugely successful presentation of six of David Ives’ works of unprecedented humor, All in the Timing, and the excellently received first workshop of Mike Albo’s wildly hilarious Sexotheque, played in Austin’s very own home of punk rock performance, Emo’s.
Ronit and company left Austin with a BANG by bringing the full-length live musical rendition of Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange to the Austin stage. As producer and musical director, Ronit worked off of a partially written score to direct a chorus of twelve as well as performing the entire score on keys herself. A continuous work in process, this production reached new heights in Times Square at Showorld in 2001.
Upon her return to her hometown, Ronit worked as the Assistant producer for the Lincoln Center Festival. In addition, she was Company Manager for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and worked with the producers of the Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals on the festivals of 2003. Currently she is focusing on exploring her creative roots from new angles, such as composing and envisioning new works for theater. She is workshopping an excerpt of her adaptation of Prince of the Dolomites, by Tomie de Paola, at Makor this winter, 2004. She is super thrilled that you are reading this.

Jeremy Chernick

When not being a regular person he is a producer, set designer, and prop aficionado. He has been working across the United States on theatrical projects his entire professional career and is looking forward to that starting to pay off. After graduating from Queens College (In magnificent Flushing Queens) in the last millennium Jeremy left NYC to work as an actor and designer in Chicago’s bustling Theatre scene. In the Windy City he transformed into a Theatre sponge and worked on as many productions as he had time in a day for (not including the time spent writing his graduate thesis titled: Defining a postmodernist vocabulary: a multidimensional scaling approach / by Jeremy Chernick). From 1997 through 2000 he, AnnaCatherine Rutledge and Ronit Schlam founded the Fabulous And Ridiculous Theatre in Austin, Texas that produced 3 seasons of shows. As a producer, actor, designer, and jack-of-all-trades he was immersed in every possible aspect of each production, and collaborated to build a cutting edge, critically and financially successful company That Totally Rocked. Since then he has been back in NYC and highlights of his recent set designs include –3 Women In Indecision-the Bridge Project, Like a Springsteen Song & The bad seed-Badlands Theatre. After the Storm (off Broadway & National Tour) Bombshell Prod. A Clockwork Orange-Show World and many others throughout the City. Jeremy is currently employed at the Juilliard School for the Performing Arts as the Rockin Properties Supervisor Associate, and in his 4th season as the resident set designer for the renowned Browning School on the Upper East Side.