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The Gifted Program

A Play By: Ruben Carbajal

Produced By: OVO

Set in a Wisconsin high school in 1985, the play centers on four maligned sophomores, refugees from a defunct program for gifted and talented students and the last remaining members of the Dungeon & Dragons club. When of them is revealed as the infamous radio call-ini Lothario who has courted the school’s most popular girl, their simple pursuit of an education becomes a fight for survival.

An outstanding ensemble cast and inventive direction propelled word of mouth and critical attention, leading to sold-out audiences and publications with Dramatists Play Service. In 2005, The Gifted Program was anthologized in The Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 2005, published by Smith & Kraus.

Directed By: Mike Shapiro

"You saw The Breakfast Club and Heathers. So why see Ruben Carbajal’s revisitation of the war between high-school burnout, popular people, and dorks? Because Mike Shapiro’s direction crackles, Joey (Brenton Popolizio) is one sexy nerd, and the outrage of Lester Sue (Aron Yoo) at his dungeonmaster’s misuse of elves will convulse anybody who has ever know a D. & D. Obsessive. Carbajal’s humor alternates between laceration and indulgent, and never slackens."

THE NEW YORKER

Rubberville
Rubberville

Play with songs, Book and Lyrics By: Chris Talbott

Directed By: Chris Talbott and Ian Rosenberg

Produced By: OVO

Starring: Ari Vena, Mary Wigmore, Gioia Marchese and Sanjit Da Silva

Music By: Phil Van Scotter.

Rubberville is a hard-knock Midwestern neighborhood circa 1982, the unlikey site of the ominous arrival of a girl prophet. As burnout teens, lonely drunks, a ragged Vietnam vet and a raging single mother battle ghosts real and imagined. Does this mysterious newcomer offer salvation, or is she the pied piper of the apocalypse? OVO’s first full-length production was a raucous theatrical feast of dance, heavy metal, projections and puppetry.

The Gospel of Cyrus According to Cyrus

A folk Operetta, Book and Lyrics By: Chris Talbott

Music Composed and Performed By: Rowland Stebbins

Directed By: Theater for New City In Association with OVO

Starring: Jesse James LoCorriere

An exiled backwater spiritual leader makes his final stand in the lonely cabin where he was born, his bloodthirsty former followers at his heels. As the final moments of his life tick away, he recounts his life in rousing songs and rhyming couples that resound with wit, defiance, and sex.

One actor and one musician propel this tour-de-force of language and song that probes the boundaries of the sensual and spiritual. Showcasing a powerful performance by LoCorriere and toe-tapping brilliance by Stebbins, this two-man show proved to be a watermark OVO production crackling with an energy more often found at rock venues.

The Gospel of Cyrus According to Cyrus ws co-produced with Theater for the New City and supported with a grant from the Jerome Foundation.

Rubberville

Hold and the Man Who Pulled a Gun Out of His Ass
Hold and the Man Who Pulled a Gun Out of His Ass

Hold and the Man Who Pulled a Gun Out of His Ass

Two Short Plays By: Ruben Carbajal

Directed By: Ian Rosenberg and Chris Talbott

Produced By: OVO

Starring: Will McCormack, Chris Talbott, Ari Vena, Mary Wigmore

With Special Musical Guest: John Gold

“HOLD” Directed by Ian Rosenberg: A desperate man seeking aid from a mental heath hotline is instead sent intro a surreal automated phone system purgatory. This suspenseful comedy with laser-sharp performances and fast, fluid staging left audiences eager for more OVO.

“The Man Who Pulled A Gun Out of His Ass,” Directed by Chris Talbott Squirting blood, fake noses, wigs, and gunshots fly in this wild and unsetting story that introduced audiences to OVO’s brand of no-holds-barred theatricals.

Bridging the two short plays, musical guest John Gold’s underrated but shimmering rock brilliance help audiences in sway for the entirety of his tight and brooding set, icing on the cake of OVO’s inaugural production.

The Asthma Conspiracy
The Asthma Conspiracy

The Asthma Conspiracy

A Play with Songs, Book and Lyrics By: Chris Talbott

Music By: Caroline Laskow

Produced By: Theater for The New City In Association with OVO

Starring: James Engel and Ari Vena

JJ is an asthmatic temp waging an underground fight against the corporate powers that assault his mind and body.

Tim Robert’s driving power-pop, the electrifying energy and chemistry of James Engel and Ari Vena, and Caroline Laskow's razor-sharp direction of this funny exploration of corporate culture and radical chic kept audiences rocking in their seats.

The Asthma Conspiracy was co-produced with Theater For New City and supported with a grant from the Jerome Foundation.

Portland
Portland

Portland

A Play By: Ruben Carbajal

Directed By: Ian Rosenberg

Produced By: OVO

Starring: Will McCormick, Mary Wigmore and Ari Vena.

Ed, a young man adrift in life, moves in with Li, his ex-lover, in a small apartment in Portland, Oregon. Ed’s strange encounters as a hotel room-service waiter punctuate the ambiguous intimacy with Lii, as their murky past and true feelings become clear. A spare, tender meditation on the indivisibility of love and loss, Portland is sad and funny in equal measures.

Ian Rosenberg’s evocative direction and graceful performances by Will McCormick and Mary Wigmore made this an OVO an event to be remembered.

OVO’s production of Portland earned OVO a grant from the Frankel Foundation