March 2-4, 9th and 10th,

Broadway Playhouse

Directed by Gina Marie Hayes

“Charlie: an Adventure”  is Red Egg Theater’s spring play, an original adaptation of a semi-autobiographical short story by Cj Hayes. In the vein of “The Phantom Tollbooth” or “Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland,” “Charlie” is the tale of a boy whose eldest brother has died in a motorcycle accident.  Charlie is sleeping in his bed when he is suddenly awoken by George, a talking kitten, who leads him on an excursion inside Charlie’s own mind. Charlie must then outsmart a number of foes before confronting God – who is not at all what he expected.

Check our Season Page for more exciting projects.

Adrienne Walters as Tink and Cory Censoprano as Peter Pan

“Ordinarily, a theater reviewer does not attend a preview. Unfortunately, production costs leave small companies no choice but to book a run for only two weekends, and the play will not have a review if the reviewer doesn’t attend a preview.

A reviewer really shouldn’t go to a preview where the first two were canceled due to an actor quitting on Friday and the play’s director is taking over that role, script in hand.

However, as another audience member remarked: this didn’t feel like a preview. Red Egg Theater’s new production of “Book of Tink” was powerful, cohesive and breathtaking. A couple of sound level issues and a lighting cue that was missed should not keep you from seeing the final three performances of this haunting play.

Red Egg takes children’s stories and turns them on their shadow side “” literally. Their specialty is shadow puppetry and other forms of puppetry. In this current 10-person ensemble production of the “Peter Pan” story from Tinker Bell’s point of view, there are several puppets, including the Crocodile, Michael, and Nana. Before you think, “Oh, puppets and Tinker Bell, I’ll bring the kids!” stop right there. Wendy (Erin Johnson) is manipulative and neurotic and seduces Peter (Cory Sensoprano) whom she ultimately tries to murder. Tink A(drienne Walters) loves Hook (Lara Elizabeth Foy). Hook loves Peter, who slices off her hand, and Tink truly is a tinker: fashioning a hook for Hook and a metal crocodile head to eat the Mermaid Prostitutes and rescue the fairies from hell, which is where Tink goes when she dies. No “everybody clap!” here!

This is a still unpublished musical by Erik Ehn, head of the play-writing program at Brown University. It has been performed by a dozen companies, each of which composed original music for Mr. Ehn’s lyrics. Emily Intersimone has composed a wonderful score: the musical numbers are by turns rousing, disturbing, hilarious, and touching. The love-smitten Tink and Hook get the gorgeous ballads.

Red Egg puts on green shows. They use recycled materials. Props are from thrift stores. The set, designed by Christopher Frost and director/puppet designer — and, now, actor — Gina Marie Hayes, is made of used materials. Amy Bobeda’s costumes are made from recycled fabric.

“Tink” is an example of fine ensemble acting. The play revolves around Tink, and Adrienne Walters carries this show admirably, but there wasn’t a clinker in this group, rounded out by Jake Pino, Renee Gholikely, Katie Burris, Boris Volkov and Travis Wyckoff. Go, but get a sitter for the kids.”

by Erik Ehn

Directed by Gina Marie Hayes

Founding Artistic Director Gina Marie Hayes takes on Book of Tink, the story of ‘Everand’, the domain of the child-god Peter Pan whose existence is threatened by the machinations of a mentally disturbed Wendy Darling. To save Everand, Tinkerbell, the Fairies, Captain Hook and a chorus of Mermaid Prostitutes must band together to stop Wendy, while Nana, John, and Michael Darling watch on and narrate. Los Angeles Times theatre critic Michael Phillips wrote of Erik Ehn’s work, “In a world of timid wordfolk, playwright Erik Ehn keeps his radio tuned to the unruly language of the night sky.”

Featuring songs, dancing, and a six foot crocodile puppet named “Geoffrey.”

The Broadway Playhouse

March 6 (preview) and 11-13th

*Preview performances for March 4th and 5th have been CANCELED*

Book of Tink

by Erik Ehn

Directed by Gina Marie Hayes

Poetic and Punky – J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan meets the Book of Revelations

Where: WEST PERFORMING ARTS

When: January 31^st, 6pm

What: Please prepare one Contemporary monologue, & one                                            song (no accompaniment)

Please bring a headshot and resume, if you have one.

Questions? Email redeggtheater@gmail.com

www.redeggtheater.com

SIDES SPEAKEASY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY MACABRE SWING SPECTACLE this Saturday, October 30th at 11 pm!

