The Firesign Theatre: In Person. In Performance.
The Firesign writing partners and voice artists, now in their forty-second year of working together, are Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman and Phil Proctor. They have collaborated on more than twenty “movies for the mind,” including the early audiophonic worlds of Nick Danger, Porgie and Mudhead, “Beat The Reaper,” “I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus,” and “Everything You Know Is Wrong.”

Running time: 90 minutes with one intermission
Recommended for ages 10 and above.

The Firesign Theatre, comedy’s legendary quartet, will appear at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts as its second stop on a series of performances designed for more intimate theaters.

Their 21st century CD Trilogy, “We’re Doomed,” received Grammy nominations for “Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death” and “Bride of Firesign.” The Library of Congress added “Don’t Crush That Dwarf” to their highly selective recorded archives. Firesign’s many hours of live radio broadcasts and rare movies are now carefully restored collector’s items. The group has recently been profiled in two coffee-table books on The Sixties when, according to LIFE magazine, Firesign were “the favorite comics of the Rock Age.”

They are, in fact, creators of what Stereo Review’s critic Eric Salzman called “contemporary, relevant, multi-level non-linear theater – a kind of verbal electronic opera.” The quartet presents the work in the authentic voice of its author-improvisers of whom Rolling Stone said, “the very least they should get is an Academy Award.”

The Firesign opened the present show at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles last October – the first appearance in their hometown since 1992. Working for the first time on a simple stage with no props or costumes, Firesign was able to give their classic scripts brand-new performances, utilizing only their many dozens of character voices to people the cast.

The first act weaves together two favorites, “Waiting For The Electrician” and “Don’t Crush That Dwarf” – existential tales of border-crossing, channel switching and selling-out. The second act allows the “Nick Danger” cast (Rocky, Bradshaw, Catherwood) to riff, improvise and spoof the ageless radio dick, Nick Danger, Third Eye.

Also on the bill are Ben Bland’s Movie Matinee, School Lunch Menus, Ralph Spoilsport, All-Star Crowley and Shakespeare’s Lost Comedie, “Anythynge You Want To.” The Firesign’s full-length iambic farce, in development for forty years, will get a cruelly shortened reading, in styles ranging from pure coarse acting to sincere imitations of ancient movie stars and starlets. (The text will be published later in 2010, with extensive notes, introductions and appendices.)

Audiences have always called out certain memorable Firesign lines during the show and sometimes participated in costume. In return for their affection, the quartet will gather in the lobby afterwards to meet the playgoers and sign autographs.

Learn more about Firesign HERE.



The Artists

Long-time Whidbey Islander David Ossman will be joined for the first time at WICA by Whidbey newcomer Peter Bergman, Fox Islander Phil Austin and, from far-off Beverly Hills , Phil Proctor.

Proctor, who appeared on Whidbey in George Tirebiter’s “Radio Follies,” has been recently heard as The Drunken Money in three “Dr. Doolittle” movies and as Harold in the “Rug Rats” films and TV shows. He is currently on tour as Don Quixote with the LA Guitar Quartet.

Ossman will be co-directing “Agatha Christie’s The BBC Murders” at Tacoma ’s Theatre NorthWest, opening April 30, 2010, with his wife Judith Walcutt. The upcoming NW production will be a further development of the show, which made its debut at the 2009 International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro , Kentucky , and is preparing for national tour.

Bergman is creator of LA’s Radio Club, a writing and performance workshop aimed at under-served kids. He’s is also a Castaneda-inspired voice coach and occasional comic monologist, now getting laughs with “2020 Vision.”

Austin writes and develops his gardens at the South end of Puget Sound . A literary blogger, he’ll have a book, “Long Stories and Short Stories,” out in 2010.

The Crew

Assistant Stage Managers
TBA

Sound Board Operator
TBA

Light Board Operator
TBA

Stage Crew
TBA



special thanks
TBA


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