84 Marathon ‘33 by June Havoc dir Shade Murray for Strawdog Theatre. Or Shade Murray ups his game. Detective Story has 30 people? Let’s push that to 40, and have a band, and choreographed dancing. Marathon ‘33 is based on June Havoc’s (Baby June from Gypsy) actual experience on the Marathon Dance circuit in the 30s. And the enemy of this play is Capitalism. And Scotty, you piece of shit. The largest show ever attempted AND ACCOMPLISHED by Strawdog, was a Marathon itself for all involved. People were singing and dancing and fighting and playing instruments and constantly changing characters, going from contestant to spectator. Except for me. I was Ruddy the M.C. I didn’t sing or dance or fight or play an instrument. And the only costume change I had was wearing an untied bowtie in the first scene, and then wearing a tied one for the rest of the play. My challenge was I had a series of “monologues” that all contained the same information but were all slightly different. And I had to remember the hours. And it was all very important. And any actor will tell you, they just love doing a lot of monologues that are numbers and facts without any emotional through line. It got super complicated one night when an actor accidentally ripped the cord out of the mic stand and I had to do that over a full band and 35 pairs of dancing feet. One of my other favorite moments was when the announcement was made NOT to eat the bacon because it was prop and actually dog treats, and everyone heard it by Matt Engle. One other things I was spared was having to eat the oatmeal. Also I remember the end of the play was finally figured out in a late night drinking session. #retrospective #2006 #strawdogtheatre #marathon33 #junehavoc #shademurray #dancemarathon #dogtreats #deargodthesmell (at Strawdog Theatre Company) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7GubddJBpX/?igshid=8m5nyuwyztq5
