Happy Eighth Birthday, Grandma!

Posted by Heidi on April 29, 2009

That's Weird Grandma

In honor of the eighth anniversary of a little show we like to call “That’s Weird, Grandma”, I’d like to present a few factoids about the show. After the jump, so as not to crowd the page, but I assure you they are worth it!

*Though often abbreviated as TWG in writing, the show is affectionately referred to as “Grandma”. Those of you who call it “That’s Weird” for short, well, that’s just weird.

*The show opened April 23, 2001. Originally billed as a “late night revue” the first shows started at 9pm and tickets cost $8.

*The title of the show comes from a line in one of the stories performed in the initial run. This line was neither the title of the story nor a word-for-word from the kid’s story, but was funny enough to stick around as the title of the show.  Prior to 2009, Jonathan Mastro was the only person ever to have said the line “that’s weird, Grandma” in a performance of “That’s Weird, Grandma”.

*The alternate title for the show was “Tell You What, Get In The Boat.” 

*Stage Manager Maggie Fullilove-Nugent didn’t understand the rules of “The Factory Game” (played by the actors during warm-ups before nearly every show) until she’d been working with BOM for more than 7 months.

*Rahm Emanuel came to see the holiday round in 2006. Elizabeth gave him a CD, Halena thanked him for his work on behalf of the 5th district, and star-struck Heidi hid in the green room. Then-Congressman Emanuel, meanwhile, seemed to enjoy the show, though perhaps not as much as his children, who are friends with one of the authors. Prior to that, Jonathan Mastro had introduced himself to Congressman Emanuel when the Congressman was having an early-morning breakfast at the Hollywood Grill at the same time as group of BOM performers before an early morning school show.

*Tom Malinowski wasn’t in the very first run of the show, but rather was an audience plant “saying weird things and using bubble guns”. When the show re-opened he joined the cast and consequently appeared in every performance of TWG for more than six years before taking a break to be with his new family. He’s in the show again right now, you should congratulate him. He’ll know why. 

*The first run of TWG included understudies, Charlie and Oona. Or maybe Tom and Oona. Or maybe there were three understudies, Oona, Charlie, and Tom. It depends on who you ask. In any event, we’ve never officially had understudies since.

*Co-founder Erica Halverson broke her foot on stage and continued to perform until she had to be carried off by her fiance.

*TWG has had five primary stage managers: Sara Ormsby, Corrie Bessie, Ana Espinosa, Jonathan Nininger and Maggie Fullilove-Nugent. Maggie has been running TWG since fall 2005.  Two interns (Jessica Weiner and Jordan Puckett) and Executive Director Heidi Thompson Saunders have subbed during Maggie’s very infrequent absences.

*The first review exclaimed that “the adult performers in Barrel of Monkeys have all the energy of children on a post-recess high.”

*The Reader once called TWG “funnier than Second City”. The 4 BOM company members who have performed with Second City might disagree.

*Michael Mahler once played the opening song on the keyboard while dressed in a full gorilla costume.

*Until 2007, only founding Artistic Director Halena Kays and current Artistic Director Luke Hatton had directed “That’s Weird, Grandma”, with Kays having done most of the heavy lifting. Since then company members Laura Grey, Molly Brennan, Matt Miller, and Geoff Rice have all stepped up, though Hatton directs most of the performances.

*Gretchen Helmreich recently turned over responsibility for t-shirts and merchandise to the BOM office. Previously, the extra t-shirts lived on the landing in her stairwell.

*BOM has only used the drop boxes the Neos have on stage over the actors heads for two stories, once to drop rubber chickens and once a lobster.

*Repeat audience members used to throw quarters onto the stage during “Snowmen from Pluto,” making TWG feel like a cult hit.

*The “communists” film strip toward the end of the show uses the voice-over talents of Mike Tutaj and Halena Kays. The opening piece, though it has changed, has always been voiced by Mike Tutaj.

*Audience members sometimes assume that TWG is the Neo-Futurists’ kid show. This may in part be because BOM and the Neos share 4 company members.

*The prizes given out at the end of each performance usually come from the Oriental Trading Company catalog.

*A block backstage is still referred to as “the man box” because of its role in “Woman Rampage”.

