Joy to thee, Internet!
My current project, the play “Bella’s Dream”, opened last night at the Flamboyan Theater at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center. The play performs daily through June 30th. For tickets and additional information, please click here.
How You Doing, Internet?
I am happy to announce my Summer plans! In June I will be appearing in the new play “Bella’s Dream” produced by Going to Tahiti Productions at the Flamboyan Theater at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Education Center here in New York City. The play follows the true story of Bella and Raymond who, heeding a dream of Bella’s, flee Poland weeks before the Nazis invaded in 1939. I will be playing five different characters they encounter on their journey. The show runs June 18th through June 30th. For more information and tickets please click here.
Then in August I will be returning to Vermont Shakespeare Company with whom I played Caliban last Summer in “The Tempest”. This time around I will be playing Autolycus in “The Winter’s Tale”. Performances are August 8th – 11th and 16th – 18th in Burlington, Vermont and August 15th at Knight Point State Park in North Hero, Vermont. More information and tickets can be found here. I am thrilled and honored to be returning to this fabulous company of talented artists!
Well hi there, Internet!
It’s been a busy month. My auditions and acting work have taken me to four out of five boroughs (I’m coming for you, Bronx!). My performance experiences have been eclectic and eccentric, from passing out flowers at a rooftop garden party wearing a goat mask (!), to operating a life-size baby T-rex puppet complete with blinking eyes and flicking tongue. My anti-bullying children’s show “UpStanders” continues to be performed in schools all across New York.
Happy Spring!!!
Happy Easter / Passover, Internet!
“The Huntsmen” closed last month at Portland Playhouse. It was a wonderful experience and I feel so lucky to have been a part of the world premiere of Quincy Long’s amazing play.
Now I am back in New York City. My next project is a children’s show called “UpStanders” which is being produced by Sundog Theatre and will be performed in Staten Island schools. The play teaches kids how to deal with bullying. I play Lucas, a shy 9-year-old boy (between “The Huntsmen”, where I played a 14-year-old, and this I feel like I’m getting younger and younger and younger …). It is a smart play with a good message.
Bonjour Internet,
Only two more weekends left to see “The Huntsmen” at Portland Playhouse. We close on February 17th. I am honored to be a part of this amazing production and continue to be thrilled and challenged by the play.
For more information about the show, please watch this video interview conducted by Portland’s Artslandia Magazine with me, playwright Quincy Long, and director Kathleen Dimmick on opening night.
All the reviews of “The Huntsmen” can be found below:
Hey Internet,
This past weekend I opened in “The Huntsmen” at Portland Playhouse. Opening night received a standing ovation and multiple curtain calls. It feels wonderful to be so thoroughly embraced by the Portland arts community. Here is what the reviews had to say about my performance (please click on the links for the full articles):
“At the heart of this remarkable production, under the pitch perfect, tone deft [sic] direction of Kathleen Dimmick, is Dean Linnard, fresh from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and utterly fascinating as a gawky kid with a golden voice, a moral vacancy and a fantasy life that often bleeds, shall we say, into the real world.”
Martly Hughley, The Oregonian
“Played with mesmerizing zeal by Dean Linnard, Devon is equal parts clumsy teen, moody murderer and smooth crooner … Linnard’s voice is beautifully clean, and he injects the songs with surprising psychological intensity.”
Rebecca Jacobson, Willamette Week
“Dean Linnard [is] morbidly hypnotic as the altered teen with a blade.”
“New York actor Linnard plays Devon with awkward intensity, a frenetic ball of freak out that stares intently into the distance while his skinny arms scat in frenzies of staccato movement. With his gawky limbs, wild mop of hair, and tense, shoulders-pulled-back posture, he comes across almost as a cartoon killer, further deboning what could easily tilt into too gruesome a tale …
[T]he three supporting male actors (Gavin Gregory, Jared Miller, and O’Connell—all with fabulous voices) … provide the accompaniment to Linnard’s nimble, expressive tenor.”
