WNEP Theater - LEOPOLD!

LEOPOLD! is an evening of delightful and acrobatic sketch comedy
thrown into a blender and thrown at the audience in pieces.
LEOPOLD! is a series of segues and set ups without punchlines.
LEOPOLD! is heavily influenced by the work of Duchamp, Pirendello and Monty Python.
Featuring the writing talents of Dave Bonde and Clay Sander, and the presence of our 16th American president,
LEOPOLD! is nothing short of 73 minutes.

The Chicago Reader says:

Director Don Hall's latest "cavalcade of downright tomfoolery" revels in the random:
Leopold! is a fast-paced hodgepodge of absurdist comedy sketches. Performers Clay Sander and Dave Bonde
take on an array of odd characters who reappear throughout the show's many short, silly scenes.
Sander is especially winning as Neil Diamond singing the hokeypokey, a Bed Bath & Beyond enthusiast,
and a stereotypical southern lawyer more interested in mint juleps and fingering his suspenders than in interviewing the witness.
Bonde is best in his scenes as a prim entomologist who believes that people should catch butterflies by
spouting poetry; later he's forced to make his departmental budget proposal to a plate of fudge from the dean.
The individual scenes can be hit-and-miss, but overall this is an evening of self-aware, challenging theater.
It's obvious that Leopold! is meant to throw the audience off if only because Abraham Lincoln (the expressive Patrick Brennan)
is sitting off to one side watching with wonder and glee. The actors start out as belligerent audience members
and tease us with false beginnings and endings; slide shows and Russian-accented voice-overs add another layer of
obfuscation. Yet these deliberately disconcerting scenes are also deftly original. --Jenn Goddu

The Chicago Free Press says:

"Well-ordered chaos...both hilarious and frustrating...
enthusiastically performed by its talented authors...it isn't necessarily enough to simply dare to be different - but "Leopold!" is more than simply daring. Bonus points happily awarded." -- Web Behrens

Initial Run
November 2 - December 1, 2001
Producer/Sound Technician: Kathy Sander
Stage Manager: Jeremy Smith
Sound Design: George Ducker

Cast
Dave Bonde
Clay Sander
Patrick Brennan as Abraham Lincoln
Otto Schmidt as Leopold
Nate Sander as Understudy to Abe

ALSO SEEN AT:
SKETCHFEST 2001 at the Theatre Building