Tag Archive for: Lee Sellars

EELWAX JESUS IS COMING

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Max Baker and Lee Sellars have written an imaginative, entertaining and original ALTERNATIVE musical. It will blow your mind.

Some backstory:  I have had the pleasure of working with Lee Sellars for over 12 years. We first worked together in 1998 on Tom Strelich’s new play-BAFO. We instantly connected and over the years we have developed an extraordinary artistic relationship. I have such fond memories of working with Lee. Most memorable productions include: COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY by Jeffrey Hatcher; COYOTE ON A FENCE by Bruce Graham;  SOMETHING IN THE AIR by Richard Dresser; THE PAVILION by Craig Wright; FLAG DAY by Lee Blessing; ROUNDING THIRD by Richard Dresser; and THE GOD OF HELL by Sam Shepard.

Our collaboration continues this summer with the World Premiere of THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW. Lee wrote the music for this amazing new work and Max Baker wrote the Book and Lyrics. Lee introduced me to Max several years ago in New York. Max is an actor, director and playwright and he is directing EELWAX for us this summer. So we have all known each other for many years… and I am thrilled that Max and Lee are giving me the opportunity to produce the Premiere.

If you want to hear the intro song for THE EELWAX JESUS 3-d POP MUSIC SHOW go to our web site www.catf.org  and click on the EELWAX graphic and take a listen. You can also hear more EELWAX JESUS songs on their web site www.eelwaxjesus.com 

After you listen to the songs please share your comments with me. I am looking forward to introducing you to this new ALTERNATIVE THEATRICAL EVENT. Please invite your friends to join you in Shepherdstown to experience the wild imaginations of Baker and Sellars. Please share this blog with your adventurous friends.

Ed Herendeen

WHITE PEOPLE AT THE FESTIVAL

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What does it mean to be a white American? What does it mean for any American to live in a country that is not the one you were promised? WHITE PEOPLE is a controversial and darkly funny play about the lives of three ordinary Americans placed under the spotlight: Martin a Brooklyn-born high powered attorney from a white-shoe law firm in St. Louis, MO; Mara Lynn, a  housewife and former homecoming queen in Fayetteville, NC; and Alan, a professor struggling to find his way in New York City. Through heart-wrenching confessions, they wrestle with guilt, prejudice, and the price they and their children must pay for their actions. WHITE PEOPLE, a new play by J.T. Rogers is a candid, brutally honest meditation on race and language in our culture.

J.T. Rogers (THE OVERWHELMING CATF 2008) returns to Shepherdstown with a sobering, unsettling but deeply rewarding look at a combustible issue many of us prefer to sidestep…WHITE PEOPLE will not be easy to sit through. It will raise questions as it challenges our assumptions about race. So…be a part of the conversation and join us in the intimate Performance Space in the Center For Contemporary Art at the 2010 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATER FESTIVAL. I am looking forward to having a lively conversation with you about this controversial new work.

WHITE PEOPLE CAST:

Lee Sellarsplays Alan, a Manhattan professor who admires the determination of New York’s Dutch colonizers even as he acknowledges their persecution of Jews and Quakers. At the same time he is exhilarated, almost smitten, by Felicia, a black student.

Lee Sellars: Alan in WHITE PEOPLE

Margot White creates the role of Mara Lynn, a mother in Fayetteville, NC., who wrestles with memories of her cheerleader past; the faded athletic glories of her husband, Earl, now a delivery-truck driver; and the struggles of her young, epileptic son. Frustrated, she vents her wrath on an Indian physician. 

Margot White: Mara Lynn in WHITE PEOPLE

Kurt Zischke plays Martin, a driven St. Louis lawyer who bemoans what he sees as the decline of the English language and popular music. His disdain for his black secretary…and black culture in general…is pronounced.

Kurt Zischke: Martin in WHITE PEOPLE

Ticket Alert!    Several performances of WHITE PEOPLE are sold-out. Make your plans now to see this remarkable new work.

Ed Herendeen

EELWAX JESUS CAST

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Meet the cast of The World Premiere of THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW Book and Lyrics by Max Baker. Music by Lee Sellars:

Lee Sellars, composer will play Ignatz;

Lee Sellars: Ignatz

Kurt Zischke will play Mr. Shine and Mr. Rumple

Kurt Zischke: Mr. Shine and Mr. Rumple

Clare Schmidt will play Meredith

Clare Schmidt: Meredith

Margot White will play Esme

Margot White: Esme

Helen-Jean Arthur will play Mrs. Worthington:

Helen-Jean Arthur: Mrs. Worthington

Jonathan Raviv will play James

Jonathan Raviv: James

 

Ed Herendeen

MAX BAKER IN SHEPHERDSTOWN

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Max Baker Playwright /Director THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW

Playwright and Director Max Baker was in Shepherdstown over the weekend. He was meeting with the CATF Design team for our up-coming World Premiere of THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW. Max wrote the book and lyrics and is directing the premiere at the 2010 Contemporary American Theater Festival July 7th-August 1st.

     “So great to come down and meet Bob Klingelhoefer (set designer) and to nail down the set-design (which we did). Bob is a great guy and I am really impressed with his designs. I am happy with the final EELWAX design and can’t wait to see it operational…it was immensely useful for me to see the theater in its’ raw state…”  Max Baker

     “The concept for the show is…that it comes OUT OF THE TV! The band and Ignatz and Mr. Shine appear 3-Dimensionally in the Day Room…the focus should be on the band and Mr. Shine. They become the TV… My hope is to blow the walls off the theater and really feed the audience with EXCITEMENT and BUZZ!”  Max Baker

THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW is a performance art/theater piece set in the eclectically-furnished, highly sanitized Group Home Day Room. The Residents (each with their own set of anxieties, compulsions, hunger and clothes to iron) are fed a daily dose of Corporate-controlled entertainment in the form of a 3-Dimensional Music Show hosted by the charismatic, character-shifting Mr. Shine who literally pops out of the TV. The outside world is plagued by Swine Flu, there are cameras in the sky, and the intrusion of a seemingly scruffy old man who lives down the hall is greeted by the Residents with fear and animosity.

     “My overall thoughts at the moment are that the theater audience members are an extension of the Resident’s. After all, we are all Residents…”  Max Baker

We had a very productive weekend of design meetings. I am impressed with Max’s creative energy and imagination. THE EELWAX JESUS 3-D POP MUSIC SHOW is a collaboration between Max Baker who wrote the book and lyrics and CATF actor, Lee Sellars who composed the music. You can hear some of their music and songs at www.eelwaxjesus.com. So go to their web site and listen…send me a comment. I am interested in hearing from you. Please forward this posting to your friends and invite them to join you at this ALTERNATIVE THEATRICAL EVENT! This show will help you bend your mind…think… “the bastard love-child” of  Bowie…think… The Breeders…think… William S. Burroughs…thinktheater. This summer get saved by EELWAX JESUS!

Ed Herendeen