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, The Nonsense Company, and The Suitcase Royale.
We are currently creating our new full length play "The Last Hurrah of the Clementines" to tour nationally this summer. Travis Sehorn, of Travis Sehorn and the PebbleLight, also a handsome, stylish, and stalwart "Family Circus" fan (as we all are), will write music and tour with us this summer! Let it be known that he is a Missoula native.
Besides all of this, mid-tour we will be hanging out in Baltimore for three days, since we have been accepted to be part of Artscape, which is a very big and fancy thing, apparently. We will be part of the "midway" and will essentially be hosting an old-fashioned prom party a la the one in "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", a book which Madeline loved and Donna thought was a snooze-fest. This will be an interactive performance/installation thing.
Here are some nice things that people have said about us or that have happened to us:
“Top Ten” -- 2006 Montreal Fringe Festival
“Best of the Fringe”-- See Magazine (Edmonton, AB)
"Doing theatre with the romance of vaudeville, the adrenaline of punk, and the playfulness of the Children's Television Workshop...and packing the house with theatre buffs as well as with those who tend to fidget in velvet seats." --St. Louis Magazine
“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
“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
“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
“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.”—City Pages Minneapolis
“Despite its place here in music listings, The Most Mysterious Day of the Year is not a rock-'n'-roll band; it's a play. Created and performed by the Missoula Oblongata--whose last play moved even this cynical theater-hater-- the Missoula Oblongata 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
"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
"One of the more original companies performing under the fringe theater banner right now."--Baltimore City Paper
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
Girls, remember this place where we all once lived...where we all (well some of us) once met? It's called Vermont! And it misses you! I believe that a show is needed in the Green Mountain State (preference given to central Burlington/Montpelier type areas).
