Maryland-based playwright and longtime professor of theater at Bowie State University Bob Bartlett is no stranger to staging his work in unusual locations. A few years ago, he premiered his time-bending comedy, The Accident Bear, which sold out its five-week run to critical acclaim, at a working coin-operated laundromat in historic downtown Annapolis, Maryland. During the pandemic, he staged his play Three Strangers Sitting Around a Backyard Firepit at Two in the Morning Listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska in the backyard of his central Maryland home, and last fall staged his horror play Lýkos Ánthrōpos at Washington, DC’s historic Congressional Cemetery for sixteen sold-out performances. In the summer of 2023, Bartlett produced his latest play, a romantic comedy, Love and Vinyl, at KA-CHUNK!! Records in downtown Annapolis for a five-week sold out run, with subsequent productions in record stores in Dallas and Austin, Texas. He now brings Love and Vinyl to DC’s hippest record store, Byrdland Records, just in time for Valentine’s Day and featuring some of the city’s strongest comedic actors. The Helen Hayes Award-winning Bartlett says the idea to create site-specific theater, which he believes has the potential to engage audiences in more immediate ways than theater staged in traditional spaces, came while he was living in a downtown walk-up on Maryland Avenue in Annapolis over a decade ago. “I’ve always been drawn to theater produced in unique locations,” he notes. “And more than simply Shakespeare in the park.” Always on the lookout for compelling locations where acts of theater and storytelling can happen, Bartlett often writes with specific spaces in mind. “I’d long dreamed of inviting audiences to walk into a record store to see a play.” A one-time owner of a record store in the late ’80s, Bartlett has long been a fan of films like High Fidelity and Empire Records, and of smart romantic comedies about the lovelorn who have given up on finding love. He couldn’t be more excited to bring Love and Vinyl to Byrdland Records and Union Market, one of the fastest growing entertainment and dining destinations in the city. James J. Johnson (Bogie), Rachel Manteuffel (Sage), and Jacob Yeh (Zane) appearing in ‘Love and Vinyl.’ Photos courtesy of Bob Bartlett. Bartlett wrote Love and Vinyl on a dare from colleagues who challenged the avowed bachelor to write a romantic comedy about vinyl lovers, like himself, who had forever sworn off romantic love. “While I was living downtown in Annapolis in the early ‘10s, I frequented the seriously cool KA-CHUNK!! Records, which is just a couple shops from the location of the laundromat where I staged my first site-specific play, The Accident Bear, and thought I’d write the play for KA-CHUNK!!, a shop and world I know well. “Approaching an owner about staging a play in their business is always an adventure, but the KA-CHUNK!! team – and now Byrdland Records – loved the idea. “Record stores,” Bartlett says, “are numinous, nostalgic spaces where we discover new music, friends, and sometimes lovers while browsing for records, a ritual we almost lost to digital music,” beliefs and sentiments he mines in his play. “The opportunity to share the play with audiences at Byrdland Records,” he adds, “is truly special, and opening the run of the play around Valentine’s Day is romantically writ in the stars.” About Byrdland Records Byrdland Records is a vinyl records and music store from the team behind Songbyrd Music House and the newest addition to Union Market. About Songbyrd Music House Songbyrd Music House (aka “Songbyrd”) is a 150-capacity live music venue, bar and restaurant in Washington, DC’s Union Market neighborhood and member of the National Independent Venue Association (“NIVA”). Songbyrd was named Washington DC’s Best New Venue in 2016, Best Place for Dinner and Live Music by the Washington City Paper in 2017, 2018 and 2019, Best New Location in 2021 and is rapidly growing market share and building interest from music-forward Washingtonians and beyond. About Union Market District From roots born over 200 years ago, Union Market District continues as a unifier for community, a textural gathering place with soul. Creativity is inspired here, stories are shared and celebrated, and consequential strangers are vital to the neighborhood. About Love and Vinyl at Byrdland Records A new play about browsing for records and romance in the digital age! Best friends Bogie and Zane visit their local record store and leave with so much more than a stack of vinyl in this smart and touching romcom. Love and Vinyl features regional actors James J. Johnson, Jacob Yeh, and Rachel Manteuffel. Love and Vinyl will run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 8:30 PM from February 13 – March 9, 2025 at Byrdland Records, 1264 5th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Love and Vinyl runs 85 minutes with no intermission. Because of the uniqueness of the venue/performance space, the production seats only thirty guests per performance. Audience seating is provided. No late seating. Tickets are $44.55 and available here. Artist Bios Bob Bartlett. Photo courtesy of the artist. Bob Bartlett’s (writer/producer) plays include three new full