Just to catch everyone up: we have had a few meetings here and there to discuss our happenings for the summer and, as it turns out, we will begin with a Happening series!

What’s a Happening? It is an avant-garde theatrical performance / performance art medium that has a high level of improvisation (but not comedic). The idea is that the show will be performed differently every night.  We have our series already up and starting rehearsals soon.

Additionally, Premature Punchline will have some appearances in the Corpus comedy scene as well, so be on the lookout for that. In addition, we will be entering the Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Festival again, starting in July.

Also, our season is just about solidified so be on the lookout for that post.  Next up on the ZU calendar will be a Happening and a Textual Overture.

 There was standing room only at GATO Con for Premature Punchline’s two performances.  Here is a picture of the audience from the first performance.

And here is a picture of the group performing on the second day.

Premature Punchline, along with several guest performers from Zero Untitled, will perform at GATO Con this weekend at the Memorial Student Union Building. GATO Con is a Gaming, Anime, Trade, and Otaku convention, hence the acronym. Catch both of our shows!

Performance Times:

Saturday, Feb 22 – 3:00

Sunday, Feb 23 – noon

GATO Con will feature several special guest artists and performers, such as Robert Axelrod, famous voice actor for “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers”.  GATO con will also feature an Artist’s Alley, vendor boothing, celebrity signings, and several other events!

Zero Untitled has made some changes to our performance schedule: See below.

Zero Untitled’s resident comedy troupe, Premature Punchline, continues their Corpus Christi performances with a string of stops at Pinky’s Sports Bar (510 Chaparral St.) with performances on the dates listed below. Essentially, the troupe will perform every other Wednesday night at Pinky’s. 

In addition, the troupe will make a stop at Chuckles Comedy Club (615 Mesquite) for their open mic night on January 30 at 9:00.

Don’t miss these hilarious shows:

January 22 – 10:00 (Pinky’s)

January 30 – 9:00 (Chuckles)

January 31 – 9:00 (Chuckles)

As the end of our ten-year anniversary season draws to a close, we ended 2013 in two venues new to us. Our latest project, “Another Rated-R Christmas Show” opened at Pinky’s Sports Bar in Corpus Christi and had a second performance at the Innovation Lab in downtown Kingsville.

Here is a link to the page and an exclusive pic of what doing theatre during the Christmas season can do to one. Enjoy!

http://www.zerountitled.com/productions/another-rated-r-christmas-show/

 (pictured: Julio Martinez backstage at the end of rehearsal.)

 We have plenty of energy in us left!  We are currently booking Premature Punchline at various venues as well as mounting our next two Mainstage productions: the fifth Dark Tour called “The Factory” and our revival of Shakespeare’s  “The Rape of Lucrece” for the Shake38 Festival in St. Louis.

 In the meantime, have a happy holiday season from all of us in the Zero Untitled family!

In true Zero Untitled fashion, we have a handful of productions all coming up in a short amount of time.  Here is a quick run-down:

August 29 – Premature Punchline’s “Fishnado!”, Blue Room, 8:00

August 31 – Film premiere of “Eighty-Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds” at CC7D, Harbor Playhouse, 4:00

September 6-7 – Don Nigro’s “Glamorgan”, Blue Room, 8:00

In addition to the above, be on the lookout for a promotional mime trailer for our in-house mime troupe, Forward MIMEntum, produced by Kingsville Now.  Also, the film “Eighty-Six Thousand Four Hundred Seconds” will have a trailer out very soon as well.  Likewise, the other mainstage production, “The Merchant of Venice” is in the rough-cut phase of editing and should be out in the next month or so.

For more information, visit the individual pages:

http://www.zerountitled.com/productions/fishnado

http://www.zerountitled.com/productions/eighty-six-thousand-four-hundred-seconds-coming-soon/

http://www.zerountitled.com/productions/glamorgan/ 

“Glamorgan” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

Here is a pic from our crowd at OmniCon right at the start of the show.  After about 5-10 minutes, several other people trickled in and we about filled up the first four to five rows!  Also, a pic of the cast and crew!

