Recent and In The Works:

• GREY GARDENS at Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, August 9 through September 7, 2008 — David Houston as Major Bouvier

• COMING TOGETHER, COMING APART — David in a solo performance reading from the writings of Daniel Gordis, in collaboration with the SAJES "On the Same Page" reading project of 2008.

• ABE LINCOLN IN THE 21ST CENTURY — David in a solo performance reading for Lincoln's 200th year, available after January 1, 2009: a surprising portrait of our most literary president, from Lincoln's writings and speeches, which portray a witty and wise statesman who speaks to us in 2009 as if he lives today and understands our most pressing, confusing and amusing concerns.

• THE GHOST OF DOROTHY PARKER — Writer, poet, dramatist, critic and notorious personality, Dorothy Parker was funny, cynical and immeasurably influential. Among her closest associates were Hemingway, Fitzgerald, O'Neill, Faulkner, Hellman, and Kaufman. It was Parker who said of a Katherine Hepburn performance, "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." Now  the famous lady comes back to share her dead-on-target observations about life, death, love and art. Starring Diana Heinlein as Dorothy Parker.  David Houston, writer-director.  Click title for more information. 

• FRED AND ADELE ASTAIRE: THE LAST DANCE — For 2007, a new musical one-act "literary entertainment" starring Melanie Lipton and Steve Corbellini as the dance duo as they split up to travel their separate paths.  David Houston, writer-director.

• TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD  —  by Harper Lee; performance reading or the trial of Tom Robinson "in the style of radio drama" by David Houston and Diana Heinlein, for popular culture and for Black History Month in February,

• JOY COMES IN THE MORNING —  by Jonathan Rosen; a performance reading "in the style of radio drama" by David and Gail Merzer Behrens, in cooperation with SAJES, a Jewish educational organization, for their "On the Same Page" reading project; available for libraries, organizations, schools, etc.

Actor, Long Island Regional Theater — 1990-2008
On-Stage Photo Gallery

• THE MUSIC MAN — Mayor Shinn — BayWay Arts, Centre Stage, Hecksher Park, Airport Playhouse

• FUNNY MONEY — Henry Perkins — Studio Theatre

• THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL — Ozzy —Theatre Three

• THE DRESSER — Sir — BroadHollow Theater

• DIAL M FOR MURDER — Tony Wendice — BroadHollow Theater

• ALONE TOGETHER — George Butler — BayWay Arts, Centre Stage

• THE MOUSETRAP — Major Metcalf — Theatre Three, BayWay Arts, Centre Stage

• A CHRISTMAS CAROL — Fezziwig, Topper, Old Joe — Theatre Three

• HIGH SOCIETY — Uncle Willie — Centre Stage; Seth Lord — Theatre Three

• FUNNY GIRL — Florenz Ziegfeld — BroadHollow Theater

• DEATH OF A SALESMAN — Ben — BroadHollow Theater

• THE LITTLE FOXES — Horace Giddens — BayWay Arts, Centre Stage 

• A FUNNY THING / FORUM — Senex — Theatre Three, BroadHollow

• ROMEO AND JULIET — Friar Lawrence — Theatre Three

• THE FANTASTICKS — Henry, the Old Actor — BroadHollow, BayWay Arts, and Airport Playhouse

• INHERIT THE WIND — Reverend Brown — Airport Playhouse

• MURDER AMONG FRIENDS — Palmer Forrester — Centre Stage

• AFTER PLAY — Marty Guteman — BroadHollow Theater

• POSTMORTEM — William Gillette — BayWay Arts Center

• LET'S DO IT — Noel Coward — 20 Public Libraries in Nassau and Suffolk Counties

• THE LAST DANCE — Fred Astaire's valet Georgie — 18 Public Libraries in Nassau and Suffolk Counties

• A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED — Inspector Craddock — BroadHollow Theater

• CARNIVAL — B. F. Schlegel — Airport Playhouse

• MOVE OVER MRS. MARKHAM — Phillip Markham — Airport Playhouse

• MACK AND MABEL — William Desmond Taylor — BroadHollow Theater

• HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES — Frank Foster — BroadHollow Theater

• CABARET — Herr Shultz — Airport Playhouse

• MAN OF LA MANCHA — Governor/Innkeeper — BayWay and Centre Stage

• ME AND MY GIRL — Sir John — Airport Playhouse

• RUN FOR YOUR WIFE — Sergeant Porterhouse — BayWay and Center Stage

• SUPERMAN (Musical) — Abner Sedgewick — Theatre Three

• RED SCARE ON SUNSET — Benson, Granny Lou, etc. — Studio Theater

• M. BUTTERFLY — Toulon, Judge — Theatre Three

• 1776 — John Hancock — Theatre Three; Lyman Hall — Airport Playhouse

• A LITTLE HOTEL ON THE SIDE — Henri Palliardin — Theatre Three

• ON THE 20TH CENTURY — Flanagan — Airport Playhouse

• ANYTHING GOES — Sir Evelyn — Theatre Three

• ZORBA — Katapolis — Theatre Three

• THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH — Dr. Brubaker — BroadHollow Theatre

Film, Television, Commercials

• METLIFE — Voice Over — The Voice Bank 

• MEDICAL IMPLANTS (patient) — Actor (TV, Print Commercial) — Focus International

• 1-800-HURT-INFO (lawyer) — Actor (TV Commercial) — TCI

• VOYAGE TO DARKNESS (documentary) — Writer, Narrator — Eclipse Cruises, Inc.

