Best of Fest
Here are the top shows from Forget About Spaghetti Festival returning in 2023 for a run!
The highlight of The Elysian's first year of existence was hands-down the final sprint of our year one - Forget About Spaghetti Festival. We premiered over 16 shows and put our money, time and our damned heart into these performers. We supported these shows with access to workshops, prep feedback, rehearsal space, one-on-one time, along with that sweet sweet sauce of encouragement.
We’ve chosen THREE shows to return in 2023 for a run. Plus two shows will get an additional VIP: Very In Progress round of development.
We're proud of every show and because it was built with risk and courage in mind, a shows success was not just about audience turnout or a polished finished product - it's about process, potential and the joy of it.
The below shows have been specifically selected because they stood out for being surprising spectacles that kept us saying "I have to tell you about this show" to every friend, barista and cool person. ;)
We believe in these performers so if you like the weird, wonderful and courageous - then you'll love these shows. See what stuck…
by Sunny Zimmerman & Caitlan Moore Sunny Zimmerman takes the stage with force in this ensemble play, performing as a far-too-method-for-this-space actor playing LBJ in a 5th Grade classroom in The Elysian Theater. With Katie Davis, Albert Muzquiz and Soraya Perry as ensemble players and Caitlan Moore directing - this group takes pleasure in the most insane characterizations of LBJ's history - of which there are many - in this multi-layered endlessly fun show.
Once Sunny pierces through these layers and into the real room and the real people occupying it, we're pulled in like a black hole. LBJ's power is stripped away, the fun is gone, and all we are left with is Sunny. Damn.
It's a play with huge fun and profound feeling and should not be missed. If you see it, you'll know.
Highlight: When LBJ changes into a too-small, too-tight sailor outfit and announces "I'm a little boy now."
by Kristin Wallace
Kristin Wallace dons whiteface and a full white skinsuit in her "gift receipt to the Jim Crow era" minstrel show. She takes on the roles of a white gamer bro, a cluelessly empathetic therapist, and a hopelessly single Buca Di Beppo heiress.
Kristin laughs at the horrors of our racist history, confronting it with pure enjoyment. Our history sucks and it's fun to watch her to make fun of it.
White Time stars Wallace, with Brandon Kelly and Sam Walt Jones performing in supporting roles. Plus some delightful audience participation.
Highlight: Krissy Di Beppo tells her date she likes to be chased, then runs away. The audience member chased her around the stage! So good.
Bonus points: this show incorporated spaghetti ;)
by Steph Cook, Meghan Strickland, Jeff Murdock
A silly fun musical! Three blissful Rats that live in a dumpster are faced with a massive rent hike. The only way they can afford to stay is by winning a competition to open for Ricky Gervais! But of course the fame and money go to their head.
Three Rats is stupid fun, with well-composed hilarious musical numbers like "This Is How I'll Save The Dumpster" that are poorly sung - and relishing in it. It's got a looseness to it that feels completely alive, with moments being riffed on the spot, like the brief 10-15 second intermission, and has fun with itself and everyone on stage. Also, spectacular direction by Ryan Asher. Wow.
Three Rats stars Steph Cook, Meghan Strickland and Jeff Murdock with support from Tim Lamphier and musical composition from Brian Heveron-Smith.
Highlight: A rat asks "What's your favorite item in the world" and an audience member responds "A hot dog." This leads to a dumpster sale song where they eventually auction off this hot dog to a man covered head-to-toe in gold for Three-Million Fish Bones. Hilarious nonsense.
Stay tuned as these next two shows enter into a new Work In Progress run in 2023. To be announced!
★ VIP: DISNEY VORTEX
by Amanda & Amber Miller
A celebration of Disney fandom, sisterhood, family and black womanhood. Amanda and Amber use nostalgia to take us on a childlike journey and show us where our culture left them behind. There are real moments of catharsis with a group scream, as well as celebration, with all the black women in the crowd joining on stage for the big dance finale. Our shared nostalgia takes us deeper and here, it's no cheap trick.
Karaoke and choreography take center stage in this show, nodding to a new era of comedy, art and performance that is bubbling up. These two are working that new gen out before our eyes.
This show is going to continue to be built and workshopped in The Elysian's VIP: Very In Progress 2023 program. We're looking forward to how this show builds and grows.
Highlight: A moment with their parents on stage revealing, they're a fangirl family. Photos from their childhood at comic-cons and red carpets, set to the Proud Family theme song as the four of them (mom, dad, daughters) dance in celebration together. That was a shed a tear moment.
★ VIP: OPEN FOR BONE BUSINESS
by Amy Chiao
Amy Chiao is the Bone Business Lady who wants to spread her gospel: reusing bones to make stuff. Seriously, she cleans chicken bones and makes bone earrings, a bone-mail dress, velour bone-Juicy-logo sweats. It's comedy and art piece. It's fiction and reality. It's live and it's digital. Bone Business is a show of contrasts - leading us to it's dynamic center: the takeout container. :)
Amy Chiao is confidently shy and sharp-witted on the spot. This show showcases her weird brain and serious passion for the strange. She takes care of us, even with its hiccups. Bone Business is like nothing else, endlessly surprising and eye-catching.
Bone Business will be coming back but she's sick of eating chicken. So stay tuned for it's return in a new form in fall of 2023. Make note to see Amy performing on other shows in the meantime because she's one of the special ones.
Highlight: The chicken bone eating competition with the winners foil letters being lined up to spell "ABROL." "That didn't turn out how I wanted." LABOR.
Forget About Spaghetti Festival was our first annual festival in 2022.