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The Smartest Man in the Whole Damn World

PRESS

Carrollton Production will take stage in Austin

By: Allen Houston

Carrollton Leader- 01/14/2004

Carrollton-based Audacity Productions is heading to Austin for the premeire of "The Smartest Man in the Whole Damn World,"H a one-man show that will be featured Jan. 23 at the Austin FronteraFest.

Heading up Audacity Productions, a non-profit Carrollton theater company founded in 1999, is Newman Smith graduate Brad McEntire.

"We have focused on new works and projects that are off the beaten path," he said.

After attending the College of Santa Fe, where he majored in theater, McEntire has performed theater in New York and London. He later returned to teach at R.L. Turner High School and now teaches continuing education classes at Richland College.

Audacity Productions has performed at the New York International Fringe Festival, the Mind over Money Theatrical Festival in Austin and also Denton and Tulsa.

"The Smartest Man" is a 30-minute piece comprised of monologues written by writers from around the country.

"I told a group of writers the name of the piece and asked them to write a page or half a page that I could use," McEntire said.

He chose the six most fitting submissions, which came from writers places such as Washington, New York and Illinois and began to compile them into a piece.

"The Smartest Man" is a loose narrative, stream-of-consciousness piece. "It's very fast paced and discuses social issues such as consumerism and identity," he said.

During the piece, a series of clocks on the stage ring at odd intervals.

McEntire is also a founder of the Mild Dementia comedy troupe, which performs at comedy clubs throughout the Metroplex.

He plans on attending graduate school in directing next year. He has applied at Brooklyn University, the University of Texas at Austin and Yale.

"I like directing and being the coordinator of the performance," he said.

McEntire said Dallas has a small but vibrant theater community and wishes there was a space to perform shows in Carrollton.

"I haven't found any spaces in the city where I could put on a good show," he said.

Jason Rice, co-founder of Rover Dramawerks, another Carrollton-based theater company, developed sound effects for "The Smartest Man."

"Brad is manically creative and his pieces come off beautifully," Rice said.

McEntire organizes a yearly event called "One Day Only" in which seven directors and seven writers, write and direct a play within 24 hours. The actors receive their lines in the morning and go on stage that night.

Rice's company Rover Dramawerks performs lost or overshadowed pieces by famous writers.

During the day, Rice is a software developer that has created video games and training simulators for the military.

He too complains about a lack of theater space in the city.

"Carrollton did help with some funding for an event in Addison and we've met with the Parks and Recreation Department but that's as far as it's gone. I think their warming up to us, though," he said.

RoverDramaWerks will perform three one-act plays by local authors at the "Out of the Loop" Festival in early March in Addison. Plays on schedule for latter this year include "Clap Trap," a play which its original cast included Nathan Lane and "Spider Web," a neglected Agathie Christie play.

Information for Audacity Productions can be found at www.audacityproductions.net and roverdramawerks at www.roverdramawerks.com.

Contact staff writer Allen Houston at 972-538-2117 or houstona@starcntexas.com.

©Star Community Newspapers 2004