Crackpot Crones 2010

Terry Baum and Carolyn Myers, The Greatest Crones on Earth, present an Evening of Sketch Comedy and Improv!  The Lesbian on the Loose!  Eve in Therapy!  A Coming-Out Horror Movie!  The Castrating Bitch!  Goddess-Zilla!  Prop 8 Sit-Com! 

Baum (big-city lesbian) and Myers (small-town heterosexual) are pioneer funny feminists and best friends.  They were core members of San Francisco’s internationally famous women’s theater, Lilith, in the ‘70s and wrote Dos Lesbos, A Play By, For & About Perverts, in 1980, which inspired the first anthology of lesbian plays and offended the Pope during World Pride 2000 in Rome.  In this century, Myers ran off with the Hamazons, warrior princesses of comedy, and Baum ran for Congress against Nancy Pelosi (Baum lost).   Re-united as The Crackpot Crones, they perform in theaters, colleges, cafés and homes.  We’re coming to your living room sooner or later!   We specialize in Cronings.  www.crackpotcrones.com.

Biographies

Terry Baum: I have had four plays published and produced all over the world. My work has been translated into French, Dutch, Italian, and Swedish. I have been creating theater in San Francisco since I founded Lilith, the Women’s Theater Collective, in 1974. As a solo performer of my own work, I have toured the U.S., Canada, England, Holland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, and Israel.  My one-woman play, Immediate Family, was translated into Dutch (Naaste Familie) and performed by a Dutch movie star.  It was a hit in Amsterdam and filmed for Dutch prime time television.  Immediate Family, about an older dyke who has no say over the treatment of her comatose partner, has been done all over the U.S. — often when there was a gay rights issue on the ballot.  I have received the Restless Pens Playwriting Award, the KPFA Radio Playwriting Award, and been dubbed “the lesbian Woody Allen” by the San Francisco Chronicle. 

In this century in San Francisco: Waiting for the Podiatrist at Venue 9 (2003), Two Fools at Theatre Rhinoceros (2004), and Baum for Peace at the Marsh (2006).  Baum for Peace, about my run for Congress, was selected for the 2007 NY Fringe Festival. I have made several short movies, one of which was shown at the 2007 Frameline Gay Film Festival in San Francisco.  I was the Green candidate for U.S. Congress in San Francisco in 2004. I am a member of the Dramatists Guild.  www.terrybaum.com.

Carolyn Myers: I directed my first play at age 8; produced Raisin in the Sun with an all-white cast in junior high; put on the first student created musical at my high school (censored); and wrote the first full-length student play at my college (directed by Terry Baum).  Since then, I have always been a member of a theater company:  The Isla Vista Community Theater, The Gorilla Theatre, Lilith — a Women’s Theater, Sharpened Spoons, Mixed Company, the Second Saturday Players, The Hamazons, and The Crackpot Crones.  I have written plays and comedy.  Girl Talk and Hot Flashes (written with Dori Appel) are published by Samuel French, Inc. Dos Lesbos (written with Terry) was included in Places Please, the First Anthology of Plays by Lesbians.  All these plays continue to be performed in theaters throughout North America and Europe.  For fifteen years, with Cil Stengel, I directed teen theater companies in Southern Oregon, sponsored by the Health Department and Planned Parenthood.  These teen companies created funny and moving original plays based on issues of concern, and toured widely.  I won local, state and national health education awards for this work, was also investigated for practicing witchcraft.  My epic poem “She Bop” which celebrates the goddess in her many guises, was made into an animated film by Joanna Priestley, and continues to be performed by vocal artists at cultural events around the world. Currently, I am astonished to be a member of both The Hamazons, Warrior Princesses of Comedy (www.hamazons.com) and The Crackpot Crones, Subverting the Dominant Paradigm and Laughing Out Loud (www.crackpotcrones,com) Clearly, I’m TOO BIG TO FAIL!

Consulting Director:  Bobbi Ausubel