Ten Questions. Ten Answers. And one Big Surprise in the audience …
The Gospel of Sherilyn Fenn
produced by Nefarious Laboratory
The Gospel of Sherilyn Fenn is a true story about the saving power of cable TV and how it delivered one young boy from religion, junior high, the dangers of the middle America meth amphetamine trade, and the Eighties.
Show Info:
- Fri Feb 19, 2016 | 7:10PM
- Wed Feb 24, 2016 | 8:50PM
- Sat Feb 27, 2016 | 3:50PM
- Thu Mar 03, 2016 | 5:30PM
- Sat Mar 05, 2016 | 10:30PM
UNDER St. Marks New York, NY $8/$10
Answers by Brad Lawrence
(writer/performer)
1. Forget the PR version. When you’re talking to your friends, how do you explain this show to them?
Brad: It’s a very funny show about fear, death, guilt, eating disorders, and late night cable.
2. Here’s a scenario: After the show some audience members go have a drink. What’s the part of the show you hope they’re discussing?
Brad: I hope the show inspires them to laugh at the things from their own childhoods that they were either most afraid of or most ashamed of. I hope they tell the stories of those things with fresh compassion for whatever kind of screwed up kid they were.
3. What drives your show – character, theme or plot?
Brad: Mine is a solo storytelling show, so all three are kind of all on me. I’m not being evasive when I say I strive for a balance. If I rely too heavily on my performative style, then the theme and plot could be overwhelmed by schtick, but if it is all theme or all plot without a strong personality to make you interested, then you’re just getting a thesis or a biography.
4. In rehearsals, read-thrus, or prior incarnations, what’s the one thing someone said about the show so far that made you (or the team) the most proud?
Brad: Someone sent me a message after seeing the show and this is the part that has always stuck with me – “…the passage about faith and perspective, and compassion and forgiveness, is simply some of the most powerful stuff I have ever heard. ” I was really gratified to read that.
5. If money and resources (and even reality) were no object what is the most lavish, luxurious, pointless prop, costume, effect – anything – that you would spend money on for this show?
Brad: I would recreate the sets of bad movies and tv shows mentioned in the show – Dreamscape, Buck Rogers, Two Moon Junction – and have them seamlessly assembled one after the other behind me on stage.
6. What’s the one thing you’re looking forward to regarding the FRIGID Festival itself?
Brad: I love a festival atmosphere. Just immersing yourself in all the shows going on while at the same time, digging into your own work in a way that you don’t get a chance to normally.
7. Is there a scene, a moment, a gesture … anything at all in the show that you anticipate may get a completely different reaction depending on the audience that night?
Brad: I mention an obscene drawing a kid had me do for him in the sixth grade. Some audiences laugh at what he had me draw, some are appalled, some don’t know what to do with the fact that these are the sorts of things that come out of the minds of twelve year olds.
8. What’s your favorite line from the show?
Brad: It shifts, but right now it’s “Female characters in comics run around in nothing but thigh high boots and body paint and for some reason, that scares the crap out of the criminal class, I didn’t understand that in the sixth grade, but then, I was still years away from finding out how intimidating a naked woman could be.”
9. What’s the last thing you usually do before the beginning of a show?
Brad: Well, I just gave up smoking, so I guess we’ll find out.
10. You scan the audience and you see a face that stops you dead in your tracks – who is it? And why are you shocked?
Brad: My Middle School Principal. Because he’s supposed to be in jail.
Yeah, that would be shocking. I mean, some prisons don’t even allow conjugal visits, let alone furloughs to go see solo festival shows of former students. (Well, at least that’s what I’ve gleaned from Orange Is The New Black ).
Thanks so much for answering our questions, Brad!
The rest of you – don’t forget to check out The Gospel of Sherilyn Fenn.
-*-*-
Horse Trade Theater Group will present the 10th Annual FRIGID New York Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) February 16-March 6. All shows run 60 minutes, or less. Tickets are available for purchase in advance at http://www.horsetrade.
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