Whammy! The Seven Secrets to a Sane Self - or - Some Things That All People Ought to Know About the Nature and Function of the Self: Its Place in the Economy of Life, Its Proper Training and Its Righteous Exercise

 

by Chuck Harper

 

Dec. 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 @ 8pm

Sunday, Dec. 7th @ 7pm


Blurb:

Oprah Winfrey and Ethel Merman.  Dr. Phil and Phil Silvers.  Nietzche and The Shirelles?  WTF?  The artistic team that brought you The Probe: An Inquiry into the Meteoric Rise and Spectacular Fall of Orson Welles in Hollywood rides again in this madcap multi-media dance-theatre comic exploration of self-help, sexual dysfunction, 1960's dance parties, obsessive-compulsive disorder, pharmaceutical bliss and suicide.  Want to know the seven secrets to a sane self?  You know you do.  And there’s only one way to find out. Dig?

Please note:

This show will be around one hour long. It is NOT part of the season subscription. Ticket prices are $15 and $10 for students.

Cast:

Maggie Conroy, Greg Fenner, Kate Frisina, Chuck Harper, and Julie Venegoni as The Quimbies

Jeff Skoblow as Dr. G

Whammy Staff:

Whammy Tunes and Whammy Texts - Chuck Harper
Whammy Dances and Whammy Doodles - Mikey Butane
Whammy Flow - Maggie Conroy
Whammy World - Lex Van Blommestein
Whammy Illuminations - Jim Wulfsong
Whammy Fashion - Marcy Wiegert


Mentions/Awards/Kudos:

This project has been supported by a Summer Research Fellowship through the SIUE Graduate School's Office of Research and Projects.

 


 


 

Critics' Reviews:


"Whammy! is truly unique and highly
recommended... See it and be bedazzled while having your thoughts provoked!" Full review here

- Chris Gibson, Broadway World

"... elements of performance art and avant garde artistic expression where no human has gone before...

- Mark Bretz, Ladue News

 

The Concept:

Whammy! began three years ago as an idea - what would happen if you took the idea of “self-help,” and the industry that surrounds it, smashed it together with Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 comic film It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and then looked at this smashup through the lens of a dream.   I spent the next year and a half reading, researching, and thinking around this idea.  Over the course of this research I ended up with two questions that I wanted to ask with this play: 

1) “How is it that the most affluent and comfortable society in the history of the western world can produce so many profoundly unhappy or unsatisfied people?”

2) “Why is it possible that to learn more about the Crab Nebula of Taurus, which is 6,000,000 light-years away, than you presently know about yourself, even though you have been stuck with yourself all your life?” (Walker Percy).

In July of 2009, developmental workshops were conducted in St. Louis.  Over the course of two weeks these questions were discussed and several of the movement sections were created by myself and collaborator Mikey Butane.  In September I began working with the SIUE cast. The cast kept and I kept dream journals and as an ensemble we wove these dream images together with song, dance, and text, through structured improvisation, into the production. The cast, crew and designers you will see at HotCity are local actors, students and alumni from SIUE.

With the success of Chuck's deivsed piece "The Probe" at the Prague Fringe Festival, HotCity is currently looking to perform "Whammy!" internationally in the coming years as well.

What is Physical Theatre?


Physical theatre may utilize pre-text, but the primary focus is on the physical work of the actors, expressed through the use of their bodies. It is a highly visual form of theatre. The action in physical theatre may have a psychological base, or symbolic resonance, or point to an emotional centre, or have a clear storyline miming, or any combination of the above, and it may grow out of codified forms, improvisational work, or invented gestural language, among other means of creation. However, the means of expression are always primarily physical rather than textual.

Some analysts believe that physical theatre was influenced by Bertolt Brecht. Some common characteristics often occur in this type of theatre - though these examples should not be seen as either exhaustive or that all are necessary all the time.

They include:

  • Work is often devised, rather than originated from a pre-existing script
  • Work has inter-disciplinary origins - it crosses between music, dance, visual art as well as theatre.
  • Work challenges the traditional, proscenium arch, performer/audience relationship.
  • Work celebrates the non-passive audience.
  • Work utilises the imagination of the audience in conjunction with the imagination of the performers.

Director's/Playwright Bio:

Chuck is a director, actor and Asst. Professor of Performance at SIUE. His most recent projects include “At Play in the Valley of the Shadow of Chet” (Circle X Theatre, Los Angeles), “The Scene and Kimberly Akimbo” (HotCity Theatre), and “The Life and Times of Tulsa Lovechild“ (Mad Scene Theatre, Los Angeles). Last year he wrote, directed and performed in the HotCity Greenhouse/Theatre Belle Bete co-production of “The Probe: An Inquiry into the Meteoric Rise and Spectacular Fall of Orson Welles in Hollywood.“ This production was subsequently remounted as part of the 2007 Fringe Festival Praha in Prague, Czech Republic. Other overseas credits include the European premieres of “Big Love” (Ardeo Theater, France) and “Quills “ (BBIT, Czech Republic and FOIO, Germany). Chuck is an Associate Director at HotCity and co-producer of the GreenHouse Series.