British artist Tim Davies created this wonderful 16 foot tall air-powered inflatable spider puppet back in 2010 (video). Each leg articulates in four places allowing the puppet to curl into a ball, walk, leap, and attack. The 55 pound puppet is operated (and carried) by one puppeteer.

via Super Punch

The Old Murder House Theatre in Austin, Texas performed Aliens on Ice, a live theatrical ice skating version of the 1986 sci-fi classic film Aliens. The show was performed for two nights at Chaparral Ice in November 2011.

Movies.com wrote a review of the show and included video footage:

Anyone who has seen Aliens can follow what transpires over the next 70 minutes or so. It’s James Cameron’s film on fastforward…and caffeine…and possibly cocaine. The show captures the little details and turns of phrases that fans will know by heart and cast makes creative use of the ice, never standing still when they have to…

These guys may not be professional skaters, but they’re not bad. Not bad at all. They’re certainly not afraid of the ice and they’re not afraid of taking risks. When they do stumble, they play it off beautifully and keep moving. They make the “on ice” part of the show look effortless until they make a mistake and then it becomes a newly improvised joke. Using expert skaters as the aliens is a truly inspired choice and seeing the aliens literally skate circles around the clumsy humans is a genuinely thrilling experience.

via Neatorama

photos by Ryan Green

image via Movies.com

Described as a prequel to cult film classic Blade Runner, More Human Than Human is the latest theatrical effort by San Francisco’s Duke Productions. Playwright B. Duke (aka Paul Addis) penned this new stage show and has begun a fundraising campaign to bring the work to The Dark Room stage in November 2011.

His previous works include Gonzo – A Brutal Chrysalis and Dystopian Veneer.

More Human Than Human explores the lives of six genetic Replicants as they supersede their emotional design limitations and accept their emerging, artistic humanity. Designed to serve the needs of humans in the off-world colonies, a commando, a whore, an assassin, a roughneck, an au pair, and nuclear weapons loader make a desperate plan for an escape to Earth, an extension of their lives, and unrestricted liberty. Training for the departure brings them closer together than few of their kind have ever been, despite a potential threat from within. A sense of creative destiny takes hold of the group and their ultimate fate will cause a revolution. For fans of Blade Runner and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, this bold re-imagination will fill in the blanks formerly left to the mind of the beholder.

The show opens November 4, 2011 at The Dark Room theater in San Francisco. Other San Francisco dates are November 5, 10-12 and 17-19. Future dates are being scheduled for other American cities.

Brooklyn based theater company Piper McKenzie presents Theater of the Arcade, which reimagines five classic arcade games as minimalist theater pieces. The play is currently showing at the Bleecker Theatre in New York City, as part of the 2011 FringeNYC Festival.

A violent brute holds an innocent young woman captive and attacks anyone who dares approach. A glutton eats everything in sight while running away from the ghosts that haunt him. A lone survivor forges a peril-ridden path towards a lush refuge he can never reach. Are these the plots of classic video games, or are they searing narratives of modernist drama? A hit of The Brick Theater’s 2010 Game Play festival of video-game theater, this collection of short plays explore what happens when stories born of the arcade are given the high literary respect and dramaturgical rigor they deserve.

via Jared Klett & Eddie Codel

photos by Ken Stein/Runs with Scissors

photo via AP/Rudi Blaha

photo via EPA

photo via The Telegraph

photo via Getty

photo via Reuters

The Seebühne, a massive floating stage on Lake Constance, is the centerpiece of the annual Bregenz Festival in Austria. The stage hosts elaborate opera productions that are famous for their extraordinary set designs, for audiences of up to 7000. The Bregenz Festival is currently underway, with performances through August 21.

via Fox Magrathea Circe & Bean Gala

Ahead of their latest transplanting of a television and film pop culture icon to a very small stage, the folks at The Dark Room Theater have produced a music video to get the message out that this version of the Star Trek mythos will be appearing exclusively live on stage and not on any set top box. In other words: “The Federation Will Not Be Televised”.

