Ectoplasm
1912. A tense private seance in the home of a Byronesque madame
spit&vigor tiny baby blackbox theatre
115 MacDougal Street - 3C
third floor walkup
September 24th - October 31st 2026
Drama and mysteries unfold at an exclusive and private séance in the year 1912 at the home of the roguish and eccentric Madame Montfort. A mysterious guest interrupts the party and forces the guests to question their most intimate beliefs - do they believe? in love? in ghosts? In attendance: the skeptical Magician, the paranormal scientist, the blood ritualist and YOU!
An authentic turn-of-the-century seance, performed intimately spit&vigor’s style of immersive theater called “embedded” - guests sit among the players, as flies on the wall (or in this case, spirits) and observe as the mysteries unravel.
A private seance at an intimate dinner party. 1912.
Among the guests is a famous magician, hell-bent on de-bunking spiritualism. A simmering love triangle between the two spiritual mediums and a Byronesque madame adds gasoline to the tense private affair, and a mysterious uninvited guest leads the party to question life and death itself.
"There’s tenacity ground into every red velvet seat. (In other words, I love it.)"
"Hilarious. It has kept me helplessly laughing for days. (Phhhhhbbbbbft, I’ll say to myself, and that’s half an hour of productivity gone.)"
"As a writer, Fellini has good ideas about how to balance the elements — thriller, romance, comedy — against one another for best effect. She has an ear for both elegant speech and absurdity, and she often makes them rhyme."
"The company spit&vigor is in residence at the Players, and they have grown into its walls, intertwined like a webby, mycelial network. Florence Scagliarini’s set, like the theater itself, is a mix of gorgeous antiques and wobbly-looking architectural elements — extravagantly fringed lamps and candlewood gateleg tables."
"It’s roll-up-your-sleeves productions like this that sit closest to the pure urge to put on a show. There were moments in Ectoplasm that were absurd, certainly, but it wasn’t because the thinking was faulty or the playwright had decided to dissolve her play rather than end it. There’s something alive in Ectoplasm... The presence of that life hovers in the air around them, a ghost waiting to be summoned." Helen Shaw, Vulture
"Adroitly knitting the otherworldly to the inner-worldly, Ectoplasm summons forth a beguiling manifestation."
"The play cleverly nods to the blurring of lines between magic and technological progress" ~ Thinking Theater NYC
"The cast is committed and compelling in their energetic performances. The premise is charming." ~ The reviews hub
"big staging with all the trimmings" ~ Blogcritics
"inventive theater making" ~ talkingbroadway
The Company
Sara Fellini
Playwright & Director
Adam Belvo
Executive Producer
Nick Thomas
Producer
The Cast
Sara Fellini
SARA BÉRAUD CONLAN
Nick Thomas
CALLUM HOLES
Azumi Tsutsui
ANNETTE
Steve Gamble
KAL CONLAN
Adam Belvo
IRA ORINTHALL
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Yurika Ohno
MISKA CROOKES
Pheobe Mar
FRANCINE MONTFORT
Jesse Metz
GEORGE CROOKES
Cast Bios
SARA FELLINI (SARA BÉRAUD CONLAN || director & writer) is an award-winning playwright, director, actress, and skilled artisan. Her first play, HAZARD A LITTLE DEATH, was nominated for six awards at the 2014 NYC Planet Connections Theater Festivity including Best Production of a New Play and Best Lead Actress (Sara Fellini), winning Best New Script. She performed in the monodrama THE OTHER MOZART by Sylvia Milo at The Players Theatre in NYC and toured with the production (winning Cat5 magazine’s Best Theater Production of 2015, “the voice of a crystal bell, Fellini is captivating” –NOLA Defender), and created the role of Maeve Shourd in a site-specific production of IN VESTMENTS, a play of her own writing and winner of two NYIT awards, nominated for Outstanding New Full-Length Script, earning her theater company the Donn Russell grant, and acclaimed by the NYTimes as "wrenching and visually eloquent". She has appeared in another play of her own writing, THE EXECUTION OF MRS. COTTON (called "darkly humorous" and "deliciously ghoulish" by the NYTimes) as part of IRT Theater's 3B Residency. She played Mary Shelley in MARY’S LITTLE MONSTER by Thomas Kee at the mudlark public theatre in NOLA, The Davenport Theatre in NYC as part of the Davenport space grant, and intimately at Torn Page, the historic home of Rip Torn and Geraldine Page. She played baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi in her play NEC SPE / NEC METU at The Tank’s July 2017 DarkFest, at Theater Row as part of United Solo Festival, at the mudlark public theatre in NOLA, and by special invitation at The Glitter Box in Pittsburgh, PA. She played Asia Booth Clarke in THE BRUTES ("irresistibly dramatic, legitimately upsetting" - The NYTimes) by Casey Wimpee at The Flamboyan as part of The 10th Anniversary Planet Connections Festivity, nominated for 8 awards including Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Costume Design (both Sara Fellini). That production was invited by the Booth family to perform annually at The Players, Edwin Booth's historic home. During quarantine, she wrote and directed LUNA ECLIPSE, a one-shot livestream film, chosen as one of TIME OUT's Best Online Theater Productions, and she recently made her off-broadway performing and directing debut in THE WAKE OF DORCAS KELLY at The Players Theatre, a play she both wrote and directed, chosen as part of The Observer's Best Summer Theater of 2021. Her company spit&vigor has an ongoing off broadway Artistic Residency at The Players Theatre and as part of that residency she has gone on to write, direct, and perform in ECTOPLASM, (“tenacity ground into every red velvet seat - in other words, I love it” - Vulture), and she starred in BLOOD COUNTESS by Kelleen Conway Blanchard as the blood-hungry Elizabeth Bathory this past January.
ADAM BELVO (Producer || ELISHA KANE) is a Brooklyn based actor and theater producer. Recent New York acting work includes Edwin Booth in THE BRUTES (2019 NYIT Outstanding Lead Actor Nominee), John Polidori in MARY's LITTLE MONSTER, Azra Todd in THE EXECUTION OF MRS. COTTON, Danny in DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA, Father Nathan Shourd in the NYIT Award winning IN VESTMENTS, K.Bus and Muskie in Aztec Economy's BUTCHER HOLLER HERE WE COME (NYIT 2016 Outstanding Lead Actor nominee), Jack in OVER, Georges in HAZARD A LITTLE DEATH (Planet Connections Festival 2014: Best Actor Award Winner), Jaques in AS YOU LIKE IT, El Spectro in COLOR TVs IN TIJUANA, Ryszard in PONTIAC FIREBIRD VARIATIONS (Ice Factory 2011) and Vanya in UNCLE VANYA. Regionally, Adam has toured and performed as K.Bus in BUTCHER HOLLER HERE WE COME (Cincinnati Fringe Festival 2013, New Orleans Fringe Festival 2013, Out-of-the-Loop Festival 2014-Dallas, Revolutions 2016-Albuquerque, NM, Hollywood Fringe 2019, others), he has worked with MTB productions to produce and star in HELPLESS DOORKNOBS (New Orleans Fringe 2012) and as The Stranger in MY AIM IS TRUE (New Orleans Fringe 2011). He is Executive Producer of the Brooklyn based theater company spit&vigor (www.spitnvigor.com), and a collaborating member of Working Man's Clothes Productions and Aztec Economy. His work has been showcased at The 14th Street Y, The Tank, 3LD, The Ohio Theater, The New Ohio Theatre, The Davenport Theater, WestPark Presbyterian Church, The Abingdon Theater (Dorothy Strelsin and the June Havoc,) American Place Theater, Under St. Marks, and IRT Theater, among others.
NICK THOMAS (Producer || CALLUM HOLES) is an actor, writer and director from Melbourne, Australia. Recently seen in THE SHAKESPEARE RIOTS (Bay Street Theatre). Acting credits with spit&vigor include A MAN AMONG YE, MARY’S LITTLE MONSTER, ECTOPLASM, THE WAKE OF DORCAS KELLY, HIT YOUR MARK, DIE BEAUTIFUL and THE BRUTES, he recently made his off-broadway directing debut with BLOOD COUNTESS. He also writes, produces and directs original (award winning) online content with his company Blunderbuss. He was a house team performer and teacher at the Peoples’ Improv Theatre (The PIT). He also works as a freelance writer working on various TV and Film projects.
