‘Mark Twain’ ‘A Horse’ and ‘Shkreli’

A HORSE WITH A VIEW

Last year Christopher Piehler delighted audiences with Reserve Champion, an autobiographical tale of how as a young boy he fell in love with horses.

That love affair continues in A Horse with a View, a quartet of tales in which women break his heart and horses heal it. Piehler tells his adventures of horseback riding vacations among the “roos” in Australia, of sinking in Scottish bogs, and of how he disappointed everyone in Hungary by not being German.

gold.jpgThe show displays the winning blend of humor and sincerity that both endears and amuses his audiences. Directed by Thomas James O’Leary with the same aplomb he evidenced last year in Reserve Champion.

The call: GOLD

You can find out more HERE.

mtwain.jpgMARK TWAIN ANSWERS ALL YOUR QUESTIONS!

The celebrated writer and humorist begins the evening by dying in a hail of bullets from a police shootout that then evolves into your classic porno flick with the sound of a zipper preceding an officer bringing out, for inspection, his lethal weapon.

Later in the evening Mr. Twain accidently immolates himself.

Twice.

While historical validity is not perhaps a high point here, Ed Goodman’s interpretation of Twain is truly an uncanny experience and one must constantly remind themselves they are only watching a consummate actor recreating his role from last year’s The Poe Show, otherwise you would swear that on stage it really was Ed Norton in a silly wig.

Cheap laughs abound.

sribbon.jpgWe’re talking a red tag sale at the 99¢ Store. Cheap, but boy they abound.

Goodman’s off the cuff impeccable timing and his reverence for the irreverent supplies so much merriment that you almost want to grab a broom and kill it.

But don’t do that, just sit back and laugh.

The call: SILVER

Click HERE to learn more.

beingms.jpg

EVERYONE HATES MARTIN SHKRELI

If you don’t know who Martin Shkreli is – you should. He’s the poster boy for that cancer which is rotting away at the American soul even as you read this. In September of 2015 Turing Pharmaceuticals, of which Shkreli was the founder and CEO, obtained the license for manufacturing Daraprim an antiparasitic drug needed by AIDS sufferers.

Shkreli increased the drugs price from $13 per tablet to $750 per tablet demonstrating unfortunately that the benefits of evolution are not shared by all humankind. Sarah Rosenberg’s “one scum show” is brilliant in its simplicity. An audience member is chosen to read the part of the interviewer to her “Martin Shkreli.”

sribbon.jpgThat it is an actual interview given by Shkreli is in equal parts incredible and demoralizing. Where’s Hannibal Lector when you really need him?

For fighting the good fight: SILVER

Click through HERE for more information.

 

Written by

An award-winning L.A. playwright and rabble-rouser of note who has hoisted glasses with Orson Welles, been arrested on three continents and once beat up Charlie Manson. His first play, "Among the Vipers" was a semi-finalist in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition and was featured in the Carnegie-Mellon Showcase of New Plays. It was produced at the NPT Theater in Ashland, Oregon and Los Angeles’ celebrated Odyssey Ensemble Theatre. His following play, “The Little Boy Who Loved Monsters” was produced at The Hollywood Actors Theater, where he earned praise from the Los Angeles Times for his “…inordinately creative writing.” The play went on to numerous other productions including Berlin’s The Black Theatre under the direction of Rainer Fassbinder who wrote in his program notes of Kearney, “He is a skilled playwright, but more importantly he is a dangerous one.” Ernest Kearney has worked as literary manager or as dramaturge for among others The Hudson Theater Guild, Nova Diem and the Odyssey Ensemble Theatre, where he still serves on the play selection committee. He has been the recipient of two Dramalogue Awards and a finalist or semi-finalist, three times, in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition. His work has been performed by Michael Dunn, Sandra Tsing Loh, Jack Colvin and Billy Bob Thornton, and to date, either as playwright or director, he has upwards of a hundred and thirty productions under his belt, including a few at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater as puppeteer. Kearney remains focused on his writing, as well as living happily ever after with his lovely wife Marlene. His stage reviews and social essays can be found at TheTVolution.com and workingauthor.com. Follow him on Facebook.

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