post

Pussy + 6

Pussy + 6 (2006)

Pussy + 6 (2006)

Pussy + 6
Week 4 of Suzan-Lori Parks’ work 365 Days / 365 Plays

Week four in Suzan Lori-Parks’ 365 Plays/365 Days  series. Each play received full production and was performed on the evening corresponding to its date. With no fixed seating, these short plays were treated not just as performances but also as mediations and installations. Though in some cases, dialogue lasted no more than one or two minutes, audiences stayed in the space for as long as 60 minutes, engaging with the scenographic environment in and around the downtown warehouse space in which pussy +6 was performed.

The eye of God opens and the eye of God closes, and that entire play world happens on that day. The next day, an entirely new play world is born. – Bonnie Metzgar

Production History
December 4 – December 10, 2006: BINDERY | space :: Denver, CO

Media Coverage
365 Days… 365 Plays – The Denver Post

Company
Direction: Julie Rada
Scenic Design: Julie Rada
Lighting Design: Jacob M. Welch
Sound Design: Paul Cure
Costume Design: Julie Rada
Properties Design: Julie Rada
Puppet/Mask Design: Sophie Nimmannit
Projection Design: Brian Freeland

Ensemble
Isaiah Arney
Jena Davis
Ashley Howard
Matthew Schultz
Karen Slack

The Works
Pussy (12/4)
House of Jones (12/5)
Blackbird (12/6)
The Carpet Cleaner on Pearl Harbor Day (12/7)
The View from Here (12/8)
The Presentation of the Grundig Majestic (12/9)
The History Lesson (12/10)

Images

post

The Anonymous Mr. W.

The Anonymous Mr. W. (2005)

The Anonymous Mr. W. (2005)

The Anonymous Mr. W
a devised work of The LIDA Project* based on Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck

Inspired by Georg Büchner’s unfinished masterpiece, Woyzeck, The LIDA Project reinterprets the story of a young soldier returning from the horrors of war. Reality bends in the unsteady world of this soldier’s mind as he grapples with a society in which he no longer belongs. Originally written in the 1830’s and never finished, Büchner left modern literature with one of its first anti-heroes. This is the portrait of an Everyman who descends into madness and murder.  The Anonymous Mr. W brings this story of war and loss with a vengeance into the post-modern dialogue.

It’s up to audiences to interpret for themselves the hula hoop, the vaudevillian routine, the dominatrix doctor, the autopsy on a ticklish cadaver with sand for blood. – The Denver Post

Production History
December 1, 2005: Mattie’s House of Mirrors :: Denver, CO
December 8, 2005: University of Colorado :: Boulder, CO
December 16 – 18, 2005: Stage Left :: Chicago, IL
December 12 – 13, 2008: BINDERY | space :: Denver, CO

Media Coverage
“Anonymous” hits the road – The Denver Post

Company (2005)
Direction: Brian Freeland
Scenic Design: Brian Freeland
Costume Design: Nissa Almquist
Original Sound Composition: Paul Cure
Sound Design: Brian Freeland
Projection Design: Brian Freeland

Ensemble (2005)
Catherine Duquette
Jacob T. Morehead
Cole Schneider
Matthew Schultz

Company (2008)
Direction: Brian Freeland
Assistant Direction: Miriam Suzanne
Scenic Design: Brian Freeland
Costume Design:Julie Rada / Matthew Schultz
Original Sound Composition: Paul Cure
Sound Design: Brian Freeland
Projection Design: Brian Freeland

Ensemble (2008)
Julie Rada
Matthew Schultz

Images

* Development collaborators: Nissa Almquist, Robin Davies, Hart DeRose, Catherine Duquette, Brian Freeland, Jacob T. Morehead, Julie Rada, Cole Schneider, & Matthew Schultz.

post

Bingo Boyz: Columbine

Bingo Boyz: Columbine (2004)

Mike Holzer & Brian E. Lewis in Bingo Boyz: Columbine (2004). Photo by Eric Webber.

