PLAYWRIGHT & STORYTELLER
MARTIN DOCKERY
WANDERLUST
FROM HERE TO TIMBUKTU
Directed by Jean-Michele Gregory
“BEST STORYTELLER IN THE US”
The Orlando Sentinel
A TREK TO TIMBUKTU
IN SEARCH OF AN EPIPHANY…
10
NATIONAL
ANY EPIPHANY AT ALL
&
INTERNATIONAL
AWARDS
“A ONE-MAN
STORYTELLING TORNADO”
The Stage, Edinburgh, Scotland
200+
performances across
the US, Canada, Australia, UK
144 South Fitzhugh Street
Suite 3
Rochester, NY 14608-2274
www.poetinmo.com
Ann Patrice Carrigan
director
P R E S S
toll free: 888-860-2780
mobile: 585-415-7098
fax: 888-385-4340
[email protected]
R E L E A S E
Martin Dockery
in
WANDERLUST
“Best storyteller in US”
Orlando Sentinel
“You’re not likely to find
many storytellers better
than Martin Dockery…
Could probably make
a grocery list sound
fascinating.”
The CBC (Canadian
Broadcasting Company)
“A masterful storyteller.”
Herald Sun
Melbourne, Australia
WANDERLUST: FROM HERE TO TIMBUKTU is the autobiographical story of Martin
Dockery’s 5-month solo trek across West Africa. It’s a voyage that takes him from a sting-ray
infested island off the coast of Africa to a barren landscape outside of Timbuktu. There is
no script for Wanderlust, rather it is a tale told extemporaneously each night. Dockery uses
a full stage to act out the story while simultaneously narrating it. The audience is pulled into
the true story of a man leaving behind 10 years of temping to find something permanent at
the ends of the earth. In stories that range from hilarious to terrifying, from poignant to
absurd, Wanderlust spins multiple narrative threads all at once: a mysterious woman at the
door in a dilapidated bungalow, a foul mango on an ancient train, a herd of wandering goats
in the Sahara, and an improvised beat-boxing recital in a kitchen. And through all the
stories there is a tale of a love lost and a love never realized, as one girlfriend marries back
home and another embarks on her own trip out to West Africa. The show is about a man
following his dream of dropping everything, buying a one-way ticket to an unknown land, and
believing that fate will necessarily reward him with an Epiphany. Any Epiphany at all.
WANDERLUST: http://www.eastvillagearts.org/fab-minute-martin-dockery/
“Martin Dockery knows
how to spin even the most
common occurrence into
a gripping yarn — a trick
the best stand-ups display.
This vibrant New Yorker
delivered his tale with such
verve, wit and insight,
and he is so engaging and
evocative that he makes
the audience believe they
are sharing the experience
with him.”
Chortle, London, UK
WANDERLUST: FROM HERE TO TIMBUKTU is the first of seven (so far) solo storytelling
shows created by Brooklyn performer Martin Dockery. After years of developing his unique,
high-energy style in New York City, Martin worked with Jean-Michele Gregory (acclaimed
monologist Mike Daisey’s long-time collaborator) to create his first full-length show. In
2009, he then took Wanderlust on the road, and the show has been a success ever since. Since
then, Wanderlust has been performed over 250 times in cities all across the US, Canada,
Australia, and the UK. The show has garnered innumerable 4 and 5 star reviews, plus ‘Best
of Fest’ awards at three of the worlds four biggest theater festivals (Adelaide, Edmonton, &
Winnipeg). Wanderlust has also headlined the London Storytelling Festival, enjoyed a full
season at the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe, and played every day for a month in
a festival-managed venue at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Martin continues to tour
Wanderlust to PACs and universities.
