CHOP comes home to Dallas

Brad McEntire in CHOP

After years of traveling to venues and festivals around the country Dallas-based playwright/performer Brad McEntire presents his solo show CHOP in a full run in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area January 29 through February 7, 2015 at the Margo Jones Theatre in Fair Park, 1121 First Avenue, Dallas TX 75210.

CHOP is a darkly comic romance. The piece concerns a man totally isolated from the world around him. A chance meeting with a mysterious tattooed woman leads him to the place he might truly belong… an underground amputation fetish group.

After readings in Seattle (at the Outsider’s Inn Collective) and New York City (Cry Havoc Theatre) McEntire premiered CHOP at the 2010 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival at Addison’s Water Tower Theatre. Since then he has toured and performed the show at multiple venues and festivals, including the Phoenix Fringe Festival, the New Orleans Fringe, Houston Fringe, Portland Mini-Fringe, College of Santa Fe and San Antonio’s Overtime Theatre, 2012 New York international Fringe Festival, Seattle Fringe and New Orleans SoloMania Fest among others. The piece played a two night limited engagement at the Margo Jones Theatre in July 2012. 

 McEntire is delighted to bring the show back to Dallas for a full two week run. The piece was directed and sound designed by Andrew J. Merkel of Brooklyn, NY. Brad McEntire wrote, designed and performs the piece. 

 Brad McEntire is the founding Artistic Director of the small theatre collective Audacity Theatre Lab. He is a playwright, performer, improviser, director and visual artist. He is the creator/producer of the Dallas Solo Fest. More information about his activities can be viewed at: http://www.BradMcEntire.com/ 

CHOP opens at The Margo Jones Theatre January 29, 2015 at 8:00 PM. Plays January 29 – February 7 (Tuesday thru Saturday) at 8:00 PM. Tickets $12 at the door. Information/reservations at: (214) 888-6650 or via email at: audacitytheatrelab@yahoo.com . The Margo Jones Theatre is located at the Magnolia Lounge, Fair Park, 1121 First Ave., Dallas, TX 75210. For more information visit: http://www.AudacityTheatreLab.com/

CHOP at the Seattle Fringe

The Seattle Fringe was a blast! Very nice, very professional group of fellow artists and organizers. CHOP became that little show with all the buzz around it at this festival. Brad even garnered a few standing ovations. Here's some pics from the festival.

Outside the venue The Odd Duck

backstage waiting to go on...

"Happy Birthday to me..."

Ruth and Brad at Starbucks #1 at Pike's Place Market

Ruth and Brad's awesome hosts... Richard & Curt (and Thomas the dog)

Fringe folks: Brad, Yana Kesala, Rik Deskin, Beth Raas-Bergquist, Emily Harvey

CHOP on nytheatre.com

CHOP
a nytheatre.com review
by Richard Hinojosa  ·  August 17, 2012

Most of us have a desire to fit in somewhere. In adolescence we jump through all kinds of hoops in order to fit in but still half the time we end up isolated. Brad McEntire knows isolation and his captivating new solo piece, Chop, reveals a lot about of his life in isolation and his eventual arrival as the most crucial man in an odd fetish group.

McEntire says he has two birthdays—one for the day he was born and the other for the day he woke up to a note from his parents telling him that they had run off to join the circus. He was thirteen years old. One of his first lessons in isolation came when he was sent to a West Texas dust bowl town to stay with his aging hermit uncle. From there he moved to the city and learned that one can be isolated while being surrounded by thousands of people. He started working for a temp company. He had no drive and no ambition. He felt like the Minotaur, abandoned in an inescapable labyrinth and just waiting for some "hero" to come and put him out of his misery. But then he befriends the Queen of Nails. She does a freak show act driving nails into her face. She invites him a party she's throwing. He's never been to a party. There he meets a tattooed lady named Rosie and his whole life changes…for the better and in the oddest way. Ever heard of apotemnophilia? You'll learn all about it in this show.

McEntire's script is painfully honest. I don't know if it's a true story or not but if it is…wow! He brings us to the present very slowly as he describes his lonely childhood and early adulthood and doesn't really get into the most interesting parts of the story until the end, but it is well worth the wait. His text is infused with humble desire and desperation and I found myself rooting for him. I really enjoyed his interludes of dreams and flashbacks. They helped us see into his mind a little deeper. McEntire's characters are all very well realized and he seamlessly transforms from one to the other. He creates a very endearing character that comes across as genuine. He frequently checked in with the audience in order to make sure he was connecting with us. I had the sense that he was really just talking to me—telling me a story. His director, Andrew Merkel, points him the right direction and made sure he never forgets the folks sitting in front of him.

