"Zero Population Growth" at the 2012 Teatro LATEA One Festival

Mac Welch returns to the Teatro LATEA One Festival (where he performed Elvis Has Left the Building last spring) with his one-man show, Zero Population Growth. Welch wrote the play and plays five different characters, each monologue shining a light on social issues throughout daily life. The monologues featured are:

WELCOME TO FUNLAND:

Welcome to Funland! A.K.A Earth. Come along as Casey the entertainment host introduces you to what he refers to as “The Milky Way’s most exciting industrial style theme resort…the planet Earth."

OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HANDS:

Bill loves his pistol just as much as he loves his trailer in the hills of West Virginia and he’ll be Goddamned if someone is going to try and take it from him.

BEEFCAKE:

Meet Anthony Carletti, the wannabe ladies man. Anthony is a loud, rude, crude, chain-smoking “mook” who wants nothing more than to take woman back to his mother’s house for a night of steamy pleasure.

HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT:

Jessie is having a bad day. No, Jessie is having a bad existence--alienated from his family, no real friends to speak of, distrusting of most people--until one day he meets the love of his life. Suddenly Jessie’s life is turned upside down, but is he able to handle it?

GIVE US ONE MORE CHANCE:

Ernie Baranek just may end up being the savior of our planet. As aliens loom outside our solar system, this sci-fi fanatic and porn afficionado takes a stand against these unwanted guests a by sitting down to write a scathing email about their intentions.

Written and performed by Mac Welch

Directed by Mike Hull

Costume Design by Brenda Welch

Lighting and Sound Design by Amber Malott

Mac will perform Zero Population Growth on Saturday, April 14th at 5pm, and on Saturday, April 21st at 8pm. Tickets are $15 in advance on Smarttix.com, $20 at the door. Teatro Latea theater is located at 107 Suffolk Street in Manhattan, second floor. 

Hope to see you there!

One more video!

Tear Your Tongue Out By The Roots - Elvis Has Left The Building from Fifth Column on Vimeo.

Hey we added a performance! You can now see Elvis Has Left the Building on Monday, April 11th at 8pm; Tuesday, April 12th at 8pm; Thursday, April 14th at 8pm; and Sunday, April 24th at 4pm. The shows are at Teatro LATEA, located at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, 107 Suffolk Street, 2nd floor (between Delancey and Rivington Streets). Tickets are $15 in advance (order them here), $20 at the door.

More video fun!

Hey folks, here's another look at Elvis Has Left the Building, from our August performance:


Suspicious Minds - Elvis Has Left The Building from Fifth Column on Vimeo.

Don't forget-- performances are Monday, April 11th at 8pm; Tuesday, April 12th at 8pm; Thursday, April 14th at 8pm; and Sunday, April 24th at 4pm. The shows are at Teatro LATEA, located at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, 107 Suffolk Street, 2nd floor (between Delancey and Rivington Streets). Tickets are $15 in advance (order them here), $20 at the door.

"The One" Festival Brings Back "Elvis"!

Well, we've got some good news. Thanks to our good friend (and last year's winner) R. Ernie Silva, La Tea Theatre's sixth annual "THE ONE" Festival will feature three revival performances of Elvis Has Left the Building. You can come see "The King" on Monday, April 11th at 8pm; Tuesday, April 12th at 8pm; Thursday, April 14th at 8pm; and Sunday, April 24th at 4pm.

The festival showcases original, non-published theatrical works, both full-length and shorts. At the conclusion of the festival, the audience favorite will be awarded the grand prize of a $500 cash prize plus a full theatrical production at Teatro LATEA later this year. To win the grand prize, a work must receive a minimum of 75 votes from participating audience members during the course of the festival. So, in other words, we sure would like it if some folks showed up.

