American Theatre – February 2014: No longer do the 1980s stereotypes of Steve Urkel or Anthony Michael Hall’s character from Sixteen Candles (credited by John Hughes only as “The Geek”) dominate the cultural consciousness as the sole representatives of what playwright Cameron McNary terms “geek minstrelsy.” McNary’s Dungeons & Dragons–themed play Of Dice and Men will be playing at Chicago’s Otherworld Theatre Company March 6–30. Australian playwright Keith Gow, whose “Doctor Who”–themed play Who Are You Supposed to Be? was a hit at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, states, “The nerds of ’80s films have disappeared because those nerds turned into Bill Gates and Steve Jobs—and Joss Whedon.”
2 comments:
This is awesome. I just have to put that out there first. I haven't heard of many of these plays that are apparently getting famous, and I am part of the geek community. It is true what the article says about there being an increase in fantasy sci-fi movies that are coming out and getting a lot of attention. My friend recently starred in a movie that came out on DVD and aired at many conventions worldwide call "Rise of the Fellowship." It is a semi-Lord of the Rings based for a story flow, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the actual LotR plot line.
"Ernest Shackleton Loves Me" looks like it is going to be a fantastic play. The kind of theatre that brings in new themes and topics is the kind of theatre that we should be working on moving towards. For too long has theatre had the same flavor each and every time.
Damn. I didn't realize geeky cult theatre was a thing! I am a huge fan of movies and TV shows made by geeks for geeks, and I would love to see some of this theatre that appears to be doing the same thing. I am a self-proclaimed geek and there is something magical in the way geeks manage to tuck jokes and references to every other piece of geek culture into everything they make.
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