‘One-man show, lots to think about’ By Donna Cohh Viertel

One-man show, lots to think about

By Donna Cohh Viertel
ESP Reporter

On July 26 at 8 p.m., theatre-loving audiences at the Unison Arts Center in New Paltz will be treated to an evening of true-life tales by an award-winning show business veteran who is presenting a brand new one-person show.

Actor and playwright Doug Motel, whose two-year old daughter attends Lederman Children’s Center (LCC) in Stone Ridge, will perform his new show, “StarDUST (Adventures in Consciousness).” All proceeds from the performance of will go to LCC, a nonprofit, community-based school for children ages 18 months through 5 years.

StarDUST is an exhibition of Motel’s autobiographical life journey where he tells the stories of the times that he has spent a lifetime trying to forget: from the embarrassing moments, to the funny and the serious times as well. “StarDUST” is just Motel’s latest hit. He is the author of several critically acclaimed solo plays including “Mick In America,” “Shiva Arms” (winner of the L.A. Weekly award for Best Solo Performance and winner of Theatre LA Ovation award for Best Writing of a World Premier play, Best Actor and Best Production), and “Mind Salad.”

In StarDUST, he not only talks about his perspective on working in LA’s film and television business, but also his hilarious stories about being a teenage stand-up comic living in a rundown hotel in Times Square in the ’80s, his eyewitness accounts of earthquakes and riots, and his heartbreaking story about being in lower Manhattan on the tragic day of Sept. 11,2001.

Motel tours nationally and internationally as a storyteller, but has recently made Rosendale his home base. Having witnessed some of America’s recent miracles and tragedies, he has much to reveal in this new show about man’s inhumanity to man and the possibility of our creating a Utopian world, all against the backdrop of his own desperate grab for 15 minutes of fame.

To truly understand how Motel is more than well worth the price of his $15 admission to the show, visit www. DougMotel.com and view the five-minute preview video. He may be a show business veteran, but he certainly does not have his head in the clouds. He is, instead, quite down to earth living right here in our community with his wife, Carrie Wykoff, a singer, ritualist and cultural events programmer, and their daughter, Maitreya. And all he wants to do is make us laugh at how human we all are.

“I’ve learned that it’s okay to be personal,” said Motel. “The more personal you are, the more universal what you do seems to be.”

To purchase tickets to StarDUST, go on line to www. DougMotel.com or call 363-4728.