The Evangenitals, founded by playwright/director Juli Crockett and opera, jazz & gospel singer Lisa Dee are an alt-country/Americana love revolution made flesh for your listening pleasure. On a quixotic crusade in the key of life hell-bent on breaking hearts open, they are a genre-bending, ever-creating force of nature. 

The Evangenitals boast one of the most eclectic resumes in the indie music world. As live performers, they’ve built a fiercely loyal following through a thousand shows at clubs, coffee houses and festivals throughout the world (including Scotland’s prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Their shows are notable for music that can be bawdy and rollicking in one moment, and, in the next, sufficiently mysterious and haunting to make the rowdiest of beer brawlers pause, turn toward the stage and listen. 

The group’s current lineup consists of principal writer/vocalist Juli Crockett, gospel/jazz singer Lisa Dee, keyboardist Michael Feldman, bassist Joey Maramba, Andrea Baker on fiddle, Daniel Mark on mandolin, and Danny Graziani on fiddle and harmonica.

Ranging from truck-stop lullabies to Klezmer-punk-jazz, ballads & barn-burners to hillbilly stomp, citing influences from the new-wave intelligentsia of the Talking Heads to the archetypal fire of Johnny Cash, all welded together with the mutant masterminds of Ween: The jukebox at the Mad Hatters tea party is The Evangenitals.

UPCOMING SHOWS 

Surreal Brechtian vaudeville street fight between Jack Benny and Raymond Roussel. Bring your sister.

Hollywood Fringe link. (Get tix!)

Better Lemons link. (Leave reviews!) 

We demonstrate an “impossible play,” an automaton, frustrating the desires for union, resolution, and cleanliness with an endless loop, with an analysis of performance while performing, archaeological and forensic. The actors have developed an attitude that performance is not a thing which one does, but is done upon one… performance as obligation, text as a set of confines, blocking as predictive behavior, repetition as torment and joy, with dissociation of text and meaning, riddles for the audience to puzzle, a lack of completion offering the openness of collaboration, frustrating the desires for union and resolution by an endless loop…

The lyric substance embraces obscurity — poets have no difficulty with that. We make darkness visible. Our mode, suggested partly by the work of proto-surrealists, is to affect a granular experience of what we need at large scale: the line of escape.
-~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Directed by Juli Crockett
Created by Juli Crockett, Gray Palmer, & Guy Zimmerman
Produced by Gabrieal Griego & Guy Zimmerman

Starring:
Shaughn Buchholz as A
Gray Palmer as B
Jenny Greer as C (and also Trout 5th & 19th) 
Juli Crockett as D
Brian Tichnell as Strange/Wildcard (5th & 19th)

Sound Design by John Zalewski (Live on the 16th, 17th & 19th!)
Lighting Design by Bri Pattillo (Live on the 5th, 17th & 19th!)

Learn More at paduaplaywrights.org

[or, the whale] (Delere Press)

My original play, [or, the whale], inspired by Melville's Moby Dick, debuted at the Singapore Book Fair on November 14th, 2014. Published by Delere Press, Singapore. Illustrations by Ivy Maya. 

See it on Amazon.

Recently produced by the imaginary beasts theater company in Boston, under the direction of Matthew Woods. 

Reviews: 

ArtsFuse

EDGE

New England Theater Geek

[or, the whale] was also produced in 2016 by the Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble, under the direction of Obie-award winning scenic designer Peter Ksander. 

Some great reviews of the PETE production: 

In Search of the Great White.... Leg

Call Me PETE

Experience Captain Ahab's Madness in Portland Experimental Theater Ensemble's [or, the whale]

And of course there's my Moby Dick album... 

I have started a Patreon page, where supporters can pledge various amounts to help me create lots of awesome things (such as plays, songs, and videos) and get more intimately involved in my creative process. Think Kickstarter but for ongoing artist output, not just a one time thing.  

Check it out: Patreon.com/JuliCrockett

I frequently get to play music with the legendary folk singer Jim Kweskin. I can't really believe it myself. 