|
Created and performed by Martin Dockery, directed by Jean-Michele Gregory
Running time: 75 minutes
Website: www.MartinDockery.com
144 South Fitzhugh Street
Suite 3
Rochester, NY 14608-2274
www.poetinmo.com
Ann Patrice Carrigan
director
toll free: 888-860-2780
mobile: 585-415-7098
fax: 888-385-4340
[email protected]
Wanderlust
““A must see!” The Georgia Straight, Vancouver
enthralling
UK
“A one-man storytelling tornado.” The Stage, Edinburgh, Scotland,fantastical
“Made the audiences roar with laughter.” Pioneer Press, Minneapolis, MNprofound
Dockery’s one-man play, Wanderlust, is spectacularly good. His language is precise and specific and
“Martin
utterly evocative; he acts out his adventures (as opposed to simply recounting them) with enormous energy,
hilarious
beautiful
uplifting
manic
funny
quirky
tornado
dynamic
precise
gripping
evocative
”
fast-paced
”
frustrating
”
mesmerizing
enlightening
soul-searching
immediacy, and physicality. He brings his experiences entirely to life, supplying a thrill that feels more actual
Nytheatre.com
than vicarious.
”
If Hunter S. Thompson
“went
on holiday with
Tom Waits and
Eminem, we wouldn’t
be surprised if we
had something
like this.
Rip It Up Magazine,
Adelaide, Australia
”
at its
“Storytelling
best, with Dockery
quite possibly
being the
consummate
storyteller.
Adelaide Theatre Guide, Australia
”
firebrand performer who mixes physicality with
“Aa sparkling
sense of narrative.” Ottawa Citizen
“Reflective, analytic, self-deprecating and hilarious. Edmonton Sun
“A dynamic, fast-paced, quirky, and hilarious odyssey. Plank Magazine, Vancouver
“Moments of complete vulnerability are offered with unabashed humor. The Charleston City Paper
manic self-aware monologue is blisteringly funny, achingly frustrating and ultimately — yes! —
“Dockery’s
enlightening as it rides the roller coaster of the joys and pain of human intimacy and understanding in a
show that is very close to perfect.” Toronto Eye Weekly
“OMFG funny!” Star Phoenix, Saskatoon
144 South Fitzhugh Street
Suite 3
Rochester, NY 14608-2274
www.poetinmo.com
toll free: 888-860-2780
mobile: 585-415-7098
fax: 888-385-4340
[email protected]
Ann Patrice Carrigan
director
Martin Dockery
D I S T I N C T I O N S
“Critics Choice Best Show”
“Patron’s Pick”
“Pick of the Fringe”
“Best of Fest”
Moonlight After Midnight
Georgia Straight
Vancouver Fringe Festival,
September 2014
The Pit
Winnipeg Fringe Festival
July 2013
Wanderlust
Vancouver Fringe Festival,
September 2010
Wanderlust
Winnipeg Fringe Festival
July 2009
“Best of Fest”
“Hold Over”
“Best Original Work”
Wanderlust
Ottawa Fringe Festival
June 2012
Wanderlust
Edmonton Fringe Festival,
August 2010
Wanderlust
London Fringe Festival
June 2009
“Sold Out Award”
“Multiple Sell Outs Award”
“Impresario Award”
Bursting Into Flames
Orlando Fringe Festival
May 2012
Wanderlust
Rogue Festival, March 2010
Wanderlust
London Fringe Festival
June 2009
“Best Original Work”
Moonlight After Midnight
Ottawa Fringe Festival
June 2014
“Critic’s Choice Best Show
Honorable Mention”
Moonlight After Midnight
Ottawa Fringe Festival
June 2014
“Best of Fest”
The Surprise
Ottawa Fringe Festival
June 2014
“FRIGID Hangover (Encore)”
“Hold Over”
The Surprise
Edmonton Fringe Festival
August 2011
The Bike Trip
New York FRIGID Fest
March 2010
“Best Drama, Winnipeg Fringe”
The Surprise
San Francisco Fringe Festival
September 2009
“Sell Out Award”
“Outstanding Solo Performer”
“Patron’s Pick”
The Surprise
Rogue Festival
March 2011
The Dark Fantastic
Winnipeg Fringe Festival
July 2013
The Surprise
nominee New York Innovative
Theater Awards
September 2009
“The Advertiser & Critics Circle
Award”
The Surprise
Orlando Fringe Festival
May 2014
Wanderlust
Orlando Fringe Festival
May 2009
“Best Solo Performance”
Bursting Into Flames
The CBC, July 2011
“Critic’s Choice Best Show”
“Sold Out Award”
Wanderlust
Adelaide Fringe Festival March
2011
“Best in Venue”
Wanderlust
Orlando Fringe Festival
May 2009
“soloNOVA Breakthrough
Performer of the Year”
The Surprise
New York soloNOVA Festival
May 2009
“Outstanding Short Play”
The Surprise
nominee New York Innovative
Theater Awards
September 2009
“Audience Choice Award”
The Surprise
New York FRIGID Fest
March 2009
144 South Fitzhugh Street
Suite 3
Rochester, NY 14608-2274
www.poetinmo.com
Ann Patrice Carrigan
director
toll free: 888-860-2780
mobile: 585-415-7098
fax: 888-385-4340
[email protected]
Martin Dockery
Solo Shows
BURSTING INTO
FLAMES
The desperately hysterical story of
one man’s anxious romp through a
land of never-ending happiness. “A
thoughtful, side-splitting monologue atop a keg of dynamite.”
