{"id":9791,"date":"2018-11-28T21:43:24","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T21:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=9791"},"modified":"2018-11-28T21:43:24","modified_gmt":"2018-11-28T21:43:24","slug":"give-the-man-a-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/28\/give-the-man-a-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Give The Man A Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>The Spot to present \u2018A Behanding in Spokane\u2019<\/h3>\n<p><em>BY HAYDEN SEDER<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9802\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9802\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9802\" src=\"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Pillowman1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9802\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A moment from The Spot\u2019s other McDonagh production, \u2018The Pillowman.\u2019 Photo courtesy of The Spot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Carmichael has searched for 47 years to reconnect with his missing hand. Audiences may join him in his quest when The Spot presents a limited engagement of \u201cA Behanding in Spokane,\u201d from Tuesday through Saturday, Dec. 4-8.<\/p>\n<p>The 90-minute play is the second The Spot has presented by acclaimed British\/Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, known for penning the films \u201cThree Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri,\u201d \u201cSeven Psychopaths\u201d and \u201cIn Bruges.\u201d The Spot presented his play \u201cThe Pillowman\u201d in the spring of 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Much like \u201cPillowman,\u201d this black comedy also contains a bit of violence, profanity and racial tension.<\/p>\n<p>Set in Spokane, Wash., the story centers around the main character, Carmichael, a man with only one hand who\u2019s been searching for the missing hand for most of his life. He may have finally tracked it down to a small hotel room in Spokane, thanks to two twentysomethings trying to make a quick buck.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9799\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9799\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9799\" src=\"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/behanding_horizontal2-300x232.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"232\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Graphic courtesy of The Spot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While the language and violence of the play may seem out of step within a comedy, the members of The Spot felt that at this point in their four-year body of work, and within the climate of 2018, it was the perfect time to debut the black comedy that the majority of them had seen on Broadway in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPretty much since we started the company four years ago, we\u2019ve talked about doing this play,\u201d said Brett Moellenberg, the director and a founding member of the company. \u201cBut, like anything, I think you have to earn trust with your audience before you throw something like this at them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Spot took out a rare ad online to cast for the play, which prompted New York City-based actor Nick Hardin to audition for the lead role as Carmichael.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe rarely post online, but for this role it felt important,\u201d Moellenberg said of the posting in Backstage, a national audition database. \u201cNick\u2019s the first person to come to The Spot who we\u2019ve had absolutely no connection to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Returning to The Spot, also from New York City, is actor Thaddeus McCants. McCants was in The Spot\u2019s 2016 production of \u201cAngels in America\u201d and returns to play Toby, a small-time weed dealer and one of the twentysomethings trying to make money off Carmichael.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been itching to get back here since my last performance and this was a good way,\u201d McCants said of his second Ketchum outing. \u201cI saw the play on Broadway and it\u2019s such a larger-than-life piece that I think hits a chord with a lot of people. I think that\u2019s important when we think about what art we want to put in the world. Put the art that speaks loudly out there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two of The Spot\u2019s other founders, Kevin Wade and Yanna Lantz, complete the cast. Wade plays Mervyn, a hotel clerk at the hotel where Carmichael meets Toby and his girlfriend Marilyn, played by Lantz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like how challenging the play is, but it is a comedy,\u201d Wade said. \u201cWe hope people give themselves permission to laugh. And we stand behind the play and would love to talk about it, too. It has an important message and we\u2019re here to unpack that message through the lens of comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tickets can be purchased online through The Spot website at spotsunvalley.com.<\/p>\n<p>Shows will begin at 7:30 p.m. all five nights as well as a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 each or $13 for those under 30.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Spot to present \u2018A Behanding in Spokane\u2019 BY HAYDEN SEDER &nbsp; Carmichael has searched for 47 years to reconnect with his missing hand. Audiences may join him in his quest when The Spot presents a limited engagement of \u201cA Behanding in Spokane,\u201d from Tuesday through Saturday, Dec. 4-8. The 90-minute play is the second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,53],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calendar-2","8":"category-calendar-feature"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}