At the beginning of 2023, I was directing Richard Foreman‘s Eddie Goes to Poetry City for The Catastrophic Theatre, and whenever someone asked me what the play was about, I’d just say:
Tag Archives: the catastrophic theatre
conception vs. realization
This composite (showing a photo of my initial scenic design alongside a photo of the actual set) was sent to me by one of the actors in Richard Foreman’s Eddie Goes to Poetry City, a show I recently directed and designed for The Catastrophic Theatre.
“my name is eddie and i plan to escape to poetry city.”
In 12 days, I’ll begin rehearsing my next show, Richard Foreman‘s Eddie Goes to Poetry City for The Catastrophic Theatre. I’m directing and designing this script for the second time, nearly 30 years after my first attempt.
“like some low-rent, Gulf Coast Orson Welles”
During the half-assed lockdown in the early days of COVID-19, when the theaters were shut down, and live performances were cancelled, I had the good fortune to be asked to make a short film for The Catastrophic Theatre.
I submitted a short screenplay I had written some ten years earlier, and further proposed that I’d direct, design, and star in it, like some low-rent, Gulf Coast Orson Welles.
Inspired by both black and white film comedies of the 1930s and a 14-line dramatic fragment by the late East German playwright Heiner Müller’s, HERZSTÜCK is what might be pulled from the wreckage were Müller to fatally collide with the Three Stooges.
The film follows a pair of doltish musicians as they attempt to perform a duet for violin and piano. A series of accidents, distractions and interruptions leads to slaps, pratfalls, eye-pokes, and gruesome do-it-yourself amateur surgery. A bleak, slapstick meditation on the futility of love and, indeed, all human endeavor, HERZSTÜCK suggests a Laurel and Hardy short written and directed by Lars von Trier.
Anyway, the full movie is available to watch for free on YouTube.
the hunchback variations
(Jeff Miller as Beethoven, and myself as Quasimodo in The Catastrophic Theatre’s 2015 production of Mickle Maher’s The Hunchback Variations. All photos by Anthony Rathbun)
I wore multiple hats on this one (director, scene designer, props guy, and performer) and it was some incredible fun. We received some good reviews, and I was named Best Actor at the Houston Press Theater Awards. A film of the full production can be seen here.
wolveroon 