Aaron Scott, Portland Monthly
“As portrayed by Linnard, Devon is a squirrely, jittery kid who only seems at home when he’s singing lead vocals in the doo-wop numbers that dominate his inner life. Linnard’s got a great voice, and he’s capably backed by the rest of the ensemble in original songs that easily pass for doo-wop standards.”
Alison Hallett, The Portland Mercury
“[T]he astonishing part … comes at the end of the scene, another bloody deed done, when Devon launches into “Speedoo,” … and Dean Linnard changes from an insatiable grub into a divine doo-wop butterfly. The beat, the close harmony, Linnard’s youthful tenor lifted in a mild version of the traditional boasting song!”
Barry Johnson, Oregon ArtsWatch
And finally, theater critic Marty Hughley said the following about our production in The Oregonian (Oregon’s largest newspaper):
“Quincy Long’s delightfully twisted play, which opened its world-premiere run Saturday at Portland Playhouse, delivers the most surprising, strange and satisfying theater of the season so far …
[T]here’s smooth singing and psychologically precise acting from everyone here … As an ensemble, they take reality and delusion, dreams and fears, humor and horror and turn it all into a transporting kind of music.”
“The Huntsmen” runs through February 17th at Portland Playhouse.
Happy New Year, Internet!
As 2012 comes to a close, I’ve been thinking back on all the wonderful theatrical experiences I’ve had in the last year. I feel such tremendous joy and gratitude to have worked with so many fantastic people and organizations. My experiences in 2012 have reaffirmed my belief in the power of theater to nurture the mind and spirit.
This past Summer my one-man show adaptation of “Hamlet” had a short run as part of Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s New Works Series. I played Caliban in “The Tempest” with the fine folks at Vermont Shakespeare Company. In the Fall I played Hamlet again in an experimental production that went to the New Orleans Fringe Festival. I also worked as a character elevator operator at the brilliant Off-Broadway show “Sleep No More”. And I am writing this from Portland, Oregon where I am deep in rehearsals for the world premiere of “The Huntsmen” at Portland Playhouse. All of these adventures have challenged and stretched me as an artist and I feel so lucky to have encountered so many talented and compassionate fellow artists along the way.
Many thanks to the Stella Adler Studio of Acting, the TRUF, Manhattan Rep, Vermont Shakespeare Company, Kipuka Theater, Punchdrunk/Emursive, Tremor Theater Collective, Barrow Street Theatre, and Portland Playhouse for providing me with creative homes throughout 2012. I look forward to the new adventures in store for 2013.
Have a happy and healthy New Year, everyone!!!
Season’s Greetings, Internet!
Hello from Portland, Oregon! I just started rehearsals for the world premier of “The Huntsmen” at Portland Playhouse. “The Huntsmen” is a new play by Quincy Long, whose work has been presented at Playwright Horizons and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. I am playing Devon, a 14 year old serial killer who is obsessed with Doo Wop music. I am extremely honored to be a part of this topical, provocative, and complicated play. The show runs January 17th – February 17th.
For more information, please visit PortlandPlayhouse.org
Top Of The Morning To You, Internet,
I just returned from New Orleans where I played Hamlet in the experimental theater piece “The Rub” at the New Orleans Fringe Festival. Our play was chosen as one of the top four at the festival (out of 69!) by The Gambit.
I so enjoyed working with my talented colleagues and exploring “Hamlet” once again. I also fell in love with New Orleans – such a beautiful and diverse city. I hope to return.
Greetings Internet,
I am currently in rehearsal for “The Rub”, Tremor Theater Collective’s experimental adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. It is tremendous fun to be playing the Dane again. We are traveling to Louisiana next month to perform in the New Orleans Fringe Festival. Very exciting!
For more information, please click below:
http://www.nofringe.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=132:the-rub&Itemid=147