Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey J. Adler.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am an actor, writer, and theater producer. I performed as the klutzy recurring guest star Carl Cramer in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Bunheads on the Freeform network, and, prior to the pandemic, I shot a guest starring role opposite Wanda Sykes on her upcoming sitcom The Upshaws! I am a proud playwright of The Actor’s Studio, Alliance for Jewish Theater, and a Fellow of the Inquiry for Jewish Artists. I have had play productions and readings produced from The Actor’s Studio, Mixily Presents, Jewish Women’s Theater, NuRoots, and Actors Circle Ensemble.
Has it been a smooth road?
Over the course of nine years, I’ve probably auditioned close to 400 separate times, for one line roles, lead roles, and everything in between. I performed as the body double for an animatronic sheep in a Swedish telecommunications commercial (yes, that was a weird experience), shot a national commercial as the Turbo Tax “meow” Tech Brag guy, and screen-tested with the iconic Robert De Niro for a feature film in New York. However, in between these wonderful opportunities, I delivered more than 1,200 jobs for Postmates, taught on-camera acting to children & teens, potted flowers for a couple of Hollywood events, played guitar as the Friday night band Purplejacket at the famed Lucy’s El Adobe, and gave tours as a page for Paramount Studios. Even though I never ironed my uniform, I’d like to think that I was the best page because I treated it as an acting opportunity to try out accents and physical mannerisms, but you’d have to ask the myriad of guests I led over two years.
Even with all of these odd jobs and fun jobs and what-the-hell-am-I-doing jobs, I found myself writing more and more, to the point where I kept returning to a specific play entitled Birdy over a period of eight years. The story follows Birdy Warlo, a promising concert pianist, who destroyed her career and family with alcoholism. When her estranged daughter returns, Birdy must choose between forgiveness or violence.
The play came to a head when Actors Circle Ensemble produced a staged reading of the script in 2019 at The New Collective LA to a packed audience. Since then, the script cycled through two more additional development opportunities at The Actors Studio Play Development Unit, placed as a finalist for the Screencraft Stage Play Contest and Vitruvian Award, and recently rated in The Red List Top 10 Stage Plays of 2020. Finally, I am overjoyed to announce that the script has now been published by Smith Scripts of the U.K for licensing in performance. I am now underway in adapting the script into a feature film.
Yet, the unending circuity of writing and rewriting pales in comparison to the incalculable amount of time it takes to get other people involved to help or fully produce the story. The same is true for screenplays and books, both of which I’ve developed as well. From co-writing the children’s book Yorkietown with my sister Kari Adler under the pseudonym Boychick & Bear, which partnered with the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, Drag Queen Story Hour, and Gelson’s Markets to co-writing a romantic comedy, which is in development with the incredible production company Rumble Riot Pictures (Cut Throat City dir. by The RZA). It’s all hard and arduous and sometimes you have to let a project go to come back to it at another time.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with PICplays – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
The program that I am most proud about is the New Works series “PICplays: Perform Inform Change” that I co-created and developed with Swedish theater artist Victoria Nilsson at the onset of the pandemic. Victoria directed a short play that I wrote for The Actors Studio’s Short Play Web First via Zoom about Amazon employees preparing for a sit-down strike in protest of the corporate behemoth’s denial to recognize a union entitled American Courage In A Fulfillment Center. Victoria and I have never met in person, but we hit it off as collaborators and sought to produce a wide-ranging series that was free and open to the public.
We produced and developed five events, related to the most pressing issues of our day: Unionism in America, Environmentalism, Education & Youth Empowerment, Discrimination, and Health Care. Each event featured three short plays by acclaimed writers from Japan, U.K., Puerto Rico, and multiple states across the US. The plays ranged in characters and content, such as Hassan Abdulrazzak’s play inspired by the tragic events of Congolese-British citizen Belly Mujinga to Martha Magruder’s environmental play about endangered salmon and water rights in Northern California. Each evening concluded with a presentation and Q&A by a prominent expert in the field. I had the great honor to interview the following academics: Deborah Meier (iconic school reformer), Dr. Erik Loomis (labor historian and author of A History of America In 10 Strikes), Dr. Shannon Elizabeth Bell (environmental sociologist & author of Fighting King Coal), Dr. Donavan L. Ramon (expert in African-American literature & author of the forthcoming book Betraying Their Colored Descent: Racial Passing in American Literature), and Dr. Robert Pollin (economist and specialist in universal health care). The goal is to unite artists and academics to inspire and inform audiences.
We look forward to producing SERIES II of “PICplays: Perform Inform Change” this fall 2020 with a variety of potential new topics, that may include: American Militarism, Immigration, Domestic Violence, and Animal Conservation. I also look forward to our (soon to be officially announced) LGBTQ+ new works short play festival in January 2021.
If you would like to register as an audience member for either festival or reach out as a possible collaborator, please fill out these short forms!
Artists are vital to the way issues are discussed in the public square. Our current world is no different than the ancient Greeks who probed the human psyche. And because theatre, film, and television have completely stalled, now, more than ever, we need storytelling to help us understand and discuss important and global issues at hand. To know we are not alone in this quarantined world. In addition to providing live storytelling for avid theatre goers, we found that PICplays is also a wonderful opportunity to reach individuals who may not have experienced the catharsis and exhilaration of live theatre in their lives.
We endeavored for this series to be an opportunity not only to write compelling, impactful stories and present them, but to give creatives a chance to meet, collaborate and workshop their material without geographic barriers.
I hope you continue to follow my journey as an actor, writer, and theater producer!
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What I like best:
To be successful in the theatrical arts, an individual must be collaborative by nature. Los Angeles allows you to meet and work with artists from all around the world on a variety of projects. It is endlessly exciting.
What needs to be solved:
Much like the rest of America, Los Angeles is not immune from the horrors of massive wealth disparity and racial inequality. However, LA is very much front and center with some of the worst instances of homelessness across the country. And if you’re not living on the street, people (many of my friends) live paycheck-to-paycheck, are underpaid, receive minimum benefits, and the list goes on and on. Though this is a gargantuan issue that can not simply be resolved by charities, when the government does not address the issue, it is important to empower non-profits. Lee Sherman leads a wonderful organization called “Mama D Feeds The Homeless.” If you can donate, please do https://www.facebook.com/mamadfeedsthehomeless/
Contact Info:
- Website: www.CaseyJAdler.com
- Phone: 760.835.0185
- Contact: https://www.caseyjadler.com/contact
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AdlerFlugel/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/CaseyJAdler
- Twitter: twitter.com/CaseyJAdler1
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3323508/
Image Credit:
Image 1 (clockwise): Tamiko Washington, Andre Devin, Sean Burgos, Victoria Nilsson, Casey J. Adler; Image 2 (Poster): Artwork by Taylor Whiting; Image 3 (clockwise): Emily Kimball, Amanda Berke, Vikki Kelleher, Tunisha Hubbard; Image 5: Kala Ross; Image 6: Casey J. Adler; Image 8: Dr. Donavan L. Ramon & Casey J. Adler
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