RAT Rob Nash showcase free!! (okay, 2 drink min) at Dont Tell Mama inNYC Wed & Th!!

[NashGay@aol.com]

T. Harding Jones presents a special showcase of writer/solo performer
Rob Nash's
FRESHMAN YEAR SUCKS! and SOPHOMORE SLUMP
(20 minute showcases from 2 plays:  1 evening, 1 actor/writer, 40 characters!)

We are proud to announce that Jeff Calhoun
(Grease and Annie Get Your Gun) will come aboard this week as director.
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Where:		Don't Tell Mama's on 46th between 8th and 9th
When:		Wednesday and Thursday at 5:00 p.m. 
Reservations: 	Not necessary
Tickets:	No cover charge but a two drink minimum will apply.
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!!! OFF-BROADWAY BOUND !!!
Freshman Year Sucks! (an 80s high school flick on stage with 1 guy playing 
all 26 characters) follows three outcast, "non-conformist" friends Ben, 
George and Johnny through their first year at an upper middle class Jesuit 
High School in Houston, Texas, in 1981.  "Bette Davis Eyes" tops the charts, 
Ronald Reagan presides over the worst unemployment since the depression, 
people are lining up to see Raiders of the Lost Ark and the word AIDS has 
just been coined.  Iowa City expatriate, Johnny, pulls together an odd 
assortment of misfits, in the "redneck, shit-kicker, oil-slick of a town" his 
mind-numbingly, irritating parents forced upon him. Ben thinks he's in love 
with Johnny's rich girl, Maria, but inadvertently falls for the 
jock/prep/class bully, Chad.  George gets a broken heart, a couple of wedgies 
and an accidental bullet in the foot.

Sophomore Slump (a 1-man, 40-character play about 15-year-olds in the 90s) 
finds our heroes one year older, ten years later.  (Freshman was set in 
1981/82, and Sophomore is set in 1992/93.  The following installments, Junior 
Blues and Senioritis will be set in 2013/14 and 1954/55.  So, the characters 
only age one year while the time period changes significantly.  It's theatre. 
 We can do this.)  1992/93 is an attractive theatrical backdrop since it 
marked the end of Reagan/Bush Error and the beginning of Clinton Daze.  Guns 
and Roses was edged out by Nirvana as Grunge replaced Metal (Thank God!).  
Forty characters form the "ensemble" Nash portrays, this time.  In Sophomore 
Slump, Ben comes out of the closet only to run right back in when he learns 
that the boys' favorite teacher, Mr. Smith is very sick with AIDS.  Johnny 
decides to produce a battle of the bands to raise money for Mr. Smith's 
hospital bills which George "borrows" and bets on a dog race.  Along the way 
they encounter an adolescent minefield of chicks, guns, jocks, sex, 
sixty-four sided dice, theft, drugs, nerds, dilapidated backpacks, cops, 
henchmen, psycho-wiggidy-whacked-mental Baptists, suicide . . . you know, 
high school stuff. 

Not standup, not monologue, not performance art, Nash's work can best be 
described as "serial ensemble theatre performed solo."  Frosh and Soph are 
the first two installments of the Holy Cross Quadrilogy.  Forty characters 
form the "ensemble" Nash portrays.   Nash's 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 in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, 
Houston, Austin and Tampa, San Francisco, Seattle, and Durham.  Nash comes to 
Theatre Project for a developmental residency of his new work in preparation 
for and Off-Broadway, New York run in the spring.   Nash has been seen on VH1 
Stand-up Spotlight with Rosie O'Donnell and Comedy Central's Out There in 
Hollywood and was profiled in the July issue of American Theatre Magazine.

What the critics are saying:
"Among the most memorable solo shows of recent years.  The best scenes are 
not only entertaining, they ring true.  Convincing and likable, portraying 
kids finding themselves, Nash is a writer/performer to watch. . .  I hope its 
run can be extended.  It captures without sentimentality or self-pity the 
difficulties of growing up."			
-Chip Deffaa, NEW YORK POST
 "Rob Nash accurately captures, in his tight and gently humorous one-man 
play, the awkwardness and inability to fit in.  He's an dynamic performer, 
tackling 26 male and female characters of various ages and nationalities with 
freshness and finesse."	
-Kristan Ginther, LA WEEKLY