So first Saturday, and now Friday are sold out in advance for our much plugged post-apocalyptic workplace situation comedy: Mankind’s Last Hope. That leaves one last show open — if you’re looking to go and don’t have tix, be sure to reserve your seats for the Sunday matinee asap….
This is our collective happening and it freaks us out.
-Cecil
Mankind’s Last Hope: Sold out for next Saturday!
Hi,
Happy to report, we’re sold out in advance for Saturday night. We’ve got seats still available for Friday (with actors/director/writers) and the Sunday matinee, so come on down. If you’re driving over from out of town, be sure to reserve your seats.
Also, here’s that “hilarious romp” review. If you ever run into this writer on the street, please make way. Great man coming through.
Mankind’s Last Hope: Opening Night Report
So, last night was the big opening. And it was a swell time indeed. A hilarious romp even. Fantastic audience (full house!) with Bob Lundy-Paine as our MC. And the whole cast and crew were just completely on their game. Blew me away.
To see the look in my daughter’s eyes (she’s grown up with these characters)…. Happy happy happy.
And tonight, we do it all over again. (8 pm — all the details here.)
A few photos to mark the event, courtesy of ace producer Tracey Rhys:
Volcanic Burt (Tony Jonick)
Alex, the feral monkey (Chloe Bronzan)
Dimwitted Hank in an emotional moment (Kenneth Sears)
Mankind’s Last Hope: show time plus first review
Tonight’s the big night — opening night for Mankind’s Last Hope out here in Alameda-land. We got our first review yesterday. And I’m not kidding you or making this up when I say that the Alameda Sun called us “A Hilarious Romp.”
Oh, how I love the Alameda Sun. They say it’s written by the hand of God but I don’t believe that. I just think it’s divinely inspired.
Wish us luck as we launch.
-Cecil
Mankind’s Last Hope: Character Backstories Revealed
If you’ve visited this site over the last few weeks, you may have gathered that we’re putting on a show (starts this Friday, 10/26, tickets available now).
This experience — seeing a script me and my pal Jeff Green co-wrote turned into an actual production due to the work of something like 30 people, with cast, makeup, sets, designs, props, music, lighting…. it’s been full of fun surprises.
The latest treat came yesterday, when several members of the cast released a video showing each of their characters during the actual alien invasion. Jeff and I had nothing to do with these videos. They’re grim and they’re quirky. More Blair Witch Project than Laverne and Shirley. And we love ’em.
How neat is it to see characters you’ve created come to live and start sprouting original youtube content all their own? A couple of the characters/actors even gave themselves last names. Last names? We had no last names. And now here I am, really enjoying the fact that suddenly a few of our characters have last names.
Alameda Literati panels, November 3rd
In case you find yourself in the Island City on November 3rd, be sure to drop by Alameda Literati where I’ll be speaking on not one, not three, but two panels — one on (yes) blogging at 10 am, and the other on scriptwriting at 11 am, which will give me a chance to plug that night’s performance of Mankind’s Last Hope.
(And yes, that was a meta-plug, in which I just used mention of a plug to plug again!)
-Meta Cecil
I heart creative collaboration (aka Mankind’s Last Hope — starts next Friday!)
Perhaps I’ve already mentioned that my pal Jeff Green and I co-wrote a post-apocalyptic workplace comedy called Mankind’s Last Hope that’s being staged and filmed in the SF East Bay (by Virago Theatre Group) starting a week from Friday — October 26 (with tickets available now)?
When Jeff and I handed the script over, I told the director (Robert Lundy-Paine) that I was hoping to try and stay out of his/their way — I wanted to let them take it from there.
(1) I’d recently started a new job and knew I wouldn’t have much time to help, much less meddle, (2) I really trust the director and Virago, and (3) as a bunch of us saw with the Monkey Vortex experience, there’s just something really really really fun and interesting about giving people the freedom to take something you started and make it their own.
Everything about the process so far has really proven that point out. As previously blogged, the director got sometimes Stryper keyboardist Brent Jeffers to produce a beautiful theme song for us. He brought in a choreographer and they collectively reworked a smallish song in the second act into a potentially show-stopping musical number. A great graphic artist pulled together a beautiful poster (see below). Every cast member has added something lovely to their character that I hadn’t anticipated. One of them even created a rockin’ mini-movie providing a suspenseful slice of backstory for the oft-befuddled “Hank.” (also also see below) And there’s so much I haven’t even seen yet — the sound/lighting set up, the set, the costumes and makeup, the way they’re going film the show with 3 (three!) cameras.
And that’s why I’m here to say: I heart creative collaboration.
Something like 30 people have been working away, and I’m really excited to see the results. So let me exhort you to come on out. There — I exhort you!
(As an added bonus, if you know me well enough for us to engage in financial transactions, drop me an email so I can tell you how I can get you 2 (two!) bucks off the already low regular ticket price of $17….)
-Cecil
The beautiful poster:
A suspenseful backstory movie for (and by) the oft-befuddled Hank:
My HBO Special: Cecil Vortex — Uncorked
I liked SCB’s suggestion in the comments that I get an HBO special entitled “Uncorked.” I’m thinking I could carve out a niche as “the guy who complains about his small town with specifics no one outside of that town can understand.”
“What is the deal with all those ‘no left turn’ signs on Park? Anybody else find themselves driving in circles trying to get over to C’era Una Volta for some of their delicious housemade Pasta alla Boscaiola? Come on now!”
“I’m thinking the ice cream at Tucker’s is like crystal meth, if crystal meth came in Rocky Road and Orange Sherbert. Am I right? Am I right? Am I right? Am I right? I’m right about that, aren’t I?”
“Boy, all those stacks of books over at Kevin Patricks Books on Encinal are wild, don’t you think? Who would stack books like that in an earthquake zone? It’s an unusual choice, I say. Good books though, at reasonable prices.”
Uncorked
I flipped someone the bird today. I haven’t done that for a lot of years. It didn’t feel that great, but now that I’ve done it, I can’t seem to stop.
We live in a pretty small town. Slowing down to look for a parking spot, I put my left hand out the window and waved this guy in a VW around me. And the cranky son of a gun honked at me.
Now I hate honking in a small town. I just hate it. Save your honking noises for the big city, I always say, with its fancy ways and complex speech patterns, and its honking. Around here, no honking. Please.
So he honks at me and I can’t help it — I give him the finger. It’s like my finger lifted itself, smooth and swift, like a helium balloon. My hand was already out the window, right? And my middle finger just uncorked. And he honks again! Short, snippy. And I honk back! Then I park my car and go get a small pot of darjeeling. Deeeelicious.
And there it is. Some 10, or 11, or possibly even 12 years of no-bird-flipping. Gone. Just whisked away. Like a burp in a sandstorm.
I gave three or four more people the finger on the way home. I flipped off a poodle. I was out of control. And then when my seven-year-old forgot to say “please” when he asked me for a pony, you guessed it. The bird.
He said, “Pop — what’s that? What’s that strange gesture mean? Does it hurt?” And then, “Hey, I’m doing it too!” And I started to cry in a way that looked like I was laughing at something really really sad.
I can’t live this way. I’m going to try to cork it again tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t hurt.