Cast and crew are (from left to right): Rebekah Ramos, Christina Saldivar, Katy Orozco, Debbie Gerd, Beth Cantu, Aaron Salinas, Heraclio Gonzalez, Jr, Michael Verderber, and Julio Martinez.

Here are three of the four prizes from our recent Premature Punchline performance at OmniCon!

We gave away a Pokemon keychain (thanks to a local vendor), a copy of The Witcher 2 for XBox 360 (thanks to Gamestop), an AUTOGRAPHED Wolverine print signed by artist Sam de la Rosa (given by the artist), and an autographed John DiMaggio coffee mug (thanks to the UTPA Cartoon Club).

“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 second interview in the series features Joshua “Beta” McCaulley, a newbie to ZU.  McCaulley is a comic, musician, and actor who has performed in roughly 5 productions with the company.

Divided by Zero – Joshua “Beta” McCaulley

 (McCaulley performing “Inviting a Friend to Supper” as part of the Textual Overture Series at Cafe 5)

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

I have been involved with Zero for around 6 months now and I hope I don’t have to stop. My first production was the mortician Dr. John Eura in “Nightmare of Oz”.

What is your best memory of any ZU production?

When I recited “Inviting a friend to supper” by Ben Jonson

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

Shakespearean radio plays, or radio theater in general. And maybe even some film projects.

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

The villain, the “nice guy” persona comes to me naturally, and I would like to be dealt something that is, in a nut shell, different, maybe even opposite.

 (Performing in the short play “House Party Mix Up” as part of  the “Fish and Giggles” show: A. Medina, McCaulley, L. Zaragosa, R. Watkins, C. Bonitz)

Any characters from film or theatre that you’d like to play?

Leopold Bloom for Mel Brooks’ The Producers (He reminds me of a younger me), Benvolio from William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, and Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.

What do you expect from the audiences of ZU shows?

Integration, I like it when there is feedback between actors and audiences. In “Play-giarism”, I would walk up to a random audience member and make them laugh. Good times.

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

In general, yes I do. The only way the actors can really get a kick out of what they do, is if the audience gets a kick out of watching the actors do their thing.

How would you coerce someone that is not a theatre fan to come see a ZU show?

I would pull the friend card (laughs) I would say “Come support me with what I do” and then hope they show up.

ZU often does nontraditional theatre, so how do you suppose that can bring an audience into the world of theatre?

I would say that is entirely up to the show.

 (Performing in a Premature Punchline skit at GATOcon)

How so?

I can’t just say “we got fresh cookies, come to the show.” Hopefully, coming to the show will ignite something in them that will get them to do “research”, so to speak.

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

I would welcome them in with open arms. I would also tell them that working with ZU is their choice, if they don’t want to do it, that’s fine, but if they want to commit, I will assure them they will not regret their decision.

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

Like Mick would train Rocky but seriously, we would probably get together sometime and come up with a scenario and go from there, and also watch a lot of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”. A “monkey see, monkey do” approach if you will.

 (Improv game at GATOcon, alongside D. Gerd, R. Lopez, and J. Luna)

Since you are starting to develop stand up material, what topics are you looking into? And how will that differ from what other comedians are doing?

Some topics I’ve been looking into are my personal likes and dislikes, myself, and (with permission) borrowing some of my friends’ mishaps and misadventures. Most comedians have been travelling, or had dysfunctional family, or even they were just griping about the world around them. I have just used what was in my personal arsenal to the best of my ability. I have also started to delve into my own pool of general knowledge (i.e. MMPR trivia, history of donuts, etc.)

Any final statements?

Would you like fries with that?

 (A dramatic role in “Game of Fortune”, as part of last year’s “From Passion to Page” show).