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Tag Archives: Robert Trussell

Robert Trussell’s Review of Bucket of Blood

Robert Trussell reviews The Living Room’s recent production of Bucket of Blood.

Tongue-in-cheek post-modernism gets a thorough workout in the Living Room production of “A Bucket of Blood,” a show in which the performers on stage appear to having at least as much fun as the audience.

Screenwriter-turned-playwright Mitch Brian serves up an amusing adaptation of a 1959 Roger Corman movie, a horror flick that satirized beatnik culture and the modern art world. Brian translates the essence of the film to the Living Room stage, more or less without commentary, and even assigns himself a small role as an art critic.

The plot revolves around a shy coffeehouse busboy named Walter (Matt Weiss), who puts up with a fair amount of verbal abuse from his employer (Damian Blake). Carla (Kimberely Queen) is friendlier to Walter, who is unabashedly enthralled by Maxwell Brock (Forrest Attaway), a beat poet given to extemporaneous improvisations with the house band.

Read the rest here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/30/3525820/two-performers-stand-out-in-bucket.html

KC Star Preview of Bucket of Blood

Horror will stalk KC stages

Two upcoming productions take their inspirations from campy filmmaker Roger Corman.

BY ROBERT TRUSSELL

The Kansas City Star

The spirit of legendary B-movie director Roger Corman will hover over the Kansas City theater scene this spring.

In March, the Living Room will present “A Bucket of Blood,” a new stage version of a comic horror film set against the backdrop of 1950s beatnik culture that Corman shot for $50,000 in a lumberyard. The film, written by Charles B. Griffith, is a satire on visual art as a young artist finds fame by creating “sculptures” that are actually people encased in plaster.

The version at the Living Room was adapted by screenwriter/playwright Mitch Brian and will be directed by Cody Wyoming. The enormous cast includes actors and artists who are part of the Living Room creative family: Matt Weiss, Forrest Attaway, Damian Blake, Kelly Main, Coleman Crenshaw, Meredith Wolfe, Kimberley Queen (who is also designing the show), Matt Anderson, Brian Stubler, Bryan Moses and Emma Taylor. The production will also feature live music created by Johnny Hamil, Jeff Freling, Kent Burnham, Christian Hankel, Katie Gilchrist and Wyoming.

The show runs March 19-April 1. You can find more information at thelivingroomkc .com. The downtown theater is at 1818 McGee St.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/15/3429613/horror-will-stalk-kc-stages.html

KC Star Previews “Widows”

Robert Trussell at the KC Star previews a handful of Kansas City Theatre Season Openers including Move Over, Mrs. Markham (at The New Theatre), Nobody Lonesome for Me (The American Heartland Theatre), The End of Apathy (The Living Room), Rules for Widows (The Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre), and Red (Unicorn Theatre).  Below is an excerpt:

•“Rules for Widows,” a new play by Kansas City playwright Michael Ruth, receives its world premiere tonight at the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre. In the play, a woman begins discovering her husband’s secrets after his untimely death and finds herself in conflict with her sister while dealing with her unemployed son and her daughter, who brings her new girlfriend to the funeral. The cast includes Jan Rogge, Marilyn Lynch, Coleman Crenshaw, Jessica Franz and Katie Ligon. Karen Paisley directs. The show runs through Oct. 2. Call 816-569-3226 or go to www.metkc.org.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/09/07/3125193/loretta-swit-returns-to-new-theatre.html#ixzz1XNj7vrtG