Jim Kweskin is probably best known as a singer and bandleader, but he also created one of the bedrock guitar styles of the folk revival, adapting the ragtime-blues fingerpicking of artists like Mississippi John Hurt and Pink Anderson to the more complex chords of pop and jazz. Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band was the original "Americana" band, playing everything from classic blues to hillbilly country, ragtime, jazz, and rock 'n' roll. Kweskin has maintained a remarkably consistent musical vision since his jug band days, continuing to explore traditional folk and blues with the sophisticated sensibility of a jazz musician and traditional jazz with the communal simplicity of a folk artist. 

Alabama-born Juli Crockett is a bona fide Renaissance woman: singer, songwriter, playwright, theater director, undefeated professional boxer and amateur champion, ordained minister, Doctor of Philosophy, and leader of the alt-country/Avant Americana genre-defying band The Evangenitals, as well as the Crockett Sisters (They’re the same band – you choose which name you prefer)

The teaming of Jim Kweskin and Juli Crockett is the happy collision of classic and contemporary Americana music. Together, Kweskin and Crockett performances are celebrations of virtuoso musicianship seasoned with humor and exuberance. 

Frequently joined by super mandolin player Daniel Mark (Dustbowl Revival) and wildly imaginative bassist Joey Maramba (Rickie Lee Jones, John Cale), Jim and Juli have a great time singing both old jazzy, folky favorites mixed in with Juli's original (and occasionally irreverent) compositions. Take a wild ride through history and into the future of folk with Kweskin and Crockett.

If I was born in a different era, I think I'd be a Jingle Writer. You know, back in the day when one could be a Jingle Writer. I've posted my collection of Jingles up on Soundcloud. Am always game for a good Jingle commission, cuz it's so damn fun to whip up a tune according to weird specs. I've done one for a friends cake shop, one for a friend's Improv group (Comic Book Live), a parody of Rocky Raccoon for Guardians of the Galaxy, a song about the Great Park in Irvine commissioned by the former mayor, "What's in the Box" for the Imagination Foundation's Global Cardboard Challenge, and of course one for the short doc Caine's Arcade -- the most viral to date! 

Some of the hardest laughing that has happened during recording sessions, between Joey Maramba and I, has happened while recording these Jingles. Maybe that's why I want to do more?? :-) 

Listen to Juli's Jingles on Soundcloud.

Mr Job is a play about universal experiences, such as crappy jobs, expensive health insurance, and incomprehensible grace in the face of suffering. 'Tis an ode to the lonely, the underpaid, and the misunderstood. Everyone is doing the best they can. 

Currently being adapted into a feature film.  

Mr Job premiered at Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, CA in 2017 and featured performers Shaughn Buchholz, Brian Tichnell, Jenny Greer, Ken Breese, and Gray Palmer. Sound design by John Zalewski. Production design by Kirk Wilson. Overhead Projector DJ'ing by Juli Crockett. 

Rhizome Rodeo is a new experimental podcast that explores intimate connections. Created with Shaughn Buchholz and Brian Tichnell, who are actors, humans, and friends. 

‘Rather than narrativize history and culture, the rhizome presents history and culture as a map or wide array of attractions and influences with no specific origin or genesis, for a 'rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo.' (Wikipedia) 

Saint Simone is a new play developed at the Padua Playwrights Writing Lab and workshopped at an Artist in Residency at CalArts (Nov/Dec 2015) with composer Jeremy Zuckerman. 

Saint Simone, an ecstatic meditation based on the life and sufferings of French philosopher and mystic, Simone Weil. Saint Simone engages the stark prospects and fugitive pleasures of daily life in an era of unprecedented wealth inequality and environmental degradation – a clear-sighted indictment of the precarious world we inhabit in 2015. The play centers on a cult of women dedicated to Simone Weil’s canonization before a Kafkaesque ecclesiastic court. A vicious, transgressive gender war ensues in which a series of miracles are cross-examined, while visitations, compulsions, confessions, and leaps of faith unfold and overlap. 

In 2011, I composed a theme song for my friend Nirvan Mullick's short doc about a cool kid named Caine Monroy. You won't believe what happened next... 

