Company Name
Theatre Project
Company Website
http://www.theatreproject.org/
Ticketing Link
http://www.theatreproject.org/
2019-2020 Season List
THE WAY OUT
Quarry Theatre
Conceived & Directed by Ryan Clark
Music Composed by Patrick Alexander
August 23 – 31
Suicide transcends every gender, race, age and culture, and, yet, it remains one of the most controversial topics of our society. The headlines, articles, and statistics seem endless, but they also inspire many of the WHY questions of our shared human experience. Why do people choose suicide? Could an understanding of suicide in a historical context help us better navigate the topic today? What lessons can be learned from those who have been affected by suicide? The Way Out is an original devised piece of theatre aimed at investigating the cultural, biological, historic and stigmatic impact surrounding suicide. http://www.theatreproject.org/the-way-out/
COLLECTIVE RAGE A New Play in 5 Betties
By Jen Silverman
Iron Crow Theatre
September 6 – 15
Heralded by The New York Times as “a full-tilt lesbian/bi-curious/genderqueer/Shakespearean comedy for everyone,” Collective Rage follows five different women named Betty as they collide at the intersection of anger, sex, and the “Thea-Tah.” Betty is rich; Betty is lonely; Betty’s busy working on her truck; Betty wants to talk about love, but Betty needs to hit something; and Betty keeps using a small hand mirror to stare into parts of herself she’s never examined. Award-winning playwright, Jen Silverman’s absurdist dark comedy is simultaneously hilarious, inspired and boldly unapologetic. Are you ready for the revolution? Please note that Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties explores mature themes, contains adult language, partial nudity, sexual content and simulated violence. Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties may not be suitable for patrons under the age of 18. http://www.theatreproject.org/collective-rage/
HIGH ZERO 2019
High Zero Foundation
September 19 – 22
High Zero is the premier festival of Improvised, Experimental music on the East Coast, being fully devoted to new collaborations between the most inspired improvisors from around the world. Celebrating its 21st year, High Zero is THE annual international improvisational avant-garde music event that reaches all over town and around the world. From Afar: Steve Baczkowski, Buffalo (saxophone, multi-wind instrumentalist) Bob Bellerue, NYC (improvised feedback manipulation) Forbes Graham, Boston (trumpet, laptop computer) Sarah Hennies, Ithaca (vibraphone, percussion) Susie Kozawa, Seattle (sound art), Charmaine Lee, NYC (vocalist) Jayve Montgomery, Nashville (woodwinds, percussion, and electronics) Le Quan Ninh, Saint-Silvain-sous-Toulx, France (surrounded bass drum) Danishta Rivero, Oakland (voice, electronics) Ståle Liavik Solberg, Oslo, Norway (drums and percussion) Biliana Voutchkova, Berlin, Germany (violin, voice) From Baltimore: CK Barlow (live sampling, electronics) Tom Boram (harpsichord, synthesizer) Samuel Burt (daxophone, clarinets) Ledah Finck (violin, viola) Nik Francis (percussion, electronics) Owen Gardner (guitar, cello) Clarissa Gregory (dance) Bonnie Jones (electronics) Bonnie Lander (soprano) Kristen Toedtman (voice, violin, piano) Jeron White (bass) http://www.theatreproject.org/high-zero-2019/
BUTTERFLY
The In Series
By Giacomo Puccini
September 28 & 29
Intimately experienced, Puccini’s classic is given new force in a theatre experience that reveals the raw humanity behind this epic score. This profoundly arresting new version, stripped of the distancing artifice and exoticism of the original, returns to the structure of the source play that inspired overwhelming music. Sung in Italian with English supertitles. http://www.theatreproject.org/butterfly/
THE ARTIST WILL BE WITH YOU IN A MOMENT
Parallel Exit
October 3 – 6
Joel Jeske is Joel Jeske as Joel Jeske. This begs the question: Who is Joel Jeske? He is the creator/performer behind The Artist Will Be With You In A Moment: A multi-media clown performance piece inspired by the works of Brecht, Beckett, Tati, Keaton, and performance artist Maria Abramovic. Joel Jeske, the performer, is portraying Joel Jeske, the artist, who is performing Joel Jeske, the universal comic everyman in his never-ending pursuit to be understood as an artist. Sound complicated? It’s really quite simple. Really. http://www.theatreproject.org/the-artist-will-be-with-you-in-a-moment/
PROXY
By Alex Reeves & Nell Quinn-Gibney
Directed by T.P. Huth
Rapid Lemon Productions
October 11 – 20
