Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant: The Mothership Landing September 15, 2011

Irondale Presents

Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant: The Mothership Landing

“Dinner theater of the absurd...razzle-dazzle with a side dish of irony.”
—The New York Times, Urban Eye

Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant transforms the Irondale center into a lush banquet hall—complete with a visible kitchen—where each night, guests are treated to a five-course, gourmet-dining experience, with food carefully prepared on the premises and served with charismatic flourish by self-proclaimed geniuses of the avant-garde theater.

Conni’s Avant Garde Restaurant (a Time Out New York favorite and Village Voice Choice), is not a locale but a group of bold (if fictional) theatrical performers, devoted to the ongoing celebration of the work of Conni Convergence, the beloved (and again, fictional) icon of stage and screen. Hailed as “devilish dinner theatre” by The New York Daily News, these unique theatrical-culinary events mix the ingredients of fine food and drink, brash song and dance spectacle, and a loving sendup of avant-garde pomposity.

“This unique theatrical event skewers Vegas-style dinner theater and

avant-garde pretension on a single sharp kebab.”

—Time Out New York

The audience follows the company’s aging diva, Muffin Character Hanshake, who struggles with the career-upending decision to have a child—“That’s a show that never closes!”—and is encouraged along her path by a colorful cast of characters, including: her embittered brother, a once famous child star; a doctor of questionable repute; a nihilistic lounge singer; a baton-twirling beauty queen, eager for the spotlight; a brusque fireplug of a floor-manager; a long-winded academic; and a rock-n-roller long put out to pasture, among others.

About Irondale
The Irondale Center, The first performing arts space to open in the BAM cultural district is uniquely and entirely run and maintained by the Irondale Ensemble. A beautiful and historic space, the center is an old Sunday school building attached to the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian church. The church boasts an incredible history in its own right being a shelter for runaway slaves in the 1860’s and proving through history a commitment to positive social activism. Irondale’s mission is serendipoduously complimentary.

Irondale’s Mission
Through the power of the ensemble process, Irondale creates and presents theater, performance and education programs that challenge traditional assumptions about art, and help us to better understand today’s world. The Irondale Center, our theater, laboratory and classroom, is a home for ensemble artists of all disciplines and cultures, and a resource for our community.

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