STEVEN GAMBLE (KAL CONLAN) Seve is originally from CHARLOTTE, NC and graduated from the UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON with a B.A in film studies and minor in theater. He lives in Brooklyn NYC and has been in supporting/leading roles on stage and screen. . Most recently, steve played a supporting role in Pop up! production’s off-Broadway show alexandria, Directed by Jack Morril, as well as a lead role in Fog and Filthy air, DIRECTED by Theater for the New city’s Jonathan Webber.
JESSE METZ (GEORGE CROOKES) is a New York based actor, director, and all around creative. While Jesse has performed in many different capacities and mediums throughout his career, he feels most at home on the stage. Past credits include The Vandal, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Spring Awakening. When not creating art, Jesse can be found engaging in political activism, cheering for his Detroit sports teams, and grooving along to live music. Jesse invites you all to be bold, be brave, and keep an open mind. Love to all, but mostly to Toothless, his cat.
AZUMI TSUTSUI (ANNETTE) is an actor from Osaka, Japan. She has appeared in commercials and advertisements for brands including Adobe, Renaissance Hotel, Ritz, Google, and McGraw-Hill Education.
Her film credits include the role of Melissa in 'What Have You Done,' Naomi in 'Maki,' and Good Angel in 'Apocalypsis'. On television, she hosted the Japanese program 'Made in NY.' Azumi’s voiceover work includes 'Google Pixel Help Video,' the animated film 'Mettle Creek,' and 'Metanoid' on Adult Swim.
She especially enjoys theatrical violence, driven by her passion for stage combat. She has also trained in stage fencing and Japanese sword fighting. Her stage credits include Shakespearean roles in 'Macbeth', 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', and a comedic adaptation of 'The Taming of the Shrew'.
When asked about the craziest thing she’s done on stage, she’ll tell you about the time she ate paper (edible) during a performance art piece at the Swiss Institute.
Her favorite role to date is Shep of Tartar—a half-human, half-sheep magical creature—in spit&vigor’s stage production of 'A Man Among Ye.'
In addition to acting, she plays the French horn and holds a black belt in Aikido.
www.azumitsutsuiactress.com
PHOEBE MAR (FRANCINE MONTFORT) studied acting at Marymount Manhattan College, Shakespeare & Co, and the British American Drama Academy. She is most proud of production and play in the C.S. Hanson ensemble comedy TV in MY Bones (dir. Stephen Cedars) at Theater for the New City in 2017. Noche Flamenca, NYC’s premier flamenco dance company, featured Phoebe in a Flamenco theatre piece based on the poetry of Rumi, which toured throughout CUNY campuses. From 2018-2019 Mar wrote and performed with the sketch comedy team Savage at The People’s Improv Theater. Miss Mar is in exactly one episode of the most recent season of Law and Order: SVU. During quarantine, Phoebe and her favorite collaborator, ballet dancer and choreographer Oliver Halkowich (also her brother, not just professionally) made 10 short dance comedy videos for Instagram, which were extolled in print by the Houston Chronicle.
YURIKA OHNO (MISHKA CROOKES) is an actor, singer, and voiceover artist originally from Kobe, Japan, and has been based in New York City since 2012. She was most recently seen as Ginny Yang in Smart People by Lydia Diamond (Silverthorne Theater, MA).
New York credits include Ruki in a reading of White Pearl by Anchuli Felicia King (Columbia@Roundabout), Minami in The Adventures of Minami by Leah Nanako Winkler (The Brick), and Mei Sing in One Day in Old Chinatown by Marcus Yi (Pan Asian Repertory Theatre).
Her voiceover work includes national and international commercials, video games, airline announcements, automated phone systems, and public service announcements. Yurika is grateful to be part of this production!!