Mike Albo Returns to Dixon Place This October

Dixon Place's (Ellie Covan, Founding & Artistic Director) recent commission SPERMHOOD returns by popular demand and begins performances Tuesday, October 11th 7:30 pm. Based on his Amazon Kindle bestseller, Spermhood: Diary of a Donor, writer and performer Mike Albo, comes back to Dixon Place with his hilarious account of the year he spent donating sperm for his friends.

Directed by David Schweizer, SPERMHOOD will play five performances only: October 11th, October 17th, October 19th at 7:30 pm and October 22nd and October 29th at 10:00 pm at Dixon Place (161 Chrystie Street). Tickets are $19 in advance, $22 at the door, and $15 for students and seniors which can all be purchased by visiting www.dixonplace.org or by calling (866) 811-4111or Dixon Place at (212) 219-0736.

Acclaimed writer and performer Mike Albo's comedy SPERMHOOD chronicles the year he spent trying to make a baby with his friends, a lesbian couple. Albo explores the insanity of modern digital dating, the reproductive industry, the lingering shadow of AIDS for gay men, and what it takes to be a father.

The New York Times called SPERMHOOD, "funny, provocative... theatrical, touching and gently, irresistibly comical". Albo has also been referred to as "the ultimate satirist of the downtown New York social landscape," by The New York Times, and "a wonderful performer" by The New Yorker.

Mike Albo's (writer/performer) solo shows include Spray, My Price Point & most recently, The Junket, which was directed by David Schweizer at Dixon Place in 2014 before moving Off-Broadway to the Lynn Redgrave Theater. His work has been praised in many publications, including, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Independent in London, The Boston Globe, The Pittsburgh Tribune & The Los Angeles Times. He is the author of the novel Hornito: My Lie Life (HarperCollins); The Underminer, co-written with Virginia Heffernan (Bloomsbury USA); and the Amazon Kindle Singles The Junket and Spermhood.

David Schweizer (director) has been directing new theater, performance and opera work for more than forty years since his debut at age twenty-two at Lincoln Center with a radical version of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. Subsequent career high points, his Obie-Award-winning collaboration with Rinde Eckert, And God Created Great Whales, his opera staging triumph at New York City Opera, The Mines of Sulphur, Charles Mee Jr's Wintertime at Second Stage, and Mark Campbell's Songs from an Unmade Bed at New York Theater workshop. He directs nationally and internationally at all major repertory theaters and his solo performance artist/collaborators include Marga Gomez (Pound last season at Dixon Place), Sandra Tsing Loh, Mark Wolf, and many shows with Mike Albo including Junket (which debuted at Dixon Place) and My Price Point at PS 122.

Spermhood was developed as a Dixon Place commission, with public funds from NY State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NY State Legislature, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and private funds from The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation and The Peg Santvoord Foundation.

The Dixon Place Lounge is open before and after the show. Proceeds from the bar directly support Dixon Place's artists and mission.

Dixon Place is located at 161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey), in Manhattan's Lower East Side (By subway: B/D to Grand, F to 2nd Ave, J/Z to Bowery, 6 to Spring St, M to Essex St).

About Dixon Place

An artistic incubator since 1986, Dixon Place is a Bessie and Obie Award-winning non-profit institution committed to supporting the creative process by presenting original works of theater, dance, music, puppetry, circus arts, literature and visual art at all stages of development. Presenting over 1000 creators a year, this local haven inspires and encourages diverse artists of all stripes and callings to take risks, generate new ideas and consummate new practices. Many artists, such as Blue Man Group, John Leguizamo, Lisa Kron, David Cale, David Drake, Deb Margolin and Reno, began their careers at DP. In addition to emerging artists, Dixon Place has been privileged to present established artists such as Mac Wellman, Holly Hughes, Justin Bond, Karen Finley, Kate Clinton and Martha Wainwright. After spawning a salon in her Paris apartment in 1985, founding Artistic Director Ellie Covan pioneered the institution in her NYC living room for 23 years. Covan was a recipient of a Bessie, a New York Dance and Performance Award and a Bax10 Award for her service to the community. Dixon Place received two Obie Awards, and an Edwin Booth Award for Excellence in Theater. Dixon Place has organically developed and expanded into a leading professional, state-of-the-art facility for artistic expression.