Guerilla Playhouse at Studio Roanoke moves to the second and fourth Sundays of every month (8pm) beginning August 22nd. The series offers staged readings of plays still being worked on, with an opening set of music. For a $5 admission it’s worth a try.
The most recent Guerilla Playhouse (the last scheduled on the first Sunday of the month) featured music by Ryan Browning’s one-man band, “On the Cooling Board.” The Guerilla Playhouse series debuted after No Shame Theatre left the space at 30 Campbell Avenue, returning to its original home at Mill Mountain Theatre. The most recent Guerilla Playhouse played to a house about three quarters full.
Browning played a blues-rock set, mostly originals, beginning as a seated, bow-tied, suit jacket-wearing troubadour, ending without jacket and bowtie, dress shirt open, dramatically lying on the Studio Roanoke stage while singing about “John the Revelator.” Browning hopes to have some recorded music available soon on his MySpace page.
As for the reading, playwright Brian Turner’s “Wild Turkey” featured four men at a hunting lodge, three of them shaking off the effects of too much partying the night before. Former Studio Roanoke development officer Chad Runyon returned to play one of the four main characters in Wild Turkey. He recently played a dog during the Overnight Sensations series of mini-plays at Mill Mountain Theatre. Dwayne Yancey directed that work, as he did with Wild Turkey.
There are hallucinations, more drinking, ruminations about getting older and ending all of the boozing, lots of coarse language and a femme fatale that may have poisoned some breakfast sausages she left behind after a one night stand with one of the men. (Three of them meet an untimely demise while the other claims to have found religion.)
Actors read from scripts during most of the performance, as is the case with staged readings. Try Guerilla Playhouse for something a bit different – watching an unpolished work in its early stages.
See studioroanoke.org for more on upcoming Guerilla Playhouse programs.