In early February I did a mini-interview with Eric Sanders knowing that I’d soon have the opportunity to have a much longer conversation with him and his collaborator, Dave Nuss.  Together they have created Original Innocence – The Rock Opera and I’m already fascinated by what I’ve seen.   This Friday, March 25th I’ll be heading over to ISSUE PROJECT ROOM (At the Old American Can Factory) 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11215 [Telephone: 718-330-0313] to see a workshopped production.  There are two shows that night – one at eight and one at ten.  I think you should come too.

I always love chatting with Eric Sanders, he’s my favorite combination of brilliant and humble.  Not to mention amazingly talented.  Now, meeting Dave for the first time I was equally excited; together these guys are an interviewer’s dream.  Read on to find out the random thing that brought these two talented men together, find out why they think it’s so important that our culture has a creation myth they can finally get behind, and let them explain why they cast Satan as a woman.

So, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first thing. A religious rock opera. Before we even get to what sparked the idea – your goals, the plot – I have to say. These days religion in New York is a hard sell. Without saying “the plot is good, the actors are amazing” . . . just from a thematic point of view – what made you both think this was such a great idea that you were willing to take this leap?

Eric Sanders

ERIC SANDERS: The question answers itself. Why are we afraid to have conversations about the most important topic in the world – our own relationship to the universe? We’ll talk about sports, fashion, and art – why not religion? If you redefine religion and strip it of the perversions of some of the organized sects and just think of it as person’s relationship to his universe, then we all have a religion. So then it becomes a question of if it’s working for you, how is it working for you, if it’s productive and helping you to coexist with people. So in my opinion to not talk about it is much scarier than bringing up the topic.

DAVE NUSS: I was brought up in Corpus Cristi, Texas, a very religious town with a particularly religious upbringing, so I wanted to confront aspects of the story I was raised with. The creation myth from Genesis has many beautiful and mysterious aspects that were simplified and presented to me as ‘Truth’; but now I understand that this truth really just refers to a network of forces and ideas that, especially when we encounter them as children, shape us on a fundamental level. So for Eric and I religion simply refers to the meta-lifeview that we encountered through the stories of our youth. Everyone can relate to that- even if the story is, say, Star Wars. In the case of this play our reference point is the Genesis story, and that connects with a wide audience because everyone has an experience with it. We don’t want people to leave the theatre saying “hmmm, well that was bizzare” or “I don’t get it.” We are offering “a new creation myth for our time”, and it’s for everyone, right now. We want the meaning to be felt on a visceral level. Genesis 3 is a story that fit the needs and circumstances of a particular group of people at the time when it was told, and has been interpreted over the years by myriad communities with myriad agendas. Original Innocence is a new myth that Eric and I are offering in NYC 2011. But please note, like the Genesis story, it may no longer be relevant in 4000 years, haha.

Tell me about the very first seed that started “Original Innocence”. Was it a conversation in a bar at 2:00am? An off the cuff remark over coffee? Set the scene for how this all started.

ERIC: The seed came from Dave – when I was doing The Wendigo a couple of years ago we had a mutual friend who thought that it would be great if we met since Dave and I both liked the supernatural. So he came to The Wendigo and we went out afterwards. We had similar interests but different backgrounds. He comes from the experimental musical world. And he said “I have this secret – I’ve been working on this religious rock opera, totally different than anything I’ve ever done before.” I was intrigued.

Dave Nuss

DAVE: By the time I met Eric I had shared the concept with my usual music biz people and they all said basically the same thing: “we have no idea why you’re doing this.” The music of Original Innocence really alienated my usual contacts because of the musical theater trappings; it also has strong emotional content and that is not something that is necessarily part of the avant garde world. So I was just allowing these recordings to percolate until a mutual friend of Eric and mine, Jodi Willie of Process Media, said to me, “Give the music to Eric, he may be interested.” My intuition was that the theater world was where this piece belonged, and Eric’s reaction confirmed this.

ERIC: Dave trusted me enough to share it with me. It was kinda like fate – or we were making our own fate. He had a rough blue print and a general idea. I just wanted to hear it. I listened and was just stunned; I felt like I’d found some sort of ancient manuscript – it was like finding the Dead Sea Scrolls … I felt like I’d unearthed this treasure. I was overwhelmed because it was out of my hands, really, but I just knew that this was something I had to be involved with for a long time.

So we started collaborating a little more than 2 years ago. I knew from that first night of talking that there was a great deal of creative chemistry between us.

I was going to initially ask how, once you knew you wanted to make this story, what about it said “musical” – specifically “rock opera”, but now I see that the music came first. So let me ask the question a little bit differently. What made you decide to make it a completely sung-through piece rather than a musical with dialogue?

DAVE: We kept trying to write dialogue and just kept saying “this isn’t working”. Then we realized, “let’s do it all with gesture.” I’ve always thought of Original Innocence as more of a parable, a story which perhaps has a “moral” but this moral has a lot of breathing room. Every time we were started writing dialogue for a scene we also felt it simplified the story into something too apparent, and we realized we couldn’t preserve the sense of mystery that we both were feeling regarding the subjects we were grappling with.

Like the question of the chicken and the egg, which came first? Well the chicken came first this time . . . the music piece was already done by the time we started “writing” the story. So Eric and I just needed to approach the music and allow the ideas to germinate. The most interesting part of the development of the piece is that Eric and I had to grow ourselves to receive the story the music is telling. In the beginning of the process we were a bit too concerned with autobiography and portraying our own beliefs. We had all these ideas like, “should we set a church on fire?” I feel like initially I had a little score to settle with the Church.

Now some time later we’re both in different places than when we began, and we’re each cultivating practices that are helping us approach this gesture from a less egoistic place. I think that’s why our collaboration is so successful – neither of us has a particular agenda. When we’d meet we’d have these long periods of quiet, almost like a Quaker meeting. There was no leader. We just waited and let the music tell us the next move.

I was fortunate enough to attend The Symposium on Creation Mythology last month. I not only was able to hear some very well spoken scholars discuss the creation myth of different cultures, but I also was able to hear four of the songs from Original Innocence. One thing I notice immediately is that, in the course of setting up the songs, the story itself made some very bold choices . . . for instance Satan is a woman. There were other plot points that challenge (at least what I’ve come to know as) the accepted biblical stories. Tell me about some of those changes.

