Producer notes for HASHTAG MAYHEM!

 

People always ask me, “where do you get your play ideas – because that’s some messed up shit”. It’s my contention that everyone has a dark side. It’s human nature. Good. Evil. On one end of the spectrum you’ve got Grammy who yells, “Dammit”, when she loses at sheepshead and at the other end you have a man in prison for murder. And everything in the middle. Fortunately, most of us keep our “dark” sides in check. Some do not. The characters in each of these plays are in the midst of a “dark” moment and they’re trying to work through it.

“Dark”, “mayhem”, “sordid” – whatever you want to call it, it’s probably best that you’re just an observer this evening.

Singer/musician Tom Waits quipped, “All the good in the world you can put in a thimble”. Perhaps. Even Walt Whitman, whose poetry typically took an optimistic view of life, commented in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” that, “It is not you alone who know what it is to be evil; I am he who knew what it was to be evil…”. But I see a silver lining in the six plays that make up HASHTAG MAYHEM!, and it’s this – if you don’t know the “dark”, how can you see the “light”?

Just watch your back…

– Jeffrey James Ircink

The directors of HASHTAG MAYHEM!



6 short, dark plays by Milwaukee playwright Jeffrey James Ircink. March 21-23, 28-30 & April 4-6 @ 8pm at The Alchemist Theatre in Bay View, Wisconsin. Brought to you by Babbling Bohemian Productions and The Horny Goat Hideaway in Milwaukee.

 

Tickets at the door OR online here. Indiegogo fundraising campaign here. "Hell Broke Luce" by Tom Waits here.

 

Everyone has a dark side. What's yours?

 

 

 Bo Johnson / TWISTED NICE MIRAGE

 

Gretchen Mahkorn / BILLY BALFOOR WANTS AN APOLOGY

 

 Jason Waszak / CONOR FRANCIS COMES HOME TO BALLYCULLEN

 

 Mary K. Ryan / JESUS PUSHED A GROCERY CART

 

Jeffrey James Ircink / PASS THE SALT, PLEASE & CHOKING THE CHOAD IN BEL AIR

‎6 of 6. CHOKING THE CHOAD IN BEL AIR.

 

A dissertation on seven years spent on an estate in Bel Air, CA with "the bitch".

‎5 of 6. PASS THE SALT, PLEASE.

What would happen if the dinner conversation between a middle-aged married couple resembled the script pages of a scene in an adult film? As a man and woman catch up on the day’s events, their banter morphs from “ho-hum” to “whoop-eee!” – without missing a “bite”.

#meme.

HASHTAG MAYHEM! - 6 short, dark plays by Milwaukee playwright Jeffrey James Ircink, runs March 21-23, 28-30, April 4-6 @ The Alchemist Theatre in Bay View, Wisconsin.

Support us TWO ways: 1) by getting your tickets here, AND/OR by contributing to our Indiegogo fundraising campaign here - where you will find details on the production.

Everyone has a dark side. What's yours?

Peckinpah, Mamet & whiskey & leather? Oh my!

Excerpts from Russ Bickerstaff's Curtains, The Shepherd Express, February 13, 2013.

I don't ever specifically recall seeing any of Ircink's stuff before. For reasons I probably don't understand, the style reminds me of Sam Peckinpah, David Mamet, whiskey and well-worn leather.

The 6 short, dark plays that he's written will open Marc 21.

This is actually a huge relief for me personally. I was beginning to get concerned. Being a theatre critic, you kind of take what's give to you as the calender unfolds for a given year. I was worried that the only thing opening weekend after my birthday next month was going to be a tribute to Tony Bennett at Sunset Playhouse or the solitude of a nice, long bus ride out to Elm Grove, but I was really hoping something a bit more appealing to me as winter turned into spring this year.

Thankfully, Jeff Ircink is there to inadvertently help me out here....Looks like a really fun combo of shorts. Really looking forward to this one...".

Anytime someone remotely compares a writer to Sam Peckinpah, David Mamet, whiskey & leather, it's a compliment.

SWAG Artist of the Month!

 

The Southeastern Wisconsin Arts Guild (SWAG) named me Artist of the Month for March. I am honored. I am touched. As a an artist, it's satisfying to know I've created some things others find relevance in. I would be lost without it (the art, that is).

I'd be additionally honored if you would please donate to our Indiegogo fundraising campaign for the HASHTAG MAYHEM! production by clicking this link - if you haven't already done so. $5, $10, $20 - whatever you can offer. Your support in backing this performance would be a tremendous help to us and would mean a great deal to everyone associated with the production. Also, come see the show! Tickets for HASHTAG MAYHEM! - 6 short, dark plays by Jeffrey James Ircink (me) may be purchased here. You see, this way, you won't get turned away when we sell out. And we will.

Everyone has a dark side. What's yours? (Come see the show and I'll tell you mine.)