1) Comedian Stephen Lynch performs at the Tabernacle.
2) Out of Hand creates an original play in 24 hours for One Day Play at Horizon Theatre.
3) The Fox Theatre hosts Unwigged & Unplugged: An Evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.
4) Fight Party presents Revenge’s mix of extreme fighting at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.
5) Southern Hospitality opens at Beep Beep Gallery.
(Photo courtesy www.stephenlynch.com)
1) Comedian Aisha Tyler performs at the Laughing Skull Lounge.
2) Donald Ray Pollock discusses Knockemstiff at Decatur Library.
3) Strange Boys play the Earl.
4) Environmental artist and MacArthur Genius Ned Kahn visits SCAD Atlanta.
5) Out of Hand Theater hosts Stadium 360 Industry Night.
(Photo courtesy Laughing Skull Lounge)
1) Atlanta Ballet’s The Nutcracker continues at the Fox Theatre.
2) Comedian Ben Bailey performs at the Funny Farm.
3) Jennifer Skiff discusses and signs God Stories at Wordsmiths Books.
4) Out of Hand Theater hosts a free sneak peak of Stadium 360 at Emory’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.
5) The Star Bar hosts Big Trouble in Little 5.
(Photo by Charlie McCullers)
1) Cutting Fine, Cutting Deep continues at the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum.
2) Henry Rollins plays Variety Playhouse.
3) Out of Hand Theater presents MEDS at Onstage Atlanta.
4) Arrested Development plays at Ferst Center for the Arts.
5) Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performs at Symphony Hall.
(Photo courtesy Julie Puttgen/Sewanee: The University of the South)
Out of Hand Theater, one of Atlanta’s youngest, scrappiest theater companies, is offering remounts of two of the ensemble’s original productions, which offer puckish visions of the national health. First, Help! plays Sept. 18-21 and offers a pointed yet amusingly plausible spoof of a self-help seminar, with plenty of audience participation. If you’ve ever wanted to beat an actor like a pinata, Help! could offer you the chance. In my review of the company’s 2004 world premiere production, I mentioned:
Help! makes some serious satirical points. The “life coaches” often interrupt themselves to hawk ancillary merchandise infomercial style, illustrating the self-help industry’s predatory nature. The inclusion of Kool-Aid late in the play comments on the cultish quality of self-improvement groups, but the play doesn’t explore the paradox of the self-help movement, which can improve the lives of participants while exploiting them.
