#nathanallen

132 The Last Defender Written and Directed by Nathan Allen, Puzzle Design by Sandor Weisz for The House Theatre of Chicago for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Back to the stache! Yes, I got contacted by my friends at the House, saying they were going to co-produce The Last Defender in Denver, CO with the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in an off-site location, and would I be available to fly out there and reprise my role of Dr. Truman Heston. I of course said yes and got to go to Denver. They sent me the script, I rememorized the lines and flew out there in May of that year. Things got a little tight when shooting was pushed by a day and instead of flying back on Thursday night, I would fly back on Friday night, and Saturday morning I had to fly to North Carolina for my brother-in-law’s wedding. Oh, and they were also going to remount Last Defender in Chicago and I would need to re-tape it for that location in June, so I would be stuck with the stache for a month since I can’t grow the stache that quickly. Two days before Denver - I got horribly sinus garbage ill, so I actually spent most of my time in Denver in my room in housing watching all of Schitt’s Creek. Also when I got to set, I was told “you know the Chicago stuff still works, so we just need to do the new pages” since they changed the story a little bit. So all told - we started at 9 AM, were finished at noon, and I wasn’t leaving until five the next day. Which would have been lovely if I could have seen more of the city, but again, stupid crazy ill. Oh and the shooting in June never happened so I had the stache for the wedding for no reason. In fact - the Games Cafe in Chicago is opening soon, and when I saw the press release I contacted them and they said “We’re just gonna re-use the old footage!” It’s like they don’t know what the stache costs my soul. #retrospective #2019 #thehousetheatreofchicago #thelastdefender #nathanallen #sandorweisz #denvercenterfortheperformingarts #dcpa #drtrumanheston #madai #mutuallyassureddestructionalgorithmicintelligence #centralsystemscommand #blackrabbit (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9B-Ig6pPEn/?igshid=7vji5ucn1cab

120 The Hammer Trinity by Nathan Allen and Chris Matthews for dir Nathan Allen for the House Theatre at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami, Fl. When we all got hired to do Hammer Trinity, it was in our contracts that we would be doing it in Miami the following year. Getting to revisit one of my favorite characters and live in Miami in March and April? YES PLEASE. I’ve done a lot of fun shows and had some great parts, but this? This was the best job I ever had. The weather is perfect in March and April in Miami. We were housed in South Beach, a hop, skip and a jump from the beach. Monty’s Mondays Happy Hours with discounted rum drinks and a raw bar. I had my own room with its own bathroom. Due to the nature of the show and equity rules, the venue only wanted marathons which meant we could only do two marathons a week, which meant 5 days off in Miami a week. And at the end of those marathon days, we could go back to our housing and relax with a beer and our feet in the POOL. Every theatre should have a pool. We were able to take day trips to Key West and Universal Studios. A group went skydiving. It was perfect. Or it would have been if people came to see it. Because the weather is so perfect in March and April, people didn’t want to spend 12 hours indoors on a Saturday and Sunday. Plus, it was a pricey ticket, with no rush or student discounts. I think one day we finished the day with ten people in the audience. But as I said before, I would do this play until my body exploded, so it was always a joy to do and a joy to be with these people. And no one will probably ever pay me to live in Miami ever again. #retrospective #2016 #thehousetheatreofchicago #thehammertrinity #nathanallen #chrismatthews #kaelanwayne #bilge #irek #hapthegolden #casperkent #storysaveusall #adriennearshtcenter #miami #southbeach (at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8jVVuyJH2k/?igshid=1hs39tump55v5

118 The Last Defender Written and Directed by Nathan Allen, Puzzle Design by Sandor Weisz for The House Theatre of Chicago at the Chopin Theatre. One day out of the blue, while I was working on another project and waiting to go to Miami (coming up) I got a call from Nate Allen, asking me to do a thing for him. He was writing and directing a show - similar to an escape room - which was going to be an environmental installation in the Chopin basement called The Last Defender. I would play Dr. Truman Heston, Chief Engineer of the Ballistic Systems Division of Central Systems Command, and inventor of M.A.D.A.I., the Mutually Assured Destruction Algorithmic Intelligence, a computer linking together sensor and satellite data, that begins a 60 minute countdown to a fully automated launch at the first detection of enemy launch activity. The Defenders would have 60 minutes to confirm the launch or prevent retaliation. So I would go in and shoot on video for the day, basically explaining the game and then would pop up on screens, to warn or congratulate the defenders. This was complicated by two things. One - The Chopin rented out the basement space the day before to Empire, so the entire thing had to be disassembled and reassembled up to the last minute on both fronts. Two - I had been growing a beard since July for the upcoming remount of The Hammer Trinity in Miami and Nate just wanted a mustache. I attended my step-mother’s funeral in that ridiculous beard. But since Nate was directing both shows, the ole broom pusher it was. FYI - I have yet to play this game. I was so intimidated that people would look to me for answers since I was in the video, that I have never participated. But it’s reopening soon! You can come see me in it Chicago Board Games Cafe! #retrospective #2016 #thehousetheatreofchicago #thelastdefender #nathanallen #sandorweisz #chopintheatre #drtrumanheston #madai #mutuallyassureddestructionalgorithmicintelligence #centralsystemscommand #blackrabbit (at Chopin Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8d77ReJl58/?igshid=5il7ud8rppi8

115 The Hammer Trinity by Nathan Allen & Chris Matthews dir Nathan Allen for The House Theatre of Chicago. I had known House folks socially going all the way back to the Green Bird in ‘02, but I never had the opportunity to work with them until ‘15. Considering the part I finally got to play, it was worth the wait. The first two plays in The Hammer Trinity had debuted in separate productions (Iron Stag King in ‘12 and Crownless King in ‘13) but with the advent of the concluding chapter, The Excelsior King, every Saturday and Sunday we would do a Marathon of all three shows over the course of a day. Iron Stag, half hour break, Crownless hour dinner break with the audience, Excelsior. 9 hours of play over 11 hours of day. I played smaller parts in the first two chapters and then came in as Kaelan Wayne, the Biggest of the Bads, the guy so genocidally crazy, he makes the enemies of the first two chapters come together to fight him. This was, by far, the most epic project I had ever been a part of. Sword fights, gun battles, dog fights, submarines, DRAGONS. My final exit was through the gullet of a dragon, voiced by Tracy Letts. Holy shit, I get all choked up thinking about it. From the top down, everyone worked their asses off on this show, we had the hardest working crew in show business all under the steady hand of Brian DesGranges, the Stage Manager who took it all on. Needless to say a nine hour show with a month long tech process has a lot of stories. The infamous one was when our Wilkes dislocated his shoulder in Iron Stag on opening day, his U/S was not available that ONE day, so Chris Matthews, one of the authors, came out of the audience and finished the shows, then Aaron Latterell came in on Sunday and did the entire nine hours with no rehearsal and nailed everything. He got a special mention in Time Out that year for that reason. I would do this show every weekend until my body exploded, if they would let me. #retrospective #2015 #thehousetheatreofchicago #thehammertrinity #nathanallen #chrismatthews #kaelanwayne #bilge #irek #hapthegolden #casperkent #storysaveusall (at Chopin Theatre) https://www.instagram.com/p/B8WnMLIJDhp/?igshid=axigel8juou7

Whoa killin Sia on the sax! I could definitely shop to this