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| Childhood buddies Brad McEntire and Jeff Hernandez |
“As
ideas hatched in a bar go, this one wasn’t horrible,” says Dallas-based playwright Brad McEntire
He
is referring to the concept of tarantubears – half spider, half bear monsters –
that take center stage in his and Jeff Hernandez’s new play Night of the Tarantubears.
McEntire
recalls going out for drinks after his childhood friend Jeff Hernandez came to
see him perform his show Dinosaur and
Robot Stop a Train at the Festival of Independent Theatres in 2013.
"Hernandez
came up with the idea." McEntire says "It is very much the kind of joke
that forms over beers when you are on your third round."
"Usually
those in-the-moment jokes just fade away, but in this instance, Brad threw out
the suggestion that we make it a play," Hernandez adds, "So, I said,
okay. So, we did."
Hernandez
and McEntire have been collaborating on projects since they met in the fourth
grade. They found out they lived on the same street and ended up walking home
from elementary school together most afternoons.
Throughout
their school days they stayed pretty close.
“We
use to walk over to the outdoor court at the local junior high and play
basketball in the evenings. We’d just joke around and come up with schemes the whole
time,” says McEntire. “We would dream up movies we would make, comic books we would someday
draw.”
Hernandez
attended Southern Methodist University after high school and earned a degree in
art while McEntire headed off to the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. He got
a degree in theatre and from there to began a decade of wandering. He lived in
London, New York, and eventually Hong Kong before coming back to the Dallas
area.
Hernandez
and McEntire picked up the creative scheming right where they left off.
They
wrote, directed and performed children’s theatre together at Plano Children’s
Theatre and co-wrote a one-act called Pens
And Strings back in 2009. It played as part of Austin’s FronteraFest.
Another
inebriated conversation at a bar back in 2012 led them to start a podcast
together. They ended up calling it Bike
Soccer Jamboree, after a game they use to play on the street where they
grew up.
Night of the
Tarantubears
follows the rabbit hole of a rather bizarre “what if?”
A
genetic experiment surfaces as a seemingly harmless viral internet sensation.
Part bear, part spider hybrids are the latest trend. But what happens when our
passing fascinations grow and things begin to go horribly horribly wrong? Five
survivors hole up in an abandoned theatre as the city is overrun by genetic
monstrosities.
“Hernandez
is way more into social media than I currently am.” McEntire says. “I love the internet,
but I view it more as a tool. He uses it more as entertainment. He gives me a
hard time about geeking out over things like theatre history and playwriting. I
rib him constantly about his affinity for Twitter and YouTube. This play kind
of embraces both of our obsessions.”
The
two drew on their overlapping interests of genre comedies, pop culture references
and internet sensations.
Though
Jeff Hernandez and Brad McEntire co-wrote the piece and McEntire directs, they
both quickly point out how fortunate they feel to have an excellent team around
them for the production.
“I’m
working with a group of actors I’ve wanted to collaborate with for years.”
McEntire says. “All good sports. They have been great about keying into the
weird little world Jeff and I have created.”
The
cast includes Miller Pyke, Whitney Holotik, Dani
Martin, Kasey Tackett and Brian Witkowicz.
McEntire’s
wife, Ruth, is creating the “tarantubear” effects for the production.
“The
rehearsals have been a blast,” McEntire says, then adds, “It is nice to be
working with friends.”
Produced
by Audacity Theatre Lab, Night of the
Tarantubears opens at Margo Jones Theatre January 21, 2015 at
7:30 PM. Plays January 21 – 31, Tuesday thru Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays
and Saturdays at 8:00 PM and Sundays at 5:00 PM. Tickets $15 and available at
the door or online. Information/ reservations at: (214) 888-6650 or via email at:
audacitytheatrelab@yahoo.com . The Margo Jones Theatre is located within the Magnolia
Lounge, Fair Park, 1121
First Ave., Dallas, TX 75210. For more information visit:
www.AudacityTheatreLab.com
It is an excellent collection of many of the ideas he has previously discussed on his blog and tumblr. It is filled chock-a-block full of ideas large and small about getting your work out into the world.