Burt Reynolds’ Amazing Napalm-Powered Oven

Performed at The New York International Fringe Festival. August 12-23, 2001.

Another collection of one-act plays written, directed and performed by the Porch Room. This play marked the Room’s first foray into the wild, wooly world of the NY Fringe Festival, and also brought the group to the attention of the press.

Presented as part of The New York International Fringe Festival, in collaboration with THE SUBJECTIVE THEATER COMPANY.

A production of THE PRESENT COMPANY.

The Porch Room presents a play about life, death, Evian, Napalm, infomercials, salary caps, card games, George Lucas, the Screen Actors’ Guild, sledgehammers, celebrities, octopi, Pop Tarts, the Microsoft Corporation and of course, Burt.

5,000 years of human artistic endeavor have been building towards this.

THE PIECES

BURT REYNOLDS AMAZING NAPALM POWERED OVEN by Zachary R. Manheimer

Starring
Zachary R. Manheimer as BURT REYNOLDS
Pete Barry as LARRY
Tony Grinage as DEL
Dennis “Skip” Moore as GALLAGHER
Ruben Ortiz as ALEX RODRIGUEZ
Faith Agnew as WOMAN IN THE AUDIENCE
with James Angelo, Brian Corr and John Kowalski as AUDIENCE MEMBERS

THE FRUPPUM ALABAMA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE by John Dowgin

Starring
Pete Barry as RUFUS
Adam B. Kauffman as ZEKE
Ruben Ortiz as THE KINDERSCHMECKEN BOY
Dennis “Skip” Moore as THE DRIVERS

AT THE SAG REGISTRY by Pete Barry and Adam B. Kaufman

Starring
Faith Agnew as SAG RECEPTIONIST
Ruben Ortiz as MAN 1
Adam B. Kaufman as MAN 2
Tony Grinage as MAN 3

EARLY MORNING IN THE TENEMENT by Pete Barry

Starring
Pete Barry as DANNY
John Dowgin as PETEY JOE

THE BANDERSCOTT by Pete Barry

Starring
Adam Kaufman as BOB HENDERSON
Ruben Ortiz as DR. THINN and EILEEN
Pete Barry as HARCOURT MCCALLISTER
Faith Agnew as TERRY
Tony Grinage as TONY
Dennis “Skip” Moore as GALLAGHER
Zachary R. Manheimer as BURT REYNOLDS

REVIEW OF BURT REYNOLDS…

Reviewed by Esther Tolkoff on August 30, 2001 in Backstage & Backstage.com

This series of vignettes is fun. The audience laughed in all the right places and cheerfully joined in when asked to participate. In one skit, a surprise serious moment leaps out like a fireball, making its shocking “zap” that much more powerful. But for the most part, this production consists of hilarious satire.

The basic premise uniting the various segments is that Burt Reynolds (Zachary R. Mannheimer) may well be the Messiah. The opening skit is a send-up of your standard infomercial–in this case for the product for which the play is named. The program handed out to audience members is a mock “TV Guide,” a “special, all Burt Reynolds issue” complete with an insert requesting one’s credit card numbers and other useful data.

Except for Mannheimer, all of the players–Faith Agnew, Pete Barry, Tony Galarza, Adam B. Kaufman, Skip Moore, and Ruben Ortiz–take on several roles and do so well. The characters include the chef/pitchman for the wonderful oven; two Southern redneck gas station owners; a gay Web site designer; a seemingly nerdy Irish computer game addict and his roommate; several actors signing up for their first SAG card; a slimy business executive; baseball player Alex Rodriguez; and a pitchman for an entirely different, bizarre product and its inventor. There are also “plants” playing television audience members (James Angelo, Brian Corr, John Kowalski), who leap up to recount their outrageous experiences to the supposed millions watching. Kowalski was particularly hilarious, earnestly recounting an endless, exceedingly ridiculous dream.

The skits were written and directed by Mannheimer, Barry, Kaufman, and John P. Dowgin. It all worked. If you’re looking for a light, good laugh, this show will provide it.


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