Bingo Boyz: Columbine
a devised work of The LIDA Project*

The trust among the ensemble is evident in the cohesive performances and their telling choices, providing a context for Harris and Klebold’s actions that de-sensationalize the event and re-sensitize us to the common, everyday toxic ingredients that created this explosive recipe.
– Bob Bows, Variety

Production History
March 12 – May 1, 2004: BINDERY | space :: Denver, CO

Awards
Best New Work – Denver Post Ovation Award
Best Younger Actor (Max Posner) – Denver Post Ovation Award
Best New Work of 2004 – Out Front

Company
Direction: Robin Davies
Dramaturgy: Tami Canaday
Scenic Design: Robin Davies
Costume Design: Ensemble
Lighting Design: Wolf Butler
Sound Design: Tyler Potts
Sound Composition: Paul Cure
Properties Design: Steve Gibson
Projection Design: Brian Freeland
Research: Jen French

Ensemble
Jackie Billotte, Heather Day, Hart DeRose, Mike Holzer, Mike Jones, Kate Lauer, Brian E. Lewis, Amelia Mauro, Phil Newsom, Jessica Posner, Max Posner, Sue Rock, Matthew Schultz, Ashley Scott, & Ken Witt

Images

* Development collaborators: Jackie Billotte, Tami Canaday, Robin Davies, Heather Day, Hart DeRose, Brian Freeland, Jen French, Mike Holzer, Mike Jones, Kate Lauer, Brian E. Lewis, Amelia Mauro, Phil Newsom, Jessica Posner, Max Posner, Sue Rock, Matthew Schultz, Ashley Scott, Jadelynn Stahl, & Ken Witt

 

Family Stories: Belgrade

Family Stories: Belgrade (2002) . Photo by Jacob M. Welch.

Family Stories: Belgrade (2002) . Photo by Jacob M. Welch.

Family Stories: Belgrade
by Biljana Srbljanovic (translated by Rebecca Ann Rugg)

Set in the desolate projects of 1998 Belgrade, Family Stories: Belgrade portrays a child’s surreal war-time game of “house”. In the wasteland of a country devastated by an unfinished war, four children expose the violence of a society and ultimately a family at war.

Production History
May 17 – June 29, 2002 : BINDERY | space :: Denver, CO

Awards
Best Supporting Actor (Chris Tabb), Denver Post Ovation Award Nomination
Best Productions of 2002 list, The Rocky Mountain News

The Company
Direction: Brian Freeland
Assistant Direction: Nya Watkins / Cristofer Lix
Lighting Design: Jacob M. Welch
Scenic Design: The LIDA Project
Sound Design: Paul Cure
Fight Choreography: Dane Torbenson
Producers: Jeannene Bragg / Melanie Mayner

Ensemble (alphabetical order)
Vojin: Robin Davies
Andrija: Chris Tabb
Nadezda: Mare Trevathan
Milena: Kelley Wade

Images

The Merchant of Auschwitz

The Merchant of Auschwitz (1999). Photo Eric Webber

The Merchant of Auschwitz (1999). Nils Ivan Swanson (L) as Shylock and Jim Miller (R) as Bassanio. Photo Eric Webber.

The Merchant of Auschwitz
adaptation by Brian Freeland based on William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

A young jewish student, captured in a time of madness, is caught with a copy of The Merchant of Venice. What follows is a debate acted out through the text of one of the most controversial plays of our time.

“In the winter of 1943 I was a member of a company which performed before the SS guards at the extermination camp of Auschwitz. We actors received prodigal hospitality and were waited on by prisoners—long columns of whom we saw with our very eyes. We were greatly astonished at their wearing only striped prison smocks in the middle of winter.”
– Dieter Borsche, German film star

The Third Reich mobilized mass audiences on a scale amounting to a cultural revolution—not so much to expose them to propagandist theatre, as to turn their very presence in the theatre into propaganda.
– Richard Grunberger, Third Reich historian

Production History
April 16 – May 29, 1999 : The LIDA Project Experimental Theatre :: Denver, CO

Awards
Best Experimental Theatre Production, Westword
Best New Play (Brian Freeland), Denver Drama Critics Circle Award Nomination
Best Sound Design (Jeremiah Lyman Moore), Denver Drama Critics Circle Award

Media Coverage
Flesh Wounds
, Westword

The Company
Direction: Brian Freeland
Producer: Catherine E. Worster
Dramaturgy: Mary Martin / John Schuttler
Translations: Anne Angyal 

