Mike Daisey
Barring the Unforeseen
 
October 26-31, 2010
Mike Daisey returns to his roots in a monologue told from a vast and unknowable northern province called childhood. Woven together from Maine ghost stories, the history of spiritualism, H.P. Lovecraft’s tortured life, and the unspeakable dread lurking under your bed, Daisey creates a monologue about why we tell ghost stories, and the precious, terrifying gifts they bring us. Unsettling and inquisitive, he embarks on a journey with a daring audience to come back with answers.
A special 3B presentation.
Created and Performed by Mike Daisey
Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory
Performances October 26-31.
Nightly at 8pm
At IRT: 154 Christopher St., #3B (3rd floor)
Tickets $25 – available on Brown Paper Tickets
Space extremely limited!
ABOUT MIKE DAISEY
“The master storyteller—one of the finest solo performers of his generation.”
— New York Times
“Just once, it’d be nice to see Mike Daisey and Garrison Keillor trade places, just to see Daisey rip the lid off Lake Wobegon and expose its wicked underbelly. Daisey is a mesmerizing performer who spins words into comic and emotional gold, revealing as much about himself as the subjects he is discussing.”
— Oakland Tribune
“Sharp-witted, passionately delivered talk about matters both small and huge, at once utterly individual and achingly universal.”
— Boston Globe
“Daisey’s skill is that he is able to talk about the historical and make it human, the personal and make it universal, so that the listener is both informed and transformed.”
— Paper Magazine
“Engaging and intellectually curious…Mr. Daisey is rarely obvious.”
— New York Times
“Daisey has a knack for pushing the boundaries of comedy and candor, with unflinchingly honest descriptions that show the performer’s personal strengths and weaknesses. The result is cathartic.”
— Bostonist
“Irresistible storytelling . . . elevating and hilarious.”
— San Francisco Weekly
ARTISTS
MIKE DAISEY has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone, exposing secret histories and unexpected connections. His monologues include last season’s critically acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult (developed in part at IRT), the controversial How Theater Failed America, the six-hour epic Great Men of Genius, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, and his latest, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. He has performed across five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to abandoned theaters in post-Communist Tajikistan. He’s been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, as well as a commentator and contributor to WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and a feature film of his monologue If You See Something Say Something is currently in post production. His second book, Rough Magic, a collected anthology of his monologues, will be published in 2011. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, four Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation’s Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship.
JEAN-MICHELE GREGORY works as a director, editor, and dramaturg, focusing on extemporaneous theatrical works that live in the moment they are told. Working primarily with solo artists, for the last decade she has collaborated with monologist Mike Daisey, directing at venues across the globe including the Public Theater, the Sydney Opera House, Yale Repertory Theatre, the Cherry Lane Theater, the Under the Radar Festival, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, the Barrow Street Theatre, Chicago’s Museum for Contemporary Art, American Repertory Theatre, the Spoleto Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Noorderzon Festival, Intiman Theatre, Performance Space 122, the T:BA Festival, and many more. She has also directed New York storyteller Martin Dockery (Wanderlust, The Surprise) and the Seattle-based performer and writer Suzanne Morrison (Yoga Bitch, Optimism). Her productions have received four Seattle Times Footlight Awards (21 Dog Years, The Ugly American, Monopoly!, The Last Cargo Cult), the Bay Area Critics Circle Award (Great Men of Genius), and nominations from the Drama League and Outer Critics Circle (If You See Something Say Something).