Oct 25, 2023

Crafting the Solo Show now available


Over the last several years, especially during the pandemic, I compiled a bunch of notes I had been jotting down about solo performance. I have turned those notes into a book. Crafting the Solo Show is now available on Amazon both as an Kindle ebook and in paperback.

Super excited to release this out into the world. I set out to write the book I wish I had back when I started my own journey into creating and performing one-person shows for the stage.
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Crafting the Solo Show covers all kinds of stuff... generating ideas, writing the script, rehearsing, performing that first show, touring, marketing and on and on.
Despite a little bit of lingering Imposter Syndrome, I believe this guide can be genuinely helpful to the beginning solo performer. If you are thinking of giving the format a try (or know someone who is) be sure to grab a copy.

Get a copy... HERE


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Oct 6, 2023

Pics from VOLUME OF SMOKE at TCC-SE


DaShaun Ellis as the Blacksmith and cast. The Blacksmith was based on Gilbert Hunt,
a real historical hero who saved dozens of women from the Richmond Theatre Fire.

Set Design by the wonderful Clare DeVries

I recently directed Clay McLeod Chapman's play Volume of Smoke at the college where I work. It had a hard-working student cast and crew. It played October 4 - 6.

Here's a bit about the play...

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, over seventy died including many women and children. Many were trampled in the panic that ensued. The dead included the newly-elected Governor of Virginia, George W. Smith, who died after saving his wife’s life. The incident made headlines as far away as Germany and helped jumpstart a wave of evangelical fervor known as 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 of fragmented epistolary monologues from dozens of different characters the play follows the lead-up, devastation and then aftermath of the Great Richmond Theatre Fire.

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Sep 29, 2023

Volume of Smoke article in The Collegian




New Play Ignites Excitement
NINA BANKS | managing editor | September 27, 2023


TCC SE theater is set to premiere “Volume of Smoke” from Oct. 4 to Oct. 6. 

The play is based on the Richmond Theater fire in 1811. SE student DaShaun Ellis plays the Blacksmith who is based on Gilbert Hunt, a freed Black man who played a large role in saving countless lives.  

“He is a Black man who actually became a registered blacksmith in Richmond,” Ellis said. “He saved — I believe — 36 people from the fire at the Richmond Theater. He’s just a hero.”  

The fire was caused when a lamp touched a set piece. Inadequacies of the building’s construction exacerbated the fire. Director Bradley McEntire cited that the incident created greater awareness of fire safety. 

“It also started the first serious conversations about building codes and the possibility of regulating the building of much safer structures. For instance, the Richmond Theater had main doors that opened inward. It had very narrow aisles. The stairs leading down from the box seats were apparently never weight tested and constructed in a shoddy manner. All of this was quite a hazard in a fire. These kinds of things were considered more thoroughly from that point onward.” 

Although the incident was 200 years ago, Director Bradley McEntire was drawn to the humanity of the story. 

“I am fascinated by how we, both as individuals and as a larger community, deal with catastrophe,” McEntire said. “ This play features a real-life disaster, one of the most devastating of America’s early years as a young nation. The repercussions trickled outward.  

“Volume of Smoke” portrays vignettes of how survivors and victims responded to the fires. 

“The play explores how we cope when we come face to face with big tragic events such as this,” McEntire said. “Sometimes we meet catastrophe with courage, sometimes with debilitating fear. Sometimes with outrage, sometimes with resignation. Sometimes it reveals our selfishness, sometimes our heroic side. It really does stress-test our most human qualities.” 

Each actor plays several characters in the play. SE student Dyan Cruz plays six roles and cited the switches as the hardest aspect of her performance. 

“I think it’s just hard on the fact that we play multiple characters so we can’t focus in on one,” Cruz said. “We have to constantly change and adapt, whether that be an accent, a voice, some sort of movement that character has.” 

Speaking in the vocabulary of people in the 1800s was an adjustment for SE student Ri-Shay Washington. 

“How they spoke in that time period is pretty different than how we speak,” Washington said. “We typically word things a certain way and then like “Oh no, that’s not how it’s said.” The language is very different.”  

In addition to vocabulary, SE student Haley Ferguson  learned about the culture of the time period. 

