A.R.T. & World Music partnership

American Repertory Theatre and World Music / CRASHarts announce new partnership

Cambridge, MA — The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T) and World Music/CRASHarts announced today that the two organizations have entered into a new partnership to expand audiences for theatre and dance performances at the A.R.T.'s second space, Zero Arrow Theatre in Harvard Square. The inaugural presentation is the Double Edge Theatre Company in the Boston area premiere of the UnPOSSESSED, a lively Don Quixote fantasy created by Double Edge Artistic Director Stacy Klein. Performances run from Wednesday, November 16 to Sunday, November 20.   For tickets and information call 617-876-4275 or buy online at www.WorldMusic.org.

A.R.T. Executive Director Robert J. Orchard commented: "We're delighted to be partnering with World Music this series of presentations, beginning with the celebrated work of Massachusetts based Double Edge Theatre. The common denominator for all the work at Zero Arrow Theatre will be young artists, multiple disciplines, and affordable prices. With World Music as a partner, we expect to be able to introduce audiences to the next generation of artists in theatre, dance, and music - and perhaps most importantly, to the new forms these young artists are creating across all disciplines."

World Music Executive Director Maure Aronson added: “The World Music/CRASHarts partnership with A.R.T. will expand dance and theatre programming opportunities for performing arts audiences in Boston. We are thrilled to collaborate with A.R.T. to present an exciting series of adventurous and fresh performing artists in the 06/07 season. “

Based on Miguel de Cervantes' classic novel Don Quixote, the UnPOSSESSED fuses Double Edge's unique and intimate performance method with popular and circus arts, including aerial theater, shadow puppets, stilts and commedia dell'arte, with live original music.   In the face of horror, Quixote chooses to dream another world while pursuing his mad quest for hope amidst a reality spinning out of control. This original work, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of Cervantes' novel and was created in response to the events of 9/11, was developed through training, research and artistic residencies at Yale University School of Drama, Brandeis University, and Double Edge Theatre's International Center for Performance & Collaboration in Ashfield, MA. The production is directed and conceived by Stacy Klein with Carlos Uriona and Matthew Glassman, with original music composed by Justin Handley.   The audience is seated on opposite sides on the stage to experience the full range of action occurring above and around them. This intimate arrangement enhances the impact of Double Edge Theatre's otherworldly and unconventional theatrical style, creating a world both visceral and hallucinatory in this daring new work directed by Stacy Klein featuring artists from the US and abroad.

“One of those performances capable of taking you to the brink of tears, to a level of emotion which ever more rarely finds harbor in the theater and in other abodes of art. This performance communicates something which is often forgotten: the essential aspect of the theater, its ‘absolute necessity.' These UnPOSSESSED beings begin to trace a luminous arc of images which will stay fixed in the memory: a don Quixote who, like the one in the inexhaustible book, will accompany us in all our ages. It manages to make the imagination flower on stage as long as the performance lasts before our amazed, child-like eyes…”
— Alfonso Armada, Blanco y Negro Cultural, ABC Spain

“[A] fervid, otherworldly production by Stacy Klein's Double Edge Theatre company-- that brings the life of the imagination to the stage . . . If there is a familiar image that might help to understand the effect of this visual poetry, it is the scene in Fellini's La Strada…Ms. Klein creates indelible images. Poetic, bathetic, punning and perverse, her show is a rough jumble of wonderment.”
— Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times

“The hour-long pocket epic unwinds in an overlapping series of dreamlike episodes extrapolated from the book . . . engrossing, often delightful, and visually breathtaking.”
— Chris Rohmann, The Valley Advocate

the UnPOSSESSED received a glowing review from the New York Times when it premiered at New York City's La MaMa Annex in October 2004, and was also presented at Trinity College's Austin Arts Center and the Performance Studies International Conference at Brown University in the US. The ensemble just arrived home from a European tour of the UnPOSSESSED to the Festival of the Classics in Madrid, Spain, the Centre for Theatre Practices Gardzienice, in Wroclaw, and in Szczecin, Poland, where the performance met sold-out shows and standing ovations.

