Boy oh boy, winter is in full swing, isn’t it? And sometimes the only way to prepare for being snowed in for a few days is to get out of the house while you can! On your way to get yet another round of milk, bread, and eggs, why not swing by the Meetinghouse Theater (it’s over by 30th St. Station) and see five brand-new 10-minute plays? Sure as hell beats watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on your couch, which is what you’ll be stuck doing after this storm hits. Get out while you can! And just in time for Valentine’s Day, the theme of this batch of plays is “Heart Attacks, Too” which celebrates the bumpy side of love.
Just as Delaware is known for having a great acoustic dork-rock power duo scene (if you consider Hot Breakfast! a scene) (as we certainly do), Philadelphia is known for having a great underground theater scene, and one of the driving forces is Philly’s Primary Stages. PPS is a “down and dirty script-in-hand staged reading series of new 10 minute plays” where playwrights get to see their new works up on their feet, and actors and directors get a fun, short project to jump into. Audience members are bribed with beer, wine, sodee pop, bottled water, assorted chips, dips, vienna sausages and puddin’ packs (of which Jill is a fan). 
We Hot Breakfastians come from pretty strong theater backgrouns ourselves, so we love getting to split our time between being on stage as pre-show and back-stage as the house-band/soundtrack.
This month’s shows are happening on Tuesday, February 11th and Wednesday, February 12th. We play a 30-35 minute set beginning at 7:30pm, and then a 15-ish minute set at intermission. We also play the outro music for each play– songs that are hand-picked by the directors. (The directors love to test us, so we’ve been asked to do everything from rap, Led Zep, play Sousa marches on kazoos, and even play TV theme songs. We never know what we’re gonna be asked to do for the out-tro music, but we have a blast retrofitting these songs for our dork-rock-duo instrumentation.)
We’re trying something a bit new this time around! For our Wednesday night show, we’ll be completely unplugged… no amplification at all, as we get back to our theatrical roots and fill the room with our voices and a guitar… no mics, old-skool. (If you ever want to hear Jill get on a mighty rant, ask her how she feels about schools giving student actors mics during their musicals. A teaser: “How about maybe you teach students proper singing and voice projection technique instead? ARGH!”)
There are five or six different 10-minute plays each night, so if you’re feelin’ theatery, you could come both nights and see a dozen morsels of fresh, original theater. We can’t promise we won’t repeat any songs, however… 🙂
DEETS:
WHERE: The Meetinghouse Theater inside the Community Education Center: 3500 Lancaster Ave. (sorta by 30th St Station) Philadelphia, PA 19104-4916
WHEN: Feb 11th & 12th. Doors open at 7:15ish, HB! plays at 7:30 sharp, the plays start at 8pm. Different plays both nights!
CASH: Five bucks donation… feel free to give more if you’re so moved.
For a measly five bucks ($5!), you get a night of terrific theater, snackies, beverages, and music. What better way to spend a mid-week, mid-winter night?
See you then!
Your pals,
Suburban Legend and Ji11
(a.k.a. Matt and Jill)