Los Angeles, CA – Sundance Institute announced today the acting company for its 2009 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab to be held July 7 to July 22 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. The 2009 ensemble company includes: Oni Monifa Renee Brown, Baraka de Soleil, Colman Domingo (The Wiz, Passing Strange, Well ), Giancarlo Esposito (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Peter Friedman (Ragtime, Body Awareness), Tracy Gilbert, Meredith Hinckley (Kennedy Center Irene Ryan Acting Award Winner), Laura Innes (ER), Lisa Joyce (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, That Pretty Pretty), Francis Jue (Coraline, Yellow Face, Thoroughly Modern Millie), Ellen Maddow, Sahr Ngaujah (FELA!), Denis O’Hare (Racing Demon, Take Me Out), Adesola A. Osakalumi (FELA!), Maximillian Osinski, Adriana Sevan (Taking Flight) and Maria Thayer.
As announced in the spring, the playwrights and works selected for this year’s residency are: David Cale (Writer-in-Residence for Palomino), Odile Gakire Katese (Ngwino Ubeho; director Rebecca Taichman), Taylor Mac (The Lily’s Revenge; director David Drake), Carlos Murillo (Diagram of a Paper Airplane; director Eric Rosen), Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson (An Iliad; director Lisa Peterson).
Under the Artistic Supervision of Philip Himberg and produced by Christopher Hibma, the three-week Lab offers playwrights, directors, choreographers, composers, solo performers and ensembles the time, space, and support to develop new plays and musicals or to explore new approaches to existing scripts. The Lab provides a protected environment, without the pressure of production, and an ensemble of professional actors, dramaturgs, and mentors to help shape work. Process is tailored to the project’s individual needs and stage of development, including readings, text analysis, blocking rehearsals, music rehearsals, meetings with artistic staff, and private presentations to the assembled artistic community.
Creative Advisors for this year’s Lab include Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Intimate Apparel) and Tony Taccone (Artistic Director, Berkeley Repertory Theatre). The dramaturgy team consists of Mame Hunt (Georgetown University), Roberta Levitow (Theatre Without Borders) and Janice Paran (Princeton University).
Also attending the lab are two emerging artists from partnering arts organizations: A. John Boulanger (Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival National Student Playwriting Award-winner) and Stephen Spotswood (Recipient of Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting). In addition, Peppy Biddy will serve as Production Stage Manager, and a team of stage managers and assistants from Sundance Institute’s University Partners will also be on hand: From CalArts: Deborah Asiimwe,
Alessandra Brown, Hector Machado, Danny Sharron and T.J. Kearney; from University of Utah: Chase Heltzel and Victoria Elena Nones; from Westminster College: Genievelinh Trieu.
Sundance Institute Theatre Program
The Sundance Institute Theatre Program is a program of the Sundance Institute. Through its developmental activities at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, the Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat at Ucross, the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at White Oak and Sundance East Africa, the
Program identifies and assists emerging theatre artists, contributes to the creative growth of established artists, and encourages and supports the development of new work for the stage. Under the guidance of Producing Artistic Director Philip Himberg, over 85% of the work coming out of the Program’s labs has found professional production at theatres across the United States, Mexico and Europe. Recent productions of Sundance-developed work include: Passing Strange by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, which won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, Grey Gardens by Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie and Spring Awakening by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater.
Sundance Institute
Dedicated year-round to the development of artists of independent vision and to the exhibition of their new work, Sundance Institute was founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Since then, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for thousands of independent artists through its Film Festival and artistic development programs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, playwrights and theatre artists. The original values of independence, creative risk-taking, and discovery continue to define and guide the work of Sundance Institute, both with US artists and, increasingly, with artists from other regions of the world. The Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films and film makers of the past two decades. It is the premier showcase for American and international independent film, held annually in Park City, Utah, USA.
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