Chop is an odd tale of coming into one's own. I enjoyed the honesty, the endearing delivery and the unique fetish revealed at the end. They say there's a lid for ever pot. McEntire found his lid though he would still have to make it fit. Perhaps this show will fit you too.

Read the original post HERE.

CHOP at N47

The three-show run of CHOP went very well at Nouveau 47 Theatre this weekend. The audiences were small to medium, but Brad got some really good feedback. People seemed to really respond to the piece. Next stop... NYC!

More info on CHOP at the New York International Fringe Festival go HERE.

CHOP at FringeNYC: Dates and Times

Here are the performance dates and times for CHOP as it will play at the New York International Fringe Festival next month. If you are in New York in mid-to-late August come check out the show!

Friday, August 17 at 5 PM

Saturday, August 18 at 4:15 PM

Sunday, August 19 at 1:45 PM

Wednesday, August 22 at 3:15 PM

 Friday, August 24 at 6 PM

Saturday, August 25 at 9:45 PM

Playing at the Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre (the Players Loft), 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd Floor (West 3rd Street & Bleecker).

 

Also, there's lots more info on the show at the CHOP website.

CHOP Q-and-A on nytheatre.com

Brad McEntire has a nice Q&A over on nytheatre.com about his show CHOP playing next month at the New York International Fringe Festival. Here it is...

CHOP: Brad McEntire

An nytheatre.com FringeNYC Q&A

Q: What is your job on this show?
A: playwright/performer

Q: When did you know you wanted to work in the theater, and why?
A: I liked to draw when I was a kid and thought I'd be a cartoonist when I grew up. Had no interest in theatre.

In high school, I had a crush on a girl in the theatre department and joined a class. I was hooked. The theatre bug bit hard! I never got to date that girl, but I did stay with theatre. Been writing, performing, what-have-you since then. Oh, and I still draw comics, too.

Q: Have you been part of FringeNYC in the past? If so, how did you particpate? (Be specific! Name shows, etc.)
A: This will be my fourth time at FringeNYC. In 2000 I produced a show called SLICK KADMON V. GOD by Chip Loser. In 2001 I presented my own comedy RED PAJAMA BLUES. In 2005 I directed and produced Andy Eninger's one-man show THE LAST CASTRATO. I'm pleased to return this year with CHOP which I wrote and will be performing myself.

Q: In your own words, what do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
A: CHOP concerns a man who is incredibly isolated from the world around him. There's a layer of glass, it seems, between him and all the happy, engaged, productive people he observes around him. Then he meets a mysterious tattooed woman who introduces him to an underground amputation fetish group. He finally feels a sense of belonging.

I think the show is several things. It is weird and funny and spontaneous. CHOP is about growth and identity. It is about potential. And there is a really charming, heartfelt love story underpinning the whole thing.

My hope is that audiences will come away feeling that they have taken in a full experience of theatre, you know, gone on a journey with the piece. I also hope they head off and have strong drink and stronger discussions after the show about the lengths we all go to for love, acceptance, place and belonging.

Q: Groucho, Chico, Harpo, or Zeppo?
A: What are you kidding? Groucho.

Q: How important is diversity to you in the theater you see/make?
A: If you mean seeing different races, genders, lifestyles and the like represented on the stage, then I'm for it, but I don't think of it as a big deal.

I am a huge champion of individual theatre artists having individual points of view. I think the theatre, and therefore the greater culture, would be a better place if more and more theatre artists considered themselves more as creative artists rather than merely interpretive. There would be more voices and, naturally, more diversity in those voices, if theatre artists on the whole (especially directors and actors) instigated their own projects rather than waited to be given someone else's vision to interpret. That's my two cents anyway...

Check it out on nytheatre.com HERE.

INFO ABOUT CHOP

CHOP concerns a man profoundly isolated from the people in the city around him. Through a chance encounter with a mysterious tattooed woman he is introduced to what be his true calling - a unique subculture of amputation fetishists. 

