Pics from DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN with Sundown

Nice write-up about DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

Robert Linder as Robot and Janelle Schroeder as Dinosaur

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN 
By Chris David Taylor | Sun. Nov. 8, 2015 | DiscoverDenton.com

Friday night I found myself out on the town looking for something to do, and the Sundown Collaborative Theatre/Audacity Theatre Lab co-production of Brad McEntire’s “Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train” fit the bill.

First produced as part of the Dallas’s FIT Festival in 2013, McEntire and Sundown have restaged this delightfully absurd piece of theatre in little d for two weekends before continuing for two more weekends in the historic Margo Jones theatre in Fair Park.

I wandered over from the always enjoyable Eastside, past the music pouring from the LSA Burger stage and into the Point Bank Black Box Theatre on Hickory. A simple set graced the space, a folding table, a projector and two small models of what I assumed were the stars of the show. McEntire’s work, which I am fairly familiar with, usually has an air of the whimsical and the nostalgic about it, the pre- show sound design adequately prepared me for the show to come. Snippets of old time radio static interspersed with news bulletins about missing ice cream and a coming news conference let me know what the format of the show was going to be.

Formatted like a press conference explaining their actions, a Dinosaur and Robot are brought from their respective time periods in an unexplained phenomenon at just the right moment to save a human girl playing on the train tracks near her house. The train is destroyed and the girl is allegedly saved, although she never makes an appearance for reasons that become clear later on.

Robot, played by Robert Linder, is the main spokes-robot in the play and he introduces his colleague who appears to be a Tyrannosaur played by Janelle Schroeder. We get the backstories of both characters and then jump to the present/past to hear about the incident referred to in the title of the show.

“Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train” is mostly-family friendly and full of lighthearted jokes, physical humor and even some vaudeville as it can only be performed by a Dinosaur and Robot.


Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train 
Runtime: 1 hr. 5 mins.
Credits:
Written and Directed by Brad McEntire
Sound Design by Danica Bergeron
Lighting Design by Jack Earl Piland
Cast: Robert Linder as Robot,  Janelle Schroeder as Dinosaur

Original post... HERE

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN: A Co-Production

Audacity Theatre Lab is co-producing with a small and scrappy Sundown Collaborative Theatre. The result will be a remount of my favorite plays DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN. 

A press conference is held. A dinosaur from the past and a robot from the future explain about their involvement with a speeding train and how they supposedly saved a stupid little girl from going splat. 

Written and Directed by Brad McEntire
Featuring Robert Linder and Janelle Schroeder

The show will play in two different cities over four weekends. Playing... 

October 30-November 1 and November 6-8 @ 8pm 
 Point Bank Black Box Theatre, 318 E Hickory St., Denton, TX 76201

November 12-15 and 19-22 @ 8pm 
 Margo Jones Theatre, 1121 1st Avenue, Dallas, TX 75210 

To reserve tickets, email: boxoffice@sundowntheatre.org 

More info at: AudacityTheatreLab.com

Some nice mentions in 2013

Jeff Swearingen got mentioned as one of the "Best Acting Performances by Men" for DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN on local critic Alexandra Bonifield's Critical Rant Blog.

Mark Lowry of TheaterJones.com noted about Brad McEntire: "On a smaller scale, several performers and writers helped grow our city’s reputation by taking their work elsewhere... Local solo performer Brad McEntire of Audacity Theatre Lab did the national festival circuit (nothing new for him)."

In the same 2013 Year-In-Review article, Lowry cites Kate Mura's SUBURBAN TRIBE (hosted by Audacity in November) as one of the "Best Small Tours in Other Locations."

Lastly, the first several items on Mr. Lowry's "Wish-List for 2014" directly reflect ATL and the things we are trying to accomplish...

1. More regional collaboration and festival-sharing. WaterTower Theatre’s Out of the Loop Fringe Festival continues doing its part, but it would be nice to see more collaboration between artists in cities in this region of the country: DFW, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, New Orleans, Little Rock, etc. Yes, I realize there’s a distance and travel/cost issues—it’s not like the cities in the Northeast, where train travel is easy-peasy—but if someone could get financially behind a larger, regional performing arts festival, happening here, that’d be swell. 

