Teller and Todd Robbins Play Dead

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RUDE SHAPE PRODUCTIONS
Teller (Penn & Teller) and Todd Robbins'
PLAY DEAD nominated for a Rondo Award!
BEST INDEPENDENT FILM 2012
Voting ends at Sunday, April 7! 

The 11th Annual Rondo Hatton Awards announced their nominations this morning and the live recording of Teller and Todd Robbins' spookshow PLAY DEAD, produced and directed by Shade Rupe, is nominated for a Rondo Awards for Best Independent Film!

Voting begins today and runs through Sunday, April 7th for the 2012 Rondo Hatton Awards, now in their 11th year.

Recorded during the last few performances of Play Dead's nearly year-long run at NoHo's The Players Theatre on MacDougal Street, PLAY DEAD saw its world premiere at Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival before winning the Best Documentary award at Vegas Cine Fest, and moving on to the AFI Center in Washington, DC, and the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, with more plays to come.

Co-conceived and directed by the shorter, quieter half of magician duo Penn & Teller, PLAY DEAD takes classic spookshows of the '50s and '60s and gives them a Grand Guignol spin with some Bullshit! skepticism thrown in. Coney Island showman Todd Robbins stars, sparking up the 70-minute show with his devilish tongue and sparkling wit. As Clive Barker exclaims:

"All I can say is 'wow.' Todd Robbins is blissfully playful and yet at the same time darkly dangerous. You get the feeling that he could turn on a dime and suddenly you wish you were no longer in the room with him. I was blown away."

This live performance film includes the “fiendishly frightening” (New York Post) blackout segments shot in infrared, to allow filmgoers to glimpse some of the magical secrets the live audience never got to see.

This “funny, furious, and wholly enthralling” (Wall Street Journal) theatrical experience is edited by Emery Emery (The Aristocrats, Paul Provenza's Green Room), with music by Emmy nominee Gary Stockdale (The Aristocrats, Penn & Teller's Bullshit!).

Teller has been one half of Las Vegas magic team Penn & Teller since 1975. He is an Emmy, Obie and Writer’s Guild award winner. He penned an episode of HBO’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT, directed a gory, magical version of MACBETH for the Folger Theater in Washington, D.C., and is serving as consultant for the Broadway- bound stage version of THE EXORCIST. His short film & TELLER claimed Dimension Films’ short movie-making prize and landed on the domestic DVD release of George Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD.

For more information, visit the official PLAY DEAD website."

I live nowhere near anywhere this thing will ever be performed, but it looks pretty goddamn spooky. There should be a DVD of the performance soon, really hoping that comes soon because I'd love to see this.