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1. Directing 2. New Works 3. Theatre for Young Audiences 4. Educational Programs 5. Television 6. References and Education . |
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Recently Staged Productions |
Gruesome
Playground Injuries
Summer 2010 at Woolly Mammoth
Theatre
 Two eight-year-olds’ lives collide in the nurse’s office: "Director John Vreeke effectively embraces the story's crosscurrents, drawing out the play's youthful exuberance as well as its sadder dimension -- the sense that even when two people can be each other's salvation, there's no guarantee that they'll ever reach the kind of emotional synchronicity that allows them to carry out the rescue." - The Washington Post "The dazzling staging by director John Vreeke does its own storytelling." - Washingtonian "Director John Vreeke exhibits an affinity for the madcap and melancholy aspects of Mr. Joseph’s play" - DC Theatre Scene  |
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"Dying
City"
This gripping, psychological drama was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and is a tour-de-force for two actors.  March off to an apartment in urban
America for an affecting and gripping look at the fallout of war on our
most intimate relationships with the Northwest premiere of Dying City
by Christopher Shinn.When a young man goes off to war, his death thousands of miles away has rippling effects on those he leaves behind. Kelly, his widow, is a therapist who watches "Law and Order" because "the mystery of a death is solved and therefore symbolically reversed." But when her dead husband's twin brother shows up unexpectedly, what she believes to be true is called violently into question. Is the "closure" we seek after death just an American myth? MORE INFO "Staged with acute attention to nuance...Vreeke respects and enhances the many little shadings and shocks of this tale, with small blasts of heavy-metal music, fraught silences and tonal lighting. And the performances he draws from his two-actor cast are exemplary." - The Seattle Times "There's surgical precision in director John Vreeke's staging; he allows nothing to interfere with these characters circling one another in ever-tightening spirals" - The Seattle Weekly |
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"The Caretaker"
Played
at The Salt Lake Acting Co.
 "Directing
a Pinter play is like working with the top language expert
in the English language… no one knows how to put together sentences and
pauses better than Pinter. The experience of The Caretaker is not a
comfortable, romantic one. It pulls the audience into an emotional
roller coaster as it depicts the realities of human nature and presents
a not so pretty picture of times gone by and our times. The complexity of the play, Pinter’s masterful use of dialogue, and the depth and perception shown in Pinter’s themes all contribute to The Caretaker’s consideration as a modern masterpiece. How often do you get to do a ‘modern masterpiece’?” -John Vreeke Vreeke knows exactly the intention -- of Pinter's script - Salt Lake Tribune . SLAC has truly lived up to everything absurd and more under the direction of John Vreeke and his cast - Volition Mag . VIEW
MORE including
recent articles in the Salt Lake
Tribune and Deseret News
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JOHN
- E-MAIL |
 Nominated for FOUR Helen Hayes Awards: Outstanding
Director
Boom
Chinese Elvis Lady Chatterley's Lover Born Guilty |
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UPCOMING PROJECTS |
 Balagan Theatre -
Seattle
September 10 - 25, 2010 "Rapture of the Deep" New Play by Eric Lane Barnes  Burien Little Theatre - Seattle November 26 - December 19, 2010 "Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis"  Stone Soup Theatre - Seattle February 4 - 27, 2011 "How I Learned To Drive"  Eclectic Theatre Co. - Seattle March, 2011 "Good Ship Manhattan" A Play by Paul Mullin Metro Stage - Washington DC April, 2011 "Real Inspector Hound" |
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RECENT PROJECTS: Seattle Area |
 14/48 is a
creative process,
an exercise in community, an assemblage of artists dedicated to pushing the extemporaneous nature of theatre to the breaking point. 14 plays in 48 hours.  Directed Two Plays July 2010 |
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OTHER PROJECTS |
 Had to Be Productions
A touring company of
original productions
developed through interviews by Carrie Gibson, Tony Currie and director
John
Vreeke. MORE INFORMATION |
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| Gruesome
Playground Injuries Two eight year-old's lives collide in the nurses office. From accident-prone kids to self-destructive adults, they are drawn together ever closer. |
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 The
SeagullOn 16th Street This classic provides the stage for a journey back to the Russian countryside in this tale of love and loss, with laughs and heartbreak. |
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 The
Last Days of Judas IscariotStephen Adly Guirgis's play is placed in a courtroom in present-day purgatory, the Bible's most unexplained villain is put on trial. [TWO RUNS] |