They may well have outdone themselves with this promo for “Star Trek LIVE! “The Way To Eden”", which opens in September. The video simultaneously displays a prodigious amount of Star Trek geekery and an appreciation for the works of the great proto-rapper and poet Gil Scott-Heron, who recently passed away.

Playing on Scott-Heron’s classic The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, this pure nerdfest of a video showcases the talents of Jay Huston (also of Chicken Scratch Improv) who stars in the show as Captain Kirk. The title of the play is a reference to “The Way to Eden” episode of the original Star Trek TV show, which fans just call “the space hippies episode”.

“The Way to Eden” follows a long line of film/tv adaptations at The Dark Room such as The Twilight Zone Live, currently in its eighth season. Others include The Shining, the 60s Batman TV show, Star Wars, and Young Frankenstein. I’ve performed in a few of these, and I’ll play Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in this play–and I promise I’ll give her all she’s got!!

Below are a video of Gil Scott-Heron’s original song and a clip from the space hippies episode…

Impressionist Jim Meskimen performs Clarence’s speech from William Shakespeare’s Richard III in a bevy of celebrity voices from Harvey Keitel to Woody Allen to Droopy Dog. This has been making the rounds, but I noticed it via an approving tweet from Craig Ferguson (@craigyferg), who Meskimen impersonates in the video.

Meskimen is an American actor and improviser who has appeared in numerous films and TV shows, including the British Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and is also a voice actor for JibJab animations, amongst many others. He’s the son of actress Marion Ross, who played Mrs. Cunningham on Happy Days (Ron Howard is another voice in his Shakespeare recitation).

He has a YouTube channel that includes a series of short videos called “Elbows On The Table”, parodies of a 1950′s interview show. They are pretty funny, improvised shorts. Though it’s surprising to learn that they are actually promos for the fiction of L. Ron Hubbard. Each one features characters from one of his stories, and they are sponsored by Galaxy Press, the publishers of Hubbard’s fiction. Here’s one:

Former San Francisco, now NYC-based theater troupe Banana Bag & Bodice have made Olde English Newe again, with a very modern interpretation of the epic poem Beowulf as a staged “SongPlay” complete with 7-piece onstage band. Next month they bring it all back home, taking their award-winning adaptation Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage across the pond to Eurpoe for performances at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It’s a big leap for a small theater company, but the show’s success has gotten ever more epic (heh.) each year since it was first performed.

With a fundraiser ongoing at Indie-Go-Go, they are well on their way. But before they get in front of Irish and Scotch audiences, they also have benefit nights planned this weekend in San Francisco (7/22) and New York City (7/23).

Poster by R. Black

You can see the full NYC lineup online for the show at the Abrons Arts Center: HOT SCANDINAVIAN NIGHTS! A Beowulf Benefit in NYC. There will also be a one-night-only performance in Brooklyn on August, 2nd.

BEOWULF – A Thousand Years of Baggage debuted in 2008 in Berkeley for which it won best new show in the Bay Area that year. It’s an original show with no connection to that recent movie version. Turns out there have been a LOT of adaptations of Beowulf in the more than a millennium since it was written–it is well established in the public domain.

Here’s an excerpt from the show, featuring the epic battle between Beowulf and Grendel, epically:

On the night of Thursday July 21st at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis a world record will be set for saying the phrase “Opera has gone to the dogs,” because, well, it will have.

Tragedy on the Sea Nymph is a 10 minute silent film starring dogs who perform the romance and tragedy of clandestine lovers shipwrecked at sea. The film will be accompanied by five opera singers and the Cedar String Quartet. … (Plastic baggies will be provided.)

Tragedy on the Sea Nymph made it’s debut in LA in May of this year at Machine Project in Echo Park. It was written by Elizabeth Cline with music by Lewis Pesacov.