2. In that same vein, there is one solo festival planned this year: The Dallas Solo Performance Festival, produced by Brad McEntire’s Audacity Theatre Lab at the Margo Jones Theatre. Hoping for success. Solo shows are easier to travel. 

3. That the folks at the Margo Jones Theatre figure out how to get more butts in seats. What’s happening there is important, we just need more people to understand that.

Congrats to casts of RASPBERRY FIZZ, SUBURBAN TRIBE and DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN!

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT in TheaterJones.com

Trains, Ball-Change and Automobiles
Guns, too. The second set of shows at the Festival of Independent Theatres takes on heavy topics, light foot-action and two supercool characters. 
by Kris Noteboom for TheaterJones.com, published Friday, June 14, 2013


DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN!! How is it even possible to see a play with that title and not excitedly yell it out like a 5-year-old might when asked to come up with the awesomest thing ever? 

Let’s face it. FIT has been dominated by serious, heady, existential pieces this year. 

John Michael gave audiences a delightful respite, but for the most part it’s been pretty heavy. Leave it to Brad McEntire, via his Audacity Theatre Lab, to lighten the mood a little as his ever-amazingly creative brain has brought forth unto the world Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train. 

It’s a super-simple setup. Dinosaur (Jeff Swearingen) and Robot (McEntire) have somehow been transported through time and space into a field where they subsequently save a stupid little girl from getting hit by a train. The play is the press conference held by Dinosaur and Robot as they attempt to explain their story. 

With a combination of some pretty stellar physical humor, aided by the wonderfully creative costumes by Ruth Engel-McEntire, a bit of slapstick, satire, audience participation and vaudeville, DARSAT is a winner for all ages. It’s perfectly paced and when it’s over it feels all too soon. 

Sure there isn’t really any deeper focus at play. This is a straightforward frivolity—which is pretty much what makes it so great. Because even though a general rule is that anything that’s good must have some sort of subtext, McEntire so thoroughly subverts that notion and distances himself from any inkling of commentary that he actually ends up creating something that’s more than some subliminal critique of the world. It’s the embrace of the inner child, the latent creativity present in everyone, the sense of wonder that is all too often forgotten. Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train is the most essential iteration of fun. And that’s, well, fun. 

◊ Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train is performed in the following performance blocks: 8 p.m. Friday, June 14; 2 p.m. Saturday, June 15; 5 p.m. Saturday, June 22.

Original article HERE.

How to make a pie tin robot hat for publicity photos

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT in the Dallas Observer

Brad McEntire and Jeff Swearingen in DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN
at the 15th Annual Festival of Independent Theatres

Start laughing now at Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train at FIT

By ELAINE LINER\ Dallas Observer \ Thursday, Jun 13 2013

Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train, also a FIT highlight, is total silliness from local playwright/actor/director Brad McEntire and his partner in comedy, Jeff Swearingen of Audacity Theatre Lab. But it's artful silliness, with moments of inspired improv between actors and with anyone brave enough to sit in the front row and agree to be dragged onstage. 

McEntire, wearing a shiny silver fireproof suit and a silver-painted box on his head, is the emotionless robot. Swearingen is the dim-witted dinosaur, decked out in a lime-green ensemble with funny flat paws and waggly tail. They're holding a press conference to explain how the robot traveled back from the future and the dino from the distant past to end up rescuing "a stupid, stupid girl" (plucked from the audience) who'd wandered in front of a speeding locomotive. After considerable (and funny) physical shtick, the guys transition their dialogue into their version of the classic Abbot and Costello bit, "Who's on first?" With a robot Abbot and stego-Costello. 

Like most of the FIT shows, this one uses minimal set dressing and few props. When one of those props was shattered by the "stupid girl" on opening night, Swearingen used it like a gift from the comedy gods. Sometimes the funniest moments are those they didn't plan.

