David Dow Jones.

Last weekend in our kid's show at Dad's Garage, Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Storytime, we had a special guest star!

Former Artistic Director Sean Daniels played the lovable character "David Dow Jones" who had to use a walker, and seemed to be pretty beat up "from a few falls" over the weekend. It was pretty hilarious. Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf weblog posted about the show.

The weekend before that a kid in the front row suggested a character for the story be named "Sarah Palin the dinosaur." (A thing in which she does not believe)

Apparently, they get the kids in Inman park started early on this stuff.

What grade did your art get?

Our play, FWD>>, got a nice review/mention in The Creative Loafing podcast Airloaf. The same review/mention shows up in Creative Loafing's printed See & Do section. Awesome!

Creative Loafing has been really kind to our play, thanks guys.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution... not so kind. Kathy Janich calls it sophomoric, which it totally is! The real kicker is the "grade" she gave the play. (who gives a play a letter grade?) At first glance this might just look like the letter "D." However, upon further inspection, my wife noticed that what she really gave the play was an emoticon... see:

Grade :D (sideways smiley face, thanks AJC!)

I have also been remiss in linking to Matt Myers weblog, The Black Smoke Factory sooner. His weblog is full of charming posts, and funny comic strips. Matt Myers plays the leading role in our play, and if it weren't for him I sometimes doubt the audience would ever like our main character. Matt makes you want to like him, even when the guy starts to fuck up his life.

Looking FWD

FWD gets a mention on the Creative Loafing weblog via Curt Holman.

Also check out the trailer:

FWD opens tomorrow Friday 11th @ 8:00pm in the Top Shelf at Dad's Garage

Thinking 4th Dimensionally

About a year ago I wrote a post about how I like to get all caught up in over thinking stuff. The joke was that my brain gets lost in the 4th dimension. Like there's a Calabi-Yau space in there somewhere folding in on itself:

The Theoretical Calabi-Yau space, a main tenant of Super String Theory, this is also where my brain gets trapped

In our play FWD, that opens on Friday, we tried to play with this idea of getting so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you actually slip into another dimension. An ever folding dimension that only exists in your mind, but also happens to have puppets living in it.

In the story Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott he tries to explain what the 4th dimension might be like if we were ever able to experience it. So far Humans have only ever been able to experience 3 dimensions, that's how we're built. But we're pretty sure there are other ones out there. Abbott is able to theorize what that would be like by telling a story of a 2 dimensional creature that befriends a 3 dimensional creature.

Carl Sagan does a better job of explaining than we would:

As a bonus, he also explains the Tesseract. Our absolutely favorite mathematical shape that lives in the 4th dimension.

Now we're not saying that if you met a 4th dimensional being it would be a puppet. Or that the 4th dimension is dangerous, and full of these puppet beings that will drive you crazy if you listen to them.

Because... That would be crazy.

Come see FWD @ Dad's Garage in the Top Shelf
Opening Friday July 11th
Running thru August 2nd

Please FWD immediately

My buddy RP and I wrote a play for Dad's Garage, and it opens this weekend.

FWD>> The Play
Opens: Friday July 11th and runs through August 2nd.
Where: The Top Shelf @ Dad's Garage Theatre

FWD is about a typical office drone who is slowly driven insane by his imaginary puppet friends.

Everybody is at least a little bit crazy, and generally people try to keep their crazy under control so they can interact with other humans. What would it be like if you liked yourself better when you were crazy? What would it be like if you chose to embrace it? What would that do to your life? What would that do to the people who make the mistake of trying to be close to you? The answers are pretty obvious, but the results are pretty hilarious.

A Farewell to Improvs

I used to improvise at this theater a lot, called Dad's Garage, for about 6 years... actually creepin' up on 7 years now. yikes!

Here is an image of fellow Dad's Ensemble member, George Faughnan, doing what George does best... loving bacon. Oh I mean, "being funny."

Improv is a young man's game, and as such, this weekend I am officially retiring from The Dad's Garage Ensemble. I am performing in one final Theatresports show this weekend as an Ensemble Member. There won't be a memorial service or anything, just a regular type show, and I'll be in it.

I've gotten so much out of my 7 years at Dad's Garage as an Ensemble Member, I can't even begin to explain. I got to be part of something great, a place full of like minded people all trying to make each other laugh. It was a dream, and I've got 7 years worth of memories to laugh at.

Those of you who live in or around Atlanta, The show will be saturday night at 10:30pm at Dad's Garage. Maybe I'll suck? Maybe you'll be there to find out? It's short notice I know, so if you cannot make it, don't worry... we'll just never speak again... only kidding...

For info on buying tickets or making reservations go here.

"Get Upsized" by Randy Havens.

The play we're doing right now in The Top Shelf at Dad's Garage got reviewed in this week's Creative Loafing by Curt Holman.

It's called Get Downsized, and it runs for 2 more weeks.

Time to get The Papers... The Papers

The reviews for 8.5 X 11 have mostly come in, that's the short play festival our animation was commissioned for.

Almost every review calls the entire show a success, which is nice.

Two of the reviews (Creative Loafing, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution) site our animation as a high-point of the show...

Two of the reviews fail to mention our piece at all. (Backstage, and David Atlanta... I actually see this as completely fair, the reviews in question come from theatrical publications, our animation is not very theatrical)

Finally the last review calls our animation a low point. (The Sunday Paper) Even going so far as to call it: "a computer-animated presentation that has no more to do with the birds and the bees than it belongs on a stage (it's as theatrically invigorating as watching TV)."

Heh, yikes!

That last review presented here in the pursuit of fairness, or maybe to convince myself that I really do have a thick skin. Not every review is going to be a good one. But somehow I can't help thinking that Bert Osborne at The Sunday Paper missed the point of what we were trying to do. But again, that's his right as a reviewer.. to miss the point.

Over the 7 or so years that I have performed at Dad's Garage, either as an Improvisor, a straight-up Actor (well straight-up except for the time I played that gay character, oh... and that woman), or as a Director/Play-write, I have been met mostly with positive reviews. And if the review was a bad one, I was never sited so explicitly as in The Sunday Paper. You know what they say though, the bad ones stick out.

Even so, I am happy to consider myself lucky. I'm also lucky that I don't work at The Sunday Paper, a terrible publication I wouldn't line my imaginary bird's cage with, nor wrap my imaginary dead fish in.

Just kidding... but not really.

[desktop] robotLOVE launch

We finished up the animation for the short play festival at Dad's Garage. It opens this Friday the 20th. We're gonna go see it.

C-dub and I have been working every night at the 70-30 Productions office. Mack and Neal from 70-30 helped us out with a lot of the animation. If it wasn't for those guys C-dub and I would be sweating this animation right up to opening night.

I'll post a link to a web version of the animation after the show opens. Until then, here is a desktop to celebrate the completion of the animation. An image from the "Launch Scene."

