TheSpyAnts Theatre Company

Come join TheSpyAnts at Hamburger Mary's Wednesday September 28 at 9pm

2011-09-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

Come Join TheSpyAnts Theatre Company
at Hamburger Mary's Legendary Bingo
Wednesday, September 28th @ 9pm

Legendary Bingo has been named "Best Of" in 2010 by Los Angeles Magazine,
L.A. Weekly and The Huffington Post.

Awesome prizes, crazy drag queens, full menu and bar!!! What more do you want?!

Wednesday, September 28th @ 9pm

a $20 donation lets you play for the night.

Proceeds benefit TheSpyAnts Theatre Company.

SEE YOU THERE! Bring your friends! Forward to everyone!

For a good time (and a good table), rsvp to 323.654.3800.

Hamburger Mary's

8288 Santa Monica Blvd @ Sweetzer

West Hollywood, 90069

"bobrauschenbergamerica" made LA Weekly's Steven Lee Morris's list of favorites for 2010

2010-12-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

The LA Weekly's Steven Lee Morris compiled his list of favorite shows for 2010, and bobrauschenbergamerica received a mention.
Check out his review here, and the whole column below:

L.A. Theater in 2010
Thanks for the memories
By Steven Leigh Morris Thursday, Dec 30 2010

Top 10 list? No thanks. We already have the L.A. Weekly Theater Awards for that — details to be announced shortly.

ENDANGERED THEATERS THAT DESERVE HELP

City Garage got booted from their Santa Monica digs in November after their lease expired. At last report, they had stripped of the theater they'd occupied for 15 years and were homeless but working on a deal with Bergamot Station. The theater has been and remains a local treasure for its presentation of audacious texts, with Frenchwoman Frédérique Michel's arch and deliberately automatonic stagings of works including those by Heiner Muller, Caryl Churchill, Charles L. Mee, Ionesco and Molière — all packed onto a tiny stage and helped along with Paul Rubenstein's lush soundscapes and Charles M. Duncombe's production designs.

A Noise Within: Glendale's classical rep company is trying what most small theaters gave up on decades ago, and for good reason: moving "up" to midsize, where the economic challenges in our subsidy-free zone are tempestuous. Just ask the Colony Theatre or East West Players. ANW tried this a few years ago with a brief, frustrating and frustrated sojourn to Cal State L.A.'s Luckman Fine Arts Complex. But they are determined, and are in the midst of a successful (so far) capital campaign that includes construction of a new Equity-scale theater in Pasadena. We haven't seen construction from the ground up of any theaters that remain regularly used since Burbank's Falcon Theatre (1997), Pasadena's Boston Court (2003) and downtown's REDCAT (2003). The challenges of sustaining a midsize theater in Pasadena will be daunting. And as frustrated as I sometimes am with the company's aversion to inventiveness, the baseline of competence and skill in conjunction with a long tradition of presenting classical works from all genres to new audiences makes it imperative that the company's experiment in up-sizing succeeds, for all our sakes.

Gunfighter Nation is a new company marked by the return of long-standing L.A. personality-playwright John Steppling, who serves as the company's co–artistic director along with his son, Lex Steppling. And, like the working together of father and son, the company has drawn its acolytes from two generations: One, that of Steppling, includes the playwright-descendants of the Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop and Festival (founded in 1978 by Murray Mednick and Sam Shepard); and the next generation, which brings to the art the consciousness of social and community service. In the company aesthetic, one generation informs the work of the other, which is a rare gift and melding of purposes that's happening in the rehearsal halls and accompanying taverns. They've also put on some pretty good plays in their first year, including Steppling's latest work, Phantom Luck. Like many new endeavors, they exist on tenacity and prayer to the gods of a desperately fragile economy. They are perhaps the only new company with such a long history. I hope they make it.

SHORT-ANSWER QUIZ TO PISS PEOPLE OFF, 10 POINTS EACH

• What's the difference between art, artsy, and artsy fartsy?

• Is multidisciplinary work, and the promotion of it, really such a threat to traditional presentations — or can we all just get along?

• Does the blending of music, video and online technologies on our stages really draw a new generation of theatergoers, or is that just the fantasy of faculty and students from Cal-Arts and the programmers over at REDCAT, that's disconnected from the real world?

• Does L.A. theater really suffer from a lack of inventive (concept) directors?

• If you answered "yes" to the above, please answer the following: (a) If so, why? (b) If so, is that such a bad thing? If you answered "no" to the above, please move on to the next question.

• Why is it that the United States' most famous concept directors find most of their employment in Europe, Canada and South America rather than in their homeland? (a) People outside the United States are stupid and pretentious; (b) People inside the United States are stupid and crass; (c) Concept directors have no respect and therefore don't deserve any. (Only one answer, please!)

• Does L.A. theater suffer from a lack of autobiographical one-person shows? If so, why?

• Does L.A. theater suffer from a lack of shows named [Fill in the Title]: The Musical! If so, why?

• Why is the Fountain Theatre always sold out when it just does plays about bitter musicians and graveyards?

• Should actors be paid for their work? If so, should they be paid even if their production loses money? Why?

• Should investment bankers be paid for their work? If so, should they be paid even if their company loses money? Why?

• Did you enjoy this quiz? If so, why? If not, please move on to the next question.

Please submit your answers to smorris @ laweekly.com. Correct answers will be posted at blogs. laweekly. com/ stylecouncil/stage-news in early 2011. There will be prizes for the best correct answers. If you answered incorrectly, you will be condemned to anonymity.

I LIED: HERE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITES FOR 2010, BUT IN NO COMPETITIVE ORDER

Ann Randolph's Loveland at Santa Monica Playhouse; Psittacus Productions' A Tale Told by an Idiot at Son of Semele; everything I saw at REDCAT; Lynn Nottage's Ruined at the Geffen; Palomino at the Kirk Douglas; Stage Door and A Wolf Inside the Fence at Open Fist; Independent Shakespeare Company's Much Ado About Nothing in Griffith Park; all of the War Plays trilogy presented by Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble at the Powerhouse; the Calabasas International Theater Festival; the Hollywood Fringe Festival; Gertrude Stein's Brewsie and Willie, directed by Travis Preston for Poor Dog Group; Mary Lynn Spreads Her Legs at the Steve Allen Theater; Opus and The Train Driver at the Fountain; Anton's Uncles, Theatre Movement Bazaar at the 24th Street Theater; Tom Jacobson's The Twentieth Century Way at Theater @ Boston Court; Shaheed at the Peggy Feury Studio; Jon Tuttle's Holy Ghost at Theatre of NOTE; Shem Bitterman's Influence at the Skylight; Nan McNamara's lead performance in Wit at Actors' Co-op; the SpyAnts' (sic) production of Charles L. Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica at [Inside] the Ford; City Garage's production of Paradise Park; Baal at Sacred Fools; An Oak Tree at the Odyssey; Four Places and The Sunset Limited, presented by Rogue Machine at Theatre/Theater; and Zombie Joe's Underground, just for being ZJU.

Finally, this year's Talent and Tenacity Award goes to Antaeus Company for being so talented and tenacious. This is the first year they have presented a full season, which corresponds, by sheer coincidence, to the first year that the T&T prize has been bestowed. It comes with this humble recognition and whatever rewards derive from being talented and tenacious, but it does not come with money. After all, this is theater in Los Angeles.

John Charles Meyer in "Same-O"

2010-12-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

Our member John Charles Meyer (Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift, bobrauschenbergamerica, Terminus Americana) is appearing in Bootleg Theater's Same-O by Ken Roht, who was our choreographer for bobrauschenbergamerica. It's part of the popular 99¢ Store Shows, and it runs through December 19th, and resumes after the holidays from January 6-30 at The Bootleg Theater (formerly The Evidence Room) 2220 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles.

You can read one rave review from LA Weekly here, and other reviews, along with more show information, can be found here.

So if you have time, make plans to see part of our TheSpyAnts family at work.

Thanks!

Los Angeles Times review of "Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift"

2010-11-19T13:23:00.000-08:00

Theater review: 'Kidnapped by Craigslist' at the Elephant

November 18, 2010 | 8:00 pm:

Those who are easily shocked or have weak stomachs should give “Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift” a wide berth. However, those who like their humor deliciously low may find this production very much to their bad taste.

It’s appropriate that this show has been mounted in the Elephant’s Asylum space. Based on actual Craigslist postings, it ranges from the naughty to the downright lunatic.

That makes for a playfully scary evening, as reflected in Lori Evans Taylor’s staging, a combination of carnival sideshow and B horror movie. Actors in the alternating cast enter Adam Haas Hunter’s cobweb-strewn set through an upright coffin, as a white-faced barker (exotic John Charles Meyer) sets the stage for the various monologues.

This production by TheSpyAnts is a sequel to “Kidnapped by Craigslist,” which played locally in late 2007 to considerable acclaim. Written by Katie Goan and co-created by Goan and Nitra Gutierrez, this is one high concept with staying power. Considering the endless spew of source material from the fabled list, one can imagine a series of future productions, further permutations on the same twisted themes.

From a sociological standpoint, “Kidnapped” is fascinating, a series of snapshots showing the fetishes and peccadilloes of a society in which the notions of shame and restraint have been tossed to the swirling winds. Although we suspect some offerings were penned by hoaxers who are just punking us, it's also hilariously funny, with an able cast that merrily escorts us to the dark side. Be warned, however: After seeing this show, your face may be forever frozen between a guffaw –- and a pained wince.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift,” the Asylum Lab at the Elephant Complex, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Dark Nov. 26 and 27. Ends Dec. 18. $20. (323) 860-8786. www.TheSpyAnts.com. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Photo: Eric Bunton. Credit: Baron Norris

"Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift" is EXTENDING through December 18th!

2010-11-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

TheSpyAnts Theatre Company presents

"Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift"

written by Katie Goan,

created by Katie Goan and Nitra Gutierrez

and directed by Lori Evans Taylor

at The Elephant Lab.

“…hilariously funny, with an able cast …this is one high concept with staying power.”

- LA Times

“… a crack ensemble in an unrelentingly frenetic fusillade… weird and wacky assortment of cranks, kinks and jaw-dropping confessions of perversity …”

- LA Weekly

“…Kidnapped is fascinating…it ranges from the naughty to the downright lunatic.”

- LA Times

October 16 – December 18

Fridays and Saturdays, 8pm

(dark November 26 &27)

***SPECIAL OFFER

Print out your favorite Craigslist posting for $5 off!***

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a world of anonymity? Say anything you want? Be anyone you can? Even if people think it is bizarre or disturbing? Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift is an eerie and risqué new comedy that explores the carnivalesque, cult-like phenomenon that is Craigslist, bringing actual postings to life from the website with scripted material and music. This unique and creative one-hour play tells the true stories that are locked inside an online community that has shaped and inspired today's internet generation. There’s a place for you here. There’s a place here for everyone, straight, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender or questioning. We all have a dark side, you know.

Fri. and Sat., 8pm, and Sun., 7pm

One Thu. Show - Nov.11, 8pm

Late Night Shows - Sat., Oct. 23rd and Sat., Nov. 6th, 10pm

Pay What You Can (at the door) Sun., Oct. 24th and 31st, 7pm

The Elephant Lab Theatre

6322 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038 (just west of Vine)

Tickets $20

Make reservations here or at (323) 860-8786

starring Eric Bunton, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, David Goryl, Patrick Hancock, Brett Mack, Dawn Merkel, John Charles Meyer, Amy Motta, Marina Mouhibian, Christopher Mur, Danny Parker-Lopes, Alison Zatta

(Alternating cast, click here for performance schedule.)

lighting design Adam Hunter

set design Adam Hunter

costume design Marina Mouhibian

choreography Scott Hislop

publicity Eric Bunton

photography Jeff E Photo

graphic design Churchie Graphic Design

New Postings! New Cast! New Show!

See John Charles Meyer in "The Taqwacores"

2010-11-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

John Charles Meyer - who is presently appearing with us in Kidnapped By Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift, and who has previously been in bobrauschenbergamerica, and Terminus Americana - is also in the feature film The Taqwacores, which opens tomorrow night in the Los Angeles area.

You can see it at either the Sunset 5 - 8000 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood, or the Edwards University Town Center in Irvine.

For Sunset 5 screenings, you can buy tickets here, and here for the Edwards University Town Center.

The Taqwacores is a feature film about the Muslim punk rock scene (yes, you read that correctly), but the core of the story deals with the complexities of being young and Muslim in modern-day America. With a humble budget, a cast of unknowns, and a first-time director, the film has gone on to win festival awards around the globe and find a distributor for limited theatrical release in the US and France. The only caveat I offer is this: I have a very small role; you’ll catch me on-screen for a mere couple of minutes. But it is a bold and beautifully-crafted movie with a timely and important message. I may be a bit biased of course, but the critics agree:

“One of the Ten Best Films from Sundance 2010”
-Time Out London

“Sure to appeal to fans of Trainspotting, Fight Club, anything by Gus Van Sant...”
-Los Angeles Times

“Busting out with strong vision.”
-The Huffington Post

Photos from "Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift"

2010-10-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some press photos, as well as some taken during a rehearsal of Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift:

Jennifer Etienne Eckert and Alison Zatta

CB Spencer and Christopher Mur

Christopher Mur and Marina Mouhibian

Director Lori Evans Taylor

Front Row: Brett Mack, Danny Parker Lopes, Alison Zatta
Second Row: Marina Mouhibian, David Goryl

Amy Motta

Patrick Hancock and Dawn Merkel

John Charles Meyer

Patrick Hancock

Kneeling: Brett Mack, Lori Evans Taylor, CB Spencer, Patrick Hancock
2nd Row: Jennifer Etienne Eckert, David Goryl, Marina Mouhibian, Eric Bunton, Alison Zatta, John Charles Meyer, Amy Motta
3rd Row: Christopher Mur, Danny Parker Lopes, Dawn Merkel

Photos by Jeff E Photo, and Baron Norris

Check out all of them here at our Facebook page.

Promo video for "Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift"

2010-10-17T12:06:00.001-07:00

Link

Check out our 2008 promo video for "Kidnapped by Craigslist"

2010-10-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

This is a promo video we shot for our first production of "Kidnapped by Craigslist" in 2008. So if you didn't catch it the first time, it'll give you a taste of what to expect. We're back with it with a preview on Friday, and our official opening on Saturday (which includes our ten year anniversary celebration) at the Elephant Lab Theatre in Hollywood. So check out the video, and then click here and make your reservations now. Note: the space we're performing in seats only 40, so the sooner you act, the better. :)

Thanks, and we'll see you there!

Choke.Kick.Girl Episode 2 posted today

2010-10-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

The second episode of Choke.Kick.Girl, the web series developed by our own Ryan Churchill, and featuring many members of our company has been posted today, so click the link below to check it out.

Link

You can follow Choke.Kick.Girl on Facebook here, and on Twitter here

Amy Motta's Acting Reel

2010-10-07T13:57:00.001-07:00

This is Amy Motta's acting reel! Amy is a guest artist who appeared with us previous as the barker in our first production of Kidnapped by Craigslist in 2008, and is reprising the role for us this year in our upcoming production of Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift.

Check it out, and be sure to come see our show when it opens on October 16th.

Thanks!

Link

CB Spencer in "The Dead Matter"

2010-10-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

CB Spencer, a guest artist who appeared with us last year in Terminus Americana, and is part of the cast for our upcoming show, Kidnapped by Craiglist: The Graveyard Shift, is part of the cast for the recently released horror film The Dead Matter.

Check out a trailer for the film here:

Link

And a behind the scenes trailer for the film here:

Link

You can find out more about the film at its website, and be sure to come see our show when it opens on October 16th.

TheSpyAnts present "Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift"

2010-10-05T14:31:00.001-07:00

Only two weeks left to witness this

eerie and risqué new comedy…..

TheSpyAnts Theatre Company presents

"Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift"

written by Katie Goan,

created by Katie Goan and Nitra Gutierrez

and directed by Lori Evans Taylor

at The Elephant Lab.

