Comedy

If you thought Irish Dancers were all curly-haired cutie-pies with perfect posture – meet a scowling girl from London in this outrageous antidote to ‘Riverdance’.

Celebrate St Patrick’s Day with this uproarious one-woman comedy that asks what it means to be Irish, what it means if you don’t want to be, and what if you’re labeled an Irish Wannabe? London Irish writer-performer Máire Clerkin, who cut her teeth in the 80’s alternative comedy scene with an act called The Hairy Marys, relives her past with tales of the disappointing daughter of an Irish dancing-school mistress, ugly duckling syndrome, cultural confusion and a life dedicated to work avoidance.

‘…tale of identity crises and coming of age as an English-born Irish girl… at times poignant and at times hysterically funny’ Brooke Alberts, Folkworks

‘…glorious riffs of traditional Irish dance…animated impersonations and snapshot transitions in a world that Clerkin captures so meticulously’ Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly (Theater Pick)

The focal point of Clerkin's coming of age saga is her right elbow that drifts outward while performing Irish folk dances, a “bad arm” that her mother says is responsible for her placing poorly in so many competitions. The requisite of keeping both arms slammed into one's body emerges as a metaphoric constriction in a world that Clerkin captures so meticulously. Stephen Leigh Morris, LA Weekly

Playwright/Performer Máire Clerkin moved to California in 2003 from London. She is the founder of The Hairy Marys and Clerkinworks Irish Dance Theatre, both of which have toured the UK & Ireland extensively. Credits include Dancing on Dangerous Ground at Radio City Music Hall; Fennels, Flannels, Funnels at John Hegley; Centenary Knees Up at South Bank Centre; Unconnected Soundings at The Royal Opera House; Music Makers on BBC TV; and Revolver on BBC World Service. Clerkin has created five award-winning choreodramas for Irish Dance Academies since 2006. She directed Cadence Dance Theatre in Arizona (2004-05) and A Gaelic Gathering for the World City series at Disney Concert Hall in ‘07. In 2009, she was awarded a Durfee Foundation grant for an eight performance series of The Bad Arm at the Bang Theatre in Hollywood where it played to rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences. Now updated and staged for Santa Monica Playhouse, The Bad Arm – Confessions of a Dodgy Irish Dancer arrives on the Westside in all its glory. Máire Clerkin is a teaching artist with the LA Music Center and Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Director Dan O’Connor is co-founder of Impro Theatre, (Top 10 Best Theatre of 2009, LA Weekly), co-director for Jane Austen UnScripted, Shakespeare UnScripted and Sondheim UnScripted. Theatre credits include Improbable Theatre’s Lifegame (Off-Broadway), A Christmas Carol, Horatio, and Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at A Noise Within (Dramalogue Award for Best Actor), Ferdinand in The Tempest at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and Joey in The Homecoming at The New Conservatory in San Francisco. TV credits include Seinfeld, Campus Ladies, Malcolm in the Middle, and The Newz. O’Conner co-created the NBC/ION television improv comedy show World Cup Comedy. His TV directing credits include Sons and Daughters and Campus Ladies.

Produced by Heather Woodbury’s Fomenting Arts Unlimited Incorporated

Return engagement of Criminal Defense Attorney Murray Meyer’s idiosyncratic travelogue through the criminal justice system. "IT’S CRIMINAL, The Comedy!(getting people off and other legal fantasies)" recounts Meyer’s courtroom adventures with needy, sometimes dangerous clients, loony judges, sexy DA’s, and even his own neuroses. A workshop performance of the play was chosen 2008 Hoopla Pick in the LA Weekly, which said, “More lawyers should do one-person shows.”
Written and performed by Murray Meyer & Directed by Laurel Ollstein.
A guest production at Santa Monica Playhouse produced by Pender Pine Productions.

Saturdays at 8 pm for five weeks, January 16 – February 13, 2010. All tickets $16; online at www.Plays411.com/ItsCriminal or by phone at 1-(323)-960-7780. Santa Monica Playhouse is located at 1211 Fourth Street (between Wilshire & Arizona) Santa Monica, CA 90401-1391.