– Charleston City Paper
WANDERLUST
Across the Sahara to Timbuktu,
one man searches for an Epiphany.
Any Epiphany at all.
“The best storyteller in the US.”
– The Orlando Sentinel
THE SURPRISE
The incredible, true story of
Dockery’s discovery that he has
3½-year old twin Vietnamese siblings who are 36-years younger
than him. “5 STARS: Go and see
this show. Period.”
– CBC
THE HOLY LAND
EXPERIENCE
Wrestling with his own fidelity,
a man travels through the land
of the faithful, from a religious
theme park in Orlando to
Christmas day in Bethlehem,
“A master storyteller.”
– The Orlando Sentinel
THE DARK
FANTASTIC
The wild, surrealistic tale of an
epic reunion between mother and
child. An immersive storytelling
experience, set to music. “Would
be fantastic even outside a fringe
setting. The images he conjures
gradually astound.’
– The Globe & Mail, Toronto
THE BIKE TRIP
One man’s hilarious and heartbreaking attempt to get to the
heart of the psychedelic experience
by recreating the world’s first ever
LSD trip. “5 STARS: A one-man
storytelling extravaganza.”
– Winnipeg Free Press
THE EXCLUSION
ZONE
The genre-bending true story of an
incredible journey to the irradiated
ghost-city of Chernobyl. World
premiere: 2015. Playing in Orlando,
Winnipeg, and Vancouver.
144 South Fitzhugh Street
Suite 3
Rochester, NY 14608-2274
www.poetinmo.com
Ann Patrice Carrigan
director
toll free: 888-860-2780
mobile: 585-415-7098
fax: 888-385-4340
[email protected]
Martin Dockery
P L A Y S
4 fast-paced, 2 character, 1 act original plays.
No sets. Intelligent, comedic mysterious stories that explore modern relationships through a unique lens.
OH, THAT WILY SNAKE!
MOONLIGHT
AFTER MIDNIGHT
Love and loss, memory and mystery
intertwine when a man and woman
meet in the liminal space of a midnight
hotel room bathed in moonlight. “This
play is everything I’ve ever wanted out
of theatre.”
— Capital Critics Circle, Ottawa
THE PIT
In this funny and fast-paced send-up
of domestic bliss, a giant pit opens in
the heart of a couple’s bedroom, threatening not only their home, but their very
marriage. “Sweeps its viewers up in an
extended experiment of swirling
dialogue eddies, riffs on a moment,
and poetic storytelling. And it’s also a
heck of a lot of fun.” — CBC
With the forbidden promise of a wild
flight through paradise, a man attempts
to seduce a woman onto his aeronautical
bed. “Remarkable. A physical comedy
tour-de-force.” — NYTheatre.com
INESCAPABLE
A thriller about two men who are both
literally and figuratively trapped in a
mid-life crisis. World premiere: 2015.
Playing in Ottawa, Winnipeg and
Edmonton.
