WHO WE ARE
Don’t you just hate the question?
“Defend yourself; prove to us your right to exist.”
Ok. Challenge accepted.
We are artists: Writers, directors, actors, performers, producers, and chief bottle-washers. We are storytellers. Truth tellers and entertainers. We share theatre as our form expression to speak truth to all, powerful and powerless. To nurture the truth (even when we lie).
OUR MISSION
Our mission is best summed up by the masters: “to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.” (William Shakespeare – Hamlet to the Players)
And Anton Chekhov expressed it this way in a letter to a fellow writer, “All I wanted was to say honestly to people: ‘Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!’ The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves. I will not live to see it, but I know that it will be quite different, quite unlike our present life. And so long as this different life does not exist, I shall go on saying to people again and again: ‘Please, understand that your life is bad and dreary!’”
They wrote to change people’s lives, for the better. We share that goal, that is our Mission.
One performance at a time.
And still, first, we must entertain. That is the prerequisite. No one will look in the mirror (or the abyss) unless the image seems inviting. It comes back to balance.
OUR HISTORY
Necessity. Theatre Ghosts was born out of a production slot won in 2019. Then Covid hit. Administrations changed. 2021: Theatre re-emerges cautiously. Obligated to the run itself, no producer was assigned to the task of mounting our show. So, Michael Perlmutter (playwright) took the burden on himself under the generous tutelage of Johnny Clark (of VS. Theatre Co). SEVERANCE PLAY was a critical, artistic, and financial (aka: no one lost money) success.
We learned a lot.
2023: We (being all of Michael Perlmutter) bring our first productions, HAUNTING RIGHTS and BLOODSUCKERS…a Survival Guide, to the HOLLYWOOD FRINGE under our newly formed name, THEATRE GHOSTS. Thespis was smiling down on us when Ann Noble agreed to direct. Two diversely separate productions based on the same premise: stories that could be presented after-hours on any given theater’s currently existing set. Adding to both the theater’s revenue and building a late-night audience.
(For more information on the THEATRE GHOSTS PROJECT click here.)
We were again successful and won several awards.
2024: Carolina Rodriguez comes aboard to co-produce as we’re asked to produce again for the formidable Ann Noble. Something different. A Clown show. Not by the standards of Barnum & Bailey, nor a kid’s party, nor even Stephen King. Commedia dell’arte with a modern twist (A BELLA INCERCERATION). We hit gold. We venture further into longer lengths with a retelling of the Scottish play, THREE WITCHES.
2025: At it again with POLITE CONVERSATIONS AND WINE, 52 PICK-UP, and an encore run of A BELLA INCERCARATION. More accolades and growth.
And so it goes… and so we continue. And won’t you join us?
THEATRE GHOSTS 