The insane theater Trilogy
By Nick Rabinowitsh
Dec. 4, 2002 9:00 p.m.
Somewhere behind a dildo-obsessed vixen, a pair of secret
agents, a hairy pedophile, a 117-year-old evil billionaire, and a
narrator who’d rather be hitting the reefer, lies the crown
to the kingdom of Athenius.
This weekend will herald the third and final installment of the
“Secure the Crown!” trilogy, a play written, directed,
and co-produced by fifth-year theater student Michael Day.
“Basically, it’s complete insane comedy,” Day
said. “It’s “˜Robin Hood: Men In Tights’
meets crack.”
Playing three nights only on Dec. 6-8, the play will bring to a
close the trilogy that Day began two years ago. Since then, the
shows have generated a kind of cult following, according to
Day.
He and Nasim Pedrad, the other co-producer (and archfiend of the
show), said the show is for those with an offbeat (and possibly
sick) sense of humor.
“If you like “˜The Simpsons,’ you’ll love
“˜Secure the Crown!,'” Pedrad said.
The basic premise of the trilogy revolves around a prince, named
Dartagnione, trying to maintain his reign over Athenius. In this
episode, an evil 117-year-old billionaire has kidnapped a chain
gang’s worth of children and is concocting evil plans to
steal Dartagnione’s crown.
Although this weekend’s show is the third in the series,
Day and Pedrad reassure that it isn’t essential to have seen
the first two to get the third installment.
“It is basically just a bunch of funny skits tied together
with a great storyline,” Pedrad said.
UCLA professor Gary Gardner admires the show not only as good
for a laugh but as good theater.
“It’s the kind of talent they don’t recognize
in academia,” he said. “It’s funny, it’s
current, and it’s beautifully played.”
“Secure the Crown!” is intended to contrast sharply
with traditional UCLA theater. Rather than an elaborate, prop-based
play with a full set and a costume budget, “Secure the
Crown!” is what Day calls “guerrilla theater;” a
play with no set, a minimum amount of props, costumes from
actors’ closets, and a relentless pursuit of randomness.
“A lot of the productions at UCLA are really avant-garde,
pretentious-type theater, and they have little entertainment
value,” Pedrad said. “But whatever happened to theater
that just entertains and makes people laugh?”
The “Secure the Crown!” trilogy gives a rare glimpse
into the world of original undergraduate theater. Graduate students
write most of the student productions put on at UCLA, so it is
often very difficult for a play written by an undergraduate to find
a stage.
“The only way a playwright learns is by seeing his work
onstage,” Gardner said. “We can teach playwriting until
we’re blue in the face, but the writer has to see how his
work emerges on the stage. The only critic, or even teacher, that
matters is the audience.”
Based on his experience with the series, Day already knows that
creating this type of comedy is what he wants to do with his life.
He is currently in a writing lab at the Groundling Theater.
“If he gets to be a little more vulgar, he’ll be the
new Adam Sandler,” Gardner said. “The ability to earn
laughs, not just to make fun, is a rare talent and Mike has it. He
wisely put together a group of people who share his same
insanity.”
Although Theater Underground has helped with publicity and
funding for the show, Day and Pedrad put it all together, from
organizing the 25-person cast to doing publicity.
The soundtrack was difficult to put together and time correctly,
but is an integral part of the show’s comedy that they wanted
to get right. The play uses some 40-odd sound cues as punchlines,
ranging from the theme of “The Rock” to the baggy
pants-flapping hit “You Can’t Touch This.”
“If you can weave MC Hammer into a play, the public
deserves to see it,” said Day.
“Secure the Crown! 3″ will be performed Dec. 6-8 at
8 p.m. in Northwest Campus Auditorium (Sproul Turnaround).
Admission is free.
