“Humans are the worst monsters.
A wolf man or a gill-man? You see them coming.
But human beings, people? They fool you.”
Monsters of the American Cinema
by Christian St. Croix
September 22 – October 8, 2023
When his husband dies suddenly, Remy Washington, a Black man, finds himself the guardian of both the Good Time Drive-In movie theatre and his husband’s white teenage son, Pup. Bonded by their shared love of classic monster movies, Remy & Pup’s relationship is put to the test when Remy discovers troubling footage on Pup’s video camera. Can Remy save Pup from the monster he’s becoming?
Know Theatre welcomes Spooky Season with a haunting and heartening drama about fathers and sons, love and grief, queerness and ghosts, and what it means to truly belong … and what can happen when we feel like we don’t.
Monsters of the American Cinema comes to us from playwright Christian St. Croix, who also wrote our holiday 2020 streaming show Zack, a loving send-up of teen soap operas. It’s a multi-award-winning script, with accolades including the 2023 Stage Writing of the Year Award from the Young-Howze Theatre Journal, the 2021 Carlo Annoni International Drama Prize, and the 2019 Artists’ Pick at the San Diego International Fringe Festival.
Why Monsters of the American Cinema, right now?
“This story has everything I love about new plays – a sharp wit, a deep heart, and a finger on the pulse of what’s running underneath the current of American culture, right now,” says Associate Artistic Director Tamara Winters, who returns to the MainStage as director of Monsters of the American Cinema. “It’s a story about what makes us monsters, and what can bring us back from the edge. The moment I read this script, I knew it belonged on the Know MainStage – because, in a world full of monstrosity, we need a reminder of how to bring each other back from the brink.”
Monsters of the American Cinema is a hopeful story of redemption in the face of real-world harm. It’s about how fearless love and radical acceptance is sometimes the only thing that can break generational cycles of violence.
Who is this show for?
Monsters of the American Cinema is a story for fathers, sons, and the people who love them. It’s a surefire hit for LGBTQ+ families, especially families with queer parents and their children.
It’s for anyone who remembers what it was like to be an awkward teenager, a loner seeking connection, or the thrill when the credits roll on your favorite old movie.
It’s a story for anyone looking to remember what truly makes us human.
It’s for you.
Meet the family:
One of the Know’s favorite actors, Andrew Ian Adams, returns to the MainStage to play Remy Washington, a recent widower and activist who is finding that being a single dad to a teenage son is a bigger job than he’d foreseen. Andrew previously appeared at the Know in Hearts Like Fists, The Fisherman’s Wife, Mercury, and All’s Faire, as well as our sold-out smash hits Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Puffs.
And making his Know Theatre debut is Grant Zentmeyer as Peter “Pup” Miller, the troubled but brilliant teenaged son of Remy’s deceased husband, who dreams of being a filmmaker – when he’s spared by the nightmares, that is. Grant, a recent Xavier University graduate, made his Cincy Fringe debut in 2023’s The Rembrandt Job by Kevin Crowley.
Join us to celebrate the power of the ferocious and tender father-son bond as our 26th season continues with Monsters of the American Cinema.
Monsters of the American Cinema runs September 22 – October 8. Tickets are available on our website, knowtheatre.com, or by calling our box office at 513-300-5669.
Special Note: Evening performances at the Know are now at 7:30! Our Underground Bar will open at 6:30 for evening shows this season; come by early for specialty cocktails and conversation before or after your show.
CAST
Andrew Ian Adams as Remy
Grant Zentmeyer as Pup
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director: Tamara Winters
Scenic & Lighting Designer: Andrew J. Hungerford
Costume Designer: Noelle Wedig-Johnston
Props Designer: Danielle Robison
Sound & Projections Designer: Douglas J. Borntrager
Technical Director: Jim Stark
Stage Manager: Grace Wohlschlegel
AT A GLANCE
Production: Monsters of the American Cinema, by Christian St. Croix
Dates: September 22 – October 8, 2023. Wednesday – Saturday shows are at 7:30 PM; Sunday matinees are at 3 PM.
Where: Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson Street in Over-the-Rhine.
Livestreaming on select dates beginning September 27.
Themes: family · LGBTQ · magical realism
Tickets: The standard ticket price is $35. Audiences may opt to support the Know’s initiative to pay all artists and employees a living wage by selecting the $45 Living Wage Ticket.
Low-cost admission available for $25. On Wednesdays, as part of a program we call “The Welcome Experiment,” tickets are $10 in advance, or FREE at the door.
Know Theatre is Cincinnati’s Theatrical Playground. The Know showcases unexpected voices, new works, and plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic risks, creating work that is cutting edge and accessible.
Know Theatre’s work is made possible, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Know Theatre with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
Know Theatre is also supported by The Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation, helping to change our communities for the better through collaboration and innovation, and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which provides a simple, powerful, and highly personal approach to giving.
Know Theatre is a member of Theatre Communications Group and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network.
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MSJ Theatre Arts is proud to announce the 2023-2024 season. Our season is a tale of identity, coming-of-age, and self-realization. In today’s society there are swaths of our world asking us to ignore our past mistakes and histories that make up so much of our country’s patchwork. These missteps if not taught and examined are destined to be repeated, but let’s challenge ourselves to look at them through a different lens. This season we look backwards…quite a bit. We hope that you will join us as we explore the trials that we go through personally, professionally, physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Shirley Lauro’s authentic look at the women who served in the Vietnam war is a heartfelt exploration of feminism in action with her courageous play, A PIECE OF MY HEART. This is a true tale of six women sent to Vietnam and their struggle to make sense of a war that irrevocable changed them and a nation that shunned them, a work with the music and soul of a tumultuous era in our history. Overall, more than 265,000 women served in the military during Vietnam — and approximately 10,000 military women served in-country during the conflict. Only 8 are memorialized on the Vietnam War Memorial. Six different points of view from six different routes that all happen to parallel and intersect at a variety of points and interludes.
In the spring, we will explore what it means to be female amidst the backdrop of medieval Nottingham with Adam Symkowicz’s MARIAN, OR THE TRUE TALE OF ROBIN HOOD. A gender-bending, patriarchy-smashing, hilarious new take of the classic tale. Robin Hood is (and has always been) Maid Marian in disguise, and leads of motley group of Merry Men (few of whom are actually me) against greedy Prince John. As the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, who will stand for the vulnerable if not Robin? What is the cost of revealing your true self in a time of trouble? Modern concerns and romantic entanglements clash on the battlefield and on the ramparts of Nottingham Castle in this play about selfishness, selflessness, love deferred and the fight. Always the fight. The fight must go on.
60th Anniversary Season kicks off with ‘New Works,’ Sept. 15-24
SOUL OF A SISTER: Annie Ruth’s 60th Birthday
TV Guide
