My new show opens next Thursday and it's a doozy. Probably the funniest play I've ever directed. And all tickets are "Pay-What-You-Can." That means you set your own price. The play is called Hunter Gatherers. And it's only the fourth production of it anywhere. The original run was extended for months in San Francisco. I don't want to spoil the many hilarious surprises so I can't tell you too much about the plot. What I can say is that it is outrageously funny and features one of the best casts I've ever worked with. We're on Wednesdays-Saturdays, March 26-April 11 at Stages Repertory Theatre (3201 Allen Parkway). Wednesday is a $50 fundraiser, but all other tickets are Pay-What-You-Can. You can read a little more about the original production at huntergathers.com. You can reserve tickets at www.stagestheatre.com (or by calling the Stages box office at 713-527-0123 and avoiding convenience fees). And you can read more about my company in these two stories from the last month: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6290118.html http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2009/03/pixies_brood_houston.php Hope to see you at the show!
From the Stages website: The Catastrophic Theatre kicks off its second season right here at Stages with Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's Hunter Gatherers, which finds Pam and Richard hosting their best friends, Wendy and Tom, for an annual get-together. An animal sacrifice kicks off the evening, followed by a little more sex, violence, deception, wrestling and dancing than at previous parties. The line between civilized and primal man will be blurred, and not everyone will survive long enough to enjoy the brownies for dessert! The San Francisco Chronicle called the play “Exceptionally entertaining theater...Outrageously libidinous knockabout farce meets penetrating social satire in Peter Nachtrieb's hilariously revelatory comedy. An almost two-hour laugh riot... A major achievement... An engaging, astute, no-taboos comedy of contemporary manners that skewers the moral, artistic, spiritual, gourmet and even back-to-nature pretensions of our society."
This opens tomorrow! Tickets for all shows after that are Pay-What-You-Can. I promise every single one of you would love this show. See our new website (by cf.net's own Jeff Balke) for more info here: www.catastrophictheatre.com
I'll check to see which works better for us, but I'm looking at going next Wed., Fri., or Sat. I'll let you know which one we decide.
I haven't been able to go to any of these in the past. But my in-laws are living with me now and I have built-in baby sitters now. And my wife has been pushing me to get out more. So I'll definitely go to a show. Can I yell out 'Hooty hoo! Clutch Fans!' in the theater?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6290118.html lady's bustline is nicely centered in pic. piques interest, months of painstaking planning and meticulous creativity only partly considered I'm not in Houston anyways. Sounds awful exciting, hope this slays!
Look for their next production: Thank You, Stranger- A story about a man, who on his 40th birthday goes to a gas station in a seedy part of town. While there he receives a $40 gift from a stranger. From that point on, the hilarity ensues as the man tries to determine the true intent of the stranger by enlisting the help of his online buddies. Seriously though, one of these days you are going to be doing a production and I am going to be in Houston and able to see it. Good Luck with the shows it actually sounds very entertaining.
I did a radio interview on KPFT today and the guy knew I was a Rockets fan somehow. We wound up talking about the Rockets on air for about five minutes. That was fun. Here's the first review: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/theater/6356334.html Play explores the inner caveman By EVERETT EVANS Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle April 2, 2009, 6:21PM Two couples get together for a night of fun and games that turns increasingly savage as it progresses. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, right? Wrong. Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s Hunter Gatherers may feature a situation somewhat similar to that in Edward Albee’s landmark play. Yet Nachtrieb’s portrait of marital warfare and social disintegration is dissimilar in essential ways and carries the premise to a vastly different end. The Catastrophic Theatre has mounted a vivid Houston premiere of Hunter Gatherers with a strong cast that makes the most of its biting black comedy and outrageously extreme action. Premiered to acclaim in San Francisco in 2006, Hunter Gatherers strips away the veneer of civilized behavior to reveal primal urges and unleash the beast within. (And if that doesn’t start a stampede at the box office, what will?) Two couples reunite each year to celebrate the anniversary of their joint wedding. Each pair consists of a commanding and an acquiescent partner: Alpha Male