Our Work
RIGHTEOUS MONEY
by Michael Yates Crowley
Directed by Michael Rau
Produced in 2009 at Ars Nova and in 2010 at 59E59 in New York City
Toured to Edinburgh, Scotland; Berlin and Moers, Germany
Dishing out advice on deal making, stock buying and sleeping with your assistant, a sexually rapacious and insanely rich TV provocateur takes on the tanking economy. In this solo financial tour de force, host CJ takes us on a tour of distressed investing, financial derivatives, and the inside of the banker’s soul, all in a quest to make Righteous Money. But what begins as a send-up of financial gurus and shady I-bankers becomes a searing exploration of the financial crisis and the state of America today.
EVANSTON: A RARE COMEDY
by Michael Yates Crowley
directed by Michael Rau
Produced in 2009 at PS 122 and HERE Arts Center in New York City
EVANSTON: A RARE COMEDY begins with the disappearance of a teenage girl in deepest suburbia and ends when a meeting of The Evanston Women’s Book Club goes horribly awry. In between, a transgender student dreams of death, a housewife dreams of Mexico, an economics professor has an affair with a Whole Foods check-out clerk, and the financial crisis rages on. The latest show from the Wolf 359 team—director Michael Rau and writer/performer Michael Yates Crowley—takes a chainsaw to language, convention and pretension to create a new kind of American story-telling: raw, sexy, and painfully funny. Inspired by the words of Psalm 137 and the streets of Evanston, Illinois, A RARE COMEDY asks: how can we sing a song of joy in this strange land?
RAG FUR BLOOD BONE: THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
by Michael Yates Crowley
Directed by Michael Rau
Produced in 2009 at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center
The epic of Gilgamesh is preserved on twelve clay tablets, assembled in ancient Mesopotamia by the priest Sin-liqe-unninni. Animals are mentioned once or twice in the early tablets, and then ignored. But three thousand years later, the tablets are falling apart, and animals are taking over the gaps. Set in present-day New York City and ancient Iraq, featuring the goddess Ishtar and police commissioner Bernard Kerik, this is a story of modern cities, ancient battles, homoerotic silences, and men who want to be gods. In RAG FUR BLOOD BONE, over 20 actors, musicians and Babylonian scholars assemble at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center to rip this tale open and eat its fucking heart.
THE TED HAGGARD MONOLOGUES
by Michael Yates Crowley
Directed by Michael Rau
Produced in 2008 at Collective:Unconscious in New York City
Toured to Bielefeld and Moers, Germany
THE TED HAGGARD MONOLOGUES is based loosely on the scandal surrounding megachurch pastor Ted Haggard and former male escort Mike Jones. With the help of The Gospel of Sexual Liberation Singers, Crowley presents a series of sermons and monologues by characters—both real and fictional—involved in the saga. As the scandal deepens and the allegations grow more wild, the family is forced to confront their own buried desires. In language inspired as much by Madonna's lyrics and Rilke's poetry as the Bible, they confess themselves and pray for forgiveness, vengeance, or simply a boyfriend. The result is hilarious and ultimately triumphant—as one family member says, "Want is simple, and I understand it, and I think that makes it American, and I know it is right."
