Meucci & Bell in association with The Tank Present

Botte di Ferro

By Ben Gassman
Directed by Tara Elliott

JULY 16 - 30, 2021 @ 8PM
performed al fresco at
The Good Fork Restaurant

EXTENDED TO JULY 30TH!

Botte di Ferro is a new play about the slippage between friendship, love, and lust, tangled in phone lines and served over pizza. 

In Italian, a botte di ferro is literally an iron barrel, but idiomatically it refers to absolute protection, a safe, quasi-sacred place. The play examines a fraught and complex romance between two outer-borough New Yorkers as such a space. Her (an elementary school teacher from South-Brooklyn who self-publishes children’s books and summers in the Hamptons) and Him (a chef from Eastern-Queens who climbs a long ladder of kitchen jobs to his own place) met as kids in summer camp. As their lives diverge, prodded by different cultural-familial frameworks, they continue returning to each other in search of the best versions of themselves.

Drifting into the magic of memory, the story begins and ends at Pizzeria Botte di Ferro in Naples, ruminating on the power of place and the relationship between origin and authenticity. Botte di Ferro asks how we care for the people who have hurt us and what happens when we set aside preconceptions and look at what’s in front of us?

TARA M. ELLIOTT
DIRECTOR

Tara Elliott is the director of critically acclaimed shows Burq Off! and Not the One and a producer of the Gotham Award-winning web series Shugs & Fats. She translated and directed the workshop premiere of prize-winning Chilean play Las Analfabetas. She is the recipient of a Tow Travel Grant for research in Cuba, a CUNY Diversity Fund grant, and has developed new plays with Clubbed Thumb, Pipeline Theater Company, Fresh Ground Pepper, LaMicro Theater, Teatro LATEA, BAX, Goethe Institut, Downtown Art, Exquisite Corpse Company, AENY, KOFest, and The Barn Arts Collective. Her work has been seen internationally in London, Seoul, Edinburgh, Toronto, Vancouver, and Santiago, and in NYC at The Public, The Cherry Lane, The New Ohio, HERE Arts, and Walkerspace among others. 2019/2020 CoCo Resident with Colt Coeur. 2018 Drama League Directing Fellow. MFA Directing, Brooklyn College.

BEN M. GASSMAN
PLAYWRIGHT

Ben Gassman’s plays include PURIMACOLO (zoooooom, 2021) INDEPENDENT STUDY (The Tank, 2018) and THE DOWNTOWN LOOP (3LD, 2013). With Sam Soghor, Ben created the performance piece SAM’S TEA SHACK (The Tank, NYC; Barker Room Rep, LA). Culinary Theater, his collaboration with director Brandon Woolf, builds performances that taste and smell (Prelude Festival; Bowery Ballroom). Ben was recently the featured Queens artist in the Salon portion of Modesto Flako Jimenez’s Taxilandia project. His playwriting has been supported by Yaddo, Casa Zia Lina, the Global Research Initiative at NYU Florence, LMCC, the Yiddish Book Center, the New Jewish Culture Fellowship, and Queens Council on The Arts. MFA Playwriting, Brooklyn College.

ISAIAH HOWELL
SOUND DESIGN

Isaiah Howell is theatrical Sound Designer and Live Mixer, based in Brooklyn, NY. They received a BFA in Lighting Design with a focus in Sound Design at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018. Post-graduation, they relocated to New York and have been working as a freelance sound designer and mixer, with a penchant for original works. Sound design credits include Ben Gassman’s Botte di Ferro (dir. Tara Elliot), Clubbed Thumb Theatre Company’s Temporary Occupant (dir. Rachel Gita Karp), and L.A. New Court Theatre's production of Atlas Pit, or The Garbage Man's Son (dir. by Beth Lopes) [Winner StageSceneLa Scenie Award].

When they’re not working shows, they enjoy relaxing and goofing off at home with friends, playing with dogs at the local dog park, watching bad movies, (attempting to) write shows for stage and screen, and exploring some of Brooklyn’s coolest art scenes.

They’re really just a big nerd and super dorky to the moon!

DJUNA KNIGHT
PRODUCER

Djuna Knight is a Brooklyn-based director and producer. She is so excited to be working on this beautiful piece! Most recently she has worked with Clubbed Thumb as the Artistic Producer on Temporary Occupant for their Winterworks festival. Djuna has previously worked with SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Vineyard Theatre. She is excited to be working with New Georges, Brooklyn Arts Council, and a great company of artists to produce EXITS, a theatrical sound piece taking place in Fort Greene this fall.

