THE RETURN OF THE CRAVEN MONKEY

Our December production of Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury at The Brick’s Fight Fest was a wild success – so much though that we’re moved to present a “remount” (ahem) later this month. We were thrilled by the critical response to the show, so in order to whet your appetites, here are some of the great quotes we received.

“This show is worth checking out for the costumes alone—sparkly, hairy, vibrant realizations of a world without rules, designed by Julianne Kroboth. But the actors’ spot-on, endearing performances are what make this show thrive. Although they have no dialogue, they bring fantastic creatures to life."
--Time Out New York

“In Lewonczyk’s play, Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury, anything goes, but you can be sure it’s done with finesse and delicately choreographed fight scenes. Not one character fell flat and by the end of the show, all the actors had a good reason to stand tall.”
--New York Press

"If epic animal battles, extensive monkey humping, and overall extreme silliness are what you've been craving, then head over to the Brick Theatre for Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury... The playfulness on the part of the team of monkey/creature-actors makes this show all the more fun. Maybe we can see a little of ourselves in this story of a simple monkey humping and battling his way through this crazy world."
--Nytheatre.com

“A dirty joke slips into poetry… the nonverbal cast stomps home a timeless semaphore of love, striving, and projectile poop. In the elegant interplay and affirmative physicality of “Craven Monkey”’s considered slapstick is a vision of passionate impulse bestowed with purpose, and essential conflict tamed as art.”
--ComicCritique

You can read more about the show itself at PiperMcKenzie.com, and you can check out our Flickr feed for more photos.

Willy Nilly Week Two: The Puppies Come Around

Photo credit: Ken Stein/Runs With Scissors

After selling out three of our four performances so far, the public is coming around to what we knew the whole time: Willy Nilly is psychogroovatronadelafreakic. For your delectation, here is this week’s roundup of press – all of it is great, actually, even the one negative review from the guy who was offended (it’s an offensive show!). Still here it all is, in a rough spectrum from rave to grave:

Over at Off-Off Blogway, Ludlow Lad makes us a Fringe recommendation and calls the production “outstanding”: http://ooblogway.blogspot.com/2009/08/fringenyc-2009-recommendations-part-2.html

In the midst of a rigorous grokking of the show at the ComicCritique Blog, Friend of Piper Adam McGovern calls Willy “the most hilarious show about brainwashing and ritual slaughter you may see all month!”: http://blog.comiccritique.com/?p=72

Fusion on the Fly revisits the show and says it has “hit potential” – “It is wild, free wheeling and a little 'off' in a good way”: http://chefprivato.blogspot.com/2009/08/fringe-actor-promotionsmore-eats-and.html

Esteemed colleague Michael Roderick, over at One Producer in the City, says “With crazy music, a twist on a dream ballet you have to see to believe, and plenty of double entendre, this is a show that truly lives on the Fringe”: http://oneproducerinthecity.typepad.com/one_producer_in_the_city/2009/08/oh-a-fringeing-i-will-go.html

Trav S.D. gets the bigshot interview treatment at Paper Magazine: http://www.papermag.com/blogs/2009/08/stage_notes_willy_nilly.php

Jeff Lewonczyk is given full rein to talk till he’s blue in the face on Playbill Radio: http://www.playbillradio.com/podcast/podcast.html?item_id=1406

Patrick Lee at Just Shows To Go You says, “My reaction to this one-act musical went from mild amusement to annoyed tolerance to outright loathing within 20 minutes… a new low in cynicism.” That’s hard to top: http://justshowstogoyou.com/blog/2009/08/23/willy-nilly/

Our final performance on Saturday night is, regrettably (for you, not us) sold out. Keep your fingers and devil-horns crossed for an extension!

Willy Nilly: The Puppies Have Their Say

Photo credit: Ken Stein/Runs With Scissors

Well, Willy Nilly’s open – has been since Friday, the same day Squeaky Fromme was released from prison – and so this seems like as good a time as any to do a roundup of the really kind of staggering amount of press we’ve received to date. We wish we could say it’s all good, but that, as they say, is show biz. The truth is, we nearly sold out our first house, we completely sold out our second, and a lot of people have been visibly and vocally enjoying themselves, even as others sit beside them in stony silence. In a word, it’s another Piper McKenzie production.

In the interest of full disclosure, here’s the breakdown, with the good stuff first, so the media (including bloggers) can praise us before they bury us.

Have YOU seen the show? Let us know what you think via the comments section, why doncha?

THE GOOD STUFF

We performed at the FringeNYC press preview, which was awesome (pictured above, before we got rained in and performed on the stage).

