Spring Classes at Perishable Theatre

INTRODUCTION TO ACTINGMondays, 6:30-9:30 PM, April 25-June 20, with BECKY BURNS. $210No class Memorial Day, May 30. This is a fundamental course for anyone interested in acting on stage orscreen. It focuses on basic skills using exercises, improvisation,monologue work, and scene study. Some work outside class is required, butno prior experience is necessary. You’ll finish the class prepared formore in-depth training and your first auditions—and you’ll have a greattime along the way. SCENE STUDYMondays, 6:30-9:30 PM, April 25-June 20, with MARK PECKHAMNo class Memorial Day, May 30. Designed for the intermediate to advanced actor, this class focuses on themoment-to-moment reality of the scene and making specific acting choicesthat support the text. Please come prepared with a monologue (2 minutes orless) on the first day. While Mark will help guide you toward great scenes,please be ready to find scenes from contemporary scripts. Or bring a listof your “dream scenes”—roles you’d love to play, but aren’t likely to get.For example, if you’re a 50-something guy yearning to portray Juliet, now’syour chance! Mark Peckham’s recent acting work includes Alfred Doolittle in My FairLady at the Virginia Stage Company, Buried Child at Boston’s Nora TheatreCompany and the Ghost of Christmas Present in Trinity Rep’s A ChristmasCarol. This fall, he directed Kimberly Akimbo at 2nd Story Theatre. Otherrecent directing credits include Kill A Mockingbird and Orpheus Descending(also at 2nd Story), On the Verge, Full Hook-up, Talking With… AnythingGoes and The Unnamed. He has worked extensively as an acting teacher andtheatre instructor with Providence College, RISD, 2nd Story Theatre, andAll Children’s’ Theatre. This spring, Mark will appear in Perishable'sproduction of the drama 1:23 by Carson Kreitzer. IMPROV COMEDY PERFORMANCE LEVEL 1 Tuesdays, 7:00-10:00 PM, April 26-June 21 with MELISSA BOWLERWeek off TBD Ever watched an improv performance and thought, “I could do that,” or “howdo they do that?” This is the class for you. Play your favorite gamesfrom the stage and TV screen as you learn basic techniques ofcharacterization, game composition, and scene building. Strengthen themuscles of your imagination with on your feet training in short and longform improvisation. Then, wrap it all up with a presentation for familyand friends. Actor and playwright Melissa Bowler has been performing Improvsince 2002 with such groups as Rejects on the Rise, Inside Jokes, Out ofthe Gutter, Unexpected Company, Thibowla Virus and Improv Jones. She hasperformed at various comedy and improv festivals including Miami, Torontoand Austin in addition to teaching and directing improv for children andadults for the past six years. Melissa also performs stand-up and sketchcomedy with the Sparkling Beatniks of The Empire Revue. Actor and playwright Melissa Bowler has been performing Improv since 2002with such groups as Rejects on the Rise, Inside Jokes, Out of the Gutter,Unexpected Company, Thibowla Virus and Improv Jones. She has performed atvarious comedy and improv festivals including Miami, Toronto and Austin inaddition to teaching and directing improv for children and adults for thepast six years. Melissa also performs stand-up and sketch comedy with theSparkling Beatniks of The Empire Revue. PLAYWRITING FOR EVERYONETuesdays, 7:00-10:00 PM, April 26-June 21 with David ElietWeek off TBD From beginning to advanced, from neophyte to Shakespeare. Indulge yourtaste for the dramatic, the comic, the tragi-comic or the pastoral. Work onthat play you’ve always been meaning to write, or work on the exercisesthat will be given out in each and every class. Plot out your plots,sharpen your dialogue, and hone your characterization skills. Finish up theclass with readings of your work by live actors. But most of all: write,write, write.Playwright and director David Eliet founded of The Perishable Theatre in1983 and served as the director of The Cleveland Play House Lab Company andthe Circle In The Square Acting Ensemble. He was a founder of The TrinityRep Conservatory (now the Brown/Trinity Consortium) and the All Children’sTheatre Ensemble. He has been an Edward F. Albee Playwriting Fellow, aRhode Island State Council on The Arts Playwriting Fellow, a FulbrightScholar and a recipient of an Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellowship. His twomost recent plays were supported by grants from the RI State Council on theArts. His plays have been published and produced in this country andabroad in both English and in translation. OPEN LEVEL MODERN with Olase Freeman and Katie McNamara
Saturdays, 10:00-11:30 AM, ongoingThis beginner friendly class is designed to be a physical experience inmovement dynamic and connection. It offers engaging and accessible ways ofconditioning and mobility which are then encompassed in movement exercisesand sequences. Generally the class starts in fundamental releasefloorwork, conditioning and stretch. It then progresses to combine thiswork with the myriad of ways to move on and off our centers of gravity. Much of the movement is inspired by Yoga, Capoeira, Salsa, Hip-Hop andContemporary Modern forms. Overall the intent is to create a class wherelearning is enjoyable and the experience is energizing and passionate. Katie McNamara, a dancer, choreographer and teacher currently lives in herhometown of Providence, Rhode Island. Along with her husband Olase Freeman,she co-directs their company, BaldSoul. Their most recent work isparenting a beautiful boy, Kayin Effie. Katie spent the majority of herpreliminary professional years in Philadelphia where she danced with manyfine local companies. During this time she also co-founded and directedthe Bald Mermaids, named “best new modern dance company” by Philadelphia’sCity Paper. Her work has been shown at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival,Philadelphia’s Painted Bride Art Center, the Carriage House, Galapagos ArtSpace, the Projekt Theatre (Dresden, Germany) as well as during theSilesian Dance Festival (Bytom, Poland). Her recent choreographicresidencies include Rhode Island College Dance Company, Providence CollegeDance Company, Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University. Shecurrently teaches part time at Roger Williams University. Katie has had aten year career as a pilates teacher and presently teaches at JenMcWalters’ Studio. She is pursuing a MFA in dance at University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee. Olase Freeman is a dancer/choreographer recently relocated to RhodeIsland. A partial list of the companies he has worked with include JaneComfort & Co., Creach/Dance and Marlies Yearby’s Movin’ Spirits Theater,Headlong Dance Theater, and Leah Stein Dance Company. Heavily influenced byhis late friends and mentors, Cynthia Novack and Richard Bull, he continuestheir spirit of investigation and commitment employing spirals, rhythm andbreath. Olase's choreographic work has been performed in such diversevenues as The Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), Movement Research at JudsonChurch, Link’s Hall (Chicago), the Cunningham Studio, Joyce/Soho, DixonPlace, Thelma Hill (Long Island University), the Philadelphia FringeFestival (2002), as well as RIIPN/Cheek-to-Cheek and American Dance LegacyInstitute (Brown University).