@ 1440 pixels wide (widescreen 15inch powerbook version)

@ 1600 pixels wide

A carol about a carol, caroling about another carol.

This weekend we went to see our friend from Zombie Sitcom in the christmas show at PushPush Theater. You might remember PushPush from a poster we recently did for them.

The play is called "Dick N' Carol" and is a sort of meta-play about a theater group struggling with the decision to produce an updated version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. But it's also about the theater group dealing with the ideas of Art vs. Industry, and doing a show just because they know it'll make money.

PushPush likes to go hang out with their audiences after their shows, most often over a beer. The hope is that the audience will have "notes" for them about the show they just saw. That's pretty awesome, but I think I as ill prepared to give any notes of real value at the time. So I sort of stumbled through some awkward thoughts about the show... but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm full of opinions...

There are at least 3 plays going on within the main structure of the show. Echoing the 3 ghosts of Christmas that visit Scrooge in the original. The show jumps a little between these 3 stories, and you never know what level of the show the next scene will be set in. This was the most interesting aspect of the play to me. I think it could be pushed even more. This would be a great opportunity to do a play about the 4th dimension, and alternate realities. About how "every play is a Christmas Carol." All things touch all things in the 4th dimension. But maybe that's too weird for a christmas show.

PushPush does a good job of raising some interesting points about art and theater and "The Industry," all while making fun of themselves and the process of putting on a Christmas show. The show will apparently be much different come closing night, as they will be integrating changes suggested by the audience.

**bonus**
Also an acquaintance of mine, that I met at the legendary Baseboard Design Sanctuary, has recorded a pretty rad new song.
Check it out: Sorry (But I meant well)
it's tight.

David Dow Jones.

Last weekend in our kid's show at Dad's Garage, Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Storytime, we had a special guest star!

Former Artistic Director Sean Daniels played the lovable character "David Dow Jones" who had to use a walker, and seemed to be pretty beat up "from a few falls" over the weekend. It was pretty hilarious. Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf weblog posted about the show.

The weekend before that a kid in the front row suggested a character for the story be named "Sarah Palin the dinosaur." (A thing in which she does not believe)

Apparently, they get the kids in Inman park started early on this stuff.

What grade did your art get?

Our play, FWD>>, got a nice review/mention in The Creative Loafing podcast Airloaf. The same review/mention shows up in Creative Loafing's printed See & Do section. Awesome!

Creative Loafing has been really kind to our play, thanks guys.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution... not so kind. Kathy Janich calls it sophomoric, which it totally is! The real kicker is the "grade" she gave the play. (who gives a play a letter grade?) At first glance this might just look like the letter "D." However, upon further inspection, my wife noticed that what she really gave the play was an emoticon... see:

Grade :D (sideways smiley face, thanks AJC!)

I have also been remiss in linking to Matt Myers weblog, The Black Smoke Factory sooner. His weblog is full of charming posts, and funny comic strips. Matt Myers plays the leading role in our play, and if it weren't for him I sometimes doubt the audience would ever like our main character. Matt makes you want to like him, even when the guy starts to fuck up his life.

Looking FWD

FWD gets a mention on the Creative Loafing weblog via Curt Holman.

Also check out the trailer:

FWD opens tomorrow Friday 11th @ 8:00pm in the Top Shelf at Dad's Garage

Thinking 4th Dimensionally

About a year ago I wrote a post about how I like to get all caught up in over thinking stuff. The joke was that my brain gets lost in the 4th dimension. Like there's a Calabi-Yau space in there somewhere folding in on itself:

The Theoretical Calabi-Yau space, a main tenant of Super String Theory, this is also where my brain gets trapped

In our play FWD, that opens on Friday, we tried to play with this idea of getting so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you actually slip into another dimension. An ever folding dimension that only exists in your mind, but also happens to have puppets living in it.

In the story Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott he tries to explain what the 4th dimension might be like if we were ever able to experience it. So far Humans have only ever been able to experience 3 dimensions, that's how we're built. But we're pretty sure there are other ones out there. Abbott is able to theorize what that would be like by telling a story of a 2 dimensional creature that befriends a 3 dimensional creature.

Carl Sagan does a better job of explaining than we would:

As a bonus, he also explains the Tesseract. Our absolutely favorite mathematical shape that lives in the 4th dimension.

Now we're not saying that if you met a 4th dimensional being it would be a puppet. Or that the 4th dimension is dangerous, and full of these puppet beings that will drive you crazy if you listen to them.

Because... That would be crazy.

Come see FWD @ Dad's Garage in the Top Shelf
Opening Friday July 11th
Running thru August 2nd

Please FWD immediately

My buddy RP and I wrote a play for Dad's Garage, and it opens this weekend.

FWD>> The Play
Opens: Friday July 11th and runs through August 2nd.
Where: The Top Shelf @ Dad's Garage Theatre

FWD is about a typical office drone who is slowly driven insane by his imaginary puppet friends.

Everybody is at least a little bit crazy, and generally people try to keep their crazy under control so they can interact with other humans. What would it be like if you liked yourself better when you were crazy? What would it be like if you chose to embrace it? What would that do to your life? What would that do to the people who make the mistake of trying to be close to you? The answers are pretty obvious, but the results are pretty hilarious.

A Farewell to Improvs

I used to improvise at this theater a lot, called Dad's Garage, for about 6 years... actually creepin' up on 7 years now. yikes!

Here is an image of fellow Dad's Ensemble member, George Faughnan, doing what George does best... loving bacon. Oh I mean, "being funny."

Improv is a young man's game, and as such, this weekend I am officially retiring from The Dad's Garage Ensemble. I am performing in one final Theatresports show this weekend as an Ensemble Member. There won't be a memorial service or anything, just a regular type show, and I'll be in it.

I've gotten so much out of my 7 years at Dad's Garage as an Ensemble Member, I can't even begin to explain. I got to be part of something great, a place full of like minded people all trying to make each other laugh. It was a dream, and I've got 7 years worth of memories to laugh at.

Those of you who live in or around Atlanta, The show will be saturday night at 10:30pm at Dad's Garage. Maybe I'll suck? Maybe you'll be there to find out? It's short notice I know, so if you cannot make it, don't worry... we'll just never speak again... only kidding...

For info on buying tickets or making reservations go here.

"Get Upsized" by Randy Havens.

The play we're doing right now in The Top Shelf at Dad's Garage got reviewed in this week's Creative Loafing by Curt Holman.

It's called Get Downsized, and it runs for 2 more weeks.

Time to get The Papers... The Papers

The reviews for 8.5 X 11 have mostly come in, that's the short play festival our animation was commissioned for.

Almost every review calls the entire show a success, which is nice.

Two of the reviews (Creative Loafing, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution) site our animation as a high-point of the show...