Original post HERE.

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT pic in DMNs

Photo credit: Steve Hamm, Special Contributor for the Dallas Morning News

One audience member weighs in on DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

"Another day in Paradise, another night at Bath House Festival of Independent Theatres (FIT). As usual Brad McEntire and Jeff Swearingen rammed throttle through the fire wall with mad cap comedy. 

Costumes are waaaaaaay better than their promo pic. 

Dallas Morning News photog sat in, plus house full of reviewers.  

All this and a message. Not pure fluff.  

Lots of "Mature, Adult .. " warnings posted, for 2nd show. Brad n Jeff's show is kid-friendly. 

Only hazard is sitting in reach of stage. You might be asked to play along and trip footlights. Resistance is .. possible. 

Brad plays straight man Robot to Jeff's walnut-brain Dino insanity. They are fab on their own. When they collaborate, it brings house down with silly.

From Al Currie on Facebook.

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT in DallasNews.com

Light and Dark World Premieres Both Impressive at Festival of Independent Theatres

By Lawson Taitte - ltaitte@dallasnews.com
June 8, 2013

Brad McEntire as Robot and Jeff Swearingen as Dinosaur in
Audacity Theatre Lab's DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

Shows five and six of the 2013 Festival of Independent Theatres are extremely different but very interesting:

The two world premieres that the Festival of Independent Theatres unveiled on Friday could hardly be more different, but each is impressive in its own way.

Brad McEntire has been producing at the Bath House Cultural Center for many years, for the last five under the aegis of Audacity Theatre Lab. His new piece, Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train, is his lightest and silliest to date.

McEntire himself in an elaborate robot costume enters and exits repeatedly to set up some chairs. Jeff Swearingen keeps popping in from the other side, clothed in an even more elaborate bright green dinosaur suit. Somehow a “very stupid” young girl has summoned them from the distant future and past to save her from being hit by a train. The time-travelers are holding a press conference to explain.

Swearingen is the kind of funny guy who can provoke hysterical laughter just by the way he lifts his sneakers as he prances on and off the stage or makes a silly face as he talks in caveman-speak. McEntire gets laughs too, and even a couple of audience members who get dragged onstage contribute substantially to the fun.

Rite of Passage Theatre Company’s Ask Questions Later, on the other hand, uses very young artists who do strong work despite any lack of experience. It’s as dark as the Audacity piece is light.

Plan Your Life
The 2013 Festival of Independent Theatres runs through June 22 at the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake, 521 E. Lawther Drive, Dallas. $18, festival passes $60 to $70. 1-800-617-6904. http://www.festivalofindependenttheatres.org

Original article HERE.

First Glimpse: DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

Taken by Ruth during the final Dress Rehearsal...

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT a "bonus" to a kick-ass season of theatre in Dallas!

Hey, we got a mention in a list of awesome theatre suff happening this summer in Dallas...

SIZZLING SUMMER THEATER

Banana man and shady dames headline summer theater in Dallas

BY LINDSEY WILSON

 

5.30.13 | 3 pm

Bonus No. 2
Festival of Independent Theatres
May 31-June 22
Besides acting as a launching pad for local playwrights, actors, directors and designers, FIT allows Dallas audiences a low-pressure way to explore new works by pairing two one-act plays together in what’s dubbed a “terrific two-fer.”

This year, eight new shows are on the docket, among them one about a time-traveling robot and dinosaur (from Audacity Theatre Lab), the festival’s first-ever dance performance (courtesy of Rhythmic Souls), and a solo show by local monologist extraordinaire John Michael Colgin exploring the personal ramifications of life in the share-all digital world.

From dallas.culturemap.com

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT figurines

As part of DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN two toy figurines were needed. We called the amazing Candice Charlson (remember her take on HELLO HUMAN FEMALE's Blork... Blork in a Jar?). She has fashioned wonderful, near-replicas of Jeff Swearingen and Brad McEntire as Dinosaur and Robot. Have a look...

