Mooney bringing one-man plays to Northwest Oct. 29, 30

Actor and author Tim Mooney is returning to Northwest Missouri State University and will present a pair of one-man shows, in addition to multiple workshops with theatre students this month.

Mooney will perform “Man Cave” at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 29, and “Lost at Santa’s Village: A One-Man Show About One-Man Shows,” at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30. The free shows will be livestreamed at the following links

“Man Cave,” which is accessible by clicking this link, depicts the last man, sheltering in place at the tail end of climate change, broadcasting his existential warning into a microphone for whoever or whatever might yet be listening. Burrowed into a “Hobbit home” in northern Canada, the hero tries to explain how not to do what we did, working his way through a new “Ten Commandments” for a changing planet.

In “Lost at Santa's Village,” which is accessible by clicking this link, Mooney takes audience members on a wild ride through a career in the theatre, from early years of high school kissing scenes through explorations of Shakespeare, Molière, teaching, running a small theatre company and eventually developing one-man plays that he tours through the United States and Canada. Mooney examines the intrinsic impulse to perform in public, the desire to be seen and how that craving of attention drove him to perform, to direct, to write and ultimately combine those abilities to perform his one-man plays.

During 17 years of touring, Mooney’s one-man plays – including “Molière than Thou,” “Lot o’ Shakespeare,” “Shakespeare’s Histories,” “Breakneck Hamlet” and “Breakneck Julius Caesar” – have won over thousands of students to a fresh appreciation of Shakespeare and Molière. “Lost at Santa’s Village” reveals how each of those works sprang from a germ of an idea into a full-out performance and, ultimately, a career.

Mooney, who also will work with Northwest theatre students during his visit in the areas of acting and directing as well as marketing, has adapted 17 of Molière’s plays to rhyming verse. He has produced 50 plays as an artistic director of the Stage Two Theatre and published an acting text, “Acting at the Speed of Life: Conquering Theatrical Style.” More information is available at http://timmooneyrep.com/.

Support for Mooney’s visit to Northwest comes from the Missouri Arts Council as well as the University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information, contact theatre@nwmissouri.edu.