Ground Zero takes its show on the road and gives us sex and movies along the way
Zombies vaginas a splash of urine and one drunken fucker are just some of the themes Ground Zero Theatre has tackled. It makes them sound dirty and silly — and maybe they are a little — but this is also a serious company with solid productions.
This year Ground Zero will start things off with David Mamet’s Speed the Plow (Nov. 7 to 22) a tale of two friends in the madness of Hollywood.
The story catches up with the protagonists as the biggest star in the biz is promising to jump to their studio and an intern is trying to wiggle her way into Hollywood by coming between the two friends.
“We’ve got a stellar cast here not counting myself because I don’t know about that guy” says Ryan Luhning artistic director and star of the show along with Julie Orton and Trevor Leigh.
The original intent was to have Luhning and Leigh switch roles every other night but success got in the way. Evil Dead: The Musical was a huge audience hit last season (hey it even won the Fast Forward Weekly Reader’s Choice Award) and now the Ground Zero and Hit & Myth Productions folks are taking it on the road to Vancouver in October and November. Something Luhning is clearly excited about.
“You get to a certain level in our city where you’ve got a certain cache and a certain respect with your peers and with your audiences that are coming” says Luhning “and you just sort of want to share that and be able to challenge yourself as well and see if you can put the show up in other markets.”
When and if they do get back to Calgary it’s time to get a little silly once more with a cabaret-style performance My First Time (March 17 to April 11). The title pretty much sums this one up.
“It’s basically a monologue show about my first time monologues about people’s first time — their experiences what happens” says Luhning.
There’s also the opportunity for audience members to anonymously share their own experiences by filling out a questionnaire. Numbers will be tabulated and splashed across a screen and some anecdotes will be read by actors.
A bar will be set up in the theatre to encourage a rowdy and fun atmosphere.
“When we saw it on Broadway it was just hysterical it’s just a good raucous time in the theatre” says Luhning.
“That’s really a universal. I mean who doesn’t have a first time? Everybody has one; everybody has a story. Except for Joel Cochrane from Hit & Myth who’s sitting beside me he put up his hand. He has a daughter so I’m just kind of wondering here.”
