The Elephant in Every Room I Enter

ABOUT

Good Neighbor Program Directions Accessibility Calendar

Created by Gardiner Comfort & Kel Haney
Featuring Gardiner Comfort
Directed by Kel Haney

November 9, 2017—November 25, 2017

THE ELEPHANT IN EVERY ROOM I ENTER runs 75 minutes with no intermission

Read Synopsis

THE ELEPHANT IN EVERY ROOM I ENTER is a strikingly intimate solo piece about Gardiner Comfort’s experience as an actor living with Tourette Syndrome. Created with his frequent collaborator Kel Haney You’re Not Tough (HERE Arts Center; Dixon Place), the play explores the week Gardiner spent at the Tourette Association of America National Conference in Washington, DC. Surrounded by hundreds of other people with Tourette’s: it was the first time he felt “normal.” Using an erratic and energetic performance style (a nod to Tourette’s itself), along with groundbreaking video design (Caite Hevner & Lianne Arnold), this original show blends comedy, dance and a personal outlook on disability.

“In the course of the well-put-together show—there was nothing self-indulgent about it—Comfort described going to a Tourette’s conference in Washington, D.C., an occasion he illustrated with a level of care that was striking, not least because the performance was devoid of sentimentality. Comfort’s clear-eyed efforts reminded me of the work of his peer Nilaja Sun.” – Hilton Als, The New Yorker

Scenic & Video Design by Caite Hevner & Lianne Arnold
Costume Design by Summer Lee Jack
Lighting Design by Jimmy Lawlor
Sound Design by Elisheba Ittoop
Choreography by Dan Safer
Production Stage Manager - Michal Mendelson
Production Manager - Elizabeth Goodman
Assistant Director - Matthew Sciarappa
Sound Associate - Ben Scheff
Assistant Costume Designer - Brenna McShane
Marketing & Social Media Strategist - Whitney Biancur
Press Representative - Matt Ross Public Relations

Gardiner Comfort / Creator/Performer

Gardiner Comfort is an actor, writer and teacher.  He was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome when he was 7 years old.  The Elephant in Every Room I Enter was created with Kel Haney in Mabou Mines’ Resident Arts Project with its world premiere at La Mama; Original solo show You’re Not Tough, directed by Kel Haney (HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place); Fishmen (Intar); Be The Death of Me (The Civilians); The Zero Hour (13P); A Parsifal (PS122); Red Beads (Mabou Mines); Julius Caesar (ART and world tours); Henry IV Part 1 (BAM and Hebbel Theatre); Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing (Empirical Rogue). MFA from ART.  www.gardinercomfort.com

Kel Haney / Creator/Director

Also with Gardiner Comfort: You’re Not Tough (HERE, Dixon Place). Recent directing credits include: Chris Cragin Day’s A Woman (Summer Shorts, 59e59), Neil LaBute’s What Happens In Vegas (59E59- world premiere), Neil LaBute’s The Way We Get By (American Theater Group- regional premiere), Vickie Ramirez’s Glenburn 12WP (59E59), Jonathan Caren’s The Recommendation (The Flea), Quiara Alegria Hudes’s Water By The Spoonful & Deborah Brevoort’s My Lord, What A Night (both at Premiere Stages). She has directed/developed new work with Abingdon Theatre Company, The Amoralists, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, Cherry Lane, Keen Company, Labyrinth, The Lark, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ma-Yi, Naked Angels, New Dramatists, New Georges, Partial Comfort, Playwrights Realm, Rattlestick, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, & Williamstown. Also: MTC Directing Fellow, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Mabou Mines Residency, Old Vic/New Voices Exchange and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. Ms. Haney also directed the critically acclaimed short films, I Am Them and Stay Close. Upcoming: Chris Cragin Day’s Foster Mom (Premiere Stages), Laura Maria Censabella’s Paradise (Luna Stage, Passage Theatre). www.kelhaney.com

NEWS