HEART STOP
written and performed by Franky D. Gonzalez
Catalyzed by two health crises that occurred close to each other, Heart Stop is a solo show following the current, real-time journey of playwright Franky D. Gonzalez as he tries to find a way toward a healthier life while battling against depression, self-loathing, and his constant struggle with obesity.
Performed at AMT Theater, 354 West 45th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues) on December 12, 13, and 14. Curtains at 7pm.
Franky D. Gonzalez is a Latino playwright based in Dallas and LA. Appearances include The Lark, the Sundance Institute, Ojai Playwrights Conference, NNPN, Latinx Playwrights Circle, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Goodman Theatre, UC Santa Barbara, The New Harmony Project, Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, Ars Nova, Dallas Theater Center, William Inge Theatre Festival, Teatro Vivo, Stages Repertory Theatre, Latino Theatre Company, Latinx Theatre Commons, Seven Devils New Play Foundry, the HBMG Foundation, Tofte Lake Center, Clamour Theatre Company, and Ammunition Theater Company. A 4 Seasons Resident Playwright, Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and the Bishop Arts Theatre Center Playwright-in-Residence, Franky has also been the recipient of the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission, an MTC/Sloan Commission, co-recipient of the MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, won the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award, and the Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting.
Thomas Coté - (Director) Thomas has been the Artistic Director of The Workshop Theater since 2014. Over the past 15 years, Thomas has assisted in the development of hundreds of new plays at The Workshop Theater as the former company dramaturg, as a director and as the current Artistic Director of the company. Under Thomas’s leadership of The Workshop, the company developed and produced the world premiere of The Astonishing Times of Timothy Cratchit (added to the 2019/20 season of Hope Mill Theater, Manchester, England). Thomas’ New York directing credits include the world premieres of The Jazz Age (added to the 2019/20 season of the The Playground Theatre, London, England), Raisins Not Virgins (added to the 2019/20 season of Next Door of NYTW), Interchange, a New York Times' Critics' Pick, and the Audelco Award-winning The Guest at Central Park West. He also co-directed the critically acclaimed New York City revival of Balm in Gilead and the Off-Broadway production of The Devil and Billy Markham. Regional directing credits include Man of La Mancha, She Loves Me, The 39 Steps, and The Game’s Afoot at Gretna Theatre and National Pastime at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
R&B/soul music, contemporary dance, and ecofuturism comprise Lamb's artistic vision: where the visceral meets the cerebral; where the natural enacts the synthetic. The musician, composer, choreographer, and director explores Blackness as the break that might rupture our attachments to Worlds, territories, and Man. Steeped in the aesthetic, conceptual, and political tradition of modern Black thinkers before her, Lamb's thesis is this: in a world wrought through violence, to salvage some beauty from it is to seek truth within it.