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Nov.
3rd-30th
at Woolly Mammoth
BOOM
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company must have fun sorting through the latest
batch of weird, because they've unearthed a grandly wacked-out
apocalypse fantasy in Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's "Boom".
This is
boy-meets-girl stuff that's not just twisted, but gleefully torqued.
Jules
is a lonely marine biology grad student who's just placed a racy
personal ad online; Jo is the randy journalism major who's answered the
call. Yet Jules is oddly reluctant, and the offbeat, high-strung Jo
keeps passing out as she tries to leave his strange biology
lab-cum-dorm room.
Oh, and there's a crazy lady on a
balcony, who's overhead pulling levers and occasionally talking to us
like a "Twilight Zone" version of the Stage Manager in "Our Town."
That is enough to send director John Vreeke and his inspired team
heavenward...
MORE:
Washington
Post Review * City Paper
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City Paper 2008 Year In Review
"It seems right,
somehow, that the most dazzling play of the year was about a titanic
battle with despair":
The
Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Stephen Adly Guirgis's play placed
in a courtroom in present-day
purgatory, the Bible's greatest and most unexplained villain is on
trial. Both comedic and touching, Guirgis' play asks us if we are
capable of true forgiveness and real compassion. MORE
"Director John Vreeke is a master at
restraining and astutely illuminating verbose plays, and this is
perhaps his most satisfying effort, a production that probes the
intellect, prickles the conscience and ignites the soul." - Washington
Times
"It
should not astonish you to discover that John Vreeke directs this
production. Whenever a play delivers a powerful emotional message - be
it The
K of D at
Woolly Mammoth, or Bal
Masque at
Theater J, - we seem to find
Vreeke’s hand at the helm. He has done his customary excellent work here." - DC
Theatre Scene
"...John
Vreeke’s
superb ensemble: I saw you in that thrillingly written, urgently
performed, crassly funny, somehow heartbreaking play last week, and
damn if you didn’t actually make a critic cry." - Washington City Paper
"John
Vreeke seems at his best when directing plays with strong intellectual
questions at their core..." "Clearly, he's no stranger to
intellectual theater." -
Potomac
Stages
"Forum
Theatre's exhilarating production of "The Last Days of Judas
Isacariot", a preposterously entertaining play..." -
Washington
Post
Staged for the young
companies at Forum and Alliance.
Played
to Sold Out Performances - Re-Opens at H Street Playhouse in December!
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Recently Staged Productions
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Drunk
Enough
To
Say
I Love You
.
On one level
a dissection of a dysfunctional relationship, Drunk Enough is
also an incisive look at U.S. foreign policy and the seduction of
power. The perfect play to reexamine our nation's place in the world as
we enter this pivotal election season. MORE INFORMATION
October 11th –
November
2nd at the H Street Playhouse
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Sept
12- October 11th
Charter Theatre kicks
off it's 9th season with
This
Perfect
World
A powerful new
play by Chris Stezin. The play examines the free-floating anxiety that
has characterized America since 9/11 – specifically, its impact on one
insurance company office drone whose life is coming undone by the
increasing uncertainties of everyday life and his own personal
weaknesses. MORE INFORMATION
"Vreeke,
who directed two of last year’s best
shows, 'The Last Days of Judas
Iscariot' and 'The K of
D',
lends his characteristic interpretive grace to the production." - DC
Theatre Scene Review
"...vivid
but often fantastical and contradictory disaster imagery piles up,
accounting for the soft-spoken style with quick-flaring intensity that
Lott uses to tell the tale....the
impressive part of the show is how cogently Lott and director John
Vreeke chart those patterns. - Washington
Post
In part due to the pacing that John
Vreeke's direction gives to the performance, the short evening is never
less than interesting and often it rises far above that level.
- Potomac
Stages
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Nominated for THREE Helen Hayes Awards:
Outstanding Director
Born Guilty
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Chinese Elvis
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OTHER PROJECTS:
Conducted
on-going Acting for Camera Workshops and Scene Study Workshops for "The
Workshop" at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
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Resident
Director for ART with the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts.
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Manager of the Washington Theatre
Legacy Project - the education outreach program for the Helen
Hayes Awards Society.
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RECENTLY:
Directed
in the Source 2008 Festival, "This
Perfect World" by Chris Stezin about a man who cannot find the
truth.