Sound Design: Jeremiah Lyman Moore
Scenic Design: Jason Humphrey
Scenic Painting: Anne Angyal
Lighting Design: Brian Freeland
Costume Design: Lisa Mumpton / Catherine E. Worster
Properties Design: Catherine E. Worster
Dialect Coach: Heather Hollingsworth
Fight Choreography: Dane Torbenson

Ensemble
Portia: Tara M.E. Thompson
Bassanio: Jim Miller
Shylock: Nils Ivan Swanson
Antonio: Josh Hartwell
Jessica: Lisa Mumpton
Lorenzo: Paul Cure
Launcelot: Steven Brown
Nerissa: Patty Mintz Figel
Salarino: Sara Casperson
Salanio: Julia Truitt
Translator: Anne Angyal
Hitler Youth: Chris Hale

Hamletmachine

Hamletmachine (1997)

Catherine E. Worster and Nils Ivan Swanson in Hamletmachine (1997). Photo by Eric Weber.

Hamletmachine
by Heiner Müller

From the mind of the late Heiner Müller comes this elegantly deconstructed treatment of the Hamlet myth, placed at the fall of Communism and the dawn of the new Millennium.

Production History
April 18 – May 11, 1997 : The LIDA Project Theatre :: Denver, CO

Awards
Best Experimental Theatre Production, Best of Westword 1997

The Company
Direction: Brian Freeland
Lighting Design: Brian Freeland
Sound Design: Brian Freeland
Scenic Design: Brian Freeland
Costume Design: Katharine Guthrie

Ensemble
Paul Cure: Father / Polonius / Hamlet 3
Katharine Guthrie: Horatio
Brian E. Lewis: Laertes / Hamlet 2
Nils Ivan Swanson: Hamlet 1
Tara M.E. Thompson: Gertrude / Lenin
Catherine E. Worster: Ophelia / Marx

 

Daughters of Lot

Nils Ivan Swanson & Katherine Gutherie. Daughters of Lot (1996)

Nils Ivan Swanson & Katherine Guthrie. Daughters of Lot (1996).

Daughters of Lot
by Brian E. Lewis

And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said until the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the Earth to come into us after the manner of all Earth: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he precieved not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the marrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: Let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the Daughters of Lot with child by their father.
– Book of Genesis, Chapter 19, 30-37

Production History
April 22 – 28, 1996 : The MK-Ultra Theatre :: Denver, CO
August 1 – 24, 1996 : Jack’s Theatre :: Denver, CO
August 13 – 23, 1997 : La Tea :: New York City, NY
September 5 – October 5, 1997 : The LIDA Project Theatre :: Denver, CO

The Company (April 1996)
Direction: Brian Freeland
Assistant Direction: Brian E. Lewis
Scenic Design: Brian Freeland / Brian E. Lewis
Original Music: Paul Cure
Sound Design: Brian Freeland
Costume Design: Katharine Guthrie

Ensemble (April 1996)
Joshua: Nils Ivan Swanson
Martha: Rebeque Destro
Mary: Katharine Guthrie
Mute: Sara Casperson
Damon: Brian Freeland

The Company (August 1996)
Direction: Brian Freeland
Assistant Direction: Brian E. Lewis
Scenic Design: Brian Freeland / Brian E. Lewis
Original Music: Paul Cure
Sound Design: Brian Freeland
Lighting Design: Craig Osterberg
Costume Design: Katharine Guthrie

Ensemble
(August 1996)
Joshua: Nils Ivan Swanson
Martha: Katharine Guthrie
Mary: kryssi wyckoff martin
Ruth: Sara Casperson

The Company (August / September 1997)
Direction: Brian Freeland
Assistant Direction: Brian E. Lewis
Scenic Design: Matthew Morgan
Original Music: Paul Cure
Sound Design: Matthew Morgan
Lighting Design: Matthew Morgan
Costume Design: Katharine Guthrie

Ensemble
(August 1997)
Joshua: Nils Ivan Swanson
Martha: Katharine Guthrie
Mary: Tara M.E. Thompson
Ruth: Sara Casperson

Ensemble (September 1997)
Joshua: Nils Ivan Swanson
Martha: Catherine E. Worster
Mary: Tara M.E. Thompson
Ruth: Sara Casperson