[click on pic to see it large]

Candice's website is awesome, too. Check it out HERE.

Pre-Press from DallasNews.com for DINOSAUR AND ROBOT

 Original theater works pop up all over Dallas

By LAWSON TAITTE  Theater Critic

ltaitte@dallasnews.com

Published: 30 May 2013 07:15 PM

Updated: 31 May 2013 09:43 AM

Over the last couple of years, Dallas has grown into a prime venue for new plays. This week there’s more original work on area stages than ever before, most of it created by local artists.

On May 31, the four-week Festival of Independent Theatres (known familiarly as FIT) opens at the Bath House Cultural Center on White Rock Lake. It features five world premieres, four of them by Dallas playwrights. The same evening, Cara Mía Theatre Company unveils the first part of an original trilogy on the theme of immigration, The Dreamers: A Bloodline. This same weekend, Dead White Zombies begins previews of Thomas Riccio’s site-specific performance installation T.N.B. in a house in West Dallas.

All this comes on top of Kitchen Dog Theater’s annual New Works Festival and the Ochre House’s latest challenging and original piece, Good Nuts, both of which began last weekend.

FIT fans were surprised that this 15th annual festival comes at the beginning of the summer, rather than toward the end, as usual. A main reason for the switch was the desire to have something onstage when the Theatre Communications Group holds its annual conference in Dallas next weekend. As always, each performance consists of two shows, each lasting an hour. The eight offerings rotate over the four weeks of the festival.

Two of the original FIT companies return this season. Echo Theatre is presenting Eve Ensler’s The Treatment, while WingSpan Theatre Company premieres Dallas playwright Isabella Russell-Ides’ Lydie Marland in the Afterlife. Audacity Theatre Lab unveils Brad McEntire’s latest offbeat comedy, Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train. Churchmouse Productions has a different comedy on offer, Carson Kreitzer’s Dead Wait. One Thirty Productions has had a couple of previous FIT triumphs with new work by Austin playwright Ellsworth Schave. His new The 1947 Ford has connections to his earlier plays for the company.

FIT also offers work by a fresh generation of local talent this time around. Rite of Passage Theatre Company’s Ask Questions Later by Meggie Spalding is about a scandalous love affair at a high school under violent attack. John Michael Colgin has gleaned raves for his monologues on gay themes in the scant years since he finished college. His Like Me promises to be a provocative examination of social media and their impact on identity.

For the first time, FIT for 2013 will have a dance component. Rhythmic Souls’ Play It by Ear explores the history of tap dance in America.

The same night FIT presents its first two shows, Cara Mía shows off the first installment of a project it has been working on for a long time. Based on interviews with people who have immigrated into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, The Dreamers: A Bloodline deals with three women who travel from El Salvador through Mexico to find a better life for their children. David Lozano directs the piece.

On the other side of downtown from the Latino Cultural Center, where The Dreamers is onstage, a house in West Dallas is the site where Dead White Zombies tells the story of a black man on the run who encounters a spiritual twin who happens to be white. Only 20 audience members per performance are admitted to T.N.B., which uses indigenous healing rituals to exorcise a space formerly used as a drug stash. Some top Dallas performers — including David Jeremiah, Justin Locklear and Rhianna Mack — are in the cast.

Anyone who doubts that Dallas is a city with a strong countercultural artistic ferment just needs to get out and sample what’s going on all over town.

The Festival of Independent Theatres runs May 31-June 22 at the Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther Drive, Dallas. $18. Festival passes $60-$70. 1-800-617-6904. festivalofindependenttheatres.org.

