GHOST ROOM is an immersive theater piece where audiences conjure spirits and receive life advice from the dead. Ira Lawrence portrays a masked ghost interpreter and Siobhan O'loughlin is his supernatural spirit. GHOST ROOM was performed at the former Vanity Fair offices for the 2017 Chashama Gala. The video is directed by Cole Smothers and features "Lurking From The Sidelines" - the first single from Ira Lawrence's sophomore Haunted Mandolin album, YOUNG & PARANOID.

YOUNG & PARANOID - the second album composed entirely on the haunted electric mandolin Ira Lawrence received from his estranged grandmother- features cathartic and distorted post-folk songs about ditch-digging vagabonds, bedbugs, killer cops, mi… — YOUNG & PARANOID - the second album composed entirely on the haunted electric mandolin Ira Lawrence received from his estranged grandmother- features cathartic and distorted post-folk songs about ditch-digging vagabonds, bedbugs, killer cops, mimes, and murderers.

After a brush with Filipino Soap Opera stardom on his summery 2016 debut album MAPAGKAWANGGAWA, Ira returned to New York with no fixed address and fell into a deep depression after the death of David Bowie and his non-estranged grandmother Jean Satisky. Young & Paranoid's raw and emotive songs emerged from an ether of loneliness, loss, displacement, fear for the future, and finding hope in the darkest of times.

Young & Paranoid was self-recorded by Ira in various bedrooms and cat-sitting gigs in Brooklyn between Christmas of 2015 and Christmas 2016. It was mixed and mastered by John Jagos AKA Brothertiger in Greenpoint in March of 2017.

It features: NO GUITARS and NO DRUMS
ONLY IRA LAWRENCE'S HAUNTED MANDOLIN

Check out the inaugural album Ira recorded, cowrote, and produced with Sion Edmonds (Bronze Age Boats UK) and some enormously talented 8-12 year old campers at Indian Head Camp via The Music Ascension program.

HERE IT IS ! IHC's inaugural album !!! It was an amazing summer and we were truly impressed and moved by the words and music of our campers. This album captures 9 of the songs written and recorded at IHC this summer. The great variety of song on this album is testament to the boundless imagination of young people given the opportunity to speak, write, and sing! The Music Ascension Program at IHC is a collaboration of many young people working together to create something beautiful, something original, something funny, something powerful, something of which they can be proud. Thank You to Joel & Lauren, and Matty for your vision and belief in making this all happen! Thank you to David & Shelly Tager, Mark Tjaden, and Mumbles. We hope you enjoy the very 1st album created by the campers of Indian Head Camp!

GHOST ROOM AT 2017 CHASHAMA GALA (photo by GUEST OF A GUEST)

Thanks to everyone who checked out GHOST ROOM at CHASHAMA's Gala!

I'm making an immersive GHOST ROOM for Chashama Gala After Party - Art is Everywhere on June 8th. What'a a Ghost Room? It's an interactive theater piece where audience members get life advice from the dead. It's part of Chashama's ART IS EVERYWHERE … — I'm making an immersive GHOST ROOM for Chashama Gala After Party - Art is Everywhere on June 8th. What'a a Ghost Room? It's an interactive theater piece where audience members get life advice from the dead. It's part of Chashama's ART IS EVERYWHERE Gala- Artists take over spaces in the old Vanity Fair office at 4 Times Square and turn the whole floor into an art party. It's a super fun affair if you need an excuse to dress up fancy and see cool installations! After Party is 9pm-12am on Thursday JUNE 8th
Use this code for a $25 discounted ticket: artiseverywhere2017
Tickets: chashama.org/after_party_tickets

New Headshots Courtesy of ZACH DEZONCAST ME IN YOUR MOVIE — New Headshots Courtesy of ZACH DEZON
CAST ME IN YOUR MOVIE

2016 FALL TOUR DATES9.15 Brooklyn, NY @ Friends & Lovers (MONDO)9.18 New York, NY @ Pianos (MONDO)9.24 Boston, MA @ House Show (W/ Bedbug, Looks Like Mountains, Tuxis Giant)10.13 Kansas City, KS @ Buffalo Room (W/ The Vi Tran Band)10.17 Saint Lo… — **2016 FALL TOUR DATES**
**9.15 Brooklyn, NY @ Friends & Lovers** **(MONDO)**
**9.18 New York, NY @ Pianos** **(MONDO)**
**9.24 Boston, MA @ House Show (W/ Bedbug, Looks Like Mountains, Tuxis Giant)**
**10.13 Kansas City, KS @ Buffalo Room (W/ The Vi Tran Band)**
**10.17 Saint Louis, MO @ Foam (W/ Dubb Nubb & Bryan Ranney)**
Ira Lawrence's Debut album MAPAGKAWANGGAWA is out 10/7/16
PRE ORDER IT HERE: iralawrence.bandcamp.com

