The Catastrophic Theatre Announces 2024-25 Season
Spirits to Enforce by Mickle Maher
Directed by Jason Nodler
A group of telefundraisers attempt to raise money for an upcoming production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, to be performed by local superhero team “The Fathom Town Enforcers.”
Things aren’t looking good at the phone bank. They haven’t raised a dime, rehearsals are a disaster, and they haven’t sold a single ticket. How far will they go to pull off this seemingly doomed-for-sure production? Why do they even want to?
And what do Shakespeare, superheroes, and fundraising have to do with each other? Well, you’ve obviously never seen a Mickle Maher play. Better get on that.
Spirits to Enforce creates a cacophonous symphony of language. A riotously funny, tender tale of memory, loss, and finding the way back home.
September 20 – October 12, 2024
LOVE BOMB by Brian Jucha and The Catastrophic ensemble
Directed and choreographed by Brian Jucha
(World Premiere)
What’s Love Bomb about anyway? Let’s say it’s about “taxi dancers.” Even if it isn’t. So, what’s a taxi dancer? Early last century, taxi dancers attended dance halls, being paid in exchange for a single dance, maybe paid again for another, maybe paid once more for…? There will be music, that’s all we’re saying. Oh, and that there’s nothing people won’t do to find love. The rest is going to have to remain a surprise and you can bet it will be.
Catastrophic is a “make-your-own-meaning” theatre and nobody exemplifies that ethic better than Brian Jucha, who employs found text, pop culture, music, and intensive ensemble work to mystify, surprise, and enthrall audiences in ways they’d never imagined possible.
November 15 – December 7, 2024
Miss LaRaj’s House of Dystopian Futures by Candice D’Meza
Directed by Candice D’Meza and T Lavois Thiebaud
(World Premiere)
In a world where civilization and the environment that birthed it has been decimated by myriad human-made cruelties, the question remains: will humans ever learn?
In this post-apocalyptic riff on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Fred’s long since gone and Nature itself is now the main character. Enter Miss LaRaj—our wise and wisecracking MUTHA of the New World Order.
Talking trees, judgmental rocks, all natural forces sing and move, attempting to guide humankind back to true symbiosis. And what better way to learn than from a kid’s show? What are humans anyway if not the petulant children of this planet?
What if we used our imaginations?
February 7 – March 1, 2025
The Frozen Section (a comedy on aisle 9) by Lisa D’Amour
Directed by Jason Nodler
(World Premiere)
In a liminal, existential grocery store, a disorganized collection of bewildered shoppers and workers find comfort in the carefully organized aisles, in the feeling of cold air on one’s face when opening a door in the frozen section.
But the supermarket feels almost empty. Because: Instacart? These collected souls seem so removed from one another, so far from the messy origin of things. Salad mix sweating in a clam shell? How did we get here? In the back alley a cashier converses with a coyote; in Dairy, civilization dances with the wild.
To be adrift solo is one thing, to be so among found community is quite another. And that’s not nothing. Sometimes it can seem like everything.
March 28 – April 19, 2025
Another Ding-Dang Tamarie Show by Tamarie Cooper and Patrick Reynolds
Directed, choreographed, and starring Tamarie Cooper
(World Premiere)
For 28 straight years Tamarie Cooper has created all-new, smash-hit musicals. Maybe that’s why everyone’s always saying, “It wouldn’t be summer in Houston without a Tamarie Cooper Show.”
How does she do it? How does she keep these gigantic casts and audiences coming back year after year? What is wrong with you all? And wait a minute… is that even the real Tamarie?
Well, we know a few things you don’t and this year Tamarie’s taking you behind-the-scenes and sharing all her secrets about how the tap-dancing sausage gets made.
Think of it as Catastrophic’s Noises Off. Or just think about it as another ding-dang Tamarie Cooper World Premiere.
June 27 – August 2, 2025
Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston
All tickets are Pay-What-You-Can
