Gnap! Theater Projects Presents Just Like the Rodeo

[shando]

From October 2nd through October 18th, nestled firmly within "Get Your Art On" month in Austin, Gnap! Theater Projects is proud to present, in association with the Church of the Friendly Ghost, Just Like the Rodeo: A Festival of Hybrid Performance.

What's hybrid performance? Well, in Gnap!'s case it involves taking improv comedy and mixing it with all different kinds of artistic disciplines that we're also interested in. And Church of the Friendly Ghost specializes in programming musical events that defy usual boundaries of performance disciplines. It's a match made in heaven. To wit:

Friday October 2nd:

Mongoose

A mash-up of improvising actors and musicians in a street illegal version of John Zorn's legendary game composition Cobra. Expect the lightning fast jump cuts of Cobra, but now with words and scenic content in addition to the sonic game play. Featuring veterans of the old Austin Cobra Group and a team of improvising actors, including Austin Chronicle's Readers' Poll Best Actor Arthur Simone. Conducted improv game play of the highest level.

8PM, $5 admission at the door or NO admission with a Festival Pass!

Saturday October 3rd:

Church of the Friendly Ghost presents:

-Greg Headley (of Austin New Music CoOp,) performing pieces for sine wave & acoustic guitar
-Nick Hennies, performing new works for solo percussion
-Zanzibar Snails, cracking the air over our heads into splendid free jazz fever-dream textures.

8PM to 10PM, $5 admission at the door or NO admission with a Festival Pass!

Sunday October 4th:

5AASP (Fifth Annual Austin Analog Synth Party)

AAASP is an annual event where analog synth geeks assemble to share in new projects & rare acquisitions. Expect an interactive museum of old & lovingly refurbished synthesizers, and their master doing tricks for you. This event is usually something of a fashion show as well. Don't own a synthesizer, know nothing about synthesizers? Come anyway and gawk in shameless delight. This party will massage pleasure sensors you didn't know you had.

Synth Party to commence at 4pm, and music performances to begin at about 6.

Featuring performances by:
E Squared
Computer Jesus Refrigerator
Survive
Phantastes
Psychic Violence
Silent Diane

Monday October 5th:

Church of the Friendly Ghost presents

Frank Rosaly (Chicago)
Performing solo pieces from his album "Milk Work"

Joined in ensemble for a second set with:
Nick Hennies, vibraphone
Jonathan Horne, guitar
Carl Smith, tenor sax

This performance will commence in the gallery promptly at 10PM and continue with only a short intermission.
Pay what you wish, $5 minimum, $15 recommended. Free admission for festival-goers.

Friday, October 9th:

A reprise of Mongoose, just in time for the 25th anniversary (according to Wikipedia) of Zorn's Cobra. There might even be a birthday cake.

8PM, $5 admission at the door or NO admission with a Festival Pass!

Saturday, October 10th:

Assembly
an improvised performance of music and dance curated by Jennifer Micallef, featuring:
Tom Benton
Michael Brockman
Chell Garcia-Trias
Jennifer Micallef
Amanda Oakely
Tom Truss

Jennifer Micallef is one of those rare creatures with her feet in the worlds of both improv comedy and modern experimental dance. Her Gnap! lab show Between the Lines was a big hit in July, and this show promises to be a revelation as well.

8PM, $5 admission at the door or NO admission with a Festival Pass!

Friday, October 16th:

The Big Gnap!tastic! Variety Show

An old school variety show, with acts from all over Austin's performance community, including Little Stolen Moments, burlesque from Ruby Rico Productions, improvised puppets, sketch comedy, and more....

8PM, $5 admission at the door or NO admission with a Festival Pass!

Friday October 16th at 10PM, and continuing into the wee hours of Saturday October 17th

The Waco Girls are performing a heavy metal rendition of Eric Satie's "Vexations," an hours long composition, while a team of readers from Gnap! Theater, COTFG, and elsewhere don black raiment and read aloud all 51,000 plus names from Dan Nelson's book All Known Metal Bands.

This endurance performance-meditation on the profound mysteries of boredom will take over 12 hours to complete and involve more than 30 participants.

Disclaimer: COTFG, Gnap, and SVT shall not be responsible for the accidental breaking of any forbidden cosmic seals, nor the invocation of ancient fire-demons.

Free admission, but donations welcome and split between SIMS and Austin Bat Cave

Saturday, October 17th:

The Big Gnap!tastic! Variety Show (evening two!)

An old school variety show, with acts from all over Austin's performance community, including Little Stolen Moments, burlesque from Ruby Rico Productions, improvised puppets, sketch comedy, and more....

8PM, $5 admission at the door or NO admission with a Festival Pass!

Finally, on October 18th COTFG premiers a new monthly series with a party:

Handmade Music Austin

Handmade Music Austin is a music performance night, social event, electronics swap meet, information forum, and an exciting opportunity to learn about circuits that make electronic music!

Handmade Music Austin is a once-a-month series of Sunday evening workshops at Salvage Vanguard Theater. Bleep Labs, 4ms Pedals, and Eric Archer have teamed up to design fun kits that spark interest in DIY music, and they came up with a set of 7 crazy electronic mini-instruments! (These tiny, credit-card sized drum machines and synths love to jam together, and they do it by forming a wireless network!)

Workshop participants start with a beginner class to brush up on soldering skills, or step straight into the "upper division" and build a drum machine / synth with close instructor guidance.

We'll feature a different kit at each class. A participant could build all 7 electronic instruments by attending 7 classes, and their collection of handmade instruments will be able to jam together using the wireless network to stay in sync.

Handmade Music Austin provides an informal environment for merely curious to the super-geek for work on circuit bending or other DIY instrument projects of any kind, as well as a forum to develop ideas and exchange knowledge.

Public worktables will be set-up and ready to use adjacent to the class-session. Each evening also serves as a DIY marketplace and electronic parts/tools swap.

The events are open to all kinds of participation, from serious building to casual hanging-out and people watching. You can take a class, get the parts you need for your project, solicit advice from experts, drink a beer and look cool, and take in a DIY music performance. You're bound to meet someone interesting, discover something inspiring, and leave richer for the experience than you arrived.

Handmade Music Austin is issuing an open call for works by DIY musicians to feature their projects and/or perform at the events.

To submit work for presentation/performance, or, to pre-register for classes, email Aaron Mace @ churchofthefriendlyghost@gmail.com

Hand Made Music Austin is open to everyone, and one need not take a class to enjoy the event. Casual drop-in observers are encouraged and welcomed! One may simply come for the performance at 8:30 like any COTFG night. As with all COTFG nights, Handmade Music Austin is BYOB-friendly.

Cost & Participation:

Practical workshops are limited to 20 participants, and cost for the 2 hour drum machine / synth kit class is $45. The beginner's class is optional, and free. For those not taking a class, admission is free.

$5 donations to support operations are very much appreciated.

Schedule:

Doors open at 4.

Project worktables and swap-market stay open all evening long.

4PM - 5:30 beginner's soldering and basic DIY electronics overview
6PM - 8 drum machine/synth kit-building classes
8:30 - ? Performances and presentations by Thomas Fang, ESquared, Dr. Bleep, and more surprise Austin DIY music fiends than you can shake an accelerometer at!

Visit http://gnaptheater.org/justliketherodeo.html for more information.

[shando]

To help us cover costs and have a little money left over to pay artists, we've created a Kickstarter page:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/447 ... id-perform

Even a dollar or two could go a long way to making this first iteration of this event really sweet.

Thanks in advance, Austin improv community, for being badasses.

[Miggy]

Awesome! I love what you're doing here Shannon.

[shando]

Thanks, Mike. Should be fun. The Mongoose cast is stellar and are having a blast with rehearsals.

[shando]

Bump. Mongoose tonight.