"The Quick, Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dogs"

A play that Est Paris has planned on doing but hasn't gotten around to yet, Michael Merino's "The Quick, Brown Fox Jumped Over the Lazy Dogs," has had a successful debut at a Washington, DC, fringe festival.

DC Theater site:
"What do you get when you combine a talented group of actors, hermeneutics, diagrammed sentences, and thought-provoking deconstructionist dialogue? Aside from an entertaining and smart fifty minutes of theatre, you get a piece that actually delivers what it promises — an exploration of the individual’s relationship with language, and all the semantics, miscommunication, and mistakes that can be made along the way.
...
Smart, funny, and edgy–truly a delight."

Washington City Paper site:
"It’s the most fun and enjoyable hour of having your very concept of everyday life and communication knocked down and spat upon since David Ives’ All in the Timing."

The playwright's page

Pix from "Bad News Gospel"

Lari has put some photos from "Bad News Gospel" taken by Mattias D.

More on the Louvins

More on the Louvins on the excellent "Nashville or Bust" blog on the AV Club site.

"Bad News Gospel" and "Men in Uniform"

Est Paris Theater presented Men in Uniform by Antonio Garza and Bad News Gospel by Lari Lucien, Michael Merino and Perry Leopard on April 16 at the Ogresse: 4 rue des Prairies, Paris 20.

en français plus bas

Men in Uniform by Antonio Garza: In a one-person show, Antonio Garza, an American of Mexican heritage living in New Orleans, relives his post-9/11 experiences: from hilariously nerve-racking interrogations by customs agents and confrontations with overly enthusiastic flight attendants to detentions and an arrest by US Border Patrol agents. Men in Uniform was previously seen at the inaugural New Orleans Fringe theater festival.

Bad News Gospel, a short musical play by Est Paris Theater: Two gospel-singing preachers (Lari Lucien and Perry Leopard) who could be straight out of Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood" wait for judgment and debate whether it's better to be tormented with fire or with brimstone.







et en français

Est Paris Theater a presenté Men in Uniform par Antonio Garza et Bad News Gospel par Lari Lucien, Michael Merino et Perry Leopard le 16 avril à l'Ogresse : 4 rue des Prairies, Paris 20.

Men in Uniform par Antonio Garza: Antonio Garza, américain avec des origines mexicaines, raconte ses déboires avec les hommes en uniforme - les agents de douane et immigration surtout : des histoires drôles et révélatrices de l'Amérique de l'après-11 septembre. Men in Uniform a fait parti du premier festival de théâtre New Orleans Fringe.

Bad News Gospel une courte comédie-musicale par l'Est Paris Theater: Deux prêcheurs (Lari Lucien et Perry Leopard) qui pourraient être sortis du roman "La sagesse dans le sang" de Flannery O'Connor chantent du gospel et attendent le jugement dernier en débattant si c'est mieux d'être tourmenter avec le feu ou avec le soufre.

Gram Parson and the Louvins

There's an excellent post on the Onion's sister site AV Club that discusses two of the musical inspirations for Bad News Gospel: Gram Parsons and the Louvin brothers:

Sweetheart Of The Rodeo is a masterpiece, but it would have been even more masterpiecey had Parsons been allowed to sing lead on more of the songs. McGuinn has said that his vocals on Sweetheart Of The Rodeo were little more than a parody of Parsons’ original versions. Parsons approached country from a place of deep reverence, but McGuinn treats the songs with a certain academic detachment. This proves ruinous on a woefully misguided cover of The Louvin Brothers’ “The Christian Life,” where McGuinn adopts a Dippety Dog cartoon drawl that coats the song’s deeply personal endorsement of faith at the cost of worldly pleasure in smug irony. McGuinn seems to be making fun of the Louvin Brothers, which you just don’t do. You don’t fuck with them, for they have a scary, take-no-prisoners, smite-humanity-just-to-prove-a-point deity behind them.

Songs from "Bad News Gospel"

We're doing the songs from Bad News Gospel at the Petit Ney's anniversary party on March 21. (The full performance will be done at the Ogresse show.) There'll be lots of acts for the Petit Ney evening, and we expect to go on about 7 p.m.

Here's what we plan to do:
"Sin City" by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman
"Memphis Train" by Lari
"Satan Is Real" by the Louvin Brothers
"Great Atomic Power" by the Louvin Brothers
"Trekkin' inna Babylon" by Lari

The Petit Ney date is March 21: info on the evening and the address, etc., is at http://lepetitney.free.fr/

April 16: "Men in Uniform" and "Bad News Gospel"

Men in Uniform by Antonio Garza and Bad News Gospel by Est Paris Theater.
April 16, 8 p.m. at the Ogresse: 4 rue des Prairies, Paris 20. Free.
You can have dinner there too!

Men in Uniform par Antonio Garza et Bad News Gospel par l'Est Paris Theater
à l'Ogresse le 16 avril, 20h, gratuit: 4 rue des Prairies, Paris 20.
On peut aussi dîner ou grignoter !

Reading of "Volpone" Feb. 9

Perry and Damian are participating in a reading of Ben Jonson's Volpone on Feb. 9.

Monday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 pm.
Le Pave d'Orsay: 48, rue de Lille 75007 (near the Musee d'Orsay).
RER Musee d'Orsay. Bus 68, 69.