"Hunting and Gathering" by Brooke Berman (Feb 27 - March 7th) in Astoria

Brooke Berman's comedy Hunting and Gathering originally premiered Off-Broadway in 2008 at Primary Stages.  Four twenty and thirty-somethings who are interconnected try to find themselves amid a backdrop of the nightmare of The New York City rental scene. 
 
RUTH (Ashley Ware) - a smart 30-something who used to date Jesse gets help moving into the apartment with the help of Jesse's half brother Astor who wants her to stay with him.  Ruth responds, "You may not know this yet, but after thirty, air mattresses are not charming". 

JESSE (Logan Keeler) -  teaches English Lit at Columbia who recently separated because of the affair with Ruth is career smart and relationship dim-witted.  Jesse takes up with one of his students, Bess.  

ASTOR (Dario Caudana) – a Zen kind of guy who spent most of his young adult years couch surfing and house sitting is hoping to be more than just friends with Ruth. Astor describes IKEA as "the nexus of evil".  

BESS (Morgan Wardlaw) – a predatory college student who will always get what she wants has her sights on her professor (Jesse).  Bess divides the dating world into two classes, predator and prey.

While the show may sound a lot like Friends,  Berman's nuanced script weaves a familiar tale facing Millennials today who struggle with rootlessness, high student loan debt, as well as figuring out their emotional and spiritual homes.  When Berman wrote the comedic play she was living that lifestyle having lost her apartment and her job after 9/11.  She found herself suddenly sub-letting and couch-surfing unable to afford high New York City rents.  

Berman's plight was a result of working in the theater back then.  Since the 2008 financial crisis many more young people have ended up in the same situation especially in high rent places like New York City.  The play has become even more relevant for a new generation of Americans.  Brooke Berman currently resides in Queens.

Six Performances
Thurs - Sat 
Feb 27 - 29  and March 5 - 7
7PM 
 

Artists / Speakers: Ashley Ware (RUTH) After assistant directing and stage managing previous shows with Headwall Theatre Company, Ashley is honored and thrilled to work with HTC alongside Michelle Orosz again. Born and raised a Georgia peach, Ashley moved to New York City shortly after graduating from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Music and an extensive background in musical theatre. Now few years a New Yorker, she has been fortunate to work on a various amount of projects including musicals, plays, staged readings, operas, webseries, and dance showcases.  Some of her favorite performance credits include Wendla in Spring Awakening, Carrie in Carousel, Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, and Rapunzel in Into the Woods. Ashley is forever grateful to Michelle and Team HTC for this opportunity. @ashleydeannaware , Dario Caudana (ASTOR) Currently based out of New York City, Dario grew up in Irvine, CA. He made his way to the east coast attending Syracuse University's BFA Acting Program, where he learned how to breathe really deep and yell at people super convincingly. Since graduating, he booked a number of theater, film and commercial credits and grew addicted to improv and film-making. He completed the Magnet Theater's Improv program, New York Film Academy's Evening Film-making Conservatory and started creating his own material.  Dario now jumps between his life on stage, in front of and behind the camera. He can be found on set working, writing his next movie, still skateboarding, or memorizing his lines! Check out the trailer to his short film, Receding, below in addition to the full film on his websites below. Receding Trailer: https://vimeo.com/304957133 www.dariocaudana.com www.recedingshortfilm.com, Logan Keeler (JESSE) is a Maine native living and working in New York City. After studying at the William Esper Acting Studio he's gone on to perform in many productions throughout the city including Ionescos' RHINOCEROS at the Lynn Redgrave Theater, Martin McDonach's THE PILLOWMAN, and The Public Theater's JULIUS CAESAR at the famed Delacourt Theater. Television includes HOMICIDE CITY (Discovery) and THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA (HBO). Catch him in the self-produced web series "Everyone Else Has", Season One now on YouTube.  , Morgan Wardlaw (BESS) is a New York-based actor hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina. She grew up doing community theatre in her hometown at Central Piedmont Community College, Children's Theatre of Charlotte, and Shakespeare Carolina. She attended Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia and the University of Reading in the UK. She moved to the city after earning her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Her credits at the college include Mother Courage and Her Children, Once Upon a Mattress, All My Sons, Dog Sees God, and Big Love. Morgan attended the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, participating in their professional two-year conservatory program. She closed her time out at the studio with a production of Race. Outside of acting, Morgan is an avid violinist and has been playing professionally for over fourteen years. She also trained at the North Carolina Dance Theatre (now Charlotte Ballet) for over five years. She wrote her first play, Fulton, and held a staged reading of the work with The Black Box Project in October 2018.

Others Details

Category: Arts | Performing Arts | Theatre Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm