Bedlam Theatre

The Missoula Oblongata is BACK in Minneapolis! With CLAMLUMP

All shows at HEART of the BEAST THEATRE 1500 LAKE Street.

Bedlam Theatre is proud to once again host the outstanding radical DIY theater – The Missoula Oblongata. Creators of the magical “Wonders of the World Recite” – a hit at the Minnesota Fringe Festival – are back with their newest imaginative work – Clamlump. This one is of course complete with an original score performed live by Travis Sehorn (pebble light) and all of the puppetry, animated junk, and densely layered language that they’ve become known for.

Also, the amazing folks of the Missoula Oblongata will be sharing their process with interested parties in a FREE WORKSHOP: Hurrah for the Mysterious Wonder Balloon.

Here’s the full schedule:

Friday 11/5, Saturday 11/6,  and Sunday 11/7 at 8pm – performances at
Heart of the Beast Theater
1500 E. Lake St. Minneapolis, MN 55404
612-721-2535
www.hobt.org
Buy Tickets at Brown Paper Tickets!

Sunday 11/7 12-5 – public workshop at
Heart of the Beast
1500 E. Lake St. Minneapolis, MN 55404
REGISTER AT brown paper tickets for free!

612-341-1038

((PS, if you can’t catch one of the Bedlam hosted performances above, there will also be a showing of CLAMLUMP:

Thursday 11/4 at 8pm - at
Paper Moose Jumpsuit
945 Broadway NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413))

This presentation is supported by the Performing Arts Fund, a program of Arts Midwest funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from the Minnesota State Arts Board, General Mills Foundation, and Land O’Lakes Foundation

MORE ABOUT THE MISSOULA OBLONGATA: The Missoula Oblongata is an experimental theatre company dedicated to creating and touring original work. Our lights, sound, and sets are all homemade, transportable, and operated by the performers themselves. This allows us to perform in venues which are accessible—financially and geographically—to a larger population than the regional theatre system serves. We meet unlikely audiences in their neighborhoods, their parks, their favorite music venues, and their homes—and transform these spaces into temporary, anarchistic theaters. http://www.themissoulaoblongata.com/news.html

MORE ABOUT CLAMLUMP: Deep in the hollows of the boarded up stadium, a barkeep sets his blender to pulse, a traveling salesman hawks his popcorn, and a bird with glorious plumage gores on or two people a year, on average.  Meanwhile, an unusual young person makes plans to go underground.  Because if your world extends only as far as the scoreboard and the nosebleed seats, who will ever understand your sense of humor?  “Clamlump”, the Missoula Oblongata’s new touring production promises the awe of misunderstanding, the privacy of laughter, and a sky dark with feathers.

MORE ABOUT HURRAH FOR THE MYSTERIOUS WONDER BALLOON! or: THE MISSOULA OBLONGATA WORKSHOP IN COLLABORATIVE THEATRE MAKING)
The Missoula Oblongata has developed a specific style of workshop based on our own collaborative process and our experience as radical artists. The workshop brings students together in small teams to write and create short performances from the ground up– from conception to writing to designing to building to performing. All workshops end with performances by the students– whether the workshop was a semester long or an hour long.

First we use a variety of movement techniques to awaken and bring awareness to the body. Then we guide students through the very same writing/conceiving prompts that we use to write our own scripts and structure our collaboration. After this, students are given a wealth of physical resources (space, junk, art supplies, power and hand tools, sewing machines, desk lamps, electrical equipment, etc.)  with which to craft a collaborative performance.

 THE PRESS CONSISTENTLY RAVES ABOUT THE MISSOULA OBLONGATA:

“Top Ten” — 2006 Montreal Fringe Festival

 “Best of the Fringe”– See Magazine (Edmonton, AB)

 “The most charming original production of the year… One of A Dozen Defining Arts Moments of 2006” – The Missoula Independent (See two separate articles) Article 1 Article 2

 “Gorgeous, poetic, funny, moving…I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.” –The Urbana News-Gazette

 “[The Missoula Oblongata] totally reinvent space and play with the notion of theater …like nothing I had ever seen… I felt the same way as I did the first time I saw a Marx brothers movie.” –The Dartmouth (read article)

 “ Witty writing and sharp acting…This visual delight is well-suited to its venue—a steamy boxing ring—and ideal for those not concerned with finding immediate, literal meaning.”—City Pages Minneapolis

“unendingly impressive.” — Baltimore City Paper — Best of Baltimore Issue (read article)

“In The Missoula Oblongata’s case, all signs point to an art form full of wonder that is not dying, one that long ago broke down the fourth wall and continues to be a transforming influence in a thriving arts community.”– The Valley Advocate (read article)

“A night at the theater has never looked so delightfully weird…Bizarrely frolicsome, cogently playful, sweetly surreal…Such is the genius of The Missoula Oblongata–quirky, but also exquisitely made and elegantly presented.” – The Santa Fe Reporter (read article)

“The romance of vaudeville, the adrenaline of punk, and the playfulness of the Children’s Television Workshop…packing the house with theatre buffs as well as with those who tend to fidget in velvet seats.” –St. Louis Magazine