Jon Mullich
Encyclopedia
Jon Mullich American actor
, playwright, director and Academy Award historian who played Gloucester in Reza Abdoh's
vision of King Lear
and Abel Drugger in The Alchemist
at the Globe Playhouse among other roles before achieving recognition for his performance in the title role of Mark Ringer
's production of Hamlet
in Los Angeles (praised by the Los Angeles Times
for its "touches of gallows humor and mocking fatalism"), the first theatrical production produced under the Actors Equity Association 99-seat theater plan.
He has since excelled in such roles as Angelo
in Measure for Measure
(of which the LA Weekly
wrote "this staging of Shakespeare's tragicomic treatise of sexual politics shines on the merits of the marvelously austere, yet emotionally vulnerable, Jon Mullich"), the villainous Lord Grizzle in Dennis Gersten's
production of The Author's Thumb (adapted from the works of Henry Fielding
), Thomas Diaforus in The Imaginary Invalid
, Demetrius
in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
opposite Kelie McIver
as Titania, the snake
who offers Adam and Eve
forbidden fruit in The Apple Tree
and Malvolio
in Twelfth Night, as well as appearances on the television show Totally Hidden Video
.
His work as a playwright includes an award-winning adaptation of Carlo Goldoni
's farce A Servant of Two Masters which transferred the action of the play to Prohibition
-era Chicago
, in which Mullich also played the role of Truffaldino Bottachio
as a Brooklyn
wise guy in the premiere production, a performance that Back Stage West
said "keeps the audience roaring with laughter at his shameless mugging". He also wrote The Special Award, a drama about film legend D.W. Griffith which examines events surrounding the director's lifetime achievement Oscar at the 1936 Academy Award ceremony and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' controversial early role as a labor organization in Hollywood.
by Gilbert & Sullivan, which took the original operetta's depiction of social climbing on a Victorian sailing vessel and transferred it to an absurdist take on the universe of Star Trek
, including such non-G&S elements as a talking computer, a lizard man, and an alien probe, and also featured Gilbert & Sullivan songs from The Mikado
and The Yeomen of the Guard
with such new lyrics as (in Pinafore's famous "He is an Englishman", rewritten to "He is an Earthlingman"):
"For he might have looked like strange shapes/
From some distant far-off moonscapes/
Or the Planet of the Apes!"
Kerry O'Quinn
, founder of Starlog
and Fangoria
Magazines, wrote "It's rare that such a bold and original concept is so professionally executed." The Huffington Post
added "I don't want to spoil any jokes or gags because they are so lovely and lively and fresh. Suffice to say you don't need to be a fan of both or either genres -- just someone who likes to laugh -- in order enjoy this silly, sexy romp." It was nominated for a 2011 Saturn Award
for Best Small Theatre Production by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, playwright, director and Academy Award historian who played Gloucester in Reza Abdoh's
Reza Abdoh
Reza Abdoh Iranian-born American director and playwright known for large-scale, experimental theatrical productions, often staged in unusual spaces like warehouses and abandoned buildings....
vision of King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
and Abel Drugger in The Alchemist
The Alchemist (play)
The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
at the Globe Playhouse among other roles before achieving recognition for his performance in the title role of Mark Ringer
Mark Ringer
Mark Ringer American writer, theater and opera historian, director and actor. Ringer’s books include Electra and the Empty Urn: Metatheater and Role Playing in Sophocles, a critical analysis of theatrical self-awareness in the seven Sophoclean tragedies, Opera's First Master, which Alan Rich of...
's production of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
in Los Angeles (praised by the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
for its "touches of gallows humor and mocking fatalism"), the first theatrical production produced under the Actors Equity Association 99-seat theater plan.
He has since excelled in such roles as Angelo
Angelo (Shakespeare)
Angelo is a character in Shakespeare's play Measure for Measure.-Role in the play:Angelo is the deputy to Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna, who begins the play by departing the city under mysterious circumstances and leaves the straight-laced Angelo in power...
in Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
(of which the LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
wrote "this staging of Shakespeare's tragicomic treatise of sexual politics shines on the merits of the marvelously austere, yet emotionally vulnerable, Jon Mullich"), the villainous Lord Grizzle in Dennis Gersten's
Dennis Gersten
Dennis Gersten American actor and director who helped create Stagewrights, Inc. in New York City, a playwrights' theatre company. There, he wrote Mine and the one-acts Rhetoric and Puppy Chow and directed and performed in original works...
production of The Author's Thumb (adapted from the works of Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
), Thomas Diaforus in The Imaginary Invalid
Le Malade imaginaire
The Imaginary Invalid is a three-act comédie-ballet by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed in 1673 and was the last work he wrote. In an ironic twist of fate, Molière collapsed during his fourth performance as Argan on 17 February and died soon after...
