Ka-HOOTZ Theater Company in Development:
Workshop Performances of New Plays
for Adult & Young Audiences
Ka-HOOTZ, Albuquerque's only theater company dedicated to producing new plays by living writers, wants to invite theater goers to be part of the new play development process. This August we are presenting two new plays currently in development followed by talk-back sessions with each of the playwrights at VSA North Fourth Art Center. Our hope is that theater goers will participate in the new play development process by joining us to listen to the plays and offering their feedback.
Workshop Performance for Adults Only:
Persephone, written by Mars Mráz and directed by Bradd Howard, is a modern, musical adaptation of the Greek myth of Persephone set in a dive bar. It tells the story of Demeter who has searched for many years for her missing daughter, Persephone, finally finding her working as a stripper under her boss and lover, karaoke extraordinaire, Pluto. Demeter would do anything to get her daughter back but soon finds herself caught in a deal that threatens to destroy her hopes of rescuing her daughter forever.
Workshop Performance for Family & Young Audiences:
Cinderella & the Beanstalk is a New Play/Fairy Tale Mashup for Family & Young Audiences written by Lou Clark and directed by Susan Pearson. The play features Cinderella and Jack of Beanstalk fame as they team up to confront Mr. & Mrs. Giant in pursuit of Bessie the Cow and the elusive glass slippers. The result is a witty and heartwarming tale of friendship for all ages. This workshop performance is a preview of this new play by Clark (Ka-HOOTZ Artistic Director) which performed to sold-out audiences this June at the Austin's Long Performing Arts Center produced by Pollyanna Theater Company. Cinderella & the Beanstalk will be produced as a full production this December at VSA North Fourth Art Center for the second annual Ka-HOOTZ for KIDS series.
Ka-HOOTZ Artistic Director Lou Clark describes the workshop performance concept:
“By presenting these new plays as workshop performances we are inviting audiences to be a part of the new play development process which is what Ka-HOOTZ is all about. Our hope is that audience members who attend these readings will enjoy them and also participate in the feedback process. Feedback is a gift and new plays would not be born without it.”
Workshop Performances of PERSPEHONE will be presented August 20-21, 2010 at VSA North Fourth Art Center (located at 4904 4th Street NW - between Griegos & Montano). Show-times are Friday & Saturday at 8PM. All ticket $5 suggested donation. For more information or tickets call VSA North Fourth Art Center at (505)344-4542 or visit www.vsartsnm.org.
Workshop Performances of CINDERELLA & THE BEANSTALK will be presented August 28-29, 2010 at VSA North Fourth Art Center (located at 4904 4th Street NW - between Griegos & Montano). Show-times are Saturday & Sunday at 4PM. All ticket $5 suggested donation. For more information or tickets call VSA North Fourth Art Center at (505)344-4542 or visit www.vsartsnm.org.
At Auxillary Dog Theatre
June 26 - August 30, 2009
Hot Theatre All Summer at Aux Dog!
Sol Arts, Goodpasture and Ka-HOOTZ
present
the LIVE FOUR ART Festival
Friday, June 26th the festival opens with the first of three episodes of ANY NIGHT LIVE, the new sketch comedy show produced by Ka-HOOTZ
With the debut of ANY NIGHT LIVE, Ka-HOOTZ continues to carry out its mission as the only theater company in Albuquerque dedicated exclusively to producing new plays by living writers. The format of the show includes original sketches written by playwrights in the company with one slot reserved for a local or national guest writer (akin to the guest band from Saturday Night Live, on which the show is modeled). Sketches spoof current local and national happenings as well as people. Content for Episode 1 includes: The Rail Runner, Doctors without Borders, Ron Bell, the Swine Flu, Lifetime Television and The Headlight Zone, a send-up of The Twilight Zone series set locally scheduled to reoccur in future ANY NIGHT LIVE episodes.
The show, directed by Lou Clark and Becca Holmes, is written by and features Ka-HOOTZ Company Members: David Bommarito, Lou Clark, Mark Dunn, Becca Holmes, Maggz Gallegos, Don Garcia, Kathleen Richardson, Wendy Scott, Joy Van Meter and guest actors Nick Lopez and Amy Suman.
Episode 1 also features a sketch from guest playwright Kamarie Chapman, recent graduate of the UNM MFA Dramatic Writing Program and 2009 Kennedy Center Award Winning playwright. Episode 2 is scheduled for Sunday, July 5th only as a special matinee performance designed for children and family audiences.