*In addition to our keyboard and several guitars, other instruments to have been played in the show include: drums, violin, drum machine, glockenspiel, saw, harmonica, mandolin, autoharp, banjo, ukulele, and slide whistle.

*During the first year of TWG we re-choreographed the opening number about once a month.

*At 6’6”, Matt Miller is the tallest monkey. At least two monkeys are eighteen inches shorter.

*There have never been fewer than two or more than six chairs used on stage during any TWG performance.  That we can recall.

*Documentary filmmaker Collin Souter followed us during the 2004-2005 school year. The resulting documentary “Meet The Monkeys” is available on DVD (only $20!)

*We’ve only had to cancel a performance for lack of audience twice in eight years.

*We used to have a contest to see who would be in publicity photos as “The Grandma”.  Kristie won twice in a row, by bringing in the most audience members.

*Early on, we sold “baby tees”, baseball caps, and bucket hats with the BOM logo ironed and/or sewn on by hand by Gretchen Helmreich.  These were deemed too labor intensive, discontinued, and are now rare collectors items.

*The current opening song, written by Jonathan Mastro, is the third opener to have been performed in TWG.

*We have used two different curtains as backdrops during the eight-year run. The first was made by Founding Artistic DIrector Halena Kays’ mother, Bonnie, the current one was made by Sarah Goeden and each square was decorated by a company member.

*TWG is always performed on whatever set the Neo-Futurists have up for their current mainstage production.  BOM has only had to cover their set during one play: “A 60-Minute History of Humankind”, because the set was so immense.  And cool.

*Before each performance the cast plays a game of “Start the Show” in the green room. This has been true during the entire run.

*There has been one on-stage marriage proposal at TWG.

*For several years, Carol’s Pub was the post-show hangout of choice.  Then it was the The Edgewater for several years, and recently, T’s, where we hope you will join us after most Monday night performances.

*The smallest TWG cast size has been nine people.  The largest (non-anniversary) cast has been 16. 

*The story that has been brought in and out of the show most often is The Time I Ate a Christmas Ball.

*Fun facts of three: (1) Three of BOM’s directors (Matt Miller, Laura Grey, Luke Hatton) have the same birthday. (2) Three company members (Lucas Kwan Peterson, Tai Palmgren, Kurt Chiang) are half-Chinese/half-Swedish. (3) For a while there were three Maggies (Maggie 1, our stage manager, Maggie 2, an intern, and Maggie 3, the next intern and our current house manager).

*The following is a list of people who have performed in TWG (including the special 5-year show) over the years: Roger Ainslie, Tom Arvetis, Christina Anthony, Lisa Barker, Steven Beaudion, Mikala Bierma, Molly Brennan, Brennan Buhl, Liz Cackoski, Lacy Katherine Campbell,  Nick Caruso, Desiree Castro, Cliff Chamberlain, Kurt Chiang, Brandon Cloyd, Erika Cornstuble, Anthony Courser, John Dixon, Erick Deshaun Dorris, Ithamar Enriquez,  Charlie Farrel, Ricardo Gamboa, Sarah Garner, Emjoy Gavino, Samantha Gleisten, Sarah Goeden, Alex Goodrich, Michael Govier, Laura Grey, Hans Holsen, Erica Halverson, Luke Hatton, Oona Kersey Hatton, Mary Winn Heider,  Rebecca Jackson, Jennifer Johnson, Beau Johnson, Elizabeth Levy, Lauren Ludwig, Michael Mahler, Tom Malinowski, Marika Mashburn, Jonathan Mastro, Laura McKenzie, Erin Menges, Matthew Miller, Meredith Milliron, Kate Mulligan, Ned Noyes, Tai Palmgren, Lucas Kwan Peterson, Ricardo Perez, Kristala Pouncy, Mike Przygoda, Tracy Repep, Geoff Rice, Alan Schmuckler, Mandy Schneider, Joseph Schupbach, Lauren Sharpe, Eric Silverberg, Tim Simeone, Michael Spatafora, Jason Sperling, Kate Staiger, Brad Stevens, Mari Stratton, Tim Soszko, Mike Tutaj, Cesar Torres, Dixie Uffelman, Selen Ulcer,  Kristie Vuocolo, Ryan Walters, Rani Waterman, Lindsey Noel Whiting, Curtis Williams, Donnell Williams, Rachel Wilson