The End is Nigh
“The End is Nigh – And It’s a Blast” – The Arts Fuse
The End is Nigh
ABOUT THE SHOW
Tune in this week for the last show left on TV …
THE END IS NIGH
Join our host, the iconic Consuela Hobbs, and our live studio audience as three unsuspecting contestants compete for the grand prize – survival! With… The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Disease, Famine, War, and this week’s mystery guest Horseman! All accompanied the greatest last band on earth, The End Time Retches!
With physical comedy, live music, and satire, Liars and Believers’ new play asks: how do we save ourselves from our own destruction? The End is Nigh is a serious comedy for serious times.
Created by the LaB Ensemble.
CAST
Bongo Fuerte - Enrique Babilonia
Enrique Babilonia is a multi-instrumentalist and graduate of Berklee College of Music. He has performed/recorded with numerous artists like Laufey, Aida Cuevas, and the Beantones. He has performed at events such as the Cleveland Jazz Festival and Charlotte Jazz Festival. He currently maintains a busy schedule by performing with his group Enrique Jazz Co., as well as the Martha’s Vineyard wedding band Dukes of Circuit Avenue and La Diaspora Combo.
Klezmer Moskowitz - Jesse Garlick
Jesse Garlick is an artistic associate with Liars and Believers in addition to being a Boston-based actor, director and theater educator. Previous Liars and Believers credits: Yellow Bird Chase, A Story Beyond, Who Would be King, Don’t Open This. Select regional credits: The Band’s Visit (Huntington Theater Company/ Speakeasy Stage) A Christmas Carol, Journey to the West, Arcadia (Central Square Theatre) Good, Assassins (New Repertory Theatre) Hamlet, As You Like It (Brown Box Theatre Project). New York credits: Good (PTP/NYC). Directing: The Servant of Two Masters (Lanes Coven Theater Company). Jesse is the Education Director of Liars and Believers in addition to being a faculty member with the Boston Ballet. MFA: ASDS. BFA: BU.
Wellington Pancake Danforth the Fifth (Welly) - Ben Heath
Ben Heath has been an actor and fight choreographer in the Boston area for over 10 years. His work has always centered around community impact, whether that be bringing theater to underserved communities with Brown Box Theatre Project, or teaching young people and adults through a variety of organizations all over New England. Ben is thrilled to be working with Liars and Believers on this project, where he is able to bring his full creativity out to play.
Pina Collander - Karina Ithier
Karina Ithier (she/her) is an actor, writer and arts educator based in Boston! She fell in love with theater through her joy of reading- actually she would read aloud every book (including textbooks) as a youth. She graduated from Wellesley College and has an MFA in Acting from the University of Houston. Currently, she tours with L.A.B., playing the joyous goof, Bübles Harmonika in Yellow Bird Chase (L.A.B). Past credits include Mary in Pride and Prejudice (Peterborough Players), Velveteen Rabbit in The Velveteen Rabbit (Theater at Monmouth), and Theresa in Circle Mirror Transformation (Studio 208).
Jinko Bobins - Glen Moore
As an artistic ensemble member with Liars & Believers, Glen Moore was last seen in the devised production A Story Beyond at The Foundry in Cambridge. Before that he performed at the 75th Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the touring show Yellow Bird Chase. Regional Theatre credits: We Are The Land (Arts Emerson), The Last Schwartz (Gloucester Stage Company), BLINDERS (Flat Earth Theatre), The Importance of Being Earnest & Of Mice and Men (Moonbox Productions), CLOSER (Bad Habit Productions), The Time of My Life (Zeitgeist Stage Company), Speech And Debate (Curious Theatre Company Denver) New York Credits: Who Would Be King? (ArsNova/Liar and Believers), The Tempest (Seven Day Shakespeare Central Park). Glen has also worked as a theater educator, acting coach, fight captain, set builder, sound and light designer in both New England and Colorado. BFA in Acting from The University of Northern Colorado also studied at The National Theatre Conservatory. He would like to thank his friends and family for all their continued love and support. www.glenmooreactor.com
Consuela Hobbs - Hampton Richards
Born and raised in Atlanta, GA, Hampton Richards (she/her) is an actor, comedian, writer, and movement artist who hopes to inspire other Black women to live their authentic selves. Professional theatrical credits include Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Speakeasy Stage, Casey at the Bat: An All American Panto with Imaginary Beasts, CommShakes’ The Winter’s Tale, and Taming of the Shrew with Actors’ Shakespeare Project. Hampton has just received her BFA in Acting at Boston University (‘24), and also studied Physical Theatre at Accademia Dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. She is incredibly grateful for her community; to her family for always supporting her, to her friends for always pushing her, and to every person who has made her laugh.
