About Us

Nick Abeel, Brendan Dalton, Natalie Rich, Rosa Palmeri_Photo by Bjorn Bolinder

Recent Cutbacks is a creative ensemble founded in 2014. Our critically acclaimed work sits at the intersection of comedy and theater. We’re best known for our live movie parodies that fuse humor, nostalgia, and lo-fi spectacle.

Our projects invite audiences to see the world with a newfound exuberance and remind us why we fell in love with movies, theater, and storytelling in the first place.

Photo by Bjorn Bolinder

Our Projects

Core Company

Nick Abeel, Recent Cutbacks co-founder, performer, and sound designer

Kyle Schaefer, Recent Cutbacks co-founder and performer

Co-Founder, Performer, Sound Design
is a NY-based Dad and artist who performs, writes, directs, edits video, designs sound, and occasionally works as a foley artist. You can hear Nick in the Recent Cutbacks Audible Original: History of the 3rd Robot War, a 6-part parody lecture series he co-wrote and starred in as the T-Rex Professor. Nick is also a veteran company member of Broken Box Mime Theater, collaboratively creating and performing contemporary stories entirely through movement. These two companies form the backbone of Nick's creative work, but he's also performed at The PIT, UCB, 59E59, the Tank, Dixon Place, the Denver Center and the Kennedy Center. He's developed new work with All for One, New Dramatists, MTC, NY Stage and Film, Primary Stages, The Lark, and New Georges. Check out Nick's green-screen work at his website: nickabeel.com
Co-Founder, Director, Producer
is a New York-based director, producer, and Co-Founder of Recent Cutbacks whose work has been seen across the US, UK, and Australia. Kristin directed the Off-Broadway hit Puffs: Or, Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic and its live capture (available on Amazon and iTunes). Other directing includes projects for Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, Powerhouse Theater, New Georges, All For One, The Brick Exponential Festival, PEN America's Prison Writing Program, Ma-Yi, Columbia University, the University of Florida, and many others. Assistantships include Michael Greif (Far From Heaven), Trip Cullman (Choir Boy), and Wendy C. Goldberg (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). She is a also proud company member of Broken Box Mime. kristinmccarthyparker.com. @kristinmcparker
Co-Founder, Performer
is a lifelong tinkerer/collaborator/maker, classically-trained actor and seeker of beautiful noise, powerful stories and collective liberation. His work has been seen and heard on the big/small screens, stages near/far, and all around the World Wide Web. He's based out of Brooklyn, NY, and is a proud co-founder of Recent Cutbacks. www.kyleschaefer.com. @kvschaefer