Just published: Yeti In The Airport Lounge and Other Holiday Tales

Right at the end of the year, I decided to roll out one more self-published work. This is a collection of holiday playlets (each running roughly ten minutes) that were originally presented by Nouveau 47 Theatre at the Margo Jones Theatre in Dallas' Fair Park between 2013 and 2017. N47 is now sadly defunct and the holiday play festival they presented is a thing of the past, but I am weirdly proud of how most of these plays turned out. They are tight, funny, bizarre little pieces. 

For the last three years, I have been trying to get them on Amazon in September, in time for theatres to plan for their Christmas productions, but have failed each time, including this year. I figure it is best if I just get them up, then I'll market them at the end of next summer.

The collection includes the works: Rudnick, the Candle-headed Boy, Corner Office Sky, The Yeti in the Airport Lounge, Crandall on Planet X and Langdon, the Seasonal Barista.

The paperback version is coming soon. For now, here's the kindle version.

Get Your copy... HERE

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DAYLAN HILLIS IN SPACE at the 22nd Annual FIT

I am not a superfan of "digitalizing" theatre. I realize a lot of theatres have embraced recording and streaming, or even live-streaming, theatre events since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down venues starting back in March.

Some colleagues in Oklahoma who mounted a "digital fringe" this year in order to keep their event going, contactd me and asked my thoughts on things. I wrote back:

"As a maker of theatre, I acknowledge it is, technically, not theatre any longer. It is a new thing. Not cinema, really, either. The hybrid newness of it I find appealing. The silver lining of the times we are in is that we can step back and question the old ways. If there ever was a time to do a few virtual/digital shows and get away with it, it is now in the hot mess we call 2020.

As a viewer of theatre, I'd sooner poke flaming Doritos in my eyes than watch a damn Zoom play reading. Shows I might have seen in normal times (is that a phrase any longer... "normal times?"), I have no inclination to see as a recording or a live stream. I'd sooner wait everything out and see that production when I can eventually sit in a real audience again."

It is the novelty of the moment, however, that lead me to round up a few friends and create a show for the 22nd Annual Festival of Independent Theatres. The FIT went "virtual" this year. When producer, David Meglino, approached me to participate, I offered to custom-build a show for the constraints of the moment. The result is a very entertaining piece called DAYLAN HILLIS IN SPACE. Here are the details...

Jeff Swearingen in Audacity Theatre Lab's
DAYLAN HILLIS IN SPACE [credit: Audacity Theatre Lab]

DAYLAN HILLIS IN SPACE

By Brad McEntire and Jeff Hernandez
Featuring Jeff Swearingen
Directed by Brad McEntire

Security guard Daylan Hillis feels underappreciated in his job at a top secret government facility. One night his otherwise boring shift is interrupted by an encounter with strange intruders and a chance to show what he is really capable of.

Audacity Theatre Lab is thrilled to offer this digital "theatre" piece
as part of the 22nd Annual Festival of Independent Theatres.

Available for streaming October 8-31, 2020
Two Show Block Tickets - $12
Festival Pass for all Shows - $30
For tickets or more information visit: ​festivalofindependenttheatres.org/

​Running time: 38 minutes
NOTE: This production contains some strong language (PG-13-ish)

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The Beast of Hyperborea at FIT 2019

I am presenting the festival-premiere of a thrilling and humorous new one-person show. It is called The Beast of Hyperborea. 

This Victorian adventure tale concerns a fabled beast, a mysterious island and the brave team of explorers who set off to discover them both.

Playing as part of the 2019 Festival of Independent Theatres,
At the Bath House Cultural Center,
521 E. Lawther Dr. Dallas, TX 75218

July 13 - August 3, 2019

Performances on:
Saturday, July 20, 2019 @ 8 pm
Sunday, July 21, 2019 @ 5 pm
Thursday, July 25, 2019 @ 8 pm
Saturday, July 27, 2019 @ 8 pm
Sunday, July 28, 2019 @ 2 pm
Saturday, August 3, 2019 @ 2 pm

Tickets available... HERE

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Acadiana Repertory Theatre presents Que Será, Giant Monster

A new work of mine is receiving a developmental production in Lafayette, Louisiana. It opens this weekend and I received a few great pics. I made it down during tech week and seems like a good group of folks.

