Go West with "Awesome" at On the Boards

I was on board with pop-comedy-theater collective/band "Awesome" from pretty much the beginning. They are seven of the smartest, funniest, most all-around talented artists in town, hands down. They're also a group of genuinely good guys, except for Rob Witmer--HE KNOWS WHAT HE DID. No seriously, I love 'em to pieces, so of course, I've been excited for their latest long-form show West, directed by Matt Richter. Jeremy already mentioned that West kicks off its On the Boards run tonight (through Sunday, tix $18), but I talked to trumpeter Evan Mosher to get the full deets. We also discussed a group of local teenagers with a major crush on the band (see video above), as well as the most important thing EVAR: the final season of Lost. (PS: Give them some money.)

Your new performance piece, West, is "inspired by the journey of Lewis and Clark and the myths of westward expansion." But you're certainly not the first artists to tackle the American frontier. Why do think the region (or the idea of the region) is so artistically fruitful?

First, the impulse came from wanting to do something that was rooted in an actual physical place where we live and make our art. Our previous shows have come from more existential/absurdist ground, and we wanted to push into a new area. (We ended up with another existential romp, more on that later.) But really, each of us in the band has a pretty intensely romantic personal relationship with the (north)west. Most of us traveled a few thousand miles to settle here, and who doesn't love a good road-trip story? Lewis and Clark's journals are often referred to as our first national on-the-road epic. Again, we deviated from that story almost immediately, but it's still there in the show's DNA.

This is your second piece to be performed at On the Boards. How does the experience/process with West compare to that of noSIGNAL?

I think the main difference is that we worked with a director (Matthew Richter) from almost the very beginning of the process, whereas with noSIGNAL, we brought John Kaufmann in very late, after most of the writing was already done. For WEST we also brought in top-notch designers early on (shout-out to L.B. Morse, Jen Zeyl, Harmony Arnold, and Zac Culler). And with Matt steering that conversation with the designers, and communicating all the evolving concepts between us and the designers, we were able to create something on a much grander scale than all our previous shows.  This is by far our most ambitious project.

Tell me a little about working with Matt as a director.

Matt's been great to work with. He's been a friend of "A" for many years--we were booked to play the New Year's Eve 2004 show at ConWorks (RIP). It was the first of many shared bills with Harvey Danger (also RIP), and also enabled the first of many collaborations between "A" and Sean Nelson. As for West, Matt's everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach to art-making has been really inspiring. He's the kind of guy who knows how to do pretty much everything. His vision and leadership with the design team have got us performing inside an amazing mise-en-scene . And his strong personality in the writing room has definitely pushed us into uncomfortable new places, which is where a lot of cool shit comes from. Recommended!

West will also be performed at a Calgary theater fest after your On the Boards run. How do you think these very American themes will play in Canada?  Alberta is kinda Canada's West...and South...and Texas...but it's not the same.

We're actually striking the (did I mention amazing?) set on Sunday night and loading it into a truck to be driven to Calgary the next morning. No rest! WEST must go East! As for how it will play there: like I said, we deviated from the L&C theme early on. The show was originally called The West, but we decided to drop the definite article and make the show more about feeling and following the urge to escape your current situation, escape yourself, and move towards a horizon where you imagine a better life is waiting for you. It's about exploring and cataloguing the human experience. We feel this is something Canadians can appreciate at least as well as Americans can. 

How has "Awesome" as a group grown and changed over time, in terms of your work dynamic?

Well, for one thing most of the band is married now. So, you know, adulthood and stuff. But after 6 years (longer for some of us who worked together in sketch/theatre years ago) we all know each other REALLY well. We've got our shorthand down, our own internal logic, and a massive backlog of in-jokes. We've also become experts on how to get under each other's skin, which isn't always the most productive, but which does contribute to our feeling like a band of brothers. And that's a (mostly) positive thing.

Do you reciprocate Teen Tix blog's crush? Circle Yes or No.

I don't know how to make a circle in html, but if I could I would circle Yes. If I didn't think it would make us seem creepy. But they were super-cool kids, much more cultured than I was at 17. (Midwest represent!)

Alright, on to the important stuff: Lost. I get the feeling from the past couple episodes (but not this week's--neither of us has seen it yet, so NO SPOILERS), that J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof, et al. know where they're going.  Agree?

I honestly think they had a pretty good idea early on where they were headed. The show wandered a little in the middle seasons, but I blame that on the writers' strike and the fact that ABC wouldn't give them a definite answer on how many seasons they had to tell the story. It's clear that they're doing some reverse-engineering on some of the character arcs and random mythology stuff, but I'll allow it. I'm kinda loyal like that. (This is why I'm a shitty critic.)