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Spirits to Enforce (2008)

Ticket Price

Pay What You Can

We Suggest $35
More If You Have it
Less if you don't

Location

Barnevelder
2201 Preston Street
Houston, TX
Venue Info

Performances

Dec 10, 2008 -
Dec 20, 2008

Cast & Personnel

Director
Cast
Scenic Design
Sound Design
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Booth Crew

The Play

Here’s the scenario: superheroes are holed up in a submarine where they are conducting a telethon to raise money to put on a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Times are tough for this pack of thespian crusaders. All are fearless defenders of the island of Fathom Town, a place they keep safe and tidy with their oddball traits. The Intoxicator gets the bad guys buzzed, Memory Lass remembers the future, and The Pleaser, well you can figure that out. Then there’s Snow Heavy Branch guy who can’t stop talking about a gondola. Of course, there’s an evil doer (gotta have one), Dr. Cannibal (as in Caliban), who has his own sordid history with The Tempest. Turns out they all do, as the gang discovers they are all remnant spirits of Prospero’s Isle. Snippets of their literary legacies come through in various phone conversations. They also find that fundraising and putting on a show may be a way harder job than fighting evil. Bard wonks should pay close attention to choice Tempest-isms cleverly tucked into phone chats.

The Playwright

MICKLE MAHER
Mickle Maher’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and throughout the world. Catastrophic has produced a whopping 12 productions of his plays, some of them more than once: last season’s It Is Magic, Song About Himself, The Hunchback Variations, There Is a Happiness That Morning Is, The Strangerer, Jim Lehrer and The Theater and Its Double and Jim Lehrer’s Double, and the world premieres of The Pine and Small Ball, commissioned and co-produced by Catastrophic and former Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey. Maher is a co-founder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck and has taught playwriting and related subjects at The University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Northwestern University. His plays are published by Hope and Nonthings.
  
“Maher [is] one of the most original voices in American theater today.” – Houston Chronicle

In the Media

Capsule Stage Reviews: Spirits to Enforce
December 18, 2008 | Houston Press | Lee Williams
Spirits dares to be inventive
December 12, 2008 | Houston Chronicle | Everett Evans
REVIEW: The Catastrophic Theatre’s Spirits to Enforce
December 12, 2008 | Dancehunter | Nancy Wozny

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