DAVE: We tried to look at the characters archetypally; whether someone is a man or a woman doesn’t matter, the characteristics are what matter, they’re what’s universal. Eva, the Christ figure, is a woman as she’s embodying the concept of sacrificial love. Having Satan as female is not meant to imply women are evil – it’s actually completely the opposite – we want to break down that stereotype that Satan is a bad guy waiting to torture us. Satan in our play is fun, a kind of Loki character, but ultimately undercuts her own will to power by the recalcitrance she inspires.

So many images we have in our contemporary culture have nothing to do with their origin – in our minds today Lucifer equals Satan, but they are actually two completely different characters. Even Black Sabbath and the Stones didn’t really parse out the historical characteristics of Lucifer, haha. So in Original Innocence we’re trying to be more historical than stereotypical. There are no white hats and black hats. That’s the way the Genesis myth has been brought down to us – an evil snake in a tree, humans are fucked up and God is pissed at the entire human race. Women are the bad ones who make men sin, and now for the rest of history man has to feel guilty for acting on impulse. When you contemplate it, it’s a total disaster how this myth has effected us as a society.

ERIC: So the question here becomes – what kind of Christianity are we talking about? We were using the typical Adam and Eve story as an entry point for a new creation myth. This came out through very intricate conversations – what kind of creation myth would we find more helpful in this day and age so that we don’t feel like we’re “evil,” like we’re “fallen”?  Some will disagree and we welcome that, but we recognize that people collapse under the weight of this “original sin,” so this is a new way to view the story. The essence is about liberation from suffering and sin, as opposed to wallowing in it.

DAVE: Our story gives us a little more space to put aside some of those stereotypical ways of viewing ethics, and approach them with an open heart and an acceptance of ourselves. When we’re not judging people to determine where they fit in the ethical spectrum, we can view the world with much more compassion. What a relief.

Is there anything you came across while doing research – a story, a concept – even an object maybe? – that is fascinating and you’d like to share it with us?

ERIC: The biggest revelation for me during this process was learning much more about Eastern religions – especially Buddhism which I find stunning. We’re finally being introduced after thousands of years to Eastern Religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and yoga, and I’m seeing a really interesting shared dialogue between that and the Judeo-Christian perspective – they’re not mutually exclusive. That’s the sad thing – some people think religion isn’t worth looking into because “Oh, now we have physics.” Physics explains matter . . . it doesn’t explain how we should relate to matter. That isn’t a religion. It’s very dangerous and non-productive to think that we’ve transcended the need for religion.

Eastern religions – the lack of a God and the lack of original sin, the lack of one Creator, the idea that the universe is a continuum without beginning and without end is much in line with modern physics. Our most exciting journey has been taking the Judeo-Christian root – the Fall from Grace – using that original myth and telling a more Eastern myth about not necessarily going to heaven but about freedom from suffering. It’s more about compassion and wisdom. So the play starts with Christianity but it ends much more in Buddhism.

You each must have a favorite part of the show. What’s your favorite part – - and why?

ERIC: My favorite is the song “Only You” – it’s the second to last song of the show. It’s heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. It’s about liberation, but it’s also about reflecting back on what you’re leaving behind – which is a beautiful dichotomy. (To me at least) it’s the essence of the show: you have to move away from something in order to get to something else. You do have to leave your old self behind in order to transform. Religion is something you experience, not something you read.

DAVE: I probably like the part I shouldn’t like – the beginning which is set in the Jehovah era. There’s unification among people; it’s an age before ‘dissent’ had arisen, pre-individuation. The implication is that the song being sung, “You Are the Light” was been written by God Itself, and it’s been sung since the dawn of creation. There’s still part of me that idealizes what people can do when they have a unified intention toward a succinct goal. Of course life doesn’t work out that way because there’s so rarely a collective sacrifice for a particular intention. I see it sometimes in meditation groups – everybody’s seeking peace. An important aspect of this play is examining that part of our psyche that does not wish to participate in community.

You’re work shopping Original Innocence on the 25th. What can people expect from that evening?

ERIC: It’s off-book, there’s staging (by our director Pat Diamond), there’s a choreographer, Deborah Lohse who will work with us. We will block as much as we need. In some ways it will be like a staged concert presentation. It’s definitely a rock opera. Since there’s no dialogue so much of the story is conveyed in movement and intention. There’ll be some props and costumes. I’m hoping people who come can experience the essence of the show. We want to give a preview, not present the show in it’s ultimate incarnation. But it will all be there in a form that people can connect with.

And once again – to buy tickets for that night click the link here.

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Thanks, Dave and Eric for telling all about Original Innocence.  I can’t wait to see the workshop on Friday – and again, for all of you who are interested  to find out more:

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I’m always happy when I have an excuse to talk to Eric Sanders – he’s one of the most talented people I’ve run across and I love that doing what I do allows me to periodically get him to update me on what he’s doing.  A quick brush up: I first met Eric when he was re-imaging Algernon Blackwood’s The Wendigo (which scared the heck out of me) and then got to see his punchier side during Fight Fest with his crowd favorite: Last Life which was resurrected more times than (wait … I think I made this joke already.  Cher’s career?  Well, it writes itself so you fill in the blank).

Now, Eric Sanders has teamed up with Dave Nuss to bring forth Original Innocence – a Rock Opera and they’re hosting a “Symposium on Creation Mythology” on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 7 PM at the Anthroposophical Society of New York (138 West 15th Street btwn. 6th/7th Ave.).

This symposium will feature practitioners and scholars from an array of religious traditions discussing how the creation mythology of a religion creates or reflects the context for its ethical structure.

Several songs from the show will be performed, and food from the Holy Land will be served. BYOB.

Admission will be on a sliding scale (‘pay what you wish’) from $5-$50. All proceeds from the Symposium will go towards the first workshop presentation of “Original Innocence” on Friday, March 25, 2011 at 8 PM at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn.

• RSVP to the Symposium on Facebook.
• If you do not use Facebook, please RSVP via e-mail to christandsatan@gmail.com.
• Add the Symposium to your Google Calendar or iCal/Outlook Calendar.
• If you cannot make it to the Symposium and would like to help support “Original Innocence,” please visit the Kickstarter page.

I asked Eric a few questions to find out a little more about what I (and you) can expect from this symposium.

You’ve put together a really great program to promote your upcoming musical! How did you get all these great minds** together?

