The Right Reverand
Kavanaugh Thorner
Photo Credit: Matt Black
In the beginning, there was The Word. And The Word was confusing!
And The Rev said "let's get to crystal clearin' that shit UP, jack!"
And lo, it was so.
Now, the Right Reverend Kavanaugh Thorner
makes his stage upon a street corner.
He got that fire and that fury,
He got that GOOD word.
The Right Reverend Kavanaugh Thorner is J. Merrill Motz's spoken word alter-ego, appearing once in a while when he's needed to speak The Word in raspy beat poetry style...think Tom Waits meets Lord Buckley minus any sort of footwear...The Rev don't cotton to wearin' any shoes, see.
A veritable feast of sermons of The Rt Rev'd, presented as an hour-long (be brief, brother, be brief!) "church service" presided by the Reverend and accompanied by Brother Motz, complete with hymns, offertory, benediction, and other words from your church-going youth you've forgotten the meaning of!
Test Your Testament!
An Evening w/ The Right Reverend Kavanaugh Thorner
Presenting such sermons as:
'An Experiment, Noble' (on Prohibition)
'Dig Yourself' (on the raising of Lazarus)
'St. Si The Hoofer, the Mountain Mover' (on the legend of St. Simon)
'Ignatius the Prodigal Kid' (on the parable of the lost lamb)
and more!
Originally produced at Strike Theater, Minneapolis, MN
January 2018
Part of Fearless Comedy Presents!, Pheonix Theater, Minneapolis, MN June 2018
Dig Yourself
Shortly after midnight, November 6, 1899, in the Maple Hill Cemetery of Nordeast Minneapolis. Ida Olsen claims she saw something, "a white object, a bearded man with horns", rise from a grave, and approach her. A holy man is needed for the gathered posse, but the closest they can find that time of night is The Right Reverend Kavanaugh Thorner atop his soap box on the corner of Broadway and Central Avenue. The Right Reverend, however, sees something else at work buried there; older than Maple Hill, older than Nordeast, older than Lazarus.
Originally produced as part of Archival Revival
Produced/Curated by Freshwater Theatre
May 2014
Photo Credit: Scott Pakudaitis