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 Ryan Churchill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ryan Churchill. Show all posts
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Ryan Churchill's Demo Reel
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.
Link
Ryan also produced a short film called Choke.Kick.Girl which featured many of our company members.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
StageSceneLA review for "Infinite Black Suitcase"
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
Friday, April 6, 2007
LA Splash review for "Infinite Black Suitcase"
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/
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/
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Backstage review for "The Reunion"
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.
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.
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