Dave Nuss (who wrote all the music and lyrics) and I wanted to find speakers who would be comfortable discussing a wide range of creation mythologies: Dave does Yoga regularly and knows John Campbell, who is a Yoga expert and teacher as well as a Columbia Religion professor, through those circles. Dave and I are both members of the Rubin Museum, and I met Harry Einhorn on a tour there about a year ago; he offered great insights into the classical Buddhist artwork on display, and we wanted to invite him to speak about the (mostly) lack of creation myths in Buddhism. Royce Froehlich is a Jungian Analyst whom Dave studied with at Columbia (Dave has a MA from Union Theological Seminary), and Dave thought it would be great to have him talk about creation myths from an ‘archetypal’ perspective. We are also adding a fourth speaker — top secret! But the hint is it might either be a female minister or a physicist.

This Symposium on The Creation Mythology will discuss “how the creation mythology of a religion creates or reflects the context for its ethical structure”. That’s a lot of topic there. Kinda like “what’s the meaning of life”. How much do you think you’ll be able to cover in one night?

The goal is for each speaker to present for about ten minutes and then begin a Q&A session which will evolve into a broader conversation amongst the attendees and participants, since we’ll have food for everyone and the event is BYOB! It should be a really fun, relaxed environment. Dave and I are really interested in fostering these conversations and helping to remove the stigma from talking about religion and mythology. We certainly don’t pretend to have any answers (yet)!

Plenty of people are interested in this type of thing. So you’ve already sold them. Give me a pitch on what to tell our readers who may be hardcore-anti “anything that smacks of religion”. What will they find appealing about this symposium?

Great question. But I will have to answer this with a question to that theoretical reader: Why are you so “hardcore-anti ‘anything that smacks of religion’”? Please come tell us! We promise not to bite, or convert you to anything you don’t already want to be converted to.

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** More Information

John Campbell, Ph.D, started practicing Ashtanga Yoga in India nineteen years ago with the late Shri K. Pattabhi Jois. He began teaching in 1995 at the first center in New York City devoted to this traditional practice, and was honored in 2003 to become one the few Certified teachers of Ashtanga Yoga worldwide. In 2009 he received a Ph.D. from Columbia University for his research on Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Tantra. John is a visiting professor in the Departments of Religion at Columbia University and Seton Hall University, and he also teaches Yoga and Sanskrit at Pure Yoga in New York City where he lives with his wife and their three children.

Harry Einhorn, BA, Northwestern University, is an educator at the Rubin Museum of Art where he leads tours and training sessions for diverse groups of people. He is also a performer, director, and composer; his chamber piece “Heart Sutra,” co-written with Philippe Treuille, has been performed several times throughout the city. A student in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, he recently returned from his second trip to Bodhgaya, India, the seat of Buddha’s enlightenment, where he was practicing meditation and studying dharma.

Royce Froehlich, LCSW-R, MA, MDiv, is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in NYC, having trainied at the CG Jung institute of NY. He is a faculty member of the CG Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology and is writing his doctorate on the effect of communications technology on the human psyche at the European Graduate School. His graduate degrees are from Columbia University, The New School for Social Research, and Union theological Seminary.

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About the Show

“Original Innocence” is a rock opera conceived by Dave Nuss and Eric Sanders. A traveling troupe of performers from a new religious sect dramatically depict their theology in a tent-meeting style ‘passion play’ about the creation of the world. While their tale includes familiar characters from the Biblical narrative — Adam, Eva, Lucifer, and Satan — their myth explores more ‘Eastern’ spiritual concepts of liberation and enlightenment, redefining humanity not as corrupted by but born from ‘original sin.’ The narrative tells of the pre-historical mythology of our world, offering a tale of Adam and Eva’s ‘first love’ in which their ‘sin’ ultimately leads to our ‘salvation’: the beginning of our human existence and ability to love.

Related Posts:

• A Creation Story: An Interview With Eric Sanders And Dave Nuss – The Team Behind “Original Innocence”
• Last Life Just Won’t Die – And That’s A Good Thing
• “Last Life” Gets In Two More Shots
• Fight Fest: Wham, Bam, Thank You “Last Life”
• An Interview With Fight Fest Curator Timothy Haskell

Last Life is the fightsical from Timothy Haskell (creator of Road House: The Stage Play) and Eric Sanders (The Wendigo), and stars Taimak (of the legendary fight film The Last Dragon).  The title is proving to be about as accurate a title as “Cher’s Final Farewell Tour” because this show has been revived more times than Britany Spear’s reputation  – and I couldn’t be happier for the whole creative team.

I was able to catch this show back in December when it played its completely sold-out run at the Brick Theatre’s Fight Fest (it went on to be one of the show that was extended) and it now returns for two weeks only at the Ohio Theatre  beginning March 4th.   Once again, I just have to mention how I was truly blown away by every aspect of this show … not only the flawless execution of the fight combat but just the remarkably unique development of every element.

Maggie McDonald and Jo-Anne Lee (photo by Ariella Goldstein)

See what other critics are saying: “If only theater producers intent on turning Broadway into a showcase for recycled movie ideas would have the nerve to hire director Timothy Haskell” –Village Voice “A deconstructed theatrical imagining of the action thriller in its purest form.  The glorious fighting and violence packs this fierce and beautiful production.” – InDigestmag.com “An R-Rated thrill.  Like watching ‘Kill Bill’ only live!” – iDanz Critix Corner On a side note, as Antonio reported recently, the Ohio Theatre will sadly be closing soon and New York City  will be losing one of its beloved theatre spaces.  But before it closes its doors the Ohio will ring with the smacks, punches and thwacks of Last Life, and I can’t imagine a finer salute.  So please, do yourself a favor and go see a terrfic show and pay tribute to this fine old landmark.  Doing so gives  the phrase “Last Life” a whole meta meaning … which I think is something that makes Timothy Haskell and Eric Sanders smile.  Or, knowing them … makes them roundhouse kick someone.  (Duck!)

Ohio Theatre (66 Wooster Street located between Spring and Broome) beginning March 4th and ending the 14th running Thursdays – Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 7 pm. Tickets ($18) may be purchased online at www.smarttix.com or by calling 212.868.4444.  For more information please go to www.lastlifetheplay.com

Related Posts:

• Fight Fest: Wham, Bam, Thank You “Last Life”
• “Last Life” Gets In Two More Shots
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• Creation Mythology, Rock Opera, BYOB – Just Another Night For Eric Sanders

So excited to report that if you didn’t get a chance to see Last Life you now have 2 more chances since the show has been extended! Make sure to get to one of the last 2 performances of this outrageous, strange, wonderful show!

