Bessie Award Nominations Announced!

The 2014 Bessie Award Nominations were announced and La MaMa artists were among the nominees: 

Radiohole's production of Tom Murrin's MYTH OR METH was nominated for Best Revival.  Above is a photo from the show at The First Floor Theater as part of the Tom Murrin Full Moon Performance Festival.

and 

Sean Donovan was nominated for Best Performance for his work of Witness Relocation (their show Eterniday was presented at The Ellen Stewart Theatre), Jane Comfort, Faye Driscoll, and others. 

Congratulation to all the nominees!  You can see the full list : HERE 

Paul Lazar on Radiohole

The amazing Paul Lazar of Big Dance Theater on Radiohole's production of Tom Murrin's Myth or Meth that played last week at The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa:

"I promise (maybe) that this is my last email about The Radio Hole show Myth or Meth but I feel that a lot of the comments about it are selling it short cause they are mainly talking about how grotesque the show is. YES it is grotesque and yes the grotesqueness is essential and important because it keeps the piece from ever lapsing into the unacceptable zone of being acceptable. (and the grotesque stuff is so artfully executed). BUT how about the way the performers make that text fucking sail for an hour and a half straight with no lapses? To me the text sits in this unique place between Foreman and Ludlum. Weird poetic philosophical and also deliciously idiotic low end camp. Straight actors would suck dick at saying those words, as would many non traditional performers because because because it requires that you just be that specific bunch of balls to wall people for it to fly. 

HOW about bingo and beer with the audience before the thing "starts". Whenever somebody gets BINGO that's when the onstage action "starts". That's deceptively simple but it created the best atmosphere to receive all that transpired thereafter. No simple trick.
HOW about the set and props. ALL that Whiteness. What a perfect canvas for an evening a shit, puke, piss and jizz. One could wax dramaturgical about staining the ALL WHITE world. I won't but to say I loved all the whiteness, even the glare of white light.
How about the l e d lights and the two stupid "theatre" doors and yes we've seen radio hole and others run the sound from onstage for a long time but to see Scott Gilette dripping with shit hit a button on the sound box and then sing a song. 

How about the costumes? Findley's delicate sheer flowing fabric over his leather jock, that's a pretty exquisite clash. THE WHOLE PIECE IS AN EXQUISITE CLASH BECAUSE THERE'S A HEAVY DOSE OF FUCK YOU ANGER BLENDED WITH AN EQUALLY HEAVY DOSE OF GENEROUS FESTIVE LIFE AFFIRMING GIVING OF AS MUCH AS A LIVE PERFORMER CAN GIVE. And how about the "ERS Law Book by John Collins". That one object describes the whole difference between this moment in Downtown (for lack of a better term) Theatre and Tom Murren's Downtown Theatre. For better and/or worse it is now possible for Downtown work to MAKE IT it the mainstream. In fact, actual members of the Supreme Court are supposedly attending performances of ERS's Arguendo in D.C. right now. 

Tom Murren's work and it's ilk was only seen by the Supreme Court when they were ruling on whether or not to ban it. I am NOT making a judgement about this being a good or bad change in the world of Downtown Theatre. It's just SOOOOO different. Maybe it's a change for the better that a non traditional aesthetic can wend it's way into the mainstream. All I'm saying, as a person who is in the "making it" mode so often myself, is that MYTH OR METH is like one of those Zen stories where one Monk gets too caught up in bullshit that so another Monk does him the favor of whacking him in the head with a fat stick."

Who else saw it?  Thoughts/Comments?

Coming Next Week: Radiohole's Myth or Meth (or Maybe Moscow?)

Written by Tom Murrin in 1969 and originally titled Myth (or Maybe Meth), this new version is conceived and channeled by Radiohole in association with Vladimir Putin.

In a shack somewhere on the steppe of Missouri three sisters drink Coke®, eat hamburgers, fend off the local romantic axe-wielding WWI vet, and carry on the family business selling sweet jam. But the hamburgers aren’t great and they long to return to their childhood home Moscow. Or Port-au-Prince. Or whatever. When their Pa unexpectedly returns from Juárez by way of Sebastopol, hungry and spouting neoliberal ideology, the shit really hits the fan.

Myth or Meth (or Maybe Moscow?) features Radiohole’s first-ever all-male (more or less) cast with Radiohole founders Eric Dyer and Scott Halvorsen Gillette along with Jim Findlay, Ilan Bachrach, Jon Okabayashi, Ryan Holsopple, and special guests TBA.

La MaMa presents

Myth or Meth 
(or Maybe Moscow?)

adapted and presented by Radiohole
from Tom Murrin's  Myth (or Maybe Meth)
part of THE TOM MURRIN FULL MOON PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL

April 24 – 27, 2014
Thursday to Saturday at 7:30pm
Sunday at 2:30pm and 5pm

La MaMa First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th Street
(Between Bowery and 2nd Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $20 Adults; $15 Students/Seniors; ten tickets prices at $10 are available for every performance, in advance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing program designed to make theater affordable to anyone.

For tickets: CLICK HERE