ABOUT AMERICAN BERSERK THEATRE
At American Berserk Theatre, we aim to make work that is unapologetic, provocative, and above all, ridiculously fun. We produce whatever new American theatre we feel like making with as many diverse and passionate weirdos as we can fit into a tiny and poorly insulated rehearsal space and/or theatre and/or living room.
We like our work best when it's a mix of high-brow and low-brow, comedy and drama, trash craft and fine art.
Isn't it awesome when live theatre is accessible, eclectic, affecting, and responsive to the world around it? We're striving for that. And like at least one fantastic toilet joke per production.
American Berserk Theatre: Weird. Brash. Fun.
American Berserk Theatre is an Austin-based creative collective that originally founded in 2016 when Kaci Beeler, Curtis Luciani, and Rob Yoho premiered their critically-acclaimed new play Subject to Control .
Curtis and Kaci in their early work together (2010)
A 1920s Murder Mystery produced for CIRCUS PICNIC. Photo by CIRCUC PICNIC (2020)
In January 2020 the core company produced Curtis Luciani's THE PITCH, a play designed to take place in a small, immersive setting, at The Hideout's annex office/classroom space.
They planned to follow it up with a series of intimate shows in unusual locations but put this on hold due to the global crisis.
During the pandemic in 2020/2021 ABT participated in a virtual fundraiser competition called BOTTLE ROYALE with fellow ATX company Bottle Alley Theater.
In October 2020 ABT co-produced a virtual haunted house called NIGHTMARE HALLS and in April 2021 helped bring NATATORIUM to life, an immersive and interactive virtual collaboration with Austin chamber music collective Density512.
ABT wrapped post-production on THE COMPUTER PIRATES OF PENZANCE AVE, another Density512 collab - but this time a filmed theatrical piece (!) commissioned by the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Austin, that came out in Episode 3 of FRESH TAKES (Fall 2021).
From there ABT grew as a springboard for a wider, weirder, and more diverse theatrical collaboration (which brought to life 2017's For Time & Eternity and 2018's Killer Girls).
Co-Founders and Producers Kaci and Curtis are best known for their improv comedy duo The Amazon and The Milksop, and ABT has its roots in the work they have been collaborating on since 2009, including critically and peer acclaimed productions Who Is T. Henry Baudecliffe?, Fitzgeralds For Hire, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Save The World!, Girl Embassy World Team, and Blood, Sweat, and Cheers, among many others.
In the summer of 2018, local actors, writers, and improvisers Margaret Hunsicker and J.R. Zambrano were added to the ABT Company and began work on a new devised project while producing several of Kaci's interactive murder mysteries (among them Dead Men Don't Speakeasy, Murder on the Hogwarts Express, Totally Bogus: A 1980s Murder Mystery) for various local businesses throughout 2018, 2019, and early 2020.
Jacinto, Margaret, Curtis, and Kaci in THE PITCH (2020)