• ATTACK FROM MARS (feature film) — Co-writer, Assistant Director — Ivanhoe Productions

• THEY WENT TO THE STARS (documentary) — Writer, Narrator, Director — Wade Williams Productions

Training

• VOICE-OVER: THE VOICE BANK, Charles Michel, New York City 

• ACTING: HEDGEROW THEATER GROUP, Rose Schulman, New York City

• APPRENTICE: CASA MAÑANA THEATER (Equity) Ft. Worth

• PAINTING AND FINE ARTS: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, Austin, TX 

• STAGECRAFT: TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY, Ft. Worth, TX

• SCENIC ARTS: LESTER POLIKOV STUDIOS, New York City

Other Credentials

• WRITER: Published/produced works: Jazz Baby, biography of Joan Crawford's childhood (St. Martins Press); several sci-fi and mystery novels including Gods in a Vortex, Wingmaster, Alien Perspective, Shadows on the Moon, and four novels based on episodes of the TV series Tales of Tomorrow (Norden Publishing); screenplays for Attack From Mars (currently on DVD), the documentaries Voyage to Darkness and They Went to the Stars; movie novelizations of Swamp Thing, Paradise, The Seduction. (Jazz Baby and Shadows on the Moon were optioned for motion picture production but not yet produced.) "Literary Entertainments" for theatres, organizations, libraries and schools; writer/director of hour-long one-act plays: Great Scott and Zelda, Lillie Alone, Murder and Madness and Poe, Let's Do It, Jazz Baby Joan and Fred and Adele Astaire: The Last Dance..

• DIRECTOR: The Belle of Amherst for schools and libraries, touring; Social Security for BroadHollow Players (BayWay and Centre Stage theaters); The Odd Couple Female Version and Sylvia for Molloy College. They Went to the Stars, TV documentary for Wade Williams Productions; assistant director of Attack From Mars, feature film for Ivanhoe Productions, and of Voyage to Darkness, documentary for Eclipse Cruises, Inc.  Also director "Literary Entertainments" for theaters, libraries and schools.

• DIALECTS: British, Cockney, German, Yiddish, Irish, Scottish, Texas, Midwest, Deep South

• SET/LIGHTING DESIGN: Designer, 6 years Equity summer stock in Ft. Worth, Phoenix, Dayton, Hampton Beach—over 100 musicals and plays; resident designer 2 seasons Ft. Worth Civic Ballet; Off Broadway set/lights for 1973 revival of Ayn Rand’s Penthouse Legend (The Night of January 16th) 

• MISCELLANEOUS: Technician for Off Broadway musical All Kinds of Giants; Stage Manager for Sol Hurok national tour of Roberto Iglesias Ballet Español; TD/sets/lights for several shows and cabarets in Dallas; Piano (sight-read badly, fake fairly well).

• LITERARY ENTERTAINMENTS: David Houston's series provides small-scale productions on themes of history and great literature, for theatres, organizations, libraries and schools.  His company got its start in January 2001 when he portrayed Charles Dickens, circa 1867, at a New York theatre and gathered impressive reviews. Later that year, he toured THE DICKENS! to several Long Island libraries—where interest in additional plays was expressed.  Houston—an accomplished writer (14 books and several plays, teleplays and documentaries) and an actor well-known to Long Island regional theatre-goers—jumped at the opportunity.  He wrote, produced and directed GREAT SCOTT AND ZELDA, a one-act play, with Melanie Lipton and Steve Corbellini, which toured libraries during the 2002 celebration of THE GREAT GATSBY.  Since then he has added to the repertoire: LILLIE ALONE, a one-woman tour-de-force starring Mary Ellin Kurtz as Lillie Langtry, backstage in 1900 as she prepares lies to tell an interviewer and presents monologues from her classic stage successes; MARK TWAIN TELLING TALES, in which Houston, as Twain, gives a lecture on humor and wit, derived from Twain essays and stories; and MURDER AND MADNESS AND POE, starring Rick Heuthe as Edgar Allan Poe attempting to secure a lucrative lecture tour in 1848.  At the request of the Port Washington Library, Houston developed a one-act musical, LET'S DO IT!, in which Noel Coward (Houston) and Cole Porter (Heuthe) select and test material for Coward’s cabaret debut in Las Vegas, culminating in Coward's outrageous lyrics for Porter's song "Let's Do It."  Also in 2005: JAZZ BABY JOAN, a one-woman play set in 1934, with Melanie Lipton as Joan Crawford, based on Houston's Crawford biography Jazz Baby (St. Martin's Press).  In addition to original plays, Houston's group presents Melanie Lipton in William Luce's THE BELLE OF AMHERST, Houston in a reading of the first Sherlock Holmes novel STUDY IN SCARLET and in readings of three short stories of ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, celebrating that author’s centennial year.  For Long Island Reads in April, Houston provided "dramatic readings in the form of radio drama" from the 2003 HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS, with Houston and Lipton, for the 2004 SNOW IN AUGUST with Houston and Matt Stashin interpreting the men and boys from the Pete Hamill novel, from the 2005 selection Houston dramatized TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY, in 2006 AMAGANSETT by Mark Mills, and for 2007 THE COLOR OF WATER by James McBride.  New in 2005-06, THE DICKENS! new selection "The Chimes", a three-actor "radio style" dramatization of Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451, Houston as Whitman and his critics in WALT WHITMAN, TO BEGIN WITH, and Diana Heinlein as THE GHOST OF DOROTHY PARKER.  New for 2007: FRED AND ADELE ASTAIRE: THE LAST DANCE starring Steve Corbellini and Melanie Lipton.