NoExit Performance

Red Bastard

2010-09-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

Some video of Eric Davis as Red Bastard. Davis will be leading the NoExit/IndyFringe workshop coming this October (check previous post for details).

Red Bastard Hits the Streets: A Dangerous, Seductive, Comedy Monster! from eric davis on Vimeo.

Red Bastard touches himself from David Berga on Vimeo.

Presenting an excellent professional development opportunity...

2010-09-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

In a partnership with IndyFringe, NoExit is bringing international performer and educator Eric Davis to Indianapolis for a workshop in physical theatre.

Bouffon: The Anti-clown, a workshop with "The Clown of Our Generation," Eric Davis.

About the workshop:

In the world of Bouffon, the audience is the joke. Bouffons show no vulnerability. Their great joy is to parody the audience, its values and flaws.

This pack of grotesque outsiders engage and parody the audience with great joy, intelligence and charm. To play as Bouffon is to celebrate paradox! They are disgusting, yet beautiful. They hate you, yet they flatter you. The Bouffons are the ultimate manipulators! A joke— told by a nightmare.

A ferocious social satire is about to explode, liberating the energy in the room with an immense pleasure to parody and to play. In this workshop, participants will explore:

Connecting with the audience, Parodying societal maladies and hypocrisy, Creating complex physical characters, Playing upon contrasts of theme and rhythm, Being 100 % present and captivating.

Where: The IndyFringe Building
When: Oct. 30 & 31, 12:30-4:30 pm.
How much: $50

SPACE IS LIMITED!!!!!!!!!!

Send your registration form (available from georgeannadsmith@gmail.com) and $25 deposit today!

Make checks payble to NoExit Performance, Inc.
Send to:
Georgeanna Smith
5845 N Parker Ave
Indpls., IN 46220

About the Mr. Davis:

Mr. Davis currently resides in New York. His original creations have won him both critical and audience acclaim. He performs and teaches internationally.

In 2010, Mr. Davis won the Golden Nose for Clown of the Year in New York. In addition, he was a Finalist for the NY Comedy Festival’s Andy Kaufman Award, and the award winning director and co-writer of The Bouffon Glass Menajoree which was nominated for Outstanding Director, Outstanding Script, Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Production by the NY Innovative Theatre Awards. He is most recently the co-writer and director of Kill Me Loudly: A Clown Noir.

Mr. Davis is a Founder and Co- Director of the NY Clown Theatre Festival, an international festival celebrating and promoting the art of contemporary theatrical Clown. (www.bricktheater.com) September 3-26, 2010.

Performance Credits include the clown in Cirque du Soleil’s highly celebrated production Quidam, as well as being contracted for developmental workshops of Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza, under the direction of Tony winner David Shiner, Ovo, and their upcoming project in L.A.’s Kodak theater.

Mr. Davis has trained in Pochinko clown technique and Bouffon with masters Sue Morrison as well as Phillipe Gaulier. He has also been a practitioner and teacher of improvisation, movement, Lecoq technique, and mask for over 15 years. Eric has great pleasure to play.

For more information on Eric Davis, visit http://www.redbastard.com.

NoExit Previews New Season

2010-09-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

NoExit Performance has announced the first two shows of their upcoming season, with a full season announcement coming soon...

Performing October 22 - November 6 is THE BIRDS at Wheeler Arts Community.

Adapted and directed by NoExit Company Member Ryan Mullins.

Performing December 2 - December 11 is THE NUTCRACKER at Wheeler Arts Community.

Adapted and directed by NoExit Company Member Georgeanna Smith.

Please stay tuned for more information on each show, as well as full season information and specific dates and times.

NoExit Company Member Alyson Mull gives the 411 on The Phantom Tollbooth

2010-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

Up next for NoExit:

The Phantom Tollbooth

April 22-24 and April 30th at Earth House

The cast has been hard at work under the direction of Company Member Alyson Mull creating a world adapted from Norton Juster's book. You might remember Alyson's previous directorial work with NoExit, Brave New World. Alyson was recently persuaded to answer a few questions about her work with NoExit. Stay tuned for more updates on the show!