Founded twenty two years ago in Allston by Artistic Director Stacy Klein (who received her training from Rena Mirecka, the only woman in Jerzy Grotowski's original lab), Double Edge Theatre creates and presents original performances through an intimate and long-term process of actor's training with music, song, dance, object and story, and through collaboration with other artists and communities. Their productions include the Women's Cycle (1982-6, The Song Trilogy (1987-98), and The Garden of Intimacy and Desire (1998-). In 1995 Double Edge moved from its home in Boston to develop ‘the farm' in Ashfield MA, a 105-acre center of theatre practice and artists' colony with two performance spaces, an archive, and resident artist/student facilities. ‘the farm' is a home for local and international theatre and music performances, development, research, and training, and serves as a think tank and cultural exchange. It is Double Edge's mission to build a self-sustaining farm, where artists of different backgrounds and interests can create a ‘living culture'. All of the work of Double Edge Theatre intends to elevate the understanding of artistic expression and cultural mutuality between artists and their communities.

Double Edge's international artistic collaborations include the Jewish/American Central European Republic of Dreams project (1992-7), the US/ S. American Spiral Mirror project (1998-2001), the Double Edge/ Gardzienice Consortium for Theatre Practices (1998-2001) and the current US/Central Europe/S. American Summer training and performance project Ex-CHANGE (2001-). In an effort to mentor a new generation of artists, Double Edge offers extensive training programs, including monthly ‘open' trainings, three month internships, a month long summer training and performance intensive in June and July, and workshops and special projects for universities and theatres. Double Edge has toured performances, conducted research, and offered workshops in twelve countries and throughout the US.

Performances run November 16, 17, and 20 at 7:30pm; November 18 and 19 at 8pm; November 19 and 20 at 2pm. Ticket prices are $30 for all performances.

In addition, at Zero Arrow Theatre the A.R.T. will also co-present with World Music Everett Dance Theatre's Home Movies, a multi-faceted, deeply layered piece exploring the American family today (January 10-15), and The Civilians' production of Nobody's Lunch, a dark and eccentric ride through the landscape of American public culture (April 24-30).

The balance of the A.R.T. 2005-06 Season includes Carmen by Georges Bizet, directed by Dominique Serrand (September 3 — October 8, Loeb Stage); The Keening by Humberto Dorado, directed by Nicolás Montero (October 14 — November 13, Zero Arrow Theatre), Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, directed by Krystian Lupa (November 26 — January 1, Loeb Stage); No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre, directed by Jerry Mouawad (January 7-29, Loeb Stage, in collaboration with Imago Theatre); Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, directed by János Szász (February 4 — March 25, Loeb Stage); Orpheus X by Rinde Eckert, directed by Robert Woodruff (March 25 — April 23, Zero Arrow Theatre); and Island of Slaves by Pierre Marivaux, directed by Robert Woodruff (May 13 —June 11, Loeb Stage).

The A.R.T. is again offering several subscription plans and a host of benefits, including discounts on parking, fine dining, and tickets to other theatres; a child-care series (Saturday matinee), and pre-performance and post-performance discussion series (Saturday matinees).

To learn more about the A.R.T. season directly from the artists who create each production, including actors, directors, writers, and designers, connect to the A.R.T. website at www.amrep.org or call the A.R.T. InfoLine at (617) 547-8300. The InfoLine is also available 24 hours a day to provide directions to the theatre; to order brochures, calendars, and newsletters; and to allow direct access to the A.R.T. Box Office (hours are noon to curtain time on performance days, noon to 5 pm on non-performance days, closed on Mondays).

The A.R.T.'s Zero Arrow Theatre, located at the intersection of Arrow Street and Massachusetts Avenue, Harvard Square Cambridge, is accessible to persons with special needs and to those requiring wheelchair seating or first-floor restrooms. Deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons can also reach the Theatre by calling the toll-free N.E. Telephone Relay Center at 1-800-439-2370.

Public transportation and discount parking are available nearby.

PRODUCTION PHOTOS CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM
www.amrep.org/media

For Immediate Release August 22, 2005
Contact: Kati Mitchell 617-495-2668