Hot Ticket!!!

It doesn't get much better than this. Last night we sold out.

It felt like like opening night all over again. The audience's
excitement lifted the performances.

Trevor Brown, who has done such an amazing job handling our marketing,
ironically spent the last few days turning people away...

But he'd be the first to add, there are still seats available for the
last two performances, this Saturday and next.

Opening night

Actress Lois Robbins & Producer Barbara Ligeti celebrate.

Producer Barbara Ligeti

There was some discussion of my play taking us down the rabbit hole.
In case anyone was doubting it, we now have the Mad Hatter in the
person of Barbara Ligeti...

Actually it was raining and she doesn't know I captured her taking
cover iuside the theatre beneath a plant pot, but it really is a
fabulous image!!

Barbara and I were introduced by a mutual friend appropriately at an
art opening and became fast friends and colleagues.

She's been a pillar of support ever since. I'm blessed to have her in
my life and engaged in my career.

Psycho Therapy is but one of many pending projects that we're working
on together, including a film version of a novel I've written.

Frank Strausser

Opening night Lois Robbins gave me a Park Avenue Cat in honor of Lily,
the one she plays so wonderfully.

Frank Strausser

Reflections on the eve

In case anyone was wondering what a playwright does before the first
performance of a show... Well, if he's in New York, he goes for a walk
in Central Park. But this being Psycho Therapy though I wonder if I
shouldn't be splashing about in this fountain naked. I guess I'm just
the sort of writer who puts it on the page and leaves it at that. Or
am I?

If by chance I don't make it to the performance tonight know that I'm
not at Bethesda Terrace anymore, but Bellevue.

Michael Bush on therapy (in Psycho Therapy)

Actress Lois Robbins

When Lois Robbins told me that before her audition she went through the Psycho Therapy script line by line with a therapist, I was so flattered and impressed.

I've really enjoyed watching her build and inhabit the Lily character. Lois is so creative and ingenious. A natural comedian! Well, maybe that's why I find her such fun to be round...

Frank Strausser

Actress Pamela Shaw

There are so many stereotypes about therapy and therapists. What makes someone want to be a therapist? To get sucked into the world of people's dysfunction?

Pamela Shaw brings such grace and intelligence to the role of therapist Nancy Winston. And is sooo compelling and believable. I mean not everyone can play a psycho therapist.

Frank Strausser

Director Michael Bush

Just over two years ago Michael Bush dramaturged my play The Split.
Over seven weeks and four trips to New York, this world class
dramaturge gave me a tutoral in dramatic writing that pushed the play
to a new level. We saluted our acheivement with a reading of The Split
at Symphony Space.

I returned to LA and immediately began to outline Psycho Therapy.
It's fair to say that I employed lessons learned from Michael in
creating a tight play with strong narrative drive. It seems only
appropriate that Michael direct.

I feel very fortunate to have found a director with his gifts.
Michael is my friend and, I'm pleased to say, my director.

Frank Strausser

Michael Bush on "Psycho Therapy"

The Play About a Sofa

As the playwright, I'd like to think this play is about weighty
issues, but the producer and the director are obsessing about the
sofa. I see this article of furniture as being something akin to a
love seat, a sofa for two. But as a practical matter this couch has to
be transportable and storeable. Given that this is a "developmental
run" at a Festival, there is the humbling realization that a truly big
couch might have to be lugged up and down the fire escape. And that
we only have ten minutes to set up. What if it didn't arrive on
time? What if the actors had to act in a play that mostly takes place
in a therapist's office without a couch?

As a play that challenges our assumptions about therapy, I
wonder if it wouldn't be better if this weren't the one therapist's
office without a couch.

Frank Strausser

The isosceles triagle

An isosceles triangle is a triangle with (at least) two equal sides...

Why I need therapy

My life sometimes feels like a revolving door. There's this woman and that. And I wonder sometimes, as I'm wondering in this play, if it makes any difference who we do couples therapy with. Is it the same narrative? I'd like to believe it'd be different if there were someone else in the chair opposite. How interchangeable are partners?

Frank Strausser

The Origins of the the species

I first conceived of Psycho Therapy back in 2001, coming up with the title and the idea that two strangers meet in a coffee shop and get to talking about how they'd both like to do therapy but for the cost. They then come up with the bright idea of going in as a couple to save money. Only thing is I spoke to a therapist who said, "I'd know in two minutes they weren't a couple."

Six years later I happened on a more promising scenario.

Frank Strausser