Surprise in Manhattan


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Martin Dockery is currently performing in his one-man show Surprise. This writer director created the show in part based on his own experiences with his family. While every writer might acknowledge that there is something of an autobiographical aspect to most of their work, Dockery employs a sense of restraint and distance that prevents the show from becoming overtly confessional. Surprise is currently playing at DR2 in Manhattan. Tourists staying in 4 star hotels New York are often looking for original, cutting edge work, the shows staged by DR2 are usually consistent in offering that.

Surprise deals with the fragile nature of relationships. It demonstrates the situation faced by most adults when they realize their parents are human and they have to see them as such. This entails working though previous issues and learning how to forgive. The dialogue changes nightly because there is no definite script. Dockery works from the story sketches and brings them to fresh life each night. The effect for the audience is to hear the story he tells as if it is being told for the first time, which it is. The theme of the play deals with his trip to Ho Chi Minh City to visit his father and discover he’s living with a new wife and has children with her.

Jean Michele Gregory, who has worked many years as the dramaturg and collaborator with monologist Mike Daisy, directed the play. As a director her specialty is in working with solo actors in monologue-based shows. She has directed shows at the Public Theater, Berkeley Repertory, Portland Center Stage, The Cherry Lane Theatre and many others across the country, including a show at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival. Gregory also teaches the art of solo performance styles and techniques and has taught workshops on the subject at Dartmouth and Colby College.

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Monday, May 11th, 2009 Travel

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