The Show
Armando Diaz’ Eventé explores the causes and repercussions of the events in people’s lives. Originating from a suggestion from the audience of an everyday event, cast members create characters that focus on the circumstances leading up the event and the impact the event has on their future.
The show will run Saturdays at 10:30 at the WNEP Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St., Chicago, January 5 through February 16, 2002 (no show February 2). Call (773) 755-1693 for reservations.
The show will also be performed at the Chicago Improv Festival on the Showcase stage.
The Press
The Cast
The cast of Eventé includes Patrick Brennan, Laurel Coppock, Dina Facklis, Fuzzy Gerdes, Shaun Himmerick, Elizabeth McNaughton, Phillip Mottaz, Rob Smith, Nancy Howland Walker, Zach Ward and Julia Wolfe.
The Director
Director Armando Diaz, formerly of Chicago, is a comedy/improv director, writer, and instructor. His work has been seen in Chicago at the Annoyance Theater, Second City, and includes the long running The Armando Diaz Experience at the ImprovOlympic. Diaz spent two seasons writing for the sketch comedy show The Upright Citizens Brigade for Comedy Central. He has directed numerous stage shows in New York, including the hugely popular Marooned, Two Irish Jerks and the cult-hit Perverts. He currently resides in New York where he teaches improv and sketch comedy and is a founding member of Leché Magica, a guerilla comedy video movement.
Press Info
Photos, the press release, and other press information can be found here.
The Journal
Producer and cast member Fuzzy Gerdes is keeping a journal of the rehearsal process for the show.
The Cast
Patrick Brennan
Patrick Brennan spent many happy years with his former ensemble, SHEILA, and just finished “Postmortem”, with his new friends at WNEP. He can currently be seen in “Crosscurrents” at this theatre. Thank you for coming.
Laurel Coppock
Laurel is too busy doing improv to write a bio.
Dina Facklis
Dina loves to improvise and wants to do it forever.
Fuzzy Gerdes
Fuzzy has been improvising since 1990. This one goes out to all the ladies.
Shaun Himmerick
Shaun Himmerick has been performing and teaching improvised theatre since 1993. In the past he has performed with National Velveeta, Crazy Monkeys, and Denver TheatreSports. Shaun has done scripted theatre and a sketch comedy TV show. He enjoyed training at the Annoyance theater, ImprovOlympic and the Second City. He currently does training for corporations around the country with Chicago Comedy Company. Shaun hopes to be involved when Improv takes over the world.
Elizabeth McNaughton
Elizabeth likes to take long walks by the beach, eating Häagen Daz German Chocolate ice cream, paint, and…getting caught in the rain. She can be seen around town performing at the Playground, simply shopping for groceries, or at the intersection of Kedzie & Belmont staring at the latest car she’s totaled. As for her improv credits she has been on a handful of teams at ImprovOlympic , performed with Latent Image, was Buffy in: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Meets Scooby-Doo. Elizabeth has recently been cast for two other shows which open this Spring, Bedlum and Real World Improv. Elizabeth feels fortunate to have worked with and learned from Armando Diaz; she is excited to perform with this wonderful cast of not only good improvisers but also great people. She would like to thank God, her family, her out of town friends and loyal local attendees Whitney and Mathew. All of these people are constant source of support and inspiration.
Phillip Mottaz
Phillip Mottaz is an accomplished writer and actor. After graduating from Knox College in Galesburg, IL, he moved to Chicago in 1999 with his wife Rachel, and has since joined several improv groups and classes. Aside from being an original member of the Mr. Fancypants, Phillip performs at ImprovOlympic and the Playground theater, and makes up one half of the sketch group, Super Punk.
Rob Smith
Rob doesn’t believe in bios.
Nancy Howland Walker
Nancy Howland Walker has been performing, teaching, and directing improv professionally since 1989. She was the Artistic Director of ImprovBoston (New England’s longest running comedy troupe), The Next ImprovBoston, Picture This!, and TheatreSports of Massachusetts. In Chicago, she has performed with The Free Associates in the critically acclaimed improv shows Cast on a Hot Tin Roof, As We Like It, Pick-a-Dick, BS, Divamatic, and The Greatest Story Never Told. Nancy was head of the Free Associates improv school, and currently teaches at Players Workshop of the Second City, each year at the Chicago Improv Festival and Funny Woman Fest, and to groups around the country. She created, produces, directs, and performs in MUSICAL!the musical - a completely improvised, two-act, modern Broadway style musical, which has enjoyed critical raves, and runs in Chicago, Boston, and Nashville. Nancy also writes, performs, and teaches all over the United States with Chicago Comedy Company. She was one of six Americans sent to France for the last World Cup playoffs of the international Improvisational Theatre League, and one of two improvisers chosen from Chicago for the 2000 Montreal Just For Laughs improv competition. Nancy recently spent a winter performing and teaching improvisation for Mickey Mouse and his little company.
Zach Ward
Zach Ward was supposed to visit his parents in Maryland for Christmas. Instead he rehearsed with 10 new friends and THE Armando Diaz, only to find himself eating Cracker Jacks(TM) and surfing the web December 25th. But it was worth it! You can find Zach performing with the Harold Team Local 914 and with DUAL EXHAUST, a two-person improvised show, both at Improv Olympic. Just over a year ago a dark-haired boy with a degree in Performance Studies and a knack for MadLibs(TM) from Chapel Hill, NC came to Chicago… [and that’s where this bio ends].
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe has performed long-form improv at ImprovOlympic and the Playground, and with the show Dinner for Six. She has also worked with Redmoon Theatre and the Actors Gymnasium. She is very happy to be working with such a cool bunch.
The Director
Armando Diaz
Director Armando Diaz, formerly of Chicago, is a comedy/improv director, writer, and instructor. His work has been seen in Chicago at the Annoyance Theater, Second City, and includes the long running The Armando Diaz Experience at the ImprovOlympic. Diaz spent two seasons writing for the sketch comedy show The Upright Citizens Brigade for Comedy Central. He has directed numerous stage shows in New York, including the hugely popular Marooned, Two Irish Jerks and the cult-hit Perverts. He currently resides in New York where he teaches improv and sketch comedy and is a founding member of Leché Magica, a guerilla comedy video movement.
The Assistant Director
Greg Inda
Greg has very good luck. He has been a part of so many great projects including Free Mason Jar and The Eulogist. He is grateful for all the opportunities he has been blessed with and feels so special that so many can put trust into a little high school dropout from the burbs. He would like to thank his Family, The Annoyance, T.J. Jagodowski, Shaun and Fuzzy, Armando, and the whole cast for all their love and support.
The Press
- Improv Review, April 5, 2002
- Performink, January 18, 2002
- Chicago Reader, January 11, 2002
Improv Review, April 5, 2002
original article
Chicago Improv at Its Finest
Armando Diaz’ Evente (Chicago)
CIF Showcase - Atheneum Theater
Friday, April 5, 10:30 pm
Reviewed by Jonathan Bender
When you take a cast of improvisational all-stars from Chicago and put them on one stage, it is easy to see that city still holds arguably the greatest collection of improv talent in the world. I have seen very few shows in which the group manages to negotiate cuts and scene work with equal skill, but the players of Armando Diaz’ Evente were dedicated to creating a tight performance.
The group received the suggestion of “retirement party” and revolved their scenes around a family getting ready to celebrate the matriarch’s retirement as CEO of Kraft Foods. The group employed flashbacks, asides, and callbacks to further the plot and introduce new characters; however, they avoided the use of gimmicks and only inserted these devices when it seemed a natural point to introduce a relationship or to further explain the dynamics of a character.
The true strength of this group was how well they listened. They nailed everything from entrances and exits to the names of characters in callbacks. A player arriving from offstage provided whatever was required for a scene immediately. Moreover, the players were adept at getting each other in trouble and recognizing those moments. The husband’s lap-dancing performance at the retirement party was seen by his father, an army general, several scenes after the son had reluctantly agreed to the dance. Meanwhile it was noted how disappointed his dad would be if he knew that his son was lap dancing again.
Armando Diaz’ Evente provided an example of how longform can be extraordinarily successful in the hands of improvisers who are working together to create interesting scenarios and characters.
Performink, January 18, 2002
UCB’s Armando Diaz Returns to Chicago Stage
BY JOHN BIEDERMAN
In many ways, it’s a typical Chicago man meets stage, man conquers stage, man moves to New York story.
