THE GODDAMN TOONEY LUNES
When a group of geeky teens in backwoods New Hampshire start a punk band and accidentally attract a cult following, they struggle to balance their wayward personae with the looming pressures of adulthood…
A multimedia musical about the rise and fall of the best band you’ve never heard of!
Colt Coeur is thrilled to present a virtual workshop screening of The Goddamn Tooney Lunes: Part One (A New Musical), in partnership with Rat Queen Theatre Co. This draft of the piece acts as a collage of the characters, music and world of the story.
The project will stream May 12-22, 2022 - tickets available here.
We will also be holding a live, in-person screening event Friday, May 13th at the Wythe Hotel cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tickets available here.
History of the Work
In the spring of 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rat Queen Theatre Co began having conversations about how much change our generation has gone through, particularly in relationship to the vast and relentlessly brutal stretch of history that we’ve witnessed (9/11, the financial crisis, the opioid epidemic, etc).
We decided we wanted to create a piece about adults grappling with the distance, looking back at the past, and understanding their teenage years with a new perspective.
Our creative brainstorms throughout the summer and fall of 2020 ultimately led us to write a piece about a small town hero punk band made up of some weird teenagers that almost made it big but didn’t. This show would be about this band playing a reunion show, as adults, having to revisit their teenage punk songs through grown up eyes.
In the late fall of 2020, we worked with composer Eden Chaloemtiarana and a host of performers to create a ten-minute experiment based on these ideas. This was presented as a part of Darkroom with New Light Theater Project.
Post-Darkroom, we decided to continue pursuing this project, and Colt Coeur joined us as a producing partner. We began the virtual devising process in March 2021, gathering material for roughly 7 months. We intended to present a virtual concept album in the Fall of 2021, however after we concluded the devising process, we decided to push a little further to develop a multimedia presentation that encapsulated the first act of the Goddamn Tooney Lunes.
About the Zoom Devising process
Rehearsals were held weekly, to discuss thematic ideas, narrative possibilities, character development, and more. Performers were given prompts to respond to outside of these meetings, examples include writing and recording voicemails to other “band members”, creating a potential plot for the band’s new concept album, writing journals entries about character’s goals for the future, drawing fliers for the band’s upcoming shows, and more.
As time went on, we began to generate material in response to many of these prompts via improvisations over Zoom. Once the narrative arc of the piece was solidified, we began recording more scripted material, recording songs, and collecting images - all of which let to our creation of the multimedia presentation of the first half of the Goddamn Tooney Lunes .
Credits
Created by Rat Queen Theatre Company: Molly Bicks, Carsen Joenk, J. Mehr Kaur, and Non Kuramoto
Co-written and devised by Breezy Diabo (she/they/fairy), Violet Falkowski (she/they), Wes Garlington (they/them), Jordan Palmer (she/they), and Bonnie Jean Tyer (she/her)
Produced by J. Mehr Kaur (she/her)
Presented by Colt Coeur
Art Direction and Visual Design by Non Kuramoto (she/her)
Edited by Non Kuramoto (she/her)
Music by Eden Chaloemtiarana (he/they) and Nathan Leigh (he/him)
Lyrics by Molly Bicks and Carsen Joenk
Music Direction by Nathan Leigh (he/him)
Access Needs Coordinator/Stage Manager - Krystle Montgomery (they/them)
Gender Consultant - Briyana D. Clarel (they/them)
Assistant Stage Manager - Kate Zibluk (She/they)
CAST
Alyssa - Breezy Diabo (she/they/fairy)
Charlie - Violet Falkowski (she/they)
Max - Wesley Garlington (they/them)
Camellia - Jordan Palmer (she/they)
Holly - Bonnie Jean Tyer (she/her)
POST - PRODUCTION
Sound Editing and Design by Molly Bicks and Carsen Joenk
Mastering Engineer - Eryn Bogen (she/they)
Mixing Engineer: “Alter Egos”, “Ned the Head”, “Captured” - Chloe Deeley (she/her)
Mixing Engineer: “The Amazing Adventures of the Goddamn Tooney Lunes”, “Reunion” - Eden Chaloemtiarana (he/they)
Mixing Engineer: “Welcome To Maine” - Nathan Leigh (he/him)
ANIMATION
Music Video Animator: “Ned the Head”, “Alter Egos”, “Reunion”, and “Welcome to Maine” - Non Kuramoto (she/her)
Music Video Animator: “The Amazing Adventures of the Goddamn Tooney Lunes” - Nathan Leigh (he/him)
Music Video Animator: “Captured” - Leah Ogawa (she/her)
Title Card Animations by Leah Ogawa (she/her)
Animator: Additional Images by Amandeep Singh (he/him)
FISH CULT VIDEO
Producer - Non Kuramoto (she/her)
Director - Carsen Joenk (she/her)
Art Director - Molly Bicks (they/them)
Director of Photography - Jaewon Choi (he/him)
Performers - Hannah Burke (they/them), Aylin Eker (she/her), Sean Flanagan (he/him), Ethan Graham-Horowitz (he/him), Harrison Herreman (they/them), Anna Rock (she/her), Christina Tang (she/her)
Prop Design - Molly Bicks (they/them)
Additional Performances // Body Doubles - Cassie Khaos (any pronouns), Evan Allen (he/him/his)