Theatre Artist
Actor, Director, Educator
Theatre Artist
Actor, Director, Educator
WELCOME
Adrian is a director, actor, producer, and educator. Growing up with one foot in the United States, and the other in Western Europe, he developed a deep passion for the performing arts and its ability to express the richness and the diversity of human experience.
He brings this passion to all of his endeavors.
WHAT'S HAPPENING!
THE DUMB WAITER
November 2023
Hudson Theatre Works
Director. Hudson Theatre Works presents Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter as part of Pinter x2. As the New York World-Telegram & Sun describes: "In the basement of a long-abandoned restaurant, two hired killers nervously await their next assignment. Barred from daylight and living public contact by the nature of their work, they expend their waiting time in bickering. So eerie is the situation that everything becomes comic, or grotesque, or both. Ben re-reading a newspaper and exclaiming in disbelief over the news items, Gus fussing with an offstage stove and offstage plumbing. Ben bludgeoning Gus into silence if he as much as mentions their work. Gus worrying that someone had slept in his bed. So then the ancient dumbwaiter comes to life, the suspense becomes almost unbearable—that expertly has Pinter put the nerves of his characters and audience on edge."
“Pinter x 2” succeeds on every level. It’s mesmerizing theater with outstanding performances, taut direction and impeccable staging. Adrian Wattenmaker’s tense direction will keep you engaged and enthralled.
- Jim Testa, NJ Arts
RECENT PRODUCTIONS
Between Riverside and Crazy
LAB 30: THree DECADES OF WORK
Between Riverside and Crazy
Broadway
2022 - 2023
Helen Hayes Theater
Associate Director. City Hall is demanding more than his signature, the landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed — and the Church won’t leave him alone. For ex-cop and recent widower Walter “Pops” Washington and his recently paroled son Junior, the struggle to hold on to one of the last great rent stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive collides with old wounds, sketchy new houseguests, and a final ultimatum in this Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy from Stephen Adly Guirgis. For Pops and Junior, it seems the old days are dead and gone — after a lifetime living Between Riverside and Crazy.
“It’s a dizzying and exciting place to be!” hails The New York Times.
LAB 30 GALA CELEBRATION
LAB 30: THree DECADES OF WORK
Between Riverside and Crazy
May 25, 2023
LAByrinth Theater Company
The Cutting Room
Director. LAByrinth Theater Company's 30th Season Gala Celebration!
2023 marks LAB’s Thirtieth Anniversary!
For three decades, LAByrinth has developed and produced groundbreaking new work, centering forgotten and disenfranchised voices, and changing the face of America's theatrical landscape in the process. Raise a glass with us on May 25 at The Cutting Room as we present our four founders Paul Calderon, David Deblinger, John Ortiz, and Gary Perez with the Davie Hoghe Award, LAB's highest accolade, which honors those who have shown artistic courage and outstanding dedication to LAByrinth. All Proceeds will help support our mission to empower members, create new work, and keep our programming accessible to all New Yorkers.
LAB 30: THree DECADES OF WORK
LAB 30: THree DECADES OF WORK
LAB 30: THree DECADES OF WORK
May 2023
LAByrinth Theater Company
Director. Obituary by Lyle Kessler featuring Margaret Ladd and Lyle Kessler.
2023 marks LAB’s Thirtieth anniversary!
In honor of this milestone, we are hosting a four-day free reading series celebrating the voices that have guided us and the work that has sustained us. We would not be here, thirty years on, without this tribe and we share this achievement with all of you.
Please join us at the Chain Theater from Wednesday, May 10th through Saturday evening May 13th to hear excerpts from the plays you love, conversations among artists you admire and the new material taking us into our fourth decade.