…these actual postings from Craigslist give you a ride just

over an hour and set you off to your evening with
just the right rush.

This weekend Fri. 8pm, Sat. 8pm and 10pm, Sun. 7pm.
Late Night Show Sat., November 6th 10pm, ONLY $10!

“…crack ensemble in an unrelentingly frenetic fusillade… Taylor's transfer of her original staging's carnival sideshow to the creep show (courtesy of Adam Haas Hunter's effective lights and spiderweb-festooned, haunted-house set) turns out to be more than just seasonally fitting.”

- LA Weekly

Fri. and Sat., 8pm, and Sun., 7pm

One Thu. Show - Nov.11, 8pm

Late Night Shows - Sat., Oct. 23rd and Sat., Nov. 6th, 10pm

Pay What You Can (at the door) Sun., Oct. 24th and 31st, 7pm

The Elephant Lab Theatre

6322 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038 (just west of Vine)

Tickets $20

Make reservations here or at (323) 860-8786

starring Eric Bunton, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, David Goryl, Patrick Hancock, Florian Klein, Brett Mack, Mari Marks, Dawn Merkel, John Charles Meyer, Amy Motta, Marina Mouhibian, Christopher Mur,Danny Parker-Lopes, CB Spencer, Alison Zatta

(Alternating cast, click here for performance schedule.)

lighting design Adam Hunter

set design Adam Hunter

costume design Marina Mouhibian

choreography Scott Hislop

publicity Eric Bunton

photography Jeff E Photo

graphic design Churchie Graphic Design

New Postings! New Cast! New Show!

Come play BINGO with us July 7 @ 7pm at Hamburger Mary's in West Hollywood

2010-07-01T12:19:00.001-07:00

It is time for eating, drinking, music and BINGO fun with TheSpyAnts Theatre Company!

This NOT your normal bingo. We have martinis, dance music, Drag Queens, and FANTASTIC prizes worth over $2,000! Get a table, grab a group of friends and make your own party with over 200 other people! Don't miss this crazy event in the heart of West Hollywood!

Join us for Legendary Bingo on Wednesday, July 7th, 7pm at Hamburger Mary’s, located at 8288 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90046-5915.

For a $20 donation you will have 10 chances to win valuable prize baskets worth $100-$200, and bid on exciting auction items.

Prizes include...

Magic Mountain Tickets

Bowling at Lucky Strike

Hopper Passes to Legoland California/Sea Life Aquarium/Legoland Water Park

Universal Studios Tickets

Kindle Reader

Motorola Personal Navigation Device

GE Digital Waterproof Camera

Verizon LG EVV3 Cellular Phones

Audio-Technica Noise Cancelling On-Ear Headphones

Brookstone BioSense Memory Foam Classic Pillows

Brookstone Rolling Organizer Overnight Bags

Bath & Body Works Products

Philosophy Facial Products

Amazing Sex Toys

Cigars and Martinis Basket

LA Fitness Passes

and MUCH MORE!!!!

There will be food and drink for sale, so come early to get a table.

See you Wednesday, July 7th at 7pm!

Vietnam and Vietnamese food event at Traveler's Bookcase July 14

2010-06-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

Our longtime member Natalie Compagno (The Reunion, Hellcab) is also the owner of Traveler's Bookcase, and on Wednesday July 14, there will be an event at the store to promote a new book about Vietnamese cuisinse.

You're invited to travel through Vietnam by way of the country's distinctive cuisine on Wednesday July 14 from 7:30-9:30 pm at Traveler's Bookcase, 8375 West Third Street in Los Angeles.

Please join Kim Fay and Julie Fay Ashborn to celebrate the publication of Commiunion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam . After a brief reading and Q&A, we will be serving wine and a sampling of flavors fro the book. As an added treat, the Mandoline Grill Vietnamese food truck will offer delicious, inexpensive Vietnamese classics.

So make your plans now, and Thanks!

Kim Estes in "Drunk Talk"

2010-06-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

You can see our longtime member Kim Estes (The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild, Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion) in a show called Drunk Talk at the Dragonfly, 6510 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood

This is an interactive show that transforms the theater space into an actual bar, and here is the show description from its website:

DRUNK TALK is an original play that transforms an actual bar into an interactive, high-spirited comedy. So enter the world of McSwiggen's Tavern where you're not just an audience member, but a patron. But watch out because you never know who is "IN" the show or just "AT" the show.

Follow the cast of zany characteristics as they try and cope with the looming reality that their local bat is closing down after tonight. Now with no place to drink up and chew over their aspirations, will they have to actually get out there and live their lives...or will the bar be saved?

Come join us for a round of DRUNK TALK and have a cold one while you do! Full bar open throughout the entire show. Come thirsty, my friend.

Ticket includes a free McSwiggen's special cocktail during the show!

Must be over 21.

Drunk Talk runs Sunday nights at 8pm through August 1 (except for July 4th), and tickets are $15.

Read a review here, and buy tickets here.

Thanks!

SAVE THE DATE - Wednesday July 7 @ 7pm for BINGO at Hamburger Mary's in West Hollywood

2010-06-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Our last BINGO game in May was so successful that we were asked by Hamburger Mary's in West Hollywood to come back again in July, so we will be having another BINGO fundraiser on Wednesday July 7th at 7pm.

If you've ever played BINGO there, then you know how much fun you can have while supporting us as well. So mark your calendars, and then stay tuned for more information.

Also, follow us here on Facebook and Twitter, so you can stay up to date on what we're up to.

Thanks!

Mari Marks demo reel

2010-05-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

Mari Marks (bobrauschenbergamerica, The Reunion, has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2007, and this is her demo reel.

Jennifer Etienne Eckert's Demo Reel

2010-05-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Etienne Eckert - bobrauschenbergamerica, What If? (2008), The Reunion (2006), Rudolph The Red Hosed Reindeer - is a longtime member of TheSpyAnts, and this is her demo reel.

SAVE THE DATE - May 16th for BINGO at Hamburger Mary's

2010-05-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

It is time for eating, drinking, music and BINGO fun with TheSpyAnts Theatre Company!

Join us for Legendary Bingo on Sunday, May 16, 7pm at Hamburger Mary’s, located at 8288 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90046-5915.

For a $20 donation you will have 10 chances to win valuable prize baskets worth $100-$200, and bid on exciting auction items.

Also meet our bingo callers including Drag Queens and Lisa Foxx from 104.3 MYfm!

There will be food and drink for sale, so come early to get a table.

Kim Estes being considered for an Emmy

2010-05-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

Our longtime member Kim Estes (The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild, Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion) is being considered for an Emmy Award for his work on the series House, MD.

From Kim's Facebook Page:

"So that you all know, as of yesterday morning...in Category 63 on the Emmy nomination ballot...my name is listed for your consideration as "outstanding guest star actor in a drama series" for my performance in the series House, MD. Which means, that I have officially entered the Emmy Award race. So please pass the word ...to your friends who are Academy Television Arts and Sciences voters that I would welcome their support along my journey.

You many view the nominated scene from House, MD. by clicking here."

Congratulations Kim!

Eric Bunton's Youtube page

2010-04-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

One of TheSpyAnts founding members Eric Bunton (bobrauschenbergamerica, Terminus Americana, Kidnapped by Craigslist, and many other shows) has launched a Youtube page where he has posted videos of his work.

Here is one of them, which also features Brett Hren.

So have a look, and thanks!

Hal Perry on "America's Most Wanted"

2010-02-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hal Perry, who has appeared with us in Terminus Americana, What If? (Vol. II 2009), Infinite Black Suitcase, and The Birds, appears in the "Gilbert and De La Harren" segment of the "Miami Model Mystery" episode of America's Most Wanted. Here he plays crime victim Craig Martin, who was blinded in a struggle during an attempted robbery of his convenience store in South Carolina.

The entire episode can be seen here, and Hal's segment starts at about the 19:30 mark.

Who Killed Jason? ("The Reunion" web series)

2010-02-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

Who Killed Jason? will be a web series based on our production of The Reunion: Everything Changes. Everyone Stays The Same which ran in the summers of 2006 and 2007. It was a unique project for us that was co-written by the original cast, and co-directed by Danny Parker-Lopes, and former member Darcy Halsey.

The story of 10 year reunion of Woodrow Wilson High School's Class of 1984 remains intact, but there is a new twist. Jason was the guy who mysteriously died at the senior party, and ten years later, no one still knows for sure how he died and who was responsible. This will follow the interactive format of the play on the web, and you can see how it all works by checking out the website, and watching the short trailer.

And just to refresh your memory, check out this segment on the play by YourLA.

Who Killed Jason? LLC is comprised of Danny Parker-Lopes, Darcy Halsey, and Addi Gaash.

You can follow Who Killed Jason on Facebook by clicking here

2010-02-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

“bobrauschenbergamerica”: Now-Feb. 28 @ [Inside] the Ford

By Cesar Cruz

bobrauschenbergamerica is incredibly entertaining. Directed by Bart DeLorenzo, written by Charles L. Mee and choreographed by Ken Roht, the play brims with colorful characters, 43 different scenes (a range of musical numbers) and is backed by explosive energy.

It’s a tribute to the late artist Bob Rauschenberg and his work; actually, it’s not about Rauschenberg but about what he saw. Rauschenberg’s work is a reflection of America, which consequently involves love stories, picnics, business schemes, shootings and, of course, a person in a chicken costume strolling across center stage. Through collages, Rauschenberg realized a technique that came to be known as “Combines,” which are collages created from nontraditional materials (e.g. pictures, familiar prints, sculptures, tennis balls, stuffed goats) that attempt to blur the line between art and life.

Reviewing bobrauchenbergamerica is like describing another description. The collage of scenes that makes the play, as well as the themes and characters, work more or less as a mirror than a story. There’s nothing logical about the production, yet it makes sense; like 10 people giving their interpretation of one piece of art – at the same time! Each scene takes you hostage and relentlessly impresses sheer exhilaration for living in a country where people make up their lives as they go.

The play works quite well. I barely notice that an hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission, passes. This depiction of America, as seen through Rauschenberg’s eyes and under DeLorenzo’s direction, is fearless and optimistic, but best of all unedited.

If you get tired of a scene, rest assured it will soon end. However, much like life, you don’t always like what you see or what you get. Some scenes may be outlandish, but in a way that forces you to acknowledge the myriad forms reality can take.

bobrauchenbergamerica, while sensitive and philosophical, gives your eyes a workout, then sends you back into the world.

[Inside] the Ford is located at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., Hollywood. For more information, visit fordtheaters.org.

Backstage review of "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-02-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

bobrauschenbergamerica

TheSpyAnts at [Inside] the Ford

Reviewed by Jeff Favre
FEBRUARY 03, 2010

"Art was not a part of lives," says the character known as Bob's Mom in Charles L. Mee's 2001 one-act, nonlinear homage to the late American artist Bob Rauschenberg. And regardless of whether the character truly is based on Rauschenberg's real-life mother, Dora (the play's last line reportedly was spoken by her), the sentiment is false and telling because her stories show that art is all around for those who search for it—as Rauschenberg did by using found objects to create the iconic combines and collages for which he is best known. Few playwrights could be better suited than Mee to attempt to translate Rauschenberg's style for theater, because Mee shows more interest in juxtaposition of disparate images and emotions than in telling a coherent story. But those willing to mentally traverse this living museum for 90 minutes—led by a deft curatorial staff (aka TheSpyAnts' 10-person cast and director Bart DeLorenzo)—will discover a wealth of intriguing, visually captivating and funny vignettes among the more than 40 presented.

There are named characters, though it hardly matters, including Bob's Mom (Mari Marks), Phil the Trucker (Danny Parker-Lopes), Phil's Girl (Maria Tomas), and the nonspeaking Roller Girl (Breeze Braunschweig). There's also an entire barbershop chorus that delivers a mini concert. Mee's script delves into the building blocks of art and love, while the visuals involve a rolling bathtub, a man in a chicken suit, and a martini Slip 'n Slide.

DeLorenzo, who has directed a few Mee plays, successfully evokes whimsy when needed, as well as understated sadness, all while keeping a pace that's brisk enough to keep the less compelling moments from dragging down the performance. The cast works in harmony, flitting in and out of scenes as if each actor is part of a single entity. Ken Roht's choreography injects energy and humor to a couple of dance numbers. And Marina Mouhibian's set resembles a collection of Rauschenberg combines, which creates an ideal atmosphere. Not every scene of "bobrauschenbergamerica" is a winner, but as a whole it's entertaining and memorable.

Presented by TheSpyAnts at [Inside] the Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood. Jan. 23–Feb. 28. Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 and 7 p.m. (323) 461-3673. www.fordtheatres.org.

OUTSIDE THE BOX: BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA AT [INSIDE] THE FORD (EyespyLA.com review)

2010-02-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

OUTSIDE THE BOX: BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA AT [INSIDE] THE FORD
By M.R. Hunter

What does a man in a chicken suit, a giant bowling pin, a rooster and a kitchen whisk all have in common? Everything and nothing in the LA premiere of Charles Mee’s zany collage-montage tribute to the late modern artist, Robert Rauschenberg at [Inside] the Ford.

One of the most forward-thinking artists of his time, Rauschenberg’s work combined ordinary materials and objects with spectacular splashes of color and familiar images to create pieces that were not entirely art and not entirely sculpture, but something in the space between. Predating the Pop Art movement, Rauschenberg’s “outside-the-box” method inspired the likes of Pollock, Joseph Cornell, and Oldenburg with his break from the traditional, fixed space of the canvas. Art then, literally became for Rauschenberg something outside of itself, a thing discoverable in the everyday and a hodgepodge of the seemingly contradictory connected in tandem and unity.

Inspired by Rauschenberg, Mee conceives a play not bound by conventional Aristotelian unities, but channels the absurdist and radical approach of the artist’s innovative spirit. Like a gallery of Rauschenberg collages brought to life, the action is both startling and disjointed, it confronts and challenges the very idea of art and performance itself, yet is cohesive enough to be visually entertaining. Bart DeLorenzo polishes what might otherwise comes across as amateur and raw into a provocative performance that if nothing else is definitely unlike anything else.

The only discernable thread keeping the wildly assorted vignettes from spinning completely out of control are the recollections of Rauschenberg’s early childhood, as told by his Mom (Mari Marks). Projected on a backdrop behind her are black and white photos of what is otherwise an ordinary, almost painfully average little boy whose humble beginnings hardly indicated the great influence in art he would one day become. As if these family photos were not convincing enough, Bob’s Mom ends each shared memory with the repeated refrain, “Art was not a part of our lives.” Whatever it was that taught Rauschenberg to see the world through his distorted kaleidoscope lenses is a wonder and will remain a mystery much like his vividly odd collages.

All the rest is simply off-the-wall non-sequiturs featuring some amusing anecdotes on relationships, acceptance, and love—if one is intent on ferreting out a theme here. It is better not to try to interpret or judge the merits of each scene, but rather to sit back and let the scenes roll on by like a passenger on a journey through a strange landscape or lucid dream. Eventually, nonsense becomes perfect sense in this wonderland filled with delightful, whimsical characters.

Where else can one find a Roller Girl (Breeze Braunschweig) gliding by on retro-styled skates, while a man dressed in a chicken suit crosses the stage? Then there is the shaken, not stirred body writhing martini bath or the random attack on a metal trashcan with a baseball bat. A pizza delivery boy (John Charles Meyer) recounts his homicidal past with casual indifference while Phil, the Trucker (Danny Parker-Lopes) delivers his own brand of torture with a series of chicken jokes—actually, the one about the egg is pretty funny. While these particular characters and scenes do not directly relate to Rauschenberg himself, they do capture the essence of his work.

Music numbers liven up the uneasy transitions with line dances and hoe downs choreographed by Ken Roht. Marina Mouhibian’s set design utilizes the open wings on of the proscenium, filling it with splattered canvases and bric-a-brac in keeping with Rauschenberg’s technique. A bicycle and a High Flyer cart hang from the catwalks and the otherwise minimalist space finds room for a ten-foot high stack of cardboard boxes.

