HELLO HUMAN FEMALE Cast Announced

In February 2009, ATL will present the World-freakin'-Premiere of Matt Lyle's twisted romantic comedy HELLO HUMAN FEMALE.

Here's who's in it...

Jeff Swearingen… Blork
Arianna Movassagh… Tamela
Jeremy Whiteker… Dr. Gorn/ Mother
Becca Shivers… Timmy/ Mandy
Scott Milligan… Homeless Harry/ Gramps

With Naration by the wonderful Emily Gray

The adventure begins...

Here's a pic of Ruth Engel doing some shadow puppetry this past weekend in Phoenix, Arizona at the Phix Gallery. She's one of the puppeteers in ROSELITA'S DEAD MAN by Audacity Artistic Director Brad McEntire. ROSELITA was a one-act puppet piece presented by ATL as part of Theatre In My Basement's 6th Annual Teatro Caliente Experimental Performance Festival.

Ruth and Brad had a great time in Phoenix and special thanks go out to dear friend and colleague Greg Romero, for recommending Matt's Big Breakfast (the griddlecakes get the highest marks!) and to Chris Danowski, the festival founder/coordinator for both putting Brad and Ruth up for the weekend in his spare room and for inviting them out to play to begin with.

ROSALITA'S DEAD MAN: notes on the play and playwright

About the Play

ROSELITA'S DEAD MAN is a Lesbian/ Death/ Love Triangle revenge story presented as a multiform puppet piece (shadow and articulated tabletop) and accompanied by an original electronic soundscape. It's part of a larger puppet/mask piece being developed by ATL called THE LUNATIST [AND RELATED TALES OF WOE]. It is an expansion of the same excerpt Brad McEntire presented solo at Bobbindoctrin Theatre's Puppet Festival in Houston in 2007. 

Engel and McEntire had a great time in Phoenix. The show went great and everyone was so freakin' friendly. Special thanks go out to dear friend and colleague Greg Romero, for recommending Matt's Big Breakfast (the griddlecakes get the highest marks!) and to Chris Danowski of Theatre In My Basement He was the festival founder/coordinator. Thanks to him for both putting Engel and McEntire up for the weekend in his spare room (which was his office/daughter's room... so it had a Mac on one side and a Barbie Dream House on the other) and, most of all, for inviting them out to play to begin with.

 

About the Playwright

Brad McEntire serves as the founding Artistic Director of Audacity Theatre Lab. His plays include ARSENIC & ROSES, FOR THE LOVE OF AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST, CHOP and A TALL TALE OF TEXAS. Besides ROSELIA'S DEAD MAN, he is also the author of two other plays for puppets: RAPUNZEL: A FUNK MUSICAL SHADOW PUPPET TALE (produced in Hong Kong by DEER Theatre, Oct. 2006 & Apr. 2007) and ANGEL IN THE BARN (produced at Plano Childrens Theatre, Dec. 2008). He is a member of UNIMA-USA and the Playwright's Center. 

McEntire also plays as one half of the improvisational comedy duo FUN GRIP and is the inventor of the solo improvisational format DRIBBLE FUNK. 

For more information on Brad McEntire visit here.

EYE IN THE SKY is coming...

We are excited to announce Chris Humphrey will be creating an original sound scape for the EYE IN THE SKY project, and we here at ATL are pleased as punch to have her...

Wait! Wait. What is the EYE IN THE SKY Project, you ask?

EYE IN THE SKY is a specially commissioned experimental epistolary radio drama.

ATL's Brad McEntire and Ruth Engel hand-selected writers from around the country. Each writer was to use the blurb below as a springboard for a 1-3 page contribution.

"For one week in the middle of the summer a giant eye appears in the sky over the city. At the end of seven days it disappears as suddenly as it had originally materialized..."

This contribution could take the form of... well... anything. Nearly anything. We are doing the project as a radio drama, so spoken or sound related texts were encouraged. We were open to scenes, monologues, letters, news broadcasts, newspaper clippings, diary entries, e-mail correspondence, lecture notes, etc.

These pieces will be put together to form a series of impressions and reactions to The Eye In The Sky.

A public reading by professional actors, supported by several rehearsals with an ATL director, will probably be held in Dallas when the whole thing is completed. The pieces will also be recorded and the resulting recording will be placed as a podcasts on this blog and the ATL website.