If you need a reminder of what the show is all about: During the final years of his life, Elvis Presley's Las Vegas performances grew more and more surreal, thanks to a combination of personal demons, pharmaceutical medications, and other outside influences. During these shows, Elvis began to devote large chunks of his stage time to rambling monologues about his career, his loves, and the rumors circulating about his lifestyle. These monologues present a candid, fascinating, and often hilarious portrait of the man behind the legend. Elvis Has Left The Building is taken entirely from transcripts and bootleg recordings of "the Vegas monologues" (there’s not one word in it that Elvis didn’t say), combined with seven songs to create a true Elvis concert experience—with a darkly funny twist.

Performances are at Teatro LATEA, located at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, 107 Suffolk Street, 2nd floor (between Delancey and Rivington Streets). Tickets are $15 in advance (order them here), $20 at the door.

And to give you a taste of what you're in for, here's a clip from last August's performances at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre:


And At The Same Booth... - Elvis Has Left The Building from Fifth Column on Vimeo.

Done and done.

Well, we went and did that show. The two performances of Elvis Has Left the Building went, for our money, pretty damned well. We wouldn’t have minded having a few more people in the house—attendance hovered right around half-full both nights—but hey, this was our first time staging a show in NYC, and we’re learning as we’re doing. Besides, the show is a bit of a “hard sell”; the concept is difficult to explain on a poster or in a one-sentence summary, so it’s hard to get across that it’s not just an “Elvis impersonator” show, but a dark comedy/psychological study/musical/etc. So when (not if, when) we do it again, we’ve now got a clearer understanding of exactly what our marketing challenges are.


But making bucks wasn’t the aim this time out anyway—it was to a) get our boy Mac back on stage, and b) get a rock-solid tape of this new version of the show, which is important to have for things like UCB Theater’s SPANK showcase for new shows or to apply for the NYC Fringe Festival. And, of course, it was good to get the show in front of a New York audience to see how it plays. It played really, really well. That’s a relief.

So thanks to everyone who came out to see it, and to all the nice folks at the Duplex who let us put it on. Elvis has, indeed, left the building… for now.

-bailey

The real deal, Jack.

Some fine soul over at YouTube put together this excellent edit of clips from the 9/2/74 closing night show at the Vegas Hilton International Hotel, which makes up about half (give or take) of the text of Elvis Has Left the Building. It's worth taking a listen to before you see the show, if for no other purpose than as proof that no, we didn't make it up.

Comin' down the home stretch

Well folks, the show opens exactly one week from tonight, and we are ready, ready, ready teddy, ready, ready, ready to rock'n'roll. Rehearsals have been going beautifully; frankly, the show was better at last week's run-through then it was back in Wichita, and it's only gotten stronger this week. The character work we've done, Mac's relentless attention to verbal detail (seriously, he will get angry at himself if he goes even one word off), and his impressive vocal work--the show is ship-shape, tip-top, etc.

Of course, none of that's worth a damn if there's nobody there to see it. So we're pounding the pavement in the next week. Our big promo push started last night, when Mac, his lovely wife/our hair & make-up genius Brenda, and myself hit the streets to hand out postcards--with Mac in his full Elvis gear. The tourists loved him-- I only got a little bit of video (below), but he snapped tons of pictures and we unloaded a ton of postcards.



But, again--if nobody comes, the show is no damned fun. So don't forget: it's at The Duplex Cabaret Theatre, located in New York’s West Village, 61 Christopher Street at 7th Avenue. We have two performances: Friday, August 13th at 9:30pm (reserve tickets here), and Saturday, August 14th at 10pm (reserve tickets here). Tickets are just $10; there is a two-drink minimum. You don't have to pay in advance, you just have to let them know you're coming, so enough of their wonderful wait staff will be there to attend to your every beverage need.

Four more rehearsals to go-- three at my apartment, and then our tech rehearsal on Thursday. In the meantime, there will be more promoting; Mac (and Mike and some other fine folks) will be in the Duplex neighborhood, saying hello and handing out postcards and introducing ourselves to the neighbors. So, y'know, if you live there, come out and say hello to Elvis.

See you next week!