NIGHT OF NEW WORKS
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May 22*, 23, 24, 2017
at 7:30 PM The Southern Theater 1420 S Washington Ave Minneapolis, MN 55454 Project Producer: Hannah K. Holman Project Dramaturg: Megan Clark Experience new works created by Mark Sweeney, Scotty Reynolds, and Eva Adderley & Jordan Lee Thompson. The public is invited to view the final presentations of the participants' work, as well as offer feedback through Umbrella Collective's signature audience conversations. * Please join us for an opening reception on Monday, May 22 at 6:00 PM to celebrate the artists and their work! Night of New Works is an extension of Umbrella Collective’s mission. We value collaboration, fresh voices, and new plays, and we create a supportive structure to make those things happen. Through the Night of New Works series, Umbrella Collective offers support to artists interested in creating new work for the stage and experimenting with collaborative processes. These three projects will receive artistic and production support from Umbrella Collective members and collaborators.
“We're trying to create an environment where makers feel supported at every turn--to dream, to take risks, to try something for the first time," says Managing Director Hannah K. Holman. "We're excited to help these awesome artists add to their artistic/collaborative toolboxes, while providing some of the nuts-and-bolts producing that goes into a work-in-progress. Each of these projects reflect our values of conversation, and sensitivity to social, environmental, and historical context. We can't wait to get rolling!" |
FAQ about NNW
Q: What are the "Final Presentations"? A: Each project will present up to 25 minutes of their work-in-progress each night (May 22, 23, 24). This might look like a staged reading with scripts, a movement exploration, a handful of songs with stage directions, any combination of these things, or something else entirely! The only criteria are that it's new and it's not finished! Exciting! Q: What are the "Audience Conversations"? A: Umbrella Collective loves feedback. We like to bring big ideas and complicated questions to the audience par-baked to give YOU a chance to help shape the future of the work. After you see the work, we'll ask questions like: What moments stuck with you? What did you want to see more of? What did you want to see differently? What questions did you have? (and more!) The conversation will likely start around 9:00 PM and last for about 30 minutes. Q: Do I have to talk in front of people? A: All audience members are invited to participate in the conversation, or just listen and write down thoughts on the surveys we provide! We welcome feedback in whatever way is most comfortable to you. You can also always email us at hello@UmbrellaCo.org Q: Which projects will be presenting which night? A: This one's easy! Each of the three projects will be presenting each night! Q: What is the "Opening Reception"? A: Join us at 6:00 PM in the Southern Theater's Lobby on opening night of Night of New Works (Monday, May 22) to toast the artists and their work! Snacks, beverages, and love of new work will fill the air! |
ABOUT THE WORKS
A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS
A new work-in-progress by Mark Sweeney
A Squid Has Three Hearts explores environmental, personal, and political themes around the mystery of the Giant Squid, as well as the growth in squid populations that has occurred because of the rise of temperature in the oceans waters. Biology, mythology, and music act as connective tissue for a series of vignettes about the human experience,
Questions we're asking: How do we prepare for that which is changing beyond our control or reach? How do we fill in the mysteries of unknown (or yet to be known), and how do those elements mold us? What can we leave behind to aid the development of the world?
A Squid Has Three Hearts explores environmental, personal, and political themes around the mystery of the Giant Squid, as well as the growth in squid populations that has occurred because of the rise of temperature in the oceans waters. Biology, mythology, and music act as connective tissue for a series of vignettes about the human experience,
Questions we're asking: How do we prepare for that which is changing beyond our control or reach? How do we fill in the mysteries of unknown (or yet to be known), and how do those elements mold us? What can we leave behind to aid the development of the world?
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MARK SWEENEY is a performer/composer/writer currently on the move from Northeast to South Minneapolis. Performing credits include Umbrella Collective, Actors Theater of Minnesota, Artistry, The Twin Cities Improv Festival, Troupe America, Bedlam, Toronto Fringe Festival and The New Century Theater. He is a proud Nautilus Music-Theater Composer-Librettist Studio collaborator. He has written music and lyrics for five original music-theater works including the sold out run of Into the Unreal City in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Mark also created the podcast Twin Cities Song Story which focuses on new music written for local stages. He is a founding member of Perpetual Motion Theatre Company as well as Catalog Models with playwright and wife Gemma Irish.