About Caine’s Arcade

Caine’s Arcade is a short film by Nirvan Mullick about a 9 year old boy’s handmade cardboard arcade, located in his dad’s auto parts store in East Los Angeles. The film inspired a global movement to foster creativity in kids, leading to the launch of theImagination Foundation and an annual Global Cardboard Challenge.

Backstory 

In 2011, at the age of 9, Caine Monroy spent his summer vacation building an elaborate DIY cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store in East Los Angeles.

Caine loved arcades, and dreamed of the day he would have lots of customers come play. He spent months building and preparing his arcade, perfecting his game design, making displays for prizes (his toy cars), designing elaborate security systems for his Fun Pass, making his own Caine’s Arcade STAFF shirt, and even hand labeling paper-lunch-bags for customers to carry home prizes. However, his dad’s autoparts store (located in an industrial part of Boyle Heights) received very little foot traffic, so Caine’s chances of getting a customer were very small, and the few walk-in customers that came through were always in too much of a hurry to get their auto part to stop to play Caine’s Arcade. Caine never had a single customer, but Caine never gave up.

On the last day of summer, by chance, a man named Nirvan Mullick walked into Caine’s dad’s auto parts store to buy a door handle for his ’96 Corolla. Caine asked Nirvan if he would like to play the arcade. Curious, Nirvan stopped to ask Caine how the arcade worked. Caine explained that for $1, Nirvan could get two turns to play, or for $2 he could get a Fun Pass (with 500 turns). Nirvan bought the Fun Pass.

Nirvan became Caine’s first and only customer, and he loved Caine’s Arcade. It turned out that Nirvan was also a filmmaker, and he came back to ask Caine’s dad if he could make a short film about Caine’s Arcade. It was at that poing Nirvan  learned that he had been Caine’s first and only customer. Nirvan decided to organize a surprise flash mob of customers to come play Caine’s Arcade, and make Caine’s day.

Words can’t describe Caine’s response – so watch the film. After the flashmob, Caine told his dad that that was the best day of his whole life.

FROM A MOVIE TO A MOVEMENT (POST-FILM UPDATE):
Caine’s Arcade  was  posted online on April 9th, 2012, and became an instant viral phenomenon. The film received over 1 million views in the first 24 hours, and trended worldwide on twitter. As part of the film, Nirvan  set up a scholarship fund for Caine with an initial goal of raising $25,000 for Caine. The first day the film was posted, we raised over $60,000 for Caine’s Scholarship Fund! The next day, we had raised over $110,000. Kids all over the world were also inspired to create cardboard games and creations. Inspired by the response, Two days after the film was posted, Nirvan decided to start a non-profit to find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in more kids like Caine. 5 days later, the Goldhirsh Foundation awarded us a $250,000 Challenge Grant to help start the Imagination Foundation, which  launched an annual Global Cardboard Challenge that engages over 100,000 kids in creative play each year!

Watch Nirvan’s follow-up film: “Caine’s Arcade 2 : From a Movie to a Movement”

How lucky am I to be married to Michael Feldman? Pretty lucky! He's pretty lucky, too, so it balances out. Mixer, Composer, Pianist, Recording/Engineering instructor... this guy has it all. And now we have this absolutely incredible recording and mixing studio in our backyard. 

Mike produced and mixed The Evangenitals' Moby Dick record, and most of the new music that we're putting out these days. 

Learn more about Michael Feldman at Sound43. 

Double Double collides Macbeth with the classic film noir Double Indemnity, delivering mind-bending musical mayhem, Macbeth in a fedora, king-killings galore, honey'd hams, red hots, and three dancing witches of Stanwyck! 
_________________

Listen to the Double Double Original Cast Recording!

DOUBLE DOUBLE - A Meditation on Macbeth 
Premiered at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles in January 2018

Starring
Isabella Boose (Barbara)
Shaughn Buchholz (Walter Walter)
Jenny Greer (Barbara)
Henita Telo (Barbara)

Text by Guy Zimmerman
Adapted and Directed by Juli Crockett
Live score and sound design by Michael Feldman
Choreographer Jessica Emmanuel 

Set Designer Melissa Ficociello
Lighting Designer Bri Patillo 
Costume Designer Juli Crockett
Produced by Gabrieal Griego
Stage Manager Amanda Garcia

Photos by John Fitzpatrick

So Many Reviews!!!

