The Catastrophic Theatre Presents THEY DO NOT MOVE By Brian Jucha With The Catastrophic Ensemble

The Catastrophic Theatre has announced the second production of its 2022-23 season, celebrating 30 years of making avant-garde theatre in Houston.

Using found text, music, stylized physicality, and an abundance of pop culture references, They Do Not Move winds its way through an imagined American future in which democracy has been defeated and a disorganized band of vagrants, waifs, and strays are hunted by monarchist forces. Their only defense? An expressionist cavalcade of song and dance. There will be a beauty pageant. There will be a sitcom. There will be conversion therapy. Horror movies, cancel culture, and Texas law feature prominently in this oddly moving, frenetically funny love letter to the city, a devised dance-theatre piece that could only come from the mind of Brian Jucha. Like each of his works, They Do Not Move is sublimely derivative and apropos of everything.

Jucha previously collaborated with IBP and Catastrophic to create Last Rites (1997), We Have Some Planes (2002), and Toast (2019). In its cover story, American Theatre magazine called We Have Some Planes "darkly hilarious and compelling... like the best of remembered dreams" and said, "Jucha and the extraordinary Infernal Bridegroom company have given us a way to open our eyes."

They Do Not Move is directed by Brian Jucha and features actors Noel Bowers, Amy Bruce, Tamarie Cooper, Dillon Dewitt, Karina Pal Montaño-Bowers, Gabriel Regojo, Stoo, and Kyle Sturdivant. Cellist Evan Leslie will also be performing. Lighting Design is provided by longtime Jucha collaborator, Roma Flowers. The Costume Designer is Leah Smith and Sound Design/Lighting Assistant is Andrew Archer. Lauren Davis provides the Prop Design and Scott Lupton serves as Production Stage Manager.

They Do Not Move runs November 18-December 10, 2022, at the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH). Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased at matchouston.org or by calling the MATCH box office at 713-521-4533. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Special Monday performance on November 28th at 7:30pm (No performance Saturday, December 3rd.) Tickets to all performances are Pay-What-You-Can. This production contains mature subject matter and is not recommended for children under 13.

Brian Jucha has created original interdisciplinary theater works for over 25 years. He last worked with Catastrophic in 2019 to create a new work called TOAST.

Jucha's greatest personal triumph came in collaboration with the company of actors of INFERNAL BRIDEGROOM PRODUCTIONS with WE HAVE SOME PLANES. Less then 6 months after September 11 - the New York artist used the verbatim transcripts from the morning of 9/11 between the cockpits and pilots of the four planes that crashed that day and the air traffic controllers along the east coast corridor as the basis of a new work. Performed underneath a looming bright red digital clock that ticked away the 75 minutes leading up to the disaster - with the text delivered in real time - Jucha and IBP broke all expectations for audiences and critics and delivered a groundbreaking theatrical experience that did not address the tragedies of that day as much as it created an emotional rollercoaster ride that examined the world in which we lived in - a world that would never quite be the same. WE HAVE SOME PLANES received critical rave reviews, standing ovations and landed both Jucha and Infernal Bridegroom on the cover of American Theatre magazine.

Jucha gained a reputation as an established 'traditional' director helming the reins of plays and musicals such as Stephen Belber's TAPE, Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses and BAT BOY The Musical. He was more widely known for collaborating closely with ensembles of actors to create original pieces. His own now defunct New York-based Via Theater were constant producers in the downtown NYC performance landscape in the 90's presenting 2 to 3 original works a year to consistent rave reviews from The New York Times.

He is a theater artist who is not a playwright. He relies as heavily on stylized movement as he does on spoken text. His singular performance style is always visually arresting, engaging, and entertaining.

The performances - conceived by Jucha - working closer with actors - have ranged from performance/dance to adaptations of plays to original rock operas, to theater of the absurd collages using current events, texts from found sources (court trials, newspaper articles, self-help books); kaleidoscopes of music, sound and soaring singing; and always a technically proficient array of imagery and movement.

All of Jucha's productions have developed out of a life's work studying VIEWPOINTS. Many artists have utilized the benefits of Viewpoints training over the last 2 decades, Jucha is one of the few who was part of the original conception, having worked with both its creators dancer/choreographer Mary Overlie and Anne Bogart who adapted its use towards theater

Formed in 2007 by Jason Nodler and Tamarie Cooper, The Catastrophic Theatre is Houston's premier creator and producer of new work for the theatre. Catastrophic's original work and innovative partnerships have drawn acclaim in local, national, and international theatre, music, literary, visual art, and even sports publications, including American Theatre, The New York Times, USA Today, The New Yorker, Theatre Journal, and Art in America, helping to bring global attention to Houston's impressive art scene. The Catastrophic Theatre offers Houston audiences a repertoire of challenging, innovative work that can't be seen anywhere else in the country.

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