VOLUME OF SMOKE makes TOP 10 of Dallas Observer

Audacity's production of VOLUME OF SMOKE also makes the Dallas Observer's list of TOP 10 PRODUCTIONS OF 2010. Many thanks to Clay for a kick-ass script, the audiences, theatre writers and friends!
Elaine Liner called the show "Simply one of the most moving evenings of theater of the year."

Read about it here.

Top 20 of 2010!

The ensemble of ATL's VOLUME OF SMOKE (March 2010)

TheaterJones.com named Audacity's production of VOLUME OF SMOKE by Clay McLeod Chapman one of their Top 20 Productions of 2010. Congrats to Director Ruth Engel, Lighting Designer Jaymes Gregory, Set Designer Brad McEntire, Sound Designer Paul Lisle and actors Rhianna Mack, Angela Parsons, Elizabeth Evans, Chris Piper, Oscar Contreras and Tyson Rinehart. See the rest of the list here.

Audacity at PLAN of North Texas Benefit Art Show

Oscar as The Reverend

Angela as The Actress as The Reverend looks on.

ATL actors Oscar Contreras and Angela Parsons donated a bit of their time, last night, to perform a scene or two from our recent show VOLUME OF SMOKE by Clay McCleod Chapman.

The wine and cheese reception benefitting PLAN of North Texas was held at the Creative South Gallery at the Continental Lofts, 3401 Commerce Street, Suite 100 Dallas, TX 75226 (West of 1st in Deep Ellum).

Friday, April 23, 2010. Benefit ran 6-9:30 PM (Audacity went on around 7:30 PM)

Audacity was invited out by Carlton Odom, the curator of the event, who had seen VOS at the Bath House last month. We were glad to help the Planned Living Assistance Network (PLAN). PLAN is a care model originated by parents to provide long-term support for their loved ones with mental illness or other physical or mental disabilities. The mission of PLAN of North Texas, is to provide future care planning services to parents and their adult children with a disability.

More info on VOLUME OF SMOKE at the ATL Website

VOS: Notes On the Play

About the Play

This historical investigation of a horrific accident and the aftermath it caused appealed to Director Ruth Engel for a variety of reasons, chief amongst them that positive change and enduring perspective can come out of the most terrible of events. Receiving its Regional Premiere in the Southwest, Audacity is pleased to present VOLUME OF SMOKE.

For more information about the event, here's an informative article. And here's another one.

About the Playwright

The NY Times says there's "...a new generation of theater artists reared on a diet of vampires, zombies and charming serial killers. Call this movement the Theater of Blood, after the Vincent Price movie about a Shakespearean actor who kills critics, after torturing them with a hammy monologue. (It still gives me chills.) At the forefront is Clay McLeod Chapman, whose “Pumpkin Pie Show” channels the spirit of H. P. Lovecraft." -- Jason Zinoman, "A Creepy Threesome," NY Times, (10/19/09)

Clay McLeod Chapman is the founder of the Pumpkin Pie Show, a dynamic story-telling caberat well known in New York City. "If Chapman keeps up with the oddball characters, well-crafted stories, and critical plaudits, that Faulkner guy better watch out," the Village Voice’s Alexis Soloski wrote in a review of Clay McLeod Chapman’s Pumpkin Pie Show. Author Tom Robbins said of Chapman’s work, “Like a demonic angel on a skateboard, like a resurrected Artaud on methadrine, like a tattletale psychiatrist turned rodeo clown, Clay McLeod Chapman races back and forth along the serrated edges of everyday American madness, objectively recording each whimper of anguish, each whisper of skewed desire. This is strong stuff, intense stuff, sometimes disturbing stuff, but I think the many who admire Chuck Palahniuk will admire Chapman as well.” Clay McLeod Chapman is the creator of the rigorous storytelling session the Pumpkin Pie Show. In its ten years of existence, the award-winning Pumpkin Pie Show has toured extensively throughout the world – traveling to the Romanian Theatre Festival of Sibiu, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Dublin-based thisisnotashop art space, IGNITE 06 Festival, the Women Center Stage Festival and the Impact Theatre Festival, just to name a few – as well as such various venues as colleges, theatres, and theme parks in and around the country. The Pumpkin Pie Show continues to perform in New York City—including PS 122, the DR2 theatre, the Ohio Theatre, La Mama, the Red Room, the Kraine theatre, UNDER St. Marks Theatre, the CSV Cultural Center, the Zipper theatre, the Belt theatre, Culture Project, Galapagos Art Space, Speigeltent NY, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Brick Theatre, and Coney Island, USA. 

For more information on Clay McLeod Chapman click here.

VOLUME OF SMOKE pics

Oscar Contreras and Angela Parsons

Cast of VOLUME OF SMOKE

Tyson Rinehart

Angela Parsons

Chris Piper and Rhianna Mack with cast

Elizabeth Evans

VOLUME OF SMOKE opens

VOLUME OF SMOKE by Clay McLeod Chapman has opened to good reviews here in Dallas.

Here on TheaterJones

Here on the Dallas Observer

Here on the Dallas Morning News


On December 26th, 1811, the Richmond Theatre burned to the ground. Over 70 people perished, many trampled to death in the chaos. The incident made headlines as far away as Germany and gave rise to the Second Great Awakening.

From one of America's most unique emerging playwrights comes this historical account of grim humor, heart-breaking tragedy and profound heroism.

Plays March 11-27,2010 at the Bath House Cultural Centre.

VOLUME OF SMOKE approaches

“No tongue can tell, no pen describe the woeful catastrophe. No person who was not there can form any idea of the unexampled scene of human distress.”

—The American Standard, December, 1811

Directed by Ruth Engel

Featuring: Angela Parsons, Elizabeth Evans, Rhianna Mack, Oscar Contreras, Chris Piper and Tyson Rinehart.

Lighting design by Jaymes Gregory.

On December 26th, 1811, the Richmond Theatre burned to the ground. A standing-room only audience of 600 people had gathered that night to see a touring company present a billing of several different pieces. During The Bleeding Nun, a short play of haunted star-crossed lovers, the fire began. Of those 600 in attendance, seventy died—many women and children, many trampled in the panic that ensued. The dead included the newly-elected Governor, George W. Smith, who died after saving his wife’s life. The incident made headlines as far away as Germany and gave rise to the Second Great Awakening. 

In response to the tragedy, Richmond, VA, erected a church on the ashes of the theatre and banned all public performance (including street musicians) for eight years. The price of breaking the law was a ticket for six dollars and sixty-six cents. 

Weaving together a narrative out of more than twenty different characters in his signature lyrical-prose style, Clay McLeod Chapman constructs a narrative of the lead up to and aftermath from the Great Richmond Theatre Fire in the play VOLUME OF SMOKE. Based on interviews conducted with survivors of the fire in an unpublished 19th-century manuscript, VOLUME OF SMOKE is a beautiful, moving, surprisingly funny voyage into the heart of disaster and our responses to it. 

Playing March 11 - 27, 2010 (Wednesday thru Saturdays)

At the Bath House Cultural Center, 512 East Lawther Drive, Dallas TX. Map here.