McEntire Talks About ATL

Artistic Director Brad McEntire was recently interviewed about the ideas behind Audacity. Here's a bit of that interview.

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

Pics from CYRANO A-GO-GO in Houston

First off, the folks at the Houston Fringe were very hospitable. The most welcoming group we at Audacity have come across in a long while. The festival was not very big (it is still growing), but a good time was had by all and some good theatre was put on. 

One small note: the venue that CYRANO A-GO-GO was in ended up being an outdoor "stage." Or should I say PATIO! The original costume of a full black suit was whittled down over the next few performances to a more casual attire due to the 96 degree heat.

CYRANO A-GO-GO at 2012 Houston Fringe

Brad McEntire will be presenting his "original oration" CYRANO A-GO-GO at the Houston Fringe Festival this weekend. Here's the deets:

A note about the piece:

Since the age of fifteen, during the first few weeks of his first ever theatre class, Brad McEntire has been obsessed with the swashbuckling, romantic, tragicomic play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand. In this original oration, McEntire explores his fascination with Rostand’s play from many angles: historical, literary and personal. Through this exploration, CYRANO A-GO-GO reflects McEntire’s own life-long coming-to-terms with the hard lessons about how art imitates life, and vice versa...

A note about the oration format:

Oration, in which a single speaker takes the stage to discuss a given topic, was a well-known format from the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s. A cross between a theatrical performance, lecture and staged reading, the form was made popular by such orators as Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. This presentation is a contemporary take on this format.

When:

Thursday, September 6th at 7 PM

Friday, September 7th at 7 PM

Saturday, September 8th at 8:30 PM

Where:

Bohemeo's Cafe and Theatre,
708 Telephone Road,
Houston, TX 77023

As part of the Houston Fringe Festival.

For tickets head HERE.

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.