Productions
Below is a collection of live events and projects I’ve produced as an independent creator.
Days of the Dead: On Film
Producer and Curator | October, 2022
Days of the Dead: On Film was an evening of short films produced as part of FRIGID New York’s Days of the Dead Festival. The films were loosely centered on themes of death, and featured three spoken languages, as well as a documentary about Greenpoint Cemetery’s first ever artist in residence.
The Messy Show
Producer | June, 2022
After the success of Fully Vaxed Comedy and Improvised Fresh Prince, Quin Lamar and I teamed up once again to produce a live recording of The Messy Show, a podcast he hosts with Katie Arroyo. The live show featured a slate of queer comics, and was presented as part of the 2022 Queerly Festival at the Kraine Theater.
The Messy Show Branding: Katie Arroyo | The Queerly Festival Branding: Jimmy Lovett and Emily Godfrey | Image Creation: Emily Godfrey
Fully Vaxed Comedy
Producer | June, 2021
In 2021, after more than a year of producing and supporting exclusively virtual performances, I produced a stand-up special with Quin Lamar featuring Wanjiko Eke, Dana Friedman, Katie Arroyo, and Alex English.
Improvised Fresh Prince
Producer | December, 2019 - March, 2020
After a year of success with Improvised Buffy, I approached comedian and collaborator Quin Lamar about creating Improvised Fresh Prince. For the purpose of keeping the show authentically Black, Quinten and I divided our main responsibilities. I kept to logistics - scheduling rehearsals, marketing performances, running lights and sound - leaving the artistic direction and casting decisions to Quinten. While we used Improvised Buffy as a template, we knew that the Fresh Prince cast, like the 90s hit it was based on, would present us with endless ideas and personality. Interrupted by the pandemic, IFP enjoyed four well-attended live performances at the Kraine Theater.
Improvised Buffy
Producer | March, 2018 - March, 2020
In March of 2018, I joined two collaborators in creating Improvised Buffy, which ran for three months at the People’s Improv Theater before becoming a monthly staple at Under St. Marks. The show began as a 25-minute comedy set with a modest following, and by the fall of that year it had become an hour-long monthly special with a reliable audience of 45 seats. In March of the 2019, we moved to the Kraine Theater (99 seats), in order to accommodate our growing audience, and reliably sold 80% of available tickets. We toured the show to multiple festivals, and it inspired its own festival as well as a spinoff program. It was during the run of this show that I was offered a full-time position with FRIGID New York, which manages the Kraine and Under St. Marks.
Videos
The Hulk Can’t Perform CPR | WinterFest Revival
Producer and Director | January, 2020
In the fall of 2019, playwright Louis Gaudio approached me about his admission to New York City’s WinterFest, and invited me to produce and direct the revival of his 2017 play. We organized auditions and rehearsals (scheduling over the winter holidays is no small feat) and updated the script to reflect a changing cultural landscape. I ran marketing for the production through my High Stakes platforms, and we enjoyed three sold-out performances at the Hudson Guild Theater in Manhattan.
The High Stakes Hellmouth Festival
Producer | November, 2019
Marketing Improvised Buffy brought me to quite a few Buffy-related events around the city, including trivia, podcast events, and musical performances. This afforded me the opportunity to meet fellow creators who produced Buffy-inspired art, and in 2019 I was invited to organize a weeklong series called the Hellmouth Festival.
It is at this point that I want you to know that I do not believe in vampires, I have a healthy, skeptical relationship with Whedon content, and none of the members of the original Buffy cast have restraining orders against me. The success that our monthly parody show enjoyed brought a community of folks together, and it was exciting to give the artists among them a chance to perform. The festival included burlesque, a live podcast taping, an open mic, and a Shadowcast alongside our usual time slot.
High Stakes Short Plays
Producer | August, 2017
In an effort to expand my company’s network of playwrights and original artists, I produced a one-night festival called High Stakes Short Plays, named for my production company. Along with two assistants, I collected submissions of 10-minute plays, accepted the best among them, and organized a sold-out evening of performances at the Kraine Theater. At the end of the evening, our audience chose a winner, who was presented with the “High Stakes Cup”.
Photos of this event are not immediately available.
The Hulk Can’t Perform CPR | World Premiere
Producer and Director | February, 2017
In early 2016, I approached Louis Gaudio regarding a play he had written and presented at a community reading. I asked if I could produce a run of it, with the intention of launching a production company. Over the course of the year that followed, we developed the script, held auditions, organized rehearsals, gathered set and prop materials, and mounted a full-scale production, which ran over a weekend at the Kraine Theater in Lower Manhattan. This play launched my company, High Stakes Productions, which served as an umbrella for all of my subsequent projects.
The Nerd
Producer and Director | November, 2015
After graduation, I was invited to produce and direct a production of Larry Shue’s farce The Nerd at my alma mater, Hunter College. This afforded me the opportunity to train student designers and stage managers on a live production, while working within the strict parameters of an academic setting.
