Bookings

THEATER & COMMUNITY
To Presenters, Hosts, Friends, Festivals:

What a good choice you’ve made!

The Crackpot Crones are easy to work with as well as being funny, heartwarming, and irascible. We have performed in large conference spaces, in small theaters, in even smaller theaters, in living rooms, and at gatherings with their infinite array of venue.

We like to travel and meet all sorts of folk. We like to support worthy causes. We like to be part of larger events, festivals, and conferences. We love to have discussions post-show, get feedback about the show and also find out what our audience is up to.

COLLEGES
To Event Coordinators, Directors of Student Activities, Women’s Centers, and LBGT Programs:

Bring A Coupla Crackpot Crones to your College Community.

The Crackpot Crones are:
Great for Gay Pride!
Wondrous for Women’s History Month!
Divine for Diversity Day!

We offer: Performances, Classroom Visits & Workshops

Performances:
Our motto is “Never the same show twice!”
Through sketch comedy, improvisation, and improbable true stories, we create a performance of any length, specifically designed for your campus.

Sketch Comedy:
Eve in Therapy – Eve overcomes her guilt for taking that famous bite of the apple.
The Version Mary – Two scenes set in Moscow, one in 1962 and one in 2012, where Irina Ivanov, at 15 and at 65 years old, visits a beautiful Russian Icon of the Virgin Mary, who speaks to her – and Irina speaks back.
Coming-Out Transformations – A daughter comes out to her mother in a series of theatrical styles: a Restoration Comedy, a Horror Movie and a good old American SitCom.
White Fang – Mom, in bed with her new girlfriend, the Naked Librarian (offstage), is surprised by a visit from her college age daughter.
Red Hankie Grannies – Old lefties trapped in a nursing home planning to escape and march for peace
The Twelve Days of Family Insults — a sing-along favorite (with cue cards!) about a young lesbian surviving family holidays, popular with the whole audience at any time of year.

Improvisations (based on audience suggestions):
Theresa Thesaurus – The noted Abecedarian deconstructs cliches.
Sappho Speaks – The ancient Greek Poet composes a poem on the spot. Luckily Rosewitha Spanakopita, is on hand to translate into English.
Whose Line – a scene that incorporates sentences drawn from a hat.
An improvisation created specifically for your campus, after consulting with you about what burning issue you would like us to explore.

Improbable True Stories:
How Our Play Dos Lesbos Offended the Pope.
When Terry Baum Ran for Mayor.
The Mythic Origin of the Crackpot Crones.
Lilith, Women’s Theater and the 1970′s Women’s Movement.

Classroom Visits:
We talk about our true life adventures in the women’s movement of the 1970’s,
b. do play readings with the students themselves, using feminist theater scripts,
c. answer questions about the early years of the second wave of feminism and the flowering of the gay rights movement in San Francisco, and discuss current political and social issues from a feminist viewpoint.

“It meant a lot to the students that Terry & Carolyn could talk about Women’s Liberation and the Second Wave of Feminism from a firsthand experiential position. They lived it!”
*Jennifer Nelson, Women’s Studies Professor, Redlands University*

Workshops:
Improvisations:
A fun introduction to the joys and thrills of improvisation. Students are introduced to the basics of improv through games and exercises in a safe, friendly atmosphere. Emphasizing ease with one’s body and voice, storytelling, teamwork, listening, brain-storming, sharing and exploring, improvisation is not only the starting point for good comedy but also clearly relevant to all parts of life.

Improvisation has most recently been celebrated in many forms of comedy performance, like The Second City, BATS, and The Groundlings. These companies have been the beginning of careers for many famous actors and writers, including those on TV’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? and Saturday Night Live. In this workshop, students learn to create great scenes through agreement, support, playing to the top of their intelligence, and making strong character choices. Improv can improve auditions, scene analysis, character development, and work with other actors.

“All of the exercises that the Crackpot Crones presented to us were so much fun, helpful and inspiring.”
*Student of Theater Arts*

“That night at rehearsal I showed the other actors everything Terry and Carolyn taught us.”
*Student, Acting Fundamentals*

Playwriting:
The workshop begins with students writing scenes based on the inspiration of a character, a prop, a setting, a newspaper article, or a dream. Other exercises: Learning to build to a climax or create a powerful reversal. The scenes are then read aloud, with other students taking the roles. The Crones lead a constructive and gentle discussion of the scene. In a two or three-day workshop, the students rewrite their scenes overnight and bring them back to the next session, where they are again read aloud and discussed. A second writing exercise is done.