Buffalo Heights - Planet Connections Theatre Fest 2017
Nominated for 4 Planet Connections Fest Awards:
A comedy about sex, smokes, and suckers for the American Dream When Fran leaves France to take a teaching job at Buffalo Heights High, she never dreamed of the lessons she'd learn from friends and foes in small town America. 6 performances:
LaTEA Theatre @ Clemente Solo Velez Cultural Center 107 Suffolk Street, 2nd Floor, NYC "Tongue in Cheek's production is a funny look at what can happen in a small town when heads butt, egos, careers, and even lives, are damaged by rumors. ... A sign of nice things to come from TIC." StageBuddy.com "With an ensemble of talent and a wealth of resources at its fingertips, TIC should continue to commission new and entertaining work. Buffalo Heights can be best summed up by Principal Jean's description of the cafeteria meatballs: 'They're factory irregulars. I think they're delicious. Who cares if they're not perfectly round?'" Tracy's New York Life |
Cast
LORI FUNK* (Diane Matthews)
Off Broadway Theater: Three on a Couch (SoHo Playhouse), Looking for the Pony (McGinn Cazale), Thirst (HERE). Other Theater: Spring Awakening, Our Country’s Good, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. TV: Law & Order: SVU, Onion Network News, What Would You Do? Film: FourEyes, Bert’s Plan, Dara Ju. Her one-woman show Two Truths and a Lie was last seen at Don’t Tell Mama. www.LoriFunk.com 
JAKE LIPMAN* (Francoise Favre)
NY Theater: company-devised The Buffalo Project/first workshop of Buffalo Heights (2014 grant recipient, The Puffin Foundation Ltd), Rapture, Blister, Burn, Women Playing Hamlet, How I Learned to Drive, Our Town, Proof, Books on Tape (FringeNYC), The Inn at Lake Devine. TV: A Crime to Remember, Six Degrees of Murder. Film: Endo, Solo, Gary from Accounting, The Clown. BA, Smith College; MFA, Actors Studio Drama School. www.JakeLipman.com 
BRITTANY ANIKKA LIU* (Piper Matthews)
Thrilled to return to Tongue in Cheek Theater after having played Avery in Rapture, Blister, Burn! Recently starred in world premiere of Tranquil at Luna Stage Company. Past credits: Williamstown Theatre Festival and three seasons with Virginia Shakespeare Festival, including Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Film/TV: The Christmas Experience (CBN). College of William & Mary ‘16. 
MARIA MALONEY* (Jean Washington)
NY Theater: AMBUSH! (Sam French Festival 2016), The Inn At Lake Devine (Tongue in Cheek Theater), Jennifer Lane’s Tummy Bubbles (terraNOVA Collective Groundbreakers, Women Center Stage), Three Wishes for Jamie (Musicals Tonight!), Bring Back Birdie (Opening Doors Theatre). Regional Theater: The Star-Spangled Girl, Suds, All Shook Up, The Last Five Years, The Crucible, and Bye Bye Birdie. Tours: Amelia Bedelia and Other Stories and The Taffetas. www.MariaMaloney.com and BechdelProject.org. 
JORDAN P. SCHROEDER (Conner Smith)
Jordan graduated from Yale undergrad with a degree in the Cognitive Science of Narrative and Storytelling. NY Theater: A Philosophical Protest (Planet Connections Theatre Fest), A Crisis Called New York (Step1 Theatre Project), Under: A New Musical (FringeNYC). Film/Web: How to Survive High School (MyLifeAsEva), It’s Not You (StoneStreet Studios). JordanPSchroeder.com 
PATRICK TRUHLER* (Mike Hobbes)
Recent credits: A Midsummer Night's Dream (New York Classical), Birds of Paradise (FringeNYC, written by Adam Harrell), Servant of Two Masters and Two Gentlemen of Verona (Annapolis Shakespeare Company). Online he can be seen doing projects for Scary Mommy. BFA University of Colorado. Excited to be making his debut with Tongue in Cheek Theater! www.PatrickTruhler.com *actors appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association
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Production Team
ERIN COHEN (Stage Manager)
Graduated from Penn State with a BFA in Theatre Stage Management in 2015. Recent credits include The Video Games off-Broadway at the Elektra, NYMF's 2016 production of Forest Boy and SOOP Theatre Company's production of The Emperor's New Clothes. ADAM HARRELL (Playwright)
Adam's plays have been produced throughout the country at various venues, including Theater Artists Olympia (WA), Las Vegas Fringe (NV), Homegrown Theater (ID), Three Leaches (CO), and Blank Canvas Theater (OH). He co-developed and premiered Buffalo Heights with Tongue in Cheek Theater in NYC. His play, Birds of Paradise, won the NPA New Play Award, the Three Leaches One-Act Competition, and was a runner-up for the Georgia Arts & Letters Prize, along with being an official selection of FringeNYC. MFA in playwriting from the University of Idaho. He is thrilled and charmed to be reunited with Tongue in Cheek! JAKE LIPMAN (Producing Artistic Director)
Since founding Tongue in Cheek in 2006, Jake has produced 33 productions, including 14 Plus 1 Solo Show Festivals. She appears onstage in many TIC shows, occasionally directs (the devising and first workshop of Buffalo Heights, Our Town, How I Learned to Drive, Places, Please and How to Behave), and in 2015, adapted The Inn at Lake Devine into a play with music, based on the best-selling novel of the same name. TIC's 2014 production of Buffalo Heights was the recipient of a Puffin Foundation Ltd grant for the development of new work. www.JakeLipman.com MICHAEL LOUNSBERY (Technical Advisor)
Coming soon! PHILIP ROTHMAN (Sound Designer)
In addition to working with TIC since its inception, on musical arrangements and choral direction for The Inn at Lake Devine and Our Town, Rothman's compositions have been performed by the Utah Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, United States Military Academy band. Awards: ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, a Renee B. Fisher Foundation Award, the Brian M. Israel Prize, and a fellowship from the League of American Orchestras. Film Orchestrations: Our Kind of Traitor, Too Big to Fail, You Don't Know Jack, and Teddy: In His Own Words. Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude from Rice University and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he was awarded a full scholarship. |