Rhett Martinez
After spending the first eighteen years of my life in a small town just outside of Houston, Texas, I attended Boston University where I graduated with my BFA in Theatre (Directing, Playwrighting, Acting) in 1993. Upon graduation I moved to New York City where I began performing my one-man shows in the East Village/Alphabet City (back when it was still scary). For four years, I freelanced as a director and writer before moving back home to Houston. I met a beautiful woman named Sammi Sicinski, married her, and started our own company, Bulletproof Productions. Together we produced three independent films, a revival of Jane Martin's "Anton in Show Business," had lots of fun, made no money, got inspired, and moved to New York in 2004 (my second life in the big city, for anyone who’s keeping score). In 2007, I graduated from Brooklyn College with my MFA in Directing. In 2008, I directed a production of two of my one-act plays at Impact Theater in Brooklyn. The show was such a huge success that the theater closed and is now a lingerie boutique. My wife and I were undaunted by this sign from the gods, but we were quite daunted by the skyrocketing rent prices as the real estate bubble reached its peak in 2008 and threatened to burst all over us. So we moved back home to Houston, bought a house, adopted more dogs, and continued our tradition of making independent films, staging independent productions, having lots of fun, and making no money.
On the horizon, we have plans to stage an original play, then, at the end of the run, use the same actors to shoot the film version of the story and submit the finished feature to independent festivals. (It’s a completely original idea that we stole from the producers of The History Boys on Broadway.)
Still further on the horizon, we plan to continue producing independent works and adopting utterly dependent dogs.
Sammi Sicinski
As a native Houstonian, I am proud to be a graduate of the The High School for Performing and Visual Arts 1992 and The University of Houston 2002. For the past two decades, I have continued to work as an actor, singer, and dancer in numerous companies in Houston and New York City.
My life in the theater has not been limited to work on the stage. I was a producer for several plays and independent films here in Houston, and in Brooklyn, I produced two one-act plays written by my husband, Rhett Martinez, and performed at the Impact Theatre. For several years, I worked in the Development Department at TheaterworksUSA in Manhattan, under the mentorship of the greatest boss anyone could ever hope for, Patrick Key, who taught me the fundamentals of fund-raising, the fine art of hosting a gala, the science of the perfect cosmopolitan, and the recipe for “hot boy soup” at Fire Island.
In the coming years, I plan to continue acting, singing, dancing, and producing for both stage and screen.