Bob Rauschenberg would probably reject the idea of anyone trying to review this play. His vision defies interpretation, went against the grain of it, and like him this production by TheSpyAnts Theatre Company shouldn’t be read by proxy, but seen without any expectations. In the nonsensical yet cogent world of Rauschenberg, the best review for this show would be to tell a chicken joke and end with that.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the playground?
A: To get to the other slide.
Fin

bobrauschenbergamerica
Runs through Feb 28
Thurs, Fri, Sat at 8pm
Sundays at 3pm & 7pm
[Inside] the Ford
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East
Hollywood, CA 90068
PH: 323-461-3673
www.FordTheatres.org

Actor's Reporter video on "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-30T13:37:00.000-08:00

Here is a post from our own Kim Estes on Actor's Reporter.com, which features a short video about the show, including introductions by the cast, and director Bart DeLorenzo.

A clip from the first production of "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-30T12:15:00.000-08:00

This is a clip from the first production of bobrauschenbergamerica by the SITI Ensemble in 2001.

Link

A Curtain Up review of "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

A CurtainUp Los Angeles Review
bobrauschenbergamerica

By Evan Henerson

Look, everything overlaps, doesn't it? Is connected some kind of way. Once you put it all together, it's just obvious. I mean, tie a string to something, and see where it takes you.

When you think about it, this was really a match made in mashed-up paradise. Robert Rauschenberg, the American collageist as seen through the eyes of Charles L. Mee, a playwright who borrows everything from everywhere — mythology, current events, soap opera strands — and tosses it all up on stage in a big crazy quilt that somehow fashions itself into a play.

Director Bart DeLorenzo of the Evidence Room and the members of the SpyAnts Theatre Co. all clearly have the bug, and have brought the L.A. premiere of Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica to the Ford Amphitheatre's inside space. The play is Mee's take on how Rauschenberg, who died in 2008, might have seen the world had he been a playwright instead of a sculptor. The results are delightful if seriously quirky, — a series or largely unrelated musings on love, life, art, existence, the cosmos and cornball chicken jokes, not necessarily in that order of importance.

There is a script (it's up on Mee's (re)making project website, www.charlesmee.com), but DeLorenzo's cast makes you feel like the universe could tilt ever so slightly and some things would end up differently. Indeed, here's betting that the group of elderly barbershop singers who came in for a parade sequence might give way to different roadside entertainment at a subsequent performance.

Our players are a derelict (played by Brett Hren),. . .a stargazer (Eric Bunton) and his dancer lover (Mark Slater) . . . a trucker (Danny Parker-Lopes) and his bathing beauty girlfriend (Maria Tomas) . . . a fickle love-seeking woman dressed up in Jackie O regalia (Jennifer Etienne Eckert) and the man she dumped (Adam Dornbusch). . . a disturbing pizza delivery guy (John Charles Meyer) named Bob and Bob's Mom (Mari Marks). Bob's Mom is either supposed to be Rauschenberg's mother or the pizza delivery boy's. I'm not sure which. I'm not sure Mee intends us to know for certain.

Rasuchenberg is honored in the title, and there are various slideshow musings by Bob's Mom that frequently end with "art was not a part of our life." Otherwise, it's not difficult to see where Rauschenberg ends and Mee begins. Many of the playwright's signature oddities — spontaneous dance numbers, non sequiter emoting, extended musing on love — play giddily across DeLorenzo's staging. That said, the spirit of Rauschenberg is duly honored by DeLorenzo and company.

Props and set pieces, curios of all sorts dot Marina Mouhibian's set. The trucker's girl plays checkers from a rusty bathtub bearing a "No Parking" sign. A door frame, with a stuffed heron perched atop, evokes an empty and decidedly surreal landscape. Plaudits to prop master Hal Perry for finding a 12 foot bowling pin that never even gets used.

Mee's plays are not for the shy, and the cast members attack their roles with gleeful abandon. Particularly fetching is Eckert's Susan, defending her romantic choices while devouring the contents of a cake pan, and Tomas pouring out the ingredients for a martini on a plastic floor canvas and then proceeding to slosh through it. Parker-Lopes, sporting a trucker's beard, smoothly handles an assortment of wince-inducing chicken jokes, and everyone moves gracefully or with appropriate abandon to Ken Roht's choreography.

Praise also is due Breeze Braunschweig as the always skating, never speaking Roller Girl, a vision in 70s era beach shorts and tube socks who proves that you don't need lines to have an impact. What Braunschweig's Roller Girl is doing sitting at the same picnic table as Becker, Carl, Susan and the rest is anybody's guess. In the landscape of Mee's Rauschenberg, everything kind of melds even as it clashes. That's kind of the point.

LAist review of "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-28T23:30:00.000-08:00

by Lyle Zimskind for LAist

"Why does a man in a chicken suit cross the stage?" is not the only existential inquiry tackled by Charles Mee’s challenging but rewarding theater piece bobrauschenbergamerica. There’s also: "Does man have the power to forgive himself?" "What’s it like to swim in a giant martini?" "Do men and women deceive each other or themselves when they fall in love?" And, of course, "Did somebody make a mistake with the slide projector before the show started tonight?"

A series of 43 somewhat-related scenes collectively inspired by the “Combines” of genre-bending 20th-century collagist Robert Rauschenberg, bobrauschenbergamerica is Mee’s idea of what the master would have produced if he himself “had been a theater maker instead of a visual artist.” And like these Combines, the play initially greets its audience with a giddily disorienting juxtaposition of visual cues and gestures. Indeed, that slide projector presentation accompanying the play’s opening monologue so vexed the couple sitting next to me that they started talking back to the stage for a moment and clearly never recovered their equilibrium over the ensuing hour and a half.

Others in attendance, however, may well spend this interval getting progressively seduced into the charismatic bizarro world that TheSpyAnts Theatre Company production team, under the helm of guest director Bart DeLorenzo, creates in the Ford Ampitheater’s “[Inside]” performance space. Set designer Marina Mouhibian incorporates some of the objects found in Rauschenberg’s Combines, along with additional images she contributes on her own (including a gigantic bowling pin), into a fantastic junkyard playground for the ensemble cast to run - not to mention roller skate - around. And by the end of the evening you may be surprised, even moved, to realize how successfully these actors have done the work of building a coherently engaging emotional arc out of the rollickingly complex, sometimes esoteric raw material of Mee’s playful, peripatetic text.

Although bobrauschenbergamerica was first performed by Anne Bogart’s SITI ensemble in 2001, and included in the influential Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave festival two years later, the play is only now receiving its Los Angeles premiere with the current SpyAnts production, running Thursdays through Sundays until the end of February.

General admission tickets are $22.50 via the Ford Theatres’ own web site, $13.50 on Goldstar, and $12 through the LA Stage Alliance.

BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA: A ROMP TheSpyAnts Ensemble at The Ford

2010-01-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA: A ROMP
TheSpyAnts Ensemble at The Ford

Clare Elfman
Literary Editor

Los Angeles, California – My bad. I did not do my research. So please, before you see this interesting kaleidoscope of a performance, do yours. I come from old school. A play speaks for itself. Linear. The last act leaves you with something concrete: a message, an emotion, a something. Charles Mee, with this — I guess you’d call this his homage to Rauschenberg — is non-linear, and if you are a careless reviewer who never has studied or appreciated the style of Rauschenberg nor read the text of the inserts in the black folder given at the box office, you will spend the first 30 minutes of this almost two-hour, no-intermission piece rather perplexed, asking what the merde is happening onstage?

I sat for that long in confusion, watching what, to me, looked like a mish-mash of unconnected bits and pieces of action, until finally one character did a monologue that moved me. I recognized that I was not giving the piece its due. I had not done my work as well as the company onstage was madly and non-linearly cavorting to present theirs.

If I had become more familiar with Rauschenberg’s collages, his combination of bits and pieces, thises and thats, unrelated stuff that, once assembled, create a whole, I would simply have known to sit back and let the action sweep over me. This concept of unrelated bits of action Mee has created to mirror the artist’s style of collage, so that, as the “play” progressed, a man professes love for a woman, she offers love to an unlikely character, a girl roller-skates by, a guy pushes a bathtub onstage…do I remember a goat? A guy in a chicken suit walks by, a mother shows old snaps (projections) of her artist son but the commentary does not match the pics… And what else? Suddenly the cast breaks into a Broadway chorus or they start to folk dance, or there is a murder, and I’m hanging there thinking, “What the f…” until a pizza guy enters and delivers an entrancing monologue of the three people he killed and another guy does a remarkable Walt Whitman piece, and it becomes quite something else.

So the piece is a non-linear version of Rauschenberg’s style, and to enjoy it, you simply have to let go and stop looking for logic. If I walk through a gallery, my own tastes have been so long developing that, unlike you and you and you and you, I love Matisse colors and Kirschner’s angular faces and Freud’s explicit nakedness and Bacon’s anguished etcetera etcetera, and you like something different. I love Theater of the Absurd because, when you finish with the absurdity, you have a message as clear as if you’d just picked yourself up from your stone bench in an ancient Greek theater. Once I saw a Kelly exhibit — a dirty old rug with an old teddy bear under it — and I asked, “What? What?” Okay, that’s me. Someone else saw it and was moved to tears. In a San Francisco museum, I saw a yellow canvas. Just yellow. What?? And the lecturer explained that it was the “yellowness” that made it so great.

Art is in the eye of the beholder, and if you (I) just let go of traditional notions and sit back and simply experience this one and then come out and hash over what you just saw…you’ve had a great evening of …an homage to Rauschenberg and a bit of a romp.

TheSpyAnts ensemble who performed this interesting piece are: Rollergirl, Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer who does a wonderful pizza boy, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, Maria Tomas — a great bunch doing their wild thing.

So come prepared, just let go, and afterward decide if this left you with the same “feeling” as does a collage by Rauschenberg.
Interesting and challenging evening.

Ford (inside) until February 28th.

LA Weekly review of "bobrauschenbergamerica" - GO!

2010-01-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

Photo by Debi Landrie

Review by LA Weekly:

When Bob Rauschenberg's mother (Mari Marks) delivers her tender slide-show about the rural Texas childhood of her artist son, and none of the slides matches the descriptions she's offered, you have to know something's up, conceptually. Whether or not you're familiar with the '50s-'60s collagist painter-sculptor, Charles L. Mee's 2001 extrapolation of what Rauschenberg might have written in order to explain how he assembled junk into evocative reflections on our place in the world stands alone. Marina Mouhibian's set decorates the stage and the proscenium walls with vintage kitsch as the 10-member ensemble plays out a series of somewhat interconnecting sketches about romances gone awry, violence, politics and metaphysics - though there are digressions for a series of chicken jokes. Bart DeLorenzo's staging preserves the tone, inherent the text, that's both wry and frivolous, abstract and pop, with one breakout poetical excursion into Walt Whitmanesque grandeur, delivered by a hobo (Brett Hren) and accompanied by Dvorak's Symphony from The New World. [Inside] the Ford, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 & 7 p.m.; thru Feb. 28. (323) 461-3673. SpyAnts Theatre Company. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater Feature.

Stagehappenings review of "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

From Stagehappenings.com.

by Robert Machray

Robert Rauschenberg lived in the artistic period between abstract expressionism and pop art. His painting and sculptures display his belief that there is no difference between art objects and ordinary objects. He believed that an object became art when he said it was.

How would his art reflect itself as a live performance? Well, one answer is being presented by the talented and edgy SpyAnts Company, which, with the help of the ubiquitous Bart DeLorenzo, has put on bobrauschenbergamerica by the controversial playwright Charles Mee as part of the shared season at inside the Ford Theatre.

Playwright Mee is no stranger to experimentation. Here he has written a play intended to represent Rauschenberg’s view of America, presented as a play but also reflecting his paintings. Mee has stated, “In the mid 1980s, the whole world was Rauschenberg. We have lots of stories, and we are trying to figure out how to get along in a world where there are a thousand points of view.” So Mee conceived of a series of loosely connected stories (though they all involve love) and more or less threw them together to see how they would make a connection. For Rauschenberg there is always a connection and it's always alive and vital.

II must admit I was totally puzzled about what the hell was going on in this show. I was not alone. But as the piece unfolded I found my mind, as well as the characters, making connections, and the message was one of hope and love. In the rehearsal process Mr. DeLorenzo let the cast more or less improvise how they wanted to present the individual stories. When he liked what he saw it stayed in. The result is a piece that seems almost improvised, but with a structure that emerges as the play develops. The cast, Mee, and DeLorenzo are to be congratulated for this daring and provocative experience in the theatre.

bobrauchenbergamerica plays at Inside The Ford until Feb. 28th.

=====

ROBERT MACHRAY has appeared in over 150 plays and has worked at 14 Tony Award-winning theatres. He has been nominated for and won numerous awards. Robert has a B.A. from Yale and an M.F.A. from USC. He has taught at USC, UCLA, UCSB, and Pasadena City College.

[Inside] The Ford helps troupes without homes

2010-01-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

[Inside] the Ford helps troupes without homes
Its New Play Series provides a venue and resources to companies lacking venues to call their own.

By Karen Wada
January 24, 2010

For TheSpyAnts Theatre Company, persistence pays. Eight years ago, the small, stage-less ensemble fell in love with a crazy new play called bobrauschenbergamerica -- Charles L. Mee's freewheeling romp through American culture. It requested permission to perform the piece but found the rights were tied up. Undaunted, it kept asking -- and kept getting turned down -- until now.

"Lo and behold, this time the rights were available," says producing manager Lori Evans Taylor. "Chuck Mee knew this little company in L.A. wanted to do his show and he said yes."

TheSpyAnts' tenacity also impressed the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. It chose bobrauschenbergamerica for the second season of its [Inside] the Ford New Play Series, which provides troupes that lack permanent homes with a venue and resources to mount productions they otherwise couldn't afford. Mee's play -- an L.A. premiere -- opens this weekend at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood.

"We created this series because one of the biggest impediments itinerant companies face is the high cost of renting," says Laura Zucker, the commission's executive director. "That often prevents them from focusing on putting money into the product onstage."

The commission selects three productions for each winter season at the 87-seat [Inside] the Ford theater, which is tucked into a hillside complex best known for its summer amphitheater shows. In exchange for a subsidized weekly rent of $1,000 -- well under the market rate -- groups receive access to the theater and its lighting and sound systems as well as box office, house management, marketing and publicity services. The cozy performance space has its quirks (notably, pesky pillars), but the Ford facility offers amenities such as free parking and ample restrooms.

"Going to the theater is a whole experience," Zucker says. "What you see on the stage is very important, but everything that happens from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave influences whether you want to return."

The idea of using practical assistance to promote artistic growth isn't sexy, but it seems to be effective -- both at enabling small theaters to pursue ambitious work and creating a showcase for that work. The first season began with two world premieres: Moving Arts' production of EM Lewis' morality-mortality tale Song of Extinction (which won the 2009 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Assn. New Play Award) and Circle X Theatre Company's production of Jim Leonard's Battle Hymn. This season's opener, Ensemble Studio Theatre - Los Angeles' staging of Julie Hébert's Tree, debuted to strong reviews in November.

"We never would have attempted to produce Battle Hymn unless it was at the Ford," says Tim Wright, artistic director of the 14-year-old Circle X, which is based in Hollywood. "When we started production we had only the first act and a few pages of the second. Normally, we wouldn't operate that way. But working at the Ford is like working with a net. There's a lot more opportunity to take risks. We could focus on completing the piece with the writer and the director because we didn't have to worry about coming up with what ultimately would have been about $30,000 for the rental space alone. We could actually invest in development."

Last season's final entry -- Home Siege Home -- was a different kind of premiere, Ghost Road Company having worked on its adaptation of Aeschylus' trilogy, The Oresteia, for years. "This was the first time all the pieces were seen together," says Zucker. "If we didn't do it, it would not have happened."

The Ford tries to give a boost to companies as well as productions. With TheSpyAnts, says Zucker, "we went out on a limb because they are not as big or as established as some others. But the play is great and they brought in a great director in Bart DeLorenzo. Hopefully, this will propel them forward."

