http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/arts/music/14spee.htmlInfernal Bridegroom Has a Hit With 'Speeding Motorcycle'HOUSTON, June 13 — The punk-rock club where Infernal Bridegroom Productions stages its shows is in a rough neighborhood, far from this city's velvet-curtained theater district. So it is not surprising that the troupe's latest offering, "Speeding Motorcycle," is equally far from some of the traditional fare offered at the city's more conventional sites.
"We have stranger tastes than the norm," said Anthony Barilla, Infernal Bridegroom's artistic director. The company's founder, Jason Nodler, wrote and directed "Speeding Motorcycle," which features several actors playing the role of Joe Boxer, a man who has lost his mind after being rejected by the woman he loves. Flat-top, plasticine headgear gives the impression that the crowns of their heads have been chopped off, leaving a black, felt-lined nothingness inside. Captain America and Casper the Friendly Ghost make cameo appearances. The score, meanwhile, ricochets from toe-tapping, feel-good songs to discordant, despairing dirges, a reflection of Mr. Johnston's bipolar disorder.
This unusual production has won over critics. Everett Evans wrote in The Houston Chronicle last week that " 'Speeding Motorcycle' should be the cult hit of Houston's summer."
Many in the audience have been first-time theatergoers, lured by Mr. Johnston's music. "He's the most important songwriter you've never heard of," Mr. Nodler said.
Mr. Johnston, 45, who lives with his parents in Waller, Tex., about an hour northwest of Houston, has a cultlike following, with a fan Web site (rejectedunknown.com) full of gushing posts by admirers from as far away as Japan. His crude home recordings are considered underground classics, and his pen and Magic Marker drawings were featured in the 2006 Whitney Biennial. A documentary about him won awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the San Francisco Independent Film Festival.
At a recent performance of "Speeding Motorcycle," scores were turned away at the door. Many moped around outside, hoping someone might leave at intermission.
In a telephone interview Mr. Johnston described it as "very cool" and said he had seen the show three times.
Infernal Bridegroom (the name comes from a line in an Arthur Rimbaud poem) was founded in 1993 to develop new audiences by producing hard-edged and challenging plays. But Mr. Nodler, who returned to the company after a peripatetic three-year hiatus to work on "Speeding Motorcycle," said, "More than anything, we do plays that we desperately want to do."
The 22-member company's choice of material is often "underground" or "just ahead of a trend," said Steven Devadanam, who covers the local arts scene for The Houston Press, a weekly newspaper here. An example, he said, was "Me-Sci-Ah," which Infernal Bridegroom presented in 2004. Written by one of the company's associate artistic directors, Troy Schulze, it was a sendup of Scientology, poking particular fun at Tom Cruise. "That was way before the Tom Cruise bashing started," Mr. Devadanam said.
Those inside the Houston theater community agree that Infernal Bridegroom productions are ahead of the curve and adventurous. "They take risks with obscure titles and originate a lot of their own work," said Sidney Berger, director of the School of Theater at the University of Houston, who has acted at the Alley Theater here and was artistic director of the local Stages Repertory Theater. In 2000 Infernal Bridegroom was the first to stage Suzan-Lori Parks's "... A," about an abortionist forced to wear a scarlet letter. Relatively unknown then, Ms. Parks later won a Pulitzer Prize for "Topdog/Underdog" in 2002.
"Some of the stuff they do works better than others," Mr. Berger said. "Regardless, they make the rest of us look at our choices and perhaps push us to maybe consider other things."
Carolyn White, a computer support specialist, and her husband, Doug, who were at a recent performance of "Speeding Motorcycle," said they attended various shows in Houston almost every weekend. "Infernal Bridegroom has a freshness and sense of spontaneity you don't see at other theaters in town," said Ms. White, who is from New York and described herself as a theater buff. "This is what you'd call off, off, way off Broadway."
Although Infernal Bridegroom now leases the dilapidated and eerie-looking punk club, the group was homeless for its first seven years. Mr. Nodler said it performed in parking lots and even had a roving performance on a school bus. Though known for its dark — or, as Mr. Nodler puts it, "blood on the tracks" — productions, Infernal Bridegroom gained regional renown for a series of zany musical revues called "Tamalalia," based on the life of one of the company's core members, Tamarie Cooper, who is now an associate artistic director. A cross between Joan Crawford and Lucille Ball in appearance (as well as in performance style), Ms. Cooper wrote, directed, choreographed and starred in the shows.
The annual "Tamalalia" performances (10 in all) were wildly popular, and the receipts helped keep the company afloat during lean times, Mr. Barilla, the artistic director, said. The company, which is nonprofit, is supported by ticket sales (not easy in an 85-seat theater) and grants from local and national foundations. "Speeding Motorcycle" was made possible by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation's Multi-Arts Production Fund. As in all Infernal Bridegroom's performances, a band made up of local rock musicians provides accompaniment, and the actors are mostly company members.
"We develop a lot of talent from people who call up wanting to volunteer," Ms. Cooper said. An example is A. J. Ware, who started out painting sets, graduated to operating the soundboard and is now a member of the company with a commanding stage presence. During "Speeding Motorcycle," Ms. Ware had the audience clapping and swaying as she belted out a gospel-inspired tune by Mr. Johnston.
"A number of our students are working at Infernal Bridegroom," Mr. Berger, of the University of Houston School of Theater, said. "They tend to attract young people with a quirky approach — not the kind who would usually be cast in a major role. But they welcome that quirkiness and develop it into something interesting."
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