Pitching Punkplay
Fly Steffens and World's Stage looking to raise money for a play about the '80s DIY punk scene
It was one of my favorite documentaries and I can't remember what it was called. And I can't seem to find mention of it anywhere online. It was a cheap '80s video documentary that followed around Corrosion of Conformity (I'm fairly certain it was COC anyway...) on a North American tour. It followed the early '80s DIY punk scene as it was happening. Like any '80s DIY punk band, they didn't have a lot of money. They toured around in a converted school bus. After getting stiffed out of their take of a string of gigs, the tour fell apart. The remaining members of the band on the tour ended up getting a ride back home with the guys who were making the documentary.
That's the DIY aesthetic . . . and it fits punk perfectly. At the end of the summer, Flannery Steffens and the World's Stage Theatre consortium are putting together a production of Punkplay--Gregory Moss' tribute to the '80s DIY punk scene. Not just an ode to the era, Punkplay is a story about youth coming of age in an era where heightening tensions between the East and the west made us all live with the idea that the end of the world could happen at any minute. It's been described as a fever dream. It's been described as an ode to individuality. And its being staged at the types of places punk bands would've been playing in the '80s had hey actually been around back then. The show runs September 6th through the 15th . . . the show begins its run at Cream City Collectives and closes at Bucketworks.
To ensure that the show is able to make it through its scheduled performances, Flannery Steffens is raising money through Indiegogo.com. Steffens is looking to raise $750 for the production. That's it. That's all they need. As of this writing, they've only raised $40. They need the money by Friday, July 20th. (To put that into perspective that's like . . . $375 in mid-'80s money.)
Okay, so I'm doing a horrible job of pitching the concept. Follow this link and let Fly Steffens pitch it to you directly. A couple of highlights include the fact that the two young men who are the central characters of the show are played by two young women. And evidently the show is being done entirely on roller-skates. Sound interesting? I think it could be. And I love the fact that there's a much more appealing alternative to another bloated production of Sondheim that'll be opening that same weekend in September. It'll be an interesting contrast. Would somebody with money please help these people provide an alternative to Sondheim for mid-September?
come on! the rep IS supported. more than equally. more than any other company in milwaukee. of course stuff will be written about assassins, by every major publication in milwaukee, without them even asking for it! there's more than the rep, there's more than sondheim - we need new theatre in milwaukee by new artists from the real milwaukee theatre community - and they should get supported as much as the rep does. yeah, it's a different aesthetic or whatever, but i think it's ridiculous to say that the rep should get equally supported as independent milwaukee theater when they are a HUGE regional theater with tons and tons of resources already at their fingertips. If Mr. Bickerstaff is a punk, I think that's a compliment, and he should keep doing what he's doing.