John Michael & The Order Of The Penix

John Michael & The Order of The Penix Directed by Matt Tomlanovich (posthumously) & Grace Keller Scotch Playing... Saturday, March 21 @ 10:15 pm Sunday, March 22 @ 8:00 PM Bring Your Own Booze, Pay what you Can &< 60 minutes. STORY: Dallas monologist John Michael waves his magic wand & casts a comedy spell in this adult-themed show that's part autobiography, part cautionary tale. Dallas Observer calls him "a bright, bold new talent on the solo circuit." Critic Rant says he offers "sparkly, crinkly, luscious live theater, whisking away his audience on a special carnival ride of the imagination." WHY I CREATED THIS PLAY? "PENIX" attacks reckless behavior using elements from Harry Potter to explore shame and stigma. I wanted to address the surge of HIV/AIDS transmissions among people my age. When my activist friends would describe surviving an epidemic that most of society ignored, I felt what young Harry must have felt when he was first told of a mass-murdering wizard so fearful that people dare not say his name. I saw the parallel between the fear of saying Lord Voldemort's name and the fear of getting tested for STDS. PRESS: "You wouldn't think that a one-man show that so bluntly speaks on issues like HIV and death could be a laugh-riot, but John Michael and the Order of the Penix pulls it off. It’s a deep and serious social commentary that one would think to be incongruous served with playful pop-cultural references and Harry Potter metaphors, but you still have a heart-felt empathy the main character during every second of the performance. It’s brilliant." -NOLA Defender "It’s vulgar and highly funny, but John Michael isn’t being provocative merely for the sake of shocking. The Harry Potter metaphors go deeper to explore the idea that young gay men aren’t taking the risk of spreading HIV as seriously as generations before them. Like the boy wizard, people are occasionally reckless. Hopefully it doesn't take something like contracting HIV--or, in an unnerving story about driving after drinking, something worse--before lessons are learned." -Mark Lowry, @[NjQyMTgzOTU5MjA4MTA3Omh0dHBcYS8vVGhlYXRlcmpvbmVzLmNvbS86Og==:Theaterjones.com] ( "PENIX is pretty damn fearless. You will be agog at John Michael’s energy, his youthful talent. (He just turned 24) his bravery and his skill. This is a guy who’s going places." -Arnold Wayne Jones, The Dallas Voice ''John Michael has gleaned raves for his monologues on gay themes in the year since he finished college."-The Dallas Morning News "Every piece that emerges from his hyper-energized imagination unfolds with more clarity, originality and cohesiveness than the previous one' John Michael's work isn't derivative or imitative of anybody's." -Alexandra Bonnifield, Critic Rant "Like a Peter Pan on a Bender, he comes on with the effusive, irresistible charm of a 5-year-old, confiding secrets of the universe. You're swept up in the cyclonic force of John Michael's Psyche." -Christopher Soden, The Dallas Examiner "With his Bieber-swoop of hair, Muppet-y eyes and Julia Roberts grin, John Michael has the face of an angel. But he's a nasty little devil onstage. He can be terribly funny. But he's a nasty little devil on stage, telling stories full about pick-ups, one-night stands and STDS. ('He was the cutest boy I ever came with- not on a scree,' he says.) And, he asserts, as a grad of Dallas' exclusive Jesuit Collegiate Prep, he should be guaranteed an STD free-life: 'Jesus is my Condom.'- Elaine Liner, The Dallas Observer