Pumpkin Pie Show at UNDER ST. Mark’s
18 Oct
It’s about that time of year that pumpkin starts finding it’s way into everything. People begin anticipating if not already enjoying pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins and cookies, pumpkin-decorated store displays and clothing, carved pumpkins on stoops and yes, even pumpkin in theaters. It’s not unwelcome. Clay McLeod Chapman’s particular brand of one-man serial theater welcomes in the gourdy season with the Pumpkin Pie Show at UNDER St. Mark’s.
Chapman has been expounding upon the best qualities of literature and theater since the Pumpkin Pie Show began in 1996. Tearing away what he calls the extraneous components of theater, like set and costume, the shows consist of a series of original stories told by individual performers, a combination of a one-man show and a live reading. The solitary actors might at first seem to make for a lonely story, but Chapman promises to utilize the intimacy to instead create the emotional intensity of a rock concert. Indeed, the lineup for this season’s installment includes Pumpkin Pie Show pioneer Hanna Cheek (Sovereign), along with Abe Goldfarb (Bastard Keith), Brian Silliman (The Particulars) and Kevin Townley (Goodbar).
The plays in this showing will run from slightly horrific, such as Silliman’s piece Playing Doctor, in which a routine checkup gets out of hand when the doctor decides to share his reasons for going into medicine; all the way to the sexually absurd with Goldfarb portraying a turn-of-the-century explorer discovering the clitoris in The Wet Echo.
And, like anything happening in the Autumn, there’ll be plenty of pumpkin to go around: Chapman himself will be performing in a piece called Johnny Pumpkinseed, which promises to express our seasonal love for the gourd. Not just for pumpkin-eaters, the Pumpkin Pie Show is a marriage of literature and theater for fans of either, and the all-star cast makes this an installment not to be missed.
- Written by Shane Reader, Promotional Writer @ FABnyc
10/25-10/27 @ UNDER St.Marks
8:00 PM| $18.00
