10 reasons to check out Actor's Theatre of Charlotte in 2010 

The Actor's Theatre of Charlotte has earned a reputation for being many things — provocative, funny and controversial ... just to name a few adjectives. In 2009, for example, the theater mounted productions that poked fun at Charlotte's now-infamous overreaction to Angels in America with the staging of Southern Rapture (complete with full frontal nudity); premiered the thriller, Yankee Tavern, which garnered rave reviews; and snagged a number of awards, including one for "Best Theater Company" from this publication and our readers. But, accomplishments notwithstanding, these guys aren't looking back -- they're looking ahead.

In 2010, the folks at Actor's Theatre plan to continue debuting new shows as a member of the National New Play Network, an alliance of nonprofit theaters that champion the development, production and continued life of new plays.

And then there's My First Time.

Actor's Theatre is set to bring the off-Broadway hit (about, yes, that first time) to town starting this week (Jan. 6) -- which is sure to, once again, ruffle a few feathers.

Artistic director Chip Decker recently sat down with Creative Loafing to talk about My First Time and to give us the top reasons why, in 2010, you should put your ass in one of their seats.

My First Time: "I read about it and the concept of it intrigued me quite a bit," said Decker. "There's a Web site called Myfirsttime.com, and it's been up and operating for a while ... when you go visit it ... you can read people's accounts of their first time. It is exactly what it sounds like. It's about their first sexual experiences. [The stories] range from really short -- it was clumsy and awkward -- to really protracted -- talking about where it happened, when it happened, and 'I set up candles and perfume and a hot tub.' There are hundreds of thousands of stories on that Web site now. It's all done anonymously. It's a shared experience across the board. So, what this playwright has done is he's taken many of these stories and put them into a narrative form. Now [we] have four actors that are recreating a nice cross section of these stories. They are able to tell each one of these individual people's stories. It's very interesting to see the narrative come to life. What we also do with this is, as the audience comes in, they are given a survey card, and they are asked a series of 11 questions about their first time and where they are in their life. They share that, and it's all done anonymously, that information is brought into the play. So, their information becomes a part of the narrative for the evening; their statistics become a part of the show for the evening. So, everything about that audience will be unique to the show's performance. So, every night ... while the outline remains the same, the content changes based on that night's audience. That concept is really fascinating to me ... You're not just coming in and sitting down, you're actually coming in and are able to be a part of the evening -- even if it's only in your imagination. Everybody gets to have that shared experience. The cast and the audience become one and the same."

Black Pearl Sings: "In February, we have the wonderful story Black Pearl Sings. It takes place in the 1920s and '30s, and it's about a woman who works for the Library of Congress. And this actually happened. What the Library of Congress did was they wanted to preserve stories, tales and music that are part of the American landscape. In the '20s and '30s, we'd seen slavery go away, but there was also a complete genre of music that went away with the slaves. As slavery was abolished, that music started to rapidly disappear because it was all handed down by mouth to ear for generations. So, she's been tasked to find people who had parents or grandparents who were slaves that knew these songs. Her task is to find the last undiscovered slave song and get it recorded for the history of America. She finds this lady, who has been in prison. So, it's all about her finding this woman and building a relationship with her. They are both dependent on each other to complete their journeys."

New shows: "We're constantly striving to build our audience, like any company. The shows that we do are brand-new, fresh and exciting. As the city of Charlotte grows, so does the desire for new work to experience and that's been our mission. It was harder earlier because people wanted to see Oklahoma. 'You want to see Oklahoma? But you've seen it five times. There are new plays out there.' 'Yeah, I know, but I've never heard of it. I'm not so daring that I want to go see that.' But now people are coming that are moving in from different areas that are used to experiencing new work. You have to remember that Oklahoma was new once and people had to see it and enjoy it. Black Pearl, in 20 or 30 years, is going to be that [kind of play].

New Play Network: We just became members of the National New Play Network and their whole bent is brand-new work. Playwrights submit work to us, and if we get a play across our desk, we can then submit it to the body of NNPN. All the member theaters select five plays to be showcased annually at the convention. Then member theaters have first crack to do any one of those shows."

New stars: "Most of our shows are open auditions. We advertise through local media and we have an extensive list of actors on our e-mail registry. The primary reason to have new auditions is because there is always new talent coming into town. Nothing pleases me more than when I walk into an audition and see a new face that has never been on our stage and they just blow me away at an audition and I go, 'You're it.' In My First Time, I have two returning veterans and two new people on the stage, so right there 50 percent of the cast is new."

Jesus and Stephen Hawking share a stage: "End Days is going to be a lot of fun. It's a dark comedy about the apocalypse. But it takes a unique slant on religious views and political views, but it's never heavy handed ... You have a Jewish family that, post-9/11, has lost their faith -- so much so that the mother has become a born-again Christian. She actually sees Jesus, and Jesus is a character in the play that follows her around. And then you have a 16-year-old daughter who's rebelling against all forms of religion, she's more into evolution to the point where she sees Stephen Hawking. The actor that plays Jesus also plays Stephen Hawking."

Five Course Love: "We have a wonderful musical that we end the season with called Five Course Love. It's three actors and there are five vignettes about dates and relationships. Each time the actors are playing patrons at a restaurant or servers. Each restaurant is different: There is an Italian restaurant, there's an American and a German restaurant. It's a funny comic look at dating and relationships. We've all been sitting in a restaurant waiting for someone -- there's the awkward first date or the no-show."

Back to the Trailer Park: "The Great American Trailer Park Musical is a very successful show that we did two or three years ago. It's light, fun summer fare, and everybody who saw it loved it. Lots of people came back numerous times. It's just a very funny play. Because it is Southern in nature, there is a lot for folks to relate to."

Decking the halls with a new holiday show: "[This] year, we're changing the holiday show. We've done The Santaland Diaries for five or six years, and we've been very successful with it. We want to try something new. So, we're doing Every Christmas Story Ever Told. It's three actors and they go through every Christmas story -- from the manger to Rudolph. It's all of them, from the claymation stories to the Hallmark Hall of Fame stories to A Christmas Story with Ralphie and the BB gun. It's everything, and it's done in about an hour and a half. It's very fast-paced and very funny."

Janis Joplin sings again: "One musical that we're tentative on is Love, Janis. It's about Janis Joplin, and we're going to be holding auditions to find a singer that can 'take a little piece of my heart, baby.' She has to be a special individual. It's a great story. So many generations love her music and just love Janis Joplin. I think it's going to be a really successful piece because of who it's about, and all of her music is in that show."