Richard, a hedonistic artist and his prim, browbeaten wife, Pam; milquetoast doctor Tom and his sexually aggressive wife, Wendy. The opening gives a taste of things to come as Richard insists that squeamish Pam assist him in slaughtering a lamb to serve to their guests. Nothing in the butcher’s shop was fresh enough, he explains. He wants something still bleeding. (Don’t worry. You don’t see the “lamb,” just the shuddering, bleat-emitting box that’s holding it.) Any play that begins with animal sacrifice must progress to other wild acts. No sooner have the guests arrived than Richard wrestles Tom to the floor in an annual ritual of humiliation (concluded only when Tom gasps, “You’re the stronger man”) and Wendy lustily voices her desire to have a child with Richard. That’s just a prelude to the plentiful sex and violence to come. Hunter Gatherers alternates between deadpan sarcasm, as when Wendy drily describes Tom’s sexual inadequacies, and cartoonish exaggeration, and as when Richard lapses into his caveman persona. It doesn’t plumb any great depths, and it sometimes strains in its efforts to shock. But Nachtrieb maintains cleverness in his often mordant writing and the play startles and amuses in about equal measure. Director Jason Nodler keeps the party popping by ramping up the energy level for those sudden, steadily recurring bursts of crazed behavior. He creates different shades of intimacy for the various duo scenes: the two wives together, the two husbands together, Richard with Wendy, Tom with Pam. That allows traces of reality and involvement even amid the wildest doings. Greg Dean makes a gung-ho, unbridled Richard, the primitive man eager to slaughter his own dinner and father a squadron with anyone available. Over the top, for sure, but the combination of Genghis Khan and Fred Flintstone is pretty funny. Charlesanne Rabensburg creates a gem of comic characterization as Pam. Sweet and dear, she’s so eager to be the perfect mate and please everyone that there’s a desperation to her niceness, a strain in her smile. Amy Bruce is marvelously brazen and shameless as Wendy. She accents every line with her sarcastic air, challenging stance and suggestive leer. Aflame with desire at the slightest spark, she’s all too ready for trouble, all too able to make it herself. Rounding out the mismatched quartet, Troy Schulze achieves understated hilarity as hapless Tom, fall guy to his errant wife and manipulative buddy. He has a neat way of radiating resentment with a smile. Like Rabensburg’s Pam, he is destined to break out of his mild-mannered rut — and look out when they do so together. Set and lighting designer Kevin Holden devises a believable living space that is, at the same time, theatrically presentational. He and Nodler close the show with a fine visual flourish that has greater impact than its brief duration might suggest. Hunter Gatherers implies that the human race is better served by leaving the veneer of civilized behavior in place. It’s less destructive than the alternative. Hunter Gatherers • When: • 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays through April 11 • Where: • Catastrophic Theatre, at Stages Repertory Theatre, 3201 Allen Parkway Tickets: Suggested ticket price $25 or pay what you can; 713-527-0123
Alright Bats, we're going to go to Friday's show. Hopefully we can meet up with you for a drink afterwards. Quick question: What is the seating like? When I went to buy tix, they had several pricing options, but no details.
Glad you can make it, Fatty. It's a relatively small theatre (about 150 seats) and it's general admission. The different ticket prices are there because we've gone to a "Pay-What-You-Can" system of ticketing this year. Some theatres offer "pay-what-you-want" but this is "pay-what-you-CAN." Tickets are available from $5 - $50 I think. Our suggested price is $25, but you pick the price that works best for you. And then you choose whichever seats are available. If you're there by 7:30 when we open the house, you'll have a good choice of seats. There is seating on three sides of the stage. The center is best, but the sides are good too as long as you're not on the extreme ends (where the view is obstructed). George: We do have VIP seating, yes. For our donors of $100 or more annually we reserve priority seats. Otherwise it's first come, first serve. Yonkers: Hope you can make it. If you're planning to come Saturday, I'd highly recommend reserving tickets soon. That one will sell out pretty soon I think, since it's closing night. The show is utterly hilarious and a lot of people have said it's their favorite they've seen by us and a few have said it's the best thing they've seen anywhere. I'd love to see some cf.netters in the house.
I hope you understand that this pricing scheme would represent an exorbitant ticket price for someone of my vast wealth.
BM, Any chance of an Austin apprearance, I really would love to check out your show, I am a big fan of live theater. Is this one in the round? DD
