Columbus RATS

[NashGay@aol.com]

REALITY THEATRE proudly presents…..

FRESHMAN YEAR SUCKS!, SOPHOMORE SLUMP, 
JUNIOR BLUES & SENIORITIS 
(THE HOLY CROSS QUADRILOGY)
Written and performed by
Rob Nash
When:   August 16 - Sept. 1, 2001
Where:  Reality Theatre
    The Short North Playhouse
736 N. Pearl St.
(the building with the Mona Lisa on her side)
7:30 Opening Night, 8/16, 8:00 Thurs-Sat, 7:00 Sun
Tickets:    614/294-7541 
·   Regular: $18; Seniors: $16; Students: $14
·   Thursdays & Sundays: 2 for 1 nights
·   Limited Seating.  Advanced purchase highly recommended.


Rob Nash returns to Columbus for a limited run of his hilarious one-man show 
at Reality Theatre.  Nash has previously performed in Columbus at the 
Funnybone Comedy Club, Wall Street Nightclub and last year he was the emcee 
for the pride festivities at Bicentennial Park and opened for Jennifer 
Holiday at Axis Nightclub.

Each year, Freshman through Senior, all of the characters age one year while 
the time around them changes more significantly. “Freshman Year Sucks!” 
takes place in 1981, “Sophomore Slump” in 1992, “Junior Blues” in 2013, and 
“Senioritis” in 1954.  It's theatre. We can do this. “In high school, we all 
want to be unique and still belong.  By skipping around in time, I hope to 
show the timelessness of high school rites of passage and the universal 
desire for individuality and community,” says Nash.

“Freshman Year Sucks!” follows three outcasts, “non-conformist” friends 
through their first year at an upper middle class Jesuit high school in 
Houston.  It's 1981.  Iowa City expatriate, Johnny, pulls together an odd 
assortment of misfits in the “redneck, shit-kicker, oil-slick of a town” his 
parents forced upon him. Ben inadvertently falls in love with the class 
bully, Chad. George gets a broken heart and an accidental bullet in the foot. 
 And the buds break up their friendship over a game of catch.

In  “Sophomore Slump” (which finds our heroes one year older, ten years 
later, 1992) the boys find new best friends: Ben finds Chad, the jock; Johnny 
finds Neil the guitarist and George finds Norman Normal the ubernerd. The 
boys eventually mend the fence at the urging of their favorite teacher, Mr. 
Smith who is very sick with AIDS. 

In “Junior Blues,” it’s 2013!  Do you know where your teenager is?!   The 
country is at war!  Johnny wants to avenge his brother Richard’s death in the 
desert by enlisting Norman Normal to help build a bomb in an ill-conceived, 
half-baked act of civil disobedience.  Ben meets rock idol, Sick Blood, in an 
online 3-D holographic chat room and becomes another ship, passed in the 
night, in a head on crash course with heartbreak.  George, his dad and his 
step-mother-to-be, are thrown into family chaos when Governor “Ma” Steele 
shows up at the Julie Rose and Mr. Daly’s wedding.

After intermission-aw, gee, don’t get sore; just set your clocks back to 
1954.  “Senioritis” is an aliment that strikes many adolescents in their 
last year of secondary school.  Feelings of boredom toward high school 
coupled with feelings of anxiety toward the world beyond high school 
contribute to an inner climate of apathy, ambivalence and ennui.  Now, try 
going through that in the middle of the Eisenhower administration!

The mid-50s provide an engaging turn in a saga that has, until now, only 
skipped forward in time.  When you revert to before the social revolution of 
the 60s (and the pop psychological revolution of the 70s, 80s and 90s), the 
old school “rules” dictated that many things, (especially secrets), were 
handled quite differently.  (They were kept).  How does the 50s influence 
Ben’s and Mr. Smith’s homosexuality? What happens when Johnny ponders 
marrying girlfriend, Maria, a Latina?  What happens to George’s and Julie 
Rose’s secret-their son, who everyone assumes is Mr. Daly’s?
Should Johnny, the restless proto-Beatnik, go smoke reefer and write poetry 
in New York or stay in Houston, marry Maria and teach high school?  Will 
George actually enlist in the Army to find some structure in his life of 
underachievement?  Should Ben deal with his homosexuality and move to some 
Pre-Stonewall haven for queers (New York?) or heed the call of the cloth and 
go into the seminary?  All these questions and more will be answered or 
avoided in “Senioritis.” 

Not standup, not monologue, not performance art, Nash describes his work as 
“serial ensemble theatre performed solo.”  His previous works include “12 
Steps To A More Dysfunctional You,” “12 Steps To A More Dysfunctional 
Christmas” and “12 Steps To A More Dysfunctional Family,” which have enjoyed 
sold out houses and critically acclaimed runs across the country.  Nash has 
also been seen on VH1 “Stand-up Spotlight with Rosie O'Donnell” and Comedy 
Central's “Out There in Hollywood.”

www.robnash.com