SOPHIA LEEWAH
STAGE MANAGER / ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Sophia Leewah is very excited to be making art in the theater world after a year+ hiatus. Recent credits include: Unmaking Toulouse-Latrec (Bated Breath Theater Company), Lear (Brooklyn College), and Cracks (New York International Fringe Festival).

MICHAEL REDMAN
SCENIC AND LIGHTING DESIGN

Michael Redman A projections, scenic and lighting designer base in Brooklyn, New York, some of Michael’s credits include - Off-Broadway: My Life On A Diet (Theatre at St. Clements & Tour), Kevin McDonald: Alive on 42nd(Theatre Row). New York: Hairspray (Argyle Theatre), Seph (The Araca Project), Bamboo in Bushwick (Working Theatre), Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom (Brooklyn College at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre). Washington DC: Long Way Down (The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea (Theatre Alliance, Helen Hayes nomination). Assistant Technical Director, Brooklyn College. Training: Brooklyn College (MFA, expected 2022). In 2020 and 2021, Michael has loved exploring how performance can live and be shared online, creating productions for Brooklyn College, for freelance projects, and corporate clients for special events world-wide. He is so excited to be back creating live work this summer!

SARA VANDENHEUVEL
COSTUME AND PROP DESIGN

Sara Vandenheuvel was born and raised in Queens, New York, so this project immediately resonated with her! Sara has over ten years of experience as a costume designer, and recently began working in props as well. This is her first post-quarantine production, and she couldn't be more grateful to be back to making theater in person!

JESS M BARBAGALLO
HIM

Jess M. Barbagallo  is an actor, teacher and writer. His plays and texts have been presented at Dixon Place, LaMama ETC, the New Ohio Theater, Poetry Project, Performance Space New York, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the Experimental Theatre Wing at New York University, and The Brick. In addition to his work as a playwright, Jess is a contributing writer at Artforum and The Brooklyn Rail. He has toured the United States, Europe, Brazil and Japan with artists Half Straddle (founding member), Big Dance Theater, Builders Association, Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, Hoi Polloi, Andrea Geyer, John Turturro and Tania Bruguera. He was also a member of the original Broadway cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. In 2020, Jess directed Becca Blackwell’s solo show Schmermie’s Choice, which was presented at Joe’s Pub and Mass MoCA. 

LAURA CAPARROTTI
PIZZAIOLA

Laura Caparrotti is a director, actress, journalist, teacher, lecturer, consultant, dialect-coach, grant panelist, curator with an Italian accent. She has a degree from the University in Rome and studied independently with Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo. After ten years of professional theatre in Italy, she relocated to the US, where she continues to direct and perform. Laura is the Founding Artistic Director of the Italian Theater Company in NY Kairos Italy Theater (kitheater.com) and of In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, the first Italian Theater Festival to take place in all 5 NY Boroughs. She is member of the Director’s Lab at Lincoln Center, of SDC, of LPTW, of LIT and the co-founder of the International Directors’ Collective the World Wide Lab. Laura is the recipient of the Dante Award 2016 from the Association of Teachers of Italian for her work and dedication in spreading the Italian culture in the States.  In 2019 Laura cofounded OnStage! The first American Theater Festival in Italy. www.lauracaparrotti.com

LAYLA M KHOSHNOUDI
HER

Layla M Khoshnoudi MFA, Brooklyn College. Select Theater: Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb/Playwrights Horizons); Dance Nation (Playwrights Horizons); Bull in a China Shop (LCT3); Dido of Idaho (Ensemble Studio Theater); Wyoming (Lesser America); My Daughter Keeps our Hammer (Flea Theater). TV: Instinct; FBI. FILM: Closure (wrote & directed); Long Nights, Short Mornings; Nadia Jaan; Androgen; Bookends.  

ALESSANDRO MAGANIA
WAITER

Alessandro Magania is a New York-based performing artist working in theatre, dance, and film. He has performed in stage works by Object Collection, The Wooster Group, Sibyl Kempson, Eliza Bent, The Million Underscores, Allison Plamondon, and Tereke Ortiz, among others, as well as in live and video installations by artists Roman Ondak, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Jarrod Beck, Viva Ruiz, and Alison Folland. Recent film and TV include the movie Autotrophia by Anton Vidokle (2021 Berlinale), and the Netflix series Living With Yourself. He wrote and choreographed the piece Radio Delirio (2018, The Performing Garage NYC), and co-directed the documentary There Were Always Dogs Never Kids (2017 IndiePix; Special Mention Prize - Milano MIX Festival).