That’s Weird, Grandma - Now with 66% less farting!

Posted by Luke on September 26, 2010 at 08:00 PM
That's Weird Grandma TWG Weekly Update

Okay, the voting last week made it clear that the grandma did a little too much farting in the show, so we’ve scaled it back. She’s still makes one appearance, but not three. I think it’s more balanced this way.
Still gracing the stage this week are runaway favorites The Dog was Dead and Grannies Lean Like a Cholo.
New and sweet additions to the show this week include:

The Lost Gameboy- a timeless classic where David journeys all over school for his prized possession.
Untitled (I am normal too)- a compilation of arguments by deaf students from the AG Bell program about how they’d like to be perceived.
AND
Vampire or Not?- a dialogue between “3 good queens, and 2 evil Kings, and 2 men.” (and a vampire)

Come on up the stairs at the Neo-Futurarium to witness the greatness!
Password for $2 off at the box office is “Gameboy”.

 

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That’s Weird, Grandma - 9/Twenty/X

Posted by Luke on September 19, 2010 at 06:00 AM
That's Weird Grandma TWG Weekly Update

This show is off to the races and off the hook.
Did we mention that The Dog was Dead is in the show?
Another new piece that was a hit in Celebration of Authors two years ago is joining the run. It has one of my favorite titles, partly because the connection between the title and the story remains a beautiful mystery to me. That title is I am the President of the Map. The thesis of the piece is I Believe the World will be a Girly Place. So whether you want to call it I am the President of the Map or I Believe the World Will Be a Girly Place it’s funny either way.
You can read the story from the list below.
We will also be putting in a true story called Bowling where a baby has remarkable bowling skills for a baby.
The password to receive $2 off at the box office, which you can also think of as a free double espresso, give or take a few cents, will be “Girly Place”.
Say “girly place” and your ticket is 8 dollars. EIGHT DOLLARS?! That’s a crazy insane deal.
Come join the fun!

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That’s Weird, Grandma - 9/Thirteen/X

Posted by Luke on September 12, 2010 at 03:40 PM
That's Weird Grandma TWG Weekly Update

Once in a while you get to make really fun choices as Artistic Director; say, making actors put on ridiculous costumes or what style of pencil cup you would like in your new office.
The decision I made this week is still more exciting. In honor of our 10th year, we are putting the most popular story in the history of That’s Weird, Grandma back into the show.
It is, of course, The Dog Was Dead.
I was in the original cast of this piece when we first performed it at the Dewey school. During rehearsals, I never got through the piece without breaking.
If you are unfamiliar, I will not try to describe it, but merely tell you you should come see our play (and maybe get your tickets early because all the die-hard “Dog Was Dead” fans who told us they wouldn’t come back to TWG until we put the piece back in the show will, presumably, be clamoring and salivating for seats.)
Passphrase for $2 off is “woof woof woof and mmmmmm.”
Full running order with links below.
See you there!

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KNOW A MONKEY: Halena Kays

Posted by Alexis on September 8, 2010 at 05:02 PM

This month’s Know a Monkey blog entry sends us in the way-back machine for a little Monkey history with one of the group’s co-founders, Halena Kays.

Where do you live?
Right now, I live in Austin, Texas during the school year because I’m in grad school down there, but I lived in Chicago for 15 years before I left.

How are you involved with Barrel of Monkeys?
Well, I was Artistic Director for eleven years, and I am one of the two co-founders.  I started it with Erica Rosenfeld - now Erica Halverson—who graduated from Northwestern with me. It was just the two of us when we were 22 years old.

What inspired you two to start Barrel of Monkeys?
We had really strong educational and political goals from the get-go. Erica and I had a lot of community activism in us, and we’re both big believers in the public school system, so we thought about how we could take the thing that brought us the most happiness at Northwestern, (which was working with Griffin’s Tale), and our spirit of wanting to work with underprivileged kids and to get into the pubic school system.  We had to figure out how to combine those, which is where the educational side of this comes, and happily Erica decided to get her PhD in education.  We teamed up so she was working on the curriculum side and I was working on the artistic side.

Did you like writing as a kid?
Actually as a kid at some point I figured out I really couldn’t spell very well, and I learned a lot of ways then to avoid getting busted for it.  So I just kind of didn’t write very much for a lot of years, cause I didn’t want to get called out for being stupid because I couldn’t spell because otherwise I was a pretty smart kid.  I look back at that and wish that someone had shown up to be like, “It doesn’t matter —spell however you want.”  Fundamentally in my life now it really doesn’t matter, because of technology, that I can’t spell.  But it wasn’t until high school that an English teacher, my senior year, said, you know, “You’re really great at writing, and you really love literature, so I’m just not going to grade your spelling tests anymore, because spelling is not a sign of intelligence.”  I wish someone would have told me that in third grade. 

 

 

 

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That’s Weird Grandma is BACK in time for Labor Day!

Posted by Luke on September 5, 2010 at 06:00 AM
That's Weird Grandma

We’re back on everybody.
A new season of stories…in your FACE!
We had our first rehearsal with the new cast and I’ll say I’m excited about what this small and mighty group of nine is going to bring to the stage.
We were cracking up during rehearsal and not in an inside jokey kind of way. That can be irritating- when a bunch of actors THINK what they’re doing is funny but it’s too inside. No, this stuff, I firmly believe, even though I’m on the inside, is NOT too inside. Just plain good.

Here are ways to save money on the already low low price of admission if you’re strapped for cash or cheap:
1. Mention the code word “Grannies” at the box office to receive $2 off.
2. Write on our Facebook page about how you are connected to Tom Malinowski, if you are connected to Tom Malinowski, and get half off.

These offers cannot be combined. BOOM! I said it. Geesh, I know. We’re getting SOOO corporate.
Running order with updated links below. See you there!

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