As we close out the summer of Stein and move towards the fall, I felt that I should introduce myself: Brett Evan Solomon, one of your friendly summer interns!

Over the past couple months I’ve been helping out in the office and during the run of the Labs as a production assistant. Seen here cleaning up after John Del Gaudio’s I Made A Mistake, I’ve been living the post-college graduate life this summer as a hopeful freelance theatre artist. My life has been significantly improved by meeting all the folks at Target Margin and getting a crash course in the community.

I came to Target Margin as I have come to many things in life, by volunteering to spend time hanging out with dogs. Working as a production assistant on the Labs and meeting all of the dedicated and brave artists with Target Margin has been such a gift. TMT’s dedication to experimentation, collaboration, and unearthing the old to be explored brand new has given me inspiration as I continue to build myself as an artist in New York City. I consider myself quite lucky to have gotten involved with such an encouraging, friendly, and generous community only days after graduating and moving up to New York. Plus I got to hang out with a dog for the purpose of a live performance again during Patrick Scheid’s, Someday Americans, so that was awesome.

Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland I attended the George Washington Carver Center For The Arts High School magnet program for acting. I performed in multiple productions during my time there, even going to the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival in 2008. I’m an alumni of the American Shakespeare Center’s Young Company Theater Camp where I played Bassiano in The Merchant of Venice and Brutus in Julius Caesar. What I learned there served me well when a year later I co-founded and served as Executive Director for Not Another Shakespeare Company, which worked to engage high school and college aged students with classical texts on all levels of production. I produced, stage managed, and acted in multiple productions as we worked to get the company off of the ground.

I earned my bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York, Purchase College’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts as a double major in the Theatre and Performance and Playwriting/Screenwriting programs. I graduated as the Outstanding Senior in Theatre and Performance as well as the only Theatre Arts finalist for the state wide Patricia Kerr Ross/Thayer Fellowship.

Due to SUNY Purchase’s proximity to New York, I was able to intern and assist multiple downtown theatre companies including Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company, New York City Players, and The Underground Theatre at Purchase College. I’m a playwright and I’ve been produced a couple of times through The Secret Theater, Nylon Fusion Theater Company, and through readings and workshops at SUNY Purchase. In 2013, I attended the Southampton International Theatre Workshops as a participant in a writing workshop led by Annie Baker.

On top of my playwriting, I’ve dabbled in directing and dramaturgy: assitant directing The Future Is In Eggs by Eugene Ionesco for Ripe Time and Mad Scientist’s Guide for Robots, Romance, and Soul Crushing Loneliness for A Collection of Shiny Objects. I’ve done dramaturgy for productions of Machinal by Sophie Treadwell, (dir. Rachel Dickstein) The Country by Martin Crimp (dir. Kelsey Lurie), and The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco (dir. Gabriel Vasquez).

I’m currently working to get my play, What Makes Us Feel Good, about a D.A.R.E style performance of William Bradford Bishop’s murder of his wife, kids, and mother into a performance venue for further development. I’d also love to help out on more Target Margin productions in the future because I can’t imagine a theatrical life in New York without the presence of these kind people and their awesome work.

Beyond that I’m really into hiking through nature, pop punk music, Magic The Gathering, reading my weekly novel on the subway, MTV’s reality TV programming, dogs, documentary filmmaking, cooking, and fine wines. If you’d like to get to know more about my work, check my profile out on the New Play Exchange Network here or spend some time with my dramaturgy blog from a production Machinal here.