Wednesday, August 29th 2012 (Last Days of Summer...)

Summer is like the ultimate one-night stand; Hot as hell, totally thrilling, and gone before you know it!  And so it is with the Bit Player's Wednesday night performances at the Firehouse Theater .  Many who witnessed some of these experimental shows were privy to seeing the Bit Players try out new bits, rotate players into roles they may not have previously attempted, and reinvent old bits, turning them into something new and different.  And now with summer ending, the Bit Players will go back to their regularly scheduled performances on Friday and Saturday evenings.  But that doesn’t mean that they won’t surprise their fans with special event performances… Oh, No… They have plenty up their collective sleeves in the coming months… So stay tuned!  Perhaps your one-night stand could develop in a meaningful and long-term relationship with The Bit Players.  Who knows?

With just about all the players available for this last Wednesday night performance, the players that were cast in the show were literally selected out of a hat.  The lucky Bits performing for you were Vlad Tenenbaum, Frank Fusaro, Dylan Eberle, Stephanie Conrad, and Jim Foley,  and hosted by Matt Lindman.

The Bit Players perform "Word At A Time Story"

The seldom played bit, “One Word Story” was dusted off and added to the set list.  In this bit, the entire cast must tell a cohesive story, ONE – WORD – AT – A – TIME.  In the story about Rick and his motorcycle, we learned that Rick had enemies at the drycleaners.  Rick plotted his revenge on his enemies by running them down with his cool motorcycle.

 

 

Stephanie, Dylan, and Jim in "Doo Run" Song

Two member of the audience, Nicky and Sarah were selected to be the objects of a “Doo Run” song, sung in a style popularized by the Crystals in the early 60’s.  Sarah described her friend Nicky as picky and difficult, and Nicky retorted, describing her friend, Sarah as random and sarcastic.  With friendships like that… who needs enemies, huh?  Armed with these tantalizing tidbits about the two, Dylan, Jim, and Stephanie composed a song just for them.

Dylan, Jim and Vlad perform "Late To Work"

In “Late To Work” it was Dylan who was the ever-tardy employee, confronted by his boss Jim inquiring of Dylan's latest excuse for being delayed.  But it was co-worker (and mime genius) Vlad who came to Dylan’s rescue with a “plausible” excuse to reveal to his boss.  In this scene, Vlad must mime the suggestions provided by the audience to Dylan.  The suggestions represented in the story were:  Dylan awoke to find he had no electricity.  Dylan then caught fireflies and used them to illuminate his way.  Dylan went downstairs to find everything in his refrigerator had spoiled because of the lack of electricity, so he ate the closest thing available to him, kitty litter.  Dylan attempted to drive to work but there was a moose crossing his path.  Dylan did what any respectable sci-fi geek would do in this situation, he shot the moose with a laser gun, and them flagged down a pedi-cab and rode to work.

The Bit Players in "Doo Wop"

Jim, Matt, Frank, and Dylan (and accompanied by the entire cast) were on tap for “Doo Wop”.  In this improvised song style that gained popularity in the late 50’s, the audience supply the topic about which the players compose a song.  On this Wednesday night, the crowd wanted to hear a song about a skateboard.  Each player then, professed their love for this objet d’amour until in Frank’s verse, things went horrible wrong, as Frank's obese son snapped his skateboard in half.  Dylan set things to right as he replaced the skateboard with his Step-dad’s car as a means of transportation.

Dylan and Frank as "Sportcasters"
 with Vlad and Matt as athletes in the  Grooming Olympics

More bizarre-ness ensued with “Sportcasters” in the Grooming Olympics.  In this bit, sportcasters, Chet and Chip (Dylan and Frank) announce this sporting event.  The athletes in the event, Matt (aka Tony Two-Toes) and Vlad (aka Vladimir Vostok) took to the stage to perform in this grueling, grooming game.  In this scene we witnessed the two athletes and their shenanigans throughout the competition.  Tony attempted to shave Vladimir’s back, but in doing so caught crabs (enter Jim).  Then it was all Vladimir who beat down Tony and shaved him with a straight razor, top to bottom, even giving Tony a post-mortem Brazilian wax.  Ironically, since the event was graded by the best groomed, it was the deceased, Tony who won out.  This event was appropriately sponsored by Sweeney Todd Razors.  Check out the video from this hilarious bit -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1pL8YEqoJY&feature=youtu.be

Frank and Jim with audience members, Jeff and Pete
in "Tap the Audience"

Two lucky members of the audience (Jeff and Pete) got a chance to improvise alongside the Bit Players on the stage in “Tap the Audience”.  In this bit the players, Jim and Frank begin a scene with a suggestion from the audience.  The audience, who obviously do NOT know Frank or Jim at ALL, provided them with an occupation of “Angels”.  When Frank and Jim ran out of things to say, they “tapped” Jeff and Pete, to provide them with more dialog.  We learned not only should their never be frowning angels, angels cannot intervene in the lives of people, even those people who may be attempting to jump off a bridge.  In that case the angel may warn the person after he has jumped to “watch out!”  There is one exception to the rules of intervention however.  An angel may intervene if the person is turning themselves into the Devil.  The way to tell when a person is the Devil, is that they will have no respect for their elders (even God).  One last piece of useful information provided by the angels is that squirrels are imps of the devil, who are plotting their escape from this world.  So, Devil, Beware!

Although the summer’s Wednesday night performances have ended, Friday and Saturday nights will always be Bit Player shows at 8:00pm at the Firehouse Theatre, 4 Equality Park Place (off Broadway), Newport, RI 02840.  Please call the box office for reservations and information about all of the shows   401-849-FIRE (3473)  

 If you are celebrating an event with your family or friends, and want them to be recognized in a unique way, consider commemorating the occasion with The Bit Players.  As with the case with those present tonight, it will be a night, for them and you, to remember! And it is always BYOB!