Landry's Last Days (For Now)

Here is a Blog that I asked Landry (our summer intern) to write, reflecting on her last week of work with us. Furious will miss Landry and so will I. We wish her the best because she deserves it. - Nick

Last Blog of the Summer

I have to say, I don’t really want to write this blog because I know that it is the one in which I have to ‘wrap-up’ and say my goodbyes to this internship. Nick asked me a week or so ago what I wanted to get out of my last days here, and my answer was insurance that these are not my last days as a part of Furious.

This internship has been invaluable to me. I have learned things I never could’ve predicted and been lucky enough to work on bits and pieces of almost everything. I learned what goes into a press release, how to use EBay and Craigslist, what a Spuderito is, how to write and distribute a survey, and how to write thank-you and renewal letters to donors large and small. Oh, and to make best friends with Excel Spreadsheets. I also learned the reality of non-profits. Non-profits are messy, unpredictable, and require so much more care than most for-profit businesses with not always as much thanks. But the most important thing I learned is what an amazing contraption Furious Theatre Company really is.

I guess the thing I least expected from this internship was to come out of it with not only connections, but to come out of it with friends. The people I’ve gotten close with in Furious are not only people I immensely admire, but also people I actually want to keep in touch with because they’re all so damn cool. It’s always nice to like the people you are working for, but I think it’s incredibly lucky to actually want to go to work everyday and want to do even tedious tasks because they further the mission of these amazing people and their mission for this incredible company.

I’m not sure what I’ll do everyday without hearing Nick sing all of the incredibly wrong but creative words to my favorite songs. I’m also not sure what I’ll do without him there every Monday morning to discuss the antics of the weekend, or to help me pick out the perfect pair of new sunglasses, or to throw Nerf darts around the room while discussing the day’s goals and occasionally hit me in the face with one (by accident, of course.)

There are parts of every Furious person that I have gotten close to this summer that I want to be exactly like. I don’t want to say I’m obsessed with this company and the people in it, but…I mean…maybe a little. Not to be dramatic, but this internship has changed my life. I have so much more clarity now about theatre and how much work goes into every aspect of it, and I’ve learned even more the importance of being a passionate person. If you’re not doing something you’re passionate about, what’s the point of doing it?

Thank you so much to everyone I had the pleasure of working with this summer, and just being friends with this summer, especially Doug, Brad, Eric, Dámaso, Georgia, Megan, Vonessa, Katie, Christie, Brian, and of course Nick.

I was able to do this internship through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission grant. For those of you that don’t know, this program includes 125 different internships with companies in the arts community in Los Angeles. If these internships don’t exist next year, it will be a huge shame. They are not currently in the 2010 LA County Arts Commission budget, and I can only imagine the detriment to the arts community to not continue to expose the next generation of arts professionals to these incredible companies in such a brilliant way. I, and every other intern I have discussed this with, would without a doubt apply to the program again for as many years as we are eligible. This program presents the best of all worlds, we can make connections for our futures, get a very necessary dose of reality of what the world of the arts really is, give invaluable help to the company we fit best with, and even get paid. The loss of this program would be an undeniable shame. If you are an intern, a mentor, or a person who saw the difference an intern made for a company or the difference the internship made in the intern’s life, please email Anji Milanovic at amilanovic@arts.lacounty.gov. She is fighting to keep the program, and I know showing your support will help immeasurably.

Opening Weekend: An Intern's Perspective

The Pain and the Itch Has Opened!

The jarring content of Bruce Norris’ The Pain and the Itch was perfect for Furious’ first ever co-production with The Theatre @ Boston Court. A year and some pocket change after the decision was made, the show opened. The weekend was a very exciting one for Furious, with a successful fundraising event filled with generous supporters and of course the West Coast premiere of the monstrous baby that is The Pain and The Itch.

As the Furious summer intern, some of the biggest tasks I have had were all centered around one night, July 26^th: our opening weekend fundraising event and performance. That night finally came this past weekend. It felt like prom; all of the planning had happened and it was now out of our hands, and we were waiting in our nice clothes for people to show up.