BIOGRAPHY
Brooklyn-based Martin Dockery spends the majority of the year touring his seven one-person shows through Canada,
Australia, the UK, and the US. Five of them are autobiographical (Wanderlust, The Surprise, The Bike Trip, The Holy
Land Experience, and his latest The Exclusion Zone) and two are fictional (Bursting Into Flames & The Dark Fantastic).
He has won “Best of Fest” awards at theater festivals in Vancouver, Ottawa, New York, Orlando, London, Toronto,
Edmonton, Winnipeg, Victoria, San Francisco, and Adelaide. He’s performed at The Melbourne Comedy Festival, the
Edinburgh Fringe, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and twice headlined the London Storytelling Festival in England. Dockery
has also written and toured three plays with Vanessa Quesnelle across North America (Oh, That Wily Snake!, The Pit,
and Moonlight After Midnight), via their production company Concrete Drops. In 2015, he is also touring a brand new
two-person play entitled Inescapable. He has an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University.
Friday, January 2, 2015 $1.50
Arts: 2015 to be year of big TV goodbyes A2
CALENDAR
‘Best storyteller in the
U.S.’ returns to Orlando
Fringe Festival favorite
Martin Dockery offers
three shows today, Saturday and Sunday. Page 3
2015 film preview: On tap
are superheroes, sequels
and series reboots. Page 6
CALENDAR
Playwright and Storyteller
MARTIN DOCKERY
Performing at the
Shakespeare Center
Page 3
Orlando Fringe
favorite Martin
Dockery returns:
Let him tell you a
story (or 3)
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
SHARELINES: If you’ve
never seen Fringe favorite
Martin Dockery, here’s your
chance. Don’t miss this
master storyteller.
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Most people speak with their mouths.
For Martin Dockery talking is a
full-body endeavor. Hair flops, arms
flap, knees buckle as his voice revs up,
faster and faster, higher and higher …
until at last a breath — and a punch
line. Or a deep, emotional revelation.
Either is likely in a Dockery show,
which typically mixes high comedy with
intimate truths and a sense of fly-bythe-seat-of-your-pants adventure. It’s
a combination that has made him a
mainstay on the Fringe Festival circuit
and a critical favorite, including in
Orlando, where he’ll perform this month.
His artistic beginnings, as a child in
the New York City suburb of Rye, were
humbler.
“I used to create plays with my ‘Star
Wars’ figures,” Dockery says. “My friends
would watch them.”
He still writes fictional works, but
today the primary character in most of
Dockery’s shows is the performer himself. And the stories are true. Dockery
specializes in taking incidents from his
life and relating them to an audience
in comical fashion yet with a deeper
message about the human experience.
“To me, Martin Dockery is the best
storyteller in the United States right
now,” says Michael Marinaccio, artistic
director of the Orlando Fringe Festival.
“Unlike many who fall into a trap of
becoming self-indulgent when telling
true stories about their lives, Martin is
able to remain relatable and engaging,
and makes you feel like you are living
the journey with him.”
Dockery, 46, will next perform in
Orlando the weekend of Jan. 2-4 as
part of the Fringe Year Round series.
It was the 2009 Orlando Fringe
Festival that gave Dockery his start on
the touring circuit.
“It has a place my heart,” Dockery
says of the annual two-week theatrical
extravaganza in Loch Haven Park set
for May 13-26 this year. “It was the first
experience I had doing a show outside
of New York City. It was my first
audience in which I knew absolutely
nobody. I hadn’t even been to a Fringe.”
He recalls about 15 people showing
up for his opening night. But word
spread quickly, fanned by critical
acclaim for his “Wanderlust.”
“Dockery is the real deal,” pronounced
theater critic Elizabeth Maupin in the
Orlando Sentinel, calling his Africa-set
show “magical” and a “tour-de-force
travelogue.” His most recent work,
“The Surprise,” won the 2014 Best in
Fest award from Orlando critics.
The shows follow his winning storytelling formula, which he developed
after years of performing at open-mike
nights in New York.