Venue: Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street
Prices: $15.00 - $18.00
Performance Dates: August 17, 2012 - August 25, 2012
Box Office/Info: 866-468-7619 

Producer: Audacity Theatre Lab
Author: Brad McEntire
Director: Andrew J. Merkel

• FringeNYC
• Show Website

CHOP at Nouveau 47

Brad McEntire will perform his one-man show CHOP in the Dallas area before he takes it off to the New York International Fringe Festival and the Seattle Fringe Festival.

Playing Friday July 27 at 8 PM

and Saturday, July 28 at 8 Pm and 10:30 PM

At Nouveau 47 Theatre in the historic Magnolia Lounge (Margo Jones Building), Fair Park, 1121 First Ave., Dallas, TX 75210

Suggested donation of $10 at the door. Also, BYOB!

Send CHOP to FringeNYC

  Be part of a solo show!

Audacity Theatre Lab member Brad McEntire has recently received news that his one-man show CHOP has been accepted into the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival. This is awesome news! Way over 1000 shows are submitted every year and only around 200 are accepted.

McEntire premiered CHOP in the DFW area at the Addison Watertower Theatre's 2010 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival. He went on to perform the piece in Houston, Portland, New Orleans, Phoenix, Santa Fe (and soon Seattle, too). In August the show will make its New York debut.

And here's where you come in...

FringeNYC is expensive! It is a little outside the comfort zone of a small theatre like Audacity, where we generally pride ourselves on mounting engaging, funny, weird theatre on a very small budget.

Brad has launched a Kickstarter Campaign. Check it out. Any size contribution can help. Spread the word.

Please consider pledging to help a Dallas artist take his little show to the East Coast.

Here's a link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bradmcentire/send-chop-to-fringenyc

CHOP gets its own website

In preparations for a very active summer, Brad McEntire's solo show CHOP receives a stand-alone website.

Check it out HERE.

CHOP accepted to Seattle

Brad McEntire's CHOP has been accepted to the 2012 Seattle Fringe Festival! Hazzah!
Details to come...

CHOP a Producer's Pick at Houston Fringe

We just got word that CHOP was selected as a "Producer's Pick" at last month's Houston Fringe Festival. This is a wonderful honor. We were chosen based on the high artistic content and quality of our work in combination with the audience survey responses that were collected after performances. 

Yay! Thanks Houston Fringe!

Interview with Brad McEntire after his performance of CHOP for Frenetic Theatre’s 2011 Houston Fringe Fest

McEntire performing CHOP

August 22, 2011
www.EaDoLife.com - By Alec Lasar


[Note: Spelling mistakes and some factual information have been corrected from the original version]


CHOP is the account of a character’s own surreal life experiences leading up to the moment when he first appears on stage, nervously greeting the audience – a nervousness that gradually evolves into wonder, excitement and a devilishly keen desire to share a personal gift he discovers about himself…


We briefly spoke with Brad McEntire about his show revolving around isolation, amputation fetishes and sacrificial love after he performed the solo act on the stage at Super Happy Fun Land for the Houston Fringe Fest, organized by the Frenetic Theatre.



EaDo Life: How did you come up with the idea for CHOP?


Brad McEntire: Two things sort of led up to CHOP. First, I run a theatre up in Dallas, Audacity Theatre Lab, [Formerly Audacity Productions] and have for the last decade. I worked mostly as a director and for many years as a playwright, producer and marketer, all behind the scenes. I studied acting, but then I totally drifted away from acting. I started to do a lot of non-acting projects. I love just working with a bunch of people, you know, other collaborators in the theatre. Except, with a big group of collaborators, I was never able to get onto the stage the pure, uncompromising vision of my idea for a project… I was trying to get [where I could perform] exactly the stuff I wanted to. So, I still direct and produce with many actors, but I became really interested in doing something that I could control from beginning to end. For that I turned to solo work.


You start out with the idea for a play and it’s kind of a challenge how much of it you can keep - how much of that original idea and spark you can retain - until the audience sees it. I also wanted to do something I could go on the road with, like to here in Houston. So it had to be something low tech and mobile. All I need for CHOP are a few lights, a few sound cues, a few props and the back drops – it all packs into a duffel bag.


