Tonya Malik-Carson Archives - The LIDA Project

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (2011)

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
a devised work of The LIDA Project*

The LIDA Project’s 6-part award winning epic on health, care, mortality and dying in the United States originally premiered in December of 2011 in a unique collaboration between the LIDA Project and a group of guest directors and community leaders. The work was environmentally designed and performed in private residences.

Production History
December 02 – December 17, 2011 : site specific residences :: Denver, CO
January 27 – February 11, 2012 :site specific residences :: Denver, CO

Awards
Special Achievement – Denver Post Ovation Award

Media Coverage
LIDA health-care epic: Home theater for what ails us – The Denver Post
Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep tackles health, care, death and dying in the USA – Westword

The Company
Direction: Robin Davies / Brian Freeland / Josh Hartwell / Jaime Lujan / Brenda Cook Ritenour / Kate Roselle / Tommy Sheridan / Kenny Storms
Artistic Director: Brian Freeland
Dramaturgy: Rebecca Gorman O’Neill
Movement: Tonya Malik-Carson
Scenic Design: Amelia Charter
Production Assistant: Laura Lounge

Ensemble
Rhea Amos, Meg Chamberlain, Hart DeRose, Nancy Flanagan, Michelle Hurtubise, Madeleine Joyce, Sonia Justl, Deanna Lowman, Heidi Pachner, Lorenzo Sariñana, Stefin Woolever, & Ryan Wuestewald

Video

The Works

The Soldier
The Soldier maneuvers through a recent Iraq War veterans struggles to care for herself and her relationships while her PTSD and grief from the war spin into a sadistic health insurance game show. Directed by Tommy Sheridan with performances by Rhea Amos, Hart DeRose, Nancy Flanagan, Michelle Hurtubise, Madeleine Joyce, Heidi Pachner, Stefin Woolever, and Ryan Wuestewald.

The Addict
The Addict is a cyclical spiral of losing control and asking for help. It grapples with both tangible and systemic addictions and whether or not we have the agency to choose our own paths. Directed by Kate Roselle and Kenny Storms with performances by Nancy Flanagan, Madeleine Joyce, Deanna Lowman, Heidi Pachner, Lorenzo Sariñana, and Stefin Woolever.

The Survivor
An exploration of how we grapple with death–both losing those we love and dealing with the knowledge of our own. Directed by Jaime Lujan with performances by Rhea Amos, Hart DeRose, Michelle Hurtubise, Madeleine Joyce, Lorenzo Sariñana, and Ryan Wuestewald.

The Middleman
An examination of the difficult choices that individuals have to make on health + care in a world of 7 billion people. Directed by Robin Davies with performances by Rhea Amos, Hart DeRose, Michelle Hurtubise, Heidi Pachner, and Ryan Wuestewald.

The Immigrant
An exploration of alternative medicine, cultural assimilation, and the red tape beaurocrtic hoops we have to jump through. Directed by Brenda Cook Ritenour with performances by Hart DeRose, Michelle Hurtubise, Deanna Lowman, and Lorenzo Sariñana.

The Patient
The Patient is a poetic and lyrical exploration of the ins outs ups downs of a person’s final moments and how hospice and its workers provide support to that person and their relatives. “What’s more important than our final moment,” one patient asks. Death responds, “Them.” Directed by Josh Hartwell with performances by Nancy Flanagan, Madeleine Joyce, Deanna Lowman, Heidi Pachner, and Stefin Woolever.

* Development collaborators: Rhea Amos, Meg Chamberlain, Amelia Charter, Robin Davies, Hart DeRose, Nancy Flanagan, Brian Freeland, Josh Hartwell, Michelle Hurtubise, Madeleine Joyce, Sonia Justl, Laura Lounge, Deanna Lowman, Jaime Lujan, Tonya Malik-Carson, Rebecca Gorman O’Neill, Heidi Pachner, Brenda Cook Ritenour, Lorenzo Sariñana, Kate Roselle, Tommy Sheridan, Kenny Storms, Stefin Woolever, & Ryan Wuestewald

Chorus (a.k.a. The Large Hadron Collider) in Roller Skating With My Cousin. Photo: Erin Preston (2010).

Roller Skating With My Cousin
a devised work of The LIDA Project*

Part science lab, part disco, Roller Skating With My Cousin combines the mythology and archetypes of the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel with the sexual revolutionary act of roller skating, while simultaneously asking whether we can all create a custom-designed universe in our kitchen sink and, furthermore, why did Ronald Reagan fail as the anti-Christ? This mash-up of themes results in a lively, dark romp in which a synchronized chorus of roller skaters builds a tower under a star-flecked mirror ball sky.

“Roller Skating With My Cousin is a musical love letter from the future, on wheels, with utter disregard for logic and linearity…let LIDA be your guide… For sensible people, the 1980s have long been thought of as a time best forgotten…Then along came the delightfully whacked-out lunatics at the LIDA Project.”
-Kurt Brighton, The Denver Post

“It’s riveting, surprising, a beautiful cross…between theater and life.”
-Juliet Wittman, Westword

Production History
January 15 – February 20, 2010: BINDERY | space :: Denver, CO

Media Coverage
Rolling ’round the 80’s (The Denver Post)
Review: Bob Bows (Colorado Drama)
A Wheel Deal (Westword)

The Company
Direction: Brian Freeland / Tonya Malik-Carson
Stage Management: Tommy Sheridan
Asst. Stage Management: Ryan Gaddis
Lighting Design: Steven J. Deidel / Anna R. Kaltenbach
Projection Design: Steven J. Deidel
Sound Design: Brian Freeland
Scenic Design: Steven J. Deidel
Scenic Charge: Schuyler Burks
Costume Design: Julie Rada
Properties Design: Julie Rada

Ensemble
Ed Cord, Desiree Gagnon, Miriam Suzanne, Melanie Owen, Julie Rada, Matthew Schultz, & Crystal Verdon.

Chorus
Julie Adams, Gabrielle Begeman, Vicky Cruz, Danica Dalezal, Sara Downey, Allison Hakala, Heather Rae Johnson, Jessica Kolacny, Ariel Quigley, & Stacey Spaulding.

Images

Video

* Development collaborators: Ed Cord, Steven J. Deidel, Brian Freeland, Desiree Gagnon, Tonya Malik-Carson, Miriam Suzanne, Melanie Owen, Julie Rada, Matthew Schultz, & Crystal Verdon.