What about the book made you want to turn it into a performance?
I like working with pieces that have larger ensembles. This book is overflowing with characters who all belong to one wacky world and share a common goal: bring back Rhyme and Reason to the land. Unlike my last adaptation, Brave New World, the atmosphere created in The Phantom Tollbooth is crazy, kooky, and at times ludicrous. I liked the challenge of molding these characters to be over-the-top yet still relatable. However, I really clutched onto this book when I decided to approach it from the angle of Milo as an adult. The stakes were raised, and the message became exponentially stronger.

Was this a childhood favorite?
No, but it was my brother's!

This is the second adaptation from literature you've done with NoExit. What's up with that?
I enjoy working with literature because it is not just dialogue. It's messy. Books allow you to dive into them and swim around in their words and extract something very personal from them. Through my own adaptations, I'm able to give back what I grabbed onto. There's a freedom in working with literature. I am fortunate to be working with a fellow company member and friend, Georgeanna Smith, whose writing I absolutely admire. For The Phantom Tollbooth, I told her my thoughts for the performance and asked her to rewrite the first part of the book before Milo enters the tollbooth. It has given the play an entirely new breath.

There are 3 siblings in the cast. Who is your favorite?
Eenie meenie miney moe... Joel.

What part of the production are you most excited for as director?
I'm excited to work with a quirky script. This isn't something I have much experience with as a director. As a director and a performer, I've mostly concentrated on more dramatic performance, but I'm hoping this script will give a new life to my rehearsal process.

Auditions for The Phantom Tollbooth

2010-02-02T08:51:00.000-08:00

NoExit Performance is holding auditions for their next production, The Phantom Tollbooth, on February 5 & 6 @ 7pm.

"For Milo, who has plenty of time." In this adaptation of Norton Juster's, The Phantom Tollbooth, Milo's life is crumbling. Just as he decides to give up, the tollbooth appears. He enters, and the other side is spinning with discovery. Through a fusion of theatre, dance, music, and design, Milo finds himself ready to take on a world full of uncertainty.

Directed by Alyson Mull, reherasals will start the second week of March, and performances will be at the end of April.

Seeking actors, contemporary dancers, hip hop dancers, and street dancers. No monologue necessary for the audition. Just come in clothes you can move in.

Direct any questions to alyson.mull@gmail.com.

February 5 & 6 @ 7pm
Butler University, Lily Hall main lobby, 4600 Sunset Ave.

NUVO article features NoExit Company Member Michael Bachman

2010-02-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

Creating Culture
Mike Bachman divides time between local youth center & theater company

The winter wind can blow down East 10th St. like it bears a grudge, making people who have to wait at the bus stops flinch. A wind like that would once have seemed like yet another indignity in this neighborhood, like piling on. For some, undoubtedly, it still does.
But things are happening here that are good enough to help a person put the weather in perspective. The angular prow of the Boner Center [pronounced BAH-ner] jutting out over the street signals a new energy that’s reinforced by the renovation of the Jefferson Apartments. Go a block south of 10th St. and you’ll find a grid of newly paved streets and sidewalks.
The East 10th United Methodist Church has been part of this scene in one way or another since it was built almost 100 years ago in 1911. Today, many of the people who live around here know the church for its Youth and Children's Center. Every day there are 50 little ones enrolled in the daycare program; 50 more arrive once school’s over.
These programs make it possible for parents in the neighborhood to hold jobs. And that combination is part of what’s helping East 10th St. gain some traction.
Mike Bachman is director of East 10th United Methodist’s Youth and Children’s Center. He started working there during the summer of 2004. He had just graduated from Butler University — with a degree in theater.

“In my life today,” Bachman says, “I am committed to things that I never thought that I would be. But you throw yourself in there completely, because if you don’t, others will fail. People might fail around you, or you might fail.”

