The Neo-Futurists to Present TRUST US/SCREW YOU

Slip in the snake oil of Trust Us/Screw You which opens Monday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland.

Trust us this evening as we distract you to the best of our ability, performing (with musical accompaniment) certain histories, mechanisms, techniques, and terminologies laid down by the American Confidence Man and performed in the spirit of the great American tradition, with larceny in our hearts and a simple guarantee that with your assistance, we may or may not screw you.

You can't con an honest man... But honest men don't go to the theatre. Only degenerates who pay to be lied to. Join The Neo-Futurists as they convert their theatre into a cabaret of social experiments, exploring the history and mechanics of confidence games traveling from the lovable Grifters of the 1920's to the stock market swindlers of today. Using personal narrative, dance and deception, games of chance and a live band, this two man show looks at the past to better understand the present. Come with a dollar and you may just leave with two.

Dan Kerr-Hobert and Phil Ridarelli state, "We knew that if we were going to do a show about con men, we'd have to do our best to screw over the audience. That's been our goal since day one, and hopefully we can pull it off in a way that the audience won't go home hating us. Honestly, the hardest part so far has been trying to decide who gets to be Robert Redford and who gets to be Paul Newman."

Dan Kerr-Hobert (Creator) is an ensemble member of The Neo-Futurists and Blair Thomas and Company. As a director, writer, deviser, performer, and freelance puppet designer, his work has been seen throughout the United States. He's directed, designed and performed with the Neo-Futurists on such shows as Beer, Crisis: the Musical Gameshow, Mr Fluxus, The Strange and Terrible True Tale of Pinocchio (The Wooden Boy) as told by Frankenstein's Monster (The Wretched Creature).

and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. He works as an adjunct professor of acting at The Theatre School at DePaul University and an Artist-In-Residence at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Phil Ridarelli (Creator) has been a Neo-Futurist for a very long time and has written thousands of short plays. Before he was a Neo-Futurist, he graduated from The Theatre School at DePaul. He's worked at a bunch of theatres in and around Chicago including Stage Left, Lifeline, Madison Rep, Victory Gardens, Lookingglass, American Theatre Company, Next and Northlight, where he appeared in the World Premier of Lonely Planet directed by the playwright Steven Dietz, and more recently in The Odd Couple. There was also this one time when he appeared in the European Premiere of Edward Albee's The Goat; or Who Is Sylvia at Vienna's English Theatre, directed by Pam MacKinnon, but he had to come home early because he broke his ankle running for a bus. He's been in lots of commercials and feature films including Mr. 3000, The Road to Perdition, The Last Rites of Joe May, and lots of TV shows with the word "Chicago" in the title.

The cast of Trust Us/Screw You includes: John Szymanski (Composer/Musical Director/Musician) who has worked with Lifeline Theatre, Whiskey Rebellion and with The Neo-Futurists on shows including The Sovereign Statement and Crisis: A Musical Game Show; Curtis Williams (Musician) who is a company member with Barrel of Monkeys has worked with The Neo-Futurists on Beer, Crisis: A Musical Game Show and 44 Plays for 44 Presidents; and Alisa "Plucky" Rosenthal (Musician) who specializes in vaudeville and has performed in the Chicago Women's Funny Festival, the Twin Cities Jewish Humor Festival and the Andy Kaufman Awards.

The Trust Us/Screw You staff includes: John Kelly (Lighting Designer), Jason Myer (Sound Designer), Archer Curry (Properties Designer), Lizi Breit (Fabricator), Cody Ryan (Video Engineer), Chris Wooten (Technical Director), Victoria R. Golden (Production Manager), Krista Mickelson (Asst. Production Manager) and Spencer Meeks and Eric Ruelle (Run Crew/Performance Interns). Kate Hardiman and Hannah Schupbach serve as Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager respectively.