"SQUONKumentary"
tells the story of an unlikely Broadway transplant. In January of 2000, having
completed a successful three month run at New York's P.S. 122, a funky troupe
of Pittsburgh musicians suddenly find themselves preparing their off-beat show
for Broadway. Combining puppetry, video projections, music, dance and audience
participation, "Squonk: BigSmorgasbordWunderwerk" is more akin to
its downtown, thrill-ride cousins, "De La Guarda," "Blue Man
Group" and "Stomp" than to its new Broadway neighbors. Despite
having an uplifting musical score, the Squonkers' lush, bizarre imagery quickly
collides, often humorously, with realities of the show's survival. As the story
unfolds, we follow show producers, performers, their families and friends as
they try a number of unusual and inspired efforts to save "Squonk."
Shot
on 16mm film and peopled with quirky, lovable characters, "SQUONKumentary"
chronicles a poetical, noisy creation during its final weeks of rehearsal prior
to opening. It also provides a brief overview of the band's history using archival
video footage and photos. Employing a dash of the show's surrealism here, zest
from the creators' playfulness there, the film offers its own take on the "Squonk"
aesthetic using rough-hewn, in-camera techniques such as stop-motion animation,
time lapse and off-speed photography.
How
does an irreverent, non-narrative production from the Midwest find itself on
New York's Great White Way? How will an artist-driven show, an unconventional
David, triumph amid the commercial Goliaths of Broadway? Who are the creators
and performers of the show? And what planet are they from?
"SQUONKumentary" attempts to answer these and other burning questions, including the most ticklish of them all: what the heck is squonk?