ARTISTIC TEAM
PRODUCER - Georgia Lyman
Georgia first produced for LaB in 2018, with a newborn baby in tow. She came on board as Executive Producer in 2021. Born and raised in Boston, she is a lifelong participant in the performing arts. Georgia has worked with The Momentum Dance Series, a month long, outdoor, site specific dance festival on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Kairos Dance’s multidisciplinary Folktales, Fables & Feasts, and with the French Theater Project, a new company dedicated to bringing french theater to Boston. She served as both the first Artistic Director of TEDxCambridge and the first in-house producer for White Snake Projects, premiering two original operas. Her productions have been seen at Harvard Square’s Mayfair, with immersive spectacle theater in nightclubs, for Medicine Wheel at the historic Cyclorama and at Lawn on D. She served as the Artistic Director of Outside the Box, Boston’s largest interdisciplinary outdoor performing arts festival, where she presented over 2000 individual artists over 3 years. She sits on the board of the Boston History Company and NECCA. She is sometimes also an actor, and has a love of festivals and oatmeal molasses bread.
DIRECTOR - Jason Slavick
Jason Slavick is the Artistic Director of Liars & Believers. He is a director, writer and educator. For LaB, he directed Don’t Open This, A Story Beyond, Who Would Be King, Yellow Bird Chase, and ICARUS, which premiered in Cambridge, played Outside The Box in Boston and made an acclaimed New York debut at the 2013 New York Musical Theatre Festival (honorable mention for book and design). Jason directed 28 Seeds, which LaB created in collaboration with Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys. He also directed, Song of Songs: a LoveRomp, and Le Cabaret Grimm: a punk cabaret fairy tale {sans fairies}, which premiered in Boston and played at the 2012 New York Musical Theatre Festival (best featured performer and best design, honorable mention for choreography). Jason also directed the LAB’s experimental coLABs, Talk to Strangers and Irresistible. Elsewhere, Jason wrote and directed Heaven & Hell: The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins, a musical commissioned by The Boston Conservatory. As a company member of Boston Theatre Works, Jason directed Othello (Elliot Norton Award nominated for Best Production and Best Actor), The Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra, and Macbeth. He directed Emily Mann’s critically acclaimed Meshugah, Olga Humphrey’s Veronika Vavoom Volcanologist, and his own play J: a one-act improvised tragi-comedy. He also directed numerous developmental workshops and readings including Joyce Carol Oates’ The Tattooed Girl. Jason has directed throughout New England, in Tel Aviv, and in Philadelphia. Besides the shows above, Jason has written and directed The Golem, Icaphish, and Alice: a Grotesque Turn in Twelve Scenes. Jason has taught at colleges and schools throughout New England. He earned his MFA in directing from The Trinity Repertory Conservatory in Providence, where he was awarded the inaugural Pell Scholar Award. There he had the great fortune to work with Oskar Eustis, Brian Kulick, and Kevin Moriarity. Jason also studied at the Dell Arte International School of Physical Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill National Theatre Institute, and the Warsaw Theatre Academy in Warsaw, Poland.
