Best Ten Dollar Suit Pictures presents

MIKE DAISEY    T. RYDER SMITH   PAUL WILLIS

starring in

    H O R R I B L E  C H I L D a TK film

director of photography LILA JAVAN; lighting designer CASEY WOODEN; dialogue recorded by MATT GELDO; featuring the voice of SAMANTHA BRUCE-BENJAMIN; assistant director JEAN-MICHELE GREGORY; based in part on a photograph by OOTE BOE; postproduction sound recorded by WINSTON SPENCER RICE; music by LAWRENCE KRAUSER; “Weapons Galore” sung by JOSEPH MAHAN & mixed by JESKO STAHL; designed & edited by LARISSA TOKMAKOVA; written & directed by LAWRENCE KRAUSER

 

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Mr. and Mrs. Child (T. Ryder Smith & Mike Daisey) live in perpetual enmity with their only mistake,
Horrible Child (Paul Willis). Their world is a bodyless echo-chamber of memory and hostility,
honed into baroque linguistic ritual. Mother and father have a dream: that one day The Exterminator
will arrive to cap HC and set them free. A visually minimal, sonically lush, perversely comic talk-opera
catalog of human dysfunction from Lawrence Krauser and Larissa Tokmakova.

NO HANDS, BODIES, SETS, OR ADULT LANGUAGE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LAWRENCE KRAUSER (writer/director/music) is author of the novel LEMON (McSweeney's Books, 2001); for the first U.S. and Dutch editions he hand-illustrated 11,000 individual book covers. Currently he is in postproduction with a feature film version titled WENDELL AND THE LEMON. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Textualities, The Believer, Bridge, Open City, McSweeney’s, Monkeybicycle, Sweet Fancy Moses, The Best Stage Monologues, and The Muse Apprentice Guild. Lawrence lectured on American Poetry at Hebei University, China, taught filmmaking at The New School, and is currently House Piano Player for the Paranoid's Guide to History and copyeditor for Doubleday Knopf. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, and University of Hartford, from which he graduated. He has been writer in residence at Ateliers Fourwinds, Annex Theater, the Santa Maddalena Foundation, and Hawthornden Castle, very slowly writing a novel about Pinocchio. lawrencekrauser.com

LARISSA TOKMAKOVA (production design/editor) Her paintings can be seen this fall at the Public Theater in New York, where she provided 29 Tarot-based canvases for Mike Daisey's epic 29-night-long monologue, ALL THE FACES OF THE MOON. Previous exhibitions include solo shows at Le Chateau de la Napoule in Cannes, Columbia University, Newark Academy, McNally Jackson Booksellers, and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture in Sao Paulo. Larissa has taught painting at France's Ateliers Fourwinds, Hebei Academy of Art in Baoding, China, and at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, her work supported by grants and residencies from Ateliers Fourwinds, the Puffin Foundation, Kunstcentrum Sittard, and Fundaçion Valparaiso. She was born in Ukraine, studied painting at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Moscow, and now lives in New York City. She is also editor of Lawrence Krauser's forthcoming feature WENDELL AND THE LEMON, and appeared recently in Kristen Kosmas's 2-person hit show THERE, THERE, produced by P.S. 122; the production will be revived at On The Boards in Seattle this coming winter. www.tokmakova.com

 

PAUL WILLIS (Horrible Child & Co-producer) Originally from the Northwest, he co-founded Seattle’s acclaimed Printer’s Devil Theatre where he served as co-Artistic Director for five years. In addition to Printer’s Devil, Willis’ has worked at The Seattle Rep, A Contemporary Theatre, Annex, Empty Space, CTG|Mark Taper Forum, and The Public. Other theatrical directing credits include world premiere productions of HURRICANE by Erin Cressida Wilson, HORRIBLE CHILD by Lawrence Krauser, THE SCANDAL by Kristen Kosmas, and THE GAS MAN by Herbert Bergel. Willis has also directed productions of FREE WILL AND WANTON LUST by Nicky Silver, MOUTHFUL OF BIRDS by Caryl Churchill, and workshop productions of plays by Erin Cressida Wilson, Chay Yew, Annie Weisman, Heidi Schreck, and Kristen Palmer, among others. Additional credits include WEDNESDAY, HANK, a short documentary about the Honky Tonk Revue with co-director Kristin Newbom, and the short rock opera film THE GAS MAN composed by Herbert Bergel and a feature film adaptation of HEDDA GABLER currently distributed by AliveMindMedia. Other film credits include producing the feature film adaptation of HORRIBLE CHILD written and directed by Lawrence Krauser (LEMON, McSweeney’s Press) and designed by painter Larissa Tokmakova, and creating and editing the video projections and animations for MORT, a performance piece about composer Mort Feldman created by direcor Kip Fagan and poet Niko Vassilakis. In 2002, Willis’ was honored to be one of 16 directors from the Northwest selected for a master directors workshop with Peter Brook. He has served on grant panels for King County Council of the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, Northwest Film Forum, and has conducted interviews for the Lincoln Center Jazz Academy and for articles in the Brooklyn Rail. Paul most recently directed the premiere of Sheila Callaghan’s LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING for [Inside] the Ford / Circle X in LA and NYpremiere of CRAWL, FADE TO WHITE for 13p, also penned by Callaghan. Other recent NYC credits include ONE THING I LIKE TO SAY IS by Amy Fox for Clubbed Thumb, Aaron Landsman’s OPEN HOUSE with The Foundry (actor), Kristen Kosmas’s CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS with CSC as well as multiple workshops with SohoRep’s Writer/Director Lab, Culture Project, St. Ann’s Puppet Lab, and The New Group. Paul is currently developing Nancy Nyman and Heather McNama’s feature script LUCKY LINDY and prepping to direct a new solo show written and performed by Kristen Kosmas for PS 122 in NY, Fall 2011. In September he will begin shooting a new short film for Lia Aprile and Mariana Klaveno as well as start rehearsals for Greg Moss's punkplay in Los Angeles. www.paulwillis.net