Call 401-331-2695 x 102 or email classes@perishable.org to sign up.

April Fool's: Triangle Forest and Hoska @ The Salon

Live music at The Salon!

Triangle Forest

Hoska

PLUS, a surprise or two!

CLUCK, CLUCK!

Interrobang?! Magazine launches Volume Four at Ada Books, this Friday 3/25/11

Interrobang?! Magazine is a web and print ‘zine for the arts, providing a formal venue for voices of all kinds, whether it be fiction, poetry, nonfiction, creative essays, fine art, or experimental music and video.

First conceived in an informal writing group in Providence, RI, the magazine has quickly grown to include artistic work from all over the country and the world. The idea is to build an artistic community, to give a voice to those who have not been published, or who ordinarily have few venues to choose from with which to showcase their work. We want your stories, your pictures, your music, your oddball esoterica. Check us out at our website: www.interrobangzine.com.

There will be:

-some snacks

-some drinks

-brand new Interro-merchandise

-readings from the magazine

-an open mic where anyone can take the stage and share their particular style of art

Ada Books

717 Westminster Street

Providence, RI 02903

7pm

No cover, but donations encouraged!

1:23 by Carson Kreitzer

When Susan Smith appeared on television sets across the nation appealing for the safe return of her kidnapped children, no one could have imagined the true fate met by her sons: it was not a “black carjacker” that took her boys as she claimed. It was Susan herself who had sent 3-year old Michael and infant Alexander to their watery graves. Six years later another mother- Andrea Yates- committed the same unthinkable crime, drowning her five young children in the family bathtub.

What drives mothers to commit such terrible acts? Is it an aberration or more common than we think? How does postpartum depression, media depictions of motherhood, and societal pressures come to bear on these cases?

This April, Perishable Theatre takes on these challenging issues in the New England Premiere of award-winning playwright Carson Kreitzer’s 1:23.

