Tag Archives: Drew Ellis

The Peeps Show is latest offering from Red Octopus

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The Peeps Show, a new original sketch comedy show by Red Octopus Theater, will run April 24, 25, 30 and May 1, 2, at The PUBLIC Theatre, located at 616 Center Street, in downtown Little Rock, AR.  Doors will open at 7:30PM and the show will start at 8:00PM.  Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for senior citizens, military and students and are available before the show.  No reservations are necessary and there will be refreshments available.  The show is recommended for mature audiences, children tickets are $549.

Red Octopus Theater, performing since 1991, starts off their 2015 season with The Peeps Show, a show about spring, warm weather, rebirth and marshmallow candies.  The Peeps Show will also begin a series of productions featuring aspiring Red Octopus members.

The Peeps Show will feature five new faces for audience members as well as a strong cast of veteran performers.  New performers auditioned earlier in 2015 for a spot in a Red Octopus show and perhaps an invitation to join the regular cast.

Jason Willey, Red Octopus Board Member said, “Sketch comedy and theater, in general, need new blood to keep it going and to keep it fresh.  We held auditions after getting a lot inquiries and we found some funny people.  Hopefully, we won’t scare them all off.”

The Peeps Show will exam the many facets of Spring, sparing no one or thing in it’s path.  Religious themes pop up in “Jesus Saves”, about the onslaught of retail business on holidays.  The show will feature live coverage of the Arkansas Legislature in, “So This Is What They Did Now…”  The children’s PBS show “Bumblechunks & Friends” will teach kids about Easter around the world.  And Park rangers, Thomas and Tom will get you ready for your “first date hike” up Petit Jean in “Love at the Top.”  There will be some old favorites mixed in and a bunch of new material all lampooning all your favorite things to love and hate about the change in seasons.  So come out and support live sketch comedy with Red Octopus Theater.

The cast includes Brian Chambers, Alli Clark, Drew Ellis, Michael Goodbar, Evan Tanner, David Weatherly and Jason Willey and featuring Scott Dombroski, Sam Grubb, Nichole Henry, Jeremiah James Herman and Anderson Penix.. Performances are open to all ages, but recommended for mature audiences because of adult language and situations, again, child tickets are $549.

For more information please contact Red Octopus Theater at (501) 291-3896, or RedOctopusTheater@gmail.com. Red Octopus is also online at www.redoctopustheater.com.

 

OTHER DESERT CITIES at the Weekend Theater

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Other_Desert_Cities-PosterChristmas in California.  Snow may not be on the ground. A fire may not be needed in the fireplace. But the Wyeth family has plenty of frostiness and heat when the prodigal daughter returns.

A finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities involves a family with differing political views and a long-held family secret. Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs after a six-year absence to celebrate Christmas with her parents, her brother, and her aunt. Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history—a wound they don’t want reopened. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it.

The cast includes Judy Trice, Alan Douglas, Deb Lewis, Drew Ellis and Samantha Porter.  The production is directed by Ralph Hyman.

The show opened last night and continues tonight. It also plays at 7:30 pm on Fridays and Saturdays through December 20.  Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for students and seniors.

THE GHOU-SUAL SUSPECTS will be interrogated by Red Octopus Theater this weekend

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UsualSuspects3The Ghoul-sual Suspects, the new sketch comedy show by Red Octopus Theater, runs October 16-18, 2014 at The PUBLIC Theatre, located at 616 Center Street, in downtown Little Rock, AR.  Doors will open at 7:30PM and the show will start at 8:00PM.  Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for senior citizens, military, students and anyone in costume.  No reservations are necessary and there will be refreshments available.  The show is recommended for mature audiences, child tickets are $666.

Red Octopus Theater, Arkansas’s oldest sketch comedy troupe, is proud to present their new, original Halloween extravaganza, by rounding up The Ghoul-sual Suspects!

Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff will be homaged in “They’re All Still Dead, They’re All Still Messed Up.”  The new game show, “The Manson Family Feud” pits the Bates against the Voorhees in a deadly battle of wits. “The Witches of West Little Rock” are back featuring local eateries where the ladies lunch and learn about amazing new things.  Meanwhile, local fashion icon Fauzio is back to tout his wares in “I Have A Clown Suite Just For You!”

The new dance troupe Stomps! will perform an candy inspired routine using pumpkins and brooms in “Chocolate One! Nougat Two!”  They will be accompanied by the vocal stylists, Le Sweets, dropping their new hit single, “Creamy Candy-Corn.”  Rosemary, from “Rosemary’s Baby” will finally get her day in court in a new sketch based on the classic horror story and the sexual charisma of Transylvania will haunt you long after you witness “Vampires What Woo!”

There will be treats, possible hauntings and tricks a plenty in Red Octopus’s celebration of their favorite time of year in Red Octopus Theater presents The Ghoul-sual Suspects!

The cast includes Sandy Baskin, Krystal Berry, Alli Clark, Lesley Dancer, Drew Ellis, Michael Goodbar, Christi Seatts, Brittany Sparkles, David Weatherly and Jason Willey with special guest, Luke “Ramthor” Rowlan and a cameo by Fred Thompan. Performances are open to all ages, but recommended for mature audiences because of adult language and situations, again, child tickets are $666.

For more information please contact Red Octopus Theater at (501) 291-3896, or RedOctopusTheater@gmail.com. Red Octopus is also online at www.redoctopustheater.com.

To contact The PUBLIC Theatre, call 374-PLAY.

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE continues at The Weekend Theater

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Caroline-or-Change_smWinner of the Laurence Olivier Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best New Musical, Caroline, or Change centers its action on the Gellman family and their African-American maid, Caroline. It is now playing at The Weekend Theater.

It is 1963 in sleepy Lake Charles, Louisiana. Caroline is drifting through her life as a single mother of four working in a service job to a white family. A fragile, yet beautiful friendship develops between the young Gellman son, Noah (who has lost his mother), and Caroline. Noah’s stepmother Rose, unable to give Caroline a raise, tells Caroline that she may keep the money Noah leaves in his pockets. Caroline balks, and refuses to take money from a child, but her own children desperately need food, clothing and shoes.

Regardless of the circumstances, whether it is the death of President Kennedy, her daughter’s growing activism and misunderstood dismissal of what she perceives to be Caroline’s choice to remain a maid, her son’s enlistment in Vietnam, a fight with a newly college-bound friend, or a spin with the dryer, Caroline remains unflappable.

The show features a book and lyrics by Pulitzer and Tony winner Tony Kushner (who based it partially on his own childhood in Louisiana) and music by Tony nominee Jeanine Tesori.  It is directed by Matthew Mentgen and features music direction by Lori Isner.

The cast is led by Satia Spencer in the title role with Johnika Wright, Diondre Wright and Daveon Coleman as her kids. The Gellman and Stopnick families are played by Alex Harkins, Mary Ann Hansen, David Weatherly, Erin Martinez, Adam Smith and Drew Ellis. Caroline’s friends, both human and otherwise, are played by Antisha Anderson Scruggs, Katherine Yacko, Adriana Napolitano, Haley Coughlin, Kenneth Gaddie, Steven Young and Sarah Dailey.

The show continues Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next.

Red Octopus SPRING SHOWMANCE! kicks off tonight

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showmanceThe unofficial start of summer may have taken place this past Monday, but Red Octopus Theater reminds us that it is still technically spring – so it is time for a Spring Showmance. The latest production from Arkansas’ oldest sketch live comedy troupe will run May 29-31, 2014 at The PUBLIC Theatre, located at 616 Center Street, in downtown Little Rock, AR.  Doors will open at 7:30PM and the show will start at 8:00PM.  Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students, senior citizens and all military personnel.  Red Octopus Theater does not take reservations and tickets are available at the theater.  The theater is smoke-free.