The event was held in the beautiful Pasadena Playhouse library Sunday evening, with awesome food from Elements Kitchen (especially the pita chips and the chocolate tarts…oh my gosh…) and some great storytelling by Furious co-founder, company member, and P & I director Dámaso Rodriguez and Co-Artistic Director of The Theatre @ Boston Court Michael Michetti. The guests learned about brief versions of the histories of both companies and how they finally came together for this amazing production. They also discussed the play itself, the budget-deceiving set, and challenges brought about by this particular production, among other things. Additionally mentioned was the Furious Ebay Auction, please please please contact us at furioustheatre@yahoo.com or 626 792-7116 you have anything to donate!

The show itself, in my opinion at least, is incredibly funny and entertaining, but also extremely challenging. Dámaso referred to it during his storytelling as an “equal opportunity offender.” Much of the chatter I heard after the show on Sunday night included people reflecting on their own lives and reassuring their specific distinctions from these characters. One patron exclaimed “What a rollercoaster ride!” I think this is very true: it is a rollercoaster ride. If there were audience instructions they would be laugh, tear up, kick yourself for laughing, gasp, laugh, reel back in shock, laugh, and repeat. It’s truly a must see.

-Posted by Landry Allbright

LA Times Preview of THE PAIN AND THE ITCH

In case you missed the awesome feature in this past weekend's Sunday Times or the post on the LA Times Culture Monster Blog. Here are a couple of preview pieces written by Charlotte Stoudt on our co-production with The Theatre @ Boston Court.

This one ran in print on Sunday and on the LA Times online entertainment section:

Collaboration makes way for 'The Pain and the Itch'

Pasadena's Furious Theatre Company and Boston Court combine resources to stage the Bruce Norris satire, which pokes fun at liberal proclivities.

By Charlotte Stoudt
July 19, 2009

If you customize your latte at Starbucks, choke up at images of the Obamas from election night and TiVo at least one show on PBS featuring British accents, playwright Bruce Norris has you in his sights.

After successful runs in New York, London, Chicago and Boston, Norris' wicked satire of blue-state family values, "The Pain and the Itch," opens Saturday in a co-production between Pasadena's Furious Theatre Company and Theatre @ Boston Court. With an elaborate set, production-specific videos and a central role for a 4-year-old, "Pain" required the combined resources of two theater companies known for risky programming.
Sometimes it takes a village to offend liberals.

Click here to read the full feature.

This blog about the show was also posted to the LA Times Culture Monster Arts blog:

The pain of creating 'The Pain and the Itch'

by Charlotte Stoudt

4:00 PM, July 18, 2009

Director Damaso Rodriguez knew he was facing certain challenges with “The Pain and the Itch,” set to open at Theatre @ Boston Court on July 25. Bruce Norris’ intricate satire of blue state bad manners requires a major role for a child actor, an extensive set and the use of video. But the Furious Theatre Company artistic director never anticipated that staging a play could feel so much like shooting a movie.

Click here to read the full blog.

The Pain and the Itch opens this Saturday, July 25th and will close August 23rd...get your tickets now!

Hello from Furious Intern Landry Allbright

My name is Landry Allbright and I’m this summer’s Furious intern. I’m a rising sophomore and B.F.A. Acting major at Emerson College in Boston. It’s my third week, and I have to say, this internship is pretty awesome. I am beyond excited to be a part of the team behind Furious Theatre Company. The other day, I was typing up some handwritten notes from an April company meeting and the goals discussed put a whole new layer on the multi-tier cake of respect and admiration I have for Furious.

After stumbling across the listing on the LA County Arts website, I applied for this internship. Shamefully, I knew very little about Furious so I did research all over the internet and only found things which highly appealed to me. After my first phone interview with Nick (Furious General Manager and Ensemble Member), I gained immense excitement for the position. Several emails and another interview later, I was hired!

For the last two weeks I’ve been working on what we like to call FUNdraising through several different mediums including our Furious EBay Auction. (Be sure to check it out!) I’ve also been working hard to help expand our presence on social networking sites, etc. (Take this survey to help us out if you haven’t already!) Probably the coolest thing I’ve gotten to do is attend the awesome first read thru of The Pain and The Itch last week; this show is definitely a must-see. Don’t miss out! Tickets are on sale now.