Steven R. Landry and Erica Jure, Michelle Colon

Here's the rundown...

Acadiana Repertory Theatre presents the first production of their 2019 season, the developmental production of Que Será, Giant Monster by Brad McEntire

Charles is having a very rough day. It only gets worse when he runs into an ex who is, herself, having a ridiculously rough day. The giant monster destroying the city doesn't bode well, either.

This fast paced and smart comedy is directed by Debbi Ardoin and features company members Steven R. Landry (as Charles) and Erica Jure (as Katherine) along with Michelle Colon (as the Uber Driver).

Que Será, Giant Monster will take place at Cite Des Arts (109 Vine St, Lafayette, LA 70501) Performances are February 15th, 16th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd at 7:30pm with a 2pm matinee on February 17th. Tickets are $15.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 337-291-1122 or by visiting acadianarep.org or citedesarts.org Tickets may also be purchased at the box office, starting an hour before the performance.

Que Sera Giant Monster Readings at Wordsmyth Theatre

Here's a snippet of a staged reading of my play Que Sera, Giant Monster as part of the Texas Playwrights Festival (produced by Wordsmyth Theater) in Houston, July 26 and 28, 2018. 

This excerpt features Brandon Morgan and LaKeisha Randle. LaKeisha Randle takes my lyrics from the script and acapellas them to life...

Big thanks to Wordsmyth Artistic Director Elizabeth Earle, director of Que Sera, Giant Monster Cythia Garcia and additional cast member Bree Bridger (who played the Uber Driver, Lorraine and Bethany).

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The 2018 Dallas One-Minute Play Festival

I have two plays in this year's One-Minute Pay Festival produced by Kitchen Dog Theatre. Here's the info on the event. The Dallas One-Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) returns for the 5th Annual Dallas One-Minute Play Festival! 1MPF is the country’s largest and longest continually running community-engaged theatre project, aimed at exploring local topics, ideas, trends, and seeding conversations for, by, and about artists and citizens in Dallas. The marathon evening of one-minute plays by some of Dallas’ established and emerging playwrights and directors.

(from the perforance of my 2015 play RUMBLESHANKS WANTS AN HQ)

84 original one-minute plays by 42 local playwrights + 12 local directors + 60 local actors = 1 insanely wild night of theater. August 11-13 at SMU Meadows School of the Arts - Bob Hope Theater All Tickets $20  #   #   # Perhaps you would be interested in adding more excitement and romance, adventure and intrigue to your life. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you. But I would suggest you subscribe to my newsletter. I mean, who knows? Life is full of surprises. I only send stuff out occassionally, but it is good stuff. Hit the button below... Leave a comment. If you are a robot or a blatant marketer trolling Blogger, then you will be deleted. Humans only, please.

My play will be read at the 2018 Texas Playwrights Festival

Playing July 26-29, 2018 at 

Stages Repertory Theatre, 3201 Allen Parkway, Suite 101, Houston, TX 77019

Que Será, Giant Monster 
by Brad McEntire 

Charles is having a very rough day. It only gets worse when he runs into an ex who is, herself, having a ridiculously rough day. The giant monster destroying the city doesn’t bode well, either.

• Thursday, July 26, 7:00 p.m.
• Saturday, July 28, 2:00 p.m.

Three plays, each given two readings with an audience talkback and a day in between so the playwright may revise. All by Texas Playwrights! I will be joining playwrights Ben Schroth and Stephen Brown who will also be presenting new works.

Produced by Wordsmyth Theater Company 
Hosted by Stages Repertory Theatre

Tickets... HERE

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LANGDON on YouTube

I just discovered that someone recorded a video of my one act LANGDON, THE SEASONAL BARISTA and posted it on YouTube. I'm not mad. Just weird that it showed up there.