Two of the reviews fail to mention our piece at all. (Backstage, and David Atlanta... I actually see this as completely fair, the reviews in question come from theatrical publications, our animation is not very theatrical)

Finally the last review calls our animation a low point. (The Sunday Paper) Even going so far as to call it: "a computer-animated presentation that has no more to do with the birds and the bees than it belongs on a stage (it's as theatrically invigorating as watching TV)."

Heh, yikes!

That last review presented here in the pursuit of fairness, or maybe to convince myself that I really do have a thick skin. Not every review is going to be a good one. But somehow I can't help thinking that Bert Osborne at The Sunday Paper missed the point of what we were trying to do. But again, that's his right as a reviewer.. to miss the point.

Over the 7 or so years that I have performed at Dad's Garage, either as an Improvisor, a straight-up Actor (well straight-up except for the time I played that gay character, oh... and that woman), or as a Director/Play-write, I have been met mostly with positive reviews. And if the review was a bad one, I was never sited so explicitly as in The Sunday Paper. You know what they say though, the bad ones stick out.

Even so, I am happy to consider myself lucky. I'm also lucky that I don't work at The Sunday Paper, a terrible publication I wouldn't line my imaginary bird's cage with, nor wrap my imaginary dead fish in.

Just kidding... but not really.

[desktop] robotLOVE launch

We finished up the animation for the short play festival at Dad's Garage. It opens this Friday the 20th. We're gonna go see it.

C-dub and I have been working every night at the 70-30 Productions office. Mack and Neal from 70-30 helped us out with a lot of the animation. If it wasn't for those guys C-dub and I would be sweating this animation right up to opening night.

I'll post a link to a web version of the animation after the show opens. Until then, here is a desktop to celebrate the completion of the animation. An image from the "Launch Scene."

@ 1440 pixels wide (widescreen 15inch powerbook version)

@ 1600 pixels wide

A carol about a carol, caroling about another carol.

This weekend we went to see our friend from Zombie Sitcom in the christmas show at PushPush Theater. You might remember PushPush from a poster we recently did for them.

The play is called "Dick N' Carol" and is a sort of meta-play about a theater group struggling with the decision to produce an updated version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. But it's also about the theater group dealing with the ideas of Art vs. Industry, and doing a show just because they know it'll make money.

PushPush likes to go hang out with their audiences after their shows, most often over a beer. The hope is that the audience will have "notes" for them about the show they just saw. That's pretty awesome, but I think I as ill prepared to give any notes of real value at the time. So I sort of stumbled through some awkward thoughts about the show... but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm full of opinions...

There are at least 3 plays going on within the main structure of the show. Echoing the 3 ghosts of Christmas that visit Scrooge in the original. The show jumps a little between these 3 stories, and you never know what level of the show the next scene will be set in. This was the most interesting aspect of the play to me. I think it could be pushed even more. This would be a great opportunity to do a play about the 4th dimension, and alternate realities. About how "every play is a Christmas Carol." All things touch all things in the 4th dimension. But maybe that's too weird for a christmas show.

PushPush does a good job of raising some interesting points about art and theater and "The Industry," all while making fun of themselves and the process of putting on a Christmas show. The show will apparently be much different come closing night, as they will be integrating changes suggested by the audience.

**bonus**
Also an acquaintance of mine, that I met at the legendary Baseboard Design Sanctuary, has recorded a pretty rad new song.
Check it out: Sorry (But I meant well)
it's tight.

David Dow Jones.

Last weekend in our kid's show at Dad's Garage, Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Storytime, we had a special guest star!

Former Artistic Director Sean Daniels played the lovable character "David Dow Jones" who had to use a walker, and seemed to be pretty beat up "from a few falls" over the weekend. It was pretty hilarious. Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf weblog posted about the show.

The weekend before that a kid in the front row suggested a character for the story be named "Sarah Palin the dinosaur." (A thing in which she does not believe)

Apparently, they get the kids in Inman park started early on this stuff.

What grade did your art get?

Our play, FWD>>, got a nice review/mention in The Creative Loafing podcast Airloaf. The same review/mention shows up in Creative Loafing's printed See & Do section. Awesome!

Creative Loafing has been really kind to our play, thanks guys.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution... not so kind. Kathy Janich calls it sophomoric, which it totally is! The real kicker is the "grade" she gave the play. (who gives a play a letter grade?) At first glance this might just look like the letter "D." However, upon further inspection, my wife noticed that what she really gave the play was an emoticon... see:

Grade :D (sideways smiley face, thanks AJC!)

I have also been remiss in linking to Matt Myers weblog, The Black Smoke Factory sooner. His weblog is full of charming posts, and funny comic strips. Matt Myers plays the leading role in our play, and if it weren't for him I sometimes doubt the audience would ever like our main character. Matt makes you want to like him, even when the guy starts to fuck up his life.

Looking FWD

FWD gets a mention on the Creative Loafing weblog via Curt Holman.

Also check out the trailer:

FWD opens tomorrow Friday 11th @ 8:00pm in the Top Shelf at Dad's Garage

Thinking 4th Dimensionally

About a year ago I wrote a post about how I like to get all caught up in over thinking stuff. The joke was that my brain gets lost in the 4th dimension. Like there's a Calabi-Yau space in there somewhere folding in on itself:

The Theoretical Calabi-Yau space, a main tenant of Super String Theory, this is also where my brain gets trapped

In our play FWD, that opens on Friday, we tried to play with this idea of getting so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you actually slip into another dimension. An ever folding dimension that only exists in your mind, but also happens to have puppets living in it.

In the story Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott he tries to explain what the 4th dimension might be like if we were ever able to experience it. So far Humans have only ever been able to experience 3 dimensions, that's how we're built. But we're pretty sure there are other ones out there. Abbott is able to theorize what that would be like by telling a story of a 2 dimensional creature that befriends a 3 dimensional creature.

Carl Sagan does a better job of explaining than we would:

As a bonus, he also explains the Tesseract. Our absolutely favorite mathematical shape that lives in the 4th dimension.

Now we're not saying that if you met a 4th dimensional being it would be a puppet. Or that the 4th dimension is dangerous, and full of these puppet beings that will drive you crazy if you listen to them.

Because... That would be crazy.

Come see FWD @ Dad's Garage in the Top Shelf
Opening Friday July 11th
Running thru August 2nd

Please FWD immediately

My buddy RP and I wrote a play for Dad's Garage, and it opens this weekend.

FWD>> The Play
Opens: Friday July 11th and runs through August 2nd.
Where: The Top Shelf @ Dad's Garage Theatre

FWD is about a typical office drone who is slowly driven insane by his imaginary puppet friends.

Everybody is at least a little bit crazy, and generally people try to keep their crazy under control so they can interact with other humans. What would it be like if you liked yourself better when you were crazy? What would it be like if you chose to embrace it? What would that do to your life? What would that do to the people who make the mistake of trying to be close to you? The answers are pretty obvious, but the results are pretty hilarious.