Some of the contributors include:

Chris Alonzo (Brooklyn)

Vicki Cheatwood (Dallas)
James Comtois (New York)

Erin Courtney (Brooklyn)

Andy Eninger (Chicago)

John Flores (Dallas)
Zach Gonzales (Austin)

Jeff Hernandez (Dallas)

Chris Humphrey (Austin)

Mark Rigney (Evansville, Indiana)

Greg Romero (Philadelphia)

Ben Walker Sampson (New York)

Crystal Skillman (New York)

Jeff Swearingen (Dallas)

Daniel Talbott (New York)

Jason Tremblay (Austin)

Ken Urban (New York)

Gary Winter (New York)

CASTRATO in NOLA

Brad here. I'm posting from a coffee shop on St. Charles in New Orleans. Swearingen and I have arrived to present Andy Eninger's twisted little play THE LAST CASTRATO at the 2008 New Orleans Fringe Festival.

After the success of Greg Romero's THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LULLABY YOU'VE EVER HEARD back in May and then both Swearingen and I visiting NOLA last month (as the comedy duo FUN GRIP for the 2008 New Orleans Improv Festival), we are thrilled to have come back to New Orleans to make some new friends, watch some good theatre and remount this strange, wonderful little play.

THE LAST CASTRATO is the darkly comic, bittersweet tale of Joseph, who was born without a penis, and his love affair with Elena, who was born with her skin inside out. Elena, though, was blessed with a beautiful singing voice to balance her deformity, while Joseph has no talent whatsoever to make up for his missing member. "A penis," he muses, "in terms of artistic merit is worth nothing."

THE LAST CASTRATO sprang from the mind and pen of Chicago playwright Andy Eninger after initial development as part of a solo performance workshop at The Blue Rider Theatre. Audacity Artistic Director Brad McEntire (me) made contact with Mr. Eninger in October 2004 when they were both featured performers in Chicago's third annual Single File Solo Performance Festival. THE LAST CASTRATO recieved its world-premiere at Single File, performed by its author. The piece was then presented by Audacity Productions at the 2005 New York International Fringe Festival. It was subsequently presented exclusively by Audacity Productions throughout 2005 and 2006 at theatres in Dallas, Addison and Austin, Texas.
The piece runs about 50-55 minutes and is performed by a single actor who portrays nearly a dozen different characters.

Though this is the first time THE LAST CASTRATO will be presented by ATL, Jeff Swearingen returns to act in the piece and I've come back aboard as Producer, Designer and Director.

I love this play so much. It fulfills the bottom-line credo of what I look for in my theatre projects - which is to say, I strive to create the kind theatre I like to see. This is a fast, dynamic, imaginative, phyisical, full-blooded show that runs the gamut from disturbing bizarreness to piss-your-pants funny to tender and heart-breaking. I've loved directing it.

And Jeff Swearingen does an excellent job. He's played the role a number of times now and really "owns" it. And since we mature as artisits, it has deepened since we originally mounted it in 2005. Each time we re-mount it, baby-steps of intensity, clarity, percision and variety layer into an already powerful piece.

If you're in new Orleans, come see us. We're playing at...

The Side Arm Gallery and Theatre,
1122 St. Roch Ave., New Orleans, LA 70117

November 13 and 15 at 8:30 PM
and November 16 at 2:30 PM

For more info and tickets visit: http://www.nofringe.org/shows_last_castrato.html

ATL takes puppet play to Phoenix

Audacity Theatre Lab is hard at work creating ROSELITA'S DEAD MAN, a lesbian/ Death/ Love Triangle puppet story about revenge. This piece that will combine shadow puppetry, table top puppets, an original electronic soundscape and is part of a larger puppet/mask piece being developed by ATL Artistic Director Brad McEntire called THE LUNATIST [AND RELATED TALES OF WOE].
ROSELITA'S DEAD MAN is written, designed and Directed by ATL's Artistic Director Brad McEntire and featuring the puppeteering of Ruth Ann Engel and Brad McEntire.

Presented as an official part of Theatre in My Basement's annual experimental theatre festival 'Teatro Caliente', Phix Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona. November 21 & 22, 2008.

We'll post pics after we get back from Arizona. Check back.