BY LUCIA MAURO
Zeppo Theater Company tends to bask in the winkingly iridescent glow of
irony. After all, the nine-year-old company known for its original comedies
rooted in a self-deprecating clown sensibility is named after the unfunny
Marx Brother. But perhaps the Zeppo moniker was planted in co-founders
George Brant’s and Darren Bochat’s subconscious minds when they
performed as Chico and Groucho, respectively, in a production of Animal
Crackers at Maine South High School in Park Ridge.
Brant, who writes all of Zeppo’s material, responds with his own ironic twist when he quite accurately describes his shows as "so serious, they’re funny." Crafting hapless characters undone by their over-earnestness has become a Zeppo trademark.
Take Brant’s latest show, for instance. One Hand Clapping, which won first place in Factory Theater’s 1999 "Shut Up and Laugh" Comedy Festival, centers on a struggling actor (Brant) trying to do a one-person show about the perils of the Chicago theatre community and failing miserably. His obliviously narcissistic character is capable of eliciting our wrath and sympathy as he clumsily pleads for acceptance–especially from an actor who portrays a disgruntled critic in the audience. The remount of One Hand Clapping runs through Feb. 16 at the Athenaeum Theatre.
While Brant insists this show is not autobiographical, he does admit that his first draft of the script was written out of frustration over the challenges he encountered as an aspiring actor. He adds that Zeppo Theater Company (founded as Zeppo Productions in 1993) was born out of a similar discontent: "Not getting the roles we wanted.
"The first year out of college is a rather desolate one," continues Brant. "So I figured I would rather just write something myself and have control over the end result."
That didn’t mean Brant and his colleagues were going to create their own platform for self-indulgent shows. Instead they developed a series of clever productions illustrating Brant’s penchant for smirking and boundless irony.
Writer-actor Brant and actor Bochat–who both grew up in Park Ridge–have been friends since the eighth grade. After they received their theatre degrees (Brant from Northwestern University; Bochat from The Theatre School at DePaul University), they wanted to collaborate on an original project. Zeppo debuted with Brant’s Lovely Letters: A Correspondence of Love, a parody of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters. The two produced the show at Café Voltaire and were inspired by the critical and box office success. It then moved to Factory Theater’s Rogers Park space (now Boxer Rebellion Theatre).
"Darren and I got hooked on the feeling of having more of an input in our careers," says Brant, who is also a head writer for Bix Pix Entertainment, a claymation film company.
Since then, Zeppo has produced at least one new non-Equity production every year, including Sitcom and Ape and Chimp Show, before presenting more memorable works, like Night of the Mime (a parody of story theatre, which reimagined Old Yeller as a mime) and Three Men in a Boat, as co-productions with StreetSigns in 1996 and 1997. Also in 1997, Brant’s Tights on a Wire became a huge hit. It satirized the circus arts, with the joke being that the actors in the show were not trained to do these death-defying feats. It was a commentary on theatrical illusion.
In 1998, Zeppo struck a chord with holiday audiences when it produced A Gamboni Chrismas and has since presented an annual sarcastic Christmas revue (A Survivor! Christmas, A Chicago Cow Christmas and A Mount Rushmore Christmas!). Zeppo’s ensemble increased to about 20 members by 1999 when it premiered Brant’s hilariously overblown musical, Borglum! The Mount Rushmore Musical, which poked serious fun at America’s love affair with bombastic folk heroes.
Last year, Zeppo tackled one of its most ambitious projects to date: BrantFest!–a series of new and past Brant-penned shows, including The Royal Historian of Oz, Three Men in a Boat, Night of the Mime and Borglum!, in repertory at the Athenaeum Theatre. The playwright regarded this retrospective as a way to raise Zeppo’s profile and give audiences who may have missed these shows a chance to experience the paradoxically respectful yet irreverent Zeppo aesthetic.
Bochat considers the troupe his family. And he commends Brant, whose comedy is character rather than joke driven, for customizing roles for the ensemble.
"I really enjoy working with this group of people," says Bochat, who adds that Zeppo is interested in producing a children’s show and possibly touring. "We’re all lovers of nostalgia and vaudeville–and that’s kind of how we put up our shows. It’s not fancy, but it’s earnest and a lot of fun."
For Brant, who someday envisions broadening the company’s audience and moving into a permanent space, Zeppo deliberately does not have a carved-in-stone mission statement. It’s as simple as a group of theatre friends wanting to produce original comedies that are entertaining and have something meaningful to say.
"I also hope to legitimize comedy as a valid art form," states Brant. "Comedy always seems to be regarded as a second-tier of theatre. I think what we do is intelligent comedy — a blend of humor with a heart behind it."