Due to inclement weather in Detroit, this event has been POSTPONED. New date in October TBA.
Based on urban legends, mythology and the year 1966, when many UFO sightings were seen across the skies of America, Cary Loren and Tom Carey's The Legend of Mothman brings the details of alien existence to light, projecting them into a humorous fantasy, mixed with pop-culture lore, and set during Halloween in post-industrial Detroit.
The adventure begins inside the time-tunnel/shadow screen, where interplanetary visitors and the ghosts of Criswell, Tor, witches, devils, gnomes, thrill seeking teenagers and creatures of the night roam the physical world – and a final decision to save earth or hell lies in the balance.
Scary sounds ooze out of the speakers while silhouettes of space monsters flicker on the screen. Recommended for fans of disco lights, fake fur, latex monster masks, and noise putty. Fasten your seatbelts for a wild trip!
The play was written and directed by Cary Loren, a founding member of Destroy All Monsters, and the puppets created by artist Tom Carey. Public radio announcer Rob St. Mary performs the voices of all characters. A stage set of ‘Alien Tombstones’ and costumes were made by artist/musician Jimbo Easter. Music and sound effects are provided by Monster Island, a concept band that includes; Jimbo Easter (percussion, FX), Cary Loren (vocals, moog) and Matthew Smith (sitar/guitar).
Recommended for family members ages 7 years and up. Tickets for children under 16 are $7.
Cary Loren’s writing career began with self-published art zines in the 1970s. Loren has published one obscure novella in Dutch, poetry (as lyricist for Destroy All Monsters and Monster Island) and maintains a blog where he posts essays on the arts. His works in progress include a book-length study of the Detroit Artists Workshop and biographical text for a photography book on Leni Sinclair. His interests lie in regional histories, collage and the fragmentation and collision of culture and politics. Occasionally, Loren makes zines, videos, music and art. Together with his wife Colleen Kammer, Loren runs The Book Beat, an independent bookstore in Oak Park, Michigan where he facilitates a discussion group on world literature.
Tom Carey was born and raised in Detroit MI. He spent the 1990’s destroying his hearing at basement punk shows and studying painting at Wayne State in Detroit, then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia PA. After experiencing a moment of great lucidity while drinking with a group of Radical Mummers on the banks of the Schuykill River, he moved his young family back to Michigan in 2003. He was able to obtain a secure job with benefits at the Stooges Wax Museum in Ann Arbor and have been residing in that fair city since 2005. The great mid-western magus Cary Loren asked him to create shadow puppets for a live presentation of Loren’s double LP ‘Children of Mu’ in the summer of 2008. Carey immediately became smitten with the medium and have since created a number of live performances and videos utilizing shadow puppets, and light projections created with two overhead projectors. He also continues to produce drawings, relief prints, and artist’s books that have been shown in galleries since 2000. His dream project is to do an all night shadow puppet play based on Maya Deren’s ‘Divine Horsemen’ at the Belle Isle Casino with music by Griot Galaxy.