The other part of the answer involves Asia. Ruth Engel [Brad's fiancé and technical support] and I lived in Hong Kong a few years ago and, for me at least, I found that the prevailing sentiment in South East Asia doesn’t allow so much for loud, independent Americans. I felt really removed, at a distance. And that’s approximately when I started working on CHOP. A lot of the isolation I was feeling, living as a stranger in a strange land, showed up as I was working on the piece.


I created this character that’s just completely isolated from everyone. this character is the protagonist – this guy that just can’t connect with anyone – and then explore what happens to him. I was just toying around with the idea about this totally isolated character and wondered to myself, how would he get connected with people?

I also began exploring this stage image that kept coming to me, of an axe coming down on something, like a log or block or something. I mean, it's this great percussive sound and action, kinda violent. At some point I thought, ‘Oh yeah, let’s explore this axe thing, find a place for it in there somehow’ and that led to the, well, chopping...


Chopping led to amputation and this strange and unlikely love story started to emerge. Actually, I didn’t initially know that the amputation thing -  the way it is referenced in the play - was a real thing! About a week before I opened the first show I was at a party and a friend of mine commented, ‘Oh yeah, Apotemnophilia...’ Now, as I’ve travelled with the show for the last year and half, occasionally I’ll have a sex therapist or a psychologist come up to me and say they’ve had a patient experiencing that exact issue!



EL: How important do you feel the character’s “love of his life”, Rosie, is in CHOP?


BM: I think this story does well to have this really quite charming and sweet romance involved given the unrelentingly weirdness! With no softness to it, no tenderness, it would just be this horribly dark, bizarre story!

Rosie is the protagonist's compass, a literal compass rose, giving direction to an otherwise unfocused, aimless, detached existence.


Early on, I leaned on the dark humor and weirdness factor to market the piece. Then this girl in New Orleans, at the New Orleans Fringe, stayed behind after the show and mentioned how powerful she thought the romance element was. My fiancé and technician backed up this thought.



EL: How has the story changed since the girl pointed that out?



BM: Well, I always used to look at it as this dark, hero’s journey, which it is. I didn't emphasize the love story aspect of the piece. Now with the romantic element, well, for one thing, it has made the character Rosie – who you never see, just hear – it made her a more rounded and believable person. She's not just the catalyst.


Now on the marketing stuff, such as the postcard, it says “Romance on the outer edge!”


I used to stand in line for other shows playing at the same festival, in the same venue as CHOP,  to see what people were saying about CHOP. While in line I'd chat up people around me. I would ask potential audience members while they waited to buy tickets, “Heard of this show CHOP? What do you think about it?” and they’d reply “I don’t know… does he amputate someone on stage? Does he amputate his own arm? Is it like a freak show, I don’t know?” and, you know, I found that it was turning people off before they had even sat down to experience the show! Their initial perception, or misunderstanding, of it was hurting ticket sales. They heard the title or seen the axe of the graphic and formed these kind of grotesque impressions of the piece.


So, discovering and then beefing up the love story in the piece has been a delightful benefit, both for perspective audiences, but for me, the performer. The piece continues to unfold, performance by performance as I uncover hidden layers to explore.



EL: Apart from the romantic element, how have you refined the play to make it a little softer?



BM: I'm not sure how interesting this discussion is to people who haven't seen the show yet.


EL: Still...


BM: I have embraced the softness of the opening of the play.


EL: How so?


BM: I have include a lot of exposition at the beginning of the piece, which I think is important. The audience gets lot of initial background so you know where this guy is coming from. And exposition is difficult. It is not an easy way to hook the audience. So the whole opening is sort of a soft sale. He comes out nervous. And as he grows more and more emboldened throughout the piece, the audience is drawn in more and more. By the end he’s at the front of the room, the center of the room, a place of control and power, with the axe…

So, the soft opening has turned out to be a way to handle the exposition at the play's start and the gradual change, with the audience asking “what happens next,” hopefully. My hope is that it clicks with them and they’re really drawn into the story!




 Original post HERE.

Nice CHOP write-up in HoustonPress

HoustonPress Blog

By Abby Koenig Mon., Aug. 15 2011 at 11:00 AM

Houston Fringe Festival Wrap-Up -- Weekend One
This past weekend was the kickoff to the Houston Fringe Festival. Art Attack wanted to cover as much of the weekend's events as we could, so I took on the personal challenge of doing my own Fringe Crawl. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see it all (hey science, figure out that whole clone thing already, will ya), but I was able to soak up quite a few of the performances.

