‘Mining the Moon,’ From Comic to Stage
Mining the Moon is a play written and directed by Matt Thurber based on his comic of the same name. It is part of the Comic Book Theater Festival, a month long exploration of the intersection of graphic novels and art with theater at The Brick in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is the second “issue” of the festival, the first was in 2011.
At the center of Mining the Moon is President Furzedown (Ric Royer), a werewolf who is also the President of the United States. In this stage production, President Furzedown and his sidekick Mr. Colostomy (Leah Wishnia), a talking horse, are on the run because President Furzedown accidentally killed one of the few remaining Native Americans. On their journey, they meet a range of strange characters and eventually travel to the moon.
Every scene in the play contains a musical number. Some of the music was reminiscent of old school 8-bit video games. The sets and projections were drawn by artist Rebecca Bird and gave the show a visual comic book feel.
We struggle to review this performance because what we saw didn’t appear to be a final work of theater. There were many technical breakdowns, both with old-fashioned set pieces and high tech projections. One extended delay led to a piece of improvisation by President Furzedown and Mr. Colostomy, which unintentionally was one of the funnier parts of the evening. Actors forgot lines, the choreography was either not prepared or half-heartedly performed, and songs stopped and re-started, this all led to confusion on our part about the plot and meaning of the story.
The music and design of Mining the Moon are promising for delivering a melded form of theater and graphic novel art but the execution needs a lot of tightening.
TICKETS
$18
DATES
June 21 and 26, 2014
LOCATION
The Brick Theater
579 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
New York City
[google-map-v3 width=”250″ height=”250″ zoom=”14″ maptype=”roadmap” mapalign=”left” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”579 metropolitan avenue, brooklyn NY 11211{}1-default.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]
RUNNING TIME
60 minutes, no intermission
CAST & CREW
Written and Directed by Matt Thurber
Featuring Ric Royer, Leah Wishnia, Raven Burnett, Rebecca Bird, Laura Perez-Harris, Dave Nuss, Kendra Sullivan, Marlene Frontera, and Austin English