Josh Tobiessen

Pace University's Actors Studio Drama School Master of Fine Arts Program today announced the return of its emblematic Repertory Season featuring the acting, directing, and playwriting Class of 2020 with five consecutive weeks of live performances, beginning Oct. 20, 2021. 

Imagine for a minute going home... moving away, and coming back to the town you once knew. The town you grew up in, fell in and out of love, and yet something still calls you back home. This ideal and the centralized themes that lessons from our past will continue to haunt our futures is the heart of the story found deep within the roots of Josh Tobiessen's Lone Star Spirits on stage at freeFall Theatre after its transfer from the Hippodrome in Gainsville. Josh Tobiessen's script is smart, edgy and full of laughs and is a thrilling comedy keeping you tuned in from the first beer to the last shot of whiskey. Director Stephanie Lynge and the entire producing team at the Hippodrome have put together a top notch show that is so fine-tuned you feel just as much a part of this small town as the characters at its center. Something very intriguing about this story is the dialogue and the flow in which its delivered. I think Director Stephanie Lynge said it best in her Director's Notes by saying, 'When you read the script, you can hear the pattern of the dialogue and how it trips along, builds to a joke, and then tops it again with another. And each individual character has their own voice, even in the writing. You can hear the dry humor of Jessica and the stumbling nature of Walter just from reading off the page. A truly gifted comedic writer like Mr. Tobiessen is a gift to a director and the actors as well, guiding us into the world he has created.' This is just one very true testament of what makes this show great.

Marley (freeFall favorite Marissa Toogood) is back in her small Texas hometown for what she hopes to be an easy trip to deal with some family business. When she arrives at her estranged father's liquor store with her hipster fiancé, there is a collision between who she is and where she comes from. By the time Marley finally manages to reveal to her father the real reason for her visit, things are further complicated by the ghost of the bear-wrestling pioneer who used to live in the store. LONE STAR SPIRITS is a fast-paced comedy with hairpin turns that takes a hilarious and sympathetic look at family, spirituality, those who stay and those who leave, and the ghosts that haunt us either way.

freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg and The Hippodrome Theatre in Gainesville have joined forces to co-present LONE STAR SPIRITS opening February 29 and closing March 29 at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg. There will be two previews on February 28 at 8pm and February 29 at 2pm.

The Hippodrome Theatre in Gainesville and freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg and have joined forces to co-present LONE STAR SPIRITS opening January 24 and closing February 16. The Hippodrome will then transfer the production to freeFall for performances at their venue opening on February 29 and running through March 29.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents The Lion in Winter, a fascinating look at two of the most iconic figures in English history. The play premiered on Broadway in 1966 and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning movie. The production runs from January 4 -19, 2019.

Crowded Outlet announces its next production, beep boop, a multimedia clown show created by physical comedian Richard Saudek (Balls at 59E59), TV and film composer Jesse Novak ("BoJack Horseman," "The Mindy Project") and director Wes Grantom (Lone Star Spirits, Eager to Lose). beep boop will play a limited engagement at HERE (145 6th Ave, New York, NY 10013; enter on Dominick, 1 Block South of Spring), performing Thursday September 6th through Sunday, September 30th. The Opening is Saturday, September 8th.

Desert Ensemble Theatre Company (DETC) has announced its 2018-19 season, including the musical revue Double Time as its Eighth Season Opening Gala; For a Reason, a new drama by Palm Springs' acclaimed playwright Tony Padilla; Proof, the winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Drama; and Graceland/Asleep on the Wind, a pair of intimate, one-act dramedies.

Desert Ensemble Theatre's production of Josh Tobiessen's off-Broadway comedy, ELECTION DAY, is a winner. All five actors deliver howlingly funny performances, full of mostly impeccable timing and seemingly effortless physical comedy.

Tickets are now on sale for Desert Ensemble Theatre Company's production of Election Day, an off-Broadway hit by Josh Tobiessen. Desert Theatre League Award winner Rosemary Mallett directs this farcical take on contemporary politics, described by The New York Times as An outrageous comedy...at double-espresso speed.

Pioneer Theatre Company will produce A Comedy of Tenors by Ken Ludwig, opening Oct. 20, 2017. The hilarious sequel to the Tony Award-winning 1989 comedy Lend Me a Tenor is directed by Wes Grantom and will run through Nov. 4, 2017.

Here's to the Ladies, a musical revue, will be Desert Ensemble Theatre's 2017-18 Season Opening Gala for its seventh season. For the first time since the event's inception in 2014, this show will offer a second performance: Friday, Nov. 17 includes a pre-show reception at 6pm followed by a 7pm performance; and Sat., Nov. 18, a 7pm performance only.

Following the success of their inaugural season, which included NYT Critic's Pick Lone Star Spirits by Josh Tobiessen, Crowded Outlet, is announcing a season of new work created by multi-disciplinary artists with their new Generator program.

Another smart and funny new play fresh from a successful Off-Broadway run has landed in Minneapolis. In addition to Josh Tobiessen's hilarious and heart-breaking LONE STAR SPIRITS at the Jungle Theater, we also have Qui Nguyen's ambitious and genre-blending VIETGONE at Mixed Blood Theatre. The playwright tells the story of his parents meeting a Vietnamese refugee camp in 1975 Arkansas in an inventive and totally unique style. VIETGONE is part rap musical, part romantic comedy, part bawdy sex comedy, part war story, and all engrossing. It's in-your-face and squirm-inducing, but is utterly effective in communicating the refugee experience and making at least this audience member rethink their views on the Vietnam War and American involvement.

Y'all, Jungle Theater's LONE STAR SPIRITS got me feeling all the feels! Hilarious and heart-breaking, it's one of the best plays I've seen this year. Brought to us by wife/husband director/playwright team Sarah Rasmussen and Josh Tobiessen, it features crisply drawn characters beautifully brought to life by a brilliant five-person cast, an incredibly detailed and realistic set, family drama, a poignant exploration of small town life, ghosts, country music, and accidental gunshots. I was laughing throughout the show and wiping away tears at the end, which is pretty much my favorite kind of play. Friends, you'd be wise to get on down to the Jungle between now and May 7 to experience this practically perfect 90 minutes of theater.

Primary Stages presents the New York premiere of FADE, written by Tanya Saracho (Mala Hierba) and directed by Jerry Ruiz (Basilica). The cast of FADE will feature Annie Dow (SONG FOR THE DISAPPEARED) as 'Lucia' and Eddie Martinez ('Sense8') as 'Abel'.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents 'i' as part of the 2016-2017 Play-by-Play season. The staged readings will take place at the Dumke Auditorium of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) on Today, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, 2017.  'i' is a mysterious love story about the threads that bind us together, set a couple days after tomorrow.

Primary Stages presents the New York premiere of FADE, written by Tanya Saracho (Mala Hierba) and directed by Jerry Ruiz (Basilica). The cast of FADE will feature Annie Dow (SONG FOR THE DISAPPEARED) as 'Lucia' and Eddie Martinez ('Sense8') as 'Abel'.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents 'i' as part of the 2016-2017 Play-by-Play season. The staged readings will take place at the Dumke Auditorium of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28, 2017.  'i' is a mysterious love story about the threads that bind us together, set a couple days after tomorrow.

Primary Stages has announced complete casting today for the New York premiere of FADE, written by Tanya Saracho (Mala Hierba) and directed by Jerry Ruiz (Basilica).