THE BULLPEN is an 18-character play written and performed by Joe Assadourian and directed by Richard Hoehler. A man is arrested, arraigned and put on trial for a crime he claims he did not commit. Consequently he is judged by two systems of jurisprudence- one a jury of his peers more...
in an actual courtroom and the other the fascinating and hilarious denizens of the bullpen in which he is being held. Mr. Assadourian mercurially transforms from character to character and court to court as the play steamrolls toward both verdicts that literally range from the sublime to the ridiculous.
JOE ASSADOURIAN received the 1st Place PEN Prison Writing Award for his play, Heaven. He is also the recipient of a 2nd Place PEN Award for Joey Shakespear, co-written with Brandon Cochrane, featured at the New Work Now reading series at The Public Theatre and presented by The Collective Theatre in Miami. He is also the author of a full-length play, Deliberation, a modern recounting of the Armenian Holocaust. As an actor, Joe has appeared in Race by David Mamet, Tuff Love (including work by Sam Shepard and John Patrick Shanley) and Inside Out, an original theatre piece co-written with the inmates at Otisville Correctional Institution. The Bullpen is based on his experiences at various institutions including Otisville.
RICHARD HOEHLER has premiered three original solo shows Off Broadway, New Jersey-New York, Working Class (OOBR Best Solo Performance) and Human Resources (Best of the Fest, MITF.) He was the founding Artistic Director of The American Line Theatre Company that premiered over forty new plays and his original play, Fathers and Sons opened Off Broadway in 2009. As an actor he has performed in New York, regionally and abroad and has been featured on the Law and Order series, NYPD Blue, Third Watch and The Black Box. He is the director the Random House Awards ceremony presented each year at Symphony Space and is the creator and director of Acting Out, a professional acting class and performance workshop for at-risk teens and adults that is currently in residence at the Fortune Society and Otisville Correctional Facility.
