Past

School PerformanceThe Intergalactic Nemesis: Book One: Target Earth

Recommended for grades 2 and up

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Are you ready for an adventure? This one-of-a-kind theater spectacle mashes up radio drama and comic books. Three actors voicing dozens of characters, bunches of sound effects, and more than 1,000 colorful, hand-drawn images projected on a gigantic screen tell the story of reporter Molly Sloan, her intrepid assistant Timmy Mendez, and mysterious librarian Ben Wilcott as they face planet Earth’s impending invasion by sludge monsters from the planet Zygon. Featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and TBS’s Conan, The Intergalactic Nemesis pays homage to a rich storytelling tradition, while standing on its own as a hilariously self-aware contemporary stage adventure. A 15-minute Q & A follows the 45-minute performance, which features the first few episodes of the complete show (presented at the public performance at 7 PM on October 12).

School groups attending this performance will receive learning materials that help students and teachers explore topics from the performances and learn about the visiting artists and their backgrounds. Bus subsidies are available.

Areas of Interest: Arts, Social Studies, Humanities, Geography, Language Arts/English, and Media Literacy

Registration for this event is open. Sign up your class now.

Cosponsored with Ohio State’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and The Ohio State University Libraries.


Complete credits and cast bios:


The Robot Planet presents
The Intergalactic Nemesis
Live-Action Graphic Novel
Book One: Target Earth

Written and directed by Jason Neulander
Adapted from the stage play by Jason Neulander and Chad Nichols
Adapted from the radio drama by Ray Patrick Colgan, Jessica Reisman, Julia Edwards, and Lisa D’Amour
Based on an original idea by Ray Patrick Colgan

Comic-book artwork by Tim Doyle
Color art by Paul Hanley and Lee Duhig
Production designed by Jason Neulander

Sound effects created by Buzz Moran

Original music composed by Graham Reynolds

Sound engineering by Agustin Frederic

Company manager, Jessie Douglas

Cast (in order of appearance)

Danu Uribe: Molly Sloan, Bird, Lead Hive Voice, Aughy, Claire, Queen of Zygon

Jason Phelps: Timmy Mendez, Assassin, Jeeves, Shopkeeper, Clint, X-7, Silcron,Zygonian guard, Little Girl

Christopher Lee Gibson: Vlad, Ben Wilcott, Driver, Mysterion the Magnificent, Lord Crawford, Thug, Omar, Jean-Pierre Desperois, Elbee-Dee-Oh

Kenneth Redding, Jr.: Keyboardist


There will be a 15-minute intermission.

Comic books, sound-effects gadgets, posters, shirts, and Zygonian Slime are available in the lobby at intermission and after the performance.

The cast will be signing books after the show.

This production received its world premiere at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas.


Who’s Who in the Cast and Crew

Jessie Douglas(company manager) is thrilled to be making her touring debut. Her past credits include ZACH Theater Austin, TX, where she was stage manager for Red Hot Patriot, the kick ass wit of Molly Ivins; assistant stage manager for August Osage County, Our Town, and Hairspray; and assistant stage manager and ensemble cast member for Rent. She spent a year in Juneau, AK, working for Perseverance Theatre as the company/stage management fellow. She has also been stage manager for Barefoot in the Park at Unity Theater in Brenham, TX, and for Proof, produced by Thunder Mountain Theater Project in Juneau, AK. She is a graduate from Texas State University, San Marcos, where she earned her BA in theater with a business minor.

Tim Doyle(artwork) is an illustrator and printmaker who lives and works in Austin, TX. Growing up in the suburban sprawl of the Dallas area, he turned inward and sullen, only finding joy in comic books and television and video games. After moving to Austin in 1999 to fulfill a life-long dream of not living in Dallas, Doyle begun painting and showing in galleries in 2001. He selfpublished a diary zine, Amazing Adult Fantasy, from 2001 to 2003. Doyle has held many nerd-friendly jobs, including running a small chain of comic book stores, as well as designing T-shirts and art directing the poster series for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. He left jobs behind and launched his company, Nakatomi Inc, in January of 2009. In the summer of 2009, he and artist Clint Wilson built their own screen printing studio, Nakatomi Print Labs, in which they and other artists work. Since then, he has produced art for ABC/Disney’s Lost Poster project and Mattel’s He-Man art show in Los Angeles and has had artwork used by Lucasfilm/ILM, Hasbro, and IDW, among others.

