banana bag & bodice shows
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banana bag & bodice is these two's fault-->

their names are jason craig and jessica jelliffe

i've been with them for 4 years, and they only just now told me that there's no comma in their name. "its just three abstract words" he says.
huh.

and now they have a website

written by jason craig,
arranged by the ensemble,
jason craig, rod hipskind, jessica jeliffe, dave malloy, heather peroni
directed by mallory catlett
set by peter ksander
lights by miranda hardy

oh, babies. everyone with baby. baby baby.
a victorian farce set in a mutated future. weird, weird. something in the air.

music is lots of loud electrical noise and relentless bass beats played through richard foreman's kickass speakers. okay.

plays june 30-july 25, 8pm NOW! NOW NOW!
ontological theater at st. mark's,
131 E. 10th street and 2nd ave, ny, ny

a hot, hot, hot twofer of the young war and sandwich (see belowa), in a hot double bill. i was in europe, so didnt play, but recorded some fusking (fusking! sure!) hot stuff for it. including the brand new "chicken song" with mr. alec duffy.

with peter blomquist, jason craig, sarah engelke (awesomely taking over my piano shoes), rod hipskind, jessica jelliffe, heather peroni
directed by mallory catlett

and reviews here

"Panel's ultimate power is one of a torrent of vivid word-images, at once fleetingly familiar and disconcertingly askew. It is as if being swept into a waking dream, ineffable and unsettling on its surface, yet seductive and enticing in its power as it pulls you down, ever down in a swirling alliterative whirlpool of lust, longing and loss....Dave Malloy's original compositions tend toward Satie-inflected wistfulness in Panel; Animal is primarily two-fisted Kurt Weill cabaret."

-Brooke Stowe, Theater2k

"Cheerfully obscene...the company obsesses over the filthiness of consumption. While individual characters slash and stab each other, collectively they skewer American greed. Accompanied by Kurt Weill-style pounding piano, Sandwich would have made Bertolt Brecht proud (if Brecht had had a plushy fetish). Stab whom you have to for a ticket: Sandwich is play-making at its meatiest."

-Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

the young war

GAWK II festival, theatre reflective, nyc, january 04
san francisco fringe festival, the exit theatre, september 04
dublin fringe festival, october 04
montreal infringement festival, june 05

• first first
• mucus
• apart
• first
• banana split
• goat

written by jason craig,
then workshopped and stuff by the ensemble,
peter blomquist, jason craig, rod hipskind, jessica jelliffe, heather peroni
directed by mallory catlett

love and eggs. hot video (includes making out): here

with jeremy diffey on sax

best of sf fringe 04
reviews: here and here

"...a multifaceted, fragmented, evocative piece that manages to be funny, edgy, affecting and oddly sexy as well."

-Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

sandwich

san francisco fringe festival, exit stage left, september 03
bigger version, exit on taylor, sf, march 04

• the sandwich
• pig (craig/malloy)
• baby rabbit (craig/malloy)
• rabbit (craig/malloy)
• chicken (craig/malloy)
• butterfly (craig/jelliffe/malloy)
• whale
• "...and let the dirt take you"
  

written and composed and arranged and put together and stuff by the ensemble,
jason craig, jessica jelliffe, dave malloy and heather peroni;
parnell klug took on the cat the second time,
and meredith eldred directed a bit.

a really fun show about food, vegetarianism and god, chock full of really fun songs. now recorded in extreme stere-ereo studio fidelity. theyre over there. look, right over there!

best musical, sf fringe 03
reviews: here, here, here, here and here

"With its bacon sizzling on a hotplate, anti-meat-eating plaints followed by mock-gory bunny-bashings, musical knives, piano-playing buffalo and militaristic armadillo, Sandwich is a casually madcap creation that isn't just funny and thought-provoking but funny about its thoughts and need to provoke. It's deceptively crisp, remarkably tight, cagily convoluted and curiously refreshing."

-Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

gulag ha ha

san francisco fringe festival, exit stage left, september 02
nyc fringe festival, bank street theater, august 03
dublin fringe festival, trinity college, october 03

• the intimate swap (owls)

mostly written by jason craig,
with some really good stuff at the end written by parnell klug,
and then workshopped and arranged by the ensemble:
jason craig, jessica jelliffe, parnell klug, dave malloy and taylor valentine

all about prison and lumps and stuff.

there was a lot of really fun music in this show, all harmonicas and fishbowls and pieces of metal being whacked around and fed through a delay pedal and sounding all fucked up and stuff. but i never really recorded most any of it. "the intimate swap" is a studio (ha!) version of one of the pretty scenes in the play, in which two actors swap clothes.

best of sf fringe 02
reviews: here and here

"The simple costumes, the stark use of practical lighting, and the beautifully simple live music and sounds all are accomplished with enough imagination to overcome their repetitiveness and make the piece stylistically engaging. the cast has a strong physical connection to each other and an excellent sense of spatial awareness, which compliments the lyricism of the script nicely. It is, in fact, the clear dedication of the ensemble to both the material and to each other that ultimately makes Gulag Ha Ha successful."

-Fred Backus, NY Theatre