Michael Musto, after nearly giving us a heart attack, reveals that he found the show “a tastily eccentric ‘psychedelic-atessen’”: http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-08-18/columns/blind-items-about-raw-sex-and-meth-habits/1

Time Out New York chooses us as one of its top picks for the Fringe: http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/theater/77602/fringe-fest-what-to-see

Metromix says of Willy Nilly, “We suspect it’ll be the year’s breakout hit”: http://newyork.metromix.com/events/article/new-york-international-fringe/1370960/content

Gothamist names us its number one (and really only) Fringe pick: http://gothamist.com/gothamlist/2009/08/14.php

AM New York makes us a top ten Fringe pick: (Not online, dammit)

Downtown Express gives us some love: http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_329/fringenyc.html

The garage-punk community comes out in favor of the show: http://blog.garagepunknyc.com/labels/pipsqueak.html

A very wonderful person left us a highly supportive comment on the Times’ listing of the show, saying “if this isn’t THE must-see show at this year’s Fringe, I don’t know what is” – thank you, whomever you are!: http://theater2.nytimes.com/gst/theater/tdetails.html?id=1247463494189

THE NOT-SO-GOOD STUFF

Jason Zinoman dismisses the show in the New York Times ArtsBeat blog: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/at-the-fringe-growing-up/

Jason Zinoman then goes on to fault us in the same blog for not making more of a flying beach ball accident: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/at-the-fringe-when-things-go-wrong/

Alexis Soloski cites the same beach ball incident in her pan of the show in the Village Voice (LESSON: beach balls and theater critics don’t mix): http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-08-18/theater/three-days-at-the-new-york-international-fringe-festival/

Raven Snook’s lukewarm but respectful Time Out review: http://newyork.timeout.com/events/fringe-festival/298327/4127087/willy-nilly

The Male Nudity in New York Stage blog cites an erroneous report about our show: http://mnnys.blogspot.com/2009/08/report-from-ny-fringe-2009-1-wily-nilly.html

Which is then officially rebutted after coordinated action from certain cast members: http://mnnys.blogspot.com/2009/08/rebuttal-re-report-1-ny-fringe-2009.html

Fusion on the Fly generally pans the show but takes close note of one special actor: http://chefprivato.blogspot.com/2009/08/willy-nilly-and-best-food-around-venue.html

Theater Online takes us to task for having limited tech time in the space: http://www.theateronline.com/reviewShow.xzc?PK=21950&Action=Review

TheatreIsEasy.com decides that we’re having too much fun, and that the proceedings are too silly, for this to be a good show: http://mmtheatre.blogspot.com/2009/08/willy-nilly-fringenyc.html

Stage Mage blah blah blah: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/theater-reviews-nyc-willy-nilly-and/

Willy Nilly on NYTheatrecast

Supporters of Piper McKenzie, Trav S.D. the NY International Fringe Festival and theater in general will thrill to the recent podcast from NYTheatrecast, in which Trav engages John Clancy, one of the co-founders of the Fringe, in a conversation about each other's shows in this year's festival. 

This Fringe is pretty historic for Piper McKenzie: it was ten years ago, in 1999, that we had our first performance in New York City, as part of that year's Fringe. It was a two-character show called The Walking in Space Show that... well, we're really, really happy with the work everyone's been doing on Willy Nilly ten years down the line! Another milestone: that first NY production of ours was at the old Dixon Place, while Willy Nilly is at the new one. Synergy!

Check out more info on John's show - The Event - and be sure to listen to the other NYTheatrecast episodes about the Fringe!

Pictures of Filthy Hippies (as Opposed to Filthy Pictures of Hippies)

Lo and behold! Kodaksopeia, Muse of Photography, has bestowed upon Piper McKenzie not merely a handful of snapshots, but an entire photostream on Flickr!  Visit it right now in order to view, well, a handful of snapshots.

But they're not just ANY snapshots, nay!  They're the first batch of photos illustrating the dose of lycergic madness that is Willy Nilly!  You'll see some cracked-up character shots, a shockingly wide spectrum of costumes, and images of behind-the-scenes tomfoolery. (Featured above are Mateo Moreno and Michael Criscuolo as a pair of good-for-nothing beatniks.) Keep you eyes on this space for even more, even better pics as the process develops!

Meanwhile, our good friends at Nytheatre.com have published a Willy Nilly preview in which Trav and Jeff say some pretty awesome things about what we all hope will be a very awesome show. Give it a read, then check out the preview articles about our many other brethren in this year's Fringe!