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L.A.
WEEKLY (Recommended!)
Creating
new material every week for the stage is an insane undertaking, and
here Sacred Fools takes on the challenge with tenacity and balls.
Ten-minute episodes of five different ongoing plays trump across the
stage every week. At the end of the evening, the audience chooses three
that will return with a new episode the following week. In the hands of
lesser craftsmen, the endeavor could easily turn into mush. But most of
the serials presented on the night I attended were well worth the
challenge of an 11 p.m. curtain, and two in particular got my
enthusiastic votes. "Pony Show!", written by Padraic Duffy and directed
by Aaron Francis, followed Jimmy (Avi Klein) and his pursuit to become
the most famous horse trainer in the world, a dream threatened by the
evil and campy Chamois (a great performance by Henry Dittman). And Ben
Rock directed Bob DeRosa’s "Zombibi," which featured the hilarious Dawn
Stahlak as a bride-to-be made undead on her wedding day, who now must
keep making amends with the "loved ones" in her life until she stumbles
across the one who originated the curse.
-- Luis Reyes
© 2005 L.A. Weekly
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SoCal.com
Pssst!
Wanna commit a murder without getting arrested? It’s possible at the
Sacred Fools Theater every Saturday night in their ongoing production
of Serial Killers.
Every week
five stories are presented. Some are continuous while others are making
their debut. At the end, ballots are collected and the audience decides
which plays stay and which have to go.
Last Saturday night was the premiere of Jimmy Hoffa and the
Magic Pie written by Jeffrey Pfeiffer and Hate
Stories
by Jenelle Riley. Hoffa is about the missing union leader who
miraculously re-appears after a lengthy absence. Jimmy (wonderfully
played by Adam Bitterman) is still stuck in the 60s. He tries to make a
comeback of sorts with the help of two mob guys Tony Pro (Brendan
McLoughlin) and Tony Jack (Al Patino). The magic pie in question has
the answer to Hoffa’s question. Hmmm. Very interesting!!!
Riley is Maggie in her self-penned story. She flips the script on a
stalker and treats him as welcome visitor instead of psycho prowler.
She invites John (Troy Vincent) in for cocktails and tries to get to
know him better. After all she knows nothing about him except he likes
to masturbate and smell her panties. Meanwhile, Paul (Jon Monastero) is
Maggie’s other stalker who hates that John is invading his territory.
Monastero and Vincent were hysterical beyond belief even if the story
is disturbing and sometimes revolting. On the lighter side,
Bugadoodles by Padraic Duffy is reminiscent of a children’s
television show.
In this fifth episode [second, actually - editor],
Glow Worm (Rebecca Larsen), Dung Beetle (Philip Newby), Lady Bug
(Stacey Jackson), Bee (Matthew Garland) and May Fly (Jaime Andrews)
decide to go swimming. It doesn’t matter that bees won’t go near water
or may flies have a short life span, gosh darn it, the beach is the
place to be. On their adventure, they meet a shy Stick Bug (Joe Jordan)
who quickly becomes the Bugadoodles friend when he helps Bee out of a
sticky problem. Unbeknownst to the gang, Clarence (Henry Dittman) is on
a mission to control the bugadoodles. Think of the cranky Gargamel from
the 80s cartoon show The Smurfs. It’s so damn
corny but fun to watch at the same time.
On a funnier side, the ever-popular Magnum Opus Theatre
churned out their 17th episode. You don’t really need to know
what the other episodes were about to catch up. It’s easy to figure
out. A host comes out and explains what the audience will see. Amber
(Franci Montgomery) is a sweet natured young girl from Louisiana who
moved in with her white trash aunt Jasmin (Kimberly Atkinson) after her
parents died. In this episode, her friend wait for her to come out of a
coma and then the fun begins. This acting and movements are overly
exaggerated and yet it works perfectly. As the first show of the
evening, the audience cheered and roared for Magnum. And this was
before Haven Hartman, better known as the Beer Wench, carried a vinyl
cooler filled with Tecate and Heinken beers.
Out of the five stories, Hate Stories and the
fifth episode of Office Fu,
which blends corporate America and 70s karate flicks, were killed by
the audience. This means that two new stories will have a chance to be
either liked or killed by the audience. And the mad man who hosts this
medley of hysterical chaos is Terry Tocantins. His wiry frame and
infectious joyous personality emits high-octane energy that an audience
member easily absorbs. You can’t get this much quality from watching a
late night movie. Audience participation is a huge part of the show.
The actors favor this and the audience, enjoying their tiny cup of
wine, soda or beer in hand, happily oblige.
-- Mary Montoro
© 2006 SoCal.com
Also
read SoCal.com's review of the 2006 First Annual Thursty Awards
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