WICA Presents DR. HORRIBLE, 10/15-31

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, under the leadership of Executive Director Stacie Burgua, launches its 2010-2011 Season with The Bad Horse Project featuring Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Feeling October 15 - 31, 2010.

Conceived as an "online miniseries event" during the 2008 writers' strike, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a 45-minute musical romp that bears the distinctive stamp of Joss Whedon. Billy (Dr. Horrible) video-blogs about his twin goals to join the Evil League of Evil and to woo the fair Penny, a woman he met at the local laundromat. Dr. Horrible is foiled on both fronts, however, by his arch-nemesis, the self-absorbed superhero Captain Hammer.

Faced with the task of impressing the League, can Horrible overcome his own incompetence to ruin the day, kill the hero, and still get the girl?

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is directed by Jason Dittmer (The Rocky Horror Show) with musical direction by Robert W. Prosch; and features David Mayer as Billy/Dr.Horrible, Morgan Bondelid as Penny, and Michael Morgen as Captain Hammer. The cast includes Jacob Bloom (Moist), Zachary Schneider, Jim Simpson, MichaEl Thompson (The Bad Horse Chorus), Patsy Brereton, MichaEl Thompson (Newscasters), Megan Besst, Evan Hoke, Ambria Prosch, Daniella Rose, Zachary Schneider (The Groupies), Bristol Bloom (Mayor), Cameron Baldwin, Tony Caldwell, Gwen Jones, Sophia Larson-Wickman, Jan Simpson (The Ensemble).

Penned by Buffy the Vampire series creator-producer Joss Whedon, Once More, With Feeling is a loving, loopy musical pastiche that takes potshots at everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber to alt-rock. Paralleling the show's lovable pop culture tweaking, the musical styles here (the episode's musical conceit is a curse visited upon Buffy's hometown of Sunnydale) range from a patent footlight chorus of demons being interrupted by Buffy's hard-rocking stake thrusts on "Going Through the Motions" to Spike the Vampire's goth-metal complaint "Rest in Peace," with everything from parking tickets and mustard stain removal to climactic duels with the supernatural getting the Broadway send-up.

Once More, With Feeling is conducted by Robert W. Prosch and features members of the WICA Chamber Singers: Megan Besst (Buffy), Robert W. Prosch (Sweet), Tony Caldwell (Giles/Xander), Rob Scott (Spike), Morgan Bondelid (Tara), Linda McLean (Anya), Susan Sandri (Parking Ticket Lady), Christina Parker, Kimberly Cerra (Ensemble).

Joss was born in New York City in 1964. His grandfather was a successful sitcom writer in the 1950s and '60s on "The Donna Reed Show" (1958) and "Leave it to Beaver" (1957), and his father wrote for "The Dick Cavett Show" (1968), "Alice" (1976) and "Benson" (1979).

After receiving a degree in film studies from Wesleyan University in 1987, Whedon moved to Los Angeles and landed his first writing job on the staff of "Roseanne" (1988), working as a story editor and writing several episodes of the top-rated series.  But Whedon is most well known for writing hit TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Angel," "Firefly," and "Dollhouse."

When asked why he writes these types of stories Joss has said that he created "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to be an 'alternative feminist icon'.

On October 31, 2008, Time magazine named "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" #15 in its Top 50 Inventions of 2008. "Dr. Horrible" also won the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Online Sensation", and the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. In the inaugural 2009 Streamy Awards for web television, "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" won seven awards: Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series, Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series, Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series, Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series (Harris), Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Music. It also won a 2009 Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class - Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs."

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