Evans Taylor says the Ford has "opened a lot of doors" for her 10-year-old ensemble, offering TheSpyAnts broader exposure and a chance to experiment in areas such as marketing ("we're running an ad at the Laemmle [movie theaters] on Sunset"). Also, she says, she and her colleagues are working with artists such as DeLorenzo, choreographer Ken Roht and "some wonderful designers who came on board knowing we would be doing the play here."

The Ford program is "a new model -- one the theater really needs," says DeLorenzo, founding artistic director of the Evidence Room, a company that has created and lost several homes, including a Beverly Boulevard location that was a hot spot of adventurous theater-going. "This is exciting because in one place you can see several different companies each pouring its resources into a production. Your shot at three good plays is higher than if you had one company trying to do three good plays in a row. I wish there were more examples of this."

A number of organizations provide or rent venues to specific groups or productions. What distinguishes [Inside] the Ford, says DeLorenzo, "is this is a curated series with quality control."

Terence McFarland, executive director of L.A. Stage Alliance, predicts more such ventures will start popping up given that, by his estimate, a couple hundred local companies and other groups that put on plays lack homes because they can't afford them, would rather invest in staff than overhead or fear the demands of running a theater might limit their artistic aspirations.

The Ford's indoor space has a rich history of nurturing writers and their work. It was created in the 1970s by the Center Theatre Group, which converted part of the 80-year-old amphitheater's storage area. CTG held the Lab -- which featured readings and workshops -- there first, followed in the '80s by the Taper, Too series of new and experimental pieces. When CTG's lease expired in the '90s, the arts commission remodeled the room and gave it its current name. The county joined with A.S.K. Theater Projects and the James Irvine Foundation to host the "Hot Properties" new play series from 2000 to 2004. The Flintridge Foundation helped to support an ensemble theater collective that lasted until 2008.

For [Inside] the Ford, the commission chooses participants through an open competition. (The application deadline for next winter is March 17.) Material that is new or, at least, new to L.A. is preferred. A minimum of three years of producing experience is required.

"We look for a combination of an interesting play and project team with a company that has enough administrative structure to pull it off," Zucker says. "We want each season to resemble a piece of music in that the tempo keeps changing."

This season began with Tree, an intricate unraveling of race and family relations. bobrauschenbergamerica, which runs through Feb. 28, is a collage of vignettes -- love stories, shootings, chicken jokes -- inspired by artist Robert Rauschenberg, the ultimate collagist. In March, Circle X will present the first production of Sheila Callaghan's Lascivious Something, in which an old lover disrupts an American expat's new life with a new wife on a Greek isle.

Even though the Ford series is young and relatively modest (a $182,000 annual budget), it's building momentum. Subscriptions have jumped five-fold, from 20 for the first season to 102 for the current one. LA Weekly included the program among high points of the last decade of local theater.

"It sure ignited things for us," says "Tree" author Hébert. "We not only got a venue -- which allowed us to do the play -- but we got a venue with a great profile that actually appeals to people. And you know how hard it is to get people to come out to see plays in L.A."

calendar@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Extended trailer for "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-24T10:41:00.000-08:00

Video preview of "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-22T13:35:00.000-08:00

John Charles Meyer's demo reel

2010-01-22T13:19:00.000-08:00

John Charles Meyer (Terminus Americana, and currently a castmember in bobrauschenbergamerica) joined TheSpyAnts last year, and here is his current demo reel:

Link

Interview with "bobrauschenbergamerica" director Bart DeLorenzo by Steve Julian of KPCC

2010-01-22T12:45:00.000-08:00

Breeze Braunschweig in bobrauschenbergamerica

Pop art-inspired 'bobrauschenbergamerica' opening at Ford Theatre

Courtesy of Lucy Pollak
Steve Julian | KPCC

The late pop artist Robert Rauschenberg liked to delve into mixed media. He’d pick up disparate items as he walked around New York City, find ways to combine them, and add paint. The results placed him alongside Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns in the pantheon of 20th Century artists. Director Bart DeLorenzo says New York playwright Chuck Mee approached his work “bobrauschenbergamerica” in the same way the artist dealt with found objects.

"Chuck grabs his material everywhere – Internet, TV – but he loves the way people express themselves and the way he uses text is very much the same way Rauschenberg deals with objects," said DeLorenzo.

Eric Bunton and Jennifer Etienne Eckert in bobrauschenbergamerica

DeLorenzo directs Mee’s play at Inside the Ford Theatre in Hollywood. Looking through the dozens of scenes in the script, I asked him how many times he had to read it before it sank in.

"A bunch. A bunch," laughed DeLorenzo. "I read it and let it sit in me. And then it came to me like a voice from above."
For audiences, the experience of seeing this play may seem like viewing pop art – kind of disjointed.
"I don’t think it helps to ponder too much while you’re experiencing it, but to let it wash over you and let yourself be transformed by the experience and just enjoy the ride, and then, when it’s over, what sits in you may have some meaning for you in your life. I like to figure it out for myself later."

DeLorenzo said playwright Chuck Mee wrote this work as an homage to Rauschenberg – and to the second half of the 20th century.

"It’s not coincidental, it’s not accidental, the artist is drawn to certain things and the artist combines them, the sensibility within the artist will give them a kind of coherence, which will be an artistic principle in itself."

The play includes musical numbers, a parade and a giant martini-powered slip 'n slide. It alludes to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, and the changing role of women in society.

"It’s a very American play – but it definitely is trying to cover that period of time," said DeLorenzo. "Chuck said to me, the characters in the play are as if you got into a car somewhere around Pennsylvania, and you drove west, and dipped a little bit south, these are the people you would meet on your journey, and in a way, maybe the characters are archetypes of the late 20th century."

bobrauschenbergamerica opens Saturday at Inside the Ford Theatre in Hollywood.

Listen to the audio of the report here.

LA Premiere of "bobrauschenbergamerica"

2010-01-21T01:34:00.000-08:00

L.A. premiere of 'bobrauschenbergamerica

January 20, 12:29 PM Candyce Columbus

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

"The play is a celebration," enthuses DeLorenzo. "It's a collage play written by a collagist about another collagist - an appropriate homage to our crazy quilt of a country."

TheSpyAnts is a 26-member company that started as play reading group and quickly evolved into a formidable theater company that has developed numerous critically acclaimed hit productions including The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, The Birds, Hellcab, Edmond, Infinite Black Suitcase, Rudolph The Red Hosed Reindeer, The Reunion and Kidnapped By Craigslist. TheSpyAnts strive to provide a quality theater experience while challenging the audience to "think outside the box."

bobrauschenbergamerica previews 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, January 21 and 22 and performs 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday January 23 through February 28. General admission is $20; $12 seniors and full-time students with ID; Pay-What-You-Can tickets are available for previews and all Sunday matinee performances when purchased at the door (subject to availability). Call 323-461-3673 or visit www.FordTheatres.org.

[Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East in Hollywood just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free.

Playwright set his brain on mishmash when whipping up collage-like salute to U.S. America in a blender

2010-01-16T11:07:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee’s play will open Jan. 23, with previews Thursday and Jan. 22, and run through Feb. 28 at [Inside] the Ford at the Ford Theatres complex, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Los Angeles. Performances begin at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20 for adults, $12 for students and seniors, and pay-what-you-can for previews and Sunday matinees. For more information, call 323-461-3673 (For group sales - 8 or more - call (323) 769-2147) or visit www.fordampitheater.org or www.thespyants.com.

Charles L. Mee’s play, “bobrauschenbergamerica,” pays homage to our country’s idiosyncratic soul. Mee calls the piece “a wild road trip through our American landscape.”

Playwright set his brain on mishmash when whipping up collage-like salute to U.S.
America in a blender

By Jeff Favre
Posted January 15, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.

Playwright Charles L. Mee didn’t know artist Bob Rauschenberg, and the members of TheSpyAnts Theatre Company had never met celebrated director Bart DeLorenzo.

But this quartet of creative forces has merged for the Los Angeles premiere of Mee’s “bobrauschenbergamerica,” which opens at [Inside] the Ford, the indoor theater at the Ford Theatres complex in Los Angeles. The show is part of the venue’s winter theatrical season.

Mee described the play on his Web site as “a wild road trip through our American landscape — in 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: a collage of people and places and 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.”

Rauschenberg, who died in 2008, is perhaps best known for his collages, and his “combines” of the 1950s and ’60s, assemblages created with found objects.

The play debuted in 2001 at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky., and almost immediately caught the attention of SpyAnts producer Lori Evans Taylor
.
“We’re always on the lookout for new plays,” Taylor said. “We applied for the rights, but were turned down because the SITI Company (Mee’s frequent collaborator) were touring it. We applied every year, and then finally they started allowing other companies to produce the show.”

It’s understandable why companies clambered for the rights. Neil Genzlinger wrote in his New York Times review that Mee’s play is “much richer than simply bringing a Rauschenberg artwork to life; it is an effort to see our times as they were seen by this artist, who over his long career has shown how junk can be beautiful and how juxtaposition, the mixing of incongruous elements, can be a statement.”

Given the complexities of “bobrauschenbergamerica,” TheSpyAnts went outside its company to find a director with extensive experience working on Mee plays.

Enter DeLorenzo, who as part of The Evidence Room theater company directed “The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem” and “The Berlin Circle,” and took part in a workshop of Mee’s “A Perfect Wedding.”

“I wasn’t at all familiar with TheSpyAnts when they called me,” DeLorenzo said. “And I don’t exactly say yes to everyone who asks. But I love this play. It’s so much fun. And the company was already familiar with the script, so that’s an advantage.”

DeLorenzo, in turn, enlisted Ken Roht as choreographer. Roht is best known for his annual holiday “99¢ Only Show,” created with props and costumes made from items at 99 Cents Only stores.

“Ken and I haven’t worked together for three years, but he was part of the other Chuck Mee plays we did, and incredibly he was available.”

And DeLorenzo can use all the help he can get. While most of Mee’s plays are unusual, “bobrauschenbergamerica” is composed of 43 nonlinear scenes.

“It’s very complicated,” the director explained. “It’s composed of parts that all seem unrelated — like with Rauschenberg’s collages — and each one needs to be given its own integrity. It may not seem like it, but all together there’s structure and it does tell a story, even though it’s kind of like taking six plays, putting them in a blender, and serving only the top half.”

For TheSpyAnts, getting a slot for this season’s [Inside] the Ford series and producing a high-profile play should only increase the company’s reputation.

“We’re celebrating our 10th anniversary,” Evans said. “I’m not surprised that we’re still going because the core members are still here. And this amazingly theatrical show, which is probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen, is a wonderful opportunity for our company.”

@TO-Tagline:— E-mail freelance columnist Jeff Favre at jjfavre@gmail.com
'bobrauschenbergamerica'

Inside the Ford, it's all about Mee

2010-01-15T20:22:00.000-08:00

Inside the Ford, it's all about Mee

January 15, 11:59 AM

Evan Henerson

That’s Charles Mee, the kaleidoscopic human grabbag of a playwright whose works include Big Love, First Love, Wintertime and A perfect Wedding among many others. Mee puts his plays up on the Internet at Charlesmee.com and, via his (re)making project, encourages fellow writers to take from them freely (“pillage” is the word he uses).  

“Pillage the plays as I have pillaged the structures and contents of the plays of Euripides and Brecht and stuff out of Soap Opera Digest and the evening news and the internet, and build your own, entirely new, piece,” Mee writes, “--and then, please, put your own name to the work that results."

  Those who elect to do Mee’s plays largely as written should pay him royalties.  

Kicking off the year at the Ford Amphitheatre’s [Inside] the Ford space series, the SpyAnts Theatre Company and director Bart DeLorenzo are offering the L.A. premiere of bobrauschenbergamerica, a tribute to collage artist Bob Rauschenberg.  

Billed as a trip through America as Rauschenberg might have envisioned it, Mee’s play features “Rauschenberg’s childhood home a human martini, a pizza delivery boy and the world’s worst collection of chicken jokes.”  

Choreography is by Ken Roht and the cast members include Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, Maria Tomas and Breeze Braunschweig who – if her moniker is real -- may well have hit the top 5 in my most memorable actor name list.

  For this play, however, I suspect Ms. Braunschweig -- who will play Roller Girl -- will fit right in bobrauschenbergamerica.

opens Jan. 23 and plays 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sun.; through Feb. 28 at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E, Hollywood. $12-$20. (323) 461-3673 (GO 1-FORD) or www.FordTheatres.org

Scott Krinsky on "Chuck" - Season premiere tonight

2010-01-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

Scott Krinsky (Kidnapped by Craigslist) has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2008, and among many other things, he also plays Jeff Barnes in the NBC series Chuck, the third season of which premieres tonight.

Here is a short interview Scott did with Kristin Dos Santos for eonline.com where he talks about what his character will be up to this season:

Link

Scott is also a Stand-Up comic who performs regularly at Laugh Factory and The Comedy Store, as well as many other venues around Los Angeles, and you can keep up with where he'll be performing by subscribing to his fan page on Facebook, and by following him on Twitter.

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

2010-01-09T13:05:00.000-08:00

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

‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ - Bart DeLorenzo Directs LA Premiere

2009-12-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ - Bart DeLorenzo Directs LA Premiere

from: John Anson Ford Theatres
category: Arts and Entertainment
posted: December 15th, 2009

The SpyAnts presents the Los Angeles Premiere Of Charles L. Mee's ‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ At [Inside] The Ford.  

Los Angeles - 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 Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, John Charles Meyer, Danny Parker-Lopes, Mark Slater, and Maria Tomas 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.   "The play is a celebration," enthuses DeLorenzo. "It's a collage play written by a collagist about another collagist - an appropriate homage to our crazy quilt of a country."  

bobrauschenbergamerica originally premiered at the 2001 Humana Festival in Louisville. Conceived and produced by Anne Bogart and New York's SITI Company, where Mee is resident playwright, it enjoyed limited runs in New York, at Boston's ART, Chicago, France and Germany. The New York Times called it, "Brashly, unapologetically entertaining... a work that will resonate even with someone who has never seen one of Mr. Rauschenberg's famous collages."

  Charles L. Mee was born in Barrington, Illinois in 1938. He was stricken with polio in 1953, which he details in his 1999 memoir A Nearly Normal Life. His plays include The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem, Full Circle, The Trojan Women: A Love Story, Snow in June, Hotel Cassiopeia, True Love, A Perfect Wedding, Big Love, Viena Lusthaus, Orestes 2.0, The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador, Fetes de la Nuit, Summertime, Wintertime, Agamemnon 2.0, Iphigenia 2.0, Paradise Park, Queens Boulevard, Chiang Kai Shek and First Love. As of February, 2007, he has made all of his plays available on his Web site ( www.charlesmee.org) with an invitation to other artists to use them as copyright-free texts as a "resource" for their own work. However, the Web site indicates that the play texts as they appear on the site are protected by copyright, and that permission from his agent must be obtained before performing them "essentially or substantially as I have composed them." Mee is also an accomplished historian, having written about the Potsdam Conference and World War II. He currently teaches playwriting at the Columbia University School of the Arts.

  Bart DeLorenzo is founding Artistic Director of the Evidence Room in Los Angeles where he has directed many shows over the last 14 years including local and world premieres by Charles L. Mee, David Greenspan, Kelly Stuart, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dahlquist, Martin Crimp, David Edgar, Naomi Wallace, and Edward Bond, as well as his own adaptation of Dickens' Hard Times, The Cherry Orchard, and Don Carlos, among many others. His freelance work includes the world premiere of Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment at South Coast Repertory, later revived at the Geffen Playhouse; the world premiere of Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress at the Geffen; Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone at South Coast Rep; Racine's Britannicus at Cal Rep; and Around the World in 80 Days at the Cleveland Playhouse. 2009 productions include Adam Bock's The Receptionist and Caryl Churchill's A Number at the Odyssey, and the world premieres of Justin Tanner's Voice Lessons at the Zephyr, and Michael Sargent's The Projectionist at the Kirk Douglas. For his work, he has received five LA Weekly awards and three Back Stage Garlands.   