"Padua Playwrights has done it again. Guy Zimmerman and Juli Crockett's "meditation" on Macbeth and the film noir classic "Double Indemnity" follows last year's JACK BENNY as the existential show of the year to see. The similarities in the themes - murder for benefit, seduction, greed - and the blend of characters, from Macbeth/Walter to the Three Barbara Stanwytches, create a bizarre and engrossing ride of noirish 50's tropes mixed with high-octane showstopping musical numbers. Speaking of music, the live performance of the sound effects and music by Michael Feldman is astonishing - including brilliant use of microphones (especially in a repeated foley gag with a bed of gravel). I find that I watch Juli Crockett's productions in the same way that I ride Space Mountain at Disneyland. There's so much meaning, such a fast flow of information, and such a barrage of seemingly disconnected ideas and inspirations, that simply lying back and letting everything wash over you, picking up what you can in the torrent. This is theatre as "theatre" - creating work to tickle your senses and make you think rather than simply cater some pre-packaged entertainment."

- Matt Ritchey

"Last week I had the true pleasure of experiencing Padua Playwrights audaciously steamroll through the Los Angeles Shakespeare Center with a sound and fury that any idiot would be proud of. Absolutely one of the most fun times I've had at the theatre, Double Double ingeniously mashes up two of the most infamous tales of murderous collusion born of passionate ambition, Double Indemnity and Macbeth. The production takes no prisoners, wickedly trolling both Los Angeles and Shakespeare in their own Center, as well as the medium of experimental theatre itself (the beginning of the play starts with an over long, over serious, over dreary, over drawn out sequence, provoking a collective "oh god, we have to watch this avant garde shit for an hour", only to dazzle us soon after.) And while all the dancing and king-killing may seem to signify nothing, Guy Zimmerman's play offers macabre relevance, relating manifest destiny from England (Macbeth) to Los Angeles (Double Indemnity) as the cultivation of a culture of "would-be Kings", destroying whatever lay in the path ahead, be it nature or fellow man, in order to feed our own fleeting ambitions. Dark stuff from Guy; vicious and terse. Enter our fabulous director Juli Crockett to sprinkle some joy and silliness into the violence pot. The show is segmented into vignettes of ecstasy and irreverence that keeps the audience on its toes, wondering what was just witnessed, laughing all the while, only to piece the puzzle together during the uber ride home. The cast as a whole deliver with vigorous precision and seductive focus. The hyper-skilled Shaughn Bucholtz is magnificent as the crippled, adulterous, alcoholic, toe-tapping, MC'ing Macbeth. His three accompanying Barbara Stanwyck-Witches take him through a perilous fever dream of song and dance, choreographed by the brilliant and prolific Jessica Emmanuel. Jenny Greer brings centered focus to the coven with alluring depth in every move she makes. Henita Telo’s stellar talent is undeniable as she eats the audience alive with her eyes. And Isabella Boose is a treasure to behold, a hilarious, giggly sprite with a glint in her eyes that says, "isn't all this theatre shit silly." The ensemble performs the piece with confidence and cojones. The Petal Soundsations would be proud. Bri Patillo's lighting design makes the whole affair look beautiful and 'seem' legitimate. ;) Michael Feldman's incredible live scoring is the glorious glue that holds the chaos together. This was a show to see. And must be shown again."

- Brian Tichnell

“DoubleDouble playwright Guy Zimmerman reveals in the program notes, “came out of a case I wanted to make for Macbeth being history’s first Angeleno.”  Zimmerman, the Padua Playwrights artistic director, attempts to clarify that assertion by hinging the Scottish play to Paramount Studios’ 1944 classic crime film Double Indemnity.

