So, how does Moulthrop get to PocketBear? Ah, New York, New York. The town so nice they had to name it twice.
This past October I went to a Police Community Meeting at a New School University building in the next block. When the topic turned to bicycles, I’d had enough—no one’s going to give them tickets for going the wrong way; fuhgeddaboutit: pedestrians just better be careful. So I left, and when the elevator doors opened I got into a car with three young guys, students. One of them said, “Nobody knows anything about Pinter.” I thought, well, he could be talking about the social media app Pinterest, or maybe… and if it’s not the playwright, no harm, no foul, just another gray-haired butt-insky.
So I said to him (and his cohort), “Are you talking about Harold Pinter?”
And he said, “You know Harold Pinter?”
And I said, “I did my Master’s thesis on Harold Pinter.”
“We have to talk,” he said, and I give him my card.
I wasn’t holding my breath for a response, but the next week there’s an email and subsequently Anthony Caruso (he’s a junior, now with pink hair) and I have met several times for a theatre-schmooze lunch. And I saw his very experimental play, THIS. And then it turns out he’s organized a production company (a collective), PocketBear Productions. Even before the virus shutdown they were planning a theatrical web series on dorm life, so I offered to write a short play for that series, which they accepted (later for that). And then Anthony read my early NYFringe play HALF LIFE (the pedophile teacher coming home from prison to a wife who wants everything to be the same), and wants to do a production.
Now, because of the virus stay-in and classes being cancelled, they are doing theatrical audio podcasts, and so (somewhere between a commission from them and a volunteer from me) I wrote my first PlagueYear play: FILET OF SOLE. Which is now available as a podcast from PocketBear, listen above.
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“Filet of Sole” by Robert Moulthrop was performed by Courtney Campbell and Anthony Caruso.
Courtney Campbell is the co-founder and co-director of PocketBear Productions. She is currently in her second year at The New School, working for a BFA in dramatic arts. She loves many things...theatre the most, bios not the most. Courtney loved working with Robert and cannot wait to work on another Moulthrop piece.
Anthony Caruso is the co-founder and co-director of PocketBear Productions. He has written and directed numerous plays, his first produced one being Surprise! Now You're Dead, which premiered at Manhattan Repertory Theatre in 2016. He went on to write a full-length play, THIS, which premiered at The New School in 2019. His play, Cirrhosis of the Liver, is getting a production at The New School this upcoming fall. With PocketBear, he’s directed plays like: Old Times, Agnes of God, and ‘night, Mother. He is a third-year student at The New School working towards his BFA in Dramatic Arts. Working with Robert has been an absolute joy and he looks forwards to working with him again!