Bachman says this understanding of commitment was instilled in him through the theater training he received at Butler.
He is still a theater artist. Bachman is part of the collaborative performance group known as NoExit – one of the city’s most adventurous ensembles. He says it’s his grounding in theater that has enabled him to succeed in his job at East 10th.
He is a living, breathing answer to every parent who has ever wondered what their son or daughter might do with a liberal arts degree.

Read the full article here:
http://www.nuvo.net/news/article/creating-culture

Auditions for The Birds

2010-01-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

NoExit Performance announces auditions for an original adaptation of The Birds: Sunday, January 3rd and Monday, January 4th at 6pm. Auditions will be held at The Irving Theatre 5505 E. Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46219.
Rehearsals begin Sunday, January 10th and performances run the weekends of February 11th-13th and 18th-21st at The Irving.

Auditions will consist of cold readings and group movement, so dress to move but you don't have to have movement experience.

Resumes are requested but not required, headshots are not necessary. Bring schedules and conflicts.

All races, ages, sexes, sizes, shapes, colors, species, persons are encouraged to audition.

The production will be partially devised and adapted from the Alfred Hitchcock film, The Birds.

Compensation is pending. For inquiries contact the director, Ryan Mullins at rmullins22@gmail.com.

This audition notice is short, so additional audition appointments are available.

Four stars in Nuvo!

2009-09-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

Check out Nuvo's review of "Antigone," a 4 out of 5 star production!

"With chest-beating monologues and excessive exposition, Greek tragedy can play like ancient soap opera. Who screwed whom? Who was loyal? Who will go down in flames? By the grace of Zeus, however, brilliant Georgeanna Smith blends these elements in the ethereally beautiful IMA gardens to put mortal woes in perspective and put us into the story. Like the citizens of Thebes sniffing out gossip, audience members follow the players up and down shaded stone paths. We witness two brothers battle to the death in a fountain and then chase after their mourning, arguing sisters. Only Antigone will risk her life to bury her disgraced brother Polynieces, against the King’s commandment. Once we Thebans are settled on the lawn behind the majestic Lilly House, King Creon and the unrelenting Antigone, then Creon and his son (who loves Antigone), and finally Creon and his wife (who loves their son) can cajole, scream and wail to their hearts’ content. The towering trees and dusky blue skies absorb their frantic echoes, while we consider the ultimate question. Is it better to die for the dead or live alone for power? Using nature, architecture, and earnest performances (including two ghostly interlopers), Smith so masterfully frames the problem that it’s difficult to imagine any other option. Through Sept. 26"

Antigone in performance

2009-09-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

FunCityFinder.com reviews Antigone

2009-09-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

Follow this link to a review by Mark Cline of FunCityFinder.com.

Here's an excerpt:
"Near the end of the show, there is an extraordinary exchange between King Creon and Antigone where their emotions and words are their own but their movements are driven by the spirits of the two dead brothers. The exchange plays out like a real-life marionette show and is quite creative. Even though the ending is doomed to be tragic from the start, how the actors bring the audience to that point is both imaginative and engaging.No matter if you are a lover of theatre, or nature or just something unique, NoExit’s production is without question a must see."

Remaining performances = September 24-26 at 6:30pm, meet at the main entrance to the IMA.
Reservations are encouraged for the remaining performances! Send them to NoExitPerformance@gmail.com

Antigone in Rehearsal

2009-09-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

Antigone opens this weekend!

Check out some rehearsal pictures then come check out the performance:

Sept. 18-20 and 24-25 at 6:30 p.m.

Meet at the main entrance of the IMA.

$10 members and students with ID / $15 public.

All tickets will be sold at the door, cash or check only.

noexitperformance@gmail.com

NoExit Opens 2009-2010 Season

2009-09-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

NoExit is opening the 2009-2010 season with a performance on the grounds of the Lilly House at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classic Greek tragedy, is directed by NoExit Company Member Georgeanna Smith.

The cast includes Nicole Gatzimos, Mike Hosp, Michael Bachman, Raphael Schwartzman, Mary Ferguson, Kaitlin Coyne, Michael Burke and Kenan Finley.

Multiple outdoor locations are used throughout the performance, audience members are encouraged to bring bug spray and a blanket.