Dubbed “the cult favorite comedy with music,” “Officer Scott” marks its return to New York City at Brooklyn Art Haus for a string of productions this Spring, stretching from April into July. The mind-melting live show created by Sloan Brettholtz and co-written and directed by Bailey Nassetta explores queer themes and adult topics through a D.A.R.E-style performance that teeters between chaos and clarity. It’s unconventional, it’s silly, but at the same time, deeply introspective – and we got a glimpse inside Sloan Brettholtz’s mind in a recent interview.
“My name is Sloan, I am a theater and film artist living in Manhattan,” she introduces herself with a quiet sense of wonder, before quickly diving into her journey conceptualizing “Officer Scott”: “I always say ‘Officer Scott was created by accident’ because I originally wrote this D.A.R.E sketch for a sketch group I started called ‘Grandma’s Favorites,’ lovingly named after my cat, Grandma.” Brettholtz wrote the script without ever picturing herself stepping into the role, but the universe had other plans. She quickly had to rise to the occasion after “the actor who was supposed to play Officer Scott got sick and couldn’t do the show anymore.” In a moment that feels almost cinematic in hindsight, she “purchased some reflective sunglasses, suspenders, and a mustache,” and from there, “the rest is history.”
Bailey Nassetta’s companionship also unfolded through spontaneity, the kind of creative collision that feels almost fated. “I came to her with this fully formed character and just the idea of a D.A.R.E presentation gone terribly wrong, and we began devising what would be the first rendition of ‘Officer Scott: Too Much Isn’t Enough,’” which premiered in January of 2024 at the very same theater the upcoming production will return to.
The show has transformed over time, shifting shape with each performance, and each new staging offers something slightly different, something alive. But at its core, Brettholtz says the message remains unwavering: “DARE to be yourself, no matter how much the world tries to keep you in a box. I want the audience to walk away with hope and to gain the courage to try something new and maybe kind of scary just once.” The message may sound simple on the surface, but the show is anything but: it’s eccentric, eye-catching, and threaded with sharp, witty humor that lands when you least expect it.
While the intention is rooted in introspection, Brettholtz doesn’t weigh the performance down with heaviness; she wants “the audience to have the best time with us. We fit a lot into an hour. It’s kind of like an action-packed musical dance bonanza!” The comedy never feels forced; it spills naturally out of Sloan herself when she adds, “A goal in the back of my mind in every show is for Officer Scott to make it to someone’s ‘hear me out’ cakes I see on TikTok. He’s kinda hot, guys!” And yes, she plays Officer Scott. Beneath the flittering absurdity, though, something sharper lingers just under the surface: “I also think Officer Scott impacts the students of St. Judy Dench Elementary School by giving them the honest truth about drugs: They are dangerous, but drugs are the least of our worries.”
While the script is carefully constructed, the show itself is meant to feel almost accidental, as if anything could happen at any moment. One of the standout elements of “Officer Scott” is its embrace of audience participation – “Every show is different because we have a new 6th member of the cast every night. It’s truly so much fun to just burst out of the bathroom as Scott and meet a new SUB that Scott gets to fall madly in love with.” For some, the idea of being pulled into the performance might feel intimidating, but Brettholtz ensures “the way the show is written, gives the audience member a lot of support and very low risk of failure.” It’s a controlled chaos, a moment where the line between performer and viewer blurs just enough to feel wired, but never unsafe.
Officer Scott might appear playful, even lighthearted on the surface, but Sloan Brettholtz didn’t write the show purely to entertain; she wrote it to mend something within herself. “Scott is full of me and my feelings,” she admits, continuing on to say, “he doesn’t really have friends, he has mean co-workers and a demeaning boss. But with everything against him, he stays strong in his hope that he will one day be assigned a NYPD-sanctioned partner – his dream. I am someone longing for someone to share this crazy life with, and having never had that, I understand his desire to have a partner who is always by his side to protect and love him.” Brettzholts is more than just an actor behind a character, more than just a playwright behind a story; she’s someone processing the highs and lows of existence through a character designed to make people smile, even when something deeper is quietly unraveling beneath it all.
In the final scene, the message settles with clarity: “keep going, because no feeling lasts forever. Which I have to remind myself of very often, so to get to say it night after night in front of an audience helps to solidify it into my own soul.”
In the last moments of our conversation, Sloan Brettholtz invites readers to come “to see ‘Officer Scott: Too Much Isn’t Enough’ at Brooklyn Art Haus” this Spring through the Summer. But she quickly turns the spotlight inward, grounding herself in gratitude: “as always, a huge major shoutout to my Scott Squad, my team. They work so hard and are so dedicated to this show. The amount of work that is done behind the scenes is major, and they all come together to make such a fantastic show. I wouldn’t be able to do this without them.” And maybe that’s what lingers most – not just the absurdity, the humor, or even the message – but the sense that behind every moment on stage, there is something real, community-based, holding it all together.
