Alumni featured in N.Y. theater festival

Now in its fourth year, Todd Theatre Troupe, based at LaMaMa, ETC in New York City, is known for its highly visual and physical style. Troupe members, all alumni of the University, include (clockwise from left): P.J. Sosko, David Moo, Mari Cipriani, John Fulbrook, and Mathias Dill. Founder Mervyn Willis directs.

Todd Theatre Troupe, the New York City-based performance company composed of University alumni, was invited to perform at the New York International Fringe Festival for the second year.

For the last week and a half, the group has presented six performances of All Talk at the Red Room on East 4th Street. Written collectively by the troupe, All Talk explores lessons of identity and friendship through a group of Generation X-ers who concoct a story for a daytime trash television talk show. The dark cabaret-style comedy was first performed in June at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York, and the producers hope to bring it to the River Campus later this fall.

The New York International Fringe Festival, now in its second year, features more than 180 companies from around the world. Plays were presented between noon and midnight August 19 through 30 in venues around Manhattan.

Todd Theatre Troupe was founded in 1994 by Mervyn Willis, artistic director of the International Theater Program, with 10 young alumni actors. The troupe's first production was Speakeasy, an original play by English professor Joanna Scott. The troupe premiered the play in New York in March 1995, presented it during the Toronto Fringe Festival later that year, and staged it at the New York International Fringe Festival last year.