Burying Mom Press

Top 10 Returnees - Burying Mom - Shantz Theatre

category: Top 10 - 2006 Returnees Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 11:33 AM

One of the best arguments that "funny" is genetic would be this year's Fringe Festival. In addition to the Scrimshaws, Joseph and Joshua, we also have the Fotis (Fotises? Foti?), uh, the Fotis brothers, Matt and Mike, all of whom have their own shows they're bringing to the festival.

More on Mike Fotis in just a bit.

Right now, let's touch base with Matt Fotis and his Shantz Theater - www.shantztheatre.com (formerly of Minneapolis, now in Chicago, and touring the Fringe circuit this summer - they hit Iowa next week, follow it up with our Fringe, then go to the Indy Fringe (Indianapolis, IN), and wrap it up by bringing the show home to Chicago)

What show, you ask?

Why, that would be Burying Mom

(and yes, I'll be trying to schedule it so my mom can see it. We are nothing if not perverse)

Shantz's Fringe show last year, A Year In The Life of 25 Strangers Living In A City By The Lake, landed in my Top 10 on the virtues of the script, which I liked a great deal - funny, strange, oddly sweet, and a bit of a brain-twister besides.

So, good writing also seems to be genetic. See all four men above yet again.

Back in May, Matt dropped me an email that says it all much better than I could (and more entertainingly, of course). So, here's a little bit of Matt...

They jokingly put in a fake title in for the Fringe lottery

Joe Bozic Is A Horrible Person

[Editor's Note - Just in case you're not up on your improv performers (there was a sad, lonely time when I wasn't), Joe is one half of the comedy duo Ferrari McSpeedy with Matt's brother Mike Fotis.]

Not surprisingly, this title changed. Matt said...

"Unfortunately Joe Bozic's lawyers shut down our original production, so we had to come up with something else. I tell you, Bozic's people are worse than Mamet's."

About Burying Mom --

"In the latest dark comedy from Matt Fotis a young man is forced to negotiate the many layers of his relationship with his dead mother... or he can just bury her in the backyard.

The play follows Paul Morgan on his quest to literally and figuratively bury his mother six years after her death (she was cremated, so it isn't so weird). It jumps between the present and past, and in each scene Paul is confronted by a different woman - some familiar, some not - that each represent a different aspect of his mother."

**Why should folks come see what you're doing?**

"Who wouldn't want to see the less successful Fotis brother? Oh, and our last production was recommended by Midwestbusiness.com...yeah, you read that right. It was also recommended by the Chicago Tribune, for whatever that's worth."

**Why this particular creation - where did it come from...?**

"Like any good Fringe show, the seeds came from desperation.

I had nothing written or in mind when I applied, so naturally I applied to two other fringes and set up a performance in Chicago.

So with four cities demanding a play, well, really just my parents, but if they are going to drive all that way I guess I should at least sit down and write something for them... like a play about them being dead... so I got to work.

I guess the idea for the play came from my father, who was diagnosed with Lymphoma this winter (don't worry, he's fine now).

Of course something like that gets you thinking about your parents' mortality (and your own, but I always think about that so Dad gets no credit).

When he was diagnosed my parents instantly began preparing for my Dad's funeral, so I kind of got cast in the role of "maybe he won't die." Since I make fun of everything, I tried to lighten the mood a bit.

When I sat down to write the play, I didn't really want to write some sad heavy piece about an estranged son finally coming to grips with his mother, there will be five other fringe shows that do that.

[Editor's note - I'm tempted to check]

I wanted it to be funny. I wanted to inject the play with the kind of dark comedy that can only come from somebody being dead, or dying. I wanted the feeling of some of the moments that we shared to be in the play, you know, the one's where other people look at you and say 'How could he say that to his dying father? What a monster!'

It certainly isn't rolling in the aisles funny, you know, it isn't the same type of humor that say would be in my brother's show, but the underlying tone of the play is humorous.

The sadness is inherent, so I didn't really feel like that needed to be enhanced at all, you know, it's just there in the situation... mom dead = sad.

But there's also a large part of me that thinks... mom dead = kind of funny in it's own sick way.

I guess what I'm getting at is I don't want people coming to this show expecting some kind of cathartic sob fest. I think one of the underlying messages of the play is that grief is different to everyone. We've been trained to grieve one way, and if we don't everyone thinks there's something wrong with us. You know in the movies when the husband doesn't cry enough at the wife's funeral it always turns out that he killed her?

I think that grieving is such an individual experience, but it usually plays out in a communal way (and there is definitely a power of community in grieving, I'm not saying that) that there is often this tension between our feelings and what we feel obliged to project.

Unfortunately I've had plenty of experience with death in the last few years, and each time I've felt like my personal connection with each person was in some small way violated by the expectations of others. It's like, we all have unique relationships with people, but we are expected to grieve in a uniform way.

That's all lies, I just want my 65% cut of the door."

**Why did you decide to enter the Fringe/what draws you to the Fringe?**

"As I've said in the past, the Fringe is like the last bastion of independent theatre.

During the year, there's such a cut throat nature to theatre that kind of takes the fun away. There is always the possibility that this is your last show; if not enough people come, if you get a bad review (if you're lucky enough to get any press at all), if you make one bad decision it could all end. That's a lot of pressure to put on something that is supposed to be a creative expression. Money comes to rear its head in almost every decision we make during the year, from casting, to sets, to the plays we chose.

At the Fringe there is a sense of even if I fail I'm not finished, and that is such a freeing feeling. It's like those middle aged men who can finally go biking and drink water without worrying about having to go to the bathroom every ten minutes - road trip! You know what, if twenty people come to this show and they all hate it, my feelings will be hurt and my artistic ego will be bruised, but my company won't be ruined. I can come back next year. If the same thing happens in Chicago during the year, that's it, we're finished. It's just such a great feeling to see the manifestation of a community, and to feel that spirit for ten days."

**What sets your show apart from the other 150 or so coming down the pike?**

"It's the only show that I'm in, and it is sure to be the least self-indulgent show featuring a Fotis.

Just kidding, Mike.

Seriously though..."

**What's your process like, pulling the show together?**

"Honestly this has been the most difficult show that I've ever written. Not necessarily on an emotional level (because writing about dead mothers is something I do everyday), although that was part of it - you know, whenever you go down the dead mom path you want to make sure that the play strikes the right chord; but this thing took me months to write. And that's counting the first draft I finished on Sunday, so there is still lots of work to be done. I usually crack out a first draft in a week or so and then revise it for months, but this thing just came out so slowly.

This is also the first show that just Jeanette [his partner] and I will be doing with just the two of us. We've done plenty of shows together, but this will be interesting. There's always that extra baggage that comes with sleeping in the same bed as your fellow actor. We start rehearsals in ten days, so there will be more to come!"

Honestly, whenever I get an email from Matt Fotis about a Shantz show, my writer solidarity kicks in big-time. I completely relate to the things he says about his creative process, and he says them in a much funnier way than I could ever come up with. That, plus the fact I had a good time at last year's show, and I'm curious about this very different production, boots them up toward the top of things to shuffle into my schedule (and hopefully Mom's, too. After all, her name's in the title.)

They're over at the Cedar Cultural Center. Definitely check them out.

Very highly recommended.

Single White Fringe Geek (and Mom)

Top 10 Returnees - Burying Mom - Shantz Theatre

Caitlin Does Fringe