Agustin Frederic (technical director / FOH engineer) is an artist and musician born in San Jose, Costa Rica, whose craft also includes composing and arranging, theater, recording, live sound, music pedagogy, and being an instrument technician. As a live sound engineer, Agustin has worked with artists including Trey Anastasio, My Chemical Romance, Fiona Apple, and LL Cool J in New York City; and George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Neil Young, Santana, and Broadway Across America in Austin. Agustin has also worked with the Old Settler's Music Fest, SXSW, The Paramount, and the Bass Concert Hall at UT, the Long Center for the Performing Arts, and the Erwin Center. He has also been affiliated with production companies, studios, theaters, and clubs including Sounds of Brazil, Rocket Studios, the French Institute: Alliance Francaise, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Nomad Sound, and Austin City Limits Live Studios. Agustin’s teaching and composing experience includes: ASU, Wake Forest, UCF (BA Education & Social Behavioral Sciences), Winter Park HS, Trinity HS, and Thoroughbred/Sam Ash in Florida. In addition, he is the percussion instructor at the Austin Waldorf School. Performance credits include youth orchestra in New Orleans, Hendersonville Orchestra and North Carolina Symphony, Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps, Walt Disney World, Heronymus, John Neilson, La Putain Avec Les Fleurs, and several bands in New York City and Austin. Agustin is performing and touring nationally on drums and percussion with Jessie Torrisi & the Please, Please Me.

Oliver Freeman (assistant company manager) was born and raised in northern Virginia. Due to his father’s opera career he started working in theater at the age of 15. Oliver attended The Evergreen State College in Washington, where he received a BA in liberal arts with an emphasis in film, theater, and humanities. After graduating in 2006, he began working as a stagehand in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area on operas, plays, rock concerts, and corporate events. Along with working as a stagehand, Oliver started a small music production company called RauchenWolf Productions, through which he produces, records, and promotes artists. Hoping to find more opportunities in the entertainment world Oliver moved to Austin, TX, in the spring of 2011.

Christopher Lee Gibson (Ben Willcot, Mysterion, Jean-Pierre, et.al) is a graduate of American Musical and Dramatic Academy (1990) and has been an actor for several producing companies in Tampa, FL; The Loft Theatre, The Tampa Players, American Stage Theatre, The Off-Center Theatre, B.O.B. (theatrical palindrome), and The Hillsborough Moving Company. He has also been the producer of the Orlando International Fringe Festival (2001–04), production manager at Orlando’s Mad Cow Theatre (2005), an actor for Mad Cow and The Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, and for The Austin Playhouse, Zach Scott Theatre, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, and The Da! Theatre Collective, in Austin.

Buzz Moran (sound effects designer/ foley artist) has been performing live sound effects for The Intergalactic Nemesis since the first production in 1996. He also has worked steadily as a sound designer for theater productions and as a recording engineer. Buzz is responsible for Foleyvision in Austin, TX, wherein odd foreign films receive new music, voices, and sound effects performed live in the theater. Also in Austin, Moran helps run The Dionysium, a monthly show featuring lectures, drinking, and debates. He has recorded, mixed, and produced several CDs, as well as various soundtracks with Graham Reynolds. Buzz recently worked as music editor for the film Bernie, starring Jack Black.

Jason Neulander (writer) is a writer, director, and producer based in Austin, TX. From 1994 to 2008, Neulander was the founder and artistic director of Salvage Vanguard Theater. During his tenure there, he directed and produced more than 50 world premiere plays, musicals, and operas. The Austin American-Statesman has said of him: “Neulander aims to change the world.... Unlike most of his artistic compatriots, he is winning.” He has been recognized three times as Austin’s “Best Theatre Director” in the Austin Chronicle’s “Best of Austin” readers’ polls. He is the writer and director of two short films, A Snack for Piper and The Rapture, and two feature-length screenplays: The Transgressors, a western, and Simon Curtis at the End of His Career, a drama. His current project, the sci-fi trilogy The Intergalactic Nemesis Live-Action Graphic Novel, is touring the world, including runs on Broadway and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Book One: Target Earth was named “Best of Austin” in 2011 and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and TBS’s CONAN (with Conan O’Brien as a performer). Book Two: Robot Planet Rising premiered in June 2012 at Austin’s Long Center for the Performing Arts to rave reviews (“Makes you want to high-five your neighbor in anticipation of the next installment.”—CultureMap Austin). Book Three: Twin Infinity premieres in 2014.