A member of the company since January 2008, Breeze Braunschweig has appeared in TheSpyAnts' The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild and What If? Other L.A. theater roles include Peggy in The Women, The Moon in Bloodwedding, Nina in The Seagull, and "The woman who loved to make vagina's happy" in The Vagina Monologues.

  Eric Bunton, a founding member of TheSpyAnts Theatre Company as well as a member of the Elephant Theatre Company, has appeared in TheSpyAnts' hit productions of Kidnapped by Craigslist, Infinite Black Suitcase, Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, The Reunion, The Birds, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Terminus Americana, Hellcab, La Ronde, and Edmond.   

Adam Dornbusch previously appeared with TheSpyAnts as Charlie (the coworker) and Jason (the pothead) in Terminus Americana.

  Jennifer Etienne Eckert is a long time member of TheSpyAnts and is also on the board of the Elephant Theatre Company. Recent stage credits include Seven Redneck Cheerleaders, Tooth and Nail, and One Fell Swoop, all of which were original world premiere productions.   

Brett Hren has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2001 and is also a member of the Elephant Theatre Company. For his role in TheSpyAnts 2009 production of Terminus Americana, he was nominated by StageSceneLA.com for Best Performance by a Lead Actor.   

Mari Marks has appeared in TheSpyAnts' productions of What If? (original works by company members), Susan Smith Could Talk, and The Reunion. Other L.A. theater roles include Nat in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Rabbit Hole (The Complex), Karla in Wonder of the World (Hollywood Fight Club), the Doctor in Getting Out (Lyric Hyperion), and a year-and-a-half run as the woman who couldn't get no satisfaction in Sex, Relationships and Sometimes Love (Sierra Stages).   

A former front man for the rock band Strawman, John Charles Meyer returned to acting three years ago. TV credits include CSI: NY, The Forgotten, iCarly and Zoey 101. Films include upcoming features The Taqwacores and The Millennium Bug; the Emmy-winning USC pilot The Cost of Living; and more than twenty shorts, including In Twilight's Shadow, love/junkie, Lily and Sam, and Frank DanCoolo: Paranormal Drug Dealer.   

Danny Parker-Lopes is a founding member of TheSpyAnts and has been on the Board of Directors since its inception a decade ago. He starred in Hellcab, Kidnapped By Craigslist, and The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild among others, and directed Infinite Black Suitcase, Terminus Americana and The Reunion, which he also co-wrote and acted in.

  Mark Slater has performed in The Reunion (TheSpyAnts); In The Boom Boom Room (Underground Theater); Welcome To The Moon and The Woolgatherer (2nd Story Theater); Working (Ascending Artists Theater); Twelfth Night (Descanso Gardens Outdoor Theatre). A dancer, he was a member of Le Studio Dancecorps.  

Maria Tomas has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2003, performing in critically-acclaimed productions of Terminus Americana, The Birds (LA Weekly Award nomination for Best Comedy Ensemble), Hellcab, and La Ronde, among others. Maria portrayed Gabriela in the Los Angeles premiere of Jose Rivera's References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (directed by Jon Rivera).  

Scenic Design for bobrauschenbergamierca is by Marina Mouhibian; Lighting Design is by Christopher Kuhl; Sound Design is by Cricket S. Myers; Costume Design is by Leah Piehl; and Lori Evans Taylor produces for TheSpyAnts.  

TheSpyAnts is a 26-member company that started as play reading group and quickly evolved into a formidable theater company that has developed numerous critically acclaimed hit productions including The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, The Birds, Hellcab (1st production) and the co-production with the Elephant Theater Company, Edmond, Infinite Black Suitcase, Rudolph The Red Hosed Reindeer, The Reunion (2006 production and 2007 production) and Kidnapped By Craigslist. TheSpyAnts strive to provide a quality theater experience while challenging the audience to "think outside the box."  

bobrauschebergamerica is the second production in the 2009-10 Season at [Inside] the Ford, a three-play, curated series of new works from three L.A.-based theater companies. The 2009-10 Season at [Inside] the Ford is supported by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Ford Theatre Foundation, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.  

bobrauschenbergamerica runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm and 7pm, January 23 through February 28. Two previews take place on Thursday, January 21 and Friday, January 22, both at 8 pm. General admission is $20; seniors and full-time students with ID are $12; Pay-What-You-Can tickets are available for previews and all Sunday matinee performances when purchased at the door (subject to availability).   [Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free. For reservations and information, call the Ford Theatres Box Office at 323.461.3673 (323.GO1.FORD) or go to www.FordTheatres.org.

  When:

 Previews: January 21 and 22 Performances: January 23 through February 28:  - Thursdays at 8 pm: January 21 (preview), 28; February 4, 11, 18, 25  - Fridays at 8 pm: January 22 (preview), 29; February 5, 12, 19, 26  - Saturdays at 8 pm: January 23 (opening night), 30; February 6, 13, 20, 27  - Sundays at 3 pm: January 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21, 28  - Sundays at 7 pm: January 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21, 28

  Where: [Inside] the Ford (the 87-seat indoor theater in the Ford Theatres complex) 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East Hollywood, CA 90068 (just off the 101, across the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios)  How: (323) 461-3673 (GO 1-FORD) or www.FordTheatres.org   

Tickets:

 General admission: $20  Students with ID and Seniors: $12  Pay-What-You-Can . Tickets are available for previews and all Sunday matinee performances when purchased at the door (subject to availability).  Parking: Free on-site (non-stacked)

TheSpyAnts Holiday Boutique December 13, 2009

2009-12-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

We will be having a Holiday Boutique on Sunday December 13, 2009 from 11am to 4pm at the Lillian Theatre in Hollywood. A variety of goodies will be for sale to help us produce bobrauschenergamerica at [Inside] The Ford (opening January 23, 2010).

Come join Santa and TheSpyAnts as we shop and enjoy complimentary cocktails.

Click on the photo for a larger view and more information.

Thanks, and we'll see you at The Lillian

Help TheSpyAnts produce "bobrauschenbergamerica" at [Inside] The Ford!

2009-12-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Esteemed Friends, Family and Fans:

Thank you for your continued interest in and support of TheSpyAnts Theatre Company. We are proud to announce our next production: bobrauschenbergamerica by Charles L. Mee was selected to be part of the [Inside] the Ford Winter Partnership Program by the L.A County Arts Commission. This amazing opportunity at such a special venue, within the Ford Amphitheater complex, will be our most adventuresome endeavor to date! Running from January 23rd through February 28th, 2010 bobrauschenbergamerica will certainly be the most expensive show we've ever done. Due to the high production costs we are looking for supporters, like you, to assist us in the funding of our show. Your tax-deductible donation at our secure PayPal Link will help us to create this spectacular production.

As you may know, TheSpyAnts began in the year 2000 as a small group of passionate actors that met weekly to read plays. After meeting for several months, we grew tired of sitting and reading plays. As a result, we decided to take the next step and formed our own theater company. Since then we have produced 23 shows, including the smash hit Kidnapped By Craigslist the LA Weekly award nominated production of The Birds and Paul Rudnick’s The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, and now bobrauschenbergamerica. We have also gained non-profit status, been nominated for multiple LA theater awards, earned a loyal fan base of more than 1,000 people, and donated time and money to numerous local charities.

We have been thrilled to bring you many amazing productions over the last nine years; however, now we need your help in order for us to take a giant leap forward for our company. We ask you to make a tax-deductible donation to TheSpyAnts at our secure PayPal Link to show your support and help us reach our goal to raise enough money to create what we know will be our most dynamic, vital, and exciting production to date, bobrauschenbergamerica. You will also be able to track your donation from our website and watch as the mercury in our thermometer rises to the top on the way toward our goal. Thank you for being a continued supporter and fan of TheSpyAnts. We appreciate your help and support and hope to see you at the show!

Our non-profit tax identification is: EIN # 95-4853522.

Sincerely,

TheSpyAnts

Buy your 2009-10 [Inside] the Ford Theater season subscription now

2009-10-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Here is how you can buy a subscription to all three shows (including ours, bobrauschenbergamerica) at [Inside] the Ford this season right now.

Thanks!

TheSpyAnts

======

Three compelling premieres...one afFORDable price!
25% SAVINGS Subscriptions for all three plays are $45

Save money this season and be a part of an adventurous line-up in 2009-10 at [Inside] the Ford.

For more information or to order, call the Ford Box Office at 323 461-3673 or download and complete the subscription form below. Fax and mail instructions are on the order form.

Download a subscription form
here (pdf)

An Evening w/ "Born to Run" author Christopher McDougall Thursday, October 8, 2009 2:12 PM at Traveler's Bookcase

2009-10-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

Our longtime member Natalie Compagno (The Reunion, Hellcab) is also the owner of Traveler's Bookcase, and we wanted to pass along information about a cool event going on at her store. So if you get a chance, check it out.

Thanks!

TheSpyAnts

=======

AUTHOR READING & SIGNING
Wednesday, October 14 at 7:00pm.

The Washington Post says Born to Run is "thrilling... an operatic ode".

The Oregonian calls it "spellbinding".

Traveler's Bookcase says "a fascinating read that spans the globe, from the Kalahari Desert to the Rocky Mountains to central Mexico. This is the kind of book that makes you want to strap on a backpack and just go!"

BORN TO RUN: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about our feet is wrong.

We are pleased to welcome author Chris McDougall to the store! If you've ever been curious about phenomenal endurance athletes, improving your health, or tribes who live in complete serenity as if the modern world never intruded, we invite you to the store.

Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. The author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country.

BORN TO RUN is for anyone who loves adventure tales (from Endurance to Krakauer), Mexico, the outdoors, or is interested in travel, health, nutrition, meditation or serenity.

Christopher McDougall is a former war correspondent for the Associated Press and is now a contributing editor for Men’s Health. A three-time National Magazine Award finalist, he has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Outside, Men’s Journal, and New York. He does his own running among the Amish farms around his home in rural Pennsylvania.

Born to Run makes a great gift book

WHAT: Author reading & signing
Refreshments provided.

WHEN: Thursday October 14th at 7pm

WHERE: Traveler's Bookcase
8375 West Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(limited parking in back)

Jennifer Eckert in "Mix Tape"

2009-10-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Eckert, who most recently wrote and directed Life's A Bitch for our What If? evening of one acts earlier this year, is appearing in Mix Tape: Taking Flight, an original one act festival, at the Elephant Space Theater in Hollywood, 6322 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90038.

It runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and 8pm and Sundays at 2pm until October 17th. So go check this out!

You can buy tickets online by clicking here, and see the attached flyer for more information.

Thanks!

TheSpyAnts

SAVE THE DATE - October 7 at [Inside] the Ford

2009-09-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

SAVE THE DATE

OCTOBER 7, 2009
from 6 PM - 9 PM at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood, CA
FREE!

You and a guest are invited to the Ford Theatres for an exclusive, intimate evening at L.A.'s urban oasis as we kick-off an adventurous [Inside] the Ford winter season with Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA, TheSpyAnts Theatre Company and
Circle X Theatre Co.

Mingle and munch under the stars in the Hollywood Hills! Meet other theatre aficionados, get the [Inside] scoop on the 2009-10 season and explore the historic Ford complex.

We hope you will join us for light refreshment, lively conversation and to meet and greet with producing theatre companies of the 2009-10 Winter Season

Specific details on this event will follow by invitation only.

For more information, please email communications@arts.lacounty.gov or 213.202.5941.

For more general season information, click here.

[INSIDE] THE FORD

The 87-seat indoor theatre in the John Anson Ford Theatres Complex
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068
www.FordTheatres.org
323.461.3673

Post show Q & A with playwright Matt Pelfrey Sunday August 9th

2009-08-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that on Sunday August 9th at 7pm, following our performance of Terminus Americana, we will have a post show Q & A with playwright Matt Pelfrey.

It is also a pay what you can show.

We'll also be up Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm. There are only six more shows, so call (323) 860-8786 and make your reservations now!

LA Times review of "Terminus Americana"

2009-07-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

Theater Review: 'Terminus Americana' at Elephant Theater

The title of "Terminus Americana" refers to the tome of conspiracy theorem that drives Matt Pelfrey's coruscating satire. That volume is something of a Macguffin. The core focus of "Terminus" is the twilight of American empire, as refracted through a violence-infatuated media, which the jaggedly effective production by TheSpyAnts caustically embraces.

It begins benignly enough, as Mac Winchell (the excellent Brett Hren) takes a chirpy phone call from wife Brenda (CB Spencer). His confidential exchange with fellow employee Felix (Hal Perry) suggests the kind of corporate evisceration that Billy Wilder patented.

Then Felix goes on a shooting rampage, whispers a tacit message to Mac before killing himself, and "Terminus" barrels into pitch-black absurdist territory.

Pelfrey ("An Impending Rupture of the Belly") possesses an unflinchingly original voice. If the polemic can be overt, that seems the point, with the accuracy of Pelfrey's broadsides both hilarious and disturbing.

Barring some halting transitions, director Danny Parker-Lopes keeps the tone grimly akimbo. The designs are sparely resourceful, and the cast (with alternates) is adept, impressively centered by Hren's antihero. At the reviewed performance, John Charles Meyer's outré executive, Maria Tomas' secret-society emissary, and Justin Dabuet and Adam Dornbusch as hacking Marlboro Men stood out amid an accomplished pack.

Written well before Sept. 11, 2001, the play premiered at Lodestone Theatre Ensemble shortly afterward. Its relevance has only deepened in the wake of subsequent gun-related national tragedies. "Terminus Americana" won't be for everyone -- but perhaps it should be.

--David C. Nichols

"Terminus Americana," Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 15. $20. (323) 860-8786. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Photo: Hal Perry and Brett Hren in "Terminus Americana." Credit: TheSpyAnts

Pay what you can shows and Q & A with playwright added

2009-07-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

Our July 26th and August 2nd performances of Terminus - both Sunday nights at 7pm - will be pay what you can shows.

Also, we will have a Q & A with playwright Matt Pelfrey following our August 9th performance.

And discount tickets are still available. Click here for information on that.

So mark your calendars and call (323) 860-8786 for reservations now!

Thanks!

Promo video for "Terminus Americana"

2009-07-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

Check it out!

Discount tickets available NOW for "Terminus Americana"

2009-07-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

Discount tickets for Terminus Americana, opening July 17th, are available for a limited time online at the following sites:

Plays411, where codes for discounts are as follows: 007: $5 off 008: Half price 077: $5 off; LA Stage Alliance, where 1/2 price tickets are available, and Goldstar which also has 1/2 price tickets.

So make your plans now!

TheSpyAnts present "Terminus Americana" by Matt Pelfry

2009-06-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

TheSpyAnts present the LA Premiere of

Terminus Americana

by Matt Pelfrey

directed by Danny Parker-Lopes

July 18th through August 15th at The Elephant Theatre

From the TheSpyAnts Theatre Company that brought you productions including the smash hit KIDNAPPED BY CRAIGSLIST, the award nominated THE BIRDS: A TAIL OF ORNITHIC PROPORTIONS, and the inter-active, long-running THE REUNION: EVERYTHING CHANGES, EVERYONE STAYS THE SAME, comes TERMINUS AMERICANA.

After barely surviving an office rampage, Mac Winchell is thrust into a nightmare landscape populated by lost Marlboro Men, psychotic vagabonds, sinister corporate thugs and a strange cult known as “The Church of Christ, Office Shooter.” Mac attempts to escape this twisted reality by undertaking a quest that ultimately leads him into the darkest corners of the American Dream. Terminus Americana is a surreal, visceral and challenging examination of our violence-saturated culture.

Playwright: Matt Pelfrey is the critically acclaimed and award winning playwright-in-residence at Furious Theatre Company. His produced plays include Pure Shock Value, An Impending Rupture of the Belly, Cockroach Nation, Terminus Americana, Freak Storm, Honkies With Attitude, Monkey, Gore Hounds and many others. Mr. Pelfrey is the winner of the National 10-Minute Play Competition and his winning play, Drive Angry, was subsequently produced at the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays. He is winner of a 2007 Back Stage Garland Award for playwriting. He has been nominated for an American Critics New Play Award, a PEN Center West Literary Award, an LA Ovation Award, and an LA Weekly Award for playwriting.

