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Finding
Their Inner Geeks Meet David Nadelberg, TV writer and creator of Mortified-- a show in which performers read their worst poems, song lyrics and thoughts, directly from their teenage diaries. The result is a comic cringe-fest, a circus of self-indulgence, now accepting auditions for upcoming shows, "scattered" throughout the year and around town. "You hear a lot of laughter, but you also hear a lot of groans. It's like watching a car wreck at times," says the producer/performer. "It's about when you were 15 and thought you were brilliant, but now you realize that you were an idiot. We're here to celebrate that." The seeds of the show were planted when Nadelberg came across a creepy love letter he wrote to a girl in the tenth grade. He read the maudlin note to a group of friends, who became inspired to dredge up their own teenage writings. The desire to connect with one's pitiful teenage self soon spread like solipsistic wildfire. "It's fun for me that the show encourages people to go home and dig up those old letters. It's not just that they're revisiting past events, they're revisiting the perspective they had when they were going through it," Nadelberg points out. Indeed, the key to Mortified's comedy is the ability to treat that perspective seriously. "It's very different from most theatre in that we encourage the audience to laugh at you and not with you. I discourage people from 'acting.' It should never be seen as a skit. The most important thing is that it is authentic." The show has also included songs, dances and costumes, but Nadelberg opts to keep the format as simple as possible: just a bare stage, a mic and the bizarre ramblings of pubescent minds. Inevitably, the show brings up more than awkward crushes and speculating what color lip gloss the popular girls wear. Mortified's regulars are known for much darker themes. Performer Mark Phinney recounts his days in a mental institution, while Nic Arnzen revisits the confused fantasies he wrote before coming out of the closet. Sascha Rothchild's performance detailing her flirtation with sex and drugs at the age of 12 was featured on NPR's The American Life earlier this year. She says the best thing about doing the show has been the audience's reaction. "It's amazing how many people respond to it," she says. "You realize that everyone has gone through the same thing. We've all hated our parents or thought we were going to die if the person we had a crush on didn't like us back." Rothchild's unsentimental readings have garnered her writing jobs, a literary agent and a possible deal to publish her diaries. "I've been a writer for years and nobody cared, but now people love what I wrote when I was 12," she laughs. Theatregoers and industry execs also love what the cast had to say during their not-so-wonderful years. Nadelberg shot a Mortified pilot for Comedy Central this summer and every show at the Comedy Central Stage at the Hudson Theater has sold out. Nadelberg hopes his show will succeed as a fringe-theater favorite in the vein of The Vagina Monologues or Puppetry of the Penis, and he has considered moving the show to off-Broadway. But he's content to stick with LA audiences, who are traditionally more receptive to experimental comedy. Nadelberg
insists that auditions are open to anybody. Although the majority of
the performers are actors and comics, non-pros such as architects, writers
and office workers have also stepped up to the microphone. He's always
looking for readers who will bring more diversity of the show. "I've
had girls in the show who were the popular bitch and I've had guys in
the show who were total nerds. It's all relatable," he says. "There's
definitely a cathartic element to getting up on stage and shedding your
inner dork." |
