Turtle Shell Theater

Joseph Hendel, Lauren Rayner, and ADEV Inc. present Eugene Ionesco's The Future is in Eggs and Luigi Pirandello's Sicilian Limes two forgotten modernist plays that are incredibly relevant in an age of economic scarcity, political pessimism, and cultural disaffection. Through strong improvisational-based acting and a cutting-edge use of technology, this production will unite the stylistically disparate one-acts into a coherent expression of hopeful defiance, one that entertains while simultaneously challenging the audience's perceptions about love, money, and personal fulfillment.

Ionesco's The Future is in Eggs is a daring and hysterical example of The Theater of the Absurd. After entering into an arranged marriage, it is time for Jacques and Robertato produce some offspring. With their family members eagerly looking on they begin to “hatch” their eggs. In Pirandello's Sicilian Limes a dark, expressionistic farce, small-town musician Micuccio comes to the big city to marry the poor country girl he helped turn into a famous opera star. In contrast to the Ionesco play, which is played more traditionally to the audience, the Pirandello play offers so many possible interpretations that it will be presented using never-before-used interactive audio technology, affording the audience access to multiple perspectives and engaging them in the theater-making process.

The company includes Adam Hocherman, Bradley Sumner, Brendan Sokler, Frankie Johnson, Grace Folsom, Joel Malazita, Lisa Hickman, Meaghan Sloane, and Skylar Saltz.The creative team includes sound by Nick Engel, sets by Charlie Gaidicaand lights by Evan Gannon with direction by Joseph Hendel.

An innovative night of theatre using state-of-the-art technology and experimental acting to explore the work of two of the 20th century's greatest dramatists. Thought-provoking and visceral works that delight, enrage, and inspire: Joseph Hendel, Lauren Rayner, and ADEV Inc. present Ionesco’s The Future is in Eggs and Pirandello’s Sicilian Limes from June 17 thru June 26, 2011 at The Shell Theatre in New York City.

 

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Joseph Hendel (DIRECTOR) is a young director working in New York City. Scion of a family of theater producers (most recently behind FELA! on Broadway), he is interested in creating work that is authentic and socially relevant. Recent productions include Moliere's The Learned Ladies at the Kraine, David Ives' All in the Timing at the Knitting Factory, and assistant director on David West Read's The Dream of the Burning Boy at the Roundabout Underground. He is also a skilled musician and improviser, playing trombone and keyboards in Gary Lucas' Gods and Monsters and performing at the Magnet Theater every other Tuesday on the house team Tambourine. He holds a B.A. in music from Yale University. 

Lauren Rayner (PRODUCER) is a producer, director, and playwright. Favorite Off-Off-Broadway producing credits include: disOriented (Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 42nd Street); Jesse Zaritt’s BINDING (PS 122; as producing associate, Theatre C; winner of 3 NY Innovative Theatre Awards), One Arm and A Leg (dir: Calla Videt; HERE and Theater for the New City); The Mask of Medusa (Roots & Wings Theatrical; ‘Thumbs Up Pick’ on TheaterOnline) and MENDACITY (Kraine Theater; extended by FRIGID New York). She is currently an Associate Producer for Theatre C and VoiceChair Productions and works at the Lark Play Development Center. In New York, she has worked at the Cherry Lane Theatre, The Play Company, Women’s Expressive Theatre, Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and in Los Angeles at Center Theatre Group. laurenrayner.com

ADEV Inc. (TECHNOLOGY COLLABORATOR) is the developer of MyStream, a new app now available at the iTunes store. The MyStream mobile app is a device-to-device audio broadcasting technology which provides users with the ability to synchronously and wirelessly listen to music together. For this production, MyStream will be used in conjunction with older technologies to offer an interactive theater experience that gives audience members access to multiple "streams" of language, sounds, and thought. mystreamapp.com

 

Running Time = 1 hour 15 minutes

Introducing:

Night of the Living Debutant, Everybody Gets 15 Minutes, Borderline, and Reunion

Will zombies take over the world with their telemarketing antics? Can a malpractice doctor finally decide whether or not a patient has a bullet in her chest? Will the clock actually strike 12 marking the end of the world...and the end of a love triangle? Can a couple's New York landmark reunion alter a past and shape their future? "Witty" "Inventive" "Bouncy" "Hilarious!" Come see FOUR eclectic one-act plays and find the answers to timeless questions and many others.