Starring - Brett Hren

Eric Bunton*(1), Justin Dabuet, Adam Dornbusch, John Charles Meyer*(2), Marina Mouhibian, David Page, Hal Perry*(3), Matt J. Popham*(4), CB Spencer, Maria Tomas*(6), Alison Zatta*(6)

*Alternating cast

1) Performing July 24, 25, 26, Aug 1, 2, 13, 14, 15
2) Performing July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 31, Aug 1, 2
3) Performing Juy 17, 18, 19, 31, Aug 7, 8, 9
4) Performing Aug 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15
5) Performing July 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, Aug. 8, 13, 15
6) Performing July 26, 31 Aug 1, 2, 7, 9, 14

Terminus Americana will run at The Elephant Theatre July 18th – August 15th, 2009 with performances on Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm; including a special Thursday, August 13th at 8pm. Preview on Friday, July 17th at 8pm, tickets $10. There will be an Opening Night Gala Saturday, July 19th at 8pm with hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine provided for a $30 donation. The Elephant Lab Theatre is located at 6322 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038. Street parking is available.

General admission is $20 for all performances. Group sales rates and student discounts available.
To reserve, please call (323) 860-8786 or buy tickets online at our website.

TheSpyAnts.com • PO Box 480202, Los Angeles, CA 90028 • (323) 860-8786

TheSpyAnts to perform at [Inside] the Ford

2009-06-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

We are thrilled to be a part of [Inside] the Ford's 2009-10 season, and you can find out about our show, bobrauschenbergamerica by Charles Mee, and the Ford's upcoming season by reading their press release below:

============

[Inside] the Ford
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2009
Press Contact (for media only):Lucy Pollak
(818) 887-1499 lucy@lucypr.com

2009-10 SEASON AT [Inside] the Ford:

Three new plays from EST-LA, TheSpyAnts and Circle X

about love, loss, betrayal… and America.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Love, loss, betrayal… and America: Los Angeles County's Winter Partnership Program is back with a second season of provocative new work in 2009-10. Once again, three outstanding L.A. theater companies have been selected to present an ambitious season of premieres at [Inside] the Ford, the 87-seat state-of-the-art theater located in Hollywood's Ford Theatres complex.

"These are three beautifully written pieces, each offering a profoundly different perspective on modern America," comments Los Angeles County Arts Commission Executive Director Laura Zucker. "We're pleased to be able to help three of L.A.'s most accomplished theater companies bring this exciting new work to Los Angeles audiences."

Ensemble Studio Theatre-LA opens the season in November with a powerfully moving new work that eloquently melds realism and poetry. In the world premiere of Tree by Julie Hébert, three generations divided by race, culture and time connect when a white Southern woman discovers old love letters leading her to an African-American half-brother.

In January, TheSpyAnts presents the Los Angeles premiere of Charles L. Mee's bobrauschenbergamerica, a fantastical voyage through the heart of small town America as seen through the eyes of visionary artist Robert Rauschenberg.

Finally, Circle X Theatre Co. returns to [Inside] the Ford in March with the world premiere of Lascivious Something by Sheila Callaghan. It's 1980 and Reagan has just been elected. On a secluded Greek island, an American ex-pat pursues his passions: wine making and his breathtaking young bride. On the eve of his first tasting, an old lover reappears, and with her, a wild and violent past.

Through the Winter Partnership Program, L.A. County-based theater companies without permanent facilities submit projects for consideration. Three companies are chosen through a competitive process to present at [Inside] the Ford, where they receive significant promotional and technical support while being allowed to keep the lion's share of the box office. The season is supported by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Ford Theatre Foundation, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The first Winter Partnership season at [Inside] the Ford was a resounding critical and popular success. Song of Extinction by E.M. Lewis, which was presented by Moving Arts in the fall of 2008, was recognized with a slate of prestigious awards including the 2008 Production of the Year Award from the LA Weekly; the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Ted Schmitt Award for World Premiere of an Outstanding New Play; and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the largest national award for a new play. Circle X Theatre Company's Battle Hymn by Jim Leonard was a Los Angeles Times "Critic's Choice," an LA Weekly "GO!," and a Back Stage "Critic's Pick." The LA Weekly's Steven Leigh Morris called Home Siege Home, Ghost Road Company's ensemble-derived adaptation of Aeschylus' trilogy, The Oresteia and the final offering of the season, "a calculated blend of ancient lyricism and contemporary humor… [Katharine] Noon and company… conjure the psychological and cosmic forces that lead to the end of an era."

Embedded within a 1929 historic structure, [Inside] the Ford is an 87-seat indoor theater space at the Ford Theatres complex that boasts 21st Century lights and sound, comfortable seats, and a decades-long history of nurturing new theater. For decades it was rented by numerous groups, most notably the Mark Taper Forum which made it the home of its second stage Taper, Too from 1972 to 1997. In 1998 the space was extensively renovated and renamed [Inside] the Ford, following which a season of three productions was presented under the Los Angeles County Art Commission's subsidized rental program designed to help theater companies without permanent facilities. From 2000-01 through 2003-04, [Inside] the Ford hosted "Hot Properties," seasons of new plays and musicals produced by County-based theater companies and supported by A.S.K. Theater Projects and the James Irvine Foundation. Finally, from 2005-06 to 2007-08, [Inside] the Ford was the home of the Ensemble Theatre Collective, known as ETC@ITF, a collaboration of five L.A.-based theater companies that was supported in part by the Flintridge Foundation.

The Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Laura Zucker, Executive Director, provides leadership in cultural services of all disciplines for the largest county in the United States, encompassing 88 municipalities. In addition to programming the John Anson Ford Theatres, the Arts Commission provides leadership and staffing to support the regional blueprint for arts education, Arts for All; administers a grants program that funds more than 300 nonprofit arts organizations annually; oversees the County's Civic Art Program for capital projects, funds the largest arts internship program in the country in conjunction with the Getty Foundation, and supports the Los Angeles County Cultural Calendar on ExperienceLA.com. The Arts Commission also produces free community programs, including the L.A. Holiday Celebration broadcast nationally, and a year-round music program that funds more than 50 free concerts each year in public sites. The 2009-10 President of the Arts Commission is Araceli Ruano.

[Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free.

Single tickets to Tree, bobrauschenbergamerica, and Lascivious Something are priced at $20 with a special price of $12 for full-time students with ID and senior citizens. A season subscription for all three plays is $45. For information go to the Ford Theatres website at www.FordTheatres.org or call 323.461.3673. Subscriptions and individual tickets go on sale July 15.

Kim Estes for Actors Reporter on "Lions"

2009-05-03T11:43:00.000-07:00

Kim Estes (The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild, Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion) has posted interviews with the cast of the long running play Lions, along with it's writer Vince Melocchi, and director Guillermo Cienfuegos on Actor's Reporter, which you can see here.

Lions is currently up at the Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, so check it out while it lasts!

Kim Estes demo reel

2009-04-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is the demo reel of our longtime member Kim Estes (Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion, The Birds).

Have a look and enjoy!

Link

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

2009-03-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

If you're on Facebook, you can follow us on our page, and if you're on Twitter, follow us here.

Thanks!

Hal Perry's Miller Lite Commercials

2009-03-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

Our member Hal Perry (Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion, The Birds) has at least three commercials airing now for Lite Beer from Miller, two of which you can see here. After clicking the link, verify your age, and then go to "commercials," and from there, click on either "Wedding Tailgate" or "Outdoor Movie."

Presently they are airing during the NCAA basketball tournement on CBS, among many other places.

Come see "What If? An Evening of Original One-Acts (starts March 22)

2009-03-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

COME EAT, DRINK, AND WATCH...

What If? An Evening of Original One-Acts

March 22, 23, 29, and 30

Sunday and Monday nights at 8pm
Tickets $10

St. Nick's Pubs (Upstairs Theatre)
8450 W. 3rd Street, Los Angeles (just off La Cienega near the Beverly Center)

For reservations, call (323) 860-8786

Written By

Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Florian Klein, and Jerry Pappas

Directed By
Adam Dornbusch, Jennifer Etienne Eckert, Addi Gaash, Dawn Merkel, and Marina Mouhibian

Starring

Ken Arquelio, Breeze Braunschweig, Eric Bunton, W. Shay Hammond, Brett Hren, Mari Marks, Marina Mouhibian, Jerry Pappas, and Hal Perry

"Choke.Kick.Girl" at LA Comedy Shorts Festival March 6th/"Kill A Kitten"

2009-02-26T12:55:00.000-08:00

"Choke.Kick.Girl is a short film written by our Ryan Churchill (Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion) directed by Danny Parker Lopes (Kidnapped by Craigslist, The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild, The Reunion) and starring Ryan, Jenny Vilim (Tulsa Lovechild, The Reunion, The Birds), Kim Estes (Tulsa Lovechild, Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion), Linc Hand (Tulsa Lovechild, Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion) Eric Bunton (Kidnapped by Craigslist, Tulsa Lovechild, The Reunion) and many many more of our members has been chosen as an official selection of the 2009 L.A. Comedy Film Festival sponsored by The Onion and Funnyordie!.com.

You can see a clip here.

The festival is a four day celebration of comedic short films that takes place March 5-8 in Downtown Los Angeles. Choke.Kick.Girl. screens in the "I'm Gonna Git You" block from 2-4pm on Friday, March 6th - it's the last film in that block of time. There will be a short Q&A following the screening, and then, stick around for a film with one of our former members Darcy Halsey (co-director along with Danny of The Reunion) called Kill A Kitten (written by our Ryan Dornbusch, and Adam Dornbusch) in the block starting at 4:15 pm.

The festival is hosted by Adam Carolla and a bunch of other comics so it's going to be a fun and exciting time, and we hope you can make it!

Click here for more details and ticket information.

Kidnapped by Craigslist on LA Cityview 35 tonight at 10pm PST

2009-02-16T16:45:00.000-08:00

Our recently closed hit show Kidnapped by Craigslist is being featured tonight on LA Cityview 35 tonight at 10pm PST, and again one week from today at 11am and 10pm PST, and there may also be additional airings next month.

So tune in, or watch the live feed here

There is also a nice little write up here on page 3.

Thanks!

"Kidnapped by Craigslist" is extending once again until February 7th!

2009-01-22T15:19:00.000-08:00

We are proud to announce that Kidnapped by Craigslist is EXTENDING once again!

Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm
until February 7th

***SPECIAL OFFER***

Print out your favorite Craigslist posting for $5 off
EVERY THURSDAY

***********************************************************************************
Only three weekends left!:

Thursday, January 22nd at 8pm
Friday, January 23rd at 8pm
Saturday, January 24th at 8pm
Thursday, January 29th at 8pm
Friday, January 30th at 8pm
Saturday, January 31st at 8pm
Thursday, February 5th at 8pm
Friday, February 6th at 8pm
Saturday, February 7th at 8pm

Reservations (323.860.8786) and online tickets purchases strongly encouraged

Thanks so much for your support!

New member auditions will be January 31st

2009-01-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

We have updated information for our new member auditions and it is as follows:

TheSpyAnts Theatre Company is looking for Actor's to add to it's merry cast of character's. You will also have opportunities to produce, write and direct.

When: January 31st from 11am to 5pm.

Where: TBD

What You Need To Prepare: A two person scene under 5 minutes OR two monologues that you feel show you off best.

How Do I Get An Audition Time: Please call Lori Evans Taylor at 310-569-6456.

Thanks!

Ryan Churchill's Demo Reel

2009-01-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

Ryan Churchill (Infinite Black Suitcase, The Reunion) has been a member of TheSpyAnts since 2006, and this is his demo reel:

Link

Ryan also produced a short film called Choke.Kick.Girl which featured many of our company members.

The Tolucan Times weighs in on "Kidnapped by Craigslist"

2008-12-19T10:02:00.001-08:00

Kidnapped by Craigslist

By M. Jarrett Christensen on December 17,2008

The phenomenon that is Craigslist has permeated every avenue of our society. It is imbued into our consciousness, as it is a projection of our hopes and fears, wants and desires. It has become the quintessential forum for all things, be it a sale of furniture to an instantaneous date, or even a political soapbox. Katie Goan & Nitra Gutierrez has captured all the fascinating elements in this amusing and handsome production.

The show is a compilation of actual postings from Craigslist, as it is a series of vignettes that make up the act. The staging is simple but spectacular, as it embodies that of a big top circus with all its comedy and drama, and yes, even the freak show. We are introduced into the cyber world by the confessions, wants and announcements. The actors portray the voices of the ads with the same honesty and seriousness that the actual ad had intended. What prevails is a delightful comedy that allows for belly laughs and at the same time, sympathy and pathos for the real persons who submitted their words online.

All the performers were outstanding. Some of the standouts include Addi Gaash, Amy Motta and Danny Lopes. Matt Maenpaa (set design) and Lori Evans Taylor (sound design) prove how ingenuity and resourcefulness gives the audience a glamorous stage. It is said that comedy is an ironic reversal of tragedy. If it were not for all the laughter involved, one could sense the pity in these ads that continually crowd cyberspace. Highly recommended.

The Elephant Lab Theatre is located at 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038. For tickets, call (323) 860-8786 or visit www.TheSpyAnts.com. “Kidnapped by Craigslist” is playing through December 20 with extended dates January 2–24 2009.

Backstage Review of "Kidnapped by Craigslist"

2008-12-10T14:09:00.000-08:00

From Backstage

Kidnapped by Craigslist
December 10, 2008

by Neal Weaver

This zany, rollicking show by Katie Goan and Nitra Gutierrez is essentially an evening of sketch comedy derived from actual postings on Craigslist, making it a catalog of human oddities. It's played out in the frame of a carnival sideshow, presided over by the Barker (Amy Motta), who emerges from a trunk in a wonderful, form-fitting, shabby-elegant costume and boots. Motta has a spectacular figure, a dazzling smile, and a boatload of charm. She introduces to us the other oddballs: the mortally embarrassed woman (Shelby Kyle) who farted repeatedly on a first date, the bigot in the Santa Suit (Danny Lopes) who hates everybody including himself, the extremely pregnant woman (Kyle again) who's fed up with strangers wanting to touch her baby-bump, the man (Scott Krinsky) driven 'round the bend by the cockroaches in his apartment, the woman obsessed with cake (Dawn Merkel), the Right Sneaker (Lane Maser) who has lost her Left Sole Mate, and the exasperated gay man (Eric Bunton) who can't sleep because he's too distracted by the naked, sleeping teenager who's visible through a window across the way. And Motta plays a sodomy-averse woman who sings a song memorably titled "Don't Touch My Butt-Hole."

Director Lori Evans Taylor deploys her clever and versatile cast (all of whom play multiple roles) with style and dispatch on a jewel-box set by Matt Maenpaa, which features a lot of red velour, a handsomely carved wardrobe, a skewed chandelier hanging at a gravity-defying angle, and the aforementioned trunk. The clever, colorful, and sometimes lavish costumes are supplied by Marina Mouhibian, who also plays several characters, including a cockroach, a birthday cake, a bedpost, and a pirate. Michelle O'Connor provides the original music. (Note: Some roles are double cast.)

Presented by TheSpy Ants at the Elephant Lab Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Nov. 22-Dec. 20. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m. (Also Sat., 10:30 p.m. Dec. 6 and 13 and Thu., 8 p.m. Dec. 18.) (323) 860-8786 or www.thespyants.com.

Promo video for "Kidnapped by Craigslist"

2008-12-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

Playwright Katie Goan discusses her play in an interview

2008-11-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

Katie Goan, one of the co-writers of Kidnapped by Craigslist did an interview with JesterJournal.com last year where she discussed her play.