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A Very Nouveau Holiday 2017

For the fifth year in a row I have a play in Nouveau 47 Theatre's A Very Nouveau Holiday collection of ten-minute plays. This event is usually quirky, thoughtful, hilarious, pensive and satirical! 

This year I am directing the world premiere of my own play Langdon, The Seasonal Barista. I am also directing Jonathan Kravetz's (formerly of Dallas and now based in NYC) heart-breaking piece Mr. Crispy. 

Langdon is a hilarious exploration of FOMO gone wrong. It features a bear who works at a coffeeshop during the winter instead of hibernating and the trouble he has navigating the workplace. Mr. Crispy is a sci-fi tear-jerker that deals with the last night of a relationship between a failed screenwriter and the song-writing friend he has an infatuation with.

Robert Long and Monalisa Amidar in rehearsal for LANGDON, THE SEASONAL BARISTA

These two pieces are joined by short plays by area writers Franky Gonzalez, Allison Hibbs, Jim Kuenzer, Ben Schroth, Greg Silva and Christopher Stephen Soden! 

A rockstar ensemble of directors, besides myself, include Andra Hunter, Becki McDonald, and fellow College of Santa Fe alumn David Meglino!

Actors in the project include Monalisa Amidar, JR Bradford, Cameron Casey, Emily Faith, Robert Long, Chris Messersmith, Charles Themayor Ratcliff and Jerome Stein!

Playing Fridays thru Mondays beginning December 8 - 23, 2017. Showtimes are 8:15, except Sundays (which offer 2 PM matinee times). At the Margo Jones Theatre, Fair Park, Dallas TX.

Admission $18. Student/Senior discounts available. Click HERE for tickets.

Dallas #1MPF 2017

credit: Ben Schroth

This past weekend, I participated in the 4th Annual Dallas One-Minute Play Fest, a co-production between local honchos Kitchen Dog Theater and One-Minute Play Festival, a national organization that swoops into communities all over the country and partners up to get a pulse on the zeitgeist. I contributed two pieces. I participated in 2014 and 2015 as well, but this one, this time was probably the most enjoyable. My pieces were directed by Emily Ernst, who I think is an SMU grad. She lead a group of mostly SMU alumni through my plays and several others.

This is the cast of the "clump" my two plays were in.

As always, it is incredibly difficult to get photos from these sorts of events (it is a big criticism of mine as a playwright to not get archival materials, especially production pics, of projects like this... in particular because 1MPF gathers the plays for free. No one is paid.). The best I can do is the pic above of the stage set and ready just prior to curtain and the pic of the cast taken as a selfie and swiped from FB. I know a few of the actors, but I, sadly, didn't get to meet everyone.

The event did garner some nice press... here, here and here.

As I have done in the past, I'll post my one-minute plays here. I was pleased with them this year. I was especially pleased that I didn't fall into the political-activist-low-hanging fruit trap of writing about Trump or some other nonsense. Not that I don't have a lot to say about it, but beciase I don't think a one-minute performance is the right platform to do any real exploration of such a topic. I am also pleased that I managed to make the plays very specific to Dallas, my city. They can't be moved to another festival in another city and still make a bunch of sense (well, maybe the LISTICLES one, maybe...)

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GEOGRAPHY OF A DALLASITE  by Brad McEntire

NARRATOR:    As a kid...

Two KIDS enter. The age group pairing enters each time they are referenced, throughout…

KID 1:              The suburbs are so boring. man.

KID 2:              I wish we lived in the middle of the city

NARRATOR:    In your teens...

TEEN 1:           Yeah, Deep Ellum's okay.

TEEN 2:           I heard it used to be better.

NARRATOR:    In your 20's...

HIPSTER 1:     I'll meet you at the Double Wide. Or Somewhere in Expo Park.

HIPSTER 2:     Let's do Bishop Arts. They just put in a new Microbrew place.