A Farewell to Improvs

I used to improvise at this theater a lot, called Dad's Garage, for about 6 years... actually creepin' up on 7 years now. yikes!

Here is an image of fellow Dad's Ensemble member, George Faughnan, doing what George does best... loving bacon. Oh I mean, "being funny."

Improv is a young man's game, and as such, this weekend I am officially retiring from The Dad's Garage Ensemble. I am performing in one final Theatresports show this weekend as an Ensemble Member. There won't be a memorial service or anything, just a regular type show, and I'll be in it.

I've gotten so much out of my 7 years at Dad's Garage as an Ensemble Member, I can't even begin to explain. I got to be part of something great, a place full of like minded people all trying to make each other laugh. It was a dream, and I've got 7 years worth of memories to laugh at.

Those of you who live in or around Atlanta, The show will be saturday night at 10:30pm at Dad's Garage. Maybe I'll suck? Maybe you'll be there to find out? It's short notice I know, so if you cannot make it, don't worry... we'll just never speak again... only kidding...

For info on buying tickets or making reservations go here.

"Get Upsized" by Randy Havens.

The play we're doing right now in The Top Shelf at Dad's Garage got reviewed in this week's Creative Loafing by Curt Holman.

It's called Get Downsized, and it runs for 2 more weeks.

Time to get The Papers... The Papers

The reviews for 8.5 X 11 have mostly come in, that's the short play festival our animation was commissioned for.

Almost every review calls the entire show a success, which is nice.

Two of the reviews (Creative Loafing, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution) site our animation as a high-point of the show...

Two of the reviews fail to mention our piece at all. (Backstage, and David Atlanta... I actually see this as completely fair, the reviews in question come from theatrical publications, our animation is not very theatrical)

Finally the last review calls our animation a low point. (The Sunday Paper) Even going so far as to call it: "a computer-animated presentation that has no more to do with the birds and the bees than it belongs on a stage (it's as theatrically invigorating as watching TV)."

Heh, yikes!

That last review presented here in the pursuit of fairness, or maybe to convince myself that I really do have a thick skin. Not every review is going to be a good one. But somehow I can't help thinking that Bert Osborne at The Sunday Paper missed the point of what we were trying to do. But again, that's his right as a reviewer.. to miss the point.

Over the 7 or so years that I have performed at Dad's Garage, either as an Improvisor, a straight-up Actor (well straight-up except for the time I played that gay character, oh... and that woman), or as a Director/Play-write, I have been met mostly with positive reviews. And if the review was a bad one, I was never sited so explicitly as in The Sunday Paper. You know what they say though, the bad ones stick out.

Even so, I am happy to consider myself lucky. I'm also lucky that I don't work at The Sunday Paper, a terrible publication I wouldn't line my imaginary bird's cage with, nor wrap my imaginary dead fish in.

Just kidding... but not really.

[desktop] robotLOVE launch

We finished up the animation for the short play festival at Dad's Garage. It opens this Friday the 20th. We're gonna go see it.

C-dub and I have been working every night at the 70-30 Productions office. Mack and Neal from 70-30 helped us out with a lot of the animation. If it wasn't for those guys C-dub and I would be sweating this animation right up to opening night.

I'll post a link to a web version of the animation after the show opens. Until then, here is a desktop to celebrate the completion of the animation. An image from the "Launch Scene."

@ 1440 pixels wide (widescreen 15inch powerbook version)

@ 1600 pixels wide

A carol about a carol, caroling about another carol.

This weekend we went to see our friend from Zombie Sitcom in the christmas show at PushPush Theater. You might remember PushPush from a poster we recently did for them.

The play is called "Dick N' Carol" and is a sort of meta-play about a theater group struggling with the decision to produce an updated version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. But it's also about the theater group dealing with the ideas of Art vs. Industry, and doing a show just because they know it'll make money.

PushPush likes to go hang out with their audiences after their shows, most often over a beer. The hope is that the audience will have "notes" for them about the show they just saw. That's pretty awesome, but I think I as ill prepared to give any notes of real value at the time. So I sort of stumbled through some awkward thoughts about the show... but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm full of opinions...

There are at least 3 plays going on within the main structure of the show. Echoing the 3 ghosts of Christmas that visit Scrooge in the original. The show jumps a little between these 3 stories, and you never know what level of the show the next scene will be set in. This was the most interesting aspect of the play to me. I think it could be pushed even more. This would be a great opportunity to do a play about the 4th dimension, and alternate realities. About how "every play is a Christmas Carol." All things touch all things in the 4th dimension. But maybe that's too weird for a christmas show.

PushPush does a good job of raising some interesting points about art and theater and "The Industry," all while making fun of themselves and the process of putting on a Christmas show. The show will apparently be much different come closing night, as they will be integrating changes suggested by the audience.

**bonus**
Also an acquaintance of mine, that I met at the legendary Baseboard Design Sanctuary, has recorded a pretty rad new song.
Check it out: Sorry (But I meant well)
it's tight.

David Dow Jones.

Last weekend in our kid's show at Dad's Garage, Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Storytime, we had a special guest star!

Former Artistic Director Sean Daniels played the lovable character "David Dow Jones" who had to use a walker, and seemed to be pretty beat up "from a few falls" over the weekend. It was pretty hilarious. Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf weblog posted about the show.

The weekend before that a kid in the front row suggested a character for the story be named "Sarah Palin the dinosaur." (A thing in which she does not believe)

Apparently, they get the kids in Inman park started early on this stuff.

What grade did your art get?

Our play, FWD>>, got a nice review/mention in The Creative Loafing podcast Airloaf. The same review/mention shows up in Creative Loafing's printed See & Do section. Awesome!

Creative Loafing has been really kind to our play, thanks guys.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution... not so kind. Kathy Janich calls it sophomoric, which it totally is! The real kicker is the "grade" she gave the play. (who gives a play a letter grade?) At first glance this might just look like the letter "D." However, upon further inspection, my wife noticed that what she really gave the play was an emoticon... see:

Grade :D (sideways smiley face, thanks AJC!)

I have also been remiss in linking to Matt Myers weblog, The Black Smoke Factory sooner. His weblog is full of charming posts, and funny comic strips. Matt Myers plays the leading role in our play, and if it weren't for him I sometimes doubt the audience would ever like our main character. Matt makes you want to like him, even when the guy starts to fuck up his life.

Looking FWD

FWD gets a mention on the Creative Loafing weblog via Curt Holman.

Also check out the trailer:

FWD opens tomorrow Friday 11th @ 8:00pm in the Top Shelf at Dad's Garage

Thinking 4th Dimensionally

About a year ago I wrote a post about how I like to get all caught up in over thinking stuff. The joke was that my brain gets lost in the 4th dimension. Like there's a Calabi-Yau space in there somewhere folding in on itself:

The Theoretical Calabi-Yau space, a main tenant of Super String Theory, this is also where my brain gets trapped

In our play FWD, that opens on Friday, we tried to play with this idea of getting so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you actually slip into another dimension. An ever folding dimension that only exists in your mind, but also happens to have puppets living in it.

