Antics Roadshow presents Valentine's Extravaganza at the Nyack Village Theatre

Tuesday February 5, 2013 5:45 PM By D.Z. Stone and Monica Zgutowicz

Photo credit: Richard Quinn | Antics Roadshow presents their Valentine's Extravaganza at the Nyack Village Theatre from Feb. 8 through 16.

The Nyack Village Theatre will host four evenings of original sketch comedy on love gone wrong when the Antics Roadshow returns to perform a newly scripted Valentine’s Extravaganza from Feb. 8 through 16.

The Valentine’s Extravaganza marks the troupe’s fifth performance at the 49-seat black box theater since its production company — Ship of Fools — took up office space and established itself as artists-in-residence in December 2011. Twelve of the 17 members of the comedy troupe will be performing in the show.

Ship of Fools producer Brooke Malloy and co-creators and co-directors Brianne Higgins and Dana Duff, who had been performing at the Antrim Playhouse in Wesley Hills, were looking for an audience in the ‘burbs for their edgier material when they met with Richard Quinn, owner of the Nyack Village Theatre.

“We weren’t going to even rent a space there, and it just turned into this thing,” Duff said. “When we got together with Richard, it was just like magic.”

Malloy compares the theater's atmosphere with that of a venue in Manhattan’s East Village. "The material we wanted to do would not survive in community theater,” Malloy said of the company's repertoire. “We have an audience there [in Nyack], and for the most part we sell out."

The Valentine’s Extravaganza will reprise several of the troupe’s popular stock characters, plus introduce a new one – Cupid -- who combats depression.

Formerly Main Street Arts, the tiny, metropolitan outpost founded by Quinn in 2006 is on the second floor of Nyack’s old Woolworth Building. “It’s a stage. It’s a space. We’re an Off-Broadway theater with broadcast capabilities. We have plays… live music. We stream our performances on the internet. You could say we’re the Greek diner of media,” Quinn said.

In addition to regular performances, The Nyack Village Theatre is also home to Rockland World Radio and the Nyack Film Festival, which Quinn launched last summer.
“I met Vincent Pastore from ‘The Sopranos’ here,” Quinn said. “He came to the festival [and] said he’d written a play. We’ll be staging a reading workshop in April [of Pastore’s ‘Wild Children’]. This will be its premiere.”

Quinn will direct and Duff will assume a lead role in “Wild Children” opposite Steve Zarro, a local actor. Other “Sopranos” cast members will also take part in the production. Anthony Ribustello, who played Dante Greco, Tony Soprano's driver, and Al Sapienza, who played Mikey Palmice, Uncle Junior's righthand man, will act in the show, which also stars “Boardwalk Empire” actor Rocco Parente and Jonathan Baldwin, a nephew of the Baldwin brothers.

Tickets for the Valentine’s Extravaganza are $15 if bought online and $20 if reserved and purchased at the door. Call 201-694-0610 for more information about the show or to reserve.

IF YOU GO

What: Antics Roadshow Valentine’s Extravaganza

When: 8 and 10 p.m. shows on Feb. 8, 9, 15 and 16

Info: Nyack Village Theatre, 94 Main St., Nyack; 845-826-2639; http://www.nyackvillagetheatre.com

Tags: Nyack , events , Rockland , Valentine's Day , Nyack Village Theatre , comedy