*some humans were harmed in the making of this show
was nominated for 10 B. Iden Payne Awards!
Best Featured Actor Drama - Delanté Keys*
Best Featured Actress Drama - Kate Taylor*
Best Lead Actress Drama - Ellie McBride
Best Sound Design - Lowell Bartholomee*
Best Media Design - Lowell Bartholomee*
Best Overall Drama - En Route Productions and CB Goodman
Best Puppetry - CB Goodman
Best Original Script - CB Goodman
Best Properties Design - CB Goodman
Best Director - CB Goodman
*winner
Named to 2 Top Ten Theatre Experiences of 2018
Austin Chronicle Robert Faires Top Ten Treasures of Theatre
"CB Goodman's show was a high-wire act, balancing a mocking look at the self improvement racket, staged with gleeful verve as a circus, and a sobering meditation on actions and consequences. Amazingly, it managed both and bonded its audience as much in silence as laughter."
Broadway World Frank Benge Top Ten Austin Theatrical Experiences
"Theatre that takes you unexpectedly to another place is always a favorite and this original script started out as a raucous farcical comedy against the backdrop of Ia Enstera's repurposed pallet set and ended up taking us to a meditative place without feeling like whiplash."
What Reviewers Had To Say
Austin Chronicle Robert Faires
"...the play applies the same rich theatrical invention to this serious matter as it does the freewheeling satiric material before. The result bonds the audience in a way I've experienced only rarely, as a quiet meditative body willing to sit in the silence of a stage after the performers have left."
BWW Frank Benge
"This is some delicious satire, performed with obvious glee by a cast of fearless actors that will make you laugh and ultimately, touch you deeply. ...I strongly advise you to catch SOME HUMANS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS SHOW. People will be talking about this one for a while.
CTX Live Theatre Justin M. West
"This is one of those shows that deserves the word “experience” attributed to it… one that will stick with its audience..."
And listen to our KUT Arts Eclectic Interview with Mike Lee
"...I'm really interested in sort of bringing together... how can you do drag and how can you do puppetry and how can you have someone's life story play out in [something] like a big tent revival?"
Helen, a recovering alcoholic and Tony Robbins enthusiast, stages the dramatic journey of how she unleashed her inner elephant. Performed by a ragtag bunch of Helen's thrift store co-wokers, they seek to inspire others and help turn small lives into gigantic ones.
*some humans were harmed in the making of this show is a one-act drag, puppetry, self-help-testimony theatre piece based on the historical accounts of the public execution of Topsy the elephant in 1903 and told with contemporary human characters.
Performed by
Bridget Farr (Willowdean) Bridget's acting career spans theater, film, and commercials; her most recent role was Jean in En Route Production of Dead Man's Cell Phone. As a producer at the Exchange Artists, she co-created the Austin Chronicle-nominated series, Hot Nights, and the storytelling performance, Again: Family, Friends & Lovers. Bridget's first middle grade novel, PAVI SHARMA'S GUIDE TO GOING HOME, comes out fall 2019, and she's in pre-production for her first film as writer and director. She is grateful to be part of such a creative show and hopes the story both moves you and inspires you to action.
Delanté G. Keys * (Thrift Store Helen) holds a B.F.A. from Arcadia University. Delanté has performed in Lyla School, Milton, MI (University of Texas New Theatre); All the Way (Zach Theatre); Salvador Dali’s Naked Feast, Privacy Settings: A Promethean Tale (The Vortex Repertory Company); The Flick (Hyde Park Theatre); TWENTYEIGHT (Gale Theater Company); Marie Antoinette, The Effect, Brothers Size, Small Mouth Sounds (Capital T Theatre); Catalina de Erauso (Paper Chairs); and Wit (Scottish Rite Theater). Delanté is a company member at the Vortex and Hyde Park Theatres. He will be directing Permanent Records production of White by James Ijames this December.
Ellie McBride (Helen) is the thrilled to be joining En Route for the first time and has thoroughly enjoyed working on this show with these amazing humans. Ellie is a Rude Mechs company member and has been acting, directing, and producing theater in Austin since 1996. She was last seen in Cap T’s production of Small Mouth Sounds, and can next be heard on the Lunar State Podcast as a 2000 year old Viking.
Roz Martine (Billy) has been singing, dancing, and making theater with various Austin groups for the last 20 years. She is thrilled to be a part of this production.
Elizabeth Mason (High Priestess) is an actor and song/fiction/poetry writer based in Austin, Texas. Recent theater credits include Present Company Theater’s An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein (Sherilee, Jen) and Romeo and Juliet (Peter, Lady Capulet, Montague), Shrewd Productions’ Hold Me Well (Odelle), Street Corner Arts’ The Altruists (Cybil), and A Chic and a Dude’s The Whale (Mary). Awards/nominations include Carnegie Mellon’s first place prize in Short Fiction for her story Small Creatures, and a B. Iden Payne nomination for Bedlam Faction’s Reefer Madness (Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy).
Andrew Rodriguez (State Inducer) is an actor, director, and teacher based in Austin, TX. Andrew is dedicated to presenting new work, training actors, and the cultivation of community that is a product of the process. He strives to create art that is thought-provoking, ensemble driven, and visually striking. In his artistic career, Andrew has had the opportunity to work professionally in the South/Central Texas area. He is currently pursuing a BFA in Theatre Education at UT Austin (Class of 2019).
Katy Taylor (Tony) is a wandering wonder sponge; a theatre artist, puppeteer, educator, and meanderer creating most recently with Glass Half Full Theatre, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Heloise Gold, Natalie George Productions, Present Company, and Trouble Puppet.