Here is part one:

In August, the comedic play “Kidnapped by Craigslist” ran at the People’s Improv Theater (see 8/18/07 review), and its co-creator, Katie Goan, has plans underway for productions of the show in other cities, including Austin, Texas, where she went to college. “Craigslist” is culled from and inspired by ads in the popular website that serves as an online version of classified ads. While Goan performed in the New York productions, she prefers writing and directing, and plans to cast the touring version of the show with local actors in each city, as well as revising the show in each city to draw from Craigslist ads from the site’s pages for that city. Jester spoke with Goan about the evolution of “Craigslist.”

Katie Goan: In touring of ‘Kidnapped by Craigslist,’ the first stop will be Austin, Texas, because I know a lot of people there and all my friends are there producing and directing theater. So two of my friends from Austin came to see the show and are very excited about producing it. That will probably be the first leg of its future in development, substituting in Austin postings from Craigslist and do a show there. We’re thinking of a late night show in a cabaret space or something like that. Eventually we want to do Seattle, San Francisco and all the places where Craigslist originated.

Jester: Do the postings say the same or have they changed throughout the runs of the show?
KG: So far it’s been the same because we’ve only done New York. All the postings are from the New York site. The postings are from over the past two years. We started doing the show about two and a half years ago, and some of the postings are as recent as three months ago.

J: Are you adding postings to the show?
KG: We stopped doing that because we needed to solidify that particular show. But we’re always looking for new postings from new cities, because we always want to make the show about where we’re going to perform. Hopefully, you get a very New York feel from this show. In Austin, we’ll put in more rockabilly type music, with a country and western twang kind of sound; obviously we’ll have no subway-related postings.

The whole carnival aspect of the show -- the carnival barker’s speeches and introductions to carnival-type attractions, will all stay the same. All we have to do is look for postings from Austin about love and sex and put that into the Tunnel of Love section, and postings that are rants and raves to put in the dunking booth section. Much of it will stay the same but the postings will change.

J: Are you and the cast that recently did it going to be in other performances?
KG: I’m not sure. In Austin, it will be an Austin cast. In a perfect world, once we get a substantial amount of money, I would love to have one company that goes all over to do it. The show is always changing and evolving though, so it will be interesting to see what other people do with it.

J: It’s been running for two and a half years. How has it evolved?
KG: We did a workshop at the PIT one year ago, last June. We flew in a director from L.S.U. It was just a cast of three people -- Nitra, the co-writer, myself and a friend of ours. For about a month … the postings started off with a large stack and boiled it down to the 20 or 30 that are in the show. It’s a matter of finding out what fits together the best and how you can represent Craigslist the best way.

J: How does a particular posting inspire you to write it into the show?
KG: We thought the carnival theme made it into a show. At first we were just pulling postings that we thought were interesting, funny or sad, or just were different types of people -- something that had a definite angle to it. Then, from going through a large stack, you think these people are freaks, but they’re not. They’re actually you and me -- this person could be a librarian who is the most introverted person you ever met, yet she’s complaining about her boss and cussing him out and talking about how she wants to seduce him. So then we start seeing the difference between who people are in real life and how they portray themselves. That’s when we realized it was a carnival theme, with the “Rants & Raves” section being the dunking booth and the “Missed Connections” being the Tunnel of Love. That’s how we were inspired to put it into the show.

Then we added the music, which we thought would be exciting and cool. A lot of what is on the stage (in the recent version of the show) in the fluidity is from Kimmy (Gatewood). She’s the most unbelievable director I’ve ever worked with; she’s fantastic. She really tied it all together, made it flow and made it the piece that it is.

J: I think of direction as visual as in film, but in this world it often involves tightening up the writing and the organization of what’s presented. What are the differences?
KG: For anything about the writing, Kimmy comes to me. Because we went from a 90-minute show to a 56-minute show, and now I can’t even imagine it that long because now it’s under an hour.

So a lot of the characterizations are Kimmy’s ideas because your first instinct when doing something like this is to push it and be angry. You want to be the angriest person you can think of and conjure up. She said, ‘No, why don’t you play against the anger and make it humorous or touching or charming.’ She helped us to play against the character to actually make these people believable.

J: So it is some directing of the acting?
KG: Yes, a lot of acting and a lot of staging. The stage pictures themselves were all Kimmy and a lot of the music too.

Part Two:

J: Where did everyone from the cast now come from?
KG: Michelle O’Connor, who played the barker, is Kimmy’s good friend from college. They’ve been collaborating on theater projects together for many years, and they write a lot of music together. Jacob Brown is in my improv class, and is on the Sid Viscous improv team at The PIT. Him and I became close through our improv classes at The PIT. Jared is a good friend of Nitra, the co-writer, and they do improv together for at-risk teens, about bullying and drugs and things like that.

J: Most of the characters go from start to finish and you see them all at once, although Jared does a character that reappears at points. Why do you go back to just that one character or why don’t you follow the others through more?
KG: Just to get as much diversity as possible. Jared did make a specific choice -- it’s one character that you see different aspects of. That is the pot-head lady guy [insert explanation] and the subway guy from the beginning. He chose to tie those two people together, where you see the guy frustrated on the subway and then smoking a joint at home on his patio. That was an experiment. But mostly we wanted to do the complete opposite … different characters to show diversity of who uses Craigslist, what are the reasons, are they escaping something from their lives, are they looking for attention? Why are they going on Craigslist?

J: I wondered when reviewing the show whether, in how Michelle hosted the show, whether you were thinking about ‘The Twilight Zone’?
KG: The creepiness of it, yes. We wanted an eerie, creepy feel to the barker, which is interesting from her because she’s a pretty woman. To see her be a sexy seductress but also kind of a hard ass, and also the taskmaster of Craigslist, and everyone’s her minions to do what she says. So in that aspect, yes, the stream of consciousness of the piece is very much like The Twilight Zone, and the creepiness and eeriness of it. You want the audience to question what they’re seeing. That’s the ‘Twilight Zone’ aspect of it too -- ‘Did they just … oh they did!’

J: What’s your a criteria for what you’re putting into scenes or what you find funny?
KG: When we look at them now, we’re just looking for diverse stories from individuals. At this point, the show is love and sex heavy. That’s a major change I want to make for the future of the show. Especially for New York, I need more apartment posting stories, or finding roommates. We touch on it in the show but we don’t dive in as much as we should, especially for New York. They don’t use Craigslist as much for that in Austin. … Now when I talk to people in New York, the most interest is in “Missed Connections” or one-night hookups -- ‘come over to my house right now,’ much more so than apartments or roommates.

I guess for criteria, we’re looking for people who have a point of view and just a crazy, kooky wackiness that’s out there. You get everything from those looking to sell their Beatles collection to ‘I cheated on my wife, what should I do?’ So diversity, and people who have a story to tell.

J: Are there other shows that you’ve written or are thinking about doing?
KG: I’ve written others and produced others. They’re usually always comedy. The dramas I’ve written aren’t very good. I’m into short comedic plays, or more vignettes than actual plays, but also not quite sketch either. I like it to have a theme or through line so it’s not just random sketches. The next show I’m working on is a one-woman show. I’m writing it thinking of myself but I probably wouldn’t perform it in the long run. It has different wacky characters. It’s about a Texas girl who’s transplanted into Yankee land.

J: Most performers who write a one-person character showcase show do it for themselves. Why are you thinking about transferring it to someone else?
KG: I would probably direct that show. I would want to find someone who could have the diversity of different characters. … That was my big problem with acting. It was always your director telling you what to do. You can explore things as an actor and try different things but at the end of the day, your director decides. I want to be the one who actually creates it and puts it out there for people.

J: Most performers find comedy more difficult to do than drama, but you find drama more difficult.
KG: It’s more difficult for me to write. I’m not sure how to even explain that. I find that comedic dialogue is easier for me to write than dramatic dialogue. In dramas, the climax has to be so solid, and all the elements of the story, like your introduction, rising action, climax and falling action all have to be so clear and set for it to be effective. In comedy, anything goes. That’s the difference to me. That’s why it makes it easier. You can put something down on paper as comedy, and if it stinks, throw it away, or it can be the most brilliant piece of comedy you’ve ever seen in your life. Drama doesn’t work that way. It either works or it doesn’t. In comedy, you can find something that works about it, or change it.

J: What comedic performers, movies or TV influenced you?
KG: Growing up it was always Gilda Radner. Everyone says that, but watching old Saturday Night Lives, the Gilda Radner sketches were definitely what I wanted to do. She did physical comedy which was unusual for women back then. As to films, “Clue” is one of my favorite movies of all time. I like the different characters and different types of people all coming together for a murder mystery, or the dinner party, or whatever the case may be.

J: That’s why you’re doing “Craigslist” -- because you’re inspired by “Clue.”
KG: I guess you could say that. “Clue” is one of my definite favorites. Another favorite is “Waiting For Guffman” -- again, such different types of people thrown together in a situation. That’s comedy gold if you ask me.

Scott Krinsky's demo reel

2008-09-18T15:04:00.000-07:00

Scott Krinsky joined TheSpyAnts this year, and this is his demo reel.

StageSceneLA review of "The Reunion"

2007-07-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

“Unique” is a word all too frequently bandied about, but in the case of The Reunion: Everything Changes, Everything Stays the Same, “unique” is almost an understatement. Writer/directors Darcy Halsey and Danny Parker have
written a 5 1/2 hour play about a 10-year high school reunion which unfolds in just an hour and a half. How, you may ask, do they do that?

By having four scenes unfolding simultaneously in various parts of the Howard Fine Theatre complex. In one room, characters discuss the mysterious death of a popular classmate; in the courtyard, two male classmates, formerly best friends, reunite in a most unexpected way; on the terrace, a glamorous Russian movie star discusses her latest project while elsewhere another
classmate has a nervous breakdown.

Audience members, who are treated to beer/wine/appetizers (included in the $20 admission), must decide which scene to observe and where to go next, making The Reunion a production which can be seen and seen again. (Ticket prices go down $5 each time you come back.) I love TheSpyAnts, and The Reunion gives several dozen of them a chance to show their acting and comedic chops. I dare not begin to name names as there are so many sparkling performances that to attempt to pick out standouts would mean leaving off far too many fine members of the troupe.

This limited return engagement of The Reunion will I hope become an annual event! July 13th - August 4th Fridays & Saturdays 8pm/Sundays 8pm July 22nd & July 29th; The Howard Fine Theatre ,1445 N. Las Palmas Avenue,
Hollywood, CA 90028; Tickets $20 includes beer, wine & hors d'oeuvres; Returning guests receive $5 discount per return; Reservations: 323.860.8786.

--Steven Stanley

Backstage review of "Infinite Black Suitcase"

2007-04-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

by Neal Weaver

April 20, 2007

EM Lewis' title may be a whimsical metaphor for death, but it's not as grim as it sounds: Some of her best scenes lean toward comedy. Her play cuts back and forth among three main stories, garnished with peripherally related scenes. In the first story, a wife (Marina Mouhibian) and her two brothers-in-law (Linc Hand and Ken Arquelio) struggle to come to terms with the hideous, and to them inexplicable, suicide of her husband. The second story concerns Dan (Eric Bunton), who is dying of AIDS, and the efforts of his lover, Stephen (Jerry Pappas), to bear up as the end approaches. It's weary Dan who must try to give comfort and reassurance. The third story centers on Katie Barnes (Darcy Halsey), dying of cancer but determined to persuade her current husband, Tony (Kim Estes), who is black, and her ex-husband, Joe (Ryan Churchill), who is the father of her three daughters, to accept joint custody of the three girls, despite sharp animosity between the two men.

In a touchingly funny scene, bereaved Joe and recent widow Mary (Tammy Kaitz) strive to make a connection despite grief and differing expectations. A confrontation in the confessional between a wry, canny Catholic priest (Bill J. Stevens) and an inebriated non-Catholic (Hal Perry) also provides rich dramatic fodder. In an unrelated scene, Jake (Rich Williams) must decide whether he wants to be interred next to his deceased first wife or with his current spouse, Anne (Anita Khanzadian).

All the scenes are interesting and ably written, but constant crosscutting among competing plot lines tends to dissipate them and prevents their being fully explored or focused. Danny Parker-Lopes directs with a sure hand, and the large cast (including Addi Gaash and Dawn Merkel) does fine work, with special praise for Stevens, Churchill, Perry, Bunton, and Kaitz. David Fofi provides the excellent production design.

Presented by the SpyAnts Theatre Company at the Lillian Theatre, 1076 Lillian Way, Hollywood. Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Apr. 6-May 6. (323) 860-8786. www.thespyants.com.

StageSceneLA review for "Infinite Black Suitcase"

2007-04-08T00:43:00.000-07:00

From StageSceneLA

The Illustrious Spy Ants are presenting the world premiere production of
Infinite Black Suitcase, EM Lewis. Having seen their The Most Fabulous Story
Ever Told, and the recent Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer, I knew them to
be a company of talented comic actors, but I was not prepared for the
depth of emotion they bring to Lewis' seriocomic "one day in the life" story of
a group of rural Oregonians facing death...and life after the death of a
loved one.

Director Danny Parker-Lopes has helmed a fine ensemble of young and not
so young actors, among whom there are a number of standouts. Longtime
Spy Ants Eric Bunton and Jerry Pappas have palpable rapport as a gay
couple, one dying, one facing the burden of his partner's illness and the fear
of life without him. Bunton and Pappas, laugh out loud hilarious in both
"Fabulous" and "Rudolph," prove themselves to be consummate dramatic
actors as well. Bring kleenex.

I also very much liked the intensity and depth of Ryan Churchill's Joe, whose
ex-wife and the mother of his three daughters, is dying (very good work by
Darcy Halsey as the hospitalized ex), the delightful comic relief of Dawn
Merkel's cemetery employee, and Bill J. Stevens warm and witty Father
Sebastian. Tammy Kaitz is reminiscent of a young Karen Black and Linc Hand
shows young leading man potential. Ken Arquelio, Kim Estes, Addi Gaash,
Anita Khanzadian, Marina Mouhibian, Hal Perry, and Rich Williams ably
complete the large and talented cast.

Infinite Black Suitcase may be about pain and sadness death and dying,
but it's also about the joy of living and loving, and is well worth spending a
very fast moving 90 minutes with. I, and at least one other audience
member I overheard, wouldn't have minded spending even more time with
these people.

APRIL 2007, LILIAN THEATRE, HOLLYWOOD.

--Steven Stanley

LA Splash review for "Infinite Black Suitcase"

2007-04-06T17:10:00.000-07:00

LASPLASH.COM: Los Angeles Performances

Infinite Black Suitcase - Review

By Keisha7

It's been said that everyone deals with grief in their own way. TheSpyAnts' latest production at the Lillian Theatre delivers a healthy dose of that adage for a full uninterrupted 90 minutes. Stories of lost and languishing life unfold and overlaps onto themselves, entwining and pulling at the living in EM Lewis' Infinite Black Suitcase.

The play is an anthology of stories, all unique in their perspective of impending or sudden death. Young Kal Kalinski (Linc Hand) is the face of utter denial as he repeatedly tries to extract a reasonable explanation of a recent family death from Stan Kalinski (Ken Arquelio). Meanwhile Stan is trying to ward off Kal's barrage of questions long enough to fit a proper black dress onto his catatonic sister Janie (Marina Mouhibian). He has no time for sorrow; he has to get everyone to the funeral on time. He's the one that keeps going even when everyone else stalls.

Dan Hanlon's (Eric Bunton) withering figure makes his slow and agonizing trek to his hospital bed even as the audience continues to fill the theater, well before curtain. Having arrived at acceptance, Dan lies patiently in wait until death comes for him. Hooked up to an IV drip, he waits for death in the company of the witty, plant toting, affectionate and consoling Stephen (Jerry Pappas). Throughout the show, they play out a bittersweet goodbye that is taking too long for each of them.

Somewhere in the same hospital, Katie Barnes (Darcy Halsey) tries to bring her ex, Joe (Ryan Churchill) and new husband Tony (Kim Estes) to a truce regarding her children before she dies. There is the sense that the two men have always been at each other, and even Katie's approaching death is not enough to get the two to see beyond their petty bickering. Anything to avoid talking about the fact that she's dying.