lengths, Love And Vinyl (Kitchen Dog Theatre), Mediocre White Men, and A Boy On A Bed; Union, a sometimes fiction chronicling Walt Whitman’s years living and loving in Washington, DC during the Civil War; E2, a contemporary reimagining of Marlowe’s Edward II, which premiered last season at Maryland’s Rep Stage; Swimming With Whales (1st Stage – six Helen Hayes Awards Nominations; 2016 O’Neill Finalist); Happiness (And Other Reasons To Die) (The Welders); The Accident Bear (The Avenue Laundromat); The Regular (2020 O’Neill Finalist; 2020 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference); The Orbit Of Mercury (2017 O’Neill Finalist); and Bareback Ink, a queer reimagining of the Ganymede myth, which recently had runs at the Capital and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals and NYC’s Hard Sparks. Recently, Bartlett has been producing his own site-specific work: his play The Accident Bear had a successful run in the Avenue Laundromat in Downtown Annapolis; during the first year of the pandemic, he staged his play Three Strangers Sitting Around A Backyard Firepit At Two In The Morning Listening To Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska in his backyard; he recently staged his horror play, Lýkos Ánthrōpos, in a wooded clearing in the middle of the woods on a farm in Maryland and for six weeks last fall at Historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC; his romcom Love And Vinyl premiered in the summer of 2023 at KA-CHUNK!! Records in downtown Annapolis; and he wrote the Covid-inspired, twelve-episode Duck Harbor with EM Lewis for 1st Stage in Tysons which aired in 2021. Bartlett is an affiliated artist with the National New Play Network and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America. He lives in Central Maryland in an old farmhouse and is a founding member of The Welders, a Washington, DC-based, producing playwrights collective who were recognized with the 2016 John Aniello Award for Emerging Theater Company by Theatre Washington’s Helen Hayes Awards. He earned the MFA in Playwriting at Catholic University of America, and he is a soon-retiring member of the theater faculty at Bowie State University in Maryland, where he teaches dramatic literature, playwriting, and screenwriting. He is the recipient of the 2022 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, or Creative Activity. James J. Johnson (Bogie) is an avid music-lover who is extremely excited to be a part of this Bob Bartlett production. He was last seen in Everyman Theatre’s production of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. Other theater credits include Everyman Theatre: A Doll’s House; Constellation Theatre Co.: Sweat; Santa Fe Playhouse: Sweat; Solas Nua: Playboy of the Western World; Olney Theatre Center: The Joy That Carries You (Helen Hayes Award nomination, Outstanding Ensemble); Theater J: Nathan the Wise, Our Suburb; 1st Stage: The Royale, Hero’s Welcome; Mosaic Theater Co.: Les Deux Noirs; Arena Stage: Ruined; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: The Unmentionables; Ford’s Theatre: A Member of the Wedding. He has also co-written two award-winning short films. His first feature film, Silent Partner, should premiere sometime in 2025. His first play Wannabe premiered at the 2024 Capital Fringe Festival, directed by Reginald Richard. It won “Best of the Fest – Audience Award.” He is also a co-founder of Galvanize DC, a support network for local Black theater artists. Jacob Yeh (Zane) is thrilled to be working on Love and Vinyl after being a fan of Bob Bartlett’s work over the years through productions at 1st Stage (where Jacob is an Artistic Associate) and The Welders, where he was in that company’s inaugural production, The Carolina Layaway Grail. He has performed in full productions at stages across the DMV, including Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford’s Theatre, Folger Theatre, 1st Stage, Constellation Theatre, NextStop Theatre, Keegan Theatre, Synetic Theatre, Washington Stage Guild, Imagination Stage, Adventure Theatre and others. He is an 8-time Helen Hayes Award Nomination recipient (3 individual and 5 ensemble) and would like to thank his wife, Jen, his three kids (Matthias, Jeremiah, and Emily), his dog (Huey), and his mother, Lai-Su for their support. Rachel Manteuffel (Sage) is excited to return to Love and Vinyl after originating the role of Chance in Bob Bartlett’s play The Accident Bear at The Avenue Laundromat in Annapolis and the role of Sage in Love and Vinyl at KA-CHUNK!! Records, also in downtown Annapolis. Previous roles include Nu Sass: To Fall In Love (Merryn); Bob Bartlett: The Accident Bear (Chance); 4615 Theater Company: Enron (Sloman/raptor); Pinky Swear: Blight (Cat); The Washington Rogues: The Campsite Rule (Susan); Prometheus Theater: Twelfth Night (Olivia); Doorway Arts Ensemble: Morning, Miranda (Roadhouse Floozy, Rubber Woman). Studio Acting Conservatory, London Dramatic Academy, DCCAH fellow 2023. In her other life she’s a Livingston Award-winning writer, mostly for The Washington Post. SEE ALSO: ‘Love and Vinyl’ spins a fascinating and funny story in a real record shop (review of the play at KA-CHUNK!! Records in Annapolis by Cybele Pomerory, July 9, 2023)