Looking Back at 2013: My Year of Making Things

I had a broad swath year as far as creating new art. I didn't do any really big projects (unless you maybe count DRIBBLE FUNK 380 for sheer ballsiness or DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN for imaginative awesomeness), but looking back, I covered a lot of ground. Here's a look back...

In January I did a PrintBomb Project, hiding my print "Anything Is Possible"
in a bunch of places at the flagship Half Price Books 

In February I directed student actors in a student-written one-act at Tarrant County College

Read my short piece BURDEN OF A LIGHT BLUE SHIRT at Austin's No Shame in March.

In March I also attended the Staple! Expo and sold a few (very few) of my books and postcards

In April, FUN GRIP played the Improvised Play Festival at Austin's Hideout Theatre.

Participated in Rover Dramawerk's One Day Only! XX, a 24 Hour Play event.
An event I founded in 2000. My play was SHARK BITES AND SIDE EFFECTS.

In April, I also saw my commissioned play CARTER STUBBS TAKES FLIGHT put on in a wonderful production by Denton's Sundown Collaborative Theatre, directed by Tashina Richardson.

In May, I taught a solo improv workshop as part of the 2013 Big Sexy Weekend of Improv
for the Alternative Comedy Theatre.

In June I premiered my play DINOSAUR AND ROBOT STOP A TRAIN at the 2013 Festival of Independent Theatres. Next to CHOP, this play is what I'm most proud of from all of my theatre work to date.

RUDNICK in TheaterJones

RUDNICK in performance at the Margo Jones Theatre

Nice review of A VERY NOUVEAU HOLIDAY in TheaterJones.com with a nice mention of my play RUDNICK THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY:

[Brian] Witkowicz ... also scores as the title character in Brad McEntire’s Rudnick the Candle-Headed Boy, a cheeky retelling of a certain reindeer myth.

Bring your mom (as long as she doesn’t mind quite a bit of blue language) or drag your loved one or create a decidedly untraditional tradition for the season. Hopefully this concept will return again next year.

See the whole review HERE.

RUDNICK in rehearsal

Untitled, a photo by dribblefunk on Flickr.

RUDNICK as part of A VERY NOUVEAU HOLIDAY

My play RUDNICK THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY is part of an evening of holiday-themed one-acts called A Very Nouveau Holiday, produced by Nouveau 47 Theatre. The show will play at the Margo Jones Theatre from December 13 to 22, 2013.

Info HERE.

I'm thrilled to be in the company of some other kick-ass playwrights, including Larry Herold, Jonathan Norton and Vicki Cheatwood among others.

Oh, and some of the plays, including RUDNICK, are directed by my sweet wife, Ruth.

UPDATE: (12/11/13) The production actually runs Dec. 17-23.

RUDNICK part of A VERY NOUVEAU HOLIDAY

My short play RUDNICK THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY will be included in an evening of holiday-themed one-acts by Nouveau 47 Theatre. I'm thrilled to be in such awesome company with the other playwrights involved and that my wife, Ruth, is one of the directors.

Playing December 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28 @ 8PM and 22 & 29 @ 2PM

At the Margo Jones Theatre at the Magnolia Lounge, Fair Park, 1121 First Avenue, Dallas TX 75210

More info HERE.

RUDNICK mentioned in Naked Holidays 2011 review

The Holidays Are Coming – Better Get Naked First: Naked Holidays 2011

by Karen Tortora-Lee of The Happiest Medium on December 20, 2011

Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like naked people running around.  (At least not where I come from.  Your experience may vary.)  If you like naked people (and who doesn’t?) and you like jokes about Santa, Hanukkah, Rudolph, Elves, and wrestlers (not necessarily in that order) then End Time Productions Naked Holidays is the show for you.  Not only will you get skits, musical production numbers, wry commentary on the holidays and parodies of old favorites but you’ll get full frontal nudity that is both essential to the plot as well as completely gratuitous.  It’s enough to jingle anyone’s bells, and then some.

Unlike prior productions this 5th year anniversary of Naked Holidays, which features “best of” skits as well as new material, has moved uptown for the momentous occasion; a fact which the cast gleefully acknowledges as they survey their surroundings with astonishment: “You guys!  There’s no herpes on this floor!” After a bit of back and forth where they decide if it makes sense to get naked again this year the cast agrees that of course it does!  And so it’s on with the show which is sponsored, in part, by GOD … who’s been bringing you naked people since the very beginning.

What follows is, I expect, an experience akin to being in the audience of a Saturday Night Live taping where some things are hilarious, some things are worth a giggle or two, some things last a bit too long and there are a few musical numbers.  What makes this show different is (if I haven’t said it enough) the full nudity that is sprinkled throughout and then takes up the entire last ten minutes of the show.

Keep in mind – not all of the show is nude.  But while you’re waiting for them to take it all off this talented group of folks will have you chuckling with some great holiday comedy skits.

. . .