Ira Lawrence is an internationally produced playwright who inherited a haunted electric mandolin from his estranged grandmother in 2014. After releasing his acclaimed debut EP "Elegant Freefall" (Independent Clauses #9 Best EP of 2015), he left Brooklyn for the Philippines with his AustraliAmerican Theater Collective EVERYTHING IS EVERYWHERE (2 Aussies 2 Americans 2 gals 2 dudes 2 goys 2 Jews 2 legit 2 quit) to write, teach, and perform at Manila's Karnabal Festival of performance and social innovation. While in The Philippines, Ira visited bombed out hospitals on the island of Corregidor, a sunken cemetery on the island of Camiguin, and almost got cast as a lead in a Filipino soap opera. MAPAGKAWANGGAWA, his debut album, is a self-recorded 11-song musical travelogue informed by Ira’s adventure abroad- exploring alienation from friends, the excitement of being immersed in a new culture, and America’s tenuous history with The Philippines (which at one point was on track to be America’s 51st state). Ira’s theatrical work has been performed at The Kennedy Center, Flea #Serials, Samuel French OOB, Ensemble Studio Theater, Short & Sweet Sydney, Collaboraction (at the Steppenwolf Garage), F*It Club, Source Festival, Single Carrot, The Australian Broadcast Corporation, and The Chicago New Media Summit (among many other places around the globe). In 2006, City Paper voted Ira “Best Playwright Of Baltimore”. In 2009, Dated: A Cautionary Tale For Facebook Users was a New York Innovative Theater Award nominee for best short play. Ira has received playwriting grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and Chicago Union League. MAPAGKAWANGGAWA is also a Tagalog word for charitable and philanthropic. So, upon the album’s release in Fall of 2016, one dollar of every album sale will be donated back to The Sipat Lawin Ensemble- the vibrant and audacious Filipino theater company behind Karnabal. The album was self recorded in Brooklyn at Ryan & Molly's apartment between Christmas and New Years 2015 and mixed and mastered by John Jagos aka Brothertiger in Greenpoint. www.iralawrence.com

Thanks so much for coming to "JEFF'S JEWISH DATING SERVICE" AT THE FLEA #SERIALS! We made it all the way to Episode 2. Enjoy this photo of Tressa Preston and Thomas Muccioli by Scott Fetterman.

Ira's new play "Jeff's Jewish Dating Service"- about a struggling faith-based dating service in 1984- is coming to The Flea's Serials: July 14-16 @ 11:00pm. https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/960989In ‪#‎serials‬@theflea, five teams of actors perform… — Ira's new play "Jeff's Jewish Dating Service"- about a struggling faith-based dating service in 1984- is coming to The Flea's Serials: July 14-16 @ 11:00pm. https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/960989
In ‪#‎serials‬@theflea, five teams of actors perform original ten-minute episodic plays. The audience votes for its three favorite plays, which return the next week with a new installment. The teams with the two least popular stories are voted off the island. All tickets are $12 and include a beer! Love to see you there!
Check out this interview with Ira about the show: http://thefleatheater.tumblr.com/post/147455443427/wild-new-ideas-energetic-performers-sleep-an

5.11.16

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IRA!

IF YOU ARE IN NEW YORK CITY, COME CELEBRATE ON FRIDAY MAY 13th at Cake Shop's MILLION BAND PRINCE TRIBUTE NIGHT. FREE!

https://www.ticketfly.com/event/1185473-gonna-be-beautiful-night-new-york/

IRA LAWRENCE'S HAUNTED PRINCE REVUE will go down around 9pm, he'll be playing covers, telling stories, and getting possessed by the spirit of the purple one, alongside tons of other amazing bands who will play Prince songs 'til the break of dawn.

3.29.16

Ira Lawrence's self-recorded debut album MAPAGKAWANGGAWA is mixed! There's a few more tweaks left and then it's off to mastering. Release date is still TBD.

Track List:

1. All My Fake Friends

2. Inconsistency

3. Jeff Said Play Dead

4. Filipino Soap Star

5. Come Again Camiguin Jean

6. Perpetual Bachelor Party

7. Bong Sung Thai

8. My Double Nickel Diamonds

9. Leave It In The Philippines

10. Scot In Spacehotels

11. Blue Wide Hours

3.13.16

Ira's new short play "Larry At The Gaza Strip Club" made it's premier at Artistic New Directions' Eclectic Evening Of Shorts at Shetler Studios in New York City. "Larry At The Gaza Strip Club" was directed by Cotton Wright and featured Cheryl Horne, Katie Mack, Isaac Rodriguez, and Ira (playing an obese bartender named Larry "Boo" Carey). If you missed the show, check out this audio version of the play recorded and performed by Ira and featuring Marissa Wolf:

2.8.16

"Netflix & Chill" won first prize at the 2016 F*it Club Film Race.

Check out Ira's whacky acting and a haunted mandolin cover of The Velvet Underground's " I'm Waiting For The Man". Conceived, Directed and Acted in less than 48 hours by: Ira Gamerman, Kerry Kastin, Michael Propster, and Kia Sayyadi. And introducing, Eli Thacker Taylor.

Ira contributed a play called “Unusual Disruptions” & Economic Conditions” to Queens Theatre ‘s evening of One-Minute Plays about Coronavirus, which was presented April 10, 2020. #1MPF. Read more on Broadwayworld: https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/article/Queens-Theatre-Presents-Digital-Play-Reading-Of-One-Minute-Plays-20200407

Ira was featured in The New York Post for his work in The Boscoe Barles Bestival: https://nypost.com/2019/08/11/rescue-shih-tzu-is-the-star-of-one-dog-play-in-brooklyn/

Ira Lawrence Gamerman