(Photo credit: Daniel Soderstrom) |
DR. FALSTAFF AND THE WORKING WIVES OF LAKE COUNTY
A new work-in-progress by Scotty Reynolds
Using Otto Nicolai’s 1849 opera--The Merry Wives of Windsor—as a springboard, Dr. Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County explores the closing of the Reserve Mining Corporation in Silver Bay, the landmark legal battles to stop the dumping of waste rock in Lake Superior, and the layoffs that reduced population of Silver Bay more than 70% in two decades. In the tradition of a Shakespeare wedding comedy, a series of mistaken identities leads to a happy ending wherein new seeds are planted to celebrate and renew a town on an economic precipice.
Questions we're asking: What are the effects of outside investment, regulation, and oversight on small working class communities? How do stories of economics and job creation intertwine with the environmental impact of industry? What happens when a crooked man of multiple disguises goes head-to-head with a collective of resourceful women?
Using Otto Nicolai’s 1849 opera--The Merry Wives of Windsor—as a springboard, Dr. Falstaff and the Working Wives of Lake County explores the closing of the Reserve Mining Corporation in Silver Bay, the landmark legal battles to stop the dumping of waste rock in Lake Superior, and the layoffs that reduced population of Silver Bay more than 70% in two decades. In the tradition of a Shakespeare wedding comedy, a series of mistaken identities leads to a happy ending wherein new seeds are planted to celebrate and renew a town on an economic precipice.
Questions we're asking: What are the effects of outside investment, regulation, and oversight on small working class communities? How do stories of economics and job creation intertwine with the environmental impact of industry? What happens when a crooked man of multiple disguises goes head-to-head with a collective of resourceful women?
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SCOTTY REYNOLDS' active career in performing arts includes directing, performing, and facilitating an ensemble of artists with disabilities at the Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts. As Producing Artistic Director of Mixed Precipitation, he has helmed the Picnic Operetta since inception. His 2008 production with Interact, Broken Brain Summit, won an Ivey Award for its innovative concept. He's toured as a performer and stage manager with Tiger Lion Arts and their outdoor production, Nature: A Walking Play, performing in arboretums in Minnesota, Illinois, and Ohio. In 2017, he was awarded an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to develop a new music theatre piece about the history of taconite mining on the North Shore and Iron Range. He also directed the premiere of Swede Hollow Opera with award winning composer Anne Millikin and the Olympic season figure skating extravaganza, Tonya and Nancy: The Opera.
(Photo credit: Travis Chantar) |
WE HAD A SECOND BATHROOM
A new work-in-progress by Eva Adderley and Jordan Lee Thompson
In We Had A Second Bathroom, Lea returns to her childhood home for the first time in over a decade, where she finds the long forgotten second bathroom that her mother moved a cabinet in front of when she was six. Rediscovering the second bathroom leads Lea to think about the existence of the alternate reality she and her family had lived in for years— a reality in which they had only one bathroom. The unraveling of this reality leads Lea down a rabbit hole of memories that force her to confront the construction of not only her past, but her present reality.
Questions we're asking: How do groups form collective untruths? How are they perpetuated? How do these untruths affect our behavior and alter our reality? What happens when we break the cycle and the untruths unravel?
In We Had A Second Bathroom, Lea returns to her childhood home for the first time in over a decade, where she finds the long forgotten second bathroom that her mother moved a cabinet in front of when she was six. Rediscovering the second bathroom leads Lea to think about the existence of the alternate reality she and her family had lived in for years— a reality in which they had only one bathroom. The unraveling of this reality leads Lea down a rabbit hole of memories that force her to confront the construction of not only her past, but her present reality.
Questions we're asking: How do groups form collective untruths? How are they perpetuated? How do these untruths affect our behavior and alter our reality? What happens when we break the cycle and the untruths unravel?
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EVA ADDERLEY is a writer and designer from Iowa City, Iowa. She has a BFA in Metal Arts from the University of Iowa, with minors in Theater and English. Her plays have been performed in Minneapolis, New York City, Sydney, Cape Town, and several cities in Iowa. She was the winner of the 2013 International Student Playwright Award from the National Student Drama theater in Scarborough, England, and she was a presenting playwright at the 2015 Women Playwright’s International Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. She has worked as a costume designer, props designer, set designer, scenic painter, children’s theater director, metalworker, muralist, and commission artist. She moved to Minneapolis last September, and has spent the last seven months working to get involved in the Twin Cities’ vibrant theater scene.
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JORDAN LEE THOMPSON is an art worker and educator who works in a variety of mediums including performance, installation, video production, projection, drawing, animation and other new media to combine his passions of participatory art, critical theory, sociology and storytelling. His work has included painting people onto mirrors, fabricating crowds, dating an imaginary woman, and producing a soundtrack for lonely people. Jordan spends his days running the Youth Media Department at CTV North Suburbs, helping