It’s all about luck. It’s all about who you know. It’s all about making your own stuff. If you’re an up and coming actor then this is the chorus you are likely to hear. Everyone hears it, but for Seth Austin, Ryan Gunnarson, Nick Mayer, Jason Millner, and Chris Roark, it was more than advice; it was the motivation or impetus for the Lost Boys Theatre Company. Having met in, of all places, an acting class, the five, as Millner puts it, “decided to snatch that elusive fairy, lady luck, and shake her magic dust all over us…whether she liked it or not.” No more waiting for the luck to find them. They decided to put their talents and abilities to the test and break out of the nut house we call show business. In other words, they created their own opportunities in the form of a new adaptation of a revered novel and one time movie.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Dale Wasserman based on the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, is a play about a group of men struggling to be free. The Lost Boys felt that this was the definitive representation of their group and what they felt they were trying to do. Focusing on bringing audiences a truly immersive and fundamentally human experience, the five pooled all their finances and brought together every talent they knew to create their unique visceral experience. Believing that a human story will always trump the abstract or metaphorical, they strive to have everyone who comes to their play experience it as though they were in the trenches with them.
In a town obsessed with image (at the expense of quality content at times) the five made a bold move to go against this notion in order to bring to life their grounded and stripped down version of “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. It is a brave example, which could only be realized by a group of young people who so passionately want to be involved in quality material that they are willing to break the rules and take big risks to do so. It also embodies a revival in the underground theater scene that should not be missed. Tickets are available at lostboystheatreco.ticketleap.com
