"Real Stories. Real People," Theatrical Programs Chosen by MouseMuse
The Bijou Theatre has maintained its history on the outside, but oh wow on the inside, it's tricked out to deliver entertainment, libations and a wowie experience from cabaret table or theater seats. You decide where you sit.
"I was born in a trunk/In the Princess Theatre in Pocatella, Idaho/It was during a matinee." That's Judy Garland's story in "A Star is Born." We are giving birth to stars and a start in Bridgeport, Ct. For the Bijou Theatre.
MouseMuse is proud to announce is official alliance with The Bijou Theatre www. thebijoutheatre.com We will be producing three shows in 2012 at that wonderful venue starting on September 29, with Jill Jaysen's spectacular ensemble, mostly local cast, from her exclusive, "Under the Covers, Where our Voices Have Been Hiding." That show premiered in Westport to sell-out crowds last year.
The shows that MouseMuse and The Bijou Theatre conceptualized could be called "spoken word," but in an effort to let the audience know that these shows are all true stories, riveting because they're from real life, hilarious because they're human, and poignant because they touch the core of truth in all of us, we called it something other than STORYTELLING—our flagship shows are more like the "Moth." People get up and they tell it like it is. Yes, we do make sure the telling is not offensive, takes ten minutes or less, but those shows are never repeated nor can they really travel. They're in the moment. They're reality TV in a refined form, for your life. Certainly not the Karsdashians, (unless you want to fess up?).
These shows are entities that we bring in from outside, that have been constructed from reality and had proven stage-worthy.
The shows are, at this point, performed and acted by the authors themselves. Some have required inspired direction, such as Jill Jaysen's "Under the Covers Where Our Voices Have Been Hiding,"
It is a highwire act of innovative entertainment that's very different from our flagship unrehearsed but Ina and Bill vetted for excitement and entertainment programs.
Our first three shows are fully fleshed out pieces that you might see at a fringe festival or at other classical stage venues that handle more than conventional on-script performances.
Keep looking for what's coming up on our partners page and events pages. Summer ends tomorrow and welcome to the next season of expanding programming for MouseMuse Productions.
Leave Town & Country for an Evening
Repost with addendum. We have been playing to capacity at TWO BOOTS of BRIDGEPORT. Now, coming, other programs using real life experiences as their core. http://thebijoutheatre.com/blog/
MAY 23, 2012
Today is an important day for Mousemuse. We are hitting the streets of Bridgeport's ambitious revival district at Bijou Square. Once upon a time, Manhattanhites winced about attending cutting edge arts events in what was called "alphabet city." Now, they have to lineup for tickets to cutting edge entertainment or theater that doesn't cost $175 a ticket like Broadway, but is just as thought provoking.
Yes, in Westport we've embraced the arts. But the emerging artists have little or no center to simply gather. Restaurants are sprouting again in Westport. Gorgeous women and magazine men. Good hype and vibe at the Spotted Horse late at night. Then where to? A rock band at the Duck? Maybe. A little upstairs music at a couple of places. Jazz Jam at WAC in folding chairs with a plastic glass of wine? No ambience, but sometimes exciting if you could walk there and feel the "club" vibe.
But how about a little culture? Are the art galleries planning to stay open. Is our town Madison Avenue? Is Westport ever going to properly develop a venue with a stage. Town Hall has the auditorium, and a black box theater that's privately run, but budget constraints are real as Westport focuses in on our gem of an educational system.
How did Brooklyn and SoHo and Alphabet City develop into vibrant places? Cheap real estate and someone with vision. Lots of someones. Youth could afford to live there and work there. Later they'd move out to the burbs and wonder why they felt "dead."
We are so insular we've forgotten to look a few (metaphoric) blocks up the road. That's where Bridgeport has, for the past ten years, been quietly putting its future in the hands of artistic visionaries like Phil Kuchma. The Kuchma Corporation has put its money and passion behind the redevelopment of Bijou Square. Kuchma and MouseMuse are meeting on Friday, May 25th. MouseMuse and Kuchma's team are heading into a momentous time. If you stop thinking of Bridgeport as if it is Hell's Kitchen, (and you know that Hell's Kitchen is now unaffordable) you will realize that it's a city much closer to you than New York, some of the best places like Two Boots and the Bijou were recruited by Kuchma to start up a quality arts community. It's an opportunity for our fans to not only dine out with the swells, but an opportunity to get real, and to generate ideas.