Pre-Press on D Magazine FrontRow Blog for DINOSAUR AND ROBOT

What You Should Look For at This Year’s Festival of Independent Theaters

By LIZ JOHNSTONE

May 30th, 2013 1:11pm

The Festival of Independent Theatres sneaked up on us a little this year, which means it’s right up against Kitchen Dog Theater’s New Works Festival and perfectly timed for attendees of the national Theatre Communications Group convention that’s conveniently taking place in the Arts District next week. So many plays, so little time. At FIT, you’ll find eight productions, four of them brand new, from various companies. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s there to see:

Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train from Audacity Theater Lab. Written by Brad McEntire, it’s a comedy about a time-traveling robot and a dinosaur. I’d probably be more into this premise if it was a drama. (I kid. I kinda like to laugh, to paraphrase Lizzy Bennett).

Original article HERE.

Swearingen featured in an article about the FIT

How to Stay FIT 
We talk to players in this year's Festival of Independent Theatres, about the event, which begins Friday. 

by Lauren Smart for TheaterJones.com
published Thursday, May 30, 2013

Jeff Swearingen as Dinosaur in DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

Dallas — The 15th Festival of Independent Theatres has a lot to offer audiences. The four-week fest bows at the Bath House Cultural Center on Friday, May 31, a good month earlier than usual to align with the Theatre Communications Group conference in the Dallas Arts District June 6-8. The line-up includes many staples, including Churchmouse Productions, Wingspan Theatre Company, Echo Theatre and One Thirty Productions. There are several debuts, including solo performance artist John Michael’s provocative new show Like Me and the first-ever dance troupe, Rhythmic Souls. 

“This year is a really good sampling of what the festival is about, from new work to reputable local artists,” says David Meglino, managing director of FIT. “The line-up is interesting and will hopefully introduce the audiences to new shows and new companies.”

The works are performed in two-show performance blocks, and like many festivals throughout the country, FIT is a great place to see the work of up-and-coming local performers. 

TheaterJones caught up with a few of this year’s budding artists about their work in the festival and throughout the city. You can also read about each of the shows here, which also has info on ticket prices and performance times. 

Jeff Swearingen 

“It’s been a lifelong goal of mine to play a dinosaur,” local funnyman and theater teacher Jeff Swearingen says about his performance with Audacity Theatre Lab at the festival. “Seriously, ask anyone who knows me well.” 

In the middle of Black Forest Coffee next door to Half Priced Books, he’s stopped speaking to imitate a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Just a minute later he untwists his head and stretches his arms out to explain the plot of Dinosaur and Robot Stop a Train. 

Playwright and Audacity Artistic Director Brad McEntire’s festival entry has a dinosaur (Swearingen) and a robot (McEntire) from the future converge in the present day. The audience meets them at a press conference where the odd duo attempt to explain how they unwittingly arrived in the 21st century and what they will do now. 

“The play has aspects of vaudeville about it. It’s a very funny play that uses clever wordplay,” Swearingen says.“It’s the perfect show for FIT because it’s original and experimental.” 

Swearingen’s relationships with both the festival and with Audacity span roughly a decade. In a quick count, he’s performed in seven seasons of FIT—one year acting in three shows. This man stays busy. 

An in-demand theater instructor, Swearingen also co-founded Fun House Theatre and Film in 2011. In less than two years, he’s adapted or written several plays, which he then directs with a cast of children and youths. In the company’s early years he garnered critical acclaim for his adaptation of The Little Prince and more recently his version of David Mamet’sGlengarry Glen Ross, in which he recast the salesmen as a troupe of young girls similar to Girl Scouts (this show is scheduled for a return engagement June 5-8).

First Tech, First Look: DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

This pic was snapped of Brad and Jeff at the Bath House Cultural Center. They are teching the show. You can see a bit of the costume elements.

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT get built

Brad and Jeff in rehearsal for DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN

Ruth making Dinosaur's tail...

Robot's "head" and "hands" near completion

DINOSAUR AND ROBOT... construction continues...

Robot "head" is still in progress...

Ruth Engel-McEntire lays out a pattern for the dinosaur costume

Brad McEntire's DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN is fast approaching. Info HERE.

Constructing Robots

Sure, it sounds so easy... just make a robot outfit for a play. But the tone and budget were working with means cardboard and there have been several versions so far as we trial and error a robot get up for DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN.