Mark Nutter
MARK NUTTER grew up in a motel near Joliet, Illinois, which is not as glamorous as it sounds. He started playing piano when he was seven, and before long he was playing in church. He wrote his first play when he was thirteen, called The Christmas Pizza, which was also performed in church (the same church). Much later, Mark wrote and performed music and comedy in Chicago with The Second City and the critically acclaimed group Friends of the Zoo. He went on to write for television (Saturday Night Live, Third Rock from the Sun) and movies (Almost Heroes starring the late Chris Farley). He wrote the songs for Wild Men!, a send-up of the men’s movement that featured George Wendt. Mark wrote the music and lyrics, co-wrote the book, and performed in the four-man absurd musical The Bicycle Men, which was named Outstanding Overall Production at the New York Fringe Festival and played in Los Angeles, Chicago, London, and Edinburgh. He is the winner of both the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and the LA Weekly Theater Award for his music & lyrics for ReAnimator: The Musical. When he was told that he should meet Cynthia Carle because “she’s seen The Bicycle Men seven times,” he responded, “Why would I want to meet her? She sounds insane.” Eventually, he DID meet her and discovered that she WAS insane – but insane in a creative and endearing way, the same type of insane that Nutter aspires to, although he’s having trouble with the endearing part. Together they went on to create a bunch of stuff together, including Christmas Smackdown and Dr. Dung Beetle’s House of Dreams. Yeah, probably his sister.