Preview of Super Second Rate
Description
Leah’s father was a music teacher. Years after his death, while cleaning out the family home, Leah discovers a letter he wrote to her conservatory cello teacher about her talent and prospects for the future, asserting that Leah couldn’t make it as a professional musician. But cellist Leah Coloff has just won a Grammy and has played alongside the greatest names in contemporary music – from David Bowie to Debbie Harry. Hear her true story – told through spoken word, music and original songs in this funny, humane show.
Director
Raquel Cion Directorial credits include Woman of a Certain Rage (Caveat NYC); Whole K-Hole (The Wild Project);Dad In a Box, winner of the 2019 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance (Dixon Place, HERE, The Wild Project); STRAYS winner of the 2016 New York Innovative Theatre Award for “Outstanding Original Short Script" and published in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS, 2015-2016 by Applause Books in 2017, (The Brick Theater, Ars Nova’s ANT Fest and Showgasm); SONS (Ars Nova’s Showgasm); Darkling IRT Theater, CATCH SERIES; HIP (IRT Theater); On a Lonely Road…Travelin’ with Joni (Pangea, The Duplex.) Recent acting projects include Terce: A Practical Breviary for the 2024 Prototype Festival (The Space at Irondale); Toshi and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s Parable of the Sower (Lincoln Center); Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie, nominated for a 2015 Broadway World Cabaret Award “Best Alt Cabaret.” Productions: (The Cutting Room, Pangea, The Slipper Room in NYC; Philly Loves Bowie Week 2019 & 2020, Provincetown’s Afterglow Festival.) Alas, The Nymphs, (BAM Next Wave Festival); Gilding the Lonely (Joe’s Pub at the Public; Dixon Place); Cou-Cou Bijoux Pour Vous (Galapagos Art Space, Dixon Place); Rationality: A Virtual Performance and Memoir (LMCC Swing Space). She is a founding member of NYC’s Eat a Radish Productions and performs with the Obie Award winning The Secret City. Raquel earned her BFAfrom NYU’s Experimental Theater Wing, Tisch School of the Arts and holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Queens College.
Making SSR
Super Second Rate premiered at Edinburgh Festival Fringe August 2024.
A work in progress of Super Second Rate was performed July 2022 at Graveside Variety, Amanda Palmer’s community, art and performance space located in the heart of Woodstock, NY.
A second work in progress was performed at Theater Lab in NYC, June 2024.
Super Second Rate was developed with support from The Secret City and the SilverSun Foundation.
A very special thank you goes out to Chris Wells and his Tuesday night writing group for their support, suggestions and making the writing of these stories possible.
“Coloff’s ability to merge the private and the collective allowed the entire piece of music-theater to become genuinely sincere without being overly sentimental.”
Icareifyoulisten.com
Bio
Leah Coloff is a Grammy winning cellist, singer/songwriter, composer and creator. Raised near Seattle, Washington, her classical roots collide with 70’s rock and a pioneer spirit creating her self-identified style, CLUNK (Classical + Punk) with songs and works that are honest, sensual, funny, brutal, pissed-off, beautiful and chilly sweet.
She has performed and recorded with numerous musical artists including Trey Anastasio, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Michael Cerveris, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Damon Albarn, Ziggy Marley, Linda Thompson, Dean & Britta, Angelique Kidjo, Nancy Sinatra and Mark Mulcahy among others.
In addition to her own creations, Leah is a professional cellist most recently winning a Grammy for her cello playing with the Scorchio String Quartet on So She Howls, by Carla Patulo which won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best New Age, Ambient or Chant Album.
Leah studied with Irene Sharp at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music and with Bernard Greenhouse at The New England Conservatory of Music. She learned how to play cello from her Dad, Lawrence Coloff.
Leah is currently enrolled in the Performance and Integrated Media Arts MFA program at Brooklyn College CUNY in Brooklyn, New York.
Find out more at Leahcoloff.com
Listen to a couple of songs from Leah’s discography.
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From The Family Album by Lucibel Crater- my former band
From ThisTree– my previous multi-media theater work
SUPER SECOND RATE 