The cast includes Sandy Baskin, Allyson Bode, Drew Ellis, Michael Goodbar, Brittany Sparkles and Jason Willey with cameos by Luke Rowlan and Christi Seatts.

Theatre involves long hours, hard work, character study, dueling egos and often sorted romance! Passion on and off the stage or screen is the inspiration for Red Octopus’s latest show, Spring Showmance! 

Spring Showmance will look at the inherent romance of the audition in “The Casting Couch” and “Whattaya Have to do in Little Rock to Make It Big?!” Soap opera actors will lament the cancellation of their show and maybe their families in “They Sold All The Children in All My Children.” “Saved By The Smell” harkens back to the rise of the 1990’s teen actor heartthrob.  And no show about theater and romance would be complete without a trip to Broadway in “Porky’s: The Musical!”

The show is full of struggling actors just trying to make it in the big bad entertainment industry. Some actors finding love along the way, and others, discovering heartbreak.  From headshots to auditions, dance class to opening night, the silver screen to the unemployment line, Red Octopus will weave them all together into a twisted tale of sketch comedy and showbiz!

So join us May 29-31, 2014 for “Spring Showmance!” The cast is hoping they won’t get snowed out this time around.

For more information please contact Red Octopus Theater at (501) 291-3896 , or RedOctopusTheater@gmail.com. To contact The PUBLIC Theatre, call 374-PLAY.

Final Weekend of JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE at Weekend Theater

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Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Little Rock's The Weekend TheaterThis weekend affords the final three times to see August Wilson’s powerful award winning play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the Weekend Theater.  The show is playing tonight, Saturday night, and a Sunday afternoon matinee has been added as well!

Directed by Meredith Bagby Fettes, this post-Civil War era play depicts the migration of African-Americans, from the rural South to the urban North, as they meet in a 1911 Pittsburgh boardinghouse. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, by the author of The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars and Fences, is an installment in the author’s series chronicling black life in each decade of this century.

The play uses realistic language and dialogue representative of the day, with each denizen of the boardinghouse owning a specific rhythm and speech pattern and carrying a different relationship to a past of slavery as well as to an urban present.

The characters include the proprietors, an eccentric clairvoyant with a penchant for old country voodoo, a young homeboy up from the South and a mysterious stranger who is searching for his wife. The Weekend Theater production cast includes seasoned alums, as well is newcomers to the stage.

The cast includes Margaret Pierson-Bates Herald, Jeremiah Herman, Charles Holloway, Diondre’ Wright, London Jones, Shanika Thompson, Paul Person, Drew Ellis, Pamela Reed, Candrice Jones and Ebon Jones

Curtain time is 7:30 pm. The Box Office (and the theater) opens one (1) hour prior to curtain. The House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain.

There will be a brief talk-back with the cast after each Saturday performance. This plays contains some simulated violence and adult language.

RAFT OF THE MEDUSA continues at Weekend Theater

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The Weekend Theater’s production of Joe Pintauro’s Raft of the Medusa opened last weekend.  It is scheduled to continue this weekend and next on Friday and Saturdays at 7:30pm.  However, due to a car crashing into the Weekend Theatre building, further performances may be postponed.  Please check the Weekend Theatre’s website for updates.

Joe Pintauro’s drama presents a microcosm of those affected by AIDS in the earlier days of the crisis through the device of a diverse therapy group clashing, confronting, and comforting each other as they work through their emotions about their devastating diagnosis.

The cast includes Alan Douglas, Ryan Whitfield, Jimmy Walker, Brad Burleson, Rachel Bland, Dale Ellis,  Drew Ellis, Madison Hannahs, Morgan Henard, Grace Lytle, Josh Peace, Byron Taylor and Manny Urban.  Ralph Hyman directs, marking his 50th production at the theater.
Tickets, $16 for general admission and $12 for students and seniors age 65 and older, can be purchased on-line at http://www.weekendtheater.org or, based on availability, at the door. For information only, call 501-374-3761; reservations are not taken by phone.