ART DIRECTOR & SCENIC DESIGN - Rebecca Lehrhoff
Rebecca Lehrhoff is a Boston area theater, visual and teaching artist who creates dynamic and inspiring worlds for play to happen within. Her work ranges from scenic design, installation art and painting to acting, devising, puppetry and clown. As a LAB Artistic Associate Rebecca’s work includes, A Story Beyond – A Musical Fable, Yellow Bird Chase, MacBeth (Pandemic Play), Irresistible, Beowulf (In collaboration with Poets’ Theatre), Who Would Be King, and Interference. Rebecca is an actor and writer for the interactive puppet series Cozy Corner where plays the roles of Trudy and Professor Lumens. She has worked with many Boston area theater companies as both an actor and scenic designer including: Imaginary Beasts, Flat Earth Theater, Fresh Ink Theater, Off The Grid Theater Company, Poets’ Theatre, Chimera Lab Dance Theater, Bad Habit Productions and Titanic Theater Company. Rebecca received her MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University and a BA in theater from Skidmore College.
LIGHTING DESIGNER - PJ Strachman
PJ Strachman previous designs for L.A.B.: A Story Beyond and Yellow Bird Chase. Other recent designs include Blue Spruce’s Pandora and The OK Diaries; Umbrella Arts’ Full Monty. PJ is also the regular designer for Merrimack College, Gordon College, and Gann Academy, as well as designing for several other area colleges, high schools, and middle schools. PJ is also the coproducer/lyricist at Blue Spruce Theatre.
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR & WRITER - Rachel Wiese
Rachel Wiese is an actor, divisor, director, dancer, and puppeteer. Her work as a LAB Artistic Associate includes A Story Beyond – A Musical Fable, Yellow Bird Chase, MacBeth (Pandemic Play), Irresistible, Beowulf (In collaboration with Poets’ Theatre), and Who Would Be King. Other local works include a one woman show, Walking Toward America, and Light on a Dark Winter’s Night with Heart Forward in Worcester, and the touring short, Be Clean. Regional credits include: Metamorphoses, and Wildflowers (Zach Theatre), Lifelines and Hometeam (Vetworks), Sacred Space Redux, Circle the Wagons, and A Streetcar Straight to Hell (The Exchange Artists), Frankenstein, The Jungle, and The Head (Trouble Puppet Theatre), Marvelous Things, and People Will Talk About You Sometimes (Poison Apple Initiative), Oceana (The Vortex). Rachel lives in Princeton, MA and teaches in the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Worcester State University.
SOUND DESIGNER - Matan Rubinstein
Matan Rubinstein is a composer, pianist, electronic musician and sound designer, active in a variety of contexts and modalities: from concert works for orchestra and chamber groups, to Jazz and other forms of improvised music, to Acousmatic music from speakers. Many of his works are a result of collaborative efforts, making music for dance, theater, film, television, art installation and interactive media.
As a pianist, Matan has shared stages, toured and recorded with people from a wide array of practice and style: from contemporary concert music chamber music to Rhythm And Blues; from improvising with members of Chicago’s AACM to New York’s Downtown scene.
Originally from Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine, Matan has lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY and Madison, WI, where he received a doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin in music composition, and now lives in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, and is Associate Professor of music at Emerson College in Boston.
http://ma-ru.bandcamp.com
COSTUME DESIGNER - Kristen Connolly
Kristen Connolly is delighted to be working with LAB for the first time as costume designer on The End is Nigh. She is an MA native and graduate of Mass. College of Art. Previous credits include costume designer for White Snake Productions’ Monkey: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable and Lowell House Opera’s Le Comte Ory. Kristen would like to thank her husband, Nic, for his support and all of her friends who saved their trash for her.