Everyone knows the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, right?  It takes a funny (and deeply disturbing) turn when Rudolph becomes Rudnick (written by Brad McEntire) who is not a very special reindeer but rather a very misunderstood unicorn who has a candle where his horn should be.  Poor Rudnick — he’s not allowed to play twister (or any other Unicorn Games) with the other unicorn gals (who come off like a pack of Heathers).  So how does Rudnick save the day?  Not by guiding Santa’s sleigh, but by leading his three one-horned bitches into an ambush where his reindeer friends  are ready to tear them to pieces while a cloaked chorus intones O Fortuna with rabid intensity.  It’s how I picture the Tarantino remake, should he ever choose to fix his eyes on movies for the young ones.

Striped shirt like Pud...

So the good news, first off, is that EndTime Productions' NAKED HOLIDAYS (which includes my short play RUDNICK: THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY) has totally sold out the first three performances! So, hazzah for those guys! Wish I could make up to NYC to see the show - I missed it the first time they did RUDNICK in 2009 - but no can do. I'm treading water grading papers this December since I've been a working man this past "semester."

In my tiny moments of creative productivity, I've been closing in on the next piece of my master opus... a new one-act I'm currently calling RASPBERRY FIZZ. And it is so fun.

I had a few images in my head: a kid dressed like a the little boy in old Dubble Bubble gum comics (his name was Pud) who never stands still. A sort of street corner con man dressed in a flamboyant vest. A girl who refuses to give up a newspaper. A mysterious cardboard box.

I spun all those together and placed the piece in 1949, right at the cusp of summer and autumn when the afternoons stretch on so magically long and imperceptibly turn into evening. A street in a small Maryland town. Two characters right on the edge of adolescence, with all the expectations of growing up right there at their feet, stretching out before them.

I wrote the never-still kid role for my friend Jeff Swearingen and he took it to Andy Baldwin, a good local director. We submitted it to a local theatre festival and will find out if it gets in in another week or two. If so, I'll show next March. If not, I'll find a way to mount it myself through Audacity in the future... maybe this summer or next fall. It is not quite done, but close and, wonderfully, it continues to be a really fun project to work on.

And that is always something to shoot for... fun.

UPDATE: [Dec. 19, 2011] Just got word a few days back that RASPBERRY FIZZ is officially accepted into the 2012 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival presented by the Water Tower Theatre of Addison, Texas. It will play in early March. I'll post more info as it comes in.

Rudnick at Naked Hoildays

(click image to enlarge)

My play RUDNICK: THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY plays in the "Best of..." version of Naked Holidays 2011 from EndTime Productions in NYC. It was originally part of their 2009 show and they called me up to see if it could be included this year as well. If you're in New York this December, check it out.

I naively asked them for a production photo of the show and they politely declined. It seems the whole revue is what it sounds like... a bunch of naked actors performing sketches. here's the blurb:

NAKED HOLIDAYS is a darkly comic Yuletide bacchanalia, a gleeful pageant filled with indulgent tidings which climaxes in a scantily clad routine that looks a lot like Christmas. This boisterous holiday celebration puts a theatrical spin on some of our best-loved winter traditions. Highlights include:

• “The Annihilator” by Steve Strangio, about X-mas at a professional wrestler’s house.

• “Dead-Nosed” by Oliver Thrun, in which Santa’s reindeer plot the assassination of Rudolph.  A Samuel French short play festival finalist.

• “Fear the Nog” by Rebecca Jane Stokes, The North Pole meets Orwell’s 1984 with Santa as Big Brother.

• “A Very Special Hanukkah Special Hanukkah” by Mark Harvey Levine, a Jewish-themed spoof of It’s A Wonderful Life.

• “The Naked People Play” by Stacy Lane, the traditional Naked Holidays closer.

• “Rudnick the Candle-Headed Boy” by Brad McEntire, A Brief and Cheeky Retelling of a Certain Reindeer Myth

Tickets and more info here.

RUDNICK THE CANDLE-HEADED BOY

A PLAY IN ONE-ACT BY BRAD McENTIRE

10 MINUTES / 3M / 2F / SINGLE SET

The Unicorn Children won't let poor Rudnick play in their Unicorn Children games. An imaginative retelling of a certain reindeer story.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

• Estranged Bedfellows Sketch Comedy; Santa Fe NM (Feb 1996)
• Audacity Productions/ProgreXssive Arts; "The HO! Show"; Garland TX (Dec 2000)
• Audacity Productions; Mild Dementia Continuous-Play Variety Hour; Dallas TX (May 2004)
• EndTime Productions; Naked Holidays 2009; New York NY (December 2009)
• EndTime Productions; Best of... Naked Holidays 2011; New York NY (December 2011)
• Nouveau 47 Theatre; A Very Nouveau Holiday; Dallas TX (December 2013)

BUY THIS PLAY!

RUDNICK in performance at Nouveau 47 Theatre, December 2013