50 Plays - June 25, 2011 8:00pm

The second-to-the-last show!

Saturday, June 25 8pm

Butterfly Knife – director: John Pierson – cast: Eric T. Roth, Paige Saliba, Clifton Frei, Mathew Hope, Erin Orr

Scratch’d – director: Hank Boland – cast: the voice talents of Strawdog Ensemble Members Anita Deely, Shannon Hoag, Kyle Hamman, Hank Boland and guest artist Pat Whalen.

Peter Pain – director: Dina Marie Klahn – cast: Brooke Johnson, Erin Morrill, Emme Williams

Effluvia Falls – director: Regan Davis – cast: Patrick Kelly, Mikayla Brown, Brenda Kelly, Jonathan Sales, Aaron Pagel, Craig Rennak

All Things Foul – director: Patrick Kelly – cast: Laurens Wilson, Erin Wilson, Alex Farrington. Special thanks: Regan Davis (graphic design)

The Directors

John Pierson has been a Neo-Futurist since 1996. Recently he has co-written and performed in three critically acclaimed shows, Crisis: A Musical Game Show, Daredevil’s Hamlet, and FEAR. He directed LAID in which he had the honor of working with fellow theater stalwarts Joe Janes and Don Hall. He released his 20th record, Thresholds From The Basement, with his band Even In Blackouts and finished his second novel, The Last Temptation Of Clarence Odbody. The novel hits the streets in October 2011.

Hank Boland has been an adjunct Faculty member of the Film Department of Columbia College Chicago since 2004. Additionally, Hank has designed and taught seminars on topics such as Audio Theatre, Personal Essay and Monologues, and 10-minute Plays. In addition to teaching, Hank is a writer with works including commissions by 2nd Story, and Strawdog Theatre Company, as well as four musical comedies which have collectively had over two hundred productions around the world. Hank is a proud ensemble member, and the Managing Director, of Strawdog Theatre Company.

Dina Marie Klahn is currently the resident stage manager for the Old World Theatre company based in Skokie IL. She is a recent graduate of UIC with a bachelor's in directing and design. Although she loves stage management she aspires to be a prominent director in Chicago specializing in feminist and educational theatre. Dina Marie would like to thank her amazing boyfriend Kevin for putting up with her crazy schedule and her gorgeous cast for being sexy and talented.

Regan Davis is an improviser, actor, and director originally from St. Petersburg, Florida. He has directed improv, sketch, and plays both in Florida and Chicago. Previously he directed one of the many sketch shows for Joe Janes' 365Sketches; Status, River Lethe, and the Steps for Theatre Momentum; Straining to Be Hip for Bookstore Productions; and groups for the Miami Improv Festival and the Dirty South Improv Festival in Chapel Hill, NC.

Patrick Kelly is thrilled to finish his Chicago tenure the same way it began: working alongside Joe Janes and Don Hall. Patrick directed for 2^nd Story and appeared onstage in WNEP’s The (Edward) Hopper Project, 365 Sketches by Joe Janes, and most recently in Robot vs. Dinosaur’s Viking Women. Patrick leaves Chicago at the end of June to pursue his MFA in acting at NYU/Tisch. Thanks to Joe, Don, the cast and crew, and Martha.

Why see this show?

Well, first off, it's our last night! See 50 Plays before it's gone. I like this block. It contains the creative insanity of John Pierson, one of my favorite peeps in the world who directed Don Hall and I in our Sketchfest show, Don Hall and Joe Janes Are Using This Show To Try To Get Laid. I sat in on a Butterfly Knife rehearsal a few weeks ago. He has assembled a brilliant cast and the piece is some crazy fun noir. The evening also features two radio pieces with two distinct approaches. Scrath'd is a horror piece and Hank chose to present it as such with a few live enhancements. Effluvia Falls is one of my favorite pieces from The Armageddon Radio Hour. Regan is presenting as a cast doing a live radio show. Peter Pain is a "what happened after?" story of Peter Pan and Dina's cast is superbly cast and would give any regular cast of Peter Pan a run for their money. All Things Foul was fun to write, although it took a little longer than most of the pieces. This is pretty much Macbeth in a right wing Christain fundamentalist church.

For tickets and information, click HERE.

50 Plays - Alabama

Last night marked my first meeting with a director and a cast to discuss the play I'm going to write for them for "50 Plays." John Pierson assembled Eric Roth, Clifton Frei, Erin Orr, Paige Saliba and Matt Hope.

"50 Plays" will be this year's "365 Sketches." 50 ten-minute plays I write or have written will be performed at Strawdog Theater this June produced by Don Hall. The majority of them will be customized for a cast assembled by the director. Instead of 26 directors and 26 shows performed over 11 consecutive nights, we'll be doing two Thursday-Sunday weekends, each show featuring 5-6 ten-minute plays. More directors and more actors, more community building, which was the most fun aspect of last year's project.

I was nervous. Before leaving for the meeting, I carefully put my materials in my backpack, including the hoodie John Pierson accidentally left behind at Sketchfest. Made it all the way to the door of Konak's before realizing I forgot to bring it. Great. The writer shows up without anything to write on. At 8:25pm on a Sunday in Andersonville, I went scrambling to find a notebook. I found one at a liquor store that also attempted to be a modest convenience store. A two-dollar spiral notebook, later, I was back at Konak's.

I won't get into to too much detail about what we discussed. Mainly, I wanted to find out what roles the actors tended to play, what they'd like to play, their interests and special skills. The biggest surprise was when I asked the actors what they geeked out on - expecting to hear things like "Doctor Who" or "Star Trek" - Eric said feminist and queer theory. How cool is that? This is an amazing group John has put together. I also ask the director what they would like to do. What would they like to experiment with or what genre would they like to try? Keep in mind this is John Pierson. Expect an existential farce coming from this group.

I also forgot to get a picture of the whole group, so Paige and Matt are unfortunately lacking from the above picture. Oh, and the Alabama in the subject heading refers to my reference for the which one of the 50 plays this is. I thought it might be more memorable than numbers. Hard to get numbers to stick in my head, as I learned from 365.