Local theater is thinking 'Dirty Thoughts'
By KAREN SHADE, 6/23/2007
Nightingale Theater has tackled gun slingers, ghost stories and clown tragedy. This time, its players have "Dirty Thoughts" in mind, the next product of the resident 50 Swats writers.
In its second weekend at the Nightingale, 1416 E. Fourth St., "Dirty Thoughts" isn't always what it sounds like.
The program is a collection of monologues, scenes and musical numbers that look at intimacy and attitudes about sex to reveal insight on the human character, said John Cruncleton, one of the performers and writers behind the show.
"It's such an essential aspect of the human experience," he said. "We all grapple with our sexuality and our desires."
Written by regular performers at the theater, "Dirty Thoughts" plays on this theme to create mostly playful and sometimes dark portraits of mostly ordinary people.
"You can pull farce and tragedy and horror and all kinds of things out of the sex response," Cruncleton said.
Stunning the audience isn't the ultimate aim, he added.
"I think we tend to be attracted to provocative themes because they get us thinking," he said. "We're just always looking for the next problem to wrestle with as artists, and that's always more of our goal than to be provocative. It's not like we're seeking to shock."
But most likely, he added, you will be.