Rapid Lemon Productions closes their 2019 Season of Belief with another world premiere play. Artificial intelligence, genuine grief, and a patchwork family. When we die, who cares for those we leave behind? http://www.theatreproject.org/proxy/
CABARET MACABRE
Happenstance Theater
October 24 – November 3
Happenstance Theater presents CABARET MACABRE. A perfect autumnal tradition, this witty Theatrical Collage is inspired by the illustrations of Edward Gorey, Victorian nightmares, musical histrionics, gothic romance, the perilous deep, calamitous excursions, and the dangers of croquet. The Washington Post calls Happenstance Theater’s series of dark, comic vignettes “Wickedly funny…a Gorey illustration brought to life. It’s a feather that will tickle your fancy.” “Cabaret Macabre gleams with the precision that has become Happenstance’s hallmark … ghoulishly gratifying...” Washington City Paper Featuring: Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Alex Vernon, and special guest artist Ellen Cherry
COATED: 1944 CIRCUS FIRE PROJECT
Open Ring Circus
November 5 & 6
Coated: 1944 Circus Fire Project commemorates the tragedy of July 6, 1944. On July 6, 1944, the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus pitched their tents in Hartford, Connecticut. At their matinee show that day, as the Flying Wallendas took their place on the tightwire platform, the tent went up in flames, claiming upwards of 168 lives, and injuring more than 700. In the 75 years since the tragic fire, the event has not made its way into history books or common knowledge. Open Ring Circus, determined to remember the lives lost and altered; the heroes of the fire; and the mark it has made on both civilian and performer histories, brings this story to the stage. Through aerial arts, acrobatic storytelling, and custom-designed set pieces, performers physically and emotionally demonstrate the risk and fear the audience experienced on July 6, 1944, and confront the blame and responsibility that circus officials and town officials were faced with as a result of this disaster. Through the lens of the 1944 circus fire, Coated poses questions about the ways we experience trauma and recovery, human fragility and resilience today. *While Coated is suitable for all ages, it is designed for a teen and adult audience* http://www.theatreproject.org/coated-1944-circus-fire-project/
REFUGE: NEEDING, SEEKING, FINDING
Full Circle Dance Company
November 16 & 17
Full Circle Dance Company, known for tackling pressing real-world issues with emotional and physical power, presents the all-new show REFUGE: Needing, Seeking, Finding. REFUGE is designed to challenge and nourish both the mind and the soul. Bringing together choreographers from diverse backgrounds, the show dives into big issues such as immigration and the global refugee crisis, exploring ideas of home, loss, and belonging. It also illuminates the more intimate quest for refuge from the strains of contemporary life and from turmoil within our communities, our families, and ourselves. Featuring dramatic and varied music, vivid personal storytelling, hard truths, and a dose of levity, REFUGE highlights the diverse perspectives of veteran and emerging artists from Baltimore and beyond. *The Saturday matinee performance (November 16 at 2:30) will be a benefit for The Esperanza Center. The Esperanza Center is a comprehensive immigrant resource center in Baltimore that offers hope and essential services to people who are new to the United States. What’s in the Show? REFUGE is composed of individual works explicitly designed to be presented together, providing multiple and extremely varied perspectives on the theme. *Transient: Choreographer Elizabeth Quinones explores the immigrant experience of leaving, seeking, and finding home. Described by preview audiences as “cinematic,” this work showcases Full Circle Dance Company’s characteristic blend of virtuosity and expressive power. *It’ll Be Fun…They Said!: Parents of all ages will find truth in Jennifer Seye’s reflection on the need for refuge from the demands of our own children, no matter how beloved they are. *Facing Me: Working with a specially commissioned score, choreographer Nicole Tucker Smith explores the challenge of confronting mental illness within our families and communities. She explains, “I created this piece because I’ve felt the loss that happens when we look away and I know the struggle of confronting the challenges head on. Both hurt. This dance is a search for acceptance, healing, and peace.” *Comic Interlude: Misty Borst Yackshaw finds refuge in clothing, which can both conceal us from the world and facilitate