In the story Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott he tries to explain what the 4th dimension might be like if we were ever able to experience it. So far Humans have only ever been able to experience 3 dimensions, that's how we're built. But we're pretty sure there are other ones out there. Abbott is able to theorize what that would be like by telling a story of a 2 dimensional creature that befriends a 3 dimensional creature.

Carl Sagan does a better job of explaining than we would:

As a bonus, he also explains the Tesseract. Our absolutely favorite mathematical shape that lives in the 4th dimension.

Now we're not saying that if you met a 4th dimensional being it would be a puppet. Or that the 4th dimension is dangerous, and full of these puppet beings that will drive you crazy if you listen to them.

Because... That would be crazy.

Come see FWD @ Dad's Garage in the Top Shelf
Opening Friday July 11th
Running thru August 2nd

Please FWD immediately

My buddy RP and I wrote a play for Dad's Garage, and it opens this weekend.

FWD>> The Play
Opens: Friday July 11th and runs through August 2nd.
Where: The Top Shelf @ Dad's Garage Theatre

FWD is about a typical office drone who is slowly driven insane by his imaginary puppet friends.

Everybody is at least a little bit crazy, and generally people try to keep their crazy under control so they can interact with other humans. What would it be like if you liked yourself better when you were crazy? What would it be like if you chose to embrace it? What would that do to your life? What would that do to the people who make the mistake of trying to be close to you? The answers are pretty obvious, but the results are pretty hilarious.

A Farewell to Improvs

I used to improvise at this theater a lot, called Dad's Garage, for about 6 years... actually creepin' up on 7 years now. yikes!

Here is an image of fellow Dad's Ensemble member, George Faughnan, doing what George does best... loving bacon. Oh I mean, "being funny."

Improv is a young man's game, and as such, this weekend I am officially retiring from The Dad's Garage Ensemble. I am performing in one final Theatresports show this weekend as an Ensemble Member. There won't be a memorial service or anything, just a regular type show, and I'll be in it.

I've gotten so much out of my 7 years at Dad's Garage as an Ensemble Member, I can't even begin to explain. I got to be part of something great, a place full of like minded people all trying to make each other laugh. It was a dream, and I've got 7 years worth of memories to laugh at.

Those of you who live in or around Atlanta, The show will be saturday night at 10:30pm at Dad's Garage. Maybe I'll suck? Maybe you'll be there to find out? It's short notice I know, so if you cannot make it, don't worry... we'll just never speak again... only kidding...

For info on buying tickets or making reservations go here.

"Get Upsized" by Randy Havens.

The play we're doing right now in The Top Shelf at Dad's Garage got reviewed in this week's Creative Loafing by Curt Holman.

It's called Get Downsized, and it runs for 2 more weeks.

Time to get The Papers... The Papers

The reviews for 8.5 X 11 have mostly come in, that's the short play festival our animation was commissioned for.

Almost every review calls the entire show a success, which is nice.

Two of the reviews (Creative Loafing, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution) site our animation as a high-point of the show...

Two of the reviews fail to mention our piece at all. (Backstage, and David Atlanta... I actually see this as completely fair, the reviews in question come from theatrical publications, our animation is not very theatrical)

Finally the last review calls our animation a low point. (The Sunday Paper) Even going so far as to call it: "a computer-animated presentation that has no more to do with the birds and the bees than it belongs on a stage (it's as theatrically invigorating as watching TV)."

Heh, yikes!

That last review presented here in the pursuit of fairness, or maybe to convince myself that I really do have a thick skin. Not every review is going to be a good one. But somehow I can't help thinking that Bert Osborne at The Sunday Paper missed the point of what we were trying to do. But again, that's his right as a reviewer.. to miss the point.

Over the 7 or so years that I have performed at Dad's Garage, either as an Improvisor, a straight-up Actor (well straight-up except for the time I played that gay character, oh... and that woman), or as a Director/Play-write, I have been met mostly with positive reviews. And if the review was a bad one, I was never sited so explicitly as in The Sunday Paper. You know what they say though, the bad ones stick out.

Even so, I am happy to consider myself lucky. I'm also lucky that I don't work at The Sunday Paper, a terrible publication I wouldn't line my imaginary bird's cage with, nor wrap my imaginary dead fish in.

Just kidding... but not really.

[desktop] robotLOVE launch

We finished up the animation for the short play festival at Dad's Garage. It opens this Friday the 20th. We're gonna go see it.

C-dub and I have been working every night at the 70-30 Productions office. Mack and Neal from 70-30 helped us out with a lot of the animation. If it wasn't for those guys C-dub and I would be sweating this animation right up to opening night.

I'll post a link to a web version of the animation after the show opens. Until then, here is a desktop to celebrate the completion of the animation. An image from the "Launch Scene."

@ 1440 pixels wide (widescreen 15inch powerbook version)

@ 1600 pixels wide

A carol about a carol, caroling about another carol.

This weekend we went to see our friend from Zombie Sitcom in the christmas show at PushPush Theater. You might remember PushPush from a poster we recently did for them.

The play is called "Dick N' Carol" and is a sort of meta-play about a theater group struggling with the decision to produce an updated version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. But it's also about the theater group dealing with the ideas of Art vs. Industry, and doing a show just because they know it'll make money.

PushPush likes to go hang out with their audiences after their shows, most often over a beer. The hope is that the audience will have "notes" for them about the show they just saw. That's pretty awesome, but I think I as ill prepared to give any notes of real value at the time. So I sort of stumbled through some awkward thoughts about the show... but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm full of opinions...

There are at least 3 plays going on within the main structure of the show. Echoing the 3 ghosts of Christmas that visit Scrooge in the original. The show jumps a little between these 3 stories, and you never know what level of the show the next scene will be set in. This was the most interesting aspect of the play to me. I think it could be pushed even more. This would be a great opportunity to do a play about the 4th dimension, and alternate realities. About how "every play is a Christmas Carol." All things touch all things in the 4th dimension. But maybe that's too weird for a christmas show.

PushPush does a good job of raising some interesting points about art and theater and "The Industry," all while making fun of themselves and the process of putting on a Christmas show. The show will apparently be much different come closing night, as they will be integrating changes suggested by the audience.

**bonus**
Also an acquaintance of mine, that I met at the legendary Baseboard Design Sanctuary, has recorded a pretty rad new song.
Check it out: Sorry (But I meant well)
it's tight.

David Dow Jones.

Last weekend in our kid's show at Dad's Garage, Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Storytime, we had a special guest star!

Former Artistic Director Sean Daniels played the lovable character "David Dow Jones" who had to use a walker, and seemed to be pretty beat up "from a few falls" over the weekend. It was pretty hilarious. Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf weblog posted about the show.