Saturday:
Chop

Courtesy of Houston Fringe Festival and Audacity Theatre Lab

 
Chop, another one-man show, written and performed by Dallas-based artist Brad McEntire, tells the story of a man forced to grow up in isolation when his parents run away to join the circus. McEntire recalls the tale of the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull that was also forced into solitude to be taunted, mocked and perpetually on guard against unknown predators. McEntire certainly knows his bull alliterations, as they smartly popped into his stories seamlessly. As his character, McEntire describes a lonely existence as an office temp, friendless and unloved. One day he meets an exotic European beauty and finds himself in a relationship.

So, we've all been with people who were into odd "stuff," but when McEntire finds out his love is into self-amputation, things get a bit weird.

McEntire has an enjoyable, self-deprecating manner. You feel bad for him, but at the same time wish he would grow a pair, and he seems to feel the same way. It's an excellent internal conflict, which he plays very well. The story holds you the entire way, not to say there aren't a few odd turns, somewhat off topic. There is a place at the end where his clever bull imagery could have made a nice comeback, but you get the idea and very much enjoy getting there.

Thursday through Sunday, various times and venues. For information, visit www.houstonfringefestival.com or call 832-426-4624. $10 per show, packages available.

Original post here.

CHOP at the Houston Fringe

We at ATL are happy to announce CHOP has been accepted into the 2011 Houston Fringe Festival. Brad McEntire's one-man show about a man finding love and identity in the most unlikeliest of places has appeared at the New Orleans Fringe Festival, Phoenix Fringe, Out of the Loop Fringe in Addison, Texas, the College of Santa Fe, the Portland Mini-Fringe. Now we are pleased as punch the piece will have a chance in front of Houston audiences.

Playing August 11-13, 2011 at SuperHappyFunLand! More info coming soon!

CHOP in Portland - Media!

CHOP is mentioned on the KBOO Out Loud Queer Culture Radio broadcast as part of the Portland Mini-Fringe. Mentioned about 14.00 minutes in.

The Interview is with Kate Mura. She works with the Fuse Theater Ensemble, and is very involved with the Portland Mini Fringe Festival. Grant Knutson joins the conversation to discuss the many theater events happening with this festival.

Listen to it here.

CHOP in Portland

CHOP, the twisted, romantic solo show about a man finding his place in the world by finding himself in a subculture of amputation fetishists makes it's way to the Pacific Northwest. Invited for an exclusive one-weekend engagement at the Portland Mini Fringe Festival.

Playing March 17-19, 2011 at 8 PM. At the FUSE Theatre, 3430 SE Belmont Ave., Portland OR 97202.

CHOP promo trailer from FT Bonnigan on Vimeo.

CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe - Part 2

CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe Part 2 from Christopher Taylor on Vimeo.

CHOP in 2010

It has been a good run troughout 2012 with CHOP. After World Premiering the piece at Addison Water Tower Theater's Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in March, Ruth Engel (my tech gal) and Andy Merkel (Director) have managed to get the piece seen by a variety of audiences at a variety of venues. This is what Audacity is leaning more and more towards... small, nimble, hard-hitting productions that travel about and spread the mirth over a relatively long development timeline. Below is the venues lisdt of this year, but I plan to contune to perform the piece throughout 2011 and maybe into 2012 as well.

2010 DATES

New Orleans Fringe Festival
November 17th at 9:00 PM, 19th at 7:00 PM, 20th at 11:00 pm
Party World
3621 St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70117

One-Night Benefit Performance in Dallas
November 3rd at 7:30 PM
The Continetal Lofts Gallery3311 Elm Street, Dallas, TX 75226 (Between Trunk & 2nd Ave. in Deep Ellum).

Phoenix Fringe Festival
April 8th at 7 PM, 9th at 10 PM, 10th at 1 PM & 8:30 PM, 11th at 5:30 PM
The Chocolate Factory
1105 W. Grand Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85007

College of Santa Fe
April 6th at 3 PM
Weckesser Studio Theatre
1600 Saint Michael's Drive, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

Out of the Loop Fringe Festival
Water Tower Theatre
March 4th at 7:30 PM, 7th at 5 PM, 11th at 7:30 PM & 13th at 5 PM
15650 Addison Road, Addison, TX 75001

~ Brad McEntire

Playwright/performer of CHOP

CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe - Pt. 1

CHOP at the New Orleans Fringe from Christopher Taylor on Vimeo.

