Kirk Wood Bromley

No More Pretending

  • One-Act
  • Biography
  • Comedy
  • Dark Comedy
  • Docudrama
  • Drama
  • Experimental
  • Tragedy
  • Unconventional
  • Verse

An actor named Al sits on a stage. Another actor named Matt enters the stage and they talk. Finally, a third actor named Meg enters the stage and they all talk. At the end, Al kills Meg, but only for pretend, though Matt disagrees.

In October 2005, Inverse Theater Company, along with La Mama founder Ellen Stewart and Mabou Mines’ puppeteer Basil Twist, was given a special award for continuous achievement on off-off-Broadway by the New York Innovative Theater Awards. Upon receiving the award, artistic director/playwright Kirk Wood Bromley said to the audience that he felt the term “off-off-Broadway” should be dropped and the term “Indie Theater” should be taken up instead, primarily to shed the pejorative sense of “off-off” and to assume the marketing power of the term “Indie.” In response to Bromley’s suggestion, a movement of hundreds of Indie Theater artists has begun, led by Martin Denton of nytheatre.com. “No More Pretending” is Bromley’s new three person play that serves as both a response to and dialogue with this movement, tackling the many ideas and struggles inherent in the battle to be “independent."

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