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In August
2008, directed the student ensemble at the National Conservatory of
Dramatic Art in:
"Escape
From Happiness"
August
8th - 17th, 2008
2007 INCLUDED:
Directed World Premiere of:

"Ariel Sharon Hovers
Between Life and Death and Dreams of Theodore Herzl" at Theatre J. Capital Fringe Festival. 7/07
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Directed
the annual benefit gala for the Imagination Stage. 10/13/07
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Wrote and
produced a video tribute
for Francis Sternhagen at the annual Helen Hayes Awards ceremony.
4/16/07
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Stage
Director for "Jazz in Our Time"
in the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center, a gala and ceremony to
honor 40 of the country's greatest Jazz Musicians and Artists. 3/3/07.
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Directed "Shakespeare's Will", a
new play, at the Canadian Embassy for the 2007 Shakespeare in
Washington Festival.
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* * * * * *
* SHOWS
DIRECTED - In Order of
Most Recent * * * * * * *
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The
Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Stephen Adly Guirgis's play is placed in a courtroom in present-day
purgatory, the Bible's most unexplained villain is put on trial. [TWO RUNS]
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Chasing
George Washington
Dee
Dee, Jose, and Annie
accidentally knock George Washington out of his portrait and into real
life--turning their tour into an adventure.
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Martha,
Josie & The Chinese Elvis
A British dominatrix and her unconventional family and friends realize
the meaning of the Feast of Epiphany.
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Bal
Masque
Three unusual couples survive Truman Capote’s infamous Black and White
Ball and are forced to face reality.
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Drunk
Enough To Say
I Love
You
The intriguing dissection of a dysfunctional relationship, while also
an incisive look at U.S. foreign policy and the seduction of power.
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The K of D
After a car accident kills her twin
brother, young Charlotte becomes a fascination to others when
it appears she has received an eerie power.
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Opus
A world famous String Quartet deals with the loss of a member as they
prepare an all important performance for the White House.
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Death
& The King's Horseman
Part Shakespearean, part Greek Tragedy, a folk tale of ritual suicide
in British Colonial Nigeria.
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This
Perfect
World
A powerful new play by Chris Stezin, examining the free- floating
anxiety that has characterized America since the 9/11 events.
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Fiddler
On The Roof
The story about a struggle of a people to survive, to live, and to be
at
home, and
how a belief system creates and also destroys life.
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The
Monument
A grieving mother of a daughter raped & murdered by
a young soldier convicted of multiple war crimes are brought together.
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For
The Pleasure of Seeing
Her Again
The loving memoir of a gay son’s mother, as they help each other
through formative life events.
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The
Tattooed Girl
Joyce Carol Oates’s story of the relationship between an anti-semetic
coke-head street girl and her growing love for an ailing Jewish
professor.
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Homebody/
Kabul
Kushner’s epic drama of Afghanistan as seen through the
eyes of a troubled British family in search of a mother who has
mysteriously vanished in the country.
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Death
& The Maiden
Ariel Dorfman’s statement of world wide oppression seen
through the eyes of three people intimately involved in the Chilean
dictatorship and the resulting reign of terror.
Medea,
The Musical
A satirical musical fantasy about a gay man mysteriously falling in
love with his leading lady in a musical production of Medea.
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Our Lady
of 121st Street
The 15 year reunion of an extraordinary mix of Spanish Harlem school
friends as they grieve the death & disappearance of the Sister who
raised and taught them.
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Lady
Chatterley's Lover
DH Lawrence’s most popular story of the privileged Lady
Chatterley’s love affair with the Games Keeper and the affect on
her marriage to the wheelchair bound Clifford Chatterley.
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Born Guilty
Second and third generation children of Nazi’s and how they deal with
their guilt as seen through the eyes of Jewish author, Peter
Sichrovsky, from his novel of the same name.
Helen Hayes
Awards Show
Directed the 19th Annual Helen Hayes Awards show at the
Concert Hall in the Kenedy Center for the Performing Arts.
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One Good Marriage
A couple returning from their honeymoon are shocked
to find that all of the guests at their wedding are missing.
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Red Herring
A McCarthy era satire about how three couples,
including Joseph McCarthey’s daughter, a young Jewish scientist, a
Russian defector and a detective all find each other.
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Tiny Alice
Edward Albee’s epic surreal, mind-bending story of a priest and his
descent into the difficult, mysterious and even tantalizing failure of
his faith.
Gala
Event:
"Jazz In Our Time"
Stage Director for “Jazz in Our Time” in the Concert Hall at the
Kennedy Center…a gala extravaganza and ceremony to honor 40 of this
countrys greatest Jazz Musicians.
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Directing
Resume New
Works Theatre
for Young Audiences
Educational
Programs Television
Adapted Plays
on Audio Books
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