What can you do in 50 hours? Well Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre does a theatre festival.
Just an FYI, NoHo is a theatre district. We have the highest concentration of theatres outside of NYC.
But what the NoHo Arts District dot Com team likes to highlight is the type of theatres we have in the neighborhood and the fun traditions they have created. If you are new to theatre or are an aficionado, you have to check out one or all of the shows at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre (ZJU) – creative, scary, funny, turbo from anything from new works and Halloween spectaculars to musicals and even the classics. Every show has the Zombie Joe flair we like to say. Well every January, the hardworking folks at ZJU take 50 hours and create a theatre festival. Yep.
So get ready for ZJU’s sweet 16th 50-Hour Drive-By Theatre Festival!
WHAT:
Sweet 16th” Annual Festival of (4) all-new mini-plays – written, directed and performed (and Created to AMAZE) in a speedy 2 days! Written by Steven W. Alloway, Vanessa Cate, Emily Charouhas & Zombie Joe, and directed by Denise Devin, Abel Horwitz, Roger K. Weiss & Jana Wimer, with music by Kevin Van Cott. ZJU Theatre Group’s 16th super spectacular annual theatre event, kicks off their 25th silver anniversary season!
WHEN:
January 28, 29 and 30
Saturday, Sunday and Monday at 8:30PM
WHERE:
Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre
4850 Lankershim Blvd.
NoHo Arts District, CA 91601
HOW:
818-202-4120
www.zombiejoes.com
Zombie Joe of ZJU to give us more information on this annual North Hollywood theatre tradition.
So, what exactly is The 50-Hour Drive By Theatre Festival?
ZJU’s 50-Hour Drive By Theatre Festival was started in 2002 when Jeri Batzdorff came to Zombie Joe with the idea of doing a short play festival. ZJU’s God-like Webmaster & PR Manager Randy “Kernel” Long jumped-on as Sound Engineer and Tribunal Ambassador, and WE’RE OFF, BABY’! We decided that it would be best to craft our production in 50 hours, rather than 24 like other theatres might do – to allow more time to rehearse and to create a more cohesive show, off-book with props, costumes, the works – with the quality high…as if it’s been rehearsing for 6 weeks! The writers are randomly assigned actors, and three props that must be written into the framework of the play. It’s an incredible challenge for all company members (now fraught with traditions along with HUGE challenges to surmount), which is why so many want to do it again year after year, each Drive-By getting a bit more ambitious and refined than the one before it…F***IN’ INSANITY!!!
What’s new about this year’s 50-Hour Drive By Theatre Festival?
Well our Underground is more amazing and hungrier than ever to get chompin’ into our 2017 (…and ZJU’s 25th Anniversary) “Sweet 16th” year’s line-up, our most ambitious, Driven-Drive-By to date, with a huge, amazing cast and crew! For our “Sweet 16th” DRIVE-BY we have an unsurpassed Underground-slate of veteran and new Writers, Directors and Performers: An amazing cast and crew that includes (but not limited to) the brave, beautiful and triumphant Denise Devin, Jana Wimer, Vanessa Cate, Roger K. Weiss, Emily Charouhas, Steven W. Alloway, ZJU’s New General Manager Brandon Slezak, Matt “Witchipoo” Vorce, Michelle Danyn, Jetta Juriansz, Lara Fisher, Jahel Corban Caldera, Trevor Fisch, Trish De Luca, James Sanger, Jason Britt, Ian Heath, Michelle McGregor, Nicole Craig, Shayne Eastin, Scott Sytten (performing), the fabulous Abel Horowitz as 1st-time-Director, and not to fergit ZJU’s very own Kick-Ass-Motherfargin’ Kevin Van Cott on Miscellaneous Musical Instruments and Our Die-Hard,True-Blue 1-&-Only ZJU Webmaster and Sound Engineer Randy “Kernel” Long – these cats are Super-Heroes and arrive READY TO ROCK!), this and many, many other amazing company members, MORE insane and momentous than ever before…all in the makings for an incredible DRIVE-BY weekend, with a couple wild new surprises, of course 🙂
How do you pick the writers/actors/etc?
Everyone involved was invited-in through our dark, mysterious and passcode-encrypted channels, from past Drive-Bys’, and some super-cool-new-peeps we’ve been begging to work with for a while. Truly a hard-hitting crew, kickin’ our 25th Season/Silver-Anniversary off with a BANG!
Any last words?
“I’ll have a bucket of KFC original recipe and a dozen fried shrimp” LOL – No seriously though…LET’S DO THIS SHYTE!! Looking forward to one heck of a weekend, so please come ‘on down and witness the fun and madness! Performances run exclusively for (3) Performances Over (1) Weekend Only: SAT, SUN & MON @ 8:30p (JAN 28, 29 & 30, 2017) – so please Come ‘On Down to 4850 Lankershim – for our Fabulous Sweet 16th Annual DRIVE-BY THEATRE FESTIVAL!, Celebrating Zombie Joe’s Underground’s Silver 25th Anniversary…WE WANT YOU! Call 818-202-4120 right NOW for Reservations, Advance Tix at ZombieJoes.Tix.com
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