Elizabeth Cline is an artist and curator living in Los Angeles. During the day, she works as a Curatorial Associate at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles where she produces artists projects in the Public Engagement Artist in Residence program. At night, she dreams and writes of the lives of dogs, roses and romance. Her next projects include a follow-up dog operetta set during the Gold Rush era.

via Maddow Blog

A quick post about a new play featuring yours truly Mikl-em, regular Laughing Squid contributor and man-about-town. Left-Handed Darling is a new original play which recently premiered in San Francisco at The EXIT theater. Set in the colorful and disturbing world of 1930′s carnival sideshows, the play is inspired in part by Tod Browning’s classic film Freaks. I play the carnival barker (or “outside talker“), named Sugarchurch.

For fun I started a Tumblr blog called Sugarchurch on the show and various sideshow-related stuff. Below is a glimpse of the lighting and set for the show. I’ve put up a few more images on Flickr.

photo by Richard Board

Left-Handed Darling is a sensational and twisted story, a Creepshow tragedy (dark with comedic tinges) set in 1930′s dust bowl America, amid Vaudeville & carnival characters and scenes. The script includes well-researched historical details and remarkably poetic language. Even more remarkable as it is the author’s first play; Nikita Schoen (pictured below) wrote this play as part of the New Writer’s Program, a year-long mentorship program run by Foul Play Productions.

photo by Geof Teague

We’ve got a great team of actors and designers who’ve been working hard on this show. It runs Fridays and Saturdays through August 13th at The EXIT in San Francisco. Tickets are on sale now. We also were loaned some vintage carnival sideshow artifacts, like the picture board of attractions shown below, from the collection of David Apocalypse.

Photo by Mikl-em

There’s a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the play and the New Writers Program. It’s in its final few days, and it will help to fund both Left-Handed Darling and future shows by other local, emerging playwrights.

Here’s a clip from Browning’s Freaks:

San Francisco sketch and improv troupe Crisis Hopkins just posted this great parody of the original Twilight Zone movie opening prologue scene which featured Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks. Their version stars Sam Shaw and Dan Foley, and is a promotion for the 8th annual season of live on-stage adaptations of classic Twilight Zone episodes at The Dark Room Theater in San Francisco’s Mission district.

Rod Serling comes to life once again in The Dark Room Theater’s Eighth-annual installment of its popular Twilight Zone Live: Season 8 series Fridays and Saturdays in July! Each weekend gives local actors and directors a chance to showcase their talents as they bring to life episodes of the iconic television show of the 1950s and 1960s with their own unique, and sometimes modernized, adaptations.

The plays will be running on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm from July 1 – 30 and tickets are now on sale. There are a different pair of episodes each weekend, with different casts, live commercials and different Rod Serlings.

Here’s the full original scene (or watch just the final climax here):

A sneak peek of “SpiderMonster, The Musical”, an upcoming Sesame Street spoof of the Broadway musical.

Great creative works often jump the track successfully from one medium to another. You be the judge of how well the sci-fi classic Star Wars translates to a stage musical. What’s certain is this 1996 adaptation by Palos Verdes Peninsula High School is an impressive achievement in its own right. With a talented group of performers, creative costumes & staging, and a well-written script it is a fine new telling of a story we know so well. They cleverly borrow melodies from famous musicals like Les Miserables, Tommy and Godspell, bringing applause and laughter when the crowd recognize the tunes.

Above is Star Wars the Musical: Act 1, Part 1–there are 6 videos in all, here’s Part 2. As Salon.com wrote in debuting the video earlier this month:

We are proud to present you, for the first time ever, the entire “Star Wars” musical: conceived, written and directed by Garrin Hajeianm, Kevin Bayuk and John Zuckerman. Hitting the sweet spot of teen geekiness, “Star Wars the Musical” is a must-see for anyone who loves both George Lucas and monologues carried out entirely in song. Garrin was also kind enough to subtitle the entire play.

While more musicals or stage shows are turned into films than vice versa, it’s not at all unheard of, though usually they are Broadway productions–note musicals of John Waters‘ films Hairspray and Cry-Baby. Slate even wrote a guide for how to Turn A Movie Into A Musical a few years back (again focused on multi-million-dollar Broadway versions, of course).