Perhaps my favorite segment was between Father Sebastian (Bill J. Stevens) and the non-Catholic Frank (Hal Perry) who finds his way into a confessional that fateful afternoon. The priest's indulgence of the inebriated lost sheep is quite funny. When it is revealed that Frank feels guilt over the recent suicide of his father, the priest's kindness is heartwarming.

TheSpyAnts Company takes an introspective piece about death and dying and blends in a great balance of humanity and humor. The production, directed by Danny Parker-Lopes, shuffles the 17-member ensemble through space and storylines with ease. The screenplay keeps the points of view rotating, a key element that allows the play to avoid being overly sentimental or dark. It explores the rip effect death can cause in one's personal well of guilt, that often exists long before any loss is experienced. Moreover, it examines our innate need to fill that loss of life with something: sex, alcohol, a reason.

'Infinite Black Suitcase' runs now through May 06, 2007
Fridays & Saturdays @ 8pm, Sundays @ 7pm at:

Lillian Theatre
1076 Lillian Way
Hollywood, CA 90038

For more information visit: http://www.plays411.com/newsite/show/play_info.asp

Photos by Jeff Ellington

Official website: http://www.thespyants.com/

Stephanie Turner on "Dirt"

2007-02-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

Stephanie Turner, who most recently appeared with us in Rudolph the Red Hosed Reindeer, and as an understudy in The Reunion last year, will be in two episodes of Dirt starting tomorrow night at 10pm on FX, and then again one week from tomorrow at the same time.

So check it out!

Backstage review of "Rudolph the Red Hosed Reindeer"

2006-12-21T01:07:00.000-08:00

Rudolph the Red-Hosed Reindeer

by Neal Weaver

Dec 20, 2006

There’s no need for a Grinch in this screwy musical by David Cerda and Scott Lamberty: Christmas Town is a police state and Santa Claus (Danny Lopes) a tyrant who has driven Mrs. Claus (Marina Mouhibian) to drink. When one of the reindeer wives (Etienne Eckert) has the temerity to criticize Santa, she’s whisked away to be reprogrammed as a Stepford Doe.

And intolerance is rampant. Santa’s reindeer are decidedly homophobic, so when Mr. and Mrs. Donner (Jerry Pappas and Lori Evans Taylor) produce a fawn named Rudolph (Eric Bunton) with a taste for wearing women’s clothes, it’s a scandal to be kept under wraps—till he turns up in ruffled panties and red fishnets. At the other end of the spectrum, Santa’s Elves (Brett Hren, Florian Klein, Mark Schaefer, and Brett Nelson) are hedonistic gay gym bunnies, with no sympathy for the square in their midst, Herbie (Jeffrey Christopher Todd), who doesn’t do drugs, doesn’t go in for casual sex, and—gasp!—doesn’t go to the gym.

Inevitably the two outcasts, Rudolph and Herbie, join forces for a series of adventures that introduce them to doughty lesbian prospector Yukon Cornelia (Madelynn Fattibene) and a towering transvestite known as the Abominable Drag Beast (Mark Landres). They also make a flying visit to the Island of Misfit Toys, where they discover Trailer-Trash Barbie (Shelby Kyle), the Half-Naked Cowboy (Hren), and Charlie-in-the-Box (Nelson). And, oh, yes, there’s a reindeer named Clarice (Stephanie Turner) who falls for Rudolph. (Rudolph quickly reminds us that most cross-dressers are straight.)

It’s all pretty silly, the plot doesn’t make much sense, and the musical numbers are more spirited than memorable, but director Richard Israel and a talented cast keep it lively, fast-paced, and amusing, with noteworthy performances by Todd, Nelson, Fattibene, Turner, and Hren, on Chris Bell’s picture-book set.

Presented by TheSpyAnts Theatre Company at the Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thu.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Nov. 24-Jan. 13. (323) 860-8766.

"The Reunion" featured on "YourLA"

2006-08-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

The Reunion was recently featured on KNBC Channel 4's YourLA, and in case you didn't catch it, here it is:

Backstage review for "The Reunion"

2006-07-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

Backstage West - Michael Holder

THE REUNION: Everything Changes. Everything Stays The Same
at the Howard Fine Theater. CRITIC'S PICK

With confessed deference to Tamara, in which the audience followed actors from room to room and hoped to unearth as many story points on their individual journeys as possible, The Spy Ants has brazenly taken the concept and moved it from an Italian villa in the 1920's onto the grounds of the fictional Woodrow Wilson HIgh School circa 1994. The audience once more becomes part of the action, asked to attend the 10th reunion of the Wilson Warriors Class of '84, and spy on the students who had the cajones to once again face their incredibly messed-up classmates, folks with enough residual damage to keep a psychiatrist in teeoff fees for years.

Even the "class clown" who became a shrink (Ryan Churchill) isn't immune to the wreckage; indeed he's creating more. As he confesses his date (Lana Underwood) is also his 19 year old patient, he finds time to surrepitiously distribute a new, unapproved drug guaranteed to make girls get jiggy and spread rumors from an unbalanced classmate (Dawn Merkel) about who was doing what to whom the night of the graduation party while one poor kid turned crispy in a boathouse fire. Director-writers Darcy Halsey and Danny Parker do an impressive job keeping the audience hopping as they tag behind the certifiable students and suitably war faculty members, winding the characters' stories together masterfully and adding a few surprises, such as having Johnny Cochrane (Kim Estes) present as the secret lover of one lusty attendee (Jenny Vilim), the former girlfriend of the football star (Linc Hand,) crippled in another grad night "accident."

The cast is golden, all members brilliant at making their characters real despite the need to keep them talking and moving at once. But like Tamara,the problem with becoming a fly on the wall of this facinatingly dysfunctional gathering is that there's not time to unravel the mysteries in one evening. After the understandable minor clunks of opening night smooth out a bit, this is one production worth a second, third, or even fourth look. And that big red star next to algebra on the back of your program/report card lets you do just that at a discount.

Tolucan Times review for "The Reunion"

2006-07-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

Tolucan Times - Pat Taylor

The Reunion: Everything Changes. Everyone Stays the Same

HOLLYWOOD - If you're ready for a wildly different theatrical hoot, this is the one for you! Performed and penned in the style of Tamara, which ran in Hollywood for 10 years, it is an entertaining, involving journey that really tweaks your mind. Cleverly written and directed with great imagination, by Darcy Halsey and Danny Parker, with plenty of juicy input from their troupe (the SpyAnts) this talented cast of 20 actors is all terrific! In this inventive audience interactive piece, we are guests at a volatile and revealing 10-year class reunion party in 1994. We voyeuristically peer in on these characters' dirty little secrets, passions and progress (both past and present) in individual group scenes, following them through the school and quad, on foot. Like the proverbial fly on the wall, we quietly study a multitude of in your face, explosive and emotional skeletons, as old classmates bare their souls. We drink wine and enjoy munchies from the party table all evening, and the intimate stories we are privy to depend on which characters we chose to follow. Sounds a bit confusing, I know, but it soon all falls into place.

At intermission, openly chat with other audience members or separate from your own friends during the play and compare notes later to catch up on the scenes you missed. It is a brain teasing blast! Too many complex scenes to describe them, and besides, that would spoil your fun! The ticket price (including food and libation) is $20 the first time, $10 the second return, and $5 thereafter, as long as you bring a full paying, unsuspecting newcomer. Many come back again to follow different ones.

Kudos to the entire cast: They are Eric Bunton, Ryan Churchill, Natalie Compagno, Kim Estes, Addi Gaash, Gretchen Gaboury, Darcy Halsey, Linc Hand, Brett Hren, Tammy Kaitz, Shelby Kyle, Melissa Lee, Danny Parker, Dawn Merkel, Marina Mouhibia n, Jerry Pappas, Stasia Patwell, Hal Perry, Lana Underwood, and Jenny Vilim This is a naughty, bawdy, fun filled, unique and worthy production! Turn up in the outdoor quad 7:30ish for a drink, a snack, and a chance to read over the program and "class rules." It really helps in your overall experience!

Running through Aug. 5 (possibly longer) at the Howard Fine Theatre, 1445 N. Las Palmas in Hollywood. Call (323) 860-8786.

Darcy Halsey in "What I Heard About Iraq"

2005-09-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Darcy Halsey (The Birds, Hellcab) is currently appearing in What I Heard About Iraq at the Fountain Theater, and here is a review from Variety.

===========

What I Heard About Iraq (A Cry for 5 Voices)

(Fountain Theater, Los Angeles; 99 seats; $25 top)

By JOEL HIRSCHHORN

A Fountain Theater presentation of a play in one act, adapted by Simon Levy from an article by Eliot Weinberger. Directed by Levy.

With: Marc Casabani, Darcy Halsey, Tony Pasqualini, Bernadette Speakes, Ryun Yu.

"What I Heard About Iraq," a Fountain Theater world premiere adapted for the stage and directed by Simon Levy, isn't really a play: It's a rant, a cry of outrage delivered by five actors, exposing the deceptive strategies and heartless acts of violence perpetrated by the Bush administration. Taking its inspiration from an article by Eliot Weinberger in the London Review of Books, Levy's drama, which he claims is "neither speculation or fiction," utilizes comments from politicians, military chiefs, Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers.

The material, planned for presentation in parts of the world ranging from Boston and Connecticut to Luxembourg and Berlin, won't be news to those who pore over politics. Sometimes details are sprung so rapidly that the content begins to blur in the spectator's mind.

What makes Levy's show more than traditional Rumsfeld- or Bush-bashing are startling quotes, less familiar than Dick Cheney's pronouncement: "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

It's spine-chilling to hear body bags euphemistically called "transfer tubes," or to hear Barbara Bush's appallingly out-of-touch remark, "Why should we care about body bags, or deaths? Why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"

The multiethnic cast -- African-American Bernadette Speakes, Asian Ryun Yu, Caucasians Tony Pasqualini and Darcy Halsey, Middle Eastern Marc Casabani -- comprises extraordinary performers. Their fluidly directed interplay encompasses overlapping dialogue as they pitch lines to each other with the precision of baseball stars, slam down chairs in despair and dance frenziedly to the accompaniment of a satirical animated video ridiculing the president and his cohorts.

Levy follows a smooth progression from Colin Powell's statement that Hussein posed no weapons threat and that he was "unable to project conventional power against his neighbors," to a totally opposite point of view. After the U.S. attack, Rumsfeld declares optimistically, "I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators" and Bush comments to Pat Robertson, "We're not going to have any casualties."

The human element is hellishly highlighted when a Marine describes "dead-checking," a process by which soldiers examine the bodies of the wounded and press on each one's eye with a boot, so that anyone faking death can be dispatched with a bullet to his brain. This procedure, along with torture techniques that cover rape and sodomy, has been well documented, although it would be helpful to balance the Abu Ghraib atrocities with other details so U.S. soldiers aren't sweepingly summed up as savages.

Dave Marling's outstanding sound effects -- explosive noises of bombs, automatic weapons and helicopters -- build a jarring atmosphere, making the aud feel we're part of the war, and Daniel Seidner's multimedia contributions are invaluable. The speeches grow increasingly intense, aided by a clip of a routine Hollywood action film, a shot of soldiers joyously applauding Bush's promises and a painful picture of a bleeding child.

Rumsfeld, the chief villain of the piece, offers ideal fodder for Jon Stewart and other political comics with his remark, "Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war." But there's nothing remotely funny about Weinberger's quotes from a commander in chief who, at different times, declares himself a war president and a peace president.

As support vanishes from 16 countries, Bush concludes, "Two years from now, only the Brits may be with us. At some point, we may be the only ones left. That's OK with me. We are America."

Sets, Scott Siedman; lighting, Kathi O'Donohue; sound, Dave Marling; production stage manager, Nina Soukasian; multimedia, Daniel Seidner; creative media consultant, Brad Schreiber. Opened, reviewed Sept. 11, 2005; runs through Oct. 9. Running time: 1 HOUR, 15 MIN.

"Birds" Playwright David Cerda on our show

2005-09-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

David Cerda, one of the co-writers of The Birds came in from Chicago to see our show at the McCadden Theater over the weekend, and posted his take on it on his blog, and here's what he had to say:

So you're all dying to know...How was it? Saturday night, Chris myself and the Yourex lot attended 'The Birds- A Tail of Ornithic Proportions' (they chose that subtitle) at the McCadden Place Theater in Hollywood, California, baby. The theater was small, holding about 55, which adds to the claustrophobic effect that suits this play so well.

For those of you out of the loop , or for those who weren't in Chicago during the fall of 2001, I'll fill you in about what 'The Birds' is all about. The Birds is a combination, parody and backstory of Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds'. But wait, there's more..., It's also a feminist drag deconstruction of the film with 90's pop culture icon Camille Paglia serving as the tour guide to the inner sanctum of Tippi Hedren's journey into the darkness created by the HUGE shadow Alfred Hitchcock cast once he decided Tippi was to be his personal property. Unfortunately for Ms. Hedren, this is all true, and the making of 'The Birds' was quite an experience for her.

The feminist deconstruction part was inspired by many things a, including my own take on the film but the nail that solidified this view was Camille Paglia's brilliant, and compulsively over the top essay on the film for British Films Institute. When Camille, like myself, likes something, she doesn't 'sort of' like it, she embraces it, swallows it whole, much like myself.

Soooo..., this is not an easy show to do. There's the problem of bird attacks.There's the mimicking of the film style of the period, there's the very silly jokes and double takes mixed with the very real and disturbing systematic 'pecking' at Tippi Hedren's psyche, and there's a Camille Paglia interrupting and interacting with the cast. Particularly Tippi and Suzanne Pleshette. I read a review that says 'Alfred Hitchcock asks Camille Paglia to travel back in time to help psychologically dismember Tippi Hedren'. Okay..., The wonderful thing about theater is that I don't have to explainthingslike the fact that Camille Paglia pops up out of nowhere. She's just there. If people want to think she traveled back in time, then I guess that's okay, but for the record, Pauline Pang and I didn't really think that when we wrote it.

Where was I? Oh, yes, how were they? They were wonderful. They made bold choices, they were funny, they were scary, they were committed- they obviously loved the piece, and it shows. Did I like every single thing they did? No. But they made their choices, and director Kelly Ann Ford did some amazing things and staged the show beautifully and smoothly, and that is NOT an easy thing to do with the size of the cast, the scenes and the space. Everybody knows I love my Tracy Repep (Chicago Tippi) , but Lori Evans kicked ass as Tippi/Melanie, and I was so pleased with her performance I was like a smitten little school boy with her after the show. She even held the cotton swab the correct way, and in my world, things like that really matter. LA Suzanne was a feisty, lusty woman with a commanding stage presence, and her powerful take on the role was different then mine, but it worked, and the actress, Maria Tomas plays it it to the hilt. Brett Hren as Mitch is cute as hell, and has this Ewan McGregor thing going on, that literally charms the pants off of you when he smiles; and LYDIA...., Well, that would be the handsome Eric Bunton, who immerses himself in the role and is dressed to the nines and is a little more affectionate with Mitch then the movie or Chicago version. He's hilarious, and he's also the man to go to when you need to learn about any of the cast members. Peggy Robinson took the Natasha Fatale route with the beautifully sadistic Marina Mouhibian and Mrs. Bundy was played by (gasp) a WOMAN, the dead on Randi Pareira. Darcy Halsey was a smart and sexy ass Camille Paglia and gee, I can't mention everybody, but they were wonderful and so nice. Kim Estes was an incredibly scary and sexy Birdman in wings made by Brett Hren! Mrs. MacGruder was played by Patrik Carlok who was in the original cast of HAIR- he was wonderful, and it was such a blast feeling that theatrical connection. Oops, let's not forget the ugliest little girl in Bodega Bay, the darling Hal Perry as Cathy Brenner.

Like I said, it's difficult for me to gauge anything I've written, but Christopher thought the show was great and he's always brutally honest with me, so there. Go see it! The LA Times was there the night I went and if the review comes out it will be Thursday I'm told, so keep your fingers and toes crossed that she 'got' it.