Theater for the New City will present the newest comedy by Matt Morillo, “The Inventor, The Escort, The Photographer, Her Boyfriend and His Girlfriend,” January 6 to 29, directed by the author. In this funny, sexy new comedy, five people are barricaded in one apartment building, with a fierce snowstorm outside, looking for love in all the wrong places.
Originally a filmmaker, Matt Morillo made an auspicious theatrical debut in 2006 with “Angry Young Women In Low Rise Jeans With High Class Issues,” which is being revived by Theater for the New City December 2 to 19, 2010. The comedy was presented by TNC in 2007, an Off-Broadway run in NYC, multiple engagements in Hollywood and Sydney (Australia) and a TNC return engagement in 2009, but it never seems to exhaust its audience. Morillo’s next play, the slightly more serious “All Aboard the Marriage Hearse” (TNC, 2008), was also extremely successful. In January, 2009 at TNC, he directed “Stay Over,” a comedy he wrote with Maria Micheles, about what can happen to you when trying to make up after an infidelity. It was followed by his first serious play, “American Soldiers,” a family drama about a woman war veteran’s return to her home in Long Island. Morillo returns to the comic form with “The Inventor, The Escort, The Photographer, Her Boyfriend and His Girlfriend.” The play was partly inspired by Elliott Spitzer’s imbroglio with an escort service, which gave Morillo the idea of writing a call girl character.
Morillo’s “Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues,” “All Aboard the Marriage Hearse” and “American Soldiers” have all been published by Samuel French Inc.
Prior to his theatrical shift, Morillo was a fixture on the New York independent film scene for ten years. He debuted at 23 with his romantic comedy, “The Pretenders,” a film with a cast of unknowns and a non-existent budget that became an enjoyable, funny and ultimately touching film about twenty-somethings struggling with life’s ups and downs. His next project, “Good Tidings,” was a fifteen-minute short film about a young girl suffering through her parents’ divorce. It received great praise at film festivals for its realism and honesty. Morillo’s third film, “Maid Of Honor,” was a true breakthrough. A twenty-five minute comedy about a simple guy trying to hook up with the maid of honor at a wedding, it was a hit on the festival circuit, winning three awards, playing to sold-out theaters and leaving audiences laughing and begging for copies of the film.
Theater for the New City has been Morillo’s creative home since 2007. He writes, “TNC has afforded me the opportunity that is the dream of every artist. To be able to hone my abilities in an environment where they support, promote, nurture and inspire you to push, grow, and stretch all of your abilities to levels that perhaps even you yourself do not think are possible. Without concern for commercialism or conformity, TNC creates an environment that cannot possibly be described in one word. But I will try to describe in four: creative, daring, progressive and passionate. Actually, I think I can describe TNC in one word: Art!”
“The Inventor, The Escort, The Photographer, Her Boyfriend and His Girlfriend” is written and directed by Matt Morillo and features David R. Doumeng, Jessica Moreno, Tom Pilutik, Emily Campion and Maria Rowene. Set design is by Mark Marcante. Lighting design is by Amith A. Chandrashaker.
Performances are January 6 to 29, 2011 at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (at E. 10th Street), Manhattan. The schedule is Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 PM and Sundays at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $20 general admission (Sundays pay what you can). To purchase tickets, call SMARTTIX at 212-868-4444 or click to: www.angryyoungwomen.net.