Back in 2008, San Francisco’s Dark Room Theater made their own non-musical, low budget stage version of the film called Star Wars: Live on Stage. Below are a few of Scott’s photos of the Dark Room production which was also covered by the official Star Wars blog at the time:

‘

photos by Scott Beale

via Salon

Canadian designer Lance Cardinal built this astonishingly detailed model of the Muppet Show set. Thanks to popular demand he has also posted a making-of showing his painstaking design and build process. The set is a companion to Cardinal’s collection of Muppet figurines from Palisades Toys, a collectible toy manufacturer that went out of business in 2006.

via MetaFilter

photos via Lance Cardinal

See Also:
- Muppet Marriage Proposal
- La Choy Ad Campaign From 1966 Featuring The Muppets
- The Muppets Swedish Chef Makes Pöpcørn
- Beaker Performs Dust In The Wind on YouTube

Shotgun Players theater company, of Berkeley CA, kick off their 20th season with Beardo, an original and unorthodox telling of the story of Rasputin. As in years past Shotgun has employed the great R Black to design their posters including the one above for Beardo. The shows runs in Berkeley through April 24, tickets are on sale now.

Rasputin: healer or hedonist or both? Playwright Jason Craig and composer Dave Malloy, who brought you Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, team up with Artistic Director Patrick Dooley to delve into the world of Russia’s infamous bad boy mystic.

This creative team is a renewal of a successful collaboration: Craig & Malloy previously won the prestigious Will Glickman Award for best new play in the SF Bay Area for Beowulf which was produced by Shotgun in 2008 at their Ashby Stage Theater, where Beardo is playing. Beowulf was also a “SongPlay”, the term that Malloy & Craig have coined for their particular style of down-to-earth theater with live music–and in both shows that music is performed live from the stage, intertwined with the action. There are some differences, Beowulf was performed by Banana Bag Bodice, the theater company that Craig has led for more than a decade, which after forming in San Francisco is now based in New York. And the playwright played the title role in that show & Malloy was in the cast as well, neither are on stage in Beardo.

Initial reviews of the show are positive, describing it as exciting, clever and provocative and at times “magic”. There are also warnings for the strict-minded academics that it’s “not history” and notes that there is “coarseness” in the tale of a mad monk and master manipulator: richly salacious and crudely violent.

image from Wikipedia

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian monk and mystic, born in Siberia in the late 19th Century who claimed supernatural powers and became influential in the court of Tsar Nicholas II. He reportedly seduced Alexandra, the Tsar’s wife, and healed his young son. And legend has it that it took many men, lots of poison, several bullets, and a river to kill Rasputin. A legendary figure indeed, larger than life and disrespectful of death, ripe for a lusty portrayal.

Playing Beardo himself is actor and musician Ashkon Davaran who became internet famous last year with his San Francisco Giants-celebrating YouTube adaptation of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. East Bay Express says his Beardo comes off as “bushy, rumbly-voiced, relentlessly exhibitionistic, and incorrigibly flirtatious.”

Shotgun Players celebrate the completion of their second decade this year, thus officially qualifying as an established small theater company. They’ve mounted productions of everything from Richard III to Ubu Roi, but this year are showcasing new work for their 2011 season. That includes a lead performer from Cirque du Soleil starring in a world premiere and a new adaptation of Phaedra by an Obie Award winning playwright.

photos by: Pak Han

Here’s a glimpse at Beowulf in case you haven’t seen it (or wanna see it again). I wrote about it in 2008 when it was being in Berkeley.

The TED talk “Handspring Puppet Company: The genius puppetry behind War Horse,” introduces puppeteers Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones, and their gorgeously life-like (and life size) horse puppet.

Beginning with the tale of a hyena’s subtle paw, puppeteers Kohler and Basil Jones build to the story of their latest astonishment: the wonderfully life-like Joey, the War Horse, who trots (and gallops) convincingly onto the TED stage.

