La Commedia del Sangue: Vampyr Theatre (1992–1997) was a series of plays on the theme of vampires, first performed in New York City. It was started by playwright Tony Sokol as an extension of his 1986 show "I was Thirsty and You Drowned Me," a vampire ritual performance piece Sokol performed at the Anarchist's Switchboard, Centerfold and other clubs. The first Vampyr Theatre performance was at Le Bar Bat in May 1992. Sokol had placed ads in the back pages of New York City newspapers asking, "Are you a vampire?" eventually interviewing hundreds of self-professed vampires. These interviews became the framework for the 13 plays he wrote for La Commedia del Sangue.
Performance history
The Le Bar Bat performances were directed by Rosalie Traina, who had commissioned Sokol to write "The Summer After," a play about San Francisco in 1968. Among the original cast were Troy Acree, Mario Giacalone, Rosalie Traina, Lori Tomlinson, Tony Sokol, Shaunte Shayde, Sasha Graham, Jay Collagen and Jay Cavadi. Vampyr Theatre performed Sokol's scripts "The Auction," directed by Rosalie Traina, and "One of Us" directed by Sokol. Special effects were done by Chris Davis and Rick Crane. Original music was written and performed by the troupe's musical counterpart, Vampyr Theatre, which consisted of composers/musicians Bob Sushko, Ted Dailey and Tony Sokol.
La Commedia del Sangue was the topic of a two-part interview on Hispanic New York on WORK-AM during the Le Bar Bat run.
A group of interviewees who gathered for the Le Bar Bat shows would create the "vampire access line," a club that assembled information on vampire happenings around the city. The club began throwing its own vampire events and would eventually be taken over by prosthetic fang specialist Father Todd and become Sabretooth, the premier booking agent the city's vampire community.
The troupe moved to Zone DK, a weekly underground event of dark performances at the S&M club Paddles to perform "To Avenge, Divine" directed by Kurt Anthony. Added to the cast at this time were Justine Lambert and Jim Dowd. Rick Crane and Adam Barnick, who remained with the show until 1995, created special effects.
Vampyr Theatre revamped the first few plays and added Sokol's scripts "The Flesh, the Fantasy and the Fury" and "Welcome Home" and the troupe moved to Cafe Arielle, under the direction of Tony Sokol. At this point Mario Giacalone rejoined the cast and directed new plays at the troupe's new venue, Don't Tell Mama, where Sokol penned new scripts, among them "Blood Is Thicker than Water," which was also performed at Planet Rock Pub in Newark, N.J. Among the cast members at this time were Ed Lingan, Jennifer Coldwell, Jenice Malecki, Adam Weinberg and Greta Watson. Added to the special effects crew was makeup artist, Tyler Wolk.
During the Cafe Arielle run, Lori Tomlinson and Sasha Graham created a production company, New Moon Productions, and mounted "No Exit." Among the cast were several La Commedia del Sangue members, including Jim Dowd. Incidental music was written by Sokol.
For "Blood Is thicker Than Water," "One of Us" and "More Than You Can Chew," La Commedia del Sangue moved to Creative Place Theater and the directorial duties were taken over by Troy Acree, who would direct the bulk of the remaining plays. Shaunte Shayde and Sokol directed two club performances. Among the cast members during these performances were Tracy Dillon, Mark Lang, Caroline Surace, Noelle Nesgoda, Guadalupe Yepes and Nicole Smokler.
During the run of "More Than You Can Chew," Sokol appeared on The Joan Rivers Show, along with horror movie critic, David Skal and a group of vampires from Chicago. This was followed by "Let Us Prey," which opened at Creative Place Theater in November 1993", moved to Theatre 22 and ran there until March 1994(10). By this time it caught the attention of Michael Musto, who reviewed it for the Daily News on Jan. 28, 1994, who wrote "Every bit as weird as it sounds, "Prey"—written by horror/comedy scribe TONY SOKOL for the troupe La Commedia Del Sangue—presents its eerie rituals with conviction, unabashedly lacing the vampires' ruthless survival tactics with more of a raw sexuality than the misty romanticism they're usually diluted by."" Among the cast at this time were Steve Lynch, Karie Ehrlich, Esther Weerd, Mark Lang, Tina Wu, Dianne Acciavati, Dawn Marchan, Shaunte Shayde, Jericho De'Angelo, Roslyn, Rick Crane, Lauren Bailey, Tony Sokol, Adam Barnick, Troy Acree, Marcia Canestrano, Sophia Valaikas and vampire musician Jerico DeAngelo..
During the run of "Let Us Prey," Troy Acree and Dawn Marshan appeared on the Joe Franklin Radio Show.