The "Why" behind CHOP

CHOP written and performed by Brad McEntire. Directed by Andy Merkel.

I'm writing this post because I feel it is important, as an artist, to be clear about the purpose behind any work put out into the world. In this instant, I'm gearing up to present CHOP again (in Dallas for a benefit show to raise awareness and a few donations, and then at the 3rd Annual New Orleans Fringe Festival in November).

In the past I've written on the "from where" I got the idea to put together CHOP. I've written that the piece grew out of two separate incidents in my life. 

CHOP is, first off, the outgrowth of an aborted play I wrote in Grad school to fulfill my graduation requirements. That play was written against the pressing countdown of a Thesis deadline. It was also formulated to get a grade and not necessarily to be performed. Thus, for good or ill, I do not feel it was the best artistic expression I could produce. 

The structure of that Thesis play was a series of slowly interconnecting monolgues delivered by six different charcaters. One of the characters out of the play, a man that has a bizarre, tragicomic date, provided the platform for the protagonist in CHOP. And for that I am grateful to have spent many hours creating that Grad school play in the first place. 

Secondly, I spent some time in Hong Kong in 2006-2007. It was major culture shock. I felt isolated and distanced not just from a basic understanding of the Chinese and their culture there in Hong Kong, but distanced from my own ability to reconcile this misunderstanding. As hard as I tried, I could not create a context for the disconnect I felt. This sense of isolation fed into CHOP, which I, in fact, started to write just before leaving Hong Kong.

One of the things I have been struggling with over the past year is the "why" behind my art and the art created under the Audacity Theatre Lab banner. Everything must spring from the why. 

The why is the reason I have decided to spend much more time creating theatre from scratch than producing/performing established plays by others. Instead of doing "covers" of other artist's "songs" I have decided to create my own. So, keeping in mind I actually have an individual and novel something to say in the world, the question of why I need to say it (specifically with this play) is of considerable importance.

Originally, when I began creating the piece, I operated on a rather shallow motive and would explain myself with the  phrase "I want to communicate my message to audiences." But this is a non-starter. By the virtue of it being a work of art, of course, it will be a source of communication. But why a performance? Why not just write it into a story? A blog post? A short film? Why does it need the immediacy of performance?

Digging deeper, the message is a narrative and in order to have full impact, CHOP must be delivered as a theatre performance. For full effect it has to unwind over time. And it must happen in three dimensional space. The force of movement and voice is part of it.

Still deeper, as I question the purpose of CHOP, I am led to question why I do my theatre at all. What does it lead to?

So, the real question becomes "Why is it we do what we do? Why is it I do what I do?" 

As I dig and truly meditate on the situation, I find all roads lead to love. 

Glory? Money? Recognition? Intellectual curiosity? Appreciation? Everything eventually boils down to our need for receiving, and giving... Love. 

I do theatre because I love it and because it is a vehicle for connecting us (the artists, the audience, all of us), first to a common event, then to ourselves, and then to those around us. And when the vehicle works like it should, we develop deeper human connection. Deeper connection makes us happier. And the world goes around much smoother. 

From this basis of joy and love comes the domino effect of understanding, education, illumination... and that basic level: communication, or course. I love what I do and the sharing of it is an act of love. That love magnifies in the world through connection. What else is there?

Before I get too far off on a new-age rant, let me ground this line of thinking with this: the "how" is the meat and bones practical part of this vehicle, Theatre. The act of Theatre. CHOP is presented as one man (and by one man onstage) trying to figure out his place in a world he feels very distant from. He floats along the surface of it, observing, but not participating. He lacks connection.

Therefore, the play is the story of the man finding connection (Love - of himself, for another and for a greater group outside of himself... which happens to be an underground amputation). In the story he finds his own unique vehicle for making connections happen.

I like the symmetry.

None of these insights will help me market the play. None of these insights ill help me explain the story of it to would-be audience members. This thought process is for my own clarity. It is a thought process I hope to use on every project from here forward.

Everything must have a clear reason, a clear "why."

As I begin to work on the piece once again in preparation for the November performances in New Orleans, I hold close the "why" behind CHOP. I do it out of love.

More info on CHOP... HERE