Famed French artist Paul Cezanne once quipped, “The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.”
Well, if not a revolution, at least anew theater company now in residence at The Mobtown Players? Meadowmill location at 3600 Clipper Mill Road near Hampden.
“We use the Cezanne quote as a sort of inspiration and representation,” said Single Carrot actor/publicist Brendan Ragan.
And it shows. Formerly called “New Twenty Two Productions,” the creation of 22 theater students in Boulder, Colo., Single Carrot recently offered Baltimoreans a sampler plate of three short plays, bringing to the stage actors as rhesus monkeys, former U.S. President Martin Van Buren and a couple of colorful combatants from a war just outside the Outer Limits.
“Good theater makes you feel, it forces you to think and it reminds you how good it is to laugh out loud with a hundred other strangers,” said Buck Jabaily, artistic director. “The members of Single Carrot intend to make a life in the theater, and that life is here in Baltimore.”
Ragan notes that while Single Carrot has formed a relationship with Mobtown, it has not yet committed to performing there exclusively. Details on the season should be set by summer 2007 and subscriptions will be offered. But why leave the Rockies for Bawlmer, hon?
“We got the warmest reception in Baltimore. Theaters here have embraced us, helped us, rooted for us. … We liked Baltimore?s thriving but not overcrowded arts scene. I?d tell any theatergoer that if at any time they found big-scale productions a tad stuffy, overly polished or just too ?safe,? come see Single Carrot. The fun part about us is that we can be fresh and edgy without being explicitly and annoyingly ?in your face,? ” Ragan said.
“In March, we plan to start having monthly 24-Hour Plays. We put four writers in a room from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. with the task of conceiving and writing an original script to be performed by four actors. At 8 a.m., the director and the four actors receive the script and begin rehearsal. At 8 p.m., the actors, having fully memorized, perform the show for the public,” Jabaily said.
For more information, call 443-844-9253, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.myspace.com/singlecarrot.