 

 

MIKE DAISEY (Mrs. Child) - currently onstage at The Public Theater with a month-long monologue, ALL THE FACES OF THE MOON - has been hailed as “the master storyteller” by The New York Times, is the preeminent monologist in the American theater today. He has been compared to a modern-day Mark Twain for his provocative monologues that combine the political and the personal, weaving secret histories with hilarity and heart. As a playwright, his transcript of The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs was downloaded over 100,000 times the first week it was made available. Under a revolutionary open license it has seen more than eighty productions around the world and been translated into six languages. He has performed across five continents, from Off-Broadway to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to abandoned theatres in post-Communist Tajikistan. He’s been a commentator and contributor to the New York Times, WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC, as well as a guest on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and “Real Time with Bill Maher.” In a brief, meteoric career with This American Life, his two shows are the most listened to and downloaded episodes of that program’s eighteen year history. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award and two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, five Seattle Times Footlight Awards, the Sloan Foundation’s Galileo Prize and a MacDowell Fellowship. He will premiere The Secret War, a monologue about three men who were driven to reveal secrets: Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, and Daniel Ellsberg, in an examination of how we all keep secrets and the price we pay for them, this fall in theaters across America. www.mikedaisey.com

 

T. RYDER SMITH (Mr. Child) (Mr. Child) has been called "Electric" by the New York Times, "Astonishing" by New York magazine, and "Phenomenal" by Time Out NY. Recent work includes the world premieres of Doug Wright’s adaptation of Strindberg’s CREDITORS, at La Jolla Playhouse, and Mark Olsen’s CORNELIA, at The Old Globe; Peter Shaffer’s EQUUS on Broadway, opposite Daniel Radcliffe; Sarah Ruhl's DEAD MAN’s CELL PHONE at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Anne Bogart, and Ms. Ruhl’s epic PASSION PLAY at The Goodman Theatre, directed by Mark Wing-Davy. In his native NY, he has appeared in the world premieres of Richard Foreman's THE GODS ARE POUNDING MY HEAD and KING COWBOY RUFUS RULES THE UNIVERSE, (Ontological), David Greenspan's SHE STOOPS TO COMEDY, (Playwrights Horizons), Ann Washburn’s APPARITION, (Connolly), and I HAVE LOVED STRANGERS, (Clubbed Thumb), Will Eno's THOM PAIN, (Daryl Roth), Barabra Wiechmann’s SUMMER, (New Georges), and more. Other NY work includes MARAT/SADE with the Classical Theatre of Harlem, Lear De Bessonet's TRANSFIGURES with the Women's Project, the Rude Mechs’ LIPSTICK TRACES, with Foundry Theatre, Glen Berger's THE WOODEN BREEKS, (MCC), and UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL (Soho Playhouse), for which T. received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Solo Performer. In 2007, T. shared a Drama Desk award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast, for the 3-actor, 50-character LEBENSRAUM, Off-Broadway. Regional theatre credits includes the world premieres of Charles Mee's BIG LOVE at ATL's Humana Festival, Jeffrey Hatcher's STAGE BEAUTY at the CATF, and John Strand’s LINCOLNESQUE, at the Old Globe, for which T. was awarded a Craig Noel award for Outstanding Lead Performance. IN 2007, T took part, in association with artist/activist Paul Chan, the Classical Theatre of Harlem and public-art presenters Creative Time, in site-specific production of WAITING FOR GODOT, peformed in two neighborhoods of New Orleans most devastated by Hurricane Katrina. TV work includes appearances on NURSE JACKIE, CONVICTION and LAW & ORDER, and film work includes playing the Trickster in the cult-chestnut BRAINSCAN, Mitchell Lictenstein’s HAPPY TEARS, (2009), and short films by Marie Losier, (THE ONTOLOGICAL COWBOY, 2006), and Redmond Entwistle, (MONUMENTS, 2010), as well as an appearance in Ryan Kerrigan’s MINDFLUX (2010), a documentary about Richard Foreman. Vocal work includes narration on several Criterion Collection dvds; the videogames MANHUNT, GRAND THEFT AUTO and BIOSHOCK; and the Adult Swim series THE VENTURE BROTHERS. T. has won 2 Earphones awards for his work for Recorded Books. T. was profiled in the September 2006 issue of American Theatre magazine, linked HERE. You can read a recent interview with him on nytheatre.com HERE. His IMDb page is HERE, and his Wikipedia page HERE.

 

LILA JAVAN (Director of Photography) has been in the film industry in Los Angeles since 1994, and working exclusively as a cinematographer for the past six years. Javan has shot a wide variety of projects in multiple formats, including seven feature films, documentaries, and shorts featured in numerous film festivals. Currently her feature film Venice Underground is availble on DVD. Javan holds a BA in photography and anthropology from the University of Arizona and an MFA in cinematography from the American Film Institute. 

 

JOSEPH MAHAN, singer of our themesong and an Uncle of five,
sings and draws "brilliantly" in his kitchen.
In the outside world he may be seen drinking vodka
and doing high-kicks on small stages around New York City.
He has acted in plays and daytime television dramas;
and has appeared as a drag-queen extra on film.
He has a green thumb, writes bad poetry,
buys all of his clothes second-hand, and loves Horses.
For less information you may visit his website at
www.josephmahan.com

 

Our postproduction sound was recorded by WINSTON SPENCER RICE. Visit his playground on the web: www.squidinc.us

 

See what our muse OOTE BOE has seen at www.ooteboe.com

 

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