Known for depicting outlaw women at flash-points in their lives, Kreitzer’s 1:23 is a searing docu-drama about Smith, Yates, and other mothers who have killed their children. Drawn from court testimony, police interrogations, and television broadcasts, 1:23 is a multimedia theatrical "collage” that takes an unblinking look at the circumstances – postpartum psychosis, a history of abuse, social isolation – that drives mothers to this unthinkable act. The Cincinatti Post describes 1:23 as “…not for the faint of heart. But it is also likely to leave the brave with tremors, followed by tears.”

Kreitzer’s work was last seen in Rhode Island when Perishable Theatre produced the wildly popular Self Defense or death of some salesmen, a ripped-from-the-headlines story of Aileen Wuornos, a Florida prostitute who pled self-defense in the murder of several men. Called “sheer dazzling theatricality” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “Stunning and compelling...raw and bold, brutal and ironic, and full of nagging questions” (TimeOut New York), Perishable will no doubt thrill local audiences again with Carson Kreitzer’s 1:23.

Carson Kreitzer-(Playwright) Kreitzer, a core artist at the Playwrights' Center and a member of the Workhaus Collective, has earned numerous plaudits for past work, including the multiple award-winning The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer and Self Defense or Death of Some Salesmen. Kreitzer's other works include The Slow Drag, Valerie Heroin/e (Keep Us Quiet), Freakshow, Slither, Dead Wait and Take My Breath Away. Winner of Perishable Theater's Women's International Playwriting Festival '99. Ms. Kreitzer holds a degree in Theater and Literature from Yale University,

Rachel Walshe-(Director) Walshe has spent the last five years working as a director, dramaturge, and producer dedicated to advancing the work of women theatre artists in Chicago at the Rivendell Theatre. Her work was recently seen at the Gamm Theatre where she directed RI premier of Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck. She has been awarded the Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists to assist with her direction of 1:23.

At a glance:

1:23
by Carson Krietzer
Directed by Rachel Walshe

Previews- Friday, April 15 @ 7:30pm
Saturday, April 16 @ 7:30pm
Sunday, April 17@ 7:30pm

Press Opening
Monday, April 18 @ 7:00pm

Performance Schedule-
Thursdays, April 21, 28 & May 5 @ 7:30pm
Fridays, April 22, 29 & May 6 @ 7:30pm
Saturdays, April 23, 30 & May 7 @ 7:30pm & 9:30pm

Where: Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire Street, Downtown Providence
For full performance details please visit www.perishable.org

Ticket prices are $20 general admission/$15 students, seniors, military/ $10 for previews. Students, Seniors and Military personnel must present a valid form of identification at the box office to claim their tickets. Discount rates available for groups of 6 or more. 

Tickets are available through ArtTix online at www.arttixri.com or at the number below:
ArtTix Sales Office: (401) 621-6123
Group Sales: (401) 331-2695 x 103

For all press inquiries including interview coordination with playwrights, directors and other people of interest call Donna Lee Gennaro at 401-331-2695 ext. 103

March - Blood From A Turnip

Spring is approaching, which means that puppets are starting to come out of hibernation. The best place around to witness this vernal miracle is at Blood From a Turnip, Providence’s only late-night puppet salon. Puppets (and puppeteers) migrate to these salons, like gazelles to a watering hole. They are in need of an audience, and as they emerge from their winter slumber, that need is greater than at any other time of the year. The upshot of this is that they are even more eager to please that audience, which is very lucky for you if you are able to attend the March 2011 edition of Blood From a Turnip, featuring:

Earmarc’d featuring Lisa Abbatomarco. Abbatomarco is a veteran puppeteer who has traversed a good portion of the country under guise of mask and paper mache as she has played within the refinery of psyche using text, sound and imagery and movement. Her new piece asks “Who’s which way is the what and where we are wandering when we watch?”. Wow.

The Neckhater by Geppetta. Geppetta travels from Philadelphia with this piece about a young lad who makes desperate attempts to rid himself of a neck, the consequences of which must be seen to be believed.

Little’s Creatures, a perennial favorite at BfaT for their colorful, quick, and funny pieces brings a new treat from Boston.

A short film by David Leicht to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
And, as always, charming and personable musical interludes, this time in the form of ukulele magic by Adelaide Winsome, also from Philadelphia

What- Blood from a Turnip, RI’s ONLY late night puppet salon.
When- Friday March 18, 2011 at 10pm
Where- Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire St, Downtown Providence
Cost: $5, NO reservations taken, for more information go to www.perishable.org