Dead End, Dummy
Written by Dick Zigun
Directed by Trav S.D.
Dead End Dummy is an expressionistic Halloween time trip that uses the eerie atmosphere of the sideshow to take you into the mind of a disturbed vaudeville ventriloquist, played by Sideshows by the Seashore’s Scott Baker – who actually performs ventriloquism in the role. His journey takes him from vaudeville and melodrama, through gramophones and silent films, old time radio, and 50s television and ultimately a Quixotic attempt at a vaudeville revival. Along the way, he meets his nemesis Thomas Edison (Douglas Mackrell, The Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel), and is separated from the love of his life (singer Poor Baby Bree) The show features a live musical score, played on cello, piano, uke and toy xylophone by Becca Bernard, and was directed by downtown showman Trav S.D., who most recently produced and directed the sold out NYC Fringe hit I’ll Say She Is, the first ever revival of the Marx Brothers’ first Broadway show.
CAST: Scott Baker as Max; Poor Baby Bree as Sara; Douglas Mackrell as Edison; Becca Bernard as Beethoven; Rhiannon Schaeffer as Shadow 1; and Arianna Geneson as Shadow 2.
CREW: Meryl Vladimer, Executive Director, CIUSA; Sarah Lahue, production stage manager; Kate Dale, prop and set design; Marie Roberts, scenic painter
photo credit: Kenny Lombardi
DICK D. ZIGUN, the founder and Artistic Director of Coney Island USA, holds an MFA in playwriting from Yale School of Drama and is also an alumni of New Dramatist and Bennington College and a NYFA Playwriting Fellow. During the past few years, he has written a trilogy of new plays: “Dirty Work At The Wax Works,” “Coney Island Criminals,” and “The Ride Inspector’s Nightmare.” Zigun is the author of a dozen weird American plays. Outside of Brooklyn his work has also been seen at the Mark Taper Forum, Franklin Furnace, Eureka Theater and Repertory Theater of St. Louis. Zigun is the inventor of the Mermaid Parade and the Godfather of Burlesque and Sideshow revivals. His most recent project is creation of a resident Coney Island Theater Company: Fun House Philosophers.
TRAV S.D. has been in the vanguard of New York’s vaudeville and burlesque scenes since 1995, when he launched his company Mountebanks, which has presented hundreds of top variety acts ranging from Todd Robbins to Dirty Martini to Lady Rizo to the Flying Karamazov Brothers. He has directed his own plays, revues and solo pieces in NYC since 1989 at such venues as Joe’s Pub, La Mama, Dixon Place, Theatre for the New City, the Ohio Theatre and the Brick. Recent directing credits include the historic first revival of the Marx Bros. 1924 Broadway show “I’ll Say She Is” in the NY International Fringe Festival, and a theatrical run of Angie Pontani’s Burlesque-a-pades at the Soho Playhouse. He is perhaps best known for his 2005 book “No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous”, recently cited by Bette Midler in people magazine as one of her favorite books. He also blogs about show business history daily at Travalanche (travsd.wordpress.com).