 

Turtle Shell Productions presents the world premiere of a new adaptation by Martin Zuckerman of Henry James's novella, THE ASPERN PAPERS. One of James's personal favorites, it features rich characters in a well-crafted story about an American scholar in 1880's Venice who goes to great lengths in order to secure the private letters of a famous poet. See this classic laced with romance and deceit on the New York stage, 100 years since the publishing of the "New York edition" of THE ASPERN PAPERS and 120 years since it first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly.

Starring Kelly King*, Carol Lambert* and Elisabeth Grace Rothan*
*Members of Actors' Equity Association

"Take your kids to this uproarious Scapin" (Jon Sobel - BlogCritics).
"A funny and fun evening of theater for anyone looking for a classic laugh...Scapin is hilarious." (Amy Freeman - offoffonline).
"...an exciting and energetic show." (Byrne Harrison - StageBuzz).
"...brims over with comic invention, joy, wit and lightness." (Jonathan Reuning - United Stages)

Audiences and critics are enjoying Turtle Shell Productions' world premiere of an innovative and very entertaining new translation of Molière's Scapin, with rich language and plenty of laughs. The theater is transformed into a colorful, fantastical cartoon-like version of a festive Italian street festival, complemented by rich and flamboyant costumes. Director Shawn Rosza's innovative adaptation pays homage to Commedia but sets the action in the 1970's in "Itty Bitty Italy," a tiny village whose yearly festival provides the backdrop for a veritable carnival of uproarious characters and their antics, none more outrageous than the rascally Scapin.

The award-winning "Following the Yellow Brick Road...Down the Rabbit Hole" features a breath-taking performance by Terri Campion who seamlessly and dramatically leaps from character to character as she traces the heated struggles of Cissy, a young Catholic girl struggling to learn if there is a way to have a fun and happy life and STILL get into heaven when we die.

Recipient of the 2007 Jerry Kaufman Award for excellence in playwrighting, "Following the Yellow Brick Road...Down the Rabbit Hole" is a poignant, witty and skillfully executed exploration of sexuality, Catholicism and growing up a late bloomer. In the course of her journey we meet friends, mothers, nuns, priests, siblings and a jolly janitor, all who have their own philosophy on life, and all brought to life in a remarkable and often humorous one-woman show where the author plays all 18 roles, many of them "on stage" at the same time. "Terri is diverting, touching and illuminating all evening long," says veteran director Aaron Frankel, author of "Writing the Broadway Musical".

Stage Manager & Lighting Designer - TaShawn "Pope" Jackson

Executive Producer - Jeremy Handelman

For the first time in New York, "Thank You, Kind Spirit" and "Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily?" will be presented on stage as Turtle Shell Productions & The Terrapin Troupe and Off The Leash Productions present "FIVE BY TENN". The two short plays are among several by Tennessee Williams that were first discovered in 2000 at The University of Texas. The other three plays in "FIVE BY TENN" are "Talk To Me Like the Rain And Let Me Listen", "Hello From Bertha", and "The Lady of Larkspur Lotion".

Set in New Orleans, the musings of Mother DuClos of "Thank You, Kind Spirit" thread their mysterious way through five tales of desperate people who struggle mightily with their suffocating existence. "Five by Tenn" reveals the powerful themes of hope and despair that resonate so powerfully in Williams' later work.

Turtle Shell founder and artistic director John W. Cooper, who will direct "FIVE BY TENN", believes these five plays foreshadow some of the great female characters in the Williams canon and that "this production will provide a window into the early development of one of our greatest American playwrights."

In an inventive staging of these Williams plays, each story unfolds in the mind of Mother DuClos, a spiritualist who may be a fraud or a believer, thus casting the at-times delusional behavior of the other characters into sharp relief.

Directed by John W. Cooper
Produced by John W. Cooper & Jeremy Handelman
Dramaturg - Scott McCrea
Assistant Director - Patrick Mills
Set Design - Ryan Scott
Lighting Design - Eric Larson
Costume Design - A. Christina Giannini
Sound Design - Roman Battaglia
Dialect Coach - Karla Nielson

With Emily Arrington, Kay Bailey, Christie Booker, *Susan Capra, *Natalie Carter, Christina Christman, Jovanka Ciares, Elizabeth Clark, Nina Covalesky, Michael Culhane, *Barbara Ann Davison, Leon Fallon, Chris Ford, *Joyce Feurring, Daniel Kipler, Grace Manzo, Trish Montoya, Sylvia Mincewicz, *Margaret O'Connor, Vincent Oppecker, Candice Palladino, Lennard Sillevis, *Rebecca Street

*Actor's Equity member
Equity Approved Showcase