Whale Song, or: Learning to Live with Mobyphobia

9 performances: October 29-November 8, 2014
The Bridge Theater @ Shetler Studios
244 West 54th Street, 12th Floor, NYC

By Claire Keichel
Directed by Jake Lipman
"A quirky, funny show... the production is incredibly enjoyable... inventive staging, [which plays] with tone so that the audience is laughing one minute and crying the next... extremely poignant... the six actors are extremely delightful!"
Going to Tahiti Review

When her father dies in a tank at Sea World and a humpback whale begins circling the island of Manhattan, school teacher Maya can't help but look for patterns.

Cast

BRADY ADAIR (James)
JAKE LIPMAN*(Calista)
SHELLEY LITTLE (Maya)
JARED SHIRKEY (Mark)
MATT SYDNEY (Shep the Mutherf*ckin' Drummer)
TRACY WILLET (Sarah)

*Appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association
AEA-approved showcase

Production Team

CLAIRE KIECHEL (Playwright)
is a LA-based film and TV writer, former New York-based theater maker. Her plays include Sophia (Alley Theatre All-New Festival 2019); Paul Swan is Dead & Gone (The Civilians at Torn Page); the haunted (City Theatre's Momentum Festival, additional development at Seattle Rep); Pilgrims (The Gift Theatre; Alley All New Reading Series; The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week 2016; The Kilroys' The List 2016); Lulu Is Hungry with composer Avi Amon at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest 2016; and Some Dark Places of the Earth at The New School for Drama.

​She has received commissions from Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Rep, and the Alley Theatre, and has a BA from Amherst College and an MFA from the New School for Drama. She was a writer for Netflix's second season of THE OA and the HBO series WATCHMEN. She is currently a co-producer for the adaptation of Madeline Miller’s CIRCE for HBOMax, developing a podcast for Gimlet/Spotify, and is writing two different soon to be announced TV projects. http://www.clairekiechel.com/

JAKE LIPMAN
(Producing Artistic Director)
Since founding Tongue in Cheek in 2006, Jake has produced 31 productions, including fourteen Plus 1 Solo Show Festivals.  She appears onstage in many TIC shows, occasionally directs (Buffalo Heights, Our Town, How I Learned to Drive, Places, Please and How to Behave). TIC's 2014 production of Buffalo Heights was the recipient of a Puffin Foundation Ltd grant for developing new work. www.JakeLipman.com

MOLLY BALLERSTEIN
(AD & Stage Manager)
Directing: Sometimes It Feels Like That (Going to Tahiti Productions), I, Salome (Roots & Wings), The Sandman's Coming (GTTP), Smacker and the Highway (Waving Cat Productions), Sex in Mommyville (AF Productions), and Green Man (Silver Masque). Directed readings for The Amoralists, Exquisite Corpse Company, GTTP, and Tongue in Cheek Theater.  Producer for Poetic License: Subconscious Festival (Poetic Theater Productions). She served as Co-Executive Producer with Going to Tahiti Productions and Brain Melt Consortium.