Last Life
Presented by Big Time Action Theatre
Fight Directed by Rod Kinter
Directed by Timothy Haskell

In a borderless, burnt out world the few remaining inhabitants are at the end of a long, indefinable war. The survivors, not knowing what they are even fighting for, vow to destroy each other and wrest control for what remains. The new fightsical from the creator of Road House: The Stage Play starring Taimak (of the legendary fight film, The Last Dragon).

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I’ve been a fan of Eric Sanders’ ever since I interviewed him last year and then reviewed his staging of the classic horror story The Wendigo.  And while that first show certainly gave me a taste for how great his talents are, I was very excited about getting the chance to see Last Life - one of his original works.  Chatting with Timothy Haskell recently about Fight Fest only made me more eager to see not just a play, but an amalgam of story and combat, something they christened “the fightsical”.

Everything leading up to Last Life did not prepare me for what I actually experienced that night in the theatre; and while there are a lot of things one could say about the show, very little would do it justice.

Last Life is unlike any show I’ve ever seen. The concept itself is rather straightforward and, in fact, not completely unique.  The storyline is vague but clearly post-apocalyptic, and while the plot eventually emerges, it does so slowly, and not without a great deal of speculation between scenes (Who is that?  What exactly did that mean?  How are all these people connected?).  Watching Last Life is like being presented with one of those dot-to-dot coloring books you had as a kid, the one with about 100 dots so you can’t define the image at all as you look at the page.  And even the first few pencil strokes don’t make much sense.  But slowly, as you make those connections and those dots merge into something solid, the story of the picture comes forward and the image lets you know what it is.  At that moment you can’t wait to keep scanning the page for dot 101, 102, 103, because you know that soon you’ll know EVERYTHING.  And that’s how I felt at about scene 5 of Last Life. The lone threads begin to weave a story and I was slowly reeled in until it all makes a crazy kind of sense.

Last Life begins with a litany of verbal violence as Taimak Guarriello pounds through a gruesome list of torture … brutal without brutality, setting the scene for us.  Wherever this place is, it’s remote.  And it’s different.  And something’s turned people into violent kill-or-be-killed fighting machines.  Even among sisters (as we see later) there is little room for love but a lot of room for fighting.

Each fight in Last Life is approached … meaning it does not happen organically in the middle of a sentence, but rather it is stepped into by the characters who stand facing each other in grim determination before leaping into exciting, balletic and heart-stoppingly choreographed fights.  They slap, tug, pull, drag, trip each other, spin, lunge forward, swing wide, grunt and sweat.  They use fists, legs, ropes and – in one fearsome scene – knives.  From where I was sitting, these were REAL KNIVES.  Wieled by women.  I was never so proud of my gender, and so pleased with a playwright and a director.  Thanks Eric and Timothy … and thanks fight director Rod Kinter – for putting the shiny sharp objects into the hands of women.  And the rope too, for that matter.

Beyond the obvious staging it takes to get 2 people locked in mortal combat, there is another hint of something unnameable here.  While each Kinter-directed fight is happening the real is obviously real … but the fake is intentionally fake, and therefore more truthful.  For instance, while some punches obviously connect, when they do not the “thump” of supposed flesh on flesh is handled by Tim Haskell who stand to the right and strikes a melon with a satisfying whack.  Instead of blood pellets being hidden among clothing and popped at the right moments blood is exaggeratedly painted on, and the dyed liquid is left to fall and splatter at will.   When the characters cease their battle, the mess is then mopped away but the stained clothes remain.  As the show progresses the simple pants and shirts become human spin art.  It’s not so much comical as it is funny.  And I think the audience laughs in appreciation of the fact that no one involved with Last Life is trying to make you think something occurred when it actually didn’t.  It’s a sly wink to all that’s come before it, and we’re in on the joke.

To explain too much of the plot would be to give too much away, so I will only say that the ensemble does an amazing job, not just with the fight routines, but with truly pulling you into this world co-conceived by Eric Sanders and Timothy Haskell and Rod Kinter.  Taimak Guarriello, Aaron Haskell, Soomi Kim, Jo-Anne Lee, Maggie MacDonald, and Alyxx Wilson all invite you into this unique existence, and in the end when the last man is left standing the ramifications of what’s been going on this whole time provides a satisfying conclusion.  One more show to go … see it while you still can.  You’ll never see theatre combat the same again.

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Related Posts:

• Last Life Just Won’t Die – And That’s A Good Thing
• “Last Life” Gets In Two More Shots
• An Interview With Fight Fest Curator Timothy Haskell
• A Creation Story: An Interview With Eric Sanders And Dave Nuss – The Team Behind “Original Innocence”
• Creation Mythology, Rock Opera, BYOB – Just Another Night For Eric Sanders

Life isn’t all fun and games – every now and then you’ve gotta take a swing at someone … even if it’s only in your mind.  And face it, once you’re off the playground, it usually is all in your mind.  (Take THAT Mister Tourist with your 3 kids and your huge knapsack blocking the subway door!  YES, you CAN transfer for the #2 train at 14th. Now quit asking everyone and get outta my way!)  So what’s a gal to do?  Sure, you can go lose yourself in a movie with a multi-million dollar budget, but when you know all that punching and kicking and brawling is probably being handled by stunt doubles who know how to play to the right camera angles, it’s hard to really feel that emotional satisfaction.  You want to put yourself in a story where you can not only imagine yourself as the hero, sucker punching and bitch slapping your way through Act One, but where you can actually see guys falling to the ground and feel the vibration of it in your seat.  You want to go to a festival that fills the pow-wham-socko void that I know I’ve been feeling.

Well, you’re not the only one.  The Brick Theater, Inc. in association with Art Meets Commerce has heard your silent plea and starting December 1st they will be presenting Fight Fest – a rock ‘em sock ‘em good time that, in some opinions, gives this cheery holiday season exactly what it needs – a place where you can vicariously shake out that punch that’s been rolling up your fist all day.

I got a few minutes from Timothy Haskell — curator of the Festival as well as director of Last Life (which was written by Eric Sanders who gave me a scary good time last winter at The Wendigo).  You may have seen Timothy’s name plastered all over those Nightmare: Vampires posters this past Halloween season.