Performance Preview
The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico
by Aldo Velasco and Patrick Scott
Directed by Becca Holmes, Starring Demet Vialpando and Nick Lopez
Ka-HOOTZ’s first production at Aux Dog is the regional premiere of The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico, a work Holmes believes is a perfect fit for Albuquerque. It follows two young filmmakers as they travel through Mexico to document what they see as the corrosive influence of American capitalism on Mexican culture. In the process of capturing this exploitation, they themselves exploit a people they know little about beyond assumptions and stereotypes.
“It’s a great play and really important for New Mexico audiences, and I think they’ll appreciate it,” Holmes says. “New Mexico audiences are really smart.”
Though the play debuted in Minneapolis and has been previously produced in the Pacific Northwest, it’s a first for this area and a step toward Ka-HOOTZ’s goal of staging all new work.
The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico runs Jan. 9-25, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 6 p.m. Call 254-7716 for tickets. Aux Dog Theatre is located at 3011 Monte Vista NE.
Theater News
So Happy Together!
What’s a seven-letter word for collaboration?
Demet Vialpando and Nick Lopez do the dance of exploitation.
Ka-HOOTZ Theatre Company is the brainchild of playwrights Lou Clark and Clareann Despain. After graduating with MFAs from UNM, they realized that the opportunity to have their work staged locally was less than abundant. Clark wanted to create a space for the work she loved, work that was seeing the stage in other cities but was going unproduced here. “How can I make that happen?” she asked. “I'd produced over a hundred new plays in the past five or six years, so I thought if I can do it for all these other people, I can do it for me and I can do it for my friends. Help other like-minded people.” So in 2007, Ka-HOOTZ was born with the mission to “focus on new work by living writers.”
Wait—no Tennessee Williams? No Aristophanes? No Bard?
Nope. New work, world premieres. It’s a difficult challenge and one not yet completely realized, but a goal Clark found she had common company in pursuing. Soon after starting Ka-HOOTZ, she met Becca Holmes, a director Clark describes as “truly passionate about new plays. I met her at a time when I was really fragile as a playwright.” Holmes quelled Clark’s nervousness and concerns simply by saying—it’s OK, it’s your play. From that point, Clark knew she had found another collaborator, and they’ve been adding cohorts ever since.
Ka-HOOTZ’s Becca Holmes and Lou Clark, Sol Arts’ Kristin Loree, and Aux Dog’s Eli Browning make nice for art.
Holmes is a New Mexico native who has taught directing at UNM, but both she and Clark had previously been part of Seattle’s fringe theater movement, which Holmes describes as “intense” and a model for what their group is trying to bring to Albuquerque.
Clark agrees. “We want to do something different than community theater … Free theater, that can really make room for experimentation.”
Ka-HOOTZ’s first production, The 49 Sins, was certainly unconventional, debuting 49 short plays as part of one show at the N4th Art Center. However, the group didn’t yet have a permanent home. Enter Eli Browning, founder of Aux Dog Theatre. Both Clark and Holmes had directed plays at Aux Dog and the three kept in touch. Browning proposed the idea that Ka-HOOTZ join his own troupe, Good Pasture Productions, and become one of the theater’s companies-in-residence. So, one theater, two companies.
Actually, make that three. Sol Arts has also joined the party.
The goal is to have each ensemble produce three mainstage shows a year, and Browning would like to see even more than that. “I don’t want to close the doors. If we can start opening them up weeknights, all the time, that would be fantastic.” He refers to a concept that was key in the founding of Aux Dog: creating an arts incubator, a “center for artists.” He sees the collaboration with Ka-HOOTZ as stemming naturally from this, and all involved are optimistic about public response. “If you are innovative and risk-taking with your concept, people will respond to that.”
As read in the Alibi.
Children’s Plays - Dec. 5 at Auxiliary Dog Theatre – produced by Kahootz
ASH TREE
By GHE
Directed by KaHootz
Tristen is a young girl with a large imagination. When news come of her mother’s fatal condition, Tristen alongside sisters Gaela and Selene launch into a fantastical adventure where characters like Gnome, Merlin and Echo instruct them of their mission to unite their mother with the creatures of the Island of Apples.
Auxiliary Dog Theatre
3011 Monte Vista Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
Saturday December 5th
Free to all
As found on UNM website.