“Suddenly, this storytelling stuff was
the perfect marriage of writing and
acting,” he says. “It’s both but not quite
either at the same time.”
And although the anecdotes are true,
Dockery’s own personality becomes a
bit more larger than life onstage.
“It’s me, but it’s a performance version
of me,” he says. “I’m acting as me.”
Dockery was an English major at
Kenyon College, a small liberal-arts
school in Ohio “surrounded by endless
cornfields,” he says. He acted in plays,
was a radio DJ and started an improvcomedy group. He had interests outside
the arts, as well.
“My senior year, I was co-captain of
the rugby team,” says the lanky
performer. “I do not have a rugby
physique, but that’s the beauty of a
small school. You can do anything.”
After graduation, he drifted through
odd jobs: selling flowers, sanding floors,
scooping ice cream for Ben & Jerry’s.
“I was a waiter in six different
restaurants, which is to say I was really
bad at it,” he says. “I got fired again and
again — not with animosity. They’d
say, ‘This isn’t working out.’ I’d say,
‘You’re so right.’ There’d be a smile and
a hug.”
So he went back to school — “It was
the only thing I was good at,” he cracks
— and earned a master’s degree in
playwriting from Columbia University
in New York.
He was temping in offices when he
started writing and performing at
open-mike nights.
Actually, “creating” is a better word
than “writing” — Dockery doesn’t write
down the scripts for his one-man shows.
“I’ll tell the story to myself a bunch of
times — just enough so I’m confident
and know where I’m going,” he says. “I
want to decide the words spontaneously
one by one.”
Theatergoers can tell he isn’t reciting
canned dialogue, he says.
“When I stopped writing things down,
I found this freedom,” Dockery says. “It
gives an element of immediacy that I
think translates to what the audience is
feeling. It’s honest.”
When talking about relationships —
with his father, his brother and several
ex-girlfriends — it sometimes sounds
as though he’s being painfully honest.
“I try to be conscious of not saying
anything onstage that anyone I’m
talking about would mind me saying.
I’m thinking about being fair to everyone,” he says. “All the things in the
shows are as true as anything we tell
each other. True, in that we all tell one
side of the story.”
One of the factors that makes his
performance so engrossing is that he
doesn’t shy away from his own shortcomings.
“If anyone’s going to be a bad guy
in my stories, it’s going to be myself,”
he says.
His relationship dramas are in the
rearview mirror now. He’s engaged to
actress Vanessa Quesnelle, and they plan
to move into a Brooklyn apartment
they’ve remodeled.
The new home has the wandering
storyteller thinking of settling down.
“I’m not worried about running out
of stories, more that I’ll get tired of the
lifestyle. It demands a lot, always being
on the road, living out of a backpack,”
he says. “It’s hard to have a career
totally dependent on chance — the
luck of the draw to get into a festival,
then getting a good time slot, a good
venue, good weather. So much is out of
a performer’s hands.”
But having recently returned to
Brooklyn after six months crossing
North America, he’s not ready to hang
up his backpack just yet.
“You can’t wait to get home, and
now I’m home and it’s like, ‘What am I
doing? What am I doing?’” he says,
laughing. “There’s always more stuff to
talk about.”
[email protected]
A WEEKEND WITH MARTIN DOCKERY
• What: Three separate shows written and performed by Dockery,
presented as part of the Orlando
Fringe Festival’s Year Round Series
‘Wanderlust’: 8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 2.
Dockery comically journeys from a
dead-end job in New York down a
dead-end road in Timbuktu as he
searches for love and meaning in
his life.
‘The Surprise’: 8 p.m. Saturday,
Jan. 3. As his romantic relationship
reaches a crossroads, Dockery
discovers his father has a secret
family living in Vietnam.
‘The Holy Land Experience’: 3 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 4. Struggling with
monogamy, Dockery juxtaposes
stories of a visit to the Orlando
theme park of the title with a trip to
Bethlehem on Christmas Day.
