LTV Revives Playwrights’ Theatre with Sawyer Spielberg & 'Stupid F*cking Bird'

LTV Studios in Wainscott is bringing back its Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton series this summer, starting with a special two-night staged reading of Aaron Posner’s Stupid F*cking Bird, a hilarious adaptation of Chekov’s classic The Seagull, complete with musical numbers, at 8 p.m. on Thursday, August 3 and Friday, August 4.

The relaunch at LTV’s Studio Three black box stage comes in association with Sawyer Spielberg’s Where Are They Going Theatre Company, and a number of talented local actors, including Kate Mueth of the Neo-Political Cowgirls theater group, Spielberg’s wife Raye Levine, Joe Pallister, Will Sturek, Jess Mortellaro and Ed Kassar.

Directed by Heen Sasithorn Sturek, Stupid F*cking Bird, which will feature actors reading their parts while moving about the stage and performing, tells the story of an aspiring young director’s rampage against the art created by his mother’s generation; a nubile young actress’s rivalry with an aging Hollywood star for the affections of a renowned novelist; and everyone’s discovery of just how surprising love, art and growing-up can be.

“It’s not a fully polished, fully realized production. It is a staged reading, book in hand,” explains Josh Gladstone, the producer of this event who is known by many as the longtime artistic director for Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater. “But that being said, it will have lighting, it will have sound cues, it will have some props and costume elements. So you get a little more than people standing and holding a script. There are some entrances and exits and movement.”

More than just a producer, Gladstone was integral to reviving the Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton, which required blessings from the series founders, Mitzi and Perry Pazer, a Roundabout Theatre Company founder in NYC, and her supportive lawyer husband, who started it all in 1992.

The couple created something truly special with a long list of celebrity players and excellent shows over the years, then moved the Playwrights’ Theatre to the John Drew Theater for another 10 years before the series eventually shut down.

Now, after being tasked with helping bring more performing arts to LTV in the post-pandemic era, Gladstone immediately thought to contact the Pazers about reviving Playwrights’ Theatre, and he found them to be enthusiastically willing.

“(Perry Pazer) loved the idea of that and he helped us with some funding for LTV, which is a nonprofit,” Gladstone says. “He gave us a gift that is going to make it possible for us to now pay actors, pay writers, pay licensing fees and modestly but continuously create theater here at LTV.”

As Gladstone points out, Playwrights’ Theatre was everything they need today, it was always a hit during the years it ran at LTV and the John Drew, and the talent was legendary. Participants included icons such as Peter Boyle, Ann Jackson, Mercedes Ruehl, Jack Klugman, Charles Durning, Len Cariou (the original Sweeney Todd), and Dianne Wiest.

“It was beautiful,” he recalls, adding, “Why try to redo something that’s already been a success and already has a track record but is dormant and could live again?”

And, Gladstone says he couldn’t be happier with the debut play, which he calls a very contemporary play that “asks a lot of pressing questions about who we are as artists and as people functioning in today’s fractured, pandemic-ridden society.” He describes it “catnip for actors” and a perfect play for many of the people involved in this particular production.

“I love the idea that this first thing back, Stupid F*cking Bird, is very much about husbands and wives,” he continues, noting all the married couples: While Gladstone produces, his wife Kate Mueth acts in the play. Spielberg and his wife Raye Levine both star in the show. Actor Wil Sturek is married to director Heen Sasithorn Sturek and, of course, none of it would be possible without the founders, Mitzi and Perry Pazer.

After each performance, Gladstone says Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton welcomes the audience to a reception where all can enjoy conversation and feedback, and discuss the experience over refreshments.

“The plan is for Playwrights’ Theatre to be the producing wing of LTV’s new initiative to bring more performing arts here to the studio,” he adds. “We’re really interested in expanding our network of artists, and people who have projects in development are certainly welcome to pitch us.”

This time, LTV will be the series’ permanent home, according to Gladstone, who says it will not move back to the John Drew Theater. “LTV is a great, flexible, black-box utilitarian space that can be configured in 100 different ways for all kinds of different theater, whether it be intimate and small or big and immersive,” he says. “This is all about what we can create here in Wainscott.”

He also notes that Spielberg’s acting career is about to get much bigger, so this will be a chance to see him before he hits the next level.

After Stupid F*cking Bird, Playwrights’ Theatre continues at LTV with an offbeat new comedy, Before Vinson by NYC playwright Michael C. O’Day, on September 16; followed by a concert staging of the new romance A Milonga for Gabriel Isaacs by Wainscott-based author John McCaffrey and his writing partner Mark Singer on October 21, accompanied by live music and dance performed by Sandra Antognazzi’s dynamic Tango Fusion company. The season concludes with the Neo-Political Cowgirls performing The Dreamer the week of October 23.

But Gladstone says this is just the beginning and theater fans can expect much more to come.

Visit ltveh.org to learn more and buy tickets.