BWW Exclusive: Ken Fallin Illustrates - HAMLET IN BED

September 18

BroadwayWorld recently announced a new partnership with renowned caricature artist Ken Fallin, a life-long theater enthusiast, who has drawn many Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. Fallin previously drew for BroadwayWorld and our readers have long wanted his return, so it is with great pleasure that we welcome him back! Be sure to check back for more of Ken's exclusive art.

Below, check out his illustration of Michael Laurence and Annette O'Toole in Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre's HAMLET IN BED, by Michael Laurence.

Fallin is an internationally published caricature artist whose work has appeared in many publications including the L.A. Times, the New Yorker Magazine, the Washington Post, In Style magazine, Playbill and for nearly 20 years, the Wall Street Journal.

Ken's intricately detailed pen and ink portraits of celebrities from the diverse worlds of entertainment, politics, finance, sports and pop culture have been featured in many ad campaigns and special events for HBO, CBS news, BMG music, American Express, Walt Disney Productions and New York City's Metropolitan Opera Company

Ken's career began in 1984 when he first created the witty pen and ink caricatures of famous theatrical personalities for the phenomenally successful satirical revue, "Forbidden Broadway". These drawings became inextricably linked with the show, and new artwork was created for subsequent editions of the show for the next 30 years.

In addition to his commercial work, Ken's original artwork can be found in the private collections of many celebrated clients, including Bernadette Peters, Angela Lansbury, Sir Patrick Stewart, Barbara Cook, Sir Cameron Mackintosh,John Laroquette, Bradley Cooper, and Barbra Streisand.

In 2010, Ken was honored to be nominated for an EMMY award for his animated commercial for CNBC's "Squawk Box" TV show. A number of Ken's portraits hang in New York's venerable Player's Club and several of his posters are in the permanent collection of London's Victoria and Albert Museum. He has had one-man shows in Los Angeles and New York City.

Illustration by Ken Fallin. To inquire about prints or original art: kenfallin@verizon.net.

Hamlet in Bed premieres Off-Broadway at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre

Michael stars opposite Emmy, Golden Globe and Oscar nominee Annette O'Toole in the production directed by two-time OBIE winner Lisa Peterson.

Darkly Comic Hamlet in Bed Launches New Rattlestick Season Tonight

 

PLAYBILL.com
By Olivia Clement
27 Aug 2015
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater kicks off its 2015-16 season Aug. 28 with the world premiere of Michael Laurence's Hamlet in Bed, billed as a "twisty and darkly comic story" about an actor obsessed with two things: finding his real mother and playing the title character in Hamlet.

Directed by Lisa Patterson, the story follows Michael, played by Laurence, a neurotic actor and adoptee, desperate to find and meet his real mother. He tracks down a woman who may just be her, played by Annette O’Toole, and lures her into a dark production of Hamlet, in the role of his mother.
Running through Oct. 25, an official opening night is scheduled for Sept. 17.
The dark comedy is described as a play "about mothers and sons -- about what it means to live a life in the theatre, both a generation ago, and now."
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Rattlestick or phone OvationTix on (866) 811-4111. Rattlestick Playwrights is located at 224 Waverly Place, Manhattan. 

- See more at: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/darkly-comic-hamlet-in-bed-launches-new-rattlestick-season-tonight-359855#sthash.I2WdEyR2.dpuf

The Blacklist on NBC

Michael will be guest-starring on NBC's hit thriller, "The Blacklist," season 2, episode 5, playing eco-terrorist cult-leader and "blacklister" of the week Maddox Beck.
The episode is scheduled to air on Monday, October 20th @ 10pm EST on NBC.

Hamlet In Bed reading at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, under the new artistic directorship of Davis McCallum, hosted a reading of Hamlet In Bed as part of HVSF2-a reading series dedicated to plays inspired by Shakespeare.
The reading took place on August 16 at the festival's Garrison Depot Theater.
Great audience and a lively talkback after!

Here's a link:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10152408624338893&id=59729728892

Just For Fun...I found this old review of "Escape Artists" from 2005

"Harry situation"
Houdini-style escape artists, street magicians, fetish performers and other urban adventurers try to handle the angst of life on the Lower East Side in "Escape Artists."

By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com

"Escape Artists" is more existence-driven than event-driven. Populated by some highly distinctive characters on the Lower East Side, the movie is about personalities, surroundings, look and style. The atmosphere is the plot. It's, uh, plotmosphere.

ESCAPE ARTISTS

Written and directed by: Michael Laurence.
Cast: Tatiana Abbey, Alene Dawson, George Demas, Peter Dinklage, Lee Dobson, Donna Germain, Josh Hamilton, Nina Hellman, Kevin Kuhlke, Michael Laurence, Edgar Oliver, Marc Palmieri, Eric Roemele, Anna Thomson, Rebecca Wisocky, Mary Lou Wittmer.
Cinematography: Elia Lyssy.
Edited by: Michael Laurence, Michiel Pilgram.
Music by: Marcelo Zarvos.

 SCHEDULE
Anthology Film Archives 32 Second Ave. (at Second Street) September 21, 2005

The ensemble is led by writer-director Michael Laurence as Gabriel Grey, a not-quite homeless magician who's been warned that his spooky nature and questionable hygiene make him "not good family entertainment." His landlord, while settling up the back rent with him, offers some friendly advice:

"You could be working Las Vegas, Gabriel. They'd give you a nice room in a casino hotel. Someone would clean up after you, make your bed."
"I hate Vegas," Gabriel says. "It's degrading."
"You're not degraded here?" the landlord retorts.
He's probably right — "degraded" is, perhaps, the whole point of the movie. The loose circle of people around Grey are all involved in some combination of sex performance, fetishism, rogue fashion, panhandling, and simple groping around for love. They do street magic and Houdini-style escape stunts or, depending on gender, stripping and domination, for petty cash. These people are destitute and a little desperate, but from the point of view of the film, fundamentally they're the adventurers of the world.

But life is not all adventure in the "Escape Artists" world. In fact, living on the edge is accompanied by a steady state of static dreariness. These folks' passions and their experiences are expressed through their inner lives — not through any engagement with a larger culture. They tend to exist in lonely ones and temporary twos, interacting in limited ways, sometimes literally hiding themselves behind masks and costumes and their own standoffish personalities.

Perhaps an atomized life is what the filmmaker truly wanted to show; if so, he succeeded. But this loosest of ensembles also fails to draw us into the subculture it is meant to represent, because culture is absent. Not every New York tribe has to be "Seinfeld," granted, but the theme of "Escape Artists" is the spectacle of isolated individuals not making it. If that's the kind of drama you respond to, as inherently limited as it is, you've got it.

SEPTEMBER 27, 2005
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK

Here's the link:
http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2005/escapeartists.php