• Where: Lowndes Shakespeare
Center, 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando
• Cost: $16 per show, or $40 for a
pass to all three
A&E
by Corbie Hill
[email protected]
Wherever you go,
there you are
One-man show
Wanderlust thinks
globally, acts personally
When Martin Dockery
touched down in Dakar,
Senegal, on his way to
Timbuktu, Mali, his luggage
was gone. The traveler from
New York City had nothing
but his passport, his Lonely
Planet guidebook and a copy
of Yann Martel’s The Life of
Pi. He didn’t speak any local
languages, he didn’t have
a change of clothes, and he
didn’t know anyone there. “I
had these two books and I was
stepping into the chaos that is
the area outside any airport in
the world, but all the more so
in Senegal,”, he recalls.
The first night, he
roomed with a Japanese traveler from the same flight.
Later, they went out to eat
and returned to find their
room had been burgled.
They headed to the police
station, the Japanese man
speaking Japanese, Dockery
speaking English and the
Senegalese police officer speaking French as well as his
native tongue. It was a
strangely functional conversation between three people
in at least four mutually unintelligible languages, and it
set the tone for the entire
trip. “It’s amazing how you
figure out how to communicate with people beyond
language.” Dockery says. “You
look into someone’s eyes and
you know exactly how they’re
feeling and thinking and they
JANUARY 21- JANUARY 27, 2015
know likewise with you.”
Wanderlust, a one-man
show based on Dockery’s
travels comes to the Diana
Wortham Theatre ThursdaySaturday, Jan. 22024. Before
his Africa trip, Dockery had
been temping at the new York
Stock Exchange. His method
was to find temp work someplace for a while, save money,
travel and repeat. PostTimbuktu and tired of temp
work, Dockery put his MFA
in playwrighting to use and
became a professional storyteller. He went to West Africa
seeking a revelation, and his
autobiographical production
tells of his frequent stumbles
and occasional insights along
the way.
It was the sheer connotations of the name Timbuktu
— its Saturday morning
cartoon shorthand for the
other side of the world —
that drew Dockery in. When
he saw a photo of a mosque
built of mud and learned it
was in Timbuktu (and that
Timbuktu was real), he knew
he had to go. “What happens
when I go to Timbuktu? Will
the skies open up and a
moment of grand epiphany
reveal to me the secret of life?
he wondered at the time. “It
seems something like that
should happen at a place that’s
as far away from where you
live as you can get.”
It’s heady material. But
while he’s had some fascinating
experiences, Dockery says,
“Everybody’s life is interesting.” “My show is about going
off to Africa and the Sahara
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: Temp worker-turnedstoryteller martin Dockery parlayed his escapades in West Africa into
a one-man performance about travel pitfalls and epiphanies.
“The details of our stories are different but the emotions we are
struggling with are identical.” he says. Photo courtesy of Dockery.
and Timbuktu but those are
just words that sound exotic.”
More importantly, Wanderlust
is about self-consciously journeying to another continent
with idealized expectations.
Dockery feels owning his
mistakes is essential to the art
of story telling. He wants it to
be clear when he’s not the
smartest person in the room,
or when he’s made a mistake
or missed something obvious.
“In those moments, in the
lowering of one’s status, it
gives audiences a chance to
WHAT
Martin Dockery’s
Wanderlust:
From Here to Timbuktu
WHERE
Diana Wortham Theatre
dwtheatre.com
WHEN
Thursday-Saturday,
Jan. 22-24,
8 p.m.
$28/$23 students
$15 children
get into the stories and
sympathize and empathize,
having been in those moments
themselves,” he says.
So Dockery brings the
audience to that moment of
being alone in a distant land,
his luggage missing and his
room robbed. And then he
tells about finding a place by
the sea, one desolate-looking
beach crowded with concrete
buildings where he started
to let his guard down and
appreciate the familiar warmth
of human interactions. And
when his luggage did eventually surface, part of him
wondered if he wasn’t better
off with just his Lonely
Planet and Life of Pi.
The book is about a kid
surviving out in the middle
of nowhere on a boat with a
tiger,” he says. “I looked to that
book for a bit of perspective.”