At first glance, the notion of interjoining Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606?) with Billy Wilder’s iconic film noir might strike one as a muss up of the first order.  But on closer inspection a conspicuous, if unexpected, cohesion connects the components of the two.  Their central plots each concern a murder for “profit” told from the murderers’ view point.  Each delves into the psychology of murder, while investigating the act’s sexual aspect.  The main characters of both are not criminals but flawed human beings corrupted by their ambitions.  Each exists in a shadowy world in which outside forces threaten to destroy them.  And finally, both find inspiration in actual events and the executions linked to them.

The history of Scotland as told in Holinshed’s Chronicles was Shakespeare’s primary source for Macbeth, but Harold Bloom and other Shakespearean scholars argue the failed gunpowder Plot and the execution of the Jesuit Priest Henry Garnett influenced the bard as well.

The basis of author James M. Cain’s first two novels was a 1927 murder trial he covered as a reporter in New York.  Ruth Snyder was accused and convicted of murdering her husband, with the help of her lover.  She had taken a large insurance policy, with a double-indemnity clause out on him.  Given the death penalty for her crime, an enterprising young reporter managed to sneak a camera into Sing Sing when the sentence was carried out.  His snapshot of Snyder strapped into the electric chair was the decade’s most famous photo.

Zimmerman and Director Juli Crockett, succeed in juggling the two works with dizzying aplomb overlaying snippets of dialogue plucked from both while dropping hints of shared motifs like bread crumbs to lure their audiences deeper into the forest than it is safe to go.

The “snippets” which Zimmerman and Crockett selected, though small, are fiercely fragrant with Shakespeare’s poetry and that of L.A.’s poet-saint Raymond Chandler who, with Wilder, produced the filmscript of Double Indemnity.

There is no aspect of this production that doesn’t shimmer with intelligence in concept and execution.

Scenic Designer Melissa Ficociello provides an elegant cloth covered table that extends across the stage as if in expectation of a dozen disciples showing up.  Onto this stage emerges the three weird sisters, in this case a trio of Barbara Stanwyck doppelgangers in the role of Phyllis Dietrichson, clones right down to the absurdly cheap looking wig that had the Paramount executives spewing with indignation when they saw it.  *  *

The Barbara triplets (Henita Telo, Jenny Greer and Isabella Boose) bind the two separate works as firmly as Chang and Eng the original Siamese twins.

Macbeth’s fate was determined at his first encounter with the weird sisters. In Double Indemnity the fate of Walter, played by Fred Mac Murray was sealed the moment he set eyes on Stanwyck.  In DoubleDouble the aptly named character of Walter Walter (Saughn Buchholz) is oblivious to the doom awaiting him in the web spun by the Barbara clones.

Dialogue from both works intertwines with the pacing and playfulness of two frolicking otters, but unwilling to rest on the poetics of others, Zimmerman and Crockett called on the talents of Michael Feldman to provide the production with a couple of ballads which oscillate between Brecht and PDQ Bach.

Does Zimmerman make his case that “Every American is a little Macbeth ready to kill for a little happiness just out of reach?”  Beats me.  But like their Jack Benny (A Ménage En Train), one of the best shows in last year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, DoubleDouble at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles * *  * * comes at the audience like a Three Card Monty tournament masquerading as a Zen Koan.  It is intelligent, superbly crafted, utterly perplexing and thoroughly entertaining, and the creative collaboration between Zimmerman and Crockett lack only a pair of capes to qualify them as the most dynamic duo you’re likely to find this side of Gotham.

♦     ♦     ♦

“After watching the first dallies, a Paramount executive spun on Wilder and bellowed, “We hire Barbara Stanwyck and here we get George Washington.”   David Iker Sanchez recreates the wigs stylishly for DoubleDouble.”

- Ernest Kearney, The TVolution

“Double Double is a wild and delightful ride through the world of Macbeth and into the land of Double Indemnity, a strange musical film noir (theatre noir?) with excellent performances by all four cast members and some quirky and exciting and fun songs. It posits that Macbeth was not killed at Dunsinane, but rather entered the federal witness protection program and was given a new identity as Walter, the insurance agent from Double Indemnity. So he hasn’t left murder behind after all, and is once again spurred on by a woman (or in this case, three women) to kill. It stars Shaughn Buchholz as Walter (in the program his character is listed as Walter Walter, bringing to mind a certain Nabokov character), and Henita Telo, Jenny Greer and Isabella Boose as Barbara (rather than Barbara Stanwyck’s character name, Phyllis Dietrichson).