, Demetrius
Demetrius
Demetrius, also spelled as Demetrios, Dimitrios, Demitri, and Dimitri , is a male given name.Demetrius and its variations may refer to the following:...
in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
opposite Kelie McIver
Kelie McIver
Kelie McIver is a Topeka, Kansas-born actress and singer who has played such classical stage roles as Viola in Twelfth Night for both Nevada Shakespeare in the Park and Shakespeare at Play, Lady Macbeth, Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Rosalind in As You Like It, Angelique in The Imaginary Invalid,...
as Titania, the snake
Serpent (Bible)
Serpent is the term used to translate a variety of words in the Hebrew bible, the most common being , , the generic word for "snake"....
who offers Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
forbidden fruit in The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree
The Apple Tree is a series of three musical playlets with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and a book by Bock and Harnick with contributions from Jerome Coopersmith...
and Malvolio
Malvolio
Malvolio is the steward of Olivia's household in William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, or What You Will.-Style:Malvolio's ethical values are commonly used to define his appearance.In the play, Malvolio is defined as a "kind of" Puritan...
in Twelfth Night, as well as appearances on the television show Totally Hidden Video
Totally Hidden Video
Totally Hidden Video was an American television show that aired on the Fox Network from 1989 to 1992, with Steve Skrovan as host for the first two years and Mark Pitta taking over in 1991...
.
His work as a playwright includes an award-winning adaptation of Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Goldoni
Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice. His works include some of Italy's most famous and best-loved plays. Audiences have admired the plays of Goldoni for their ingenious mix of wit and honesty...
's farce A Servant of Two Masters which transferred the action of the play to Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
-era Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, in which Mullich also played the role of Truffaldino Bottachio
Harlequin
Harlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French, and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popularly known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade.-Origins:...
as a Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
wise guy in the premiere production, a performance that Back Stage West
Back Stage
Back Stage is an entertainment-industry brand aimed at people working in film and the performing arts, with a special focus on casting, job opportunities, and career advice.Back Stage publishes a weekly tabloid-sized trade magazine in the U.S...
said "keeps the audience roaring with laughter at his shameless mugging". He also wrote The Special Award, a drama about film legend D.W. Griffith which examines events surrounding the director's lifetime achievement Oscar at the 1936 Academy Award ceremony and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' controversial early role as a labor organization in Hollywood.
U.S.S. Pinafore
Mullich directed and adapted U.S.S. Pinafore from H.M.S. PinaforeH.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
by Gilbert & Sullivan, which took the original operetta's depiction of social climbing on a Victorian sailing vessel and transferred it to an absurdist take on the universe of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, including such non-G&S elements as a talking computer, a lizard man, and an alien probe, and also featured Gilbert & Sullivan songs from The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
and The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
with such new lyrics as (in Pinafore's famous "He is an Englishman", rewritten to "He is an Earthlingman"):
"For he might have looked like strange shapes/
From some distant far-off moonscapes/
Or the Planet of the Apes!"
Kerry O'Quinn
Kerry O'Quinn
Kerry O'Quinn is a writer, magazine publisher, director and producer, most noted for the creation of Starlog, Fangoria, Cinemagic, Future Life and Comics Scene magazines.-Career:...
, founder of Starlog
Starlog
Starlog was a monthly science-fiction film magazine published by Starlog Group Inc. The magazine was created by publishers Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs. O'Quinn was the magazine's editor while Jacobs ran the business side of things, dealing with typesetters, engravers and printers. They got...
and Fangoria
Fangoria
Fangoria is an American magazine devoted to horror and exploitation films, which has a number of associated brands:* Fangoria Comics* Fangoria Films* Fangoria RadioFangoria may also refer to:* Fangoria , a Spanish electro pop band...
Magazines, wrote "It's rare that such a bold and original concept is so professionally executed." The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
added "I don't want to spoil any jokes or gags because they are so lovely and lively and fresh. Suffice to say you don't need to be a fan of both or either genres -- just someone who likes to laugh -- in order enjoy this silly, sexy romp." It was nominated for a 2011 Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
for Best Small Theatre Production by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.