The Play
For the past several years, OnSite Theatre has introduced St. Louis to site-specific theatre. That is, theatre created for, and produced in, a specific space. For example, OnSite has presented plays about bowling at a bowling alley, about photographers and studio life at a photography studio, about a tragic eccentric family led by a mad-scientist father in a classic landed mansion, and about travelers and innkeepers in the spirit of Huck Finn at a Mississippi River hostel. In the Spring of 2009, they were planning a production at the new Craft Alliance Gallery space in Grand Center, St. Louis. It would be set in an unusual art exhibit – “Locusts and Honey” – by Jennifer Angus, an exhibit featuring beautiful wallpaper-like design comprised of real (now passed on) bugs.OnSite conducted a playwriting contest for the original play to be written around the site and the exhibit. OnSite requested a small cast, with an hour length (they presented the play twice each evening.)
Joe Hanrahan had acted with OnSite, understood and appreciated the site-specific genre. (His own Midnight Company theatre group had presented most of their work in unusual spaces, many of them very specific to the play.) His script was chosen by OnSite, and script refinements and rehearsals commenced soon after. Anna Pileggi directed, and cast Margeau Steinau, Andy Neiman and Sarah Cannon. The play, the plot was simple. As an audience member, you had some time in the gallery to view Jennifer Angus’ work. Then someone talked to you; about the art, about bugs, about bugs in art, in film – a fellow, chatty, artsy gallery visitor. Then she starts talking to someone else – a young, introspective man. Then they both confront an angry young woman who seems to be looking for something – or somebody at the gallery. We follow them (literally) and their train of thought about bugs, art, bug sex, relationships (human), cinema and pan-asian cuisine. The production proved to be a very pleasant way to spend an hour on a weekend evening. Craft Alliance Gallery (and the bugs) were beautiful, and the cast expertly “exhibited” and revealed their character and led the audience from the exhibit down to the artists’ spaces and back out again. Critical response, elsewhere on this site, was positive as well.

The Film
With his Midnight Company group, Joe Hanrahan had worked steadily on extending his company’s original stage work into film and other media. Two of Hanrahan’s Midnight scripts had been produced as KDHX radio dramas, most of his scripts had been filmed in performance and beyond with an eye towards eventual production, and he’d consistently employed video trailers as marketing tools for Midnight shows. But a filmed site-specific play is not a filmed stage-bound play. Like EXHIBIT, it often happens in real time, in a real place (much like a movie.) Hanrahan decided to move toward production. And not a filmed live performance, but a movie. Timing was key, since the art exhibit would only be up for a few more weeks after the show closed. But everyone involved was up to make it happen. OnSite and Craft Alliance liked the idea,(as did Jennifer Angus). The cast liked the idea (and juggled their busy teaching and theatre rehearsals to accommodate shooting.) And Hanrahan recruited Mike Sneden to direct, who gathered a top-notch crew around him. Sneden’s Arbor Group, OnSite and Midnight were co-producers. The film followed the basic stage directions of Anna Pileggi (which were pretty fluid to begin with, to accommodate the audience they were acting to, in and around). Mike Sneden interpreted and directed for film. Hanrahan’s initial fantasy was to get this to feature film length. That would have been pushing it. But the crew and cast re-gathered a few weeks later for additional shooting. Hanrahan realized an introduction wasneeded for the film, not necessary for a stage audience who know where they’re going and what they’re seeing. The introduction set up the characters and the exhibit they were headed to. Post-production was a steady process, which ended with a rush aimed at entry into the 2010 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. Editing was done at Arbor’s sister New World Post. Original music came from Fojammi. And Jim MacMorran expertly mixed and finished sound.