Bridge Street Theatre presents
The Fat Knight Theatre production of
CHIPANDGUS
Written and performed by John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen
September 26 – October 6, wow4
Bridge Street Theatre’s “Priscilla” Mainstage
44 West Bridge Street, Catskill, NY
Fat Knight Theatre’s Award-Winning “ChipandGus” Comes to Catskill
September 26 – October 6
The two loneliest guys in upstate New York meet once a month in the grungy back room of a rundown Schenectady sports bar to do the one thing they both love – play ping pong – in Fat Knight Theatre’s production of “ChipandGus”, coming to Catskill’s Bridge Street Theatre at 44 West Bridge Street for eight performances September 26 – October 6.
In this award-winning ‘comedy with balls’, Gus is chair of the Philosophy department at a middling liberal arts college who lives almost entirely inside his own estimable head. Chip is a frustrated adjunct music teacher and struggling composer who’s got big hopes – but he’s never had a dream yet that didn’t get crushed. Playwright/performers John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen balance a furiously fast pace, a delicately slow reveal, blisteringly brilliant comedy, and unbelievable ping-pong action as these two sad sacks, the most casual of acquaintances, discover that their lives intertwine in ways they could not possibly have imagined. Swap out the ping pong paddles for bowler hats and it could pass for a modern-day homage to “Waiting for Godot” – a hilarious, cathartic, and emotionally resonant buddy comedy for thinking audiences. Conceived over a ping pong table and written and rehearsed in basements, attics, and garages, “ChipandGus” was the winner of the Overall Excellence Award for Ensemble in the 2016 NYCFringe Festival, was selected for an extended run in the Fringe Encore Series at Soho Playhouse in NYC, and has been touring ever since.
“I remember the exact moment the idea for the play came into my head – and it was at a ping pong table,” says John Ahlin. “I was playing ping pong for fun a few years ago, blowing the rust off my atrophied skills, when somehow, like a young me, I laced a screaming backhand down the edge and in an overly theatrical way I turned to an imaginary crowd and drank in imaginary cheers. And then I stopped, mid faux-celebration, and thought, ‘Standing here, at the end of a ping pong table feels very theatrical …. I wonder if this game would work on stage?’ And with that one idle thought, Ahab-like, I began chasing this leviathan of an idea.”
“ChipandGus” will be presented on the Bridge Street Theatre’s “Priscilla” Mainstage for eight performances only – Thursdays – Saturdays at 7:30p, and Sundays at 2:00pm from September 26 – October 6. May 7 at 2:00pm. The theatre is located at 44 West Bridge Street in the Village of Catskill, NY. For more details and to purchase advance tickets, visit bridgest.org/chipandgus/. Tickets will also be sold at the door 30-minutes prior to each performance on a space available basis.
Come spend a little time with Chip and Gus in what is possibly the finest ‘buddy comedy’ yet written in the 21st Century!
Events at Bridge Street Theatre are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor of New York and the New York State Legislature and by Public Funds from the Greene County Legislature. Bridge Street Theatre’s entire 2024 Season is sponsored by generous donations from Mary E. Barrett and Edwina Thorn.
Performance Calendar:
Bridge Street Theatre presents
The Fat Knight Theatre production of
CHIPAND GUS
Written and performed by John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2:00pm
September 26 – October 6
Bridge Street Theatre’s “Priscilla” Mainstage
44 West Bridge Street, Catskill, NY
Tickets:
Advance tickets available online at bridgest.org/chipandgus
$28, $15 for Ages 18 and under
Tickets can also be purchased at the door prior to each performance on a space available basis for $30, $15 for Ages 18 and under
Bios:
Christopher Patrick Mullen (Co-writer/Performer) recently appeared in the US premiere of “Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes” at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, NY. Other acting credits include: “West Side Story” (1st National Tour); “The Runner Stumbles (Off-Broadway revival); “The Whaleship Essex” (Vineyard Playhouse); “When You Comin Back, Red Ryder?” (Retro Productions); “Metamorphoses”, “A Little Night Music”, “Candide”, “Assassins”, “Macbeth”, and “The Stinky Cheeseman” (Arden Theatre Co); 26 productions with The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival including “Pericles”, “Henry VIII”, “Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker”, “Charley’s Aunt”, “Hamlet”, “The Glass Menagerie”, “Twelfth Night”, “As You Like It”, and “Macbeth”; “Amadeus” and “A Christmas Carol Comedy” (Hedgerow Theatre); “The Pavilion” and “Birds of North America” (Chester Theatre Co); “The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Hamlet”, “The Taming of the Shrew” (Orlando Shakespeare Theatre). TV appearances include guest starring roles on “Law and Order”, and “FBI”. Chris is a graduate of DeSales University and a member of the company of resident artists comprising People’s Light since 1989. People’s Light
credits include: “The Winter’s Tale”, “Mr. Hart & Mr. Brown”, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “Gossamer”, “King Lear”, “Twelfth Night”, “Splittin’ the Raft”, “The Crucible”, “The Miser”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Julius Caesar”, “The Tempest”, and “Wind in the Willows”.
John Ahlin (Co-writer/Performer) acting credits on Broadway include “Waiting for Godot”, “Journey’s End” (2007 Tony Award Best Revival), “The Lieutenant of Inishmore”, “Voices in the Dark”, “One Mo’ Time”, “Whoopee!” and “Macbeth”. Off-Broadway John portrayed Orson Welles in “Orson’s Shadow” at The Barrow Street Theatre. Regional credits: The Shakespeare Theatre in DC, The Guthrie, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Stage, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Old Globe Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Studio Arena, McCarter Theatre, Syracuse Stage, George Street Playhouse, and Goodspeed. TV credits include “Law and Order: SVU”, “Late Night with David Letterman”, “Third Watch”, “The Education of Max Bickford”, and the Coen Brothers’ movie “Inside Llewyn Davis”. As a playwright, John has had his award-winning play “Gray Area” receive highly acclaimed productions in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Off-Broadway. His “My Witch: The Margaret Hamilton Stories” premiered in 2021 and has had several highly acclaimed performances throughout the Northeast. And two new plays are in the docket: “Charlotte Charke”, and “Mama Sapiens”, about the mother of us all.
Fat Knight Theatre is a Manhattan-based not-for-profit company focused on creating, discovering and rediscovering great characters in drama, history, literature and modern mythology. As Neil Simon says; “Plays are about people”, and our goal is to focus on breathing life into the larger-than-life characters that people humanity, and to celebrate, inspire and communicate, through theatre and other media, the potential in each of us. www.FatKnightTheatre.org
Further Information:
To contact Bridge Street Theatre directly, email contact@bridgest.org or call their offices at 518-943-3894.