DÍA Y NOCHE
23rd ANNUAL BARN SERIES
LAB 30: THree DECADES OF WORK
March - April 2023
LAByrinth Theater Co | 59E59 Theaters
Producer. Sex, drugs, queerness, and punk-rock. Welcome to border city life in El Paso, Texas, 1984. DÍA Y NOCHE is an unfiltered coming-of-age story about class struggles and the search for acceptance between two unlikely friends. Danny is a lower middle-class Chicano punk-rock kid who thinks he might be an artist. Martin is a Black upper-middle class band nerd who is gay and in the closet. Danny and Martin double-date, watch X-rated movies, go to concerts and try to overcome great odds as they navigate the racism and corruption greeting them at the doors to adulthood.
GRACELAND TOO
23rd ANNUAL BARN SERIES
23rd ANNUAL BARN SERIES
March 2023
Hudson Theatre Works
NJ Theatre Alliance Stages Festival
Director. Inspired by a true story, Graceland Too: The Building Elvis Never Left is a bluesy, tragic tale about the galaxy’s number one Elvis fan, Paul MacLeod, and his antebellum home-turned-Elvis shrine in Holly Springs, Mississippi. As Paul gears up for Elvis Week with the help of former prisoner, Dwight Taylor, two very different worlds collide and Graceland Too will never be the same again.
This event is part of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance 2023 Stages Festival, made possible by support from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey; OceanFirst Foundation; Fund for the New Jersey Blind; New Jersey Manufacturers; and Customers Bank.
23rd ANNUAL BARN SERIES
23rd ANNUAL BARN SERIES
23rd ANNUAL BARN SERIES
January - February 2023
LAByrith Theater Co | 59E59 Theaters
Director. Diary Play by Madeline Barr. A one woman show constructed almost entirely of old diary entries from the playwright's teenhood interwoven with current day reflections. Through looking back, the playwright is able to answer questions about why she is the woman she is today and create a newfound sense of hope for the woman she might eventually become in the future.
Producer. LAByrinth's free reading festival of new plays. A critical and exciting step in the development of new work. Many of LAB's world premieres have come from the Barn Series, giving audiences a sneak peak into the artistic process, and a chance to see plays before they are the next hot ticket.
Elliot & Me: A Musical
Elliot & Me: A Musical
Elliot & Me: A Musical
2021 - 2022
Chagrin Valley Little Theatre
Hudson Theatre Works
Streamed on demand at Laguna Playhouse & Sonoma Arts
Producer. Elliot & Me is a musical comedy based on the lives of songwriter Elliot Willensky and his younger brother Steven. Elliot and Steven both reflect on the volatile ups and downs of their shared experiences: from their raucous “wonder years” growing up in Bayonne, NJ; to the painful conflict when Elliot defies the expectations of his traditional middle-class Jewish family and drops out of medical school to write pop songs; to Elliot’s rise to stardom writing hits for Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston and Steven’s starry-eyed admiration for his Hollywood lifestyle; and eventually to their role reversals when Elliot’s career hits a few bumps in the road and he needs to rely on Steven for help. Elliot & Me is filled with humor, colorful personalities, unexpected situations, and uplifting musical moments.
WELCOME
Elliot & Me: A Musical
Elliot & Me: A Musical
October - December 2022
Hudson Theatre Works
Director. A patient carrying a terrible weight seeks to unburden themselves, though the therapist they’ve chosen has a few secrets of their own— not least of which is their newest student who seems far, far too quiet…
Hughie
Elliot & Me: A Musical
Hughie
February 2022
Hudson Theatre Works
Role of the Night Clerk. In one of Eugene O'Neill's last works, high-rolling gambler Erie and Hughie, the credulous night clerk at a single-occupancy hotel, were confidants. Hughie admired Erie for his bold lifestyle and Erie considered Hughie his good luck charm. When Hughie dies unexpectedly, Erie's luck changes for the worse and he finds himself in dire straits.
"It is no mean feat to find the room necessary to allow this character to evolve, but Wattenmaker’s Night Clerk does so skillfully." - Patrick Maley, Star Ledger