From 1977 through 2008, Kip Rosser worked as a director in Manhattan. For a complete
list of productions, plays and more:
CLICK HERE (It is a PDF file that will take about 30 seconds to load.)
 
The majority of Rosser’s productions were produced in the late 1970s through the 1980s
at a time when Off-Off Broadway shows were rarely, if ever reviewed. Fortunately,
there were exceptions. Here are some excerpts:

LET ME HIP YOU!
(Lord Buckley, James Leach, Kip Rosser)
18th Street Theater Lab
 
SoHo News
…An extraordinary trip from a Gotham gutter into a slyly self conscious theater and then
into the wild world of the late Lord Buckley’s hipster poetry and back to wine-splashed
earth… The verbal vitality and mad humor of Buckley’s beat variations find a happy medium
in the overgrown antics of Rosser and Leach, who have more on their minds than just
imitating old comedy raps. They end by convincing us to see each other not as anonymous
mobile units in the big city, but as little sparks of divine humanity…

…directed and adapted by Kip Rosser, [he] and fellow actor have put together a two-headed
toy of an evening, a Pushmi-Pullyu of deep talent and even a ricocheting brilliance…their
Buckley is presented through actor personas derived from street interviews with derelicts;
human self abandonment, they argue, offers ideal opportunity for life scrutiny… there’s
talent here, and brains in abundance.

WOMAN IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
(Pamela Sabaugh)
NY International Fringe Festival
Henry Street Theater Settlement
 
Festival Reviews
I liked the show a lot…the work was of high professional caliber…all of the acting was
really good… what is palpable and rousing is the cast’s teamwork. when not physically
part of the action in one of the PVC-pipe delineated areas on stage, they actively watch
from the borders.

MACBETT
(Eugene Ionesco)
Revolving Shakespeare
 
NY Theatre
…Director Kip Rosser must be congratulated for providing New York with a belated but
very necessary look at this neglected work from one of the 20th century’s master play-
wrights. …Rosser and his Revolving Shakespeare colleagues have elected to mount something
akin to a pageant around Macbett… Rosser has filled the stage with gorgeous, resonant
images of warfare and statecraft [sic] that provide commentary–sometimes ironic, sometimes
not–on the dubious virtues of each.

…It makes for a clear, comprehensible vision… It’s also very funny, in places, and very
smart. Rosser has cast the piece well, with solid work in the leading roles … and excellent
support from five actors who play what feels like a thousand different roles. This is as
expert an ensemble as you’ll find off-off-Broadway. My cultural education has been enhanced
by this worthy production.

 
Backstage
Finally, in the Ionesco Festival, it was the last of the staged full length plays that got it
entirely right: Ionesco’s delightfully wacky Shakespeare parody, MACBETT…the credit
for this inventing [sic] and witty production goes to director Kip Rosser and set and lighting
designer Roman J. Tatarowicz… the nine cast members were also well attuned to the zaniness of
the production style.

KEEPSAKES
(Kip Rosser)
TESTIMONIAL

The following testimonial is included because, while Keepsakes has never had a full-fledged
production, it has had dozens of “sit-down” and staged readings. David White, who, at
the time, was the Associate Artistic Director of the Passage Theatre Company in Trenton,
NJ, generously took the time to write an account of his reaction to the staged reading of the play.

Keepsakes gives audiences things they seldom see on stage. First of all, the work is a tour de force
for two senior-age actresses. The roles are meaty and the dialogue is rich. The subject of the play –
the real life case of Lizzie Borden – is given a surprisingly human treatment that is both shocking
and thoughtful. Keepsakes is an unconventional play that relentlessly strips away the very
nature of truth. Truth in our relationships. Truth in history. The truths we manufacture in order
to live with ourselves. Finally, the play lays bare the potentially devastating cost of telling the truth
as it overtakes two women in the present, tearing apart their loving friendship, while
simultaneously uniting two women in the past in a pact approaching insanity. …a thrilling
piece of theatre – a wonderful balance of the sacred and profane.

Regarding directing a staged reading of White’s original play, The Slicks:
Kip is one of those rare directors who has no problem serving both the playwright and the actors
in equal measure. In just a little over a day of rehearsal, he was able to focus the actors in such a way
that the strengths and deficiencies of the work were clearly illuminated; exactly what any writer wants
from a staged reading. I would gladly allow Kip to tackle one of my scripts again. Kip is unique artist,
writer, director and musician who is never at a loss for a unique project filled with original ideas.
I don’t hesitate in giving him my full support, and I’m especially eager to see what he comes up with next.

THE LADY’S NOT FOR BURNING
(Christopher Fry)
Equity Library Theater
 
NY Times
…a play rich in elegant language…a play of words rather than a play of action, and the similes,
metaphors, platitudes, and epigrams are luxuriantly, brilliantly and even wittily couched in an
inexhaustible lexicon of the English language…Under Kip Rosser’s direction the cast valiantly
copes with the words and some indeed succeed very well…

UNHOLY SECRETS OF THE THEREMIN
(Kip Rosser, Jef Anderson)
NY International Fringe Festival
Astor Place Theater
 

Festival Reviews
Kip Rosser and Jef Anderson are the authors and performers of Unholy Secrets of the Theremin,
play many roles, including trading off their own personas as “Kip Rosser” and “Jef Anderson.”
Mr. Rosser, whose white East Indian garb and benignly insane smile brought to mind Peter
Sellers in “The Party”, is a virtuoso of the evenings’ titular instrument. Mr. Anderson, wild-
eyed and clad in a black Napoleonic uniform, provides piano accompaniment… The show opens with
a mock ritual to summon the spirit of Termen from the ether, hilariously solemn choreography
culminating in the duo smashing beer bottles over one anothers’ heads. This elegantly sets the
mood…the pair have a fantastic chemistry…

STEEL MAGNOLIAS
(Robert Harling)
Somerset Valley Theatre
 
Princeton Packet
….the current revival at Somerset Valley Players is most welcome. Call that doubly welcome,
since the drama, directed by Kip Rosser, has a marvelous cast and first-rate values throughout.

Before we pass 18 months with these ladies (in four scenes over two acts), we will know what the
author means with his title. We will see and feel the steel and virtually smell the magnolias.
Director Rosser has a fine company, magnificently cast and polished to a bright shine.

Director Rosser’s touches are everywhere; the pace is superb, the stage movements almost
unnoticed, but absolutely accurate, the emotions of the drama always true and often very moving.
The set is one of the best ever on the Somerset stage…

TESTIMONIAL
by Robin Hirsch, Proprietor/Owner, Cornelia Street Café, NYC

I have known Kip Rosser in many capacities over the years. He acted as the director, designer,
lighting designer, and music consultant for a cycle of six one-man shows that I did at the Passage
Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey. He did the same, and acted as dramaturg, for THE MAN WHO
DANCED WITH MARLENE DIETRICH, the final one-man show in my series, at the Sandglass
Theater in Putney, Vermont. His help, attention to detail, theatrical savoir-faire, generosity of spirit,
and extraordinary unflappability were exemplary. I cannot remember working for an extended
period with anyone who brought as much to bear with as little extraneous baggage as he.