true expression. Believing we all need a fun break from the heavy side of life, her work celebrates humor as refuge from the woes of the world. *Walled Off: Full Circle Artistic Director Donna L. Jacobs presents a new work inspired by the dehumanizing rhetoric surrounding immigration and refugees in today’s America. This work highlights the power of dance to help us see complex problems in a new light. *For Keepsakes: Love, Jim Crow: Hope B. Byers illuminates the dark history of lynching that is part of the American story. She reminds us that while many African-Americans found refuge in northern cities, for the thousands murdered, as well as for white children damaged by exposure to racist violence, no refuge could be found. *the full circle: Kakuti Davis Lin’s brief, meditative work embodies the way a community of female artists provides consistent refuge from life’s challenges and hardships. *Untitled: Philadelphia-based choreographer Kareem Best delivers a dramatic piece about finding solace in our common humanity in a world that can be isolating and dehumanizing. http://www.theatreproject.org/refuge-needing-seeking-finding/
COPPIN-CLANCYWORKS COLLEGE AND COMMUNITY DANCE COLLABORATION 2019
ClancyWorks Dance Company & Coppin State University Dance Ensemble
November 22 – 24 Experience an evening of contemporary dance as the Coppin State University Repertory Dance Ensemble and ClancyWorks Dance Company team up for an evening of choreographic impact. This collaborative performance draws on community collaborations from dancers and choreographers hailing from Coppin State University, ClancyWorks Dance Company, and a number of Baltimore County and Baltimore City High Schools, in order to bridge the gap between Baltimore’s communities using movement art. Join us for a talk back after the show to discuss current issues around the Arts and community building. http://www.theatreproject.org/coppin-clancyworks-college-and-community-d...
THE VIEW UPSTAIRS
By Max Vern
Iron Crow Theatre
December 6 – 15
Max Vernon’s hit new queer musical, The View UpStairs, is set to become this generation’s next iconic phenomenon! With deep heart and a gritty, glam rock score reminiscent of RENT and Next to Normal, The View UpStairs transports us back in time to the UpStairs Lounge, an actual once-vibrant ’70s gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans and the target of the worst anti-gay hate crime until the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. As this forgotten community of renegades comes to life, the audience is taken on an exhilarating journey of finding one’s chosen family — spanning two generations of queer history that Entertainment Weekly calls “a moving homage to LGBT culture, past and present.” The View UpStairs is a beautiful reminder, especially with the onset of the winter holidays — an often difficult time within queer communities — that chosen family is family. Please note that The View UpStairs explores mature themes, contains adult language, partial nudity, sexual content and simulated violence. The View UpStairs may not be suitable for patrons under the age of 16. http://www.theatreproject.org/the-view-upstairs/
7(X1) SAMURAI
By David Gaines
December 21 & 22
7 (x1) Samurai is an hour-long, acrobatic, wordless, cartoon-styled solo rendition of Kurosawa’s classic 3 hour epic film The Seven Samurai. It is breathtaking, memorable, and astonishingly funny. Energetic, ridiculous, hilarious, and acrobatic, it is a thrilling demonstration of movement, gesture, rhythm, mask work (with two Kabuki inspired masks), vocalized sound effects, deft character portrayals, and a mischievous sense of humor. With just these tools, an epic and timeless story is brought to life on the wide screen of the audience’s imagination. http://www.theatreproject.org/7x1-samurai/
THE NEAR MISSES
January 3 & 4
The Near Misses is a 4-woman electropop band & experimental opera comprising an original song cycle based on true near-death stories. There is accompanying dance and movement as well as sound collages from first-person survivor recordings. One performer plays synth/keytar, another performer plays cello, violin, and accordion, and percussion comes mainly from an oven, a ladder, a pile of leaves, and keys. The Near Misses shifts expectations of what a band can be and takes the audience on a journey from individual to collective impact of trauma and memory. http://www.theatreproject.org/the-near-misses/
NOTHING UP MY SLEEVES
Chris Lengyel
January 11
