NOBODY KNOWS I’M A DOG
By Alan David Perkins, at The Red Room, 85 East 4th Street.
Sundays at 8 p.m. For information, please call (212) 868-4444.
In June, the show moves to The Producers Club, 358 West
44th Street for two final shows, June 10 and 17.

Online, the truth is flexible

By Davida Singer

Sylvia Vinall appears in “Nobody Knows I’m a Dog.”

In Alan David Perkins’ comedic drama, “Nobody Knows I’m a Dog,” six people who’ve failed at nabbing partners in more traditional ways make up personalities and forge relationships via the Internet.

“Eventually they all get ratted out,” says Perkins, whose show continues to draw crowds Sundays at The Red Room in the East Village. “I’m not a big fan of human drama, and I really think people are naturally unable to connect. They want to, but they have a lot of trouble with it.”

The forty-year old Perkins grew up “mostly in Alabama,” and likes to describe himself as “a pretty unassuming, big geek” who believes in being well-rounded. To prove his point, he’s gone from French horn playing-music teacher to network engineer while continuing to indulge his playwriting habit. He’s involved with community theater in Queens (where he lives) is a founding member of Developmental Stages in Manhattan, and has come up with seventeen full-lengths and nine one-acts since he first began writing in the mid-eighties.

“I like the rules and structure of writing plays,” he explains, “creating a whole universe in a small place, and I enjoy being part of the theater scene. I finished “Nobody Knows I’m a Dog” in 1995, and it went onto a shelf with all the rest. Then I sent it out and it won three awards right away, so I started soliciting theater companies.”

What was the inspiration behind the piece?

“Most of my ideas stew for a while. This one first came to me just before the Internet had its big boom. There were all these dial-in Internet groups, and I knew the personalities were fake. I started with that, but never wrote anything. I was doing research on another play about computers, and I found this comic strip in the New Yorker. There are these two dogs in conversation, and the one at a computer says, ‘On the Internet, nobody knows I’m a dog.’ The play took off from there.”

Perkins read whatever he could find about Internet newsrooms, chat rooms and email, and devised “fictional amalgams”—six diverse characters, with identical motivations—who are “more alike than they wanted to admit.”

One of those characters is Horn Dog, “a slimy frat boy, slob-type” with a hidden streak to him, now being played by Perkins, who’s also the director and producer of the show.

“Coordinating everything is a real challenge, but I’ve got actors I can trust, so they keep me in check,” he laughs. “Right now, the play is up in four different places, including Bulgaria. It’s not my favorite or my best (work), but I’m pushing it because it’s got the most appeal, the quirkiest structure and presentation. It takes place in an undefined time and it isn’t linear. There’s no live conversation, it’s stationary, and the characters don’t physically interact. At The Red Room, the show is on the sparse side—there’s no furniture. It’s lighting intensive, but really a character driven piece. I hope it leads people to some self-realization about the lies they tell, the faces they present to others, and the question of whether they’re helping or hurting themselves as far as maintaining relationships.”

So, has Perkins ever tried out Internet dating himself?

“I’ve played with it, but I basically got nowhere. I was never successful at maintaining it very long. Anyway, I’m very married now, and my wife Miriam Denu is actually acting in the play! It’s a family affair.”