I couldn’t wait to ask Timothy some questions about what Fight Fest was all about … but first …

KTL: First of all, I just have to tell you that during the last few months, that poster for Nightmare Haunted House scared the hell out of me.  Before we get into Fight Fest, can you tell me a little bit about that project?

TH: Nightmare just completed its sixth year. It started in the LES in 2003 at CSV [The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center] on Suffolk Street. This past season it moved to NOHO at 623 Broadway.  It is a big, theatrical, truly scary Halloween attraction.  40,000 people walked through it this past season.  Every year it is themed differently, this year it was Nightmare Vampires, next year will be Nightmare Superstitions.  It started off as a very small, very theatrical spook house that ran for only 7 days.  It has become increasingly popular and now runs for 37 days from the end of September through the first week of November.  The sets, props and special effects are much more lavish now, but the spirit of it is the same.

KTL: Fight Fest – what a great idea for a festival.  In the past year I’ve gotten a lot of head-shots in the press kits and actors are always featuring “stage combat” prominently on their resumes.  It’s to the point where I look for it first, now —  or when I see 2 people sparring I always think “ahh … Stage Combat”.  Is that what Fight Fest is celebrating?  Or is it really something else totally?

TH: People are incorporating stage combat into their productions more and more now because it adds a level of excitement to the theatre that audiences are craving.  I have always said that most people would rather spend their money on a bad action movie then a good play, so bringing some of those populist ideas to such an intimate setting brings in a  whole new audience that gets excited by such things.  It has become very important for actors to have these skills whether it be for the movies or for the stage, but the fight directors have been largely unrecognized.  These productions don’t exist without them.  This festival in many ways is a celebration of this new, electric, populist theatre that people are very excited about, as well as an opportunity to acknowledge all of the brilliant fight directors who are the driving forces behind them.  I know with my production, the very clever Rod Kinter offers so much more than kicks and punches to  a bunch of fights.  He is telling a story.  Sometimes with humor or sadness, or what have you but it is always incredibly visceral. I couldn’t do it without him, nor could any of these other productions without their fight directors.

KTL: You’re not only the curator of the Festival, but you’re directing one of the productions as well – Last Life (written by Eric Sanders).  So, chicken and egg style – which came first?  Did you want to do the show and then realized you could build a festival around shows like this one?  Or did you decide on the festival and then find Last Life just happen to fit the bill?

TH: Michael Gardner and I have been discussing doing a festival of this nature for a couple of years now. Along with the great folks at Vampire Cowboys we finally said “we are going to do this” and we did.  I decided I wanted to help mount a festival first, but that doesn’t mean that my idea for Last Life didn’t predate it.  I had this show in my head for awhile, but not necessarily to be done in some festival that i was going to produce.  It seemed like the right time to do it, of course, so here it is.

KTL: How hard has it been pulling double duty as curator as well as director?  It sounds like you’d never sleep while getting this all together.

TH: To be honest, this has been a slow burn.  Helping get the word out and building the audience for the fest has been more time consuming as of late of course, but the curating happened at the beginning of the summer, so it has never been too overwhelming.  I am very happy with the shows we have selected and perhaps the most overwhelming thing will be seeing them all because I absolutely plan on doing that.

KTL: Last Life is billed as a “Fightsical”.  First of all – LOVE that.  Just the word alone send rapid fire images through my brain – starting with the rumble in West Side Story.  So one has to ask – is a fightsical a fighting musical?

TH: It’s funny because I coined the phrase a number of years ago when I did Road House.  In fact David Cote from Time Out NY helped me narrow it down (I think I was also thinking brawlpera or brawlsical). at the time no one had really attempted to do a  production with quite so much fighting in it.  There were plays with battles, always have been, but none where the m/o of the production was fisticuffs.  Road House had so many fights in it that it felt like they were cropping up every 5 minutes or so, breaking the dialogue, bridging scenes and characters in very much the same way musical numbers do in a musical.  But in this there is no singing or dancing to be had.  Just bloody noses and broken bones.

Timothy Haskell and Taimak Guarriello (Photo by Ariella Goldstein)

KTL:  Ahhh.  I see.  Well, when you put it that way, it really makes sense.  So, this fightsical, Last Life,  features Taimak of “The Last Dragon”.  You’ve worked with him on Road House. Did that make him your natural number one choice as fightsical go-to guy?

TH: Not necessarily. I have done several shows since then, most recently with The Jaded Assassin which holds the record for the amount of fight choreography in it (over 50 minutes), but he was just right for this role.  He is very good in these parts, excellent actually, so in that sense I always consider him, but he still has to be right for the part and for his role in Last Life he absolutely is.

KTL: Do you think you’ve hit the wall with the “fightsical” concept … or do you have other mashups inside you that you’re just waiting for the right moment to unleash?

TH: Every time I do one it is completely different.  I am always exploring a different way to tell the story.  This time the style is very real.  This isn’t as much of a comedy as some of the plays I have done in the past.  I am also working with an incredible playwright in Eric Sanders who totally gets what I am trying to do here. This one is brutal and visceral and in-your-face.  We have challenged ourselves to create the realist fights seen on stage, nothing sensationalized.  I think it will prove to be quite shocking. People are ok with cartoonish fighting, and that is what I have mostly done until now, but this is truth in fighting.  No one wins a fight in this play who couldn’t win it in real life and we use that vocabulary to inform the moves.  I don’t always do fight plays. The last play I did was a two-fister, a very serious drama called Stitching. My next play will not be a fight play, either, but even within that genre there are an infinite number of possibilities.

KTL: Last Question – Bonus Round.  It’s an open question – you can tell me anything you want to tell me.  It can be more about Last Life, something about the Festival in general, or you can take this moment to plug your next project or your favorite cause.  The mic is all yours —

TH: I am working on a one-person show called Sex You (I’m Gonna) starring Nathan Phillips opening in January at Norwood.  Come and check it out if you want to see a play I direct with no fighting. But it is still brutal (brutally funny :-))

KTL: Well, I know what a busy man you are, so I really appreciate you giving us a little background on Fight Fest and Last Life.  Thanks for taking some time to answer my questions and good luck with the Festival!

For anyone interested in more information, we’ll be reviewing some of the Fight Fest shows (including Last Life) but you can find out more by checking out the official website for dates and show times.

Related Posts:

• “Last Life” Gets In Two More Shots
• Last Life Just Won’t Die – And That’s A Good Thing
• Fight Fest: Wham, Bam, Thank You “Last Life”
• Ye Elizabeths – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• VCR Love – Where Do You Go When You’re Alone?