NARRATOR:    In your 30's...

THIRTIES 1:    I am never leaving Old Monk.

THIRTIES 2:    I am never leaving Uptown.

NARRATOR:    In Your 40's...

FORTIES 1:     I am never leaving the Old Monk.

FORTIES 2:     Unless it is to go to… (together) The Lakewood Landing.

NARRATOR:    In Your 50's...

FIFTIES 1:       Are we going out tonight?

FIFTIES 2:       Nah. I might do some work. Or, what is on to watch tonight on HBO?

NARRATOR:    In your 60's...

SIXTIES 1:       Honey, I think I'll give some money to the Arts District. After all, we go once a month.

SIXTIES 2:       (on phone) Yeah, bring the grandkids over. We're just here in the suburbs.

End.

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 LISTICLES   by Brad McEntire

Lights up. A group of Dallasites run on in as a mob.

SPOKESPERSON:          Okay. What do we want? Serious journalism?

ALL:                             (cheering) No.

SPOKEPERSON:           Indepth reporting?

ALL:                             (cheering) No.

NED:                            Fake News?

Everyone stops cold. The SPOKESPERSON walks slowly up to NED. Then, quietly, with bottled intensity…

SPOKESPERSON:          I will punch you in your filthy face…

NED:                            Well, what do we want?

SPOKESPERSON:          (turning to everyone else) What do we want?

ALL:                             Listicles!

CROWDPERSON 1:      7 Places to Get the Best Queso in Oak Cliff!

CROWDPERSON 2:      Top 5 places to take a First Date in Uptown for Under $500!

CROWDPERSON 3:      Best 9 custom hat shops in Highland Park!

ALL:                             Listicles!

CROWDPERSON 4:      3 Best Humans in Deep Ellum!

CROWDPERSON 5:      5 Most Disappointing Sports Mascots in DFW!

CROWDPERSON 6:      9 Most Outrageous Burgers in the Metroplex!

ALL:                             Listicles!

NED:                            Top 10 List of Listicles!

ALL:                             Yeah, listicles!

Then they all run off as a swarm. Blackout.

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Perhaps you would be interested in adding more excitement and romance, adventure and intrigue to your life. If that's the case, I don't know what to tell you. But I would suggest you subscribe to my newsletter. I mean, who knows? Life is full of surprises. I only send stuff out occassionally, but it is good stuff. Hit the button below...

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A Very Nouveau Holiday 2016

For the last three years I have participated in Nouveau 47 Theatre's annual collection of short seasonal plays called A Very Nouveau Holiday. I'm pleased that once again a play of mine has been accepted.

Here's a blurb about the evening as a whole.

The production is made up of eight short plays about the holidays. As in previous years, the plays are from local, Texas playwrights and every one is a new work! The plays cover a wide range of topics, from send ups of popular holiday images (what if snow globe figures could talk?) to somber pieces that express how the holidays can make us question what we believe.

My piece this year is called CRANDALL ON PLANET X-16. It is set on an alien world as we join a group of galactic troopers mid-invasion. One of them is having a debilitating case of homesickness at the worse possible time. Directed by Chris McCleary.

CRANDALL ON PLANET X-16 in rehearsal

Here's the details:

Nouveau 47 presents A Very Nouveau Holiday 2016, playing December 9th-23rd, 2016. Playwrights include: Justin Locklear, Jim Kuenzer, Erin Burdette, James Burnside, Bill Otstott, Brad McEntire, Greg Silva, Christopher Soden and Chris-James Cognetta. Playing at the historic Margo Jones Theater in the Magnolia Lounge at Fair Park (1121 1st Ave. Dallas, TX). Performances are at 8:15pm on Fridays, 5:00 on Saturdays, 6:30pm on Sunday with pay-what-you-can performances on Mondays at 8:15pm. Tickets are $20 Fri.-Sat. and $15 on Sundays. More details can be found at Facebook.com/N47Theatre.