Magician Chris Lengyel brings his show Nothing Up My Sleeves to Theatre Project. This show is an all ages, interactive, comedy magic/illusion show featuring close-up magic, escapes, mentalism, and bigger scaled effects. http://www.theatreproject.org/nothing-up-my-sleeves/
KARAGÖZ THEATRE
The Forest of the Witch and Hamlet
January 24 – 26
Karagöz is the traditional shadow puppet theatre of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and is named after its main characters, Karagöz and Hacivat. It is known as one of the oldest shadow performances in the world dating back to nearly 700 years in Anatolia. Karagöz was included in the UNESCO representative list of Intangible Culture Heritage of Humanity in 2009. Join us for an evening of two Karagöz plays. The Forest of The Witch is a modern interpretation of Karagöz, literally Black-Eye, who is the hero of traditional Anatolian shadow plays. The story of The Forest of the Witch is adapted from a play named Bloody Tree by Turkish shadow theatre performer Muhittin Sevilen. Hamlet is the most popular play of William Shakespeare. It has been performed hundreds of thousands of times to date. Karagöz Theatre brings together the 400-year-old Shakespeare play with the 700-year Karagöz genre for the first time. The Karagöz Theater Company has created a modern interpretation of traditional art. Both shows are adapted by Huseyin Sorgun, and directed and performed by Ayhan Hulagu. http://www.theatreproject.org/karagoz-theatre/
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW
Book, Music and Lyrics by Richard O’Brien
Iron Crow Theatre
February 7 – 16
Baltimore’s award-winning and favorite tradition, The Rocky Horror Show, returns with a Valentine’s Day spin like you’ve never seen before! Experience this quintessential queer theatrical experience live on stage — complete with call-outs, cascading toilet paper, and an array of other audience participation props. In this live stage musical best known for the 1975 cult film, sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, seek shelter at a mysterious old castle on a dark and stormy night, where they encounter transvestite scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Dr. Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named “Rocky.” Bring your sweetheart (or sweethearts!) to this deliberately kitschy rock ‘n’ roll sci-fi gothic thriller, now more daring and outrageous than ever! Be sure not to miss the special Valentine’s Day midnight performance! Please note that The Rocky Horror Show explores mature themes, contains adult language, partial nudity, sexual content and simulated violence. The Rocky Horror Show may not be suitable for patrons under the age of 18. http://www.theatreproject.org/the-rocky-horror-show-2/
BASIS OF INTENTION
Falkner Discher
March 13 – 15
Basis of Intention explores the realms of human spirit, perseverance, and uncertainty. By setting choreography to the spoken word of Holocaust survivors and music, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. Imparting a sense of awareness, the audience is encouraged to see that no greatness is achieved because it is convenient, but rather because of the intentional decisions we make moment by moment. http://www.theatreproject.org/basis-of-intention/
MAROONED
Alex & Olmsted
April 30 - May 10
Alex & Olmsted (creators of the Jim Henson Foundation Grant awarded Milo the Magnificent) return to BTP with their hit show, Marooned! A Space Comedy. This physical theater, puppet hybrid show takes place at the outer reaches of space. An astronaut crashes on an uncharted planet and has to face strange creatures, anomalous atmosphere, and isolation with only her Autonomous Task Assistant (ATA) to help her survive. All ages. http://www.theatreproject.org/marooned/
HOMOS, OR EVERYONE IN AMERICA
By Jordan Seavey
Iron Crow Theatre
May 29 – June 7
“Love is love” – but is navigating it any less complicated today? Jordan Seavey’s Homos; or Everyone in America, named one of New York Magazine’s and The Advocate’s Top 10 Theater Events of 2016, is a bold and daring love story that forces anyone to examine what it means to be in a committed relationship. Told through interweaving glimpses into the life of an everyday couple unexpectedly confronted by a vicious crime, Homos, or Everyone in America is a fearless, funny, heart-on-its-sleeve examination of the moments that can bring two people together – or pull them apart. Please note that Homos, or Everyone in America explores mature themes, contains adult language, partial nudity, sexual content and simulated violence. Homos, or Everyone in America may not be suitable for patrons under the age of 18. http://www.theatreproject.org/homos-or-everyone-in-america/
