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.
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.
