Well, we’ve got our ten actors all cast, the show dates are set, and we’re gearing up to travel to Maplewood for our weekend of non-sensical comedy presented by our friends at the What Exit? Theatre Company.

Now all we have to do is figure out exactly what is funny about guillotines, the core principles of economics,  invasive puppets,  presidential assassination,  erectile dysfunction, prison, linguistic misunderstandings on the topic of pedophilia, historically revered people with disabilities, the effects of rattlesnake venom  on the human body, scary noises, excessive amounts of irresponsibly disposed of margarine, drowned pets and very lonely people.

As soon as we get that nailed down then we’ll really be good to go.

-Ben

Happy New Years to Brian, Stu, and Quinn! You know…Brian, Stu and Quinn? The hapless trio of the worst best friends anyone could have from our One-Act comedy, Virilia? Oh c’mon, Virilia, featured in last spring’s Cave/Men, almost lauded in the Network One-Act Festival, and adapted into a Play on Film?

Well, they’re back. With two more episodes in the continuing saga of their misadventures, conveniently packaged into a single evening of theatre with the original chapter, this January we bring you…The Virilogy.

With two new years in their lives, two more romantic debacles with two more unseen women, and two more half hours filled with confusion, betrayal, vulgarity and embarrassment, The Virilogy continues through the lives of these men/boys/infants to see if they can ever grow up and grow out of who they are.

And of course, we’re always happy to be back at home at Tierney’s Tavern Upstairs.

A sampler platter of what StrangeDog has to offer, featuring three of our most beloved ol’ favorite short plays. A perfect introductory course or a chance to catch these shows again, Old Tricks features three light-hearted comedies playing with the darkness of death, guilt, and the consequences of being alive. Offered in a non-traditional setting and paired with an assortment of the best live music the area has to offer, we hope you’ll come spend an early summer night with us and Old Tricks.

For those of you who haven’t made it out to one of our shows (or have made it out, but just love watching stuff on your computer), we are now premiering live (not actually live at all, it just sounds good) the StrangeDog online video theatre. Featuring our short films and even a full recording of one of our plays, the internet finally allows StrangeDog to interrupt the peace and quiet of your home, through your computer screen. So fix a bowl of popcorn (a small bowl for the short films, they’re just 1/2 hour after all, don’t make too much popcorn), sit back, and enjoy our StrangeDog online theatre.

First of all, we appologize that this page isn’t updated nearly as often as it should be. That should change soon.

Thanks to everyone who came out for Cave/Men, it was a lot of fun and you can read a review of it here.

We’ve got plenty of stuff coming up soon. We’ve got a three-show sampler that will be in the area soon, and an appearance at another event. Details will come soon. Also, We’ll be screening Kill Your Friend and Virilia at the MMAC filmmaker’s forum on May 12.

Speaking of which, you can watch both of those films online now. Just give those links a click (in the previous paragraph).

Tuesday’s (12-1-09) Star Ledger called Omnivores “no turkey itself, but a solid and impressive effort” from “New Jersey’s most promising playwright”, “featuring a cast of “three of New Jersey’s best emerging actors, and one of it’s most beloved old pros.” Check out Peter Filichia’s full review entitled Brothers in Arms.

We’re quite proud of the show, and we had a great opening weekend. We’d love it if you came on out and joined us.

This week, in addition to our 8 pm Thursday and Friday performances, we’ve got a special performance of “Late Night Omnivores” at 10 pm Saturday. So for all you college kids, night owls, late comers, evening diners, or if you just like free pizza (Oh yeah, there’s complimentary pizza at intermission!), come on our for our late show.

We recieved nominations for Best Script (Ben Clawson), Best Actor (David Murgittroyd) and Best Supporting Actor (Michael Stanton Murphy) Thanks to all who came to the competition!

hanks again to all who came out to Spilling Stuff and Breaking Things! It was a great time and we hope you enjoyed it. We’ve made it to the semifinals for The Network One-Act festival for Virilia and would love to have you there for that as well. It will be at the Barrow Group Theater in NY again on Wed, March 18th at 6pm and Sat, March 21th at 4pm[festival site]

Also, we’re going to be doing New.Tricks again, this time at Playwrights’ Theatre in Madison. That will be on April 17th and 18th. More info on that soon, mark those calendars.

Spilling Stuff and Breaking Things is coming along and coming soon, tickets will be available for you within the week. But that’s not all that you need to be excited about. Get ready:

North Jersey New Found Theatre Festival
A Reading of …
The Blairsburg Family Picnic
by Ben Clawson
directed by Artem Yatsunov
Feb 28th @ 5 pm at the New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts
[map] [play info] [festival info]

A N D

A performance of…
Virilia
by Ben Clawson
Directed by Artem Yatsunov
with Dave Murgittroyd, Mike Murphy and Scott Cagney
March 2009 @ The Network One-Act Festival
[festival site]

Yes.

Thanks to everyone who came to check out New.Tricks! There’s lots of stuff happening right now with our upcoming short feature Kill Your Friend and upcoming show Spilling Stuff and Breaking Things at Luna Stage. If you’re not already on the mailing list, you probably should be. You’ll have the privilege of knowing first when we have a big announcement about this or any other project. In addition to the upcoming and exciting new video section, the site’s is going to be getting a couple of new additions very soon in the way of a better archive of our past shows with pictures and everything, so watch out for that, too.

Cheers!

Our video section is soon to be up and running. Enjoy, for now, a taste as we give you a preview of our coming attraction Kill Your Friend.