The event takes place at the 515 Club (515 Cedar St., Santa Cruz, CA) and will also include:

* Camera Girl & Her Novelty Photobooth!
* Vintage Halloween Decorations!
* Costume Contest!
* Spooky Vintage Jazz & Blues!
* Swing Dancing
* Classic Double Feature Films: The Wolfman (1941), Wolfman Meets Frankenstein (1943)

Come on out and support us at this awesome event!

For more photos of the event, please visit our Facebook Page.

Artistic Director Gina Marie Hayes

Red Egg has a halogen spotlight we have used in the past for rehearsals, but this has never quite worked the way we wanted it to. For this show we wanted something new, that would give us lovely crisp edges but still have that nostalgic old-world feel. I would love to use nothing but candles, but with a shadow screen made of fabric, things can get hairy. There’s a reason so many theaters burned down before and in the early years after the invention of electric light. Then, of course, there is the problem of rehearsal. What if the light source you want to use isn’t available for the full rehearsal period? There’s no way to properly rehearse with a substitute light, but depending on the budget of the show that can get tricky.

As it happens, the light source we were to ultimately use was a lighting fixture that could not be powered in our rehearsal space, so we were in just the above dilemma.

Our first day of shadow puppet rehearsal I brought the halogen spotlight we had used in past shows, thinking that at least we could make do until we moved into the theater and could use the final fixture. Unbeknown to me, our Stage Manager, Jessi, had brought her own substitute light source, a small round halogen desk lamp from her office upstairs. Yes friends, it was the Little Lamp That Could.

Ian Fullmer as The Pied Piper.

I was amazed. The above photo was taken on that first day of shadow puppet rehearsal, using just a bedsheet and the Little Lamp.

When we moved into the theater, we switched to the professional lighting fixture… and you know what? The images were suddenly fuzzy and blurred and a strange washed-out blue color instead of that nice strong black shadow we were used to. What was the solution? “Bring out the Little Lamp That Could!” We just assigned a brave crew member to use the dimmer switch of the Lamp, and began using it to tech through the show. All worked beautifully.

On our last day of tech rehearsal we ran the show twice in the theater using the Little Lamp That Could. After a marathon notes session we began the third run, and it was fantastic – just the right pace, a haunting intensity from the actors, everything going smoothly on the tech side. Then… the light went out.

Everyone froze, even before our Stage Manager said the words that often follow a major theatrical problem, and seem to gain more intensity the worse that problem is – “hold please.” After a few moments of trying to determine what went wrong, we realized that the bulb had blown. With no replacement bulbs, we were done for the night.

The next day our SM, Jessi, bought a 6-pack of bulbs, and the Little Lamp That Could has been lighting our shadow puppet sequences dutifully since then. Lesson learned.

The blog is taking a well-deserved break over the weekend. Tune in on Monday for: “The Story of A Lamp; or, How We Make Shadows.”

Artistic Director Gina Marie Hayes

Two days of tech have come and gone and suddenly it seems as if the play is truly an alive thing, not just a mass daydream that we’ve all been having for the past month or so. Things are starting to glow and move, and in some cases, even the actors are getting taken in by the spooky atmosphere we’re creating.

Yesterday was our last full day of tech and you could feel that everyone was getting tired as the evening wore on into the wee hours. At one point, as inevitably happens, we were holding while a light or sound cue was changed, and the actors onstage were amusing themselves. Ian Fullmer, our Pied Piper, and Erin Johnson, who plays the young girl Gertie, started communing, which is the only word I can think of to describe it – basically, they were swaying back and forth and maintaining eye contact as creepy cave sound cues played in the background. To make things even more unnerving, Erin was holding the puppet she uses to play Gertie, a modified plastic baby doll. She/the puppet and Ian got closer and closer to each other and the swaying got smaller and smaller, until they were nearly nose to nose. Then, suddenly, Ian shook his hands at Erin and yelled “Boo!” She shrieked like nothing I’d ever heard before, in turn spooking everyone in the theater. There was a moment of silence. Then, everyone, techies and actors alike, burst into uncontrollable laughter. It’s the little things.

(From left) Ian Fullmer as the Pied Piper, and Boris Volkov as the Piper's Doll.

I’m incredibly proud of my amazing cast – some of them have never worked with puppets (shadow or otherwise) before, and have had to learn throughout the rehearsal process. Some of the lighting effects in the play are done with battery-powered fixtures that have to be switched on and off by the cast on-stage during a scene. Sometimes they have to light themselves with a tiny electric tea-light that must be held just so up to their face. Throughout it all, they have been ready and willing to step up, to learn, and to take on the new challenges of this play.

Stay tuned tonight and tomorrow for some voices from the cast and crew, and on through next week for more dispatches from backstage!