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
Showing posts with label Danny Parker-Lopes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Danny Parker-Lopes. Show all posts
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
TheSpyAnts present "Kidnapped by Craigslist: The Graveyard Shift"
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.
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
- LA Weekly
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, 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!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Who Killed Jason? ("The Reunion" web series)
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
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
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Backstage review of "bobrauschenbergamerica"
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
OUTSIDE THE BOX: BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA AT [INSIDE] THE FORD (EyespyLA.com review)
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
Saturday, January 30, 2010
A Curtain Up review of "bobrauschenbergamerica"
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.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
BOBRAUSCHENBERGAMERICA: A ROMP TheSpyAnts Ensemble at The Ford
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.
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.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
‘bobrauschenbergamerica’ - Bart DeLorenzo Directs LA Premiere
‘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)
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)
Monday, June 29, 2009
TheSpyAnts present "Terminus Americana" by Matt Pelfry
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
Thursday, February 26, 2009
"Choke.Kick.Girl" at LA Comedy Shorts Festival March 6th/"Kill A Kitten"
"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.
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.
Friday, December 19, 2008
The Tolucan Times weighs in on "Kidnapped by Craigslist"
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Backstage Review of "Kidnapped by Craigslist"
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.
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.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Friday, April 20, 2007
Backstage review of "Infinite Black Suitcase"
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.
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.
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