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 Chasing
George WashingtonDee Dee, Jose, and Annie accidentally knock George Washington out of his portrait and into real life--turning their tour into an adventure. |
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 Martha,
Josie & The Chinese ElvisA British dominatrix and her unconventional family and friends realize the meaning of the Feast of Epiphany. A relentlessly funny show. |
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 Bal
Masque Three unusual couples survive Truman Capote’s infamous Black and White Ball and are forced to face reality. |
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 DyingCity When a young man goes off to war, his death thousands of miles away has rippling effects on those he leaves behind. Is closure an American myth? |
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 HEROESThree soldiers in a Parisian veterans' home pass the time with tales that are at once achingly funny and piercingly sad. |
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 Drunk
Enough To SayI Love You The intriguing dissection of a dysfunctional relationship, while also an incisive look at U.S. foreign policy and the seduction of power. |
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 The K of DAfter a car accident kills her twin brother, young Charlotte becomes a fascination to others when it appears she has received an eerie power. |
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 Opus A world famous String Quartet deals with the loss of a member as they prepare an all important performance for the White House. |
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 Death
& The King's Horseman Part Shakespearean, part Greek Tragedy, a folk tale of ritual suicide in British Colonial Nigeria. |
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 The CaretakerAn emotional roller-coaster depicting the realities of human nature...presenting a not-so pretty picture of times gone by, and our times. |
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 BOOMA wacked-out apocalypse fantasy featuring a racy online ad, a lonely marine biology grad, a journalism major and a crazy lady on a balcony. |
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 This
Perfect World A powerful new play by Chris Stezin, examining the free- floating anxiety that has characterized America since the 9/11 events. |
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 Fiddler
On The RoofThe story about a struggle of a people to survive, to live, and to be at home, and how a belief system creates and also destroys life. |
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 The
MonumentA grieving mother of a daughter raped & murdered by a young soldier convicted of multiple war crimes are brought together. |
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 For
The Pleasure of Seeing
Her AgainThe loving memoir of a gay son’s mother, as they help each other through formative life events. |
 The
Tattooed Girl Joyce Carol Oates’s story of the relationship between an anti-semetic coke-head street girl and her growing love for an ailing Jewish professor. |
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 Homebody/
Kabul Kushner’s epic drama of Afghanistan as seen through the eyes of a troubled British family in search of a mother who has mysteriously vanished in the country. |
 Death
& The MaidenAriel Dorfman’s statement of world wide oppression seen through the eyes of three people intimately involved in the Chilean dictatorship and the resulting reign of terror.   Medea,
The MusicalA satirical musical fantasy about a gay man mysteriously falling in love with his leading lady in a musical production of Medea. |
 Our Lady
of 121st Street The 15 year reunion of an extraordinary mix of Spanish Harlem school friends as they grieve the death & disappearance of the Sister who raised and taught them. |
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 Lady
Chatterley's LoverDH Lawrence’s most popular story of the privileged Lady Chatterley’s love affair with the Games Keeper and the affect on her marriage to the wheelchair bound Clifford Chatterley. |
 Born Guilty
Second and third generation children of Nazi’s and how they deal with their guilt as seen through the eyes of Jewish author, Peter Sichrovsky, from his novel.  Helen Hayes Awards Show Directed the 19th Annual Helen Hayes Awards show at the Concert Hall in the Kenedy Center for the Performing Arts. |
 One Good Marriage A couple returning from their honeymoon are shocked to find that all of the guests at their wedding are missing. |
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 Red Herring A McCarthy era satire about how three couples, including Joseph McCarthey’s daughter, a young Jewish scientist, a Russian defector and a detective all find each other. |
 Tiny Alice Edward Albee’s epic surreal, mind-bending story of a priest and his descent into the difficult, mysterious and even tantalizing failure of his faith.  Gala
Event:"Jazz In Our Time" Stage Director for “Jazz in Our Time” in the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center…a gala extravaganza and ceremony to honor 40 of this countrys greatest Jazz Musicians. |
Educational Programs Television Adapted Plays on Audio Books