Award-winning Brooklyn actor-writer Dan Ruth brings his tour-de-force black comedy, A Life Behind Bars (Winner United Solo™ 2016, Best Autobiographical Show) to Los Angeles for two performances in association with Whitefire SoloFest 2018. Fermented in over two decades of booze, bars and gentrification on both sides of the East River, A Life Behind Bars is an unapologetic and hilarious look at what can happen when you reach for the stars, but grab for the bottle instead. Through gritty storytelling, Ruth shares dark comic monologues, interwoven with characters he’s encountered while working and drinking in the bars and dives of pre-Rudy Giuliani NYC. A Life Behind Bars is directed by performer-producer-director, Tanya Moberly, a recipient of multiple awards from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) as well as the Bistro Awards committee. The piece plays January 22 and January 29 at 8:00 PM at 13500 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, California.
Not suitable for people under 18 because of mature themes.
Reviewing the show for BistroAwards.com, Gerry Geddes says the show “affords the opportunity to watch a gifted actor flex his artistic muscles and mesmerize with a compelling story,”calling Ruth. An actor of impressive dramatic and comedic strength.”
“A funny, wet your pants show…with an outstanding performer and a comical but powerful message,” proclaimed TheaterPizzazz.com
Tony Farrell of The Richmond Times Dispatch wrote, “Ruth, an actor of immense talent who began his career on Richmond stages, brings us A Life Behind Bars, his profane, captivating and masterful one-man show.”
Working with long-time friend and collaborator, Moberly, Ruth performed A Life Behind Bars to a single sold-out audience on December 19, 2015 at Dixon Place in their main stage downtown NYC theatre and later went on to mount sold-out performances at both The Gutter Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and at Theatre Lab in Richmond, Virginia in April and May of 2016 before bringing the show to The United Solo™. In 2017, Ruth was critically lauded in two runs at The Laurie Beechman Theatre on 42nd Street back in Manhattan. Sober for 11 years, Ruth had a lot of practice reaching for bottles, working as a bartender in the city for over two decades.
He served as core director for multiple installations of The A-Train Plays at the Sanford Meisner Theatre and as both director and performer for the queer comedy troupe Planet Q, with their productions of Yabba Dabba Q and The History of the World, Part Q. Original solo shows include White Noise and Once a Catholic at The Duplex, where he also staged a radio Foley-drama entitled Lights Out, based on the work of horror radio master, Arch Oboler. Dan Ruth has performed throughout NYC, with additional outings at The Courtyard Playhouse, The Hamlet of Bank Street, The Duplex and Don’t Tell Mama. Regionally, Ruth has starred in productions of Brooklyn Boy, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Laughing Wild and Sex Drugs Rock & Roll. He is a member of Actors Equity and SAG-AFTRA and he holds a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He’s the Artistic Director of ANTICCS Theatre Company (Alternative New Theatre In Club/Cabaret Spaces) in New York City.
The Whitefire SoloFest, in its 6th year runs from January 6 to March 3, and is produced by Bryan Rasmussen, Jessica Lynn Johnson and Nancy Santiago. For tickets please click here
Find Dan Ruth on Social Media:
Website: https://www.danruthbkny.com/about/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danruthbkny
Twitter: @danruthbkny
Instagram: #danruthbkny
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