The weekend before that a kid in the front row suggested a character for the story be named "Sarah Palin the dinosaur." (A thing in which she does not believe)

Apparently, they get the kids in Inman park started early on this stuff.

What grade did your art get?

Our play, FWD>>, got a nice review/mention in The Creative Loafing podcast Airloaf. The same review/mention shows up in Creative Loafing's printed See & Do section. Awesome!

Creative Loafing has been really kind to our play, thanks guys.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution... not so kind. Kathy Janich calls it sophomoric, which it totally is! The real kicker is the "grade" she gave the play. (who gives a play a letter grade?) At first glance this might just look like the letter "D." However, upon further inspection, my wife noticed that what she really gave the play was an emoticon... see:

Grade :D (sideways smiley face, thanks AJC!)

I have also been remiss in linking to Matt Myers weblog, The Black Smoke Factory sooner. His weblog is full of charming posts, and funny comic strips. Matt Myers plays the leading role in our play, and if it weren't for him I sometimes doubt the audience would ever like our main character. Matt makes you want to like him, even when the guy starts to fuck up his life.

Looking FWD

FWD gets a mention on the Creative Loafing weblog via Curt Holman.

Also check out the trailer:

FWD opens tomorrow Friday 11th @ 8:00pm in the Top Shelf at Dad's Garage

Thinking 4th Dimensionally

About a year ago I wrote a post about how I like to get all caught up in over thinking stuff. The joke was that my brain gets lost in the 4th dimension. Like there's a Calabi-Yau space in there somewhere folding in on itself:

The Theoretical Calabi-Yau space, a main tenant of Super String Theory, this is also where my brain gets trapped

In our play FWD, that opens on Friday, we tried to play with this idea of getting so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you actually slip into another dimension. An ever folding dimension that only exists in your mind, but also happens to have puppets living in it.

In the story Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott he tries to explain what the 4th dimension might be like if we were ever able to experience it. So far Humans have only ever been able to experience 3 dimensions, that's how we're built. But we're pretty sure there are other ones out there. Abbott is able to theorize what that would be like by telling a story of a 2 dimensional creature that befriends a 3 dimensional creature.

Carl Sagan does a better job of explaining than we would:

As a bonus, he also explains the Tesseract. Our absolutely favorite mathematical shape that lives in the 4th dimension.

Now we're not saying that if you met a 4th dimensional being it would be a puppet. Or that the 4th dimension is dangerous, and full of these puppet beings that will drive you crazy if you listen to them.

Because... That would be crazy.

Come see FWD @ Dad's Garage in the Top Shelf
Opening Friday July 11th
Running thru August 2nd

Please FWD immediately

My buddy RP and I wrote a play for Dad's Garage, and it opens this weekend.

FWD>> The Play
Opens: Friday July 11th and runs through August 2nd.
Where: The Top Shelf @ Dad's Garage Theatre

FWD is about a typical office drone who is slowly driven insane by his imaginary puppet friends.

Everybody is at least a little bit crazy, and generally people try to keep their crazy under control so they can interact with other humans. What would it be like if you liked yourself better when you were crazy? What would it be like if you chose to embrace it? What would that do to your life? What would that do to the people who make the mistake of trying to be close to you? The answers are pretty obvious, but the results are pretty hilarious.

A Farewell to Improvs

I used to improvise at this theater a lot, called Dad's Garage, for about 6 years... actually creepin' up on 7 years now. yikes!

Here is an image of fellow Dad's Ensemble member, George Faughnan, doing what George does best... loving bacon. Oh I mean, "being funny."

Improv is a young man's game, and as such, this weekend I am officially retiring from The Dad's Garage Ensemble. I am performing in one final Theatresports show this weekend as an Ensemble Member. There won't be a memorial service or anything, just a regular type show, and I'll be in it.

I've gotten so much out of my 7 years at Dad's Garage as an Ensemble Member, I can't even begin to explain. I got to be part of something great, a place full of like minded people all trying to make each other laugh. It was a dream, and I've got 7 years worth of memories to laugh at.

Those of you who live in or around Atlanta, The show will be saturday night at 10:30pm at Dad's Garage. Maybe I'll suck? Maybe you'll be there to find out? It's short notice I know, so if you cannot make it, don't worry... we'll just never speak again... only kidding...

For info on buying tickets or making reservations go here.

"Get Upsized" by Randy Havens.

The play we're doing right now in The Top Shelf at Dad's Garage got reviewed in this week's Creative Loafing by Curt Holman.

It's called Get Downsized, and it runs for 2 more weeks.

Time to get The Papers... The Papers

The reviews for 8.5 X 11 have mostly come in, that's the short play festival our animation was commissioned for.

Almost every review calls the entire show a success, which is nice.

Two of the reviews (Creative Loafing, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution) site our animation as a high-point of the show...

Two of the reviews fail to mention our piece at all. (Backstage, and David Atlanta... I actually see this as completely fair, the reviews in question come from theatrical publications, our animation is not very theatrical)

Finally the last review calls our animation a low point. (The Sunday Paper) Even going so far as to call it: "a computer-animated presentation that has no more to do with the birds and the bees than it belongs on a stage (it's as theatrically invigorating as watching TV)."

Heh, yikes!

That last review presented here in the pursuit of fairness, or maybe to convince myself that I really do have a thick skin. Not every review is going to be a good one. But somehow I can't help thinking that Bert Osborne at The Sunday Paper missed the point of what we were trying to do. But again, that's his right as a reviewer.. to miss the point.

Over the 7 or so years that I have performed at Dad's Garage, either as an Improvisor, a straight-up Actor (well straight-up except for the time I played that gay character, oh... and that woman), or as a Director/Play-write, I have been met mostly with positive reviews. And if the review was a bad one, I was never sited so explicitly as in The Sunday Paper. You know what they say though, the bad ones stick out.

Even so, I am happy to consider myself lucky. I'm also lucky that I don't work at The Sunday Paper, a terrible publication I wouldn't line my imaginary bird's cage with, nor wrap my imaginary dead fish in.

Just kidding... but not really.

[desktop] robotLOVE launch

We finished up the animation for the short play festival at Dad's Garage. It opens this Friday the 20th. We're gonna go see it.

C-dub and I have been working every night at the 70-30 Productions office. Mack and Neal from 70-30 helped us out with a lot of the animation. If it wasn't for those guys C-dub and I would be sweating this animation right up to opening night.

I'll post a link to a web version of the animation after the show opens. Until then, here is a desktop to celebrate the completion of the animation. An image from the "Launch Scene."

@ 1440 pixels wide (widescreen 15inch powerbook version)

@ 1600 pixels wide

A carol about a carol, caroling about another carol.

This weekend we went to see our friend from Zombie Sitcom in the christmas show at PushPush Theater. You might remember PushPush from a poster we recently did for them.

The play is called "Dick N' Carol" and is a sort of meta-play about a theater group struggling with the decision to produce an updated version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. But it's also about the theater group dealing with the ideas of Art vs. Industry, and doing a show just because they know it'll make money.

