The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus.
Thursday, May 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Waiting for Guffman (Warner Bros., 1996, R-rated for brief strong language*)
After collaborating with director Rob Reiner on the largely improvised and wildly popular 1984 satire about a fictional heavy metal band, This is Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest went on to create and direct a number of faux-documentary comedies, with Waiting for Guffman being the first. Guest himself plays Corky St. Claire, head of the community theater in Blaine, Missouri, which is about to celebrate its sesquicentennial. St. Clair puts together a musical about the city’s noble history, Red, White and Blaine, and we follow his cast of misfits as they rehearse, all the while anticipating the attendance of an important guest who may take the show to Broadway. The cast, who ad-libbed most of their dialog, became part of the “Christopher Guest Stock Company” and includes Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara and Don Lake. * No one under the age of 17 will be admitted without a parent or guardian.
For more information on our programs, please visit the website at: www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/.