For those interested in seeing what we are cooking for this coming season, we are having our annual “Outdoor Rehearsal” series on the TAMUK campus. Like last year, we will be outside of the Main Dining Hall / Cafeteria area (for the convenience of our student-actors) for two days. For the latter two days, we will be by the infamous Javelina statues.

We will be performing/rehearsing for everyone. We will present both comedic improv games with our Premature Punchline crew, some angst-ridden scene work with our Dramatica Team, and trying some new stuff to get the dust off, and more, all with the hopes that you will join us, hang out, see what we do, and just have a good time! This is a FREE event and there is no obligation to participate (but you would have more fun if you did!). All events start at 6:00.

Aug 20 @ 6:00 – Main Dining Hall / Cafeteria

Aug 21 @ 6:00 – Main Dining Hall / Cafeteria

Aug 22 @ 6:00 – Javelina Statues

Aug 23 @ 6:00 – Javelina Statues

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Some photos from previous years! (See the “Outdoor Rehearsals” page for more!)

Zero Untitled has been selected as Youga Yoga Corpus Christi’s Featured Artist for the month of May! In addition to moving one of our “Ravenscroft” performances to Corpus Christi, we have planned 5 weeks (every Friday) worth of events:

Z e r o   U n t i t l e d

Featured Artist – May Events

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May 1^st – Don Nigro’s “Ravenscroft”*

Murder, madness, and women in lingerie! This dark comedy unravels the suspicious murder of the only man of the house. Who did it?      *produced through special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

May 8th @ 8:00 p.m. – Premature Punchline

Improv Comedy troupe. Sketch, improv games, and interactive comedy

May 15^th  @ 8:00 p.m. – Carnivale Night

Short performances of mime, firebreathing (possibly), music, and other acts

May 22^nd  @ 8:00 p.m. – Textual Overture

Open mic poetry, short plays, and live music. Bring your instrument or writing for an evening of live performances.

May 29^th –  @ 8:00 p.m. “Nightmare of Oz”

An immersive theatre experience spanning downtown Corpus Christi. Follow two detectives around “Emerald City” while they investigate the murder of Dorothy in this noir thriller. Mature audiences only.

(Pictured: 2012’s “Nightmare of Oz” promo shot)

For more information, visit www.zerountitled.com and like “Zero Untitled Films/Productions” on Facebook!

“Divided by Zero” is a brand new interview series, both traditional interview and video interview getting you into the head and heart of the ZU family.  “Divided…” will feature five sporadically posted interviews featuring veteran members and members new to the ZU family.  Our first interview features Luis Zaragosa, comic, firebreather, and Globe-trained actor who has performed in well over 20 productions with the company.

Divided By Zero – Luis Zaragosa

How long have you been involved with Zero Untitled and what was your first production?

            Let’s see, my first production was a Christmas special called “Twas the FLOP Before Christmas” and that was 3 years ago…4 years ago…3 years ago…(laughs) a long time ago.

 (Zaragosa pictured with Barry Berryhill in “Twas the FLOP Before Christmas”)

What is your best memory of any ZU production?

            Hands down, performing in the streets of London.  Just busting out Shakespeare in “All the World’s a Stage”.

What kind of future project would you like to dabble in?

            Honestly, my three favorite roles were me playing silent because I’ve got a speech problem most of the time and I have a hard time memorizing lines on top of all the other stuff I do.  So I do “silent” and “creepy” pretty well so I would say more horror especially since that is something we haven’t done in a season or so, so more horror would be pretty awesome.

If you can play any role in any show for ZU, what would it be?

            Hmm, well I’m really good at comedy, but I love playing the psycho.  I’ve always wanted to play the psycho and I will always want to play the psycho.  I like playing crazy.

 (Zaragosa pictured with Allan Guzman in “Into Hell”)

So reviving your role as the White Rabbit in “Relapse in Wonderland” and “Madness in Wonderland”?

No, I “Sin” more actually.  “Sin” [from “The Rape of Lucrece”] was creepier, crazier.  I could have gone all over the place with Sin if I knew he was a subtle character.  Plus he looks like Death!

What do you expect from the audiences of ZU shows?

            Well, I like it when they get involved, I’m not saying walking around, jumping up and down, or volunteering to get on stage. I mean, when we do something and they react.  Like in the play “Nightmare of OZ” when the Dorothy character gets raped, I want to see the grotesque looks in the audiences’ face and the horror in their eyes.  I’ve always liked that about our audiences.

So, you like the audiences’ reactions to graphic stuff that Zero does in productions?

            Yeah, and we do lots of graphic stuff, I mean, we don’t just do creepy graphic, we do hilarious graphic.  Like in puppets [an improv game in Premature Punchline], we bend ourselves back and forth and the audience will get up and bend us however they want and they all get a kick out of it. And as long as the audience is enjoying themselves to the most they can, then that’s what I want.  I want them to enjoy what they (the audience) are doing, too.

 (Performing in a skit for one of Premature Punchline’s early shows; also pictured is Dustin Romike)

There are a lot of new people in the productions.  What would you tell people that are new to ZU?

            Enjoy this while you can, but this isn’t all to life, they are other things.  If you want this to become a big thing for you, then instead of playing video games and stuff like that when you have free time (after you’ve done your school work and other work) whenever you have down time, go ahead and like dabble in improv, go pick up on some improv games or watch improv shows, read new material, read plays.  Be more culturally aware, because whenever I joined, half the stuff [the other ZU guys] would drop, I would not understand.  So, I had to go and start researching and doing stuff on my own along with the other stuff with my classes.