Award-winning playwright Ken Urban brings Theatre of NOTE another World Premiere with his grungy new play:

NIBBLER

A comedy about the horrors of youth.

"I believe that believing is a waste of fucking time."

It's the summer of 1992 in the suburban hell of Medford, New Jersey. Five teenagers (played by adults) come to terms with impending adulthood, and find their lives changed by a mysterious visitor from another world. A dark comedy about that time when everything and nothing seem possible.

The latest incarnation of Wyoming's untamed daughter, Barbara Bragg's show. Join Bragg as she spins theatrical magic from the stories that won't leave her alone…from her father's ghost stories of the old West to a sister who swallows stars—even Dick Cheney makes a guest appearance! Barbara takes her audience on an exhilarating journey ricocheting from gut-wrenching to darkly funny... to piercingly truthful...careening from tragedy to comedy with whip-snapping bravado as she wrestles with the angels and demons howling in her soul like the prairie wind.

Getting people off & other legal fantasies. Criminal Defense Attorney Murray Meyers’ idiosyncratic travelogue through the criminal justice system. IT’S CRIMINAL recounts Meyers’ courtroom adventures with needy, sometimes dangerous clients, loony judges, sexy DA's, and even his own neuroses. A workshop performance of the play was chosen 2008 Hoopla Pick in the LA Weekly, which said, "More lawyers should do one-person shows." Meyer’s July 2009 performance at Santa Monica Playhouse played to a sold-out crowd.

An idiosyncratic travelogue through the criminal justice system by Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Murray Meyers. IT’S CRIMINAL recounts Meyers’ courtroom adventures with needy, sometimes dangerous clients, loony judges, sexy DA's, and even his own neuroses. A workshop performance of the play was chosen 2008 Hoopla Pick in the LA Weekly, which said, "More lawyers should do one-person shows."

Written and performed by Murray Meyer. "This is my take on the daily menu of mishegas (craziness) I encounter in my job,” says Meyer, who has more than twenty years experience as a criminal lawyer. Meyer developed his material at the Un-Cab Lab comedy workshop run by Un-Cabaret creators Beth Lapides & Greg Miller.
Directed by Laurel Ollstein. Ollstein has been involved for over twenty-five years in new play development as an actress, writer, director and teacher. She was a member of the award winning Actor’s Gang for over ten years, and is currently a member of About Productions and also the Literary Manager for Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles. She wrote the book for the musical OPA! which premiered in 2008 at the Midtown theatre festival in New York, where it received fourteen award nominations. It will be performed at the Queens theatre in September 2009. Directing credits include: Showing Our Age written by Laurel Ollstein, at Inside The Ford for About Productions; Children’s Hour written by Lillian Hellman, for Loyola Marymount University; 365 plays by Susan Lori Parks, for Playwright’s Arena; and Walking Back to Brooklyn by Murray Meyer, at the San Francisco Fringe, Seattle Fringe, and Toronto Fringe.

Produced by Pender Pine Productions

"Hilarious and supurb!" - Variety

"Delivers the goods in spades!" - LA Times

"GO!" - LA Weekly

The Smash Hit Theatre of NOTE production of "KILL ME, DEADLY" (starring Kirsten Vangsness of CBS' "Criminal Minds") has been extened through the month of August! Tickets selling out! Reserve now!

A DICK... A DAME... A DIAMOND...

Bill Robens and Kiff Scholl, the team that brought us "The Poseidon Adventure: the Musical" and "A Mulholland Christmas Carol" brings NOTE another World Premiere with Robens’ comedically skewed take on Film Noir!

Hollywood, 1948. Hard-boiled P.I. Charlie Nickels is hot on the trail of a diamond thief. To crack the case, Charlie will have to take on the LAPD, the criminal underworld and angry hobos. But his resolve will be tested when he faces off against the most dangerous rival of them all...Mona Livingston.

"Why fall in love with a broad you can trust? That's like reading a book you already know the ending to."

Starring Kirsten Vangsness from CBS’ "Criminal Minds" as Mona!

"Kill Me Deadly" will be played live in living BLACK AND WHITE!!!