Shows
The Hamlet Voyage
by Rex Obano
Bristol Harbour Festival & Bridewell Theatre - 2022
The Hamlet Voyage is a new play about the first recorded performance of Hamlet, which was acted by sailors in 1607 off the coast of Sierra Leone for local West African dignitaries, on the first English voyage to reach India. This site-specific production premiered on board the historic sailing ship The Matthew as part of the Bristol Harbour Festival before transferring to the Bridewell Theatre in London
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Learn more at www.re-versetheatre.com
Rally for the Rose
by Ben Prusiner
The Rose Playhouse - 2020
Ian McKellen & Judi Dench introduced this live-streamed reading
about the discovery of Shakespeare & Marlowe's Rose Playhouse and the fight to save it from destruction. Based on verbatim interviews and historical documents, the cast featured actors including Michael Pennington, Janet Suzman & Lily Nichol alongside community members who were interviewed for the project.
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Click here to view the full video.
Love Song
by John Kolvenbach
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School - 2020
Final directing project, re-imagined as a live Zoom reading during the COVID-19 pandemic. The performance used Zoom's algorithms to organically 'edit' between screens in response to the actors' performances. Photos of the set model were shown throughout to give a sense of environment. Through the webcam's lens, audiences were brought directly into the characters' relationships.
Cymbeline
by William Shakespeare
York Shakespeare Project- 2019
Gender-blind, period production in a medieval guild hall. During the sold-out run, the cast performed for the Lord Mayor, just as touring companies would have done in York during the Renaissance.
'Roles... originally played by men now carried new clout in women's hands' - York Press
The Harrowing of Hell
York Mystery Plays Supporters' Trust - 2018
Performed on wagons on the streets of York, just as in medieval times. This production featured characters from all eras of York's history and devils representing a plethora of modern-day sins. Costumes and characters were selected by the community cast themselves.
Live music by York musician John Holt Roberts.
A Yorkshire Tragedy
by Thomas Middleton
Friargate Theatre, York - 2018
Part of a double bill of plays based on Yorkshire newspaper headlines, one Jacobean, one freshly commissioned.
Feminist Fletcher Festival
Black Swan Inn, York - 2018
Rehearsed readings of plays by John Fletcher, with panel discussions by feminist and theatre scholars from King's College London and the University of York.
Co-produced with Lauren Cowling and Aurèlia Puigdomènech, PhD Candidates in the Women's Studies Department of the University of York.
Wheel of Shakespeare
adapted by Ben Prusiner
Shakespeare's Rose, Wagon Stage, York - 2018
Shakespeare's Rose pop-up theatre transformed York's theatre scene in the summer of 2018. They asked for a pre-show that was 'Complete Works -- but not'. The result was Wheel of Shakespeare. Audience members spun a wheel to randomly select scenes from a comedy, tragedy, history, or 'other' category, performed in an outrageous style and with lots of audience interactions and schenanigans. Every show was completely unique.
Volpone, or Out-Foxed
by Ben Jonson
York International Shakespeare Festival - 2017
Outdoor production featuring carnival-inspired animal headdresses, original music and a 15 foot tall two-headed puppet judge.
Henry VIII
by William Shakespeare & John Fletcher
King's Manor, York - 2017
Immersive promenade production in a Grade I listed building visited by the historical Henry VIII. Audience members played cards with courtiers, danced a pavane with Anne Boleyn, and whispered advice to Katherine of Aragon.
King Lear
by William Shakespeare
John Cooper Studio Theatre, York - 2016
With all parts open to all genders during the casting process, this fast-paced modern-dress production asked audiences what they would do if they lost everything.
"American director Ben Prusiner brings the storm with a deliciously dark production" - York Press
Seneca Village
All Stars/Castillo Theatre, New York - 2016
Interactive, immersive drama about Seneca Village, a community of Black American landowners in New York before the Civil War who were displaced during the creation of Central Park. Participants were primarily Black, working-class New Yorkers who explored parallels with modern-day gentrification.
Thesis project for MA in Applied Theatre, City University of New York. Thesis partners and co-facilitators were Ashkon Davaran and Rosalyn Temple.
Die schöne Müllerin
Manhattan School of Music & The Tank, New York - 2014
Original staging of the Franz Schubert song cycle using found-object puppetry, shadow puppets projected through water, fabric manipulation and physical theatre acrobatics.
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Produced in collaboration with classical pianist Azusa Ueno and operatic tenor Dory Schultz.
Taming of the Shrew
by William Shakespeare
American Theatre of Actors, New York - 2014
All-female production with actors rotating roles to deconstruct the play from different points of view. Each performer chose which perspective to explore at the start of the rehearsal process.
"A feminist re-telling" - Show Business
Comedy of Errors
by William Shakespeare
NOLA Studios, New York - 2013
Workshop production with roles assigned at random by a clown immigration officer and re-assigned by the audience throughout. The audience also chose the ending - would the government be merciful, or execute illegal immigrants in Ephesus? A different show every night.
The Alchemist
by Ben Jonson
New York Public Parks - 2011
Free performances in New York public parks during the financial crisis, including in the financial district. The 'Occupy Wall Street' movement began during the run, and demonstrators risked arrest and harassment to travel to see the production. Plans to perform at the protestors' encampment were dashed when police cleared out the site, so an abridged version was performed as part of a 24 hour 'Occupy Broadway' political protest event.
Edward II
by Christopher Marlowe
WOW Café Theater, New York - 2011
Co-director, all-female production. Produced by and performed at an historic feminist theatre collective.
Doctor Faustus
by Christopher Marlowe
Los Angeles - 2009
Site-specific production in a Lutheran Church. Audiences were surrounded by the action on all sides, with music supplied by a pipe organ seemingly playing by itself.
'Eerie yet magical' - Daily Bruin