PushPush likes to go hang out with their audiences after their shows, most often over a beer. The hope is that the audience will have "notes" for them about the show they just saw. That's pretty awesome, but I think I as ill prepared to give any notes of real value at the time. So I sort of stumbled through some awkward thoughts about the show... but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm full of opinions...

There are at least 3 plays going on within the main structure of the show. Echoing the 3 ghosts of Christmas that visit Scrooge in the original. The show jumps a little between these 3 stories, and you never know what level of the show the next scene will be set in. This was the most interesting aspect of the play to me. I think it could be pushed even more. This would be a great opportunity to do a play about the 4th dimension, and alternate realities. About how "every play is a Christmas Carol." All things touch all things in the 4th dimension. But maybe that's too weird for a christmas show.

PushPush does a good job of raising some interesting points about art and theater and "The Industry," all while making fun of themselves and the process of putting on a Christmas show. The show will apparently be much different come closing night, as they will be integrating changes suggested by the audience.

**bonus**
Also an acquaintance of mine, that I met at the legendary Baseboard Design Sanctuary, has recorded a pretty rad new song.
Check it out: Sorry (But I meant well)
it's tight.

David Dow Jones.

Last weekend in our kid's show at Dad's Garage, Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Storytime, we had a special guest star!

Former Artistic Director Sean Daniels played the lovable character "David Dow Jones" who had to use a walker, and seemed to be pretty beat up "from a few falls" over the weekend. It was pretty hilarious. Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf weblog posted about the show.

The weekend before that a kid in the front row suggested a character for the story be named "Sarah Palin the dinosaur." (A thing in which she does not believe)

Apparently, they get the kids in Inman park started early on this stuff.

What grade did your art get?

Our play, FWD>>, got a nice review/mention in The Creative Loafing podcast Airloaf. The same review/mention shows up in Creative Loafing's printed See & Do section. Awesome!

Creative Loafing has been really kind to our play, thanks guys.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution... not so kind. Kathy Janich calls it sophomoric, which it totally is! The real kicker is the "grade" she gave the play. (who gives a play a letter grade?) At first glance this might just look like the letter "D." However, upon further inspection, my wife noticed that what she really gave the play was an emoticon... see:

Grade :D (sideways smiley face, thanks AJC!)

I have also been remiss in linking to Matt Myers weblog, The Black Smoke Factory sooner. His weblog is full of charming posts, and funny comic strips. Matt Myers plays the leading role in our play, and if it weren't for him I sometimes doubt the audience would ever like our main character. Matt makes you want to like him, even when the guy starts to fuck up his life.

Looking FWD

FWD gets a mention on the Creative Loafing weblog via Curt Holman.

Also check out the trailer:

FWD opens tomorrow Friday 11th @ 8:00pm in the Top Shelf at Dad's Garage

Thinking 4th Dimensionally

About a year ago I wrote a post about how I like to get all caught up in over thinking stuff. The joke was that my brain gets lost in the 4th dimension. Like there's a Calabi-Yau space in there somewhere folding in on itself:

The Theoretical Calabi-Yau space, a main tenant of Super String Theory, this is also where my brain gets trapped

In our play FWD, that opens on Friday, we tried to play with this idea of getting so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you actually slip into another dimension. An ever folding dimension that only exists in your mind, but also happens to have puppets living in it.

In the story Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott he tries to explain what the 4th dimension might be like if we were ever able to experience it. So far Humans have only ever been able to experience 3 dimensions, that's how we're built. But we're pretty sure there are other ones out there. Abbott is able to theorize what that would be like by telling a story of a 2 dimensional creature that befriends a 3 dimensional creature.

Carl Sagan does a better job of explaining than we would:

As a bonus, he also explains the Tesseract. Our absolutely favorite mathematical shape that lives in the 4th dimension.

Now we're not saying that if you met a 4th dimensional being it would be a puppet. Or that the 4th dimension is dangerous, and full of these puppet beings that will drive you crazy if you listen to them.

Because... That would be crazy.

Come see FWD @ Dad's Garage in the Top Shelf
Opening Friday July 11th
Running thru August 2nd

Please FWD immediately

My buddy RP and I wrote a play for Dad's Garage, and it opens this weekend.

FWD>> The Play
Opens: Friday July 11th and runs through August 2nd.
Where: The Top Shelf @ Dad's Garage Theatre

FWD is about a typical office drone who is slowly driven insane by his imaginary puppet friends.

Everybody is at least a little bit crazy, and generally people try to keep their crazy under control so they can interact with other humans. What would it be like if you liked yourself better when you were crazy? What would it be like if you chose to embrace it? What would that do to your life? What would that do to the people who make the mistake of trying to be close to you? The answers are pretty obvious, but the results are pretty hilarious.

A Farewell to Improvs

I used to improvise at this theater a lot, called Dad's Garage, for about 6 years... actually creepin' up on 7 years now. yikes!

Here is an image of fellow Dad's Ensemble member, George Faughnan, doing what George does best... loving bacon. Oh I mean, "being funny."

Improv is a young man's game, and as such, this weekend I am officially retiring from The Dad's Garage Ensemble. I am performing in one final Theatresports show this weekend as an Ensemble Member. There won't be a memorial service or anything, just a regular type show, and I'll be in it.

I've gotten so much out of my 7 years at Dad's Garage as an Ensemble Member, I can't even begin to explain. I got to be part of something great, a place full of like minded people all trying to make each other laugh. It was a dream, and I've got 7 years worth of memories to laugh at.

Those of you who live in or around Atlanta, The show will be saturday night at 10:30pm at Dad's Garage. Maybe I'll suck? Maybe you'll be there to find out? It's short notice I know, so if you cannot make it, don't worry... we'll just never speak again... only kidding...

For info on buying tickets or making reservations go here.

"Get Upsized" by Randy Havens.

The play we're doing right now in The Top Shelf at Dad's Garage got reviewed in this week's Creative Loafing by Curt Holman.

It's called Get Downsized, and it runs for 2 more weeks.

Time to get The Papers... The Papers

The reviews for 8.5 X 11 have mostly come in, that's the short play festival our animation was commissioned for.

Almost every review calls the entire show a success, which is nice.

Two of the reviews (Creative Loafing, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution) site our animation as a high-point of the show...

Two of the reviews fail to mention our piece at all. (Backstage, and David Atlanta... I actually see this as completely fair, the reviews in question come from theatrical publications, our animation is not very theatrical)

Finally the last review calls our animation a low point. (The Sunday Paper) Even going so far as to call it: "a computer-animated presentation that has no more to do with the birds and the bees than it belongs on a stage (it's as theatrically invigorating as watching TV)."

Heh, yikes!