See Also:
- A Look Inside a the Castiron Carousel Marionette Troupe Workshop
- Giant Drunken Puppet Staggers Around Irish Village

I dug up this vintage 1977 commercial featuring a bespectacled Robin Williams at age 26 amongst telephones, fashion, and acting styles that haven’t been seen since. The first bit in the commercial, talking like he’s from outer space, is a funny coincidence, because this was a year before his character Mork from Ork debuted on Happy Days (yes, Mork & Mindy was a spin-off of Happy Days, it’s true). For more young Robin, there’s also an old clip of him improvising on a show hosted by Richard Pryor.

Currently Williams is performing live on Broadway, playing the title role in the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo–here’s a short promo about the show.

Doing well in his Broadway acting debut would be a ticket to a new height of entertainment immortality for Williams. He has already won 2 Emmy’s, 5 Grammy’s, and an Oscar, in his career so far. So if he wins a Tony award for excellence on Broadway, he would become only the 11th person to acheive the so-called “Grand Slam of Show Business” as an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner. Fellow San Francisco comedian Whoopi Goldberg was the most recent to achieve this honor, back in 2002.

When Ladykiller: Live debuts in March, The Dark Room Theater can put another impressive notch in its gigantic cultural icon belt. Agent 007, aka James Bond, joins the ranks of Batman, Luke Skywalker, Zippy, Groucho, Frankenstein, Rod, and God, all of whom have appeared on the diminutive stage of San Francisco’s best dive theater at one time or another. God “appeared” as a disembodied voice, technically speaking, but you take what you can get.

The Dark Room specializes in transposing works of cinema, television and sometimes literature, into nearly-no-budget small-surface-area live theater. Ingenuity is their secret weapon (from staging to costume to sound effects). And surprise. And an almost fanatical devotion to the comic muse (that’s Thalia, if you’re keeping score at home).

007 in his oddest assignment yet…

We here at the Dark Room have created an all-new Bond adventure, one that Sir Ian Fleming himself could not write—mostly because he’s been dead for decades.

See: James Bond wrestle with gypsies!
Travel: To exotic locations, and even ski!
All: On our tiny stage!

Ladykiller: Live plays every Friday and Saturday in March at 8pm at The Dark Room’s well-disclosed Mission District location. Tickets are on sale now.

In the video trailer, Bond, played by Steffanos X (lead singer of the Tom Jonesing tribute band), croons the original tune “More than a Man” composed by playwright/director Jim Fourniadis.

“Process: Marionettes With Geahk Burchill” by Eric Bueg takes you to a Portland, Oregon workshop where Geahk Burchill hand crafts intricate puppets for his Castiron Carousel Marionette Troupe. In darkly themed plays such as an adaptation of Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” Burchill caters his puppetry to a decidedly more adult audience.

via Etsy Blog | Scott Nery

See Also:
- Giant Drunken Puppet Staggers Around Irish Village
- The Narrative of Victor Karloch, A Victorian Ghost Story Puppet Play
- Royale De Luxe Giant Deep Sea Diver Visits Nantes Searching For His Lost Niece

Mark Pauline, the founder and director of Survival Research Labs (aka SRL), recently spoke as part of the Mad Science exhibition at the Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa, CA.

Founded in the late 1970′s, SRL pioneered the non-practical use of massive industrial / militaristic technology for the sake of achieving pointless tasks with optimal theatrical impact, energy displacement, and noise. Important achievements include reeducating a machine designed for sophisticated Arc and Spot Welding to instead beat mummified coyotes with a Louisville Slugger. As Mark says, this may be why he is sometimes confused for an artist.

He talks in detail about the recent SRL performance at the museum (An Explosion of Ungovernable Rage) and discusses the baseball bat-wielding Motoman robot and The Spine Robot, two of the newest SRL machines which debuted at the show, amongst other topics. Parts two and three of the talk are below.