I was afraid of The Wendigo before I even got into the theatre. But not for the reasons you might think. Not because I was about to see a tale of horror, or because I’d done some research on it and the Algernon Blackwood story (upon which it was based) left me spooked. Not because I was coming off a cold and had that terrible oh-damn-what-if-I-start-coughing-during-a-suspenseful-part dread (was some actor going to break character and chew my butt out Christian Bale style ?) No – I was afraid that my delightful chat with playwright Eric Sanders a few weeks ago would some how predispose me to liking this play and not judging it critically. Well, I didn’t have to worry because that didn’t happen.

This play was amazing all on its own with or without my introduction to it via an interview with Eric Sanders. In fact, I got pulled in to this play so quickly that I pretty much forgot everything I’d been preparing myself for and just let the sights, sounds and (was I imagining it?) smells take me to that horrifying place that was created.

The Wendigo is a true ensemble piece – beginning with Algernon Blackwood’s stunning tale of horror written in 1910, continuing on with Eric Sander’s compelling adaptation; furthered by M.L. Dogg’s hair-raising sound design, heightened by the almost-too-effective lighting design by Brian Tovar and capped off by the intense cast: Erik Gratton as Doc, Nick Merritt as Simpson, Graham Outerbridge as Hank and Kurt Uy as DeFago.

Photo by Corey Hayes

We’re used to getting our genres in standardized media – horror comes to us on paper or celluloid (Oh, how quaint.  Digital, then).  But give it to us in a manner that we’re not familiar with and we’re puzzled. What am I supposed to do with this? I supposed it’s the tinge of confusion that the early settlers must have felt when they first saw butter magically removed from the churn and now confronting them from a shelf in the General Store on The Prarie (Now Laura, you put that butter right back next to the tucking combs before I tell Pa you were aiming to be fancy).

And so, similarly, we are used to having our horror doled out to us not only in an expected medium but in a specific atmosphere as well: on the big screen in a movie theatre, or secondarily on the smaller screen via Netflix. Regardless, we’re in charge of the degrees of separation and the ambiance – screen containing reality in which monsters (or knife-wielding maniacs, or blood covered prom qeens) securely THERE, our own reality comfortably HERE and never the two shall meet, so we are safe.  Pass the Orville Redenbacher Movie Theater Butter Popcorn pleeeeeeze.

This barrier completely dissolves once you bring horror to the theater – let alone a small theatre such as The Medicine Show Theatre where you’re already part of the show if you’re sitting anywhere in the first three rows (and the forth row is considered the “bad seats”).  The story literally enshrouds you before one words is even spoken – as you’re shoving your bulky winter coat under your chair and setting your cell phone to vibrate that eerie mist is not just covering the dense wood but it’s swirling around your own head as well. That twilight that seems to sputter (is it getting darker in here?) and that smell that seems to permeate (can something SMELL spooky?) is everywhere, there is no separation between you and that ill-fated hunting party. And therefore the fear isn’t quite as removed either; what we’re used to experiencing at arm’s length is now happening everywhere.  And all of a sudden there’s a feeling of unease that your body creates automatically … the fight or flight reaction … very clever, because now the ensemble has one more member: your amygdala.

The story, mind you, is very simple.  Please … don’t confuse “simple” with “plain”, however – it is simple in that the complexity does not lie in the plot.  This is the story of four men in a forest that goes on for miles; a forest that has uncharted territory, eons of mythology, and enough mystery in it to keep four grown men, two of them professionals, guessing as to what lies beyond the boarders of what they can see.

During moments when the lights went out I found myself clutching my husband’s arm (more than I do in a horror movie) and holding my breath … sure it’s “just a play” but suddenly the threat of this beast that’s “out there”  is a little more palpable, specifically since “out there” seems to be right where the audience is sitting.   The Wendigo could be anywhere … could be RIGHT BEHIND YOU … AHHHHH!

No, no, of COURSE cheap tricks like planting The Wendigo in the audience aren’t reverted to (we can leave that to Disney and Stitch’s Great Escape) but there’s an Algernon Blackwood line from the book (repeated in the play) that says it better than I ever could:

The spell of these terrible solitudes,” he said, “cannot leave any mind untouched, any mind, that is, possessed of the higher imaginative qualities. It has worked upon yours exactly as it worked upon my own …The Wendigo is a play based on a relatively short (50ish pages) story by Algernon Blackwood and the play is faithful to that pacing; it runs under one hour. With this amout of time the fear stays fresh, nothing has time to get re-tread and when the lights come up you can’t quite shake the feeling that something awful is lurking … just out side that door. Okay, so in this case, it’s only whatever you may run into on 10^th Avenue. But I hear it’s hungry and it wants … your … soul …

Catch The Wendigo (before it catches you) until Februry 28th, 2009 at the Medicine Show Theatre – 549 West 52nd Street (10th/11th Ave).  Tickets ($10) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444, or clicking here.  You can also buy tickets at the door.

Related Posts:

• Playwright Eric Sanders Explains It All
• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• A Creation Story: An Interview With Eric Sanders And Dave Nuss – The Team Behind “Original Innocence”
• Creation Mythology, Rock Opera, BYOB – Just Another Night For Eric Sanders
• Stinky Flowers, Sweet Thoughts

Eric Sanders is many things: a prolific playwright, a producer, and a lover of the horror genre.  With his upcoming play, The Wendigo, he takes the old tale written by Algernon Blackwood and brings it to the stage.  I sat down to talk with him about his career, his upcoming play, and his thoughts on theatre.

KTL: Eric, thanks for taking some time to chat with me today.  Before we get into your latest play, The Wendigo, I wanted to talk about DEWEY’S NIGHTMARE: The Library Play Challenge which was a process where people were blindfolded, set loose in a library, had to pick a book at random and then had one week to come up with a play based on the book.  Your play was called Mangina.  I have to ask, was it about what it sounds like it’s about?

ES: The cool thing about doing Dewey’s Nightmare is that the books were all random and very arcane, really one-of-a-kind books.  I wound up getting a yearbook from a small New Jersey State School from 1982 and I had to write a play based on it.  I was trying to just absorb it all … and I saw a picture of this sad looking girl, sort of looking off into the distance.  On another page there was this picture of a jock.  I just pictured the two of them having an end-of-year conversation about a failed relationship.  The twist is that he’s a hermaphrodite.

