FIRST LIAR ON THE MOON Comes to Theater For The New City's Dream Up Festival

Theater lovers are in for a provocative new experience with the world premiere of First Liar on the Moon, the gripping new play written and directed by Fletcher Michael.   The production debuts at Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival 2025, bringing audiences a history-bending satire about truth and the power of belief.  Performed by Collin Dennis, Teddy Fischer, Nicole Ponce, Christopher Hanks and Patrick Walsh.

“First Liar on the Moon” imagines that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were not astronauts who walked on the moon, but actors who have been duped into participating in a government conspiracy. While Buzz rides the momentum of the conspiracy to a promising career in politics, Neil is crushed by the weight of the deception, descending into bitterness and cynicism.

““This play examines one of American history's most tantalizing conspiracy theories as a means of exploring the fallacy of American exceptionalism,” says playwright Fletcher Michael. “It's about the perils of building an identity -- whether for an individual or a country -- atop a cracked foundation.”

Director Fletcher Michael adds: “This production is not just about a historic event or two men, but American identity itself. Our goal is to satirize a well-known historical event through an absurdly comic plot to hold a magnifying glass up to our present moment of institutional distrust, economizing of the self, and greeting the apocalypse with ennui.”

With laugh-out-loud comedy, distinct characters, and tense confrontations, “First Liar on the Moon” is a satire for our time.

Fletcher Michael is the founder of Infinite Monkey Theater Co., through which he writes, directs, and produces full-length comedic plays and the Off-Broadway sketch comedy show *Chimp Cocktail*. Following ten sold-out shows in 2024, *Chimp Cocktail* headlined the 10th Annual NYC SketchFest (2024) and was awarded The PIT Sketch Group of the Year. Infinite Monkey Theater Co. had its Off-Broadway premiere with *Chimp Cocktail* at The Players Theatre in May 2025, and the show has also been staged on The Second City mainstage and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Prior to this, IMTC staged *Til Death Do Us Party*, a full-length comedic play, at the Hudson Guild Theatre as part of the New York Theater Festival (2024). The screenplay version of *Til Death Do Us Party* was a quarter finalist in the Filmmatic Comedy Screenplay Awards (2024), and Fletcher's short film screenplay *Block Island Is Somewhere* was a finalist in the 2022 Tribeca Studios Film Festival Competition.

Beyond writing for the stage and screen, Fletcher is the author of three novels. More information about his past, current, and upcoming projects can be found at fletcherisuptosomething.com .