Toomuchery Productions

July 18 - August 3, 2008

3B Development Series

Created and performed by Mat Sanders and Guerrin Gardner. Directed by Nate Dushku.

In the summer of 2006, a group of actors staged a worker’s strike against the American Girl Co., one of America’s most popular doll retailers. If you didn’t walk past them standing proudly on 5th Avenue, you probably saw them on the evening news protesting in four-part harmony. Perhaps, you caught the picture of young adults proudly brandishing colorful signs, decorated with ribbons and sequins in the Theatre section of the New York Times, and flipped the page because you thought they were a group of Clay Aiken fans.

Mat Sanders was at the forefront of this dispute. As he boldly stood in protest of the theater management’s unethical policies governing the mini-musical in which he starred, his creative partner, Guerrin Gardner, also rallied behind the cause and joined him on the picket line…

Inspired by a hilarious controversy comes an even more hilarious new comedy adventure. Set against the backdrop of a whimsical New York City, this new-fangled vaudeville chronicles the adventures of Sandy—a self-proclaimed star-to-be with dreams as big as his debts, and Charlie—his hopelessly optimistic and slightly peculiar companion. Witness their rise to the top as they softshoe through a world of corporate corrupt children’s theatre, big-apple ambitions and menacing leather daddies. By weaving together fanciful satire and real life events this stylish and irreverent comedy begs the question,

“How much of my soul must I sell to make it to the top?”

Resident Artists

Mat Sanders (Sandy) is a company member at New York City’s American Globe Theatre. There he has had the pleasure of playing Autolycus in A Winter’s Tale, Trinculo in The Tempest, Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedie of Errours, Launcelot Gobbo in The Merchant of Venice, Flute/Thisby in Midsummer, Peter in Romeo and Juliet. If you are girl between the age of five and twelve, you will remember Mat from his year-long stint as Uncle Gard/Totah the Indian Chief/Runaway Slave in An American Girl’s Revue at The American Girl Place Theater!!! Other credits include Take Flight (concert directed by Richard Matlby Jr.), Amos in Chicago, Argante in Scapino!, and Bud Frump in How to Succeed in Business. He has appeared in National commericials for Wendy’s, Captain Morgan, Mtv and many more. Mat is graduate of the School of Theatre at Florida State University

Guerrin Gardner (Charlie McGee) is a New York based actor and writer, originally from Tallahassee, Florida. NYC Theatre credits: Sandy & Charlie at FringeNYC ‘08 and IRT Theatre, September 12th (Nuyorican Theatre), 7-11 at Barrow Street Theatre, Acting on Impulse (Lion Theatre, directed by Ed Sherin), and is the co-writer/performer of Spiritual Curtains which has ongoing performances at The PIT. Regional credits include: Raymonde in A Flea in Her Ear, Giacinta in Scapino!, Babe in Crimes of the Heart. TV/Film: Law and Order (Guest Star), music videos for Bob Dylan/Mark Ronson’s You’ll Go Your Way… and The Secret Machines, Wainy Days, and the pilot “Together”. She is also a member of Studio Dante’s Master Scene Study workshop and holds a BA in theatre from Florida State University.

Nate Dushku (Director) is an IRT board member where his credits include producing John Guare’s Bosoms and Neglect and directing the premiere of Adam Beechen’s Transit. Previously, his direction of Berthold Brecht’s Baal at Studio Stage in Los Angeles was a critical success. As an actor, he was on stage in the world premiere of Charles Busch’s Die, Mommie, Die! directed by Kenneth Elliott at The Coast Playhouse, and on screen in such classics as Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet, The Zodiac, Blood Moon, and Antitrust. He is currently in development on a biopic about photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. He holds a BFA from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.