ASSISTANT PROP DESIGN AND FABRICATION - Sophia Nora Giordano
Sophia Nora Giordano is an independent artist in the Boston area. She has previously worked with LaB as shadow puppet designer and assistant stage manager for Don’t Open This. Other credits include stage & production manager for several Winter (and non-Winter) Pantos and several other pieces by imaginary beasts; shadow puppet designer with Rebecca Lerhoff for Luz y Leyendas (the Spectacle Collective), and producer for the Boston Arm Wrestling Dames’ tournaments.
VIOLENCE DESIGNER - Ben Heath
Ben Heath has been a fight choreographer/violence designer for over 10 years in the Boston area and beyond. He fell in with stage combat in college and sees it as a form of physical theater where every slap, punch, and sword thrust is a line of dialogue. He is excited to work with LaB again after designing and performing many of the fights in their last show Don’t Open This.
Stage Manager - Kenzie Wright
Kenzie Wright is excited to be working on The End is Nigh in addition to touring Yellow Bird Chase with Liars & Believers. Recent Boston credits include Bluebeard (Boston Lyric Opera), Life of Pi (American Repertory Theater), and can i touch it? (Company One). Wright is a purveyor of high art in many forms, and sharing belly laughs with friends and is pleased to share some of that with L&B audiences.
Director's Note
“The storyteller and poet of our time, as in any other time, must be an entertainer of the spirit in the full sense of the word…. Nevertheless, it is also true that the serious writer of our time must be deeply concerned about the problems of his generation…. Strange as these words may sound, I often play with the idea that when all the social theories collapse and wars and revolutions leave humanity in utter gloom, the poet – whom Plato banned from his Republic – may rise up to save us all.”
-Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1978 receiving his Nobel Prize for Literature
I’ve been asked why – and how – we make a comedy about the end of the world.
First and foremost, our job is to entertain you the audience. Perhaps you laugh. Perhaps you cry. Perhaps you writhe in something in-between or both. But you should walk out having felt something and enjoyed your time. That’s the bare minimum – you should have fun.
But in times of crisis, I believe our job is much more. I believe that we, artists, have the responsibility to speak truth about our shared world. But we also have to leave you better than you were when you first put yourself in our hands. It’s not enough to point at how bad things are and say, “look how bad things are!” We have to take you somewhere, transport you to a better place, so when you walk out of the theatre you have a stronger or brighter view of the world.
Sometimes it’s enough to relieve the gloom, to help you forget your troubles. But not right now. I believe that now is the time to make changes. Or at least point toward a better path forward. When you come to a play, you share with us your most precious resources: your time and your attention. And in return, we owe you a better world.
LaB uses silliness to get close to what is truly terrifying. Laughter unlocks courage and clarity. With absurdity, clowns, songs, and nonsense we hold hands and look at the world square in the face. And hopefully, especially with our clowns, we can find something kind and compassionate.
I hope that together we can find a better path forward.
– Jason
Press
“[A] ray of hope that cuts through the miasma of hatred and despair.” – New England Theater Mirror
“[A] sustained, controlled explosion of color, movement, and sound, hijinks, jokes… acrobatics, and mime.” – The Arts Fuse
“[Out] of the gunk and grime of apocalyptic horror, the ensemble finds a sliver of humanity, reminding us that a way forward is possible.” – New England Theatre Geek
Deep Cut
Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes was a British philosopher who lived 1588–1679. His major work, Leviathan, was written during the English Civil War and published in 1651.
Summary of Fundamental Ideas (XIII & XIV)
According to Hobbes, in the state of nature, we can take anything, without limit – including each other’s property, families, and bodies. “May I?” is irrelevant. There is only “Can I?” Justice does not exist. Right and wrong do not exist. Need, desire, and power are the only rules.
In such a state, society is impossible. War and death are constant. Agriculture, architecture, commerce, science, and art are all impossible. Each individual lives constantly in fear, and as Hobbes writes, life is “solitary, poor, nasty brutish, and short.”
For Hobbes, only a sovereign with an overwhelming power to impose their will can enforce order and make people stop killing each other. However, there is no inherent check on the sovereign’s power. The sovereign makes the law and is above the law.