Another 48 Hours (without Nick Nolte): Show Off! Theatre Under The Gun Returns!
March 6, 2006. I am standing backstage at Performance Works leaning over the sink about to regurgitate all my inner organs.
Lucky for the sink I am unable to because my stomach is devoid of content as I was unable to eat anything during the day because I’d split my tongue open on a Solly’s bagel. My tongue had swollen enough to give me a comical lisp which just added to my already exhausted and delirious state. I’m at Show Off! Theatre Under the Gun Reloaded and along with Darren Williams and Jackie Blackmore about to premiere our newly formed sketch comedy troupe, The Skinny.
48 hours previously we had been given an inspiration package to create a 12 minute piece of theatre. Not only were we about to reveal that piece but also a certain sketch-style that we had only just established during that same 48 hours. For the next two and half years The Skinny will continue to use the same style we created that night, right up to our last Fringe show this past September which included sketches that were created in that whirlwind 48 hours.
After I got over my sickness, we performed and we all felt we had hit on something special. We weren’t alone; all three nights of Show Off that year featured highly energetic, first class theatre from a variety of Vancouver theatre troupes. To this day they remain among the best nights of theatre I’ve ever witnessed. In the audience on that first night was Fringe favourite TJ Dawe. I ran into him a few weeks ago after his Fringe show and he commented how he remembered seeing us at Show Off. He told me how the caliber of the pieces that night “reaffirmed his love of theatre” and even inspired him to return the following nights and experience pieces that included an actual motorcycle and a jar of human feces as props.
Theatre Under the Gun returns this week in the guise of the Show Off Festival, part of the 3rd Annual Here Be Monsters Carnival which runs until November 1st at Chapel Arts (304 Dunlevy Ave.) with the Show Off Festival itself running on October 23 and 24. This year marks the 10th anniversary of Theatre Under the Gun and many of the troupes from the past 10 years will return on November 1st to reprise the shows they created during their own 48 hour private maelstroms.
I had a chance to sit down with Here Be Monsters Producer Jeff Gladstone to talk about the upcoming Carnival and Show Off: Theatre Under the Gun Reloaded.
Jeff: You aren’t the only company that was formed under Show Off or Theatre Under The Gun. New World Theatre, Leaky Heaven Circus, Electric Company, Theatre Melee, to name a few.
Michael: Was Here Be Monsters formed as a result of you guys taking over Theatre Under the Gun?
Jeff: Well, Monster Theatre was approached to do a piece at Performance Works because there was some free time available. I had the idea to do a festival of sorts, and I always wanted to do Theatre Under the Gun and I knew Chris McGregor with Theatre Bagger, who previously ran it, was thinking of letting it go. When I called him, he had just handed the reigns over to Heather Lindsay and France Perras. I contacted them with the offer of pooling our resources especially with the space at Performance Works already available. So we made it happen.
Michael: This is the 10 year Anniversary for the Theatre Under the Gun festival, and this is the 3rd year with Here Be Monsters running it. What are the goals you have for the future of the festival?
Jeff: Definitely to establish it as an annual event. It’s been hard to do up to this point, because we’re (HBM) artists trying to negotiate our work within trying to make money at so many other things, we can’t always commit to having it at the same place or same time every year, but that is definitely our goal.
Michael: One of the things I love about the Festival is that it’s one of the only gatherings where Theatre Companies work together. Bands are always playing shows with each other, but that doesn’t happen in the theatre world. Because this kind of event of rare it makes for real party atmosphere, which is really cool.
Jeff: There is so much to be benefitted from it. Whether theatre companies have similar styles or even conflicting styles, all resources are being shared including audiences, which is great for exposure. We see ourselves somewhere between The Fringe, which is big and very broad, and Hive, which is small and very specific. As a producer working on an indie level, I really appreciate the value of the collective and the co-op. With the Here Be Monsters Collective, we pool all our resources and work for a percentage. Even the Chapel, our venue, has come on board as co-producers. They’re bringing things artistically and administratively to the table. So no one is left on the line and it’ll succeed as much as people are willing to put into it.
Michael: Have you made many changes in the approach of running the Festival?
Jeff: Heather and France only really made minor changes as Artistic Directors of Show Off. Instead of 5 groups doing 15 minute plays, it’s 6 groups doing 12 minutes. We have talked about in the future incorporating more interdisciplinary arts. Last year we did have a guy create a painting Theatre Under the Gun style over the course of a week. We’d like to see that happen with bands too. The thing I like about ours is its ensembles. In Seattle they have groupings of writers, directors and actors. The long terms effects for the development of ensembles could be getting something started like it did for The Skinny, or for established companies to re-energize themselves.
Michael: You’ve been involved with Theatre Under the Gun as a performer and as producer. What have been your favourite memories?
Jeff: You know every year there’s at least one piece that always stays with me and one that will just makes you squirm in your seat if you know what I mean. And really it’s the celebrations that happen afterwards, the sense of accomplishment the troupes feel after they get through it. A lot of times they look back and say “Why don’t we do this every weekend? We’d get so much new material written!”
Michael: Yeah the party afterwards is pretty special, and there’s a lot of other stuff going on too.
Jeff: Monster Theatre will remount Jesus Christ: The Lost Years followed by Screaming Flea’s on site absinthe party “A Season in Hell”. There will be a Halloween ball on October 31st and The Chapel will be decked out with Monster inspired art from local artists plus we’re doing a costume and clothing swap where people can come by and share some crazy get ups.
For the latest in all the happenings of the festival go here where there be monsters.
Michael John Unger is one of three members of the sketch comedy troupe The Skinny. They just came off their acclaimed Fringe show “Adventures in X-Ray Theatre”. They’ll next be performing at the Making a Scene Theatre Conference November 15, 2008.
Nick Nolte just had his house burn down, in case you wanted to know.