Courtesy of Tom Piwowar
Trials of Trixie: Casie Platt (above) plays the title role in "The Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles."
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"The Nutcracker." "The Messiah." "The Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles."
Suffice it to say, dear reader, that all holiday musical entertainment is not created equal. There is the lofty, the lovely – the jolly, even. There is the transcendent and the sublime. And there is the stuff that leaps fully formed from the imagination of a young man from Arlington. Shawn Northrip, along with his Bouncing Ball Theatrical Company, is staging two 20-minute musicals on the stage of the Round House Theatre in Silver Spring.
From the Brothers Grimm to Barney, childhood stories have featured warnings about the dire consequences that befall children who misbehave.
"But horrible things happen to adults," Northrip observes, "whether they behave appropriately or not."
"It's clearly not for children," he says. "All my shows are ironic — if you don't have a sense of humor, don't come — and the Fringe crowd really was the right crowd."
He's banking on a home-for-Thanksgiving crowd of young people and those who appreciate humor that pushes the envelope.
"If you come see us," says Northrip, "you're not going to see ‘Les Miz.'"
Goth rock
Director Shirley Serotsky calls the pair of plays "over the top."
"‘Cautionary Tales for Adults' is a cabaret with a gothic, almost Edward Gorey feel to it," she says, referencing the American author and illustrator whose taste ran from the cheerfully creepy to the merrily macabre. "It's morbid life lessons. ‘Trixie Tickles' is more bouncy… It's a bit of a spoof on the television shows we grew up with: ‘Sesame Street,' ‘The Electric Company,' ‘H.R. Puffenstuf, ‘Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.'"
Both shows, she adds, were written from the perspective of thirtysomethings looking back on their childhood diversions. Serotsky grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in directing from the North Carolina School of the Arts. After a couple of years in New York City, "directing small, low-budget stuff," she came to D.C. as a William R. Kenan, Jr. Performing Arts Fellow at the Kennedy Center. In 2003, her advisor Gregg Henry provided an introduction to Northrip, who was staging "Titus Andronicus" as a punk musical for the Source Festival. Bouncing Ball was born shortly thereafter.
Serotsky reckons the name was a quick grab "because we needed to open up a bank account to do a full show for the Fringe Festival."
Northrip concurs.
"We were thinking about being The Tongueless Theatre Company," he says — a reference to Philomena, whose tongue is cut out not only in "Titus Andronicus" but also in Northrip's punk rock version "Titus X." They went with Bouncing Ball instead, a nod to the exhortation to "follow the bouncing ball" so common in the TV shows of their youth.
"I liked Tongueless Theatre," says Northrip. "But everyone thought we were mimes."
Politics of theater
What Bouncing Ball and mimes have in common is that they're not for everyone. What differentiates them is that Bouncing Ball has music and plenty of it.
Northrip. who followed his older brother onto the stage at age 10; left high school determined to become a high school drama teacher. But on the way to his bachelor of arts degree in theater education at Catholic University, he says, "I caught the playwriting bug."
"The first play I did was an adaptation of ‘Lysistrata,'" he recalls. "I parodied it as a battle of the sexes for my politics of theater class."
The next thing he knew, actors eager for a part in his next production approached him at drama department parties.
"It was exciting!" he says.
After graduation, he went on the road, performing something called "Anne Frank: The Musical" for middle schoolers. (I don't think he is making that up.) Then he taught high school for a couple of years — "my day job" — before moving to Los Angeles.
Now, he's writing screenplays.
"That's what I do," he says proudly.
He continues to work with Bouncing Ball, making "off-the-wall rock musicals" like "Cautionary Tales for Adults and the Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles," which won the 2007 Audience Choice Pick of the Fringe for Best Musical as well as five Fringes from D.C. Theatre Scene. The play features an all-acoustic live band that appears onstage with the actors.
So it is a musical, and it's being staged during "the holidays." But does "Cautionary Tales for Adults and the Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles" qualify as a holiday musical for the more sophisticated older crowd?
"My mom is not young," says Northrip. "And she laughs the loudest at these shows. She has a great time.
"People need to bring their sense of humor."
Bouncing Ball Theatre Company presents "Cautionary Tales for Adults and the Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles" at the Round House Theatre, 8641 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $15, $12 for subscribers, seniors, ages 25 and younger, and groups of 10 or more. Call 240-644-1100 or visit www.roundhousetheatre.org.