Part 2:

Part 3:

via SuicideBots

The Last Night of the Barbary Coast is an original theatrical production debuting in San Francisco in February that pays tribute to one of the city’s most notorious eras, thanks to the creative input of some of the most outrageous creative spirits of the Bay Area present. The show portrays the Barbary Coast neighborhood in the mid-to-late 19th Century. The name of that district is shorthand for the overall culture of pleasure and vice that was an intrinsic part of San Francisco in those days. It bears more than a little resemblance to another gold rush town: Deadwood, South Dakota.

The Last Night of the Barbary Coast is very loosely based on the family legend of Director Jessa Brie Berkner‘s great-great-aunt Babe as she fled Meaderville, Montana, joined a Vaudeville troupe, and headed West.

The play’s story follows the archetypal and mythical structure of the tarot, or hero’s journey, as our heroine encounters the trials and tribulations of the Wild West from a young woman’s perspective.

The set for the show will be a giant roulette wheel designed by woodworker Jack Ruszel and artist Simon Cheffins. Cheffins is the leader of The Extra Action Marching Band (and before that of the legendary Crash Worship); he is also known for building a Spanish galleon equipped for sailing the Nevada desert at Burning Man known as La Contessa.

The show will debut in mid-February at SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco.

But before the wheel can spin, it needs to be built. So they’ve set up a Kickstarter fundraising project. The goal of $3500 needs to be reached by Tuesday Feb 1, 2:02pm EST. Rewards for contributions range from posters of the event to private performances by the cast and musicians.

photo by Mr. Nightshade

On previous Laughing Squid posts you can see La Contessa in action on the playa (or read about it’s demise and burial).

Tickets are already on sale for the eight performances in February. The show also has a Facebook page.

The show’s Musical Director is Freddi Price, front man for Rube Waddell and Lord Loves a Working Man. The choreographer is Ena Dallas, artist with The Starlings trapeze duo and member of the Extra Action Marching Band’s Flag Team. The Lighting Designer is Zoltan DeWitt, former lighting engineer for Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Director Jessa Brie Berkner is also Performing Arts and Theatre Director at Oakland Technical High School. in 2010 she took the school’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Here’s a short feature on the Oakland Tech performing arts program including Jessa talking about her work at the school.

This week’s issue of The New Yorker features a cover illustration by Barry Blitt of Spider-Men recovering in the hospital, a reference to the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” which has been plagued with performer injuries.

The Sol Cinema is the world’s smallest cinemas that uses only the power of the sun to entertain while being green.

The Sol Cinema has been lavished with pride and style. We use an LED projector showing short movies in cinematic surroundings. We use lithium batteries to store the energy from the Sun to power the cinema all day and night. Our photovoltaic panels harness the sunlight, even as the films are being shown, so we never run out of power.

via TreeHugger

San Francisco sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster recently launched their Feed the Lobster fundraising campaign, encouraging tax deductible donations to help pay for office space, equipment rentals and of course…better costumes.

It’s that time of year again. A time for parties, elf hats, overeating, awkward office gift-giving, martini hangovers, and — most importantly — giving back. With so many worthy charities competing for your attention, how on earth can we justify asking you to support Killing My Lobster?

The Dark Room Theater in San Francisco is presenting another original twisted holiday play. Christmas in Hell includes actors who have starred in their stage productions of The Shining, Life of Brian, and Zippy the Pinhead, amongst others.

The show seems to combine and agitate lo’ the many diverse, historic winter festival icons and bring them to a boil, then incite them into a dark and savory pudding that is spiked and bite-y. Here’s a quote from the theater’s Facebook page:

Kris Kringle and Pere Noel are famous Christian luminaries who officiated over the winter solstice celebrations in Austria and France for generations. Now, they languish under house arrest in Limbo after refusing to retool the solstice celebration into a big birthday party for Jesus.

Will Kringle and Noel save Christmas? Will Zeus swear in ancient Greek? Will Moses finally get a blanket? Will Santa Claus ever shut up? There is only one way to find out.

The show runs through December 18th on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are on sale now.