Starring: Cas Marino, Ian M. McDonald, Susan Erenberg, Christian Thomas, Amie Backner, Chris Kelly, and Mary Lynch Directed by Malini Singh McDonald Assistant Director: Amanda Doria Sound Design by Susan Erenberg Costume Design by Deborah Erenberg
Performed as a staged reading, Michael Quiñones’ play Poaching The Elite chronicles the rise and fall of Drew, a young gossip journalist struggling with not only his own addictions but also the shallowness of the high society celebutante culture.
When your plastic-surgery disaster of a mom puts you into shock therapy and your famous father suggests you shoot heroin after you’re incestuously raped, the revenge play (starring Al Pacino) practically writes itself. Michael Quiñones’ scathing expose of entitlement and depravity.
The New York Revival, performed at Altered Stages, Lee Blessing’s Down the Road is a chilling examination into the mind of a serial killer. Dan and Iris Henniman, journalists from New York, have been tasked with interviewing and then writing the biography of William Reach, convicted killer of nineteen young women. But the more they dig into Reach’s psyche, the more he begins to invade their lives. Can Iris and Dan finish the book and return to the way things were, or has working with this monster completely changed who they once were?
Black Henna Productions first fully staged production, Deserters is Michael Quiñones’ noirish look into cocaine, international smuggling, government conspiracy, and the struggle against them by the common man. Edwin, a fact-checker for the New York Times becomes embroiled in a plot to expose a government sanctioned cocaine pipeline, and with the help of his drug-dealer, Wrecker, he may be able to do just that … if he can get past his conspiracy theorist boss, concerned girlfriend, psychotic government agents, and his own addiction.