How that came out of seeing those two photos, I don’t know.  I’d be horrified if they saw the play!  Not that they would ever know it was based on their pictures.  So yeah, that’s what Mangina is.

KTL: I’d never heard of a wendigo before so I did a little research and found out it’s basically a mythical creature of the Algonquin people that can possess a human being and turn it into a cannibal.  Very X-Files.  Why do you think ancient societies had such obsessions with monsters?

ES: I’m very interested in that. Some of my favorite writers are people who you could call “supernatural horror” writers,  or “weird fiction” writers; H.P. Lovecraft would fall under that mantel, Poe is a good pre-cursor,  Blackwood is one of the prime examples.  For me, it ties into a sense of hoping that there’s something beyond the literal and physical.  I think religion is a great example of this.  The reason we’re preoccupied with things that don’t exist is because it’s really scary to think that this is it. All the matter and all the elements already are and all they can do is recompose themselves into different shapes but they can’t create anything new.  We started out here with everything and we’re going to end with the same everything.  Spiritually, that doesn’t feel like it’s enough.  It feels like there needs to be more to the universe than what we can see and touch.

For me, it’s not necessarily religious, but the feeling evoked in a story about something impossible — the feeling that it gives me — is this overwhelming sense of awe and possibility, and that makes me feel really more full as a human being.  Everyone knows it when they feel it.

It all goes back to that word awe.  That is what Blackwood is most obsessed with.  Creating a sensation of awe for the reader.  And that word “awe” has really changed in meaning over the years …”awesome” … people use it all the time but let’s face it; a guy skating isn’t necessarily awesome.  “Awesome” is really something overwhelmingly huge; mind-blowing beyond comprehension.  And that’s what I’m going for with this production of The Wendigo. Putting something out there that will push you back in your seat and make you reconsider what you came in with.  Shake the foundations.

KTL: The play is based on the book The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood who you’ve mentioned, and he’d originally written it in 1910.  Have you kept any of the old-time feeling of the book, or have you modernized it at all?

ES: Ultimately we decided to set it in 1898 which is when the story takes place because when Blackwood wrote it he was writing about a period of time that occurred 10 years before.  The story was inspired by some hunting trips he’d taken in the 1890s and so we set it in 1898 for the same reason. There’s something to be said for doing justice to the original intent of a story.  Like if you take this latest version of War of the Worlds, Spielberg’s version … don’t get me wrong, it’s an incredibly impressive piece of film making; unbelievable technically.  But to be a little cruel, it’s a little soulless.  I’d seen the original movie, but after I saw this version I went back and read the book by H.G. Wells.  If you read the original War of the Worlds (which is set in the London countryside) and then you watch this movie it’s not even close. They could have done a scene for scene reenactment of the original book and it would have been better than this post 9/11 dystopian nightmare that they made.  Film makers do a great injustice when they try and impose their frame of reference on something that doesn’t need their frame of reference.  So, as far as staging The Wendigo, If I wanted to write a new play I would certainly set it in a modern setting.  But it feels a lot more visceral when you go right to the root of the original work and don’t try to make it entirely “new”.  In our production they’re wearing somewhat period costumes, working on inflections, speaking the way they spoke, doing as much as possible to be realistic for the era.

KTL: You’ve written a lot of your own original work. As a playwright, what are the challenges of writing an adaptation as opposed to writing your own story?

ES: (Laughs) Everything! But first, on the flip side, the benefit of adapting a story is that the structure is already there.  When you’re writing a new play you have to impose structure on theses freewheeling thoughts that are going through your mind and try to put them into 2 hours.  Blackwood did a really good job of making the story work.

For me the most difficult thing was selecting which parts of the book worked on stage theatrically and which didn’t.  Not everything in a narrative works in live theatre because there’s a different requirement.  You need conflict, you can’t get as deep into psychology.  You have to show, you can’t necessarily tell. That’s what I worked hard at — anything I could evoke theatrically from the original work while still keeping the structure. I tried to keep it more active and less wordy.  A lot of time was spent giving the characters clear motivations and intentions and making that read to an audience. In a narrative Blackwood can do it for 20 pages, but we didn’t have that option. But I think we found a good balance.  I’m pretty proud of where we went with the piece.

KTL: There have been other variations and retellings of this myth … what did you feel you had to bring to this tale that wasn’t already explored?

ES: I wanted to really bring what Blackwood wanted to bring. The legend obviously had shifted by being retold over the years.  Blackwood made it totally unique.  When it comes to the Wendigo Myth, there’s Pre-Blackwood and Post-Blackwood.  A lot of the modern retellings – like for instance, Stephen King uses it in Pet Sematary – a lot of those are base more on Blackwood than on the original myth itself.  He took this myth and spun off this new branch, and I’m on that Blackwood branch.  My focus is to translate this Blackwood version into a theatrical setting that works both as a play as well as an introduction for people to the world of writers like Blackwood, Lovecraft and Poe.  These guys, who truly were writing about “awesome” things and trying to blow your mind long before acid trips.  There were some freak outs in some of these books — crazy crazy stuff – that is just so appealing to me. I’m trying to do justice to Blackwood who’s long dead – if he was alive I think he would like it.

KTL: The Wendigo is a tale of horror. How hard is it to create a terrifying atmosphere in live theatre … specifically an off-Broadway theatre where you don’t have the budget to turn the whole thing into, let’s say (an admittedly un-terrifying) Wicked?

ES: You have to do it through psychology.  It’s the best way.  Take Harold Pinter or Sam Shepard; there are elements of horror in their plays. Pinter unnerves me; two guys talking and drinking coffee in one of his plays can be unsettling.  I think in theatre, a lot of times the potential of an occurrence is more effective and more powerful than when it actually happens.  Tension is drawing out and sustaining a mood; the ominous possibilities are always much scarier.

In a movie you can say “here’s a monster; that’s what’s scary to me”.  But the way you do it in theatre is set up a moment when something can happen that you’re not prepared for. You can occasionally pull off some moments like that but usually the lead up is more unsettling so you work to really draw that out and embrace the tension.  For instance, what’s scary on a roller coaster? Going up or going down? Why is going up is so terrifying? And why is coming down such a release?  That’s what you can do with horror theater.  Sustain the climb to the top of the roller coaster and then drop them straight down.

KTL: Is there a temptation to go a little campy with something like this instead of doing straight-on horror?

