all wear bowlers

Directed by Aleksandra Wolska
​Created and performed by Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford

Drawing from the world of 1930s-era physical comedy, all wear bowlers tells the story of two silent film actors who fall off of the screen to find themselves  in a clown show. The internationally acclaimed performance combines physical comedy routines with stage magic, vaudevillian patter and filmed action imbued with the pathos of Laurel and Hardy, desolate humor of Samuel Beckett, and visual poetry of René Magritte. 


Indeed, it’s hard to imagine the kind of daring and ingenuity in all wear bowlers in the commercial theater. It’s one more reason to feel foolish about spending money on a Broadway show.   
- The New York Times

The play’s absurdist veneer lends … familiar illusions fresh charm, and the perfectly choreographed slapstick coalesces into something delightfully darker. Rubber-faced, lithe-limbed and sleight-handed, Lyford and Sobelle are surreal vaudevillians who ply their craft in an alternative dimension.
- Los Angeles Times
Existential vaudeville. Waiting for the Marx Brothers. It’s fall-off-your-chair funny and it’s catch-your-breath moving, full of imagination, split-second timing, classic magic tricks, ventriloquism and astonishingly skilled clowning around. The brilliantly talented Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford created and perform this homage to Beckett, Laurel and Hardy, and the painter Rene Magritte. Don’t miss it!
​- Philadelphia City Paper


​Production History: 
Philadelphia Fringe Festival - 2003
1812 Productions (Philadelphia) - 2005
HERE Arts Center (NYC) - 2005
Aurora Nova (Edinburgh) - 2005
Princeton University - 2005
Kirk Douglas Theatre (LA) - 2005
Genoa, Italy - 2005
Berkeley Rep - 2006
Sydney Festival - 2006
Ruhrfestspiel festival (Germany) - 2006
BIPAF (South Korea) - 2006
La Jolla Playhouse - 2006
London International Mime Festival (Barbican Center) - 2007
Studio Theatre (DC) - 2008
Emelin Theatre, Mamaroneck, NY - 2012
Kingsborough College, NY - 2012


Awards: 
Drama Desk Nomination – Unique Theatrical Experience
IT Award Nomination – Outstanding Ensemble
IT Award Nomination – Outstanding Performance Art Production
Philadelphia CityPaper Best of 2003
 

machines machines machines machines machines machines ​

Directed by Aleksandra Wolska
Created and performed by Geoff Sobelle, Trey Lyford and Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel
Obie Award winning performance, machines machines machines machines machines machines machines tells the story of three isolationist American technophiles who, in an attempt to protect themselves from the outside world, bury themselves in a cacophonous landslide of ingenious (if poorly made) machines. Machines machines machines machines machines machines machines paints a portrait of contemporary American life as a place of deep-seated paranoia of the outside world, thinly veiled by an obsession with “make-your-life-easy” technology.  The play is told through a series of absurd “Rube Goldberg-like” machine encounters that follow the simple equation: “The greatest amount of effort for the least amount of gain.” The ridiculous playfulness of the machines, however, ultimately reveals a darker stream: as we grow more and more consumed by fear, we become the thing we fear.


​Gloriously demented...the actors give intricately nuanced comic performances that are perfectly in tune with the pinballing madness.
— New York Times
Awards: 
Obie Award for Design
Production History:
Studio Theatre, Washington DC
HERE Arts Center, NYC 
Philadelphia Fringe Festival 

The C​hairs​
by Eugene Ionesco

​Directed by Aleksandra Wolska
with Geoff Hoyle & Jarek Truszczynski​
Stanford Summer Theater

Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Becket

Directed by Aleksandra Wolska
 with Geoff Hoyle,  Jarek Truszczynski, Rush Rehm, and Geoff Sobelle
​​Stanford Summer Theater 
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