“It was a big deal to go to the theater,” Ferguson said. “Going to the theater was an event, you have to get in your best dress.” 

SE student Isara Al-Hilo urged the future audience to remember that the Richmond Theater fire was a historical event. 

“The most important thing to takeaway from this is to remember,” Al-Hilo said. “These were real people. Especially with the Blacksmith, that was a real dude. Just be respectful of the people who died.” 

Original link: https://collegian.tccd.edu/new-play-ignites-excitement/



Sep 9, 2023

Beast of Hyperborea pics from the 2023 Omaha Fringe

Nick Jansen and Naomi Bates took a few nice shots of my play The Beast of Hyperborea in performance at the 2023 Omaha Fringe Festival.

Featuring my friend Jeff Swearingen and written/directed by me, the one-man show follows Edward Joseph Reade, a good-natured, but anxious accountant who gets whirled into a globe-trotting adventure with an eccentric group of explorers.

Big thanks to Nick and Naomi and the rest of the gang at the Omaha Fringe. It was swell.

Benson Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska




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Aug 31, 2023

The Beast of Hyperborea at the 2023 Elgin Fringe Festival

 


The Beast of Hyperborea
Featuring Jeff Swearingen
Written and Directed by Brad McEntire

The Beast of Hyperborea
 is an astonishing tale of daring told in the tradition of Victorian adventure fiction. The tale concerns an eccentric group of explorers who set off for a remote island in search of a legendary monster.

Developed by Audacity Theatre Lab, The Beast of Hyperborea premiered in the summer of 2019  originally performed by the playwright, Brad McEntire. The play has now been remounted, this time with Jeff Swearingen stepping into the role of the reluctant accountant/narrator and McEntire easing into the director/producer's chair.

Playing this summer at one of our favorite festivals... the 2023 Elgin Fringe Festival
​Elgin is about 35 miles northwest of Chicago. Great place to perform.


Tickets for this festival are $12

Thursday, September 7 at 7:30 pm
Friday, September 8 at 6:00 pm
Saturday, September 9 at 9:30 pm
Sunday, September 10 at 2:30 pm

Side Street Studio Arts, located at 15 1/2 Ziegler Ct, Elgin, IL 60120

Tickets... HERE. Fringe info... HERE

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Jul 13, 2023

The Beast of Hyperborea at the 2023 Omaha Fringe Festival

Jeff Swearingen takes the stage in The Beast of Hyperborea [credit: Audacity Theatre Lab]

The Beast of Hyperborea
Featuring Jeff Swearingen
Written and Directed by Brad McEntire

The Beast of Hyperborea
 is an astonishing tale of daring told in the tradition of Victorian adventure fiction. The tale concerns an eccentric group of explorers who set off for a remote island in search of a legendary monster.

Developed by Audacity Theatre Lab, The Beast of Hyperborea premiered in the summer of 2019  originally performed by the playwright, Brad McEntire. The play has now been remounted, this time with Jeff Swearingen stepping into the role of the reluctant accountant/narrator and McEntire easing into the director's chair.

Playing this summer at the 2023 Omaha Fringe Festival

Tickets for this festival are $10

Details:
Benson Theatre,
6054 Maple St, Omaha, NE 68104   [map]

Thursday August 10 at 8:30 pm,
Saturday August 12 at 6:30 pm,
Sunday August 13 at 8:00 pm


For more info (tix, shows, etc.) visit the Omaha Fringe website... HERE

Beast of Hyperborea - Summer 2023 - promo from Audacity Theatre Lab on Vimeo.


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Jun 7, 2023

Pics from Robert's Eternal Goldfish at the 2023 Tyler Texas Fringe

 

Brad McEntire performing REG at the 2023 Tyler Texas Fringe
[credit - Audacity Theatre Lab]

Brad McEntire performing REG at the 2023 Tyler Texas Fringe
[credit - Audacity Theatre Lab]


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May 22, 2023

Robert's Eternal Goldfish at the Tyler Texas Fringe



Robert's Eternal Goldfish will play at the 2023 Tyler Texas Fringe Festival.


Robert J. Roberts has a huge problem with the world. In particular he really dislikes people. All people. One day he becomes the unlikely custodian of a magical goldfish and Mr. Robert’s misanthropic view of the world is seriously challenged. This dark comedy asks can a person be frustrated into becoming a better human being?


