Immediate family: Madeline ffitch, Sarah Lowry, Donna Sellinger. Extended family: C. Leo Gebhardt IV, Travis Sehorn, Nick Stocks, Peter Dolan, Robert O'Brien.
Influences
The Marx Brothers, Maurice Sendak, Tove Jansson, Paula Vogel, The Shuttlecoque Sporting Hour, The New Enthusiast Movement, Rube Goldberg, The Nonsense Company, and The Suitcase Royale.
Sounds Like
Prime numbers, Morse Code, Tarantism, The World's Fair, Chocolate Eclairs, The Animal Kingdom, Sending Eggs to Outer Space, Containers That Are More Precious Than the Things Which They Contain, A Meteor Hitting the Earth and Everybody Dying.
We are a touring theatre company that performs original, experimental work. We were formed in the frigid Montana winter of 2005. Since then, here are some nice things that people have said about us or that have happened to us:
“Top Ten Productions” -- 2006 Montreal Fringe Festival
“Best of the Fringe”-- See Magazine (Edmonton, AB)
"It's like arts and crafts on crack...like a bunch of summer camp counselors performing a fairy tale with a set designed by deeply disturbed scrap-bookers...It was a kick-ass, amazing performance." --The Seattlest
"Bizarrely frolicsome, cogently playful, sweetly surreal...Such is the genius of The Missoula Oblongata--quirky, but also exquisitely made and elegantly presented."-- The Santa Fe Reporter
"The romance of vaudeville, the adrenaline of punk, and the playfulness of the Children's Television Workshop...packing the house with theatre buffs as well as with those who tend to fidget in velvet seats." --St. Louis Magazine
"An ingenious musical playlet"-- The Knoxville Voice
“Twisted and beautiful…the stage is transformed into a place of magic again and again. 4.5 stars (out of 5).” – Edmonton Sun
“Gorgeous, poetic, funny, moving…I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.” --The Urbana News-Gazette
"The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen kind of blew my mind. [The Missoula Oblongata's] shows are a tender mix of the charmingly fantastical and painful, raw emotion. It's cute and wacky at the same time it's exploring the painful ways in which war and ideas of self-worth affect the average person. I can wholeheartedly recommend it." --The Sun Break (Seattle)
"In The Missoula Oblongata's case, all signs point to an art form full of wonder that is not dying, one that long ago broke down the fourth wall and continues to be a transforming influence in a thriving arts community."-- The Valley Advocate
“I don’t want to say that it was the best show I’ve ever gone to, as that would be a disservice to a lifetime of wonderful memories, formative moments and transcendent, cathartic, or historical experiences. But it is safe to say that I have never been to a show at which I was so absolutely and thoroughly delighted. I absolutely, without a doubt, 100% could not have loved it any more.” –Fujichia.com
"The surreal and the unexpected intersect in The Last Hurrah of the Clementines...really inventive, really weird, smart, and different."-- The Seattle Weekly
“Witty writing and sharp acting…This visual delight is well-suited to its venue—a steamy boxing ring—and ideal for those not concerned with finding immediate, literal meaning. A-List.”—City Pages Minneapolis
“For a traveling three-person show, it's a play with a surprising breadth of vaudevillian pageantry...The most charming original production of the year...One of a Dozen Defining Arts Moments of 2006” – The Missoula Independent
"Playfully disorienting dialogue and amusingly low-budget set design...charming and even somewhat profound, thanks to the strength of the songs and the inventiveness of the writing."--Baltimore City Paper
“The Missoula Oblongata--whose last play moved even this cynical theater-hater-- prides itself on its "aggressively inventive and experimental" approach to theater. And while that may sound pretentious and a bit daunting, it's anything but.” –The Willamette Week
FOR BOOKING AND PRESS INQUIRIES, PLEASE E-MAIL BECKY RENFROW AT:
BECKY@FUTURENOWPRODUCTIONS.COM
Your show was AMAZING last night! It was touching, intelligent, funny - everything that theatre should be. Twinhead and I can't WAIT to have the honour of collaboration with your company someday SOON!
I received a legitimate-though-drunken Ref list inquiry last night in re Silk v. Linen (as men's beachwear.) A real no-brainer. Also, your new show is widely rumoured to be the best yet. I can't wait to see for myself.
Wow, you guys, your tour schedule is AMAZING and enviable! You are a force to be reckoned with - a creative front with a 90% chance of inspiration blowing in from the northwest!! I know you're here in Minneapolis right now, and I would TOTALLY BE SEEING YOU if not for the fact that I am only here for a moment between a month on the road and a month on the road, and my entire 48 hours in my apartment has to be spent on laundry and press releases. If I get done early on all that, though (or if the laundry dries quicker than expected and folds itself back into my suitcase without my assistance -- it could happen, many advances have been made in fabric technology, I tell you), I will come to tomorrow night's performance at Bedlam. Anyway, I am thrilled and proud of you, and ROCK ON!!! Say hi to the Berkshires for me!! xo, Amy
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