That last review presented here in the pursuit of fairness, or maybe to convince myself that I really do have a thick skin. Not every review is going to be a good one. But somehow I can't help thinking that Bert Osborne at The Sunday Paper missed the point of what we were trying to do. But again, that's his right as a reviewer.. to miss the point.

Over the 7 or so years that I have performed at Dad's Garage, either as an Improvisor, a straight-up Actor (well straight-up except for the time I played that gay character, oh... and that woman), or as a Director/Play-write, I have been met mostly with positive reviews. And if the review was a bad one, I was never sited so explicitly as in The Sunday Paper. You know what they say though, the bad ones stick out.

Even so, I am happy to consider myself lucky. I'm also lucky that I don't work at The Sunday Paper, a terrible publication I wouldn't line my imaginary bird's cage with, nor wrap my imaginary dead fish in.

Just kidding... but not really.

[desktop] robotLOVE launch

We finished up the animation for the short play festival at Dad's Garage. It opens this Friday the 20th. We're gonna go see it.

C-dub and I have been working every night at the 70-30 Productions office. Mack and Neal from 70-30 helped us out with a lot of the animation. If it wasn't for those guys C-dub and I would be sweating this animation right up to opening night.

I'll post a link to a web version of the animation after the show opens. Until then, here is a desktop to celebrate the completion of the animation. An image from the "Launch Scene."

@ 1440 pixels wide (widescreen 15inch powerbook version)

@ 1600 pixels wide

A carol about a carol, caroling about another carol.

This weekend we went to see our friend from Zombie Sitcom in the christmas show at PushPush Theater. You might remember PushPush from a poster we recently did for them.

The play is called "Dick N' Carol" and is a sort of meta-play about a theater group struggling with the decision to produce an updated version of Dicken's A Christmas Carol. But it's also about the theater group dealing with the ideas of Art vs. Industry, and doing a show just because they know it'll make money.

PushPush likes to go hang out with their audiences after their shows, most often over a beer. The hope is that the audience will have "notes" for them about the show they just saw. That's pretty awesome, but I think I as ill prepared to give any notes of real value at the time. So I sort of stumbled through some awkward thoughts about the show... but now that I've had a chance to think about it, I'm full of opinions...

There are at least 3 plays going on within the main structure of the show. Echoing the 3 ghosts of Christmas that visit Scrooge in the original. The show jumps a little between these 3 stories, and you never know what level of the show the next scene will be set in. This was the most interesting aspect of the play to me. I think it could be pushed even more. This would be a great opportunity to do a play about the 4th dimension, and alternate realities. About how "every play is a Christmas Carol." All things touch all things in the 4th dimension. But maybe that's too weird for a christmas show.

PushPush does a good job of raising some interesting points about art and theater and "The Industry," all while making fun of themselves and the process of putting on a Christmas show. The show will apparently be much different come closing night, as they will be integrating changes suggested by the audience.

**bonus**
Also an acquaintance of mine, that I met at the legendary Baseboard Design Sanctuary, has recorded a pretty rad new song.
Check it out: Sorry (But I meant well)
it's tight.

David Dow Jones.

Last weekend in our kid's show at Dad's Garage, Uncle Grampa's Hoo-Dilly Storytime, we had a special guest star!

Former Artistic Director Sean Daniels played the lovable character "David Dow Jones" who had to use a walker, and seemed to be pretty beat up "from a few falls" over the weekend. It was pretty hilarious. Creative Loafing's Fresh Loaf weblog posted about the show.

The weekend before that a kid in the front row suggested a character for the story be named "Sarah Palin the dinosaur." (A thing in which she does not believe)

Apparently, they get the kids in Inman park started early on this stuff.

What grade did your art get?

Our play, FWD>>, got a nice review/mention in The Creative Loafing podcast Airloaf. The same review/mention shows up in Creative Loafing's printed See & Do section. Awesome!

Creative Loafing has been really kind to our play, thanks guys.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution... not so kind. Kathy Janich calls it sophomoric, which it totally is! The real kicker is the "grade" she gave the play. (who gives a play a letter grade?) At first glance this might just look like the letter "D." However, upon further inspection, my wife noticed that what she really gave the play was an emoticon... see:

Grade :D (sideways smiley face, thanks AJC!)

I have also been remiss in linking to Matt Myers weblog, The Black Smoke Factory sooner. His weblog is full of charming posts, and funny comic strips. Matt Myers plays the leading role in our play, and if it weren't for him I sometimes doubt the audience would ever like our main character. Matt makes you want to like him, even when the guy starts to fuck up his life.

Looking FWD

FWD gets a mention on the Creative Loafing weblog via Curt Holman.

Also check out the trailer:

FWD opens tomorrow Friday 11th @ 8:00pm in the Top Shelf at Dad's Garage

Thinking 4th Dimensionally

About a year ago I wrote a post about how I like to get all caught up in over thinking stuff. The joke was that my brain gets lost in the 4th dimension. Like there's a Calabi-Yau space in there somewhere folding in on itself:

The Theoretical Calabi-Yau space, a main tenant of Super String Theory, this is also where my brain gets trapped

In our play FWD, that opens on Friday, we tried to play with this idea of getting so wrapped up in your own thoughts that you actually slip into another dimension. An ever folding dimension that only exists in your mind, but also happens to have puppets living in it.

In the story Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott he tries to explain what the 4th dimension might be like if we were ever able to experience it. So far Humans have only ever been able to experience 3 dimensions, that's how we're built. But we're pretty sure there are other ones out there. Abbott is able to theorize what that would be like by telling a story of a 2 dimensional creature that befriends a 3 dimensional creature.

Carl Sagan does a better job of explaining than we would:

As a bonus, he also explains the Tesseract. Our absolutely favorite mathematical shape that lives in the 4th dimension.

Now we're not saying that if you met a 4th dimensional being it would be a puppet. Or that the 4th dimension is dangerous, and full of these puppet beings that will drive you crazy if you listen to them.

Because... That would be crazy.

Come see FWD @ Dad's Garage in the Top Shelf
Opening Friday July 11th
Running thru August 2nd

Please FWD immediately

My buddy RP and I wrote a play for Dad's Garage, and it opens this weekend.

FWD>> The Play
Opens: Friday July 11th and runs through August 2nd.
Where: The Top Shelf @ Dad's Garage Theatre

FWD is about a typical office drone who is slowly driven insane by his imaginary puppet friends.

Everybody is at least a little bit crazy, and generally people try to keep their crazy under control so they can interact with other humans. What would it be like if you liked yourself better when you were crazy? What would it be like if you chose to embrace it? What would that do to your life? What would that do to the people who make the mistake of trying to be close to you? The answers are pretty obvious, but the results are pretty hilarious.

A Farewell to Improvs

I used to improvise at this theater a lot, called Dad's Garage, for about 6 years... actually creepin' up on 7 years now. yikes!

Here is an image of fellow Dad's Ensemble member, George Faughnan, doing what George does best... loving bacon. Oh I mean, "being funny."</