Tickets for this festival are FREE !

Playing:

At the Rogers Palmer Performing Arts Center (Recital Hall Gallery),

Tyler Junior College, 1303 S. Mahon Avenue, Tyler, TX 75701   [map]

 

Friday, June 2 at  1:00pm

Saturday, June 3 at 6:30pm

For more info (parking, tix, shows, etc.) visit the Texas Fringe website... HERE

 

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Mar 10, 2023

New Website for Playwriting Endeavors





 Trying to up my playwriting game (as far as career stuff). made an official website.

See it at:

BradMcEntirePlays


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Feb 26, 2023

Directing two student-written short plays

Me "directing" [credit Josh Niccolai-Belfi/ TCC-SE]

I am an adjunct instructor at a small community college in north Texas. I originally was drawn to the job because I liked teaching at the college level. Since maybe a year or so before the pandemic, I have found myself directing a lot more at the college than teaching classes, which is not altogether my preferred course. Last week, two student-written 10-minute plays, complete with student actors and crew, which I directed, saw the light of day. The plays I directed for this year's Festival of New Plays included Blake Roper's The Friendship Application and DaShaun Ellis' I'm Thinking. They were both fun little playlets to work on. The playwrights were receptive to feedback and the student actors, mostly, put forth the effort.

The Friendship Application is set a hundred years in the future when civilization has become interplanetary. The government now matches people together as friends, provided one fills out the paperwork properly.

I'm Thinking was a fun little sketch about a student hung up on a writing assignment. His little sister and her friend step in and help by reading out loud from his wadded up attempts. They played at being pirates and cowboys and even do a stand-off, one as a mad scientist and the other as a secret agent. Eventually, an idea is sparked and the student can finish the assignment.

The Festival of New Plays ran February 22 - 24, 2023 in a small black box space at the college.

Student actors Madison Sanchez, Ethan Melendez and
Haleigh Ferguson in I'm Thinking, written by DaShaun Ellis
[credit: Josh Niccolai-Belfi/ TCC-SE]

Student actors Ethan Melendez and DaShaun Ellis in
The Friendship Application, written by Blake Roper
[credit: Josh Niccolai-Belfi/ TCC-SE]

Student actors Lina Koudy and DaShaun Ellis in The Friendship
Application
, written by Blake Roper [credit: Josh Niccolai-Belfi/ TCC-SE]



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Jan 21, 2023

I have launched a new webcomic


I just launched a brand new-old webcomic. Let me 'splain...

Back in the late 1990s when I was a young and impressionable college student. I became enthralled with trying to create a sort of minimalist comic. The idea was not to have to draw the comic from scratch each time. The idea, instead, was that I would just need to update the word balloons. That is to say, I wanted to change what the characters say (the dialogue), not how the actual comics look (the art). Then I thought it would be neat if you removed characters altogether. What you might get would be a sort of anti-comic.

So, I came up with J. Herbin. Here was a character who was simply a passive observer in his own strip. It would have little to no movement or action. The dialogue would come in from out-of-frame. We, the readers, are overhearing an off-frame snippet of conversation just as Herbin is in the comic. I came at it as this little experiment. Would such a strip even be interesting? Could I still make it weird? Or even, occasionally, funny?

Since I had just graduated from college (where I had been a cartoonist for the school paper) and the internet hadn't really picked up momentum yet, I did not have an outlet for the idea at the time. My original J. Herbin comics only lasted a short while. I ended up putting it in a drawer and kind of forgot about it. 

I later learned about David Lynch's The Angriest Dog in the World and Max Cannon's strip Red Meat. I thought, "Hey, other people, much more well-known than me, have done this sort of thing. There might be something to this idea."

Over the last few years, while the zeitgeist kind of centered on questions of connection and isolation, I started thinking about this little minimalist anti-comic idea once again. I put it on my list for projects to launch in the new year and now, well, its here!

The first two new J. Herbin comics are up and ready to read on the brand-new website... HERE

I hope, if you are reading this, that you'll follow along each week and check out this little project. I am oddly excited about it.

An old J. Herbin comic from back in the day.





















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