The Tusk Hunters
WriTTEN by Dan Caffrey
directed by Dina Vovsi
Thursday June 12 at 3:00 pm
Open Jar Studios
1601 Broadway (entrance on 48th street between B'way and 8th Avenue)
Studio 11J
A Pay-What-You-Can ($5 minimum) Workshop Theater Lab Reading
Two men in the Alaskan tundra search for woolly mammoth tusks as an alternative to elephant ivory. But their most recent discovery causes their employer to pivot from the ivory trade to a more technologically innovative venture as a means of combating climate change. Inspired by the real-life founding of Colossal Biosciences, The Tusk Hunters explores the morality of de-extinction . . . .
Cast:
Peter Bradbury*
Peter McNally*
Erik Lochtefeld*
Stage Directions: Evan Moore-Coll*
Stage Manager: Olivia Mancini
*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production.
Dan Caffrey is a Brooklyn-based playwright and pop-culture critic. Most recently, his stories have focused on the physical and psychological effects of the climate crisis, including River Watchers, an immersive theatre experience on a moving 14-person canoe in Brooklyn's Newtown Creek (co-created with Dina Vovsi and Jens Rasumussen). Upcoming projects include The Amphibians (Sundown Collaborative Theatre) and KAIJU (The Road Theatre Company’s Summer Playwrights Festival). Dan is a proud alumnus of several Workshop Theater Intensives and the 2023/2024 Civilians' R&D Group. He has been a three-time O'Neill Finalist and seven-time Semi-Finalist, two-time Finalist for Princeton University and The Civilians' The Next Forever project, Jerome Fellowship Semi-Finalist, shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship's 2021 Theatre Prize, Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace Awards Playwriting Fellowship, Resident Artist at Tofte Lake Center, M.F.A. Scholar at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and his work has been published in several anthologies by Smith & Kraus, including The Best Women's Stage Monologues 2021. His plays have recently been developed/produced by Gloucester Stage, Think Tank Theatre, the Atlantic Acting School, Hot Playwright Summer, The Orchard Project, American Records, Mixily Presents, Greenbrier Valley Theatre, Jarrott Productions, Kitchen Dog Theater, Hot Kitchen Collective, Genesis Ensemble, Otherworld Theatre Company, and Pegasus PlayLab, as well as many colleges and universities all around the country. His play "A Seed" was part of the 46th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, produced by Concord Theatricals. His play "Duckass" was part of the 2022 festival, making it to the final 12. Dan has also written for a variety of pop-culture publications, including The A.V. Club, Consequence, Pitchfork, and Vox. His first book, Radiohead FAQ, is currently available from Rowman & Littlefield. He co-hosts The Losers' Club: A Stephen King Podcast (recipient of Joe Bob Briggs' Silver Bolo Award For Excellence In Horror Media) and Halloweenies: A Horror Franchise Podcast.
Peter Bradbury Broadway: 29 productions including: Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cult of Love, McNeal, Patriots, A Christmas Carol, Hangmen, Trouble in Mind, The Ferryman, Travesties, Farinelli and the King, King Charles III, The Elephant Man (also West End), Casa Valentina, The Norman Conquests… TV: “The Gilded Age” “FBI’s Most Wanted”, “New Amsterdam”, “Blacklist”, “Boardwalk Empire”, “Homeland”, “Sally Hemings”,“House of Cards” “Law and Orders” etc.
Peter McNally (he/him) is a Brooklyn based actor for theater and film. Theater credits include SALLY & TOM (The Public), Sincerity Forever (The Flea), Sibyl Kempson’s Sasquatch Rituals (The Kitchen). Film: “Terminal” (Cannes), “Good One” (Sundance), “The Influencer” (SIFF), “Mixtape Marauders” (Clermont-Ferrand). BA: Fordham. MFA: NYU.
Erik Lochtefeld Broadway: King Kong, Misery, Metamorphoses. Off-broadway: Spain (2nd Stage), Unknown Soldier (Playwrights Horizons), Macbeth (CSC) Napoli, Brooklyn (Roundabout), The Light Years (Playwrights), A Funny Thing...of NYC (MCC), Stupid F***ing Bird (The Pearl), Small Mouth Sounds (Ars Nova), Row After Row (Women’s Project), Melancholy Play (13P), February House (Public Theater). TV/Film: Three Women, Law & Order, Blacklist, Madame Secretary, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He is married to playwright Laura Eason. www.eriklochtefeld.com
Dina Vovsi (Director) is a New York-based director, theatermaker, and educator. Upcoming projects include Billy McEntee’s Amo’s Aunts Keep PopPop Alive (Justoffa Exit 155) and Liba Vaynberg’s The Matriarchs. Recent projects include The Blue Parts with co-creator Liba Vaynberg (2024-25 Next Stage Special Residency at The Drama League, Working Theater 5 Boroughs 1 City Commission, and 2023 NYSCA Support for Artists Grant) and River Watchers, a site-specific, journey-based play she conceived and directed on a 14-seat Langley canoe in Newtown Creek and co-created with Dan Caffrey and Jens Rasmussen (The Motor Company, 2023 Brooklyn Arts Council and Puffin Foundation Grants). Dina has directed and developed new work with WP Theater, The Civilians, New Georges, Working Theater, Cape Cod Theatre Project, The Orchard Project, New Dramatists, The Bushwick Starr, Fresh Ground Pepper, and more. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and current co-leader of the New Georges Jam, and an alum of the WP Directors’ Lab, the Roundabout Directors Group, the Mercury Store Directing Lab, the Robert Moss Directing Fellowship at Playwrights Horizons, The Civilians’ R&D Group, the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab, and the SDC Foundation Observership. As an associate/assistant director, Dina has worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, and regionally with Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, Spoleto Festival USA, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and more. A frequent guest director at universities, Dina also teaches directing at Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and acting at Brooklyn College's MFA Acting Graduate Program. www.dinavovsi.com
Evan Moore-Coll (Stage Directions)
Olivia Mancini (Stage Manager) is a New York City based Stage Manager. BFA from Purchase College. NYC Selected Credits: Cats: The Jellicle Ball (Production Assistant, PAC), This Land was Made (PA/SM Sub, Vineyard Theatre), The Wolves (Production Stage Manager, Atlantic Acting School), One Way (Production Stage Manager, Ades Performance Space) Don’t Stop Me (Production Stage Manager, Riverside Theatre), and We Are The Tigers (Script PA/Stagehand, Theatre 80).