Rehearsals are speeding along at Warp 2 for Who Killed Captain Kirk? by Paco Jose Madden, and I'm as happy as a Klingon with a brand new bat'leth. The show features a hilarious and charming cast of Gadfly senior officers and ensigns alike as obsessed Trekkies cosplaying their favorite characters at a Star Trek convention that I've tentatively dubbed TrekKon. Heading the intrepid crew of the Starship Enterprise is Alyssha Rose Jordan in the role of Captain Kirk. While she doesn't get the chance to seduce quite as many green skinned alien women as Shatner, she does get to command the crew in an epic space battle against an evil alien presence intent on destroying all individuality and diversity in the universe. And where would any Captain Kirk be without the logically minded Mr. Spock? In this case Spock is portrayed by Nikolas Martell with all the monotone charisma you'd expect from a real live Vulcan. Andrew Rosdail, Mikko Lee Bonilla, and Hector Chavarria round out the crew as Bones, the doctor cramming for a bio midterm, Sulu, the pilot with an allergy to aloe, and Uhura, the communications officer and ship's resident drag queen. The final member of this irreverent parody is Nichole Carey as Pluto. While not a planet, Pluto is the volunteer coordinator and person in charge of guest services. She pretty much runs the whole conference, and when William Shatner is found dead in his hotel room, it's up to Pluto to find out who killed Captain Kirk. It's the audience, however who is tasked with revealing the murderer's true identity.
This play is a whole lot of fun and a bit of a change of pace for me as a director. Coming off of two very intense shows like Precious Little, which involved a lesbian woman making some difficult choices about her pregnancy, and Sans Merci, about a woman dealing with sexual assault and the murder of her lover, I jumped at the chance to direct a campy and comedic romp that still addresses important issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, and class distinction. A big challenge and opportunity with Who Killed Captain Kirk? is that a very large portion on the show relies heavily on improv and the audience's participation. With three different endings decided upon each night by audience members, myself and the cast never really know exactly how the show will turn out on any given performance. That is both a very scary and very exciting thing for a theatre artist.
This show promises to be a very interesting experience for those of us involved and the audience as well. If you've ever seen a Gadfly show and wanted to be involved, but weren't quite ready to go to an audition or join our company behind the scenes, this a great way to get your feet wet and participate in creating the art you want to see from us. So beam on down to nimbus Theater June 13th and help us catch that dastardly villain who put an end to all those annoying Priceline.com commercials!
This play is a whole lot of fun and a bit of a change of pace for me as a director. Coming off of two very intense shows like Precious Little, which involved a lesbian woman making some difficult choices about her pregnancy, and Sans Merci, about a woman dealing with sexual assault and the murder of her lover, I jumped at the chance to direct a campy and comedic romp that still addresses important issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, and class distinction. A big challenge and opportunity with Who Killed Captain Kirk? is that a very large portion on the show relies heavily on improv and the audience's participation. With three different endings decided upon each night by audience members, myself and the cast never really know exactly how the show will turn out on any given performance. That is both a very scary and very exciting thing for a theatre artist.
This show promises to be a very interesting experience for those of us involved and the audience as well. If you've ever seen a Gadfly show and wanted to be involved, but weren't quite ready to go to an audition or join our company behind the scenes, this a great way to get your feet wet and participate in creating the art you want to see from us. So beam on down to nimbus Theater June 13th and help us catch that dastardly villain who put an end to all those annoying Priceline.com commercials!
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