Dick bunny (2024)
executive producer | series lead
A British storybook character comes to life in the form of a giant Manrabbit, and starts giving sleep-deprived, isolated new mom, Max (played by Kim Griffin) bad parenting advice.
This Award-Winning independent, LA-made comedy series premiered in the fall of 2023 at the 35th Annual Austin Film Festival, had its West Coast Premiere as part of Dances With Films, screened at the historic TCL Chinese Theatres as part of the prestigious Oscar-qualifying 20th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival, and most delightfully, won Best Director for Katie Locke O’Brien, and Best Performance in a Digital Series for Kim Griffin at SeriesFest: Season Ten.
Read what DEADLINE’s Peter White had to say about Dick Bunny…
“Katie Locke O’Brien is a director who has helmed episodes of series such as A.P. Bio and Ghosts. But she said that her own sensibility was a bit darker than these shows so she wanted to make something that fit with this. This is where Dick Bunny came in.
The project follows Max Griffin as she navigates the anxiety and isolation of new motherhood in L.A. alongside a caustic man-rabbit from a mysterious British children’s book that comes to life. It stars Kim Griffin, Drew Droege, Kate Micucci, Laraine Newman, Betsy Sodaro, Sheila Carrasco, Grasie Mercedes and Brendan Griffin.
Locke O’Brien said that her own experience of motherhood was not one she saw on television, which focused on either moms with “hands on hips in front of the highchair spaghetti sauce kid” or a “drunk mom who regrets having her kids.”
Created by Susie Mendoza and Kim Griffin, the team made six short episodes, directed and produced by Locke O’Brien. “I wanted to make this thing and I knew there would be a ton of women who would relate. The greatest risk is that it gets made incorrectly. If you tried to pitch this in a room, they’d be like, there’s no way that this these elements could possibly co-exist, so now we’re in this place where we made this as proof of concept,” she told Deadline.
Locke O’Brien said the death of digital platforms including Warner Bros’ Stage 13 and ABC Digital, as well as networks such as IFC not ordering originals, set things back for independent creators, but she is hopeful that festivals such as SeriesFest can generate momentum and an audience. “The market is still relatively abysmal, as everybody figures things out. I know, from years of experience, that Dick Bunny is not the first risk out of the gate that anyone is going to take, which has forced us to be very zen but it’s also gotten us to focus on this festival thing, and at the same time, it’s also giving us proof that there’s an audience, which we wouldn’t have had if we just went straight into pitching it as a half-hour,” she added.”
“Although I wouldn’t say I’m *known* for acting, living in a town where people are on billboards and have IMDb rap sheets a mile long, I do think I am known among my clients, students, and some peers, as the coach that really “gets” them, and that means everything to me. I coach and teach (mostly) actors many ways these days, through workshops at places like IAMA Theatre Company, UCSD and Pomona College, but mostly online, individually, to help people with performance-based challenges. I have experience working with TEDx speakers, as a dialect coach for shows on networks like HULU, and with corporate presentations.”
Radical, or are you gonna miss me? (2023)
iama theatre co. | los angeles | world premiere
“What do you do when the people you call family are the ones who hurt you the most? After being bailed out of jail by her estranged sister, Belinda must reconcile the person she was with the person she feels she’s destined to become. Commissioned by IAMA Theatre Company, Radical or, are you gonna miss me? by Isaac Gómez tells the sweeping story of three women on the Mexican American border who, more than anything, desperately want to be seen — and who will do anything in their power to make themselves known, no matter how great the cost. A personal look at the political divide within one Mexican American family and the nuances within communities we often view as single-minded.”
IAMA Theatre Company is LA’s premiere theater for new works, with past productions headed to Broadway, generating consistently challenging new plays from diverse voices. Thanks to the generous and masterful direction of Jess McLeod, the cast of RADICAL, or are you gonna miss me? was nominated for BEST ENSEMBLE by the LA Drama Critics Circle Awards.
Read more of what Broadway World & Nerds of Color had to say about the play, and keep your fingers crossed that it gets another production somewhere near you soon.
a lotus ‘til reckoning (2017)
Filmed in the bleak Connecticut winter of 2012 on a shoestring budget, with some of the best people you could hope to work with, A Lotus ‘Til Reckoning is a wild ride. Full of lore and drama juxtaposed with raunchy humor, this is one Christmastime movie that won’t feel predictable. Nominated for BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS at the Kew Gardens Film Festival in 2014, this indy was recently remastered, and is available to stream on Prime.
“In this hard-hitting, raw, emotional drama, a small Christmas dinner party takes a bizarre turn after Shelby and her two married friends take an exotic drug and begin to question their respective husband's fidelity. After Jessica confronts her husband, Clark, and Shelby breaks a framed painting finding a letter from her husband's ex-fiance, it seems their paranoia might not be simply a result of their altered state.”
now available to rent...
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tape presented by outside the wire (2016)
cO-production: theater of war & university of pittsburgh
year of the humanities grant recipient
One of my favorite aspects of working in the world of storytelling is the possibility of intersecting with what is happening now. In 2016, Bryan Doerries, Artistic Director of Theater of War, brought his company to Pittsburgh for a performance and facilitated conversation dealing with sexual assault, consent, and how we can come together across community and societal guidelines to create change.
Stephen Belber is a playwright I have long admired, and, having spent so much f*cking time in acting school, I had seen scenes from Tape numerous times. But their potency was reinvigorated by the circumstances of our times, and held an additional potency for our audience. To perform this play with the playwright, and to hear the thoughts and experiences of students and members of the greater Pittsburgh community was as sobering as it was exciting. This was the beginning of my experience as a lead producer on-site.
CHECK OUT WHAT FOLKS HAD TO SAY ABOUT IT...
PITTSBURGH NPR AFFILIATE, WESA COVERAGE
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Design by Bryan Doerries, AD Outside the Wire
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (2016)
Check out this interview with Pittsburgh's cheeky Burgh Vivant on barebones productions' 2016 staging of the classic, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
“Kimberly Parker Green’s Icy Nurse Ratched is portended by the acrid smoke filling the theater, preshow. Green lets Ratched’s diabolical soul emerge through her crisp, uniformed persona like the horns growing slowly under her hair as the play evolves.”
– PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER
Hair & Makeup: Dessa Marie
ELEMENO PEA (2015)
35th Humana Festival: First Look Elemeno Pea
City Theatre Presents Elemeno Pea by Molly Smith Metzler
Inside: Elemeno Pea with Molly Smith Metzler
Playwright Molly Smith Metzler says, "After a long stretch of hands off "Elemeno Pea," the New Yorker returned to it with a fresh eye and has been in Pittsburgh with tweaks and changes for the cast, including someone who makes her feel right at home. Michaela is being played by Pittsburgh-based actress Kimberly Parker Green, who played Simone in the first production of the play. "She's an extraordinary actress, so I feel so lucky, but also I think it's interesting that we've both kind of grown up through the play," Ms. Metzler said. "When I first wrote it, I came at it with a Simone perspective, and Kimberly, my friend, played Simone. But now I come at it more mature, with a more Michaela perspective. And so does Kimberly. I think it's interesting that as writer and actress, we've both kind of grown up through the roles."
"One of the highlights of the production is the skill with Green transitions from an unlikeable plastic princess to a woman deserving of sympathy.”
– Pittsburgh Owl Scribe (City)
READ FULL REVIEW FROM PITTSBURGH POST GAZETTE (CITY)
“As the needy Michaela, Kimberly Parker Green gives a perfect performance; she indicates verbally and physically the many shades of Michaela, ultimately the most complex character of the show.”
– TALKIN' BROADWAY (CITY)
