'Candy' from strangers?
By KAREN SHADE, 10/19/2005
Nightingale Theatre's Halloween show, "Old-Fashioned Poison Candy," opens Thursday. STEPHEN HOLMAN / Tulsa World
50 Swats Collective pulls no punches in Halloween production
John Cruncleton is taking a risk even mentioning it, but he's careful how he words his involvement in an underground organization.
The members of the 50 Swats Collective, you see, aren't even entirely certain who their cohorts are.
"The thing about the organization (is) we're still kind of just feeling our way around," he said.
Cruncleton, however, has special permission to talk about his work within the writer's collective, the group that penned Nightingale Theatre's upcoming Halloween show, "Old-Fashioned Poison Candy," opening Thursday.
The last time 50 Swats reared its collective head in Tulsa's industrial neighborhood, the setting for the theater at 1416 E. Fourth St., was last year when it created the first "Old-Fashioned Poison Candy" and an alterna-Christmas mash titled "Snowballs."
But Cruncleton, who is an owner and operator of Nightingale Theatre, said the group took a different approach to writing this year's new and improved "Poison."
"This time we conducted the entire affair anonymously and only communicated with one another through the mail," he said.
An unknown dramaturge took on the task of hive queen, issuing directives through letters on how to polish the members' scenes. But people shouldn't mistake titles for hierarchy. The "queen" merely guided the project and held all the elements together, he said.
"There wasn't any face-to-face communication, so everything was kind of formal and detached. What it ended up doing was sort of removing the ego element out of the whole process of creation," he said. "No one was worried about saving face."
Stronger scripts materialized from the process. Whereas last year's "Poison" zeroed in on absurdity, this year's show has more character development along with some lighter elements. A scene in which two youth explore their feelings for one another might be followed by an actor dressed to appropriately perform "The Lament of the Deviled Egg."
Cruncleton (who is also directing the show) said it is a marked contrast to the collective's last piece, the alternative Christmas production, "Snowballs," which delivered a knapsack full of off-beat and often sardonic humor rather than cookies and milk by the chimney.
"'Snowballs' was kind of a shock-value show. It was pretty sloppy. It was fun, but it was a real throw-away show. It was a night of absurd laughter, more or less," he said.
As for 50 Swats, the members may or may not take an active role in their pieces, and they may or may not reveal their identities.
But Cruncleton isn't too concerned for his safety. He has good-standing with the hive queen.
"OLD-FASHIONED POISON CANDY"
What
new sketch theater from the 50 Swats Collective
When
8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Oct. 27-29
Where
Nightingale Theatre
Tickets
Tickets are $10. For more, call 583-8487 [As of February 2007, 633-8666]. Reservations are encouraged, and audience members should plan to arrive 15 minutes before the performance. Show is for a mature audience.