Hello Human Female: The Remount - NOTES

About the Play

(From the program insert)

HELLO HUMAN FEMALE is set in motion when an online dating service connects Tamela, a guileless 37 year-old virgin looking for love, with Dr. Gorn, an evil scientist with ambitions of world domination. Things don't go according to Dr. Gorn's dastardly plan when Tamela falls instantly in love with his henchman, Blork, a simple, misshapen creation of the evil scientist's. When Tamela takes Blork home to Mother, Blork is quickly sent away on what ultimately becomes a journey of self-discovery. The play follows Blork on his trek, with Tamela hot on his trail.

HELLO HUMAN FEMALE is a whimsical and heart-warming tale with the message that being full of love, kindness, and understanding can make up for a lot of our apparent shortcomings.

The play was originally commissioned in the summer of 2008 when ATL Artistic Director Brad McEntire went to Chicago to take a long-weekend Improv Intensive. Matt and Kim Lyle graciously offered their couch at their cozy apartment and McEntire enjoyed, not just a place to sleep, but good company and cold beverages with the Lyles on their second story wooden patio. Asked if he had anything he might want to write for ATL, Lyle handed McEntire a few sketches he'd written. One really stood out. It was the first scene of Gorn and Tamela e-mailing about their Match.com compatibility.

Lyle worked on the piece for the rest of the summer and autumn of 2008. A full-draft came about bringing into the world Blork, Mother, Homeless Harry, Gramps and Timmy.

The play was produced in February and March of 2009 and went over well with critics and audiences alike. Since the original world-premiere production the play has shown up on several Top Ten Lists and garnered awards for some of the performers as well as Mr. Lyle. That production also introduced the Metroplex to the groovy little performance space in Exposition Park run by Matt Posey - The Ochre House. Enough people came out of the woodwork after the play ended who hadn't had a chance to see it that Lyle, McEntire and the cast decided they'd take a shot at remounting HELLO HUMAN FEMALE in the future.

And that's what you are looking at tonight… HHF 2.0. The Remount.

About the Playwright

Originally from East Texas, Matt Lyle is a Summa Cum Laude graduate and winner of the Outstanding Theatre Graduate Award from Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre. In 2004, he co-founded Bootstraps Comedy Theater in Dallas, Texas for which he serves at Artistic Director. For Bootstraps he's written two installments of the RICARDO RICARDO neo-vaudeville series, TAB A, SLOT B: A NEW AGE SEXIOLOGY, SUNNY AND EDDIE SITTING IN A TREE and THE BOXER. SUNNY AND EDDIE... was on the Dallas Morning News' Top Ten Productions of 2006, and THE BOXER won a DFW Critics Forum Award for Best Original Work, Column Awards for Best Play (Non-Equity) and Best New Work, and was listed in several publications' year end top ten lists. Matt took THE BOXER to the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival this past summer. In 2007, The Dallas Observer named Bootstraps as Best Small Theater Company and Matt as Best New Playwright. He worked with several theaters in the DFW area as both actor and director prior to his relocation with his wife, Kim, to Chicago in 2008. Matt has recently completed the Writing Program at Second City and currently works for the Steppenwolf Theatre. In the Fall of 2009, Matt directed ALMOST, MAINE for Chicago's Apple Tree Theater and returned to Dallas as a Artist-In-Residence to direct THE BOXER at Collin Theatre Center. HELLO HUMAN FEMALE marks Matt Lyle's first commission from Audacity Theatre Lab.

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