Theater/Musical Theater
Photo by Giancarlo Osaben
The Dog Show by Ivan Faute, dir. Christina Ashby, original music/sound design by Sam Kaseta (The Players Theater, Jan. 2023)
A darkly humorous and honest exploration of family, forgiveness, and the stories we tell ourselves about the past.
KINGS original book, lyrics, and music by Sam Kaseta (The Tank, Aug. 2018, March 2021, Kraine Theater/Queerly Festival, June 2022)
Kings is a show about history, masculinity, and why they're both ridiculous. An exercise in braggadocio, a disputation of the great man theory of history, a rock concept album, and most importantly a burlesque bonanza, this show uses drag to parody historical heroism and to give everyone else a chance to wear the pants. Hosted by Leo Tolstoy and featuring Julius Caesar, Winston Churchill, Napoleon, and many more, Kings is a drag king cabaret experience for the ages!
I Was Unbecoming Then by Lyndsey Bourne, dir. Ilana Khanin (The Tank, April 2021, Ars Nova, June 2018, Joust Theater Co., June 2019)
I Was Unbecoming Then follows a competitive high school choir in 2007 and its secrets. Through confessional, pseudo stand-up comedy sets, and original, genre-bending choral music, twelve girls grapple with changing hormones and harmonies. The score is orchestrated for twelve treble voices in various configurations.
Dizzy Ire by Jordan Baum, dir. Ilana Khanin (Judson Church, Sept. 2019) - future production upcoming!
SCUM, text adapted from Valerie Solanas, etc. by Nathalie Ellis-Einhorn et al., dir. Daniella Caggiano (Dixon Place, Dec. 2017, Sitting Shotgun Theater Company, Feb. 2019, Brick Theater, Jul. 2019)
Tits! Cans! Babes! SCUM is a burlesque revue and experimental theater piece centered around two women: beauty queen Carolyn Sapp, who won Miss America in 1992, and radical feminist Valerie Solanas, who shot Andy Warhol in 1968. Revel in a night filled with dance, music, puppets, and breasts, and ask yourself: What makes the perfect woman? What kind of woman makes you want to sing?
Heathens adapted from Dante’s Inferno by Sam Kaseta (The Tank, Mar. 2017)
Heathens (A Comedy) is an exploration of Hell (very) loosely based on Dante's Divine Comedy. George follows his one night stand, a man calling himself Jim, through the chaotic underworld. Encountering a variety of strange creatures, from blasphemers to Blackbeard, from Tantalus to Andrew Lloyd Webber, the socially awkward George tries to forge connections with the lost, beat-boxing souls of the Dead. With book, lyrics, and music by Sam Kaseta, this choral play asks questions about morality, mortality, and how to start conversations at a party where you don't know anyone.
Security, original concept, book, lyrics, and music by Sam Kaseta (The Tank, July 2016)
An anti-communist dissident, Anke, wakes up in an interrogation room in East Berlin, confronted by an officer of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police force. He proceeds, with intimate knowledge, to review her life and revolutionary activities in a series of flashbacks and dreams. Chief among these transgressions is Anke’s romantic relationship with Lotte, the wife of a prominent member of the East Germany regime. But unbeknownst to Anke, the Stasi have been monitoring her reality more closely than she has, and she has to confront some rude awakenings about herself, the state, and, most especially, her lover Lotte.
Drawn from actual events and policies of the Staatsicherheit during the 1970s in East Germany, this story combines English and German languages into a memory play not so much about LGBT rights as about what it means to allow ourselves to love someone from the recesses.
Hot Flashes - Music and Lyrics by Sam Kaseta
This is a song told from the perspective of Mother Earth, who is going through a change in life.