REAL 1
REal 1
Written & Performed by Ian eaton
Directed by carlo d’amore
REAL 1, written and performed by Ian Eaton, is an original coming-of-age story centered on identity, acceptance, and forgiveness through the eyes of an artistic kid growing up in West Harlem in the 1980s. When challenged by a neighborhood bully, he is forced to confront the kind of man he wants to become.
Drawn from Eaton’s own experiences, and set against the backdrop of Harlem’s Manhattanville NYCHA campus, the one-person play explores Eaton’s journey of navigating life as a young man grappling with the loss of his older brother to street violence, the pressures of strict West Indian parents, the challenges of Catholic school, and the complexities of interpersonal relationships.
REAL 1 began as writer-creator Ian Eaton’s STEVE, a short story developed in 2013 as part of gUN COUNTRY, Houses on the Moon Theater Company’s original storytelling workshop series with individuals whose lives have been impacted by gun violence. Ian continued developing the piece, and in 2018, STEVE was presented at the Strawberry One-Act Play Festival and received the Festival’s Best Play award. STEVE was also featured on the pilot episode of The Houses on the Moon Podcast in March 2021. The play received a weeklong developmental residency and workshop sharing at Ossining, NY’s Bethany Arts Center in May 2021.
With Director Warren Adams, Houses on the Moon adapted STEVE into the full-length, four-person play SuperHero, which premiered Off-Broadway at NYC’s Sheen Center for Thought and Culture from April 12-May 1, 2022.
Following SuperHero’s Off-Broadway run, STEVE was further adapted into REAL 1, a sixty-minute solo touring piece, which is currently being presented in schools, community centers, and other nontraditional spaces as a tool for education and advocacy. In September 2024, the show was presented at select New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn through a partnership with NYCHA and the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), with support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
REAL 1 is available for touring and licensing; for more information, please contact Artistic Director Emily Joy Weiner at [email protected].
Artistic teaM
Ian Eaton
Writer/Performer
Ian Eaton has appeared in various plays, TV shows (Law & Order and HBO’s OZ) and independent films (SIGNS HE MADE AT HOME). Theatrical roles include Charlie Parker in FLIGHT (Metropolitan Theatre), Esteban in DAY OF THE KINGS (Intar), TARA’S CROSSING (Lucille Lortel) and OTHELLO (Clarion Theater). He last appeared in Arizona Theatre Company’s “Master Harold and the Boys” and received critical acclaim for his portrayal as Sam. Ian is a proud member of Only Make Believe, a non-profit organization that creates and performs interactive theater for children in hospitals and care facilities. He has been a dedicated member of Houses on the Moon’s artistic family since 2005.
Carlo D’Amore
Director
Carlo is an award-winning actor, a playwright, a Drama Desk Nominated director, a producer, as well as an experience designer and the creative director and founder of Live in Theater Productions (LIT LLC). The work of LIT has been experienced by hundreds of thousands in between New York City, Madrid, Spain, and Austin Texas.
BROADWAY ACTING CREDITS: “Summer and Smoke” The Roundabout Theater Company, directed by David Warren “Latinologues” Helen Hayes Theater directed by Cheech Marin.
OFF-BROADWAY ACTING CREDITS: The Lark, Urban Stages, Repertorio Espanol, Ensemble Studio Theater, Manhattan Playhouse, Lucille Lortel Theater, Rattlestick Theater, Intar, Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, The Theater at Riverside Church, 59E59, The TBG theater, The NY-Historical Society, Houses On The Moon Theater Company, & Live in Theater.
REGIONAL ACTING CREDITS: San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Magic Theater, The Sacramento Theater Company, San Jose Repertory Theater, San Diego Repertory Theatre, The San Francisco Playhouse, Theater Rhino. Penguin Rep, Passages Theater Company.
FILM AND TELEVISION: When In Rome” by Touchstone Pictures, “I the Sinner” (Yo Pecador) in Bogotá, Colombia. “Fly Trap” & “The Tool” by Miles Kahn. “State Property 2” by Lionsgate Films. “Strapped” & “Beautiful Something” By Altar Boy Productions HBO’s “OZ”, “Pan Am” by ABC. “Kurt” by Polish cinematographer Łukasz Swaryczewski. DIRECTING CREDITS: “Voices From Guantanamo” for Actors and Poets Group. “De Novo” for Houses on The Moon, Central America tour. The interactive site-specific hits “The Ryan Case 1873”, “Lombardi Case 1975’, “The Murder of Venus Xtravaganza 1988”, “Fierce & Deadly 1988”, “The Pinkertonian Mystery”, “The Trial of Typhoid Mary 1915”, “J&K 1965 – An immersive love story” “Spirit of the Torch”, “Open Mind – A Simulife” for Meow Wolf, for SXSW Festival 2018.
Bleu Zephra Santiago
Stage Manager
Bleu Zephra Santiago (pronouns: they/them) is a Jack of All Trades in the theater and very excited to be joining HOTM for another wonderful production. Some of their credits include: Boombox Burlesque: a Hip Hop Burlesque Festival, SM (Signature Theater, 2023); Dia Y Noche, ASM (Labyrinth, 2023); Share Sentences, ASM (HOTM, 2022); high functioning x.0, SM (HERE, 2022); GUMIHO, SM (moxiearts, 2022); Micro-face: a podcast musical, SM (Planet Money x NPR, 2022); In the Name of the Mother Tree, PSM (Double Edge Theater, 2021); Mad Deep BK: QPOC Drag Kings and Burlesque show, SM (The Cell Theater, 2021); Girl of Glass, SM (American Theatre of Actors, 2018); Jack of Cups, PSM (The Flea, 2018); Infinite Love Party, SM (The Bushwick Starr, 2018).