LOVE AND VINYL, by award-winning playwright Bob Bartlett, has its area premiere with Kitchen Dog Theater in a unique setting. All performances will take place inside indie record store Good Records in Dallas. The romantic comedy marks the final production of KDT’s “out of the box” season of theater.
For the production, KDT has assembled a great team of Artistic Company Members. The three-person ensemble features Max Hartman (Zane), Karen Parrish (Sage), and Jamal Sterling (Bogie). The small but mighty production team is comprised of Sean Hennigan (Assistant Director), KDT Co-Artistic Director Tina Parker (Costume and Prop Design), and KDT Company Member Ruth Stephenson (Stage Manager).
“Love and Vinyl” Plot Synopsis
Best friends Bogie and Zane visit their local record store and leave with so much more than a stack of vinyl in this salty/sweet, smart romcom. KDT Co-Artistic Director Christopher Carlos will direct this immersive new play about browsing for records and romance in the digital age. Award-winning local indie record store Good Records will serve as the perfect setting for the final production of KDT’s 2023/24 Season.
Bob Bartlett’s plays include UNION, a sometimes fiction chronicling Walt Whitman’s years living and loving in Washington, DC during the Civil War. His E2, a contemporary reimagining of Marlowe’s Edward II, recently premiered at Maryland’s Rep Stage. SWIMMING WITH WHALES (1st Stage; O’Neill Finalist); HAPPINESS (AND OTHER REASONS TO DIE) (The Welders); and THE REGULAR (O’Neill Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference) are others. Additional Bartlett plays include THE ORBIT OF MERCURY (O’Neill Finalist); and BAREBACK INK, a queer reimagining of the Ganymede myth.
Playwright Bob Bartlett
Recently, Bartlett has been producing his own site-specific work. His play THE ACCIDENT BEAR, had a successful run in the Avenue Laundromat in Downtown Annapolis. During the first year of Covid, he staged THREE STRANGERS SITTING AROUND A BACKYARD FIREPIT AT TWO IN THE MORNING LISTENING TO BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN’S NEBRASKA in his backyard. He recently staged his horror play, LÝKOS ÁNTHRŌPOS, in a wooded clearing in the middle of the woods on a farm in Maryland. LOVE AND VINYL premiered in the summer of 2023 at KA-CHUNK!! Records in downtown Annapolis. Bartlett wrote the Covid-inspired, twelve-episode DUCK HARBOR with EM Lewis for 1st Stage in Tysons, which aired in 2021.
He is an affiliated artist with the National New Play Network and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America. Bartlett lives in Central Maryland in an old farmhouse and is a founding member of The Welders, a Washington, DC-based, producing playwrights collective.
Performance and Ticket Information
All “LOVE AND VINYL” performances will be at Good Records, 9026 Garland Road in Dallas. Dates are June 6-23, with a preview performance June 6 at 8 p.m. and official opening Friday, June 7 at 8 p.m. The final production of LOVE AND VINYL will be June 23 at 8 p.m. Performances will occur weekly as follows: All Thursdays–Sundays at 8 p.m. There are no matinees for this production. Tickets are priced at $30 for adults, with discounted tickets available for $25 for KERA/KXT, NNPN, TCG members, student, and seniors 65+.
Kitchen Dog Theatre’s ALL Free Ticket Program, with six free tickets available to all who would otherwise be unable to attend, is also available. Participation is on a first-come, first-serve basis, in person at the box office, 30 minutes before every performance. For more information specific to this unique performance, please visit kitchendogtheater.org or call 214-953-1055.
Please Note: This performance of LOVE AND VINYL contains adult language. Seating in this venue will be very limited.
Kitchen Dog Theater is supported, in part, by, City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture, Karve Media & Creative Services, Moody Fund for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, The Shubert Foundation, SullivanPerkins, TACA, Texas Commission on the Arts, Texas Instruments Foundation., Texas Travel Industry Recovery Program, and individual donors.
