TheSpyAnts presents the Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee's "bobrauschenbergamerica" at [Inside] the Ford.

TheSpyAnts presents
the Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee's
bobrauschenbergamerica
at [Inside] the Ford.

written by Charles L. Mee
directed by Bart DeLorenzo

“…brashly and unapologetically entertaining,” - The New York Times
“…a liberating, life-giving work of art…” - Chicago Tribune
“…gleeful orgy of Americana…” – The Village Voice

January 23 – February 28
Thu. – Sat. at 8pm, Sun. 3pm (Pay What You Can at the door) and 7pm
Preview Jan. 21 and 22 at 8pm (Pay What You Can at the door)
[Inside] the Ford
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, 90068
Tickets at www.FordTheatres.org or 323.461.3673
Group Sales at 323.769.2147 (8 or more)

A limited number of 1/2 price tickets are available at Goldstar, and LA Stage Alliance.

Have you ever wondered what it was like to swim in a giant martini? TheSpyAnts Theatre Company presents the long-awaited Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee's delightful, kaleidoscopic play, bobrauschenbergamerica. Director Bart DeLorenzo teams up with choreographer Ken Roht to dish up Mee's rollicking collage-montage tribute to Robert Rauschenberg that captures the happy, improvisational quality of the artist's singular vision. bobrauschenbergamerica opens at [Inside] the Ford on January 23, with Pay-What-You-Can previews on January 21 and 22.

bobrauschenbergamerica is a wild road trip through our American landscape, a play made as one of America's greatest artists, Robert Rauschenberg, might have conceived it if he had been a playwright instead of a painter. TheSpyAnts create a collage of people and places, of music and dancing, of love stories and picnics and business schemes and shootings and chicken jokes and golfing, and of the sheer exhilaration of living in a country where people make up their lives as they go.

Artist Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) once said, "A painting is more like the real world if it is made out of the real world." This infatuation with art and everyday life led him to pioneer the idea of "Combines," provocative collages created out of nontraditional materials. Taking a single canvas, Rauschenberg would combine pictures, familiar prints, sculptures and everyday objects (like tennis balls and stuffed goats), blurring the line between art and sculpture, between art and life. In bobrauschenbergamerica, the stage is the canvas, and TheSpyAnts create a living, breathing "Combine." The eclectic group of characters and collage of colorful vignettes and fantastical images may seem to unfold like juxtaposing elements, but when seen as a whole they produce a loving tribute to American life.

starring Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, Maria Tomas

producer Lori Evans Taylor
lighting design Christopher Kuhl
sound design Cricket Myers
set design Marina Mouhibian
costume design Leah Piehl
choreographer Ken Roht
publicity Lucy Pollak
photography Debi Landrie
graphic design Josh Worth