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News
'PornoZombies' invades Hoover with comedy about dangers of censorshipBy Mary Gottschalk Porn in the Rose Garden? Yes and no. The PornoZombies is the title of the first play in Renegade Theatre Experiment's 2006-2007 season, opening July 13 at Historic Hoover Theatre. "It's a comedy," playwright Matt Casarino says. "It's a take-off on the cautionary tale movies of the '40s and '50s in which the entire movie existed to warn you against some lurid topic like the evils of smoking pot while they exploited the topic at the same time." While the subject is pornography, the performance isn't pornographic in any way. In fact, says director Sean Murphy, who also serves as artistic director of Renegade, he believes he made a mistake rating it for audiences 18 and over. "Realistically, it's a PG-13. There's no bad language, only minor simulated sex and very little violence. You see far worse in movie theaters," he says. "The title could upset people. How do we let people know it's a satire and a camp show?" Murphy describes PornoZombies as "Reefer Madness mixed with Twilight Zone, mixed with Rocky Horror Picture Show and Shaun of the Dead. It's very campy, done in a B-horror movie type style." "PornoZombies is almost an old-fashioned detective story as it's telling about zombies," Casarino says. "It's about a woman detective who is on a mad quest to stop a scientist who has learned to reanimate the dead. When they are reanimated, all they want to do is have sex with each other. "The scientist films them having sex with one another, thus creating a new genre for the porno industry. "Because she was traumatized by this doctor, the detective will stop at nothing to put him away." Casarino sums it up this way: "The play is very much a social and political satire that makes fun of a lot of things and seems to be fairly timely. It's getting timelier by the day." PornoZombies is Casarino's first full-length play, but the Delaware-based playwright has written close to 20 short plays. "The length of a play dictates itself as you start to put it together," he says. "I have mostly short plays because I'm a fairly new playwright, and writing short is a great technique and learning experience. "There are so many places looking for short plays, it's a great way to get started." In 2005, he won first place in Theatre Oxford's prestigious annual Ten Minute Play Contest with The Key to the Mystic Halls of Time. In addition to the recognition and pleasure of seeing it produced, he won $1,000. Now 35, Casarino fell in love with theater at the age of 12. "I was a very shy, dorky kid, and I got to be in a play, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," he says. "I got to play a tough kid who was nothing like me. I had a wonderful time. It was so exhilarating and natural that I haven't gotten it out of my blood yet. I think that's why I'm drawn to theater." Of PornoZombies, Casarino says he "kicked it around" for about a year before completing a script he was pleased with. "I think I wanted to write something that satisfied my desire to write something good and interesting and sleazy and trashy," he says with a laugh. "I'm a big fan of trashy movies and things like that, that try to be good in some way, with good acting and writing even as they're about naked zombies and werewolves." While searching for theater groups to submit his play to for production, Casarino says he found Renegade. "A soon as I read their mission statement, it sounded like the theater for the play," he recalls. "I sent them a 10-page synopsis, and Sean very quickly asked for the whole play." Of the synopsis, Murphy says, "it sparkled with intelligence, it was perverse and it amused me." Murphy says once he had the full script, he brought it to one of Renegade's group readings. "We read it aloud, and it was just amazing," Murphy says. "It was an electrical experience, and everyone in the room said, 'You've got to get this script.' "Matt wrote it as a cautionary tale along the lines of Reefer Madness, but there really is a political satire with a strong message about the dangers of censorship." Murphy adds, "There's a line in the script about having the right to burn the flag. The timing of it and the messages in there are appropriate for the time." The Renegade production will be the world premiere of the play. Casarino flew into San Jose at the end of June to attend rehearsals. "With this cast and with Sean's additions and touches, it's better than I imagined when I wrote it," he says. Murphy was equally pleased after Casarino's visit. "He's seeing it in a rough state, and I was worried he was not going to like it," Murphy says. "He was happy with the casting and the show. He made some line cuts and modifications and some stuff he felt was unnecessary, just tightening it up. "Comedy is 10 times harder than drama. It's all about the timing." With their first full season at Historic Hoover Theatre behind them and the second season launching, Murphy says the Renegade Theatre Company is pleased. "We love the Rose Garden; we're happy with Hoover," he says. Renegade's roots date back to the 1990s when the six founders were in Santa Clara University's theater arts program. When the necessity of making a living forced them to take jobs unrelated to the theater, they still kept in touch. The success of three nights of one-act comedies encouraged them to start the nonprofit Renegade Theatre Experiment in March 2002. Murphy's oft-repeated explanation of why he coined the name is "because we all agreed we want to do theater that is not necessarily traditional or that everyone else is doing. We want to challenge the norms and do work that is edgy and maybe not as commercial. Murphy says while its first two productions last season had attendance "below expectations," the family show of The BFG (Big Friendly Ghost) "did better than we possibly could have expected." The final show, the world premiere of Waiting to Dance, "did incredibly well," he says. Murphy says Renegade is "on target" and "now it's a matter of developing audiences and developing our subscriber base." "The PornoZombies," Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave. Performances July 13-29, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18 to $20 general admission and $13 to $15 for students, seniors and educators. Reservations can be made by emailing boxoffice@renegadetheatre.com or calling 408.351.4440. Renegade launches second season Renegade Theatre Experiment's second full season at Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave., opens July 13 with the world premiere of The PornoZombies. The second production is the West Coast premiere of Bill of (W)rights, opening Sept. 7. The first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution are the basis of 10 short plays. Sideways Stories from Wayside School is this year's family show, opening Nov. 2. It's about a school that was supposed to be 30 classrooms, one story high, but by mistake it was built 30 stories high. The building is home to cows, rats, a ghost and a teacher who turns her students into apples. William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus is the final production of the 2006-2007 season, opening Jan. 25. For information on each production, including all performance dates and ticket prices, visit www.renegadetheatre.com.
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