What are your expectations for the ZU productions you spearhead, namely PrePunch?

            Let’s see, Premature Punchline has taken off, but I would like to see a lot of our actors and actresses be more aware of what they are doing. Internalize. Like when they go up there and improv, I don’t want them to just read stuff and do the stuff we rehearse well, but I want them to come up stuff on their own, like on the spot.  They need to get better at reflexed comedy, instead of rehearsed comedy.

 (Being trained at the Globe Theatre in London, England with Chu Owambala.)

So, say I’m brand new to ZU and I wanted to be in Premature Punchline, how would you train me?

            I’d corner you and tell you to convince me to let you out of the room. I’ve learned this while in London when I was trained by one of the Globe actors (named Chu Owambala) that given a simple task and saying “do it however you want, just convince me” is the simplest way to improv something because you have a decision that has to be made and now you have to have your own reason to back up that decision. You have to improv a reason to get out of the room. It’s a quick, simple starter.

Any final statements?

Don’t do drugs.

Michael Verderber’s last firebreathing show (the tenth show was simply called “X”) ended up having an interesting twist in terms of being “last”.  Roughly 4 minutes into the performance, the group was shut down due to safety reasons.

According to Verderber and Luis Zaragosa (the other firebreather), the wind was problematic, the crowd was too close, miscommunication with university officials, and Luis’s fire stick kept extinguishing itself.

“Safety is a big issue with the fire shows.  The university officials thought it best to shut it down, which I’ll concede was the right choice to make.  It’s their event, we have to do what they say and if it makes the event safer for people, all the better,” stated Verderber.

Below is a link to a video uploaded to youtube that shows the brief performance.  Thanks to Anissa Medina for the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY8pJawHHdw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Been waiting for a chance to see some firebreathing?  Wait no more.  “X: A FireBreathing Showcase” will be Zero Untitled’s tenth firebreathing performance!  Come watch the action tonight at 9 pm at Texas A&M Univ – Kingsville’s annual Fall Festival.  This is a FREE event.

ZU’s 58th show and 8th firebreathing showcase, Fate of Eights, concluded amongst a lightning-filled sky at TAMUK’s annual Spring Fling on University Blvd.  Pictures coming soon!

Next up, Textual Overture’s second performance! All new pieces, show plays, poems, acoustic jams, and prose pieces. Performance at the Blue Ribbon Cafe in Kingsville, Tx at 3pm on Saturday, the 31st.

 The latest production, Remnant Memories: “Broken Wheels” & “Shattered”, finished its run. After two nights, Zero Untitled gained a new actor, along with the experience of producing student written, adapted, and directed shows. Zero Untitled’s main focus is to give students and performers a chance to have their work and their voice heard, and with these two shows, we gained a new director (Orozc0), two new dramatic actors (Cavazos and Frimpong), and a reappearance of long-time Zero Untitled affiliate (White).

Zero Untitled’s next productions this month:

     “Fate of Eights: Firebreathing Showcase”  Thursday the 29th at 9pm on University Blvd.

     Textual Overture (second show) Saturday March 31 at 3 pm at Blue Ribbon Cafe in Kingsville, TX.  

The next play, Acoustical, has begun rehearsals.

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║╔╗║╔╗║╔╣╔╩╗╔╝ ★ NEW YEAR ☆ 2012!!
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A heartfelt thank you and happy New Year to all of our family, friends, actors, directors, cast, and crew!  Thanks to you, we had another record-setting attendance record year.  Our biggest success attendance-wise was “Relapse in Wonderland” which had a nightly attendance of rough 270+ folks braving the 40-minute long wait in line.  Similarly, Premature Punchline had over a dozen performances and had about 45 people attend each performance from July to December in Kingsville, Corpus Christi, South Padre Island, and Freer, TX.

But now is the time to look ahead to see what is up next!

[ ONGOING ]

TEXTUAL OVERTURE

“Textual Overture” will be a monthly series of play and monologue readings, poetry, experimental writing pieces, slam poetry, and even acoustic guitar jams at coffee shops in the Coastal Bend area.  For the first time, ZU is putting the audience in the performance spotlight.  Although much of “Textual…” will be scheduled, it will also contain an open-mic portion for any and all attendees to participate, read, or perform.

PREMATURE PUNCHLINE

The madcap chaos that is PrePunch will continue monthly shows in Kingsville and Corpus in 2012.  Expect new games, more skits, and standup.

[ STAGED PRODUCTIONS ]

DOMESTIC INSANITY STANDUP SHOWCASE 2

The first DISS was back in 2004 when ZU was first starting.  This year’s DISS will feature PrePunch’s Mark Pittman, Michael Mendez, Danny Cantu, and a slew of other standup comics. Coming mid-February.

REMNANT MEMORIES: ONE ACTS

“Remnant…” will be performance of 2-3 one act plays set for late March.

ACOUSTICAL

What happens when a depressed acoustic musician gets dumped by his girl (who leaves him for another girl)? Find out in April!

This is just a tentative list of what is in store.  There might be another happening (we can’t announce those), fire-breathing shows, and international performances!  Keep a close eye!

ZU’s latest firebreathing venture, Se7en, was performed at the Fall Carnival on October 19, 2011.  The crew unveiled a new breather, Melissa “Cali” Nikirk, and longtime breather, Verderber successfully set his beard on fire!  Fun all around!

Firebreather #1 – Luis Zaragosa

Firebreather #2 – Melissa “Cali” Nikirk

Firebreather #3 – Michael Verderber