"The space between the activist, dancer and poet is inhabited by the clown"

As a solo artist, the Actor becomes a monastic interpreter on one hand and a confessional storyteller on the other. Kangalee’s interest and emphasis on the actor’s singer-songwriter approach to performance has evolved over the years. Initially spawned by witnessing the work of Anna Deavere-Smith and Eric Bogosian in the early 1990s, the Ensemble’s love-affair with Beckett’s solo works goes back to the early days of Dennis Leroy Kangalee’s conservatory days where he spent long nights immersed in Theater of the Absurd. This opened the door to other monodramas by Israel Horovitz, Roger Guenevere-Smith, even the uncollected routines of Dick Gregory. Eventually Dennis Leroy Kangalee wrote and performed his first solo, Gentrified Minds. The Ensemble’s recent creative political diatribe“My Dying City” - a sprawling work that was part revolutionary manifesto, love poem, eulogy and epitaph for a revolt against an ever-increasing authoritarian modern America — was distilled into a solo piece in June of 2025, while at the Borden Estate in Wallkill.

With the commission from the Henry Miller Memorial Library - to f Henry Miller’s maejestic short story “Smile at the Foot of the Ladder,” into a play, the Ensemble will carve out a new mono drama conceived, staged, and performed in conjugal with a new collaborator/member, DC poet and author Magus Magnus. Dennis Leroy Kangalee will perform, they both are collaborating on the script and Magnus will direct. Stay tuned for more updates and more information about the philosophy of Solo acting and the parallel to music and poetry.