ES: Not for me.  I won’t go there.  I can’t.  Because I don’t have an ironic love for these things.  Real supernatural horror is not ironic, and I don’t view it through the lens of TV lens or pop culture.  If you read the source material of this play or any of this type of horror, it’s not a joke.  You don’t have to like it but it’s not a joke.  There may be moments of humor but not camp.  I’m offended a little when I see things that are afraid to genuinely capture the idea of terror.  Our modern version of irony doesn’t have a place in the world of horror. Don’t get me wrong, I write a lot of comedy too … but I keep that separate.   There are so few productions that embrace this type of horror for real.  Like Evil Dead: The Musical.  I didn’t see it, but was it fun?  I don’t know — I’m not really interested. But things like that prevent you from feeling fear.

KTL: So if your intention is to keep it straight, how do you keep people from laughing in the wrong spots?  I’ll never forget that Blair Witch Project moment when she’s talking into the camera and her nose is running … half the audience was howling with laughter and I don’t think that’s what the film maker intended.

ES: You can’t stop the laughter.  It’s a trap to even try.  You have to embrace it.  All you can do as a writer is provide some lighter moments, let the steam out a couple of times. I try to dissipate the energy so that ideally it doesn’t come out in the wrong moments.  But if it does come out, it’s fine.  I’m more concerned when I write something to be funny and people don’t laugh!  If you think about it — if people are laughing then they are engaged and they like what they’re seeing.  They’re watching it and they’re part of it.  It’s one thing to heckle, but if you’re laughing, well, hey … you’re the audience member, it’s natural. I do it too.  Sometimes you laugh when you’re most scared, so you mock it. It’s the wall you put up.  So that’s fine.  Laughing opens you up to be more sensitive to the things that are coming to after you laugh.  Just like crying opens you up.  I’d encourage people not to pent it up.

KTL: You’ve done a lot creatively. You’ve been a writer, a producer … what process gives you the most creative satisfaction?

ES: Reading … can I say that?

KTL: Yes!

ES: Reading … I have been reading a ton of history lately in the past year and I think of reading as a participatory activity. You have to engage a book, it doesn’t read itself to you. Reading is a 50 / 50 game, it gives to you what you take from it.  What I’m writing now is influenced by (but not directly based on) history. I’m moving into a section of my career that I think is going to be really potent.

But to answer your question a little more directly: In the past I did a show with “Working Man’s Clothes“, around 2 years ago now, called “Fuckplays”. Can we say “Fuckplays” here?

KTL: I’ll see if they edit us out …

ES: I did it because I wanted to do a collection of plays about sex.  And I mean, plays about sex.  Partially because it’s a topic that when we think we’re talking about it we’re really not. We’re talking around it, or we’re substituting bawdiness for honesty … and I wanted to break it down.  We put out a call for different playwrights, and I contributed a play as well.   It was sold out every night.

We probably could have run for a lot longer but …. anyway that was really fulfilling for me. Because when people left they were talking, thinking, debating, arguing over topics that were introduced like misogyny, homophobia.  Anytime you can make people talk and think, or provoke debate, that’s an added bonus to the show.  It’s like reading a book — you want something to carry over, you want them to take something away with them.  Every show.  That’s my objective.

I hope that I always stay true to this.  The goal behind everything I do, the main purpose, is to inspire people to think about it for for themselves.  I’m not a politician.  There’s the reason I write plays.  Because I want to pose some questions to you, give you something to think about …. and you never have to thank me.  You can take the ideas in the plays and never have to remember the play.  That’s the thing about theatre in general, it can provoke conversations that without it, would not happen. The relentless questioning of society … that is what art gives us.  Censorship of art puts us on the path to a less thoughtful society, a society that’s moving further away from morality and rationality.  I think art is a necessary tool for rational human thought.

The thing is, we can’t have homogeny.  We have to want the things we don’t want.  It’s like the news.  The point of the news is not to tell you what you want to hear, but to tell you what’s going on as best as it can.  I’m just trying to tell you what’s going on, as best as I see it. You have to turn that energy into something positive or else it eats you up.  This came up in The Wendigo.  One of the themes of supernatural horror is that people are very limited in their ability to comprehend their universe.  And instead of being bogged down by that, embrace that.

KTL: Free bonus question time! You get one last shot to just say anything you want – anything at all about the project or yourself or something random.  NO pressure to be clever … just a last thought …

ES: My dream from when I was a little kid was to be alive when human beings made contact with something that wasn’t human — outside in the universe… something alien … let’s say ‘something that is not of this earth’.  I want to be here when that happens.  And I know I may regret that if it happens and there’s a massive plague.  But if it’s going to happen, ever, I want to be part of it.  Because that’s the culmination of the search for something more than us.  It goes back to the supernatural and looking to things beyond what we know.  And I would love to witness something like that — to know for myself that all of my fantasies and dreams were maybe somewhat valid and not just desperate attempts to create something out of nothing.   Because I think there is something … and not some vaguely humanoid five foot tall creature with three fingers.  It may be bigger than the entire universe, or smaller than an atom. Or it may be in a form that we don’t recognize, a form that we don’t even know how to recognize … or how to communicate with.  If we ever get a shot (and again, I may regret it) I want to be around for it. Our earth, our solar system … we’re note even a pebble … we’re not even there in the scheme of things. And that’s awesome in the true old fashioned sense of the word. Awesome … something beyond this earth.  It’s in The Wendigo. And I’m continuing that search through writing.  Through imagination.

KTL: Wow, Eric, that’s probably the best answer to the bonus question that I’ve ever received.  I dare say it was awesome, in the not-so-old-fashioned-but-still-pretty-complementary sense of the word.  Thanks for playing!  And thanks so much for giving your thoughts on your new production of The Wendigo. I’ll be reviewing the show in an upcoming column.

The Wendigo will be running in February from the 5-28, 2009 at the Medicine Show Theatre – 549 West 52nd Street (10th/11th Ave.) Tickets ($10) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444,  or visit www.smarttix.com

Related Posts:

• There’s Something Out There – The Wendigo
• Ye Elizabeths: Living Vicariously Because … (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• RADIOTHEATRE’s H.P. Lovecraft Festival 3: A New Kind Of Classic Ancient Horror Storytelling
• A Creation Story: An Interview With Eric Sanders And Dave Nuss – The Team Behind “Original Innocence”
• Creation Mythology, Rock Opera, BYOB – Just Another Night For Eric Sanders