But Armando Diaz-comedy/improv writer, director, instructor and Chicagoland native-believes he’ll be performing on Windy City stages, with some regularity, indefinitely.
“It’s good to give something back and see what people are up to in Chicago,” Diaz said. Despite living in the Big Apple, he doesn’t see much of a problem with mounting the occasional Chicago show. Take the currently running Armando Diaz Evente as an example. “In this process, we only rehearse one week-five rehearsals” Diaz said just after Christmas, before the show started. “I know that, coming to this town, people are trained well. I don’t have to waste a lot of time teaching them to improvise.”
Before moving to New York, Diaz rose to the top of the Chicago scene with shows at the Annoyance Theatre, Second City and ImprovOlympic (home to the long-running The Armando Diaz Experience). While he still performs “very occasionally,” he found the most satisfaction in the roles of writer, director and teacher. After moving to New York, he spent two seasons as head writer for The Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy show on Comedy Central and directed stage shows including Marooned, Two Irish Jerks and Perverts.
Diaz spoke about the differences between performing in the two cities. “I think that in New York, there’s probably a little more pressure,” he said. “Audiences are a little proper. Chicago has had improv for a long time and audiences there are very improv experienced. They tend to be a little more generous. In New York, they’re not so used to it. You have to be a little more on your toes because they expect a lot. And long-form improv is still fairly new to most cities.”
Diaz’ current show at the WNEP Theater showcases his original spin on long-form improvisation. Stemming from an audience suggestion, The Armando Diaz Evente features multiple storylines all leading up to one big event that has an impact on all the characters involved. “It’s kinda like a big play, but it’s more like a film because it has a lot of scope,” he said. Comparing it to other well-known improv forms, he adds, “It differs from, say, the Harold because you’re just telling one story.”
Weighing in on the “Sketch vs. Improv” question, Diaz sees the two as complementary as opposed to contradictory. “The thing about improvised scenes is that you can’t take them straight and put them on TV. But what’s nice about improv is that it’s like very quick shorthand for creating sketches. You have two, three people working on it and, unlike writing sketch comedy ahead of time, the audience is there to let you know right away if it’s funny or not.”
In New York, Diaz is currently working as a writer, director and instructor for the Upright Citizens Brigade, which has become a New York institution much like Chicago’s Second City or ImprovOlympic. He is also a founding member of Leche Magica, which produces short, comic videos. And while he’s unsure of whether or not he’ll make the Chicago Improv Festival this spring, Diaz doesn’t foresee a long absence from the Windy City stages.
The Armando Diaz Evente, the first 2002 production of FuzzyCo, runs Saturdays through Feb. 16 at 10:30 p.m. at the WNEP Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St. Tickets are $10. For reservations, call 773/755-1693. Cast includes Patrick Brennan, Laurel Coppock, Dina Facklis, Fuzzy Gerdes, Shaun Himmerick, Elizabeth McNaughton, Phillip Mottaz, Rob Smith, Nancy Howland Walker, Zach Ward and Julia Wolfe.
Chicago Reader, January 11, 2002
Armando Diaz’ Eventé
FuzzyCo at WNEP Theater
Few things are harder to pull off than long-form improvisation. And even when it works, it’s not for anyone wedded to the traditions of climax, denouement, etc. However, those who enjoy seeing characters and situations developed out of thin air should appreciate this clever ensemble’s proficiency. From the audience suggestion of “divorce court session,” FuzzyCo’s six men and five women created a court-room scene involving sexual infidelity, a confused jury (do divorce courts have juries?), a lawyer who speaks through a hand puppet and believes he’s a god. This bit expanded into a family situation loosely involving some of the courtroom characters and others who watch the antics unfold on TV.
The group’s strength on opening night was its ability to maintain characters while moving thinnish stories forward. Especially adept were Rob Smith as the lawyer-god, Zach Ward (a Giovanni Ribisi-meets-Andy Kaufman lost boy), and Dina Facklis as a mother figure who makes her own soap. Most important, the humor was consistently based in character; no one went for easy (i.e potty) laughs. In fact, the players weren’t focused on laughs at all but on drawing out the natural humor of the situations. Intricate plot lines and in-depth psychology? Hell no, but that’s why we have Eugene O’Neill. Watching artists fly without a net is a different kind of fun.
—Kim Wilson