THE DESTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN MALE
By Darren DeBari
Directed by Brian Stike
WHEN: Friday, April 11, at 8:00 PM; Saturday, April 12, at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM; and Sunday, April 13, at 2:00 PM
WHERE: Coastal Artists Productions in the Jersey Shore Arts Center (the old Neptune High School), 66 South Main Street, Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
TICKETS: $15; $10 for Students and Senior Citizens with ID.
To purchase tickets please visit www.coastalartists.org/theatre or www.destructionofamericanmale.webs.com.
For more information about LaStrada Ensemble Theater of Monmouth, send an email to at LaStradaEnsembleTheater@gmail.com or call 732.455.2748.
Playwright Darren DeBari of Brick Township envisioned writing a play with a role for his friend, actor A.J. Ciccotelli, like the character of Ricky Roma in David Mamet’s GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS—someone who would engage in any number of unethical or immoral acts to get what they wanted in pursuit of the American Dream. The result was the character Jack Gallo, who will be played by Ciccotelli in DeBari’s new play, DESTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN MALE, which will be presented in a workshop production at Coastal Artists Productions in the Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. (Left: A.J. Ciccotelli (left), as Jack Gallo, confronts Ryan Diminick, who plays his nemesis, Tim)
DeBari described the play’s main character, Jack Gallo, as someone who had it all—a promising career as an actor, a trophy wife, and all the booze a young man could drink—then he lost it all. He takes a job as a stockbroker, and starts to claw up the ladder to the American Dream again—only to lose his footing and lose it all, again. Now, he wonders who he is—where will he get his next drink—and what will he leave behind that matters?
“I explore, in the play, what most defines American men today—our romantic relationships, our jobs and, finally, our very identities,” said DeBari. “But sadly, our ability to achieve success in any of these arenas is deteriorating every day because of factors such as unrealistic expectations and meaningless work due to a corrupt and failing financial system. My main character, Jack, is just the latest victim.”
“While there are other existing theater companies in the area, there are none that present, nearly exclusively, new plays by local playwrights that truly give voice to the hopes, aspirations and concerns of the local community,” said Ciccotelli, who is also LaStrada’s Artistic Director. “Likewise,” added Larsen, who is LaStrada’s Managing Director, “there is no true ensemble theater company in the area that offers a home for local theater artists –actors, directors and technicians – to learn and hone their crafts and to teach those crafts to people in the area.”
Helping teach those theater crafts to people in the area will be DeBari, who, as LaStrada’s Education Director, is developing a curriculum of theater and film classes that will start with subjects such as Acting for Theater, Acting for Film, Playwriting and Directing for Theater.