I’ll be hanging around here basically being mini-Nick Cernoch for 8 more weeks. I’m already sad you can only hold this position once, but don’t tell anyone.

The Pain and the Itch Report - Cast in Huggies?

Furious is hard at work in the rehearsal room for the season ending co-production of Bruce Norris' The Pain and the Itch with The Theatre @ Boston Court. It's only been a week and we've almost blocked the entire play! The cast is close-knit regardless of who's a Furious veteran or first-timer. The team and facilities at Boston Court are allowing the creative process to flow at its smoothest! In short, things are going swimmingly.

This weekend was the first time everyone got to work with Olivia, one of the ADORABLE little girls in the role of Kayla, the impish daughter suffering from the title affliction. As it goes, she's older than her character, and while her character wears Huggies in the show, SHE certainly does not.

Thus, the cast, ever empathetic, decided to raise her comfort level by shrugging off their own, donning diapers themselves for the rest of the day. So, no, these pictures are not evidence of an incontinent cast, but rather a show of solidarity with their youthful comrade. It was a very sweet gesture that very much impressed this Assistant Director from the other side of the table.

More inside scoop to come.

-Dan Steele

Kevin Vavasseur as Mr. Hadid

Brad Price as Clay

Scott Lowell as Cash

Katie Davies as Kalina

Vonessa Martin as Kelly

Furious Turns 7...Welcomes New Ensemble Members

Furious Theatre celebrated it's 7th Anniversary this past Sunday.  April 26 marks the date of the very first public performance of Saturday Night at the Palace, Furious Theatre Company's inaugural production in 2002.

The Furious Ensemble that has been built in stages (starting with 6 founders in 2002 and growing to 15 in 2007 when its last "class" of members was added) grew again on the company's latest Anniversary with the addition of Matt Pelfrey and Megan Goodchild.

Pelfrey has been Furious Theatre's award-winning playwright in residence since 2007 when the company produced his play, An Impending Rupture of the Belly as it's first World Premiere.  His plays have been produced across the U.S. with recent productions and workshops in New York and San Francisco. Matt teaches playwriting at UCLA and continues to write Furiously...we're very proud that he calls Furious his artistic home.  Read more about Matt and his writing here.

Megan Goodchild first appeared on the Furious stage in Playboy of the Western World back in 2002.  After leaving L.A. to pursue an apprenticeship with Actor's Theatre of Louisville, she returned in 2006 and re-connected with Furious, working as a designer, assistant director and most recently as an actress again this season in US Drag, for which she was nominated, along with fellow ensemble member Katie Davies, for an LA Weekly Theatre Award.

Congratulation, thank you and welcome to Matt and Megan and Happy Anniversary to Furious Theatre!

Congratulations to E.M. Lewis

The American Theatre Critics Association has selected E.M. (Ellen) Lewis' Song of Extinction to receive the 2009 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award.

The announcement was made April 4 at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays, where critics have converged for a special industry weekend.

For more info click here.

Congratulations to Furious Friend and LA plawright E.M. Lewis!

Another Man Down?

Rumor has it LA City Beat is closing... what does this mean for the incredibly wise, passionate, insightful, and forthright warhorse of LA theatre's critical writing world - Don Shirley?

UPDATE: No longer a rumor. Ugh.

The Furious Flyaway

Acting & Motherhood

An Unrevealing Prop Check

Los Angeles Times Review: Hunter Gatherers - TOP PICK

Review: 'Hunter Gatherers' at Furious Theatre Company

3:00 PM, January 29, 2009

If you think that getting in touch with your inner primitive is the ideal antidote to the sterility of modern civilization, San Francisco-based playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's "Hunter Gatherers" urges you to reconsider. In a razor-sharp staging from Furious Theatre Company, Nachtrieb's bitingly hilarious black comedy spares neither savages nor saints as a polite dinner party devolves into an orgy of pent-up rage, sex and bloodshed.

