Elgin theater group pushes the envelope with edgy dark comedy

Can't decide between live theater and a movie? Nothing Special Productions has just the thing: A movie play.

The Elgin-based company's summer production melds the two into an innovative live experience called "True Accounts of Maddening Fiction."

"It takes the idea of watching a movie and watching a play and fuses them together," said playwright Nick Cardiff. "You'll watch parts of the show on television screens, like a movie, and you'll watch parts of it on stage like a play."

The idea germinated from a play Cardiff began writing while in college and rediscovered after he graduated. After spending sometime finishing and polishing the script, he had a new idea. He reworked the play into screenplay form with thoughts of making a movie. Finally, it came to him; make it a movie within a play. A movie play.

The result is "True Accounts of Maddening Fiction", a play about a TV writer for a show called "True Lies," which is a spoof of such shows as "24" and "The Sopranos."

"You actually get to see clips of the show, 'True Lies,'" Cardiff said. "During the film parts there are some really, really violent things. It's ridiculous violence. It's funny."

"It's a dark comedy," Cardiff said. "It's a dark human comedy. You're literally watching 'True Accounts of Maddening Fiction,' because they're situations that everyone has been in."

"The overall theme is the things we all go through in our lives and how we choose to deal with them," said director Mikey Laird. "Nick wrote this play for people in their mid-20s but middle-aged people can relate to it really well. It's about feeling lost and not really knowing why you're not happy or how to make yourself happy."

Because of the exaggerated violence, Cardiff warns that the show is not for kids younger than 16. The exact warning on their Web site reads: "This show has (strong vulgarity), sexuality and exploding heads."

"We kind of joke that it's rated PG-16," Laird said. "There's nothing in it that you wouldn't see on any show between 9-10 p.m."

That may be true, but it's a new concept on the Elgin stage with a number of new aspects for the company.

"We all usually know the people in our casts, usually from college," Laird said. "This is the first time we held auditions and aside from the core, we're using all Chicago actors."

This freshness appeals to Laird. He points to Elgin's burgeoning art's community as a catalyst for change.

"If we can step up our game, another company will see it and go, we should push ourselves," he said. "Because we don't ever want to get stagnant."

In the pursuit of "freshness," the company has launched a Web site at www.nothingspecialproductions.com. Apart from the usual basic information, the site also offers comical trailers, which were written and produced by the group.

The trailers aren't connected to the current play, but aim to be entertaining on their own.

"We take a couple of stabs at Elgin, but in a fun way," said Cardiff. However, the cast emphasizes that any digs at their home city are all in fun.

"We really, really love being in Elgin because it seems like every year there are more and more theater companies,"

Still, Chicago is on their radar, as it is for most area artists.

"I would love to bring this show to Chicago," said Cardiff. "We're really trying to find people who like what we do and would be interested in sponsoring us because it's a lot more expensive to put up a show in Chicago.

"The awesome thing about this show, now that show has been done here, is that it's up and ready to go so theoretically, all we'd have to do is pay for rent," Cardiff said. "So we're looking at either this fall or next summer to do a six- to eight-week run in Chicago if we feel we are up to it."

"We started the company to do what we wanted to do, so Chicago would be cool. Elgin is cool if we can keep getting bigger audiences," Laird added.

More and more so, that is the case. When the company recently put on "A Midsummer Night's Dream," some shows were standing room only. Audiences stood behind the risers to watch NSP strut its stuff.

"There is very little better feeling than announcing, 'we're holding the show so we can make more standing room,'" Rohde said.

Proceeds from "True Accounts of Maddening Fiction" will benefit the Laura Twirls Suicide Prevention Foundation, a recently formed organization in honor of Twirls, a dancer with the Chicago company Dance Crash, who recently took her own life.

<p class="factboxheadblack">If you go</p> <p class="News"><b>What:</b> "True Accounts of Maddening Fiction," a movie play by Nothing Special Productions</p> <p class="News"><b>When:</b> 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 7 and 8; 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Aug. 13-15; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 9</p> <p class="News"><b>Where:</b> The Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., Elgin</p> <p class="News"><b>Cost:</b> $15 adults, $10 seniors and students; $7 for artists/actors in the the industry with headshot or business card</p> <p class="News"><b>For tickets:</b> E-mail <a href="mailto:NSP@gmail.com">NSP@gmail.com</a> or call (847) 489-5307</p> <p class="News"><b>Info:</b> <a href="http://nothingspecialproductions.com" target="new">nothingspecialproductions.com</a></p>