Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble's rise to glory began in October of 2004 when it premiered segments of Siddown at a performance stage that hovered on the official borders of the St. James Art Fair, following this a few days later by producing performances of Fever Pitch, a show created by Under the Table Ensemble Theatre, a Brooklyn-based group of which Greg was a part pretty much right up until said show was retired the next week.
The difficulty of the New York - Louisville commute and the joy of working together had led to Le Petomane's founding by Abigail and Greg, who between September and November painstakingly threw together Siddown, which became Le Petomane's second official and first original production, bearing the traits that would be the hallmarks of all productions thus far: ensemble creation and/or direction, with an emphasis on comedy.
The ensemble's third production, Souvenir, added Ali Silva and Amanda Haney, neither of whom live in these parts anymore (New York and Los Angeles, respectively), to the creative/performing group for a bizarre little lesson in totally inaccurate local history, known to all who saw it as "the show with the water ballet." This piece was a little tribute to the Rudyard Kipling, Le Petomane's primary performance space and favorite watering hole.
The fourth production, in April 2005, was a remount of Siddown, as only about seventy or eighty people saw it the first time. (It will probably come back again, as the Derby Festival is far from a magnet for audiences. There are, as you probably know, fireworks.) Segments of Siddown were also performed later that summer as part of the Louisville Improvisors' annual Improvapalooza and at Relief on the River, a Hurricane Katrina benefit.
For its fifth production, the ensemble expanded out to an astonishing six members as Abigail and Greg were joined by Heather and Tony (doubling the ensemble's number of married couples), Kristie (the ensemble's only blond) and Kyle (the ensemble's only Kyle) for a splendid production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, adapted by Greg and again directed by the ensemble. This is the point at which the loosely-formed gang truly became an ensemble, as all the cast members were invited to become a part of this mess on a (one hopes) long term basis.
Which doesn't really explain why the next production was another two-person show, Spot of Cheese, featuring Abigail and Greg's clowns again. Still, these are fun, and they aren't all going to be six-person shows. That would get crazy, and there are bills to be paid by all.
Then Heather and Tony returned to the Le Petomane stage (technically the Rud's; the ensemble rents) for the quirky little tango noir parable that was Ban: An Appeal. This production also featured a set of Prohibition-era ukulele songs (vaguely related to the topic of the evening's centerpiece) performed by Abigail and Greg and purely self-indulgent, really.
A Midsummer Night's Dream was remounted in May 2006 in preparation for its June performances in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, the ensemble's first foray out of town to win kudos for Louisville's theater scene from outsiders. (For the record, it worked: Cincinnati CityBeat said something along the lines of, "Louisville-based Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble goes for the laughs with theatrical tricks to spare, and deservedly gets them. Not for a minute does this talented company do disservice to the Bard, but together they take his conceits and run with them in a broad and funny manner that surely would have been welcome at the Globe. Students of comedy will note that the players cite influences from silent cinema, vaudeville and commedia dell'arte, but it's all right just to recognize they're a hoot." Said publication also asked and answered the question, "How do six actors handle a full-blown Shakespearean cast? Easily, morphing from one role to another before our very eyes. . ." Perhaps the ensemble will do that sort of thing again one day.
After a brief seasonal pause, the gang returned to the Rud in October 2006 in full force (or four did at any rate: Tony and Heather were working in the U.K. La did da) with Ka-Blam!, a documentary of sorts that chronicled the evolution of fictional comic book hero Captain Ka-Blam! as well as his cohorts and various arch-enemies. It has been suggested that this particular piece be reworked as a drinking game (for the audience) and it would surprise no one to see this happen, least of all us. Kyle did some stunning art for this one, pastiches of famous comic art, really impressive stuff, and we also worked in a special preview of Ka-Blam! at Actors Theatre of Louisville's Late Seating event in September.
The history of Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble's rise to glory as Louisville's finest alternative theater company continued with Moliere's Don Juan, an adaptation Greg did some years ago which was first performed by the Chekhov Theatre Ensemble in New York. It kicked serious theatrical butt in Louisville in March 2007 by being all brilliant and timely and such. And after Greg and Abigail came back from Baltimore (performing Siddown as part of the Theatre Project series there), we premiered Public Espionage! at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, thematically attached to a piece by CIncinnati's Performance Gallery (we called it the CoolAberration Project) and laid low for another summer respite, to return in September for Le Petomane's next show, entitled Le Petomane's Next Show. Because nothing is funnier than excessively clever metatheatrical concept art. Right?! Right?!
