Tour de Farce

The Missoula Oblongata brings DIY experimental theater to alternative venues

Unfortunately for many of the talented musicians and artists working in Baltimore’s Wham City collective, their scene is nearing (some would say has already reached) the point of over-exposure. You can’t open a music magazine or visit an arts-based Web site without coming across some new band or artist from Baltimore. “Wham-fatigue” has set in for many, causing some to gloss or skip over an act they might otherwise be interested in.

It’s important to keep in mind, however, that these musicians, artists and writers were hard at work long before the larger world ever heard of them and most will continue to create long after the fickle press has moved on to another scene. Perhaps one day people in Baltimore will be sick of reading about Knoxville. (OK, maybe that’s a stretch.)

One component of the collective you probably haven’t heard much about is The Missoula Oblongata, a theater troupe comprised of Madeline ffitch, Sarah Lowry and Donna Sellinger. Generally, theater isn’t considered as sexy, hip or aggressively self-promoting as most of the musical arts, but through its combination of experimental theater and vaudeville, MO seeks to reach some of the same audiences that turn out for live DIY shows in small clubs and alternative venues.

MO will bring their latest play, “The Last Hurrah of the Clementines,” to Knoxville with a July 21 performance at the Birdhouse. Sellinger doesn’t want to give too much away, but based upon reviews of past plays and performances, one can expect unusual sets and props, outlandish plot devices and lots of humor. The troupe is also big on audience participation, but Sellinger says that shouldn’t make wallflowers nervous.

“The words ‘audience participation’ always freak people out, and rightly so,” she says in a recent phone conversation. “But it is a live performance, not a movie. We do interact, we break the fourth wall, speak to the audience and we’re famous for giving food away. We don’t ask anybody to bear their souls or reveal their darkest secrets, but we treat them like the live human beings they are and we are.”

When asked if certain audience members have ever taken their involvement to the point of imposition, Sellinger laughs and says, “Not really. In fact, we are slowly training the audience to feel more rowdy. Other theater troupes ask us, ‘How can you rely on audience participation? Audience members are jerks.’ But we find that people are excited about what’s going on.”

MO was founded in Missoula, Mont., in 2006 by Sellinger and ffitch, both of whom later moved east to join friends active in the thriving underground arts scene in Baltimore. A collaboration with Lowry soon followed, and the troupe has since maintained a hectic schedule of performing original works at home and on the road while also hosting drama-centered community workshops and condensed, guerilla theater productions of Shakespeare plays.

Sellinger currently lives in Baltimore, the ostensible home base of MO, while ffitch attends graduate school in Amherst, Mass., and Lowry resides in Philadelphia. Sellinger and ffitch write and perform the plays, while Lowry directs but generally doesn’t tour. For this tour, the troupe will bring along musician Travis Sehorn of Pebble Light to provide live musical accompaniment written especially for the play. Sehorn will also perform in the play, which Sellinger says is unusual for MO: “Usually it’s just Madeline and me. But because of his personality, he’s playing a character.”

Touring troupes are nothing new to theater, of course, but MO’s members are a rare breed in that they take their shows to spaces that aren’t geared toward traditional theater audiences. Their already-in-progress summer tour has them performing at galleries, rock clubs, a video store and several artist co-ops, including two Victorian-homes-turned-Birdhouses in Buffalo, N.Y., and Knoxville.

“It’s important to us to be able to perform at DIY spaces; that’s who we’re making art for,” Sellinger explains. “It separates us from mainstream productions and inspires a lot during the creation process, because we have set pieces that have to be packed up and fit in a van. We wire and build our own lights, everything is portable.”