Got to attend a listening party for Peter Stass and Blerime Topalli’s audio drama In a Dark Wood at QED Astoira on Feb. 5. I can be heard playing the role of the German solider Ludwig in it. They brought their Hollywood film experience into this non-visual format. It is a very layered and textured aural adventure.
It was nice to be in a room with a bunch of people who are there for the purpose of truly listening to something. People are so noisy inside and out these days, it is a rare occurrence. I’ve enjoyed this kind of listening at the Village Vanguard a couple of times. But it is different with drama.
It’s available on Spotify and on Apple where you can listen at your convenience in your own place of solitude. If you dare!
Some wonderful news! Hot Angry Mom won an Emmy at the 68th annual New York Emmy Awards. The dark comedy web series won for the Entertainment Short-Form category on October 11, 2025!
I was honored that creator/producer/start/force of nature Mel House asked me to appear in a couple moments in this. Her never-quit state of being is an inspiration to me.
I’m excited to be jumping into a production in Central Park of Richard II as the Duke of York this summer. It is going to be directed by my partner in life and art Aimee Todoroff. The last time I did this play was for the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. I was one of four of Richard’s pages and was 17-years-old. The other young pages went to become the playwright Anton Dudley and two members of the indie band Jump Little Children.
There are a lot of lessons about leadership and loyalty in this play. A very interesting one to be doing at this time. A wonderful cast and crew are putting their sweat and tears into this one!
I’ll be appearing in the Chain Theatre’s Winter One Act Festival in a short play called Wipeout, written by and featuring Jeryl Brunner. We met several years ago while doing some improv training in the city. Jeryl reached out to me to play two roles: a skiing enthusiast and a grade school teacher. It’s part of a full-length play she has been working on. It’s always nice to get a request out of the blue like this and Jeryl’s enthusiasm is contagious!
This project also gives me the good fortune of reconnecting with a friend from college Sara Thigpen, who is directing. This is the first thing we’ve worked on together since our days at UNC-Greensboro. It’s been so nice to reconnect while working on this.
With Amy Ziff from the indie rock band Betty rounds out the cast and plays three roles. I saw their show, Betty Rules, back when I first came to the city. It ran at the now defunct Zipper Theatre, which was located just one block north of where we’re doing this festival. Amy and I have similar senes of humor so we’ve been cracking each other up like misbehaving school kids.
This play is being presented by Jesse Eisenberg, who directed an earlier section of this play, Anna Strout, and Barbara Toy. And the festival is produced by my old friends from the Chain with whom I did a production of Hurlyburly when their space was located in Long Island City. It’s a big festival with 25 programs and over 90 plays altogether. The festival runs through March 2.
It’s been delightful to have several strands of my life draw together while working on this.
Program No. 2: We Were Girls Together by Jacklyn Collier, Wipeout by Jeryl Brunner, The Interlude by Jeff Checkley, and The Same Place by Rory Lance.
My friend Naomi McDougall Jones called me out of the blue in May to ask if I knew anything about Marc Camoletti’s play Boeing, Boeing. I said I knew Mark Rylance was in it on Broadway awhile back.
She asked if I could go out to Hailey, Idaho, to fill in for that very role for the Liberty Theatre Co., for whom she is the Artistic/Executive Director. Rehearsals were starting in five days. The show would open about three weeks after that and run for another three. “The fact that you haven’t hung up already is kind of amazing,” she said.
Suddenly, I was air dropping into this production.
My main request was to be put up in a place with good wifi and no cats. David Janeski and Aly Wepplo, a pair of talented actors and musicians, with whom I have a bunch of shared acquaintances in Richmond, were very kind and generous in putting me up. I had the added bonus of hearing them rehearse their music duo.
The talent in Sun Valley is astounding. The low mountains nearby were striking. The theatre space, the Liberty Theatre, a separate organization from the producing company, was wonderful. An art deco gem, it was owned by Bruce Willis and Demi Moore for a number of years. The playing space was warm and the house was cozy.
The Liberty Theatre in Hailey, ID
The play was a great challenge. My character was on most of the play. The language was specific and tricky. The intricacies of the farce and the need to be clear at every moment called on a lot of comedic skills. I decided to make it more of a physical role. How physical? I went through several pairs of pants during the short run.
The cast from left to right: Hannah Nye, Naomi McDougall Jones, Tim Goodwin, Tiara Thompson, Chris Harcum, and Andrew Alburger.
The play was a great challenge. My character was on most of the play. The language was specific and tricky. The intricacies of the farce and the need to be clear at every moment called on a lot of comedic skills. I decided to make it more of a physical role. How physical? I went through several pairs of pants during the short run.
Our director, Veronica Moonhill, has contagious energy and was so good at getting us to play and try a bunch of things. She also did the wonderful costumes. I can’t say enough about the cast—Andrew Alburger, Tim Goodwin, Hannah Nye, Tiara Thompson, and Naomi McDougall Jones. So alive and so giving! James Haycock designed and Tim Black made a beautiful set. Each door opened into another world. Tess Makena is someone who can do anything and she showed that every day with the lights and anything else that needed any attention. Joe Conley Golden masterfully handled the dialect coaching, Onni Peterson jumped in as the production stage manager and Castor Sullivan cracked me up each night doing backstage crew duties. Special shout out to Audra Honaker for the time she was able to spend with us.
Chris Carwithen’s marketing and word of mouth did its thing, and we broke box office records. I loved loved loved doing this play and wish it could have run eight more months. But—blink, blink—it was over and, after a quick stop at Voodoo Donuts with Tim Goodwin in the Denver Airport, I was back in NYC.
One of the many great sights to behold in Sun Valley.
Max Clark asked me to do his short film “Box Cutter.” It’s on 16mm and shot in black and white. It also has no dialogue. (All my 90s indie film dreams come true!) Max and I met to develop the piece out near the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The story went through several iterations before it became what you see here. The ending changed in the editing room. To me, it is a dark poem to working people living in late capitalism.
We shot this at a storage facility near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Max is the one with the glasses looking at the viewfinder in the picture below. I spent most of the day kneeling and sitting on my feet. I also gashed the top of my head walking out of the storage unit as my eyes had not quite adjusted to the light. It’s not art if you don’t suffer at least a little. This was another very efficient shoot. We got through everything in one day because a big storm with gale-force winds was forecast for the next day. After the flooding back in July this year, we did not want to take any chances.
Chris Harcum 