… Telling the Stories of Our Times …
Photo: Dmytro Kozatskyi - Call sign “Orest”
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Short Promo for SLAVA UKRAINI!
Why AFT Theatre?
Well, actually, why do theatre at all? It’s a question those of us who have made acting, directing, stage design and playwriting a lifelong vocation continually wrestle with.
For most theatre practitioners, there are two obvious answers.
1) To entertain. Yes, television and film are all well and good, but is there anything as exciting, inspiring and fulfilling as a fully realized live stage performance?
2) To touch people’s hearts. Give the audience, even in some small way, insight into the human condition. And, perhaps on a good day, awaken a bit of empathy in audience and performers alike towards our fellow humans.
Those two reasons are generally enough...plenty, in fact. But there’s a third reason. And in a troubled and deeply conflicted world, maybe this one is at least as important.
And here is where AFT Theatre comes in.
The third reason is to deepen our understanding of some intractable social or political problem. Not with the intention of solving that problem, or even taking a side, but with the intention, simply, of getting our audience and ourselves to think about it. To examine that dilemma in a thorough, unbiased way. So that on this one night in an intimate theatre space, we all may wrestle with an emotionally charged issue with open minds.
But we don’t want to make this venture sound more earthshaking than it is. AFT stands for A Few Thoughts. A few only. We promise.
The Founding of AFT:
The origins of AFT started several years ago during the covid shutdown. A small group of theatre professionals, (most with decades in the business) got together online to find a way to keep practicing their craft. The result was, In Search of A-PIG – a six-part sci-fi extravaganza, all filmed in actor’s homes and edited together. The result (two episodes of which we’re including here for your viewing pleasure) was a wild, hilarious online series that went on to win numerous awards around the world. It’s a long and arduous journey from those early zoom meetings to producing live theatre, but the inspiration and love of craft that guided us then is still very much alive.
We hope you’ll join us for our inaugural production of Keith Szarabajka’s Slava Ukraini.
one issue in two acts - by Steven Dierkes
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A Comedy - by Ken Levine
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A film by Jack Szarabajka (2022)
Awarded at film festivals around the world.
A film by Keith Szarabajka, directed by Tony Pasqualini (Ep1 & 6), Laura Stribling (Ep2), Chuma Hunter-Gault (Ep3), Jack Szarabajka (Ep4) and Kazu Takeda (Ep5).
Awarded at film festivals around the world.
Artistic Director
Keith Szarabajka (sarah-bike-ah) was co–artistic director at EST-LA from January 2015 to July 2021. Keith directed David McMillan’s WATCHING O.J. in 2015 -16. He was a co-author and original cast member of BLEACHER BUMS. Keith works extensively in stage , film, tv, audio books and video games. Keith produced with Tony Pasqualini the award-winning web/tv series IN SEARCH OF A P-I-G. He is currently raising funds to start a new theater company, AFT (a Few Thoughts) Theater Co.
Managing Director
An actor, playwright and director, Tony is a veteran of fifty years in the theatre. He has performed in over a hundred plays on many stages around the country, including: The Arena Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Philadelphia Drama Guild and The Buffalo Studio Arena. Over the years some of his favorite roles include Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Prospero in The Tempest, Lear in King Lear, Doug Schmidt in the West Coast premiere of Emily Mann’s Execution of Justice, and Jesse James in Jesse and The Bandit Queen. In Los Angeles, Tony just completed a three month, critically acclaimed run in the world premier comedy, Fostered, at the Pacific Resident Theatre. He has also appeared at the South Coast Repertory playing Jim Bayless in All My Sons; Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing at A Noise Within; Donald Rumsfeld in What I Heard About Iraq at the Fountain Theatre; Van Swieten in Amadeus at the Hollywood Bowl; Harold Levine in Watching OJ at Ensemble Studio Theatre; Tim in A Great Wilderness at Rogue Machine Theatre: and most dear to his heart, Andrew in Loyalties at PRT (a play that he also wrote). His play, Lost In Time, was produced in 2018 at Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, directed by AFT founder Keith Szarabajka, and published with Broadway Play Publishing. Tony has guest starred on over 50 television shows and films. A few favorites: Grace and Frankie; Mad Men; Modern Family; West Wing, The Office and Frasier.
Writer/Director
Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/playwright/major league baseball announcer/cartoonist. He has nine published fulllength stage plays that have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, and around the world. His short plays have won numerous awards here and abroad. Ken has written over 200 episodes of television for such shows as MASH, Cheers, Frasier, the Simpsons, and Wings. He has directed over 60 TV episodes and has co-written the movie, Volunteers starring Tom Hanks and John Candy. He has been the play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres and hosted Dodger Talk for eight seasons. Ken has won a primetime Emmy, two Writers Guild Awards, a Peoples’ Choice Award, Peabody and Humanitas recognition. Currently Ken is a contributing cartoonist to the New Yorker Magazine. He’s done more but that’s enough.
Director
Jack Szarabajka is a director that has won numerous awards including indie short fest’s best director (June 2024). Jack has over 12 years of experience in the entertainment industry ranging from still photography, art direction, visual effects, and producing. He brings a collaborative energy to his projects while understanding the necessity to stay on schedule and under budget.
Writer
Member of the Dramatists’ Guild and the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles. Productions in London, New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the U.S. and in Mexico. Prisoners of the Caucasus was long-listed for the Neem Prize at Vibrating Body Theatre, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Join us in supporting AFT - Your contribution truly makes a difference.
Join us in supporting AFT - Your contribution truly makes a difference.
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