My solo show ROBERT'S ETERNAL GOLDFISH will play at the first ever Scranton Fringe FestivalOctober 3 (@ 6:30 PM) and October 4 (@ 2 PM). The show concerns a misanthropic man named Robert J. Roberts. He hates the world. He particularly hates people. Pretty much all people. After a series of strange events lead him to become the unlikely custodian of a magical goldfish, Robert's misanthropic views are seriously challenged. Can a person be frustrated into being a better human being?
Last month, two of my plays were presented by Kitchen Dog Theater as part of the 2015 Dallas One Minute Play Fest. I did the 1MPFlast year. I was pleased to contribute it again. I was on the road when the plays were put up with a lot of other great pieces from some other hard-hitting local playwrights. I didn't get to see the production that went up at the Greer Garson Theatre at SMU. I recently got some great pics (a rarity with this sort of thing... someone was on their game). Looking at them, I totally wish I had been there.
A CAUTIONARY COMMUTE
Ryan Lescalleet directed my one-minute play A CAUTIONARY COMMUTE, a sort of musical ode to DFW rush hour absurdity.
Jeremy Schwartz directed my one-minute play RUMBLESHANKS WANTS AN HQ in which my cyborg/ mad genuis would-be world conqueror character Captain Odysseus Rumbleshanks decides where to put his homebase, dropping hint after hint about the suitablenss of Dallas. Schwartz's interpretation was delightfully odd.
Glenfield, as you know I, Captain Odysseus Rumbleshanks,
part diabolical cyborg, part crazed super-genius am setting out to conquer the
world. Swiftly followed by the entire universe. All I need is a place to locate
my new headquarters.
GLENFIELD
Yes, yes… Where will you situate your homebase, master?
RUMBLESHANKS
Someplace with an affordable cost of living, Glenfield.
GLENFIELD
Yes, Yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
With an expansive interstate system, professional sports
franchises,
GLENFIELD
Yes, yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
World class arts and culture, architecture, shopping and
tech industry
GLENFIELD
Yes, of course, yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
Some place centrally located in North America. On the
vast rolling plains.
GLENFIELD
Yes…
RUMBLESHANKS
A place of big ideas. With a bold history, yes, but an
eye on the future.
The Dallas Solo Fest, an arts festival I produce through my theatre company Audacity Theatre Lab, was awarded a special citation from the Dallas-Fort Worth Theatre Critics Forum. Here's an excerpt from the Dallas Morning News:
With multiple awards for The Nance, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Catch Me If You Can, Uptown Players stood out among the wide range of small companies that scooped up awards from the Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum this year.
While large companies like Dallas Theater Center, AT&T Performing Arts Center, Dallas Summer Musicals and Performing Arts Fort Worth weren’t overlooked, the critics honored gems found in small and less likely venues, from the world premiere of Jonathan Norton's Mississippi Goddamn at South Dallas Cultural Center to shows debuting at the experimental Festival of Independent Theatres at Bath House Cultural Center, the Out of the Loop Festival at WaterTower Theatre and Audacity Theatre Lab’s Dallas Solo Fest at the Margo Jones Theatre in Fair Park. Special Citations: To Audacity Theatre Lab and Brad McEntire for bringing quality local and national performances to the second annual Dallas Solo Fest at the Margo Jones Theatre, and for advancing the art of solo performance in North Texas.
So, that was nice. Read the original article... HERE
OK, so perhaps not all of us can make that statement. But it certainly applies to Brad McEntire. He read “Cyrano de Bergerac” when he was 15, and the classic 1897 play by Edmond Rostand has stuck with him ever since.
McEntire’s one-man show “Cyrano A-Go-Go” is one of the highlights of this weekend’s “Seattle to Fresno: Best of Fringe” mini-festival, which brings five acts to Mia Cuppa Cafe in the Tower District. We caught up with McEntire by phone to get this rundown.
▪ The show: “Cyrano A-Go-Go” is a semi-autobiographical production that mixes McEntire’s quarter-century-long “Cyrano” infatuation with the play itself. The show mixes the personal, historical and literary. You get commentary on what the times were like when the play was written, and McEntire jumps into character and performs snippets of “Cyrano” itself.
▪ The big nose: If you’re unfamiliar with the story of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” you’ve still probably heard of the title character’s whopper of a nose. (In Steve Martin’s 1987 movie adaptation “Roxanne,” his nose was huge, which was one reason he was so shy about expressing his love for Roxanne, played by Daryl Hannah.) In McEntire’s show, he asks the audience to imagine the nose, but he doesn’t wear a prosthetic.
▪ The history: “It’s an example where theater legitimately changed the world,” McEntire says. France was a country torn apart during the time the original “Cyrano” was produced, with lots of political and social turbulence, and this play “celebrating Frenchness” helped unify the nation.
▪ The unrequited angle: Unrequited love is a major theme of “Cyrano,” and McEntire brings in his own romantic (or lack thereof) history regarding the matter.
▪ The back story: In 2011, the Dallas Shakespeare Festival scheduled “Cyrano de Bergerac” on its mainstage, and McEntire came up with an idea for the company: How about staging a complementary one-man show providing background and focusing on his fascination with the title? The company bit, and McEntire performed in the afternoons during the mainstage run. Afterward he trimmed and shaped the show and took it on the fringe-festival circuit.
▪ The performances: “Cyrano A-Go-Go” is 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27; 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28; and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29.
▪ The mini-festival: “Seattle to Fresno” is sponsored by the Rogue Festival. It is curated by former Rogue producer Jayne Day and Grant Knutson of Seattle’s Minion Productions.
The other four shows are the Fresno Dance Collective (NOCO)’s “The Life of a House Plant”; “Dirty Messy Love” by Los Angeles-based storyteller Les Kurkendaal; “Damn Fine Magic,” a vaudeville magic show by The Baggy Pants; and “Existentialism in B Minor,” a one-man show by Fresno playwright Joshua Ryan Taylor. Performances are Thursday, Aug. 27 through Sunday, Aug. 30, at Mia Cuppa Caffe, 620 E Olive Ave. Tickets are $10. Details: www.minionproductions.org/seattle-to-fresno.
In August, I performed at the Nanaimo Fringe Festival. While I am out on the West Coast, I'm also performing my solo show CYRANO A-GO-GO at an event sponsored by the Rogue Fringe Festival in Fresno, California. It is called "The Seattle-To-Fresno Mini-Fringe". There will be lots of other great performers in it as well. Performances at the Mia Cuppa Caffe, 620 E Olive, Fresno, CA 93728 CYRANO A-GO-GO plays:
Thurs. Aug 27th @ 7:30pm Fri. Aug 28th @ 9pm Sat. Aug 29th @ 4:30pm Tickets $10. For more information head over to... HERE
In this episode Agent Hanson tries to uncover what's up with the immense "space elevator" Rumbleshanks has constructed in the middle of the Mongolian desert.
Also, Jeremiah Hanson learns what it is like to play a guessing game with the Captain.
