Long Shorts / Short Shorts

A friend of mine, Erika Yeomans, is showing some of her short films on February 4 at the Galapagos Arts Space in Brooklyn. I produced one of these shorts ("Grand Gorge"). I plan to be in attendance and hope you will be too and help us fill the giant space. To buy tickets, click here.

LONG SHORTS/SHORT SHORTS

An entertaining night of films & videos:
Erika Yeomans, Ilya Chaiken, Andrea Staka & Meredith Drum.

GALAPAGOS ARTS SPACE

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 8 pm Tickets $10.00

Tel: 718.222.8500 |16 main street | brooklyn

Featuring: Juliana Francis-Kelly, Holly Ramos, Kristin DiSpaltro,Casey Spooner, Michael Abbott Jr, Jenny Bass, Cosmo Pfeil, Mot Filipowski, Ben Greenman, Tom Gorman, Julie Strong, Vesna Stanojevic and Nebojsa Glogovac

Erika Yeomans pairs a night of her films with some of her favorite female directors. The program showcases engaging experimental narratives and compelling, edgy narrative work. The shorts are alternately funny, dark, melodramatic, absurd, poetic and personal.

Program Line up & Running time approx 88 minutes

• Chubby Buddy (Home Movie, Super 8, 13 minutes 2003). Meet Francis Howard, who gives up a career and a marriage to act upon some peculiar impulses.
• Boo (Horror, HD, 4 minutes 2008). A suspenseful Halloween tale about a young man who gets roped in by a cat lady.
• Grand Gorge: No God But Me (Melodrama/Western HD, 12 minutes 2008). A pastiche of western clichés; where white men seek redemption and revenge in a cyclical fashion.
• Fragments of Death Comes for Britney Spears! the Musical (Musical, HD, 8 mins, 2008). Based on McSweeney & New Yorker contributor Ben Greenman's "ripped from the tabloid headline" newsicals.
• Bunny Boy (Music Video, Beta, 5 mins, 1995). A woman becomes a glittered man to the tune of 10-CC's I'm not in Love.

Erika Yeomans, Program Curator/Filmmaker
Over the years, Yeomans has created an extensive body of work in theater, mixed media and film. Formerly the Artistic Director of the experimental group DOORIKA (Chicago and New York), she has focused on video and filmmaking since 1999. Her work has screened at film festivals and art institutions around the world, including: London's ICA, Lincoln Center's New York Video Festival, LA Freewaves, Berlin's Transmediale, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Silver Lake Film Festival, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, Cinematek at the Danish Film Institute and New York's Anthology Film Archives. In 2006, she was awarded a New York State Media Arts Grant for her debut feature film POSE DOWN (90 mins, Super 16, 2007). In 2008,Yeomans completed 3 new video projects that continue to explore different film genres: Fragmentsfrom Death Comes for Britney Spears the Musical! (Musical, HD, 8 minutes, 2008), Boo! (Horror, HD 4minutes, 2008) and Grand Gorge: No God But Me (Western, HD, 12, 2008). She lives in New York City.

"Seat Yourself" in Oxford

Winner of the Theatre Oxford's 10-Minute Play Contest in 2007, Michael Merino's play, Seat Yourself will be performed October 9 through 12. Performances will be at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center located at 413 S. 14th Street, Oxford, MS.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday performances will be at 8 pm; a Sunday matinee will be at 2 pm. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students and seniors.

This work was presented this summer by Est Paris Theater this summer at the Ogresse in Paris, France.

théâtre du jour coming to NOLA Fringe Festival

Performed earlier this year in Paris and Washington, DC, théâtre du jour comprises two comic shorts written and directed by Michael Merino.

The first work, Seat Yourself, explores the frustrations of fine dining and "the euphemism."

The second work, Pompa y Circunstancia, concerns a bizarre commencement ceremony, where two brothers mis-communicate about what to wear, life, and lunch.

The cast includes Perry Leopard, Randy Maggiore, and Claudia Baumgarten. The shows will be performed at The Skull Club located at 1005 N. Spain Street, New Orleans, LA 70117.

Dates and times are:

- Thursday, November 13 at 8:30 pm
- Saturday, November 15 at 7:00 pm
- Sunday, November 16 at 5:30 pm

Tickets are $7 and can be purchased at the door or in advance through TicketWeb.com. For more information about the festival, click the following link: http://www.nofringe.org/index.html.

Three Comic Shorts at Woolly Mammoth

The PlayGround Playwrights will present Three, an evening of comic shorts consisting of two ten-minute plays and a one-act play written by Michael Merino. Directed by Kerri Rambow, the plays will be hosted at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre on Wednesday, March 26, at 7:00 p.m.

The writer purposefully crafted the comic shorts and set them in a world where no one thinks, no one listens, and most importantly, no one dies. The pieces were developed over the last year and a half while playwright’s family members experienced serious illnesses and he himself faced narrowing job opportunities. “Compared to heart disease, cancer, and death, I think being unemployed is a pretty good way to pass the time,” he adds.

The first play, Seat Yourself, centers on a woman and a man who attempt to dine at a restaurant, only to suffer the questioning of the man's existence by an impossible waiter with a silly accent. This work won Theatre Oxford’s 10-Minute Play Contest in 2007. The second play, Pompa y Circunstancia, concerns two brothers who mis-communicate what to wear as a prank at their graduation exercises. This ten-minute play was recently named a semi-finalist in the 2008 Theatre Oxford’s 10-Minute Play contest.

The evening concludes with Porcupine, a one-act play that recounts Sigmund Freud’s visit to America in 1909, where he delivers a series of lectures and searches for his inner porcupine. Along with other turn-of-the-century psychological luminaries, Freud goes to the Adirondacks for a few days of deep thoughts, high silliness, and various mental and physical competitions.

The reading is free and open to the public. Woolly Mammoth Theatre is located at 641 D Street NW in Washington, D.C.