Stabilized Not Controlled is a one-hour dark comedy containing adult language. The play premiered at New York City’s Stage Left Studio where it ran for two years to critical acclaim. At the Hollywood Fringe Festival, Stabilized was welcomed with critical praise and the show recently sold out performances at Center for the Performing Arts Bonita Springs and Off-Broadway Palm Theatre.
Synopsis
An Upper East Side Manhattan five-floor walk-up is the setting for a war raging between landlord and tenants.
“Killer Joe” Tennent is in a race against the impending new subway line: get the old residents out so he can raise rent. And in New York City landlord-style, that’s by any means necessary. His nemesis, Lorna B. in 2E, is a septuagenarian sex addict in recovery. Den mother to all, Lorna perches in her second floor window and watches. But she’s not to be messed with.
The battle rages over a 5-floor walk-up occupied by Lorna and her neighbors: a Log Cabin-accountant, an aging stoner, and homeless squatter Jackie O. Construction all around them and a failing City infrastructure could do them all in.
But …Leave Manhattan? Not on your life!
With repeat performances, audiences return for additional viewings.
Origins
Stabilized began as a collection of New York City character studies, where playwright Frank Blocker lived in a rent-stabilized apartment on the Upper East Side. He began collecting quotes heard on the streets, the subways, and events around the City. “Fearless Moral Inventory” became the working title for a collection of monologues. More than one-third of those original quotes remain in today’s script.
His own landlord refused to fix dangerous electrical wiring and began pushing him out. What Blocker thought was a unique plight was actually one that plays out every day in New York City. Unless you’re paying the premium going rate, landlords want you out.
Using his own legal experiences and the voices of New York City residnets, Blocker formed the plot and premise. More than one hundred performances later, the show still impresses and entertains.
Program Information
Time: the late Naughts
Place: New York City 5-floor walk-up, the streets, the subway, Immaculate Conception Church, and a lawyer’s office
Characters:
“Killer” Joe Tennent – the landlord
Jackie O – sometime tenant in the basement
Lorna B – Apt 2W
Thomas – Apt 3E
JP Georges – Apt 3W
Iona & Angelo – Apt 4E
Chris – Apt 5E
Roxy – City employee
Father Ben – Priest at Immaculate Conception Church
Saakaar – a cabbie
Roveena LaGuidice – a lawyer and a rat
Franklin – a subway busker of lore
Lyle – the lazy panhandler
Bernard – Killer Joe’s twin brother, meaner and uglier
Also, random NYers, 12-steppers & subway announcer
Show Performance History
- 2024, August 30 – Alliance for the Arts in Lee County, Florida, Foulds Theatre
- 2024, May 30-June 2 – Fringe Fort Myers sponsored by the Alliance for Arts Lee Co.
- 2013 – Hollywood Fringe Festival produced by The Visceral Company
- 2012, January-March – Blocker won hat trick of Manhattan Monologue Slams using three selections from the play. Check out the video from the development days.
- 2010 through December 2012, two year run at Stage Left Studio, New York City.
Stabilized Not Controlled 