An exotic gourmet meal is the annual tradition with which two 35-year-old couples who've known each other since high school celebrate their enduring friendship, but this year chef Richard (Doug Newell) has taken foodie obsession with the freshest ingredients to new extremes. Perched over a large cardboard box in the center of their upscale urban loft, butcher's knife in hand, he coaxes his reluctant wife, Pam (Sara Hennessy), to help him slaughter the bleating lamb they'll be serving later on to disaffected Wendy (Vonessa Martin) and her milquetoast doctor husband Tom (Steven Schub).

This pagan sacrifice is but the opening volley in the escalating mayhem that unfolds once the guests arrive. With abundant irony and well-turned barbs, Nachtrieb's sharply crafted dialogue follows in Edward Albee's footsteps, peeling away layers of well-mannered repression and hypocrisy as the foursome succumb to their basest impulses. In his determination to leave no taboo unviolated, however, the still-maturing playwright is at times seduced by cleverness into outrageous excess at the expense of continuity and coherence, even by the internal logic of this absurdist context.

Dámaso Rodriguez's relentlessly paced staging builds suspense with the visceral engagement of a cinematic thriller and draws nicely realized characters from the entire cast. Hennessy in particular parlays superb deadpan naivete into a journey of self-discovery through the dark corners of Pam's psyche -- a journey that ultimately takes on metaphysical dimensions. As the bodies pile up, there's ample opportunity to employ her cookbook's advice for calming the passing souls of slaughtered lambs with stories of magic and happiness.

-- Philip Brandes

"Hunter Gatherers," Furious Theatre Company at the Pasadena Playhouse Carrie Hamilton Theatre, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends Feb. 21. $30. (800) 595-4849. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Photo: Doug Newell and Sara Hennessy. Credit: Anthony Masters.

Back Stage West Review - Hunter Gatherers - Critic's Pick

Hunter Gatherers  

January 28, 2009
Reviewed by Les Spindle
When a whimpering lamb is ritualistically silenced as a prelude to a dinner party, it's clear the gathering isn't going to be your garden-variety schmooze-and-booze fest. Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's savagely funny comedy is a shocker, but the amazing thing about this San Francisco–bred work is how the playwright elicits a cockeyed sort of empathy for the flipped-out characters who inhabit this unnerving dramatic universe, which combines the verbal savagery of vintage Edward Albee with the visceral brutality of Sarah Kane. In director Dámaso Rodriguez's sidesplitting yet thought-provoking L.A premiere, the distinctive voice of a trailblazing playwright strongly resonates. Nachtrieb explores the thin line between civilized behavior and animalistic demeanor that exists in humans, giving us a harrowing glimpse at the results of people crossing this boundary when they’re backed into an emotional corner. Neanderthal male Richard (Doug Newell) not only believes freshly slaughtered animal flesh is required to make the anniversary party for his friends a success; he has additional surprises on the agenda -- including the determination to "spread his seed" among the guests. This makes him a good match for the self-centered and duplicitous Wendy (Vonessa Martin), who arrives with her mild-mannered geek of a husband, Tom (Steven Schub). Tom's kindred spirit is Richard's suppressed wife, Pam (Sara Hennessy), whose defense mechanism against the cruelty of Richard and Wendy is to pretend it doesn't exist. Acts of desperation lead to electrifying developments and an amazing denouement. The tight ensemble tackles the difficult material with intelligence and skill. The actors demonstrate terrific physical dexterity in fight scenes, masterfully choreographed by Brian Danner. Newell pulls out all stops to convey Richard's sociopathic leanings in a performance of impeccable insight. Hennessy's shrinking-violet housewife is a wonderfully detailed combination of nervous tics and subtle facial expressions denoting Pam's repressed despair. Martin nails the arrogance and selfishness behind Wendy's fake niceties. Schub triumphs as a tragicomic nebbish struggling to rebel against bullies. Design elements are likewise first-rate. This marvelous production is a fitting kickoff to Furious Theatre's graduation from Actors Equity's 99-Seat Plan to a Letter of Agreement arrangement, now offering substantially increased pay for its deserving actors.