Jason Phelps (Timmy Mendez, et al.) is a multidisciplinary artist who lives in Austin, TX. As an actor he has received five Best Actor awards from the Austin Critic’s Table including his role as Prior Walter in Angels in America. He has performed with Frontera, Rude Mechs, Salvage Vanguard, and Zach Scott Theatre Center. He is a founding member of Frontera/Hyde Park Theatre. As a dancer he has performed with MS/Nerve Dance Co. and in solo works in New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Austin. His voice-over highlights include the voice of Dalton Prescott for Wizard101 and Alan Scott/Green Lantern for DC Universe Online, as well as a variety of Japanimation films.

Kenneth Redding, Jr. (keyboarist) resides in San Antonio, TX, where he regularly performs as a pianist, vocalist, and bassist. He studied contemporary writing and production at the Berklee College of Music. Kenny composes music for television, film, jazz ensembles, and orchestra. This is his first tour with The Intergalactic Nemesis.

Graham Reynolds (composer) creates, performs, and records music for film, theater, dance, rock clubs, and concert halls with collaborators ranging from Richard Linklater to DJ Spooky to the Austin Symphony Orchestra. As Golden Arm Trio, he’s released four critically acclaimed CDs and performed throughout the United States and Europe. As coartistic director of Golden Hornet Project with Peter Stopschinski, he’s has produced more than 50 concerts of world-premier alt-classical music. His music has been heard throughout the world on TV, in films, and on radio, from HBO to the Cannes Film Festival to the BBC and NPR. His score for A Scanner Darkly, featuring Robert Downey Jr., was named the “#1 Best Soundtrack of the Decade” by Cinema Retro magazine and he recently finished scoring the Jack Black/Shirley MacLaine feature film Bernie. In January 2012, Reynolds released The Difference Engine: A Triple Concerto and DUKE! Three Portraits of Ellingto on Innova Records with distribution by Naxos, the world’s biggest classical label. More at grahamreynolds.com.

Danu Uribe (Molly Sloan, Aughy, Queen of Zygon) performs with the multimedia sketch comedy troupe The Latino Comedy Project. She was nominated with the group for a daytime Emmy award for her acting and writing contributions to a promotional campaign for MTV Tr3s. Danu played opposite Martin Sheen, along with Michael York and Kristen Bell, in the award-winning animated film Flatland: The Movie based on the 1884 sci-fi novella. She earned her BA in drama from Texas Woman’s University, where she starred in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Spanish dramatist Frederico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding (as the bride), and as Maria in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Danu’s musical theater credits also include Dorothy in The Wizard of Oand Dorothy Parker in Red, Hot & Cole. Offstage, Danu regularly appears on-camera and provides voice-overs for numerous commercial, industrial, and educational projects. She’s takes pride in having created over 100 unique characters for educational software used by students all over the United States. In her spare time, she performs improvisational comedy at The New Movement Theater. She thanks her family and her extended families at the Paramount Theatre and The New Movement Theaters in Austin for their unending love and support.

MAJOR SEASON SUPPORT FOR EDUCATION
Battelle

SUPPORT FOR THE INTERGALACTIC NEMESIS
Target
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams


SUPPORT FOR PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES AND YOUTH
Cardinal Health
Bob Evans Farms
Time Warner Cable


LEAD SEASON MEDIA SUPPORT FOR PERFORMING ARTS
Columbus Dispatch

PROMOTIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE INTERGALACTIC NEMESIS
Columbus Parent
ThisWeek Community Newspapers


GENERAL SUPPORT FOR THE WEXNER CENTER
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Columbus Foundation
Nationwide Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
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Past

School PerformanceThe Intergalactic Nemesis: Book One: Target Earth