Tyler Lane (Guitarist) teaches improv at Merlin Works and performs everywhere in Austin. Catch them in silent improv troupe Golden, musical improv troupe Double Time and goofball improv troupe Channel 2!
* appearing courtesy of actors’ equity
Designed by
Lowell Bartholomee (Sound and Projection Design) recently took home the Austin Critics Table Awards for Best Sound Design for his work on Street Corner Arts’ Grounded and Best Video Design for Grounded, Hyde Park’s Wakey Wakey, Capital T’s The Effect, and Paper Chairs’ The Repentance of Saint Joan. He was most recently seen on stage at Hyde Park in Annie Baker’s The Antipodes and will be seen at the Vortex next year in Heartland. He tries to stay busy and sane.
Aaron Curry (Lighting Designer) is delighted to be a part of the Some Humans… team! Aaron is a freelance lightingdesigner currently based in Austin. Recent credits include: Reinventions (Austin Camerata), Carmen, 893 | Ya-ku-za (Generic Ensemble Company), South Pacific, (Arizona Broadway Theatre), Enron, Fall For Dance, Building the Wall (UT Theatre and Dance), Little Women (Butler Opera Center), A Little Night Music, Urinetown, The Drowsy Chaperone (The Barnstormers). Associate/Assistant: The Little Prince (Seattle Children’s Theatre), The Drowsy Chaperone (UTTheatre and Dance). aaroncurrydesigns.com
Ia Ensterä (Scene Designer) has been designing sets and costumes for theatre and film since the mid-1990s, with companies such as Salvage Vanguard, Breaking String Theatre, Hyde Park Theatre, Capital T Productions, Zach Scott, Sky Candy, Teatro Vivo, En Route, universities StEdwards, Texas State, Johns Hopkins, and Aalto. She has been the recipient of six B.Iden Payne awards for sets and costumes, and earned Austin Critics’ Table Awards for Scenic Design for a dozen productions. She is currently navigating through studies for a Master of Arts in Scenography at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland.
Choreography by
Amy Morrow (Choreographer - “Halo” and “Flashdance Flags”) is a teacher, choreographer, and consultant and founder of AM Arts. She launched the TBX [ Toolbox Series ] to provide professional workshops & collaborations with international choreographers in Austin, Texas. TBX hosted more than 150 artists featuring twelve intensives in partnership with The University of Texas & Fusebox Festival. Workshops include professional development in Gaga, CounterTechnique®, Music & Improvisation with Idan Sharabi, Technology with Jason Akira Somma, & performance development with Deborah Hay. AM Arts manages award-winning companies such as Idan Sharabi & Dancers (Tel Aviv, Israel), as well as the Austin-based dance collective, The Theorists.
Rebecca Whitehurst (Choreographer - “Electric Shock”) has worked around the globe as a theater, dancemaker, writer and director. She received her BA in Philosophy from Stanford, and then attended the CalArts MFA program in Choreography before embarking on a professional career with Diavolo Dance Theater. Freelancing as an actor and choreographer in New York City led her to the Institute for Advanced Theater Training MXAT/A.R.T. at Harvard, where she received an MFA in Acting. While on a Fulbright Scholarship to Russia, Rebecca spent a year doing research, guest teaching and choreographing for actors at the Moscow Art Theatre School.
Created by
CB Goodman (Writer/Director/Puppetry, Prop, Costume Designer/Co-Producer) is an artist specializing in creating theatre that wrestles with the American dream and incorporates disparate source materials, original writing, and puppetry. Her work has been presented at venues in Austin, New Orleans, Charlotte, and New York City. CB Goodman collaborates with multiple emerging and established artists as a director and designer and currently teaches at Southwestern University's Sarofim School of Fine Arts. She was a 2018 Target Margin Theatre Institute Fellow and a former artist-in-resident at Dixon Place; she holds and MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and trained with Philippe Gaulier, SITI Company, and Atlantic Theatre Company. Her last project was the curation of a puppetry and object theatre works-in-progress festival, Puppet BloK, in New York City.
En Route Productions (Co- Producer) produces new, adapted, and devised moving art that reflects our common, bumbling, human experience in unusual ways and in unique spaces around Austin, TX. Previous productions include, A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare On The Farm, Verstehen (an experimental sonic and visual art experience), Dead Man's Cell Phone, Mommy's Little Helper (an improv show about the ups and downs of motherhood), SPIT (spoken words of truth and honey), Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at Live Oak Brewery, Rat Bridge by CB Goodman, As You Like It at Shakespeare On The Farm, and more. En Route is honored to help bring this irreverent, beautiful work of art out into the world with such talented and lovely humans! Many thanks to CB for trusting us and for being one of the hardest working people in this wonderful, wacky world of art. You are a brilliant woman. "Buy the ticket. Take the ride." -H.S. Thompson
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Special Thanks to Dixon Place Theatre, Ellie Covan, Katy Einerson, Punchpress, Meredith Miller, Mike Chin, Justin Smith, Amelia Turner, Amber Quick, Crystal (Bird) Caviel, Anne Hulsman, Dan Dalbout, Hannah Burkhauser, Eileen Gill, Eva McQuade, Jenny Lavery, Shayna Strype, Chris Carcione, Parker Allen Stanley, David North Friedman, Molly Zimmelman, Clara Elser, Ayun Halliday, Jessie Heffler, Mark Hayes, Lemon Lounge, Target Margin Theatre Institute, and TCADP.