Artist Soapbox * Audio fiction + Creative Process

Artist Soapbox * Audio fiction + Creative Process


089: More theater! The past, present, and future of Manbites Dog Theater with co-founders Ed Hunt and Jeff Storer. [Durham 150 Artist Spotlight]

October 14, 2019

“If a dog bites a man, who cares, but if a man bites a dog…that’s news!” This episode features Ed Hunt and Jeff Storer, the co-founders of Manbites Dog Theater, a professional company founded in 1987, dedicated to world and regional premieres of contemporary work. Ed and Jeff discuss the past, present and the future of the company including the inception and growth of Manbites Dog Theater, as well as the transition to the Manbites Dog Theater Fund. With the closing and selling of their Foster Street location in 2018,  Manbites Dog transitioned into serving as a funding and support agency for theater companies and artists in the Triangle region. What a magnificent gift to theatre artists (and their audiences) in our community!

On a personal note, Manbites Dog Theater, Jeff, Ed and the rest of the Manbites Family have had a profound and lasting impact on my life personally and professionally. There are scores of other Triangle theatre-makers who can say the same. I was one of Jeff’s students at Duke way back in the 90s and his teaching and directing are still reference points for me today. Thru the early 2000s,  both hands theatre company, a company that I co-founded with Cheryl Chamblee performed our unconventional work at Manbites Dog multiple times, and I was thrilled to be onstage at Manbites Dog Theater multiple times over the last 15 years including during both of my pregnancies and in the final season at the Foster Street location. The performances that I witnessed there as an audience member affected me deeply. Scroll down to see links to podcast episodes related to Manbites Dog Theater.

Jeff Storer and Ed Hunt

BIOS

In addition to being co-founder and Artistic Director of Manbites Dog Theater and the Manbites Dog Theater Fund, Jeff Storer is co-author of Indecent Materials, which opened the 1990 season at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, and has co-authored Tune for Tommy, Hotline, and an adaptation of Allan Gurganus’ Plays Well With Others. Jeff has directed over 150 full length works since 1975 in New York City, Portland, Oregon, Boston, Winter Park, (Florida) and Dallas. He is currently a full professor of the practice and former chairman in the Department of Theater Studies at Duke University, where he has taught since 1982.

Ed Hunt has served as managing director and co-artistic director of Manbites Dog  since its beginning in 1987. He grew up in New Bern, North Carolina, and saw his first Broadway plays (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Beyond the Fringe, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) at the age of 16 on a 1963 trip to New York with his father. Since 1984, he has lived in Durham, North Carolina with his partner Jeff Storer, whom he married in 2013 after an extended courtship. 

Related posts and podcast episodes:

* This week is amazing: funding, publicity and a reading* 058: Prepare and connect. Actor Lakeisha Coffey shares her theatre wisdom and her gratitude.* 045: Old work in a new way. both hands theatre company performs a scene from 2001.* 025: Artist and nonprofit leader Cheryl Chamblee coaches creatives in times of transition*