KANSAS CITY BOOK OF THE DEAD (2008-2011)

KANSAS CITY BOOK OF THE DEAD premiered at the Ohio Theater in Soho, Manhattan in 2008 and has had performances since in New Orleans, and bars, backyards, parties, and churches in Brooklyn, NY.  Kansas City, Missouri midwestern culture is transposed with the Tibetan and Egyptian Books of the Dead as we follow a fast-paced journey through memories of devastating football games, haunted chicken factories, hickory pit BBQ, and the rural American soul’s quest for deliverance in the afterlife.

Conceived and developed by Ryan Dorin, Matthew Hancock, Michael Mason, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee.

ALABAMA GODDAM (2011)

ALABAMA GODDAM premiered in New Orleans in November 2011. A companion piece to the above Kansas City Book of the Dead,, ALABAMA GODDAM is a high-speed hurricane story of a twisted family history as played out between two brothers. Through role-playing memories involving Hank Aaron and the Atlanta Braves, Louisiana Burial Mounds, Mississippi River Water, Florida Theme Parks, Tropicana Orange Juice, and one Giant Robot Possum, we’re introduced to a story about a violent storm of childhood-guilt that is ritually expressed. The first rehearsal for the project took place on a Brooklyn rooftop during Hurricane Irene in August 2011.

Conceived and developed by Adam Belvo, Ryan Dorin, Michael Mason, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee.

LAVAMAN Live in New York City (2009)

LAVAMAN  Live  in New York City was presented at the Obie-Award Winning Ice Factory in Soho, Manhattan at the Ohio Theater. A shy comic book illustrator in Queens, NY gradually transforms into the stage persona of his dead twin brother after a surprise birthday visit from a ex-guitarist-turned-day-trading psychopath. LAVAMAN was a punk-rock saga using projected cartoon animations, bodily fluids, and taboo culinary shock to explore childhood tragedy, murder and male aggression in the late 1990’s.

Conceived and developed by Sean Berman, Adam Belvo, Ryan Dorin, Matthew Hancock, Michelle Kelleher, Michael Mason, Karl Newman, Jake Platt, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, Cole Wimpee, and Cameron Yeary.

oKOTOBERSHIP / SHIP OF FOOLS (2009)

oKTOBERSHIP / SHIP OF FOOLS was a site-specific event produced by Aztec Economy on board a decommissioned steamship, the LILAC, docked off the Hudson River in the West Village in Manhattan, NYC. With cabin rooms filled with visual art, a side mast of video projections and a main deck for live music acts and performance art, oKTOBERSHIP was a vehicle to present Aztec Economy’s short piece, Ship of Fools, which charted the lost-at-sea quadruple mutiny of 4 members on a doomed vessel: a mad Navigator, a sadistic First Mate, an errant Deckhand, and a word-plagued Captain.

Conceived and Developed by Desiree Burch, Michael Mason, Adam Laten Willson, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee

Contributions from The Astor Kings, the Dirty Shames, Everywhere Theatre Group, Jamie Leigh Florence, S.S.S.S. and Clay Franklin.

MARFA ~ LIGHTS (2008)

MARFA LIGHTS premiered in November 2008 in a vacant backyard in Brooklyn, NY. Partnering with The Traveler’s Box (formerly The Sandwich Box Project) out of Denmark, MARFA LIGHTS used numerous bags of sand, tents, and frigid cold temperatures to create an atmosphere of a nativity play in a ghostly desert night where two couples come to terms with insomnia, infertility, sexual deviance, delirium, and death- all in the midst of a mysterious and massive owl migration. But when an unexplained visitor comes into camp, a midwinter’s night dream ensues- complete with a chorus of crickets, pink elephants, UFOs, horoscopes, memories of tennis and the joy of magnets.

Conceived and developed by Adam Belvo, Darcie Champagne, Benjamin Manglos, Michael Mason, Karl Newman, Lacy Post, Julie Rossman, Casey Wimpee, and Cole Wimpee.