Hannah Whitt and Julia Moran in “Martian Beach Babes”
No Shame Theatre, the open mic theatre venue in Roanoke where I try out a lot of new work, recently marked its 9th anniversary in the Star City. To celebrate that, we held a Best of the Best of No Shame Theatre to show off work from nearly a decade of late-night original performance.
No Shame co-founder Todd Ristau asked if I would re-stage “Martian Beach Babes,” a piece I debuted at No Shame in July 2004 and which went on to be produced at New Frontiers Charter School in San Antonio in 2006. It’s not my best piece, by far, but I’ll admit it is visually stunning — two young women in green paint. Technically, it’s a scene about climate change. Demi and Phoebe (Mars experts will recognize them as derivatives of the moons Deimos and Phobos) can’t understand why high tide on Mars isn’t as high as it used to be, and why the sun’s rays seem stronger.
I’ve got another “green” piece — “The Women of Deep Space Pay a Visit To Earth and Don’t Like What They See” (since published by Eldridge Plays and Musicals) — but it needs four women and I only had two.
Hannah Whitt and Julia Moran, two of our regulars (indeed, our outgoing hosts), agreed to green up for the occasion. Here are a few shots of the process back-stage (with even more here on my flickr site):
Hannah Whitt and Julia Moran as they arrive at the theatre.
The greening gets underway.
Julia Moran — the arms go green first.
Hannah Whitt goes for the neck.
Hannah gets in touch with her inner Martian.
Julia gets some finishing touches.
Live long and prosper.
The obligatory shot with the playwright.
dwayneyancey 