For one night only, writer and performer Chris McCreary presented his solo show Hot Nostalgia, a metatheatrical and eclectic mix of monodrama, stand-up, and sketch comedy. Collectively produced by First Take Co. and Free Women Waltzing Club and hosted at local multiuse artist venue SpaceCraft, Hot Nostalgia is a warm and engaging show that is both deeply reflective and hilariously irreverent, representing the best of Knoxville’s local arts scene and the community efforts and spaces that make it happen.
Chris McCreary, self-proclaimed theatre kid, comes to Knoxville with a burning question: what do we do with the time we are given? This question is the impetus for Hot Nostalgia, a series of monologues that have miraculously come together to approximate an answer. From finding his childhood self in Home Alone’s Kevin McCallister to musing on existential issues like death and the climate crisis, McCreary explores a lot in this show, and asks his audience to do the same. How do we know what our purpose is, and how do we know we’re doing it right? How do we avoid being wrong and looking stupid while we’re doing it? What is happiness, and how do we know we’ve found it? McCreary posits that pizza might have something to do with it. At the least, “pizza is something:” is something that can bring happiness, that can be shared with others, and, in a world where many of us live with these common anxieties about our purpose and our relationships, that universally loved food might be a key to understanding our place in life. Rapidly and seamlessly shifting between recording segments for his future son (McCreary promises that no one is pregnant, but he wants to preserve the moment for posterity, regardless), famous film director James Cameron, and even his undergraduate acting teacher, McCreary smoothly navigates from sketch to sketch, concept to concept, question to unfolding question in his own on-stage exploration of the self and integrating the audience into this exploration so that it becomes much bigger than it seems.
Opening for McCreary were three talented local musicians, Kelsi Walker, Grady Milligan, and Lauryl Brisson. Vocalist and guitarist Milligan was an incredible presence in the small venue; her impromptu cover of Creed’s “Higher” was a crowd favorite, and she nailed the gravelly accent perfectly—everyone in the venue had a great laugh and sang along. With bassist Walker of Free Women Waltzing Club and drummer Brisson, the trio rocked the small venue with angsty millennial fan favorites such as The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” Paramore’s “Misery Business,” Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down,” and blink-182’s “I Miss You.” Local artist and transnational fusion dancer Jaleria Rivera supported these artists at her venue SpaceCraft, an artist-owned maker space with roots in “joy activism, playful practice, and community care” that welcomes local, underrepresented artists and their innovative work. Brought together by Director Sarah Lacy Hamilton, Emily Helton (Artistic Contributor), Jordan Vera (Lighting Designer), and Ethan Graham Roeder (Producer, First Take Co.). Hot Nostalgia demonstrates the possibilities that arise when local artists work together to create, like McCreary’s example of pizza, something.