The set is fairly simple but effective, the major piece being a long banquet table, with three microphones placed on it, as if for a press conference. There are also candy dishes, a fruit bowl, a small plant and a steering wheel on display on the table. Behind the table are horizontal blinds, the lights a sepia tone, recalling the look of old films. There is one small platform downstage left, with a microphone suspended over it, like for a boxing match of old. When the play opens, a single light shines down on a spot stage left, and a woman enters and steps into the light. She wears a green dress and sports a blond wig in the style that Barbara Stanwyck wore her hair in Double Indemnity. She steps onto the platform and speaks into the microphone. Another woman in the same outfit enters from the same spot, and then a third. They move in a deliberately slow manner, the three witches, creating an eerie vibe, and carry food and drink to be placed on the table, odd wisps of smoke hovering above. A wonderfully creepy and ominous stage image is created when the three women stand at the table with their backs to the audience. At that moment, Walter enters from upstage left, wearing a purple suit and grey hat, moving slowly on crutches, recreating that opening image from the film. But once he reaches the platform, he begins to sing, and the entire production takes on a very different feel, the witches now acting as his backing vocalists. It is hip and humorous. The song tells us he was Macbeth, but now is Walter, living in the suburbs of Los Angeles (where he apparently does foley in addition to insurance – he walks across a box filled with rocks, a small microphone placed at the edge of the box).

The cover of the program describes the production as “A Meditation on Macbeth,” and indeed there is a meditative, even dreamlike quality to the production. It is mesmerizing, particularly the women’s coordinated movements as they are engaged in a dark dance somewhat at odds with their bright cheerful innocent exteriors. All three ask him, “Do you handle accident insurance?” The lines are a mixture of dialogue from the film and from Shakespeare’s play, and there is a wonderful song about a mind being filled with scorpions. And is every American a little Macbeth ready to kill for happiness? Perhaps. Interestingly, the women are not only the witches and Phyllis, but also Lady Macbeth, at one point saying “Give me the daggers.” At certain points, they seem to control Walter’s movements, reminding us of the way Lady Macbeth maneuvered Macbeth into the murder plot after Macbeth had decided against it. That also adds to the dreamlike quality of the piece, for often in dreams it feels that our movements are hampered, that things are out of our control. Also, in dreams often one’s sense of identity is rather fluid, as it is here.

Perhaps my favorite speech in all of Shakespeare’s work is the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech that Macbeth delivers when he’s learned of Lady Macbeth’s death toward the end of the play, and here it plays a prominent part as well, used in one of the production’s songs. Each of the four characters delivers a few lines of this great speech. “It is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/Signifying nothing.” I love the music to this performance. Music and sound play such an important role in this production, and there is more than a bit of jazz to the actors’ movements as well. I particularly love that moment when the three women appear behind the blinds, each lit with a spotlight. It is gorgeous and haunting and oh-so-bloody cool. But I suppose that could be said of the entire production.”

- Michael Doherty, Mostly Shakespeare

“He was Macbeth!” Laughs, colors, sounds, music, and whispering thoughts. The sensory experience and talent displayed by the artist made this play phenomenal. I found myself enchanted the entire way through with giggles on the tip of my tongue and my mind swirling in thought. The actors brought my focused attention to their body movements, their voices, and their eyes. Beautifully talented actors that truly engrossed the audience. On my drive home my mind wandered back to the colorful props, the playfulness between the actors micro-expressions and power-poses, and the mix of loud and soft sounds (an ASMR seekers paradise). The song numbers with the accompanying music were a huge highlight and incredibly entertaining. A great show that awoke my spirit and brought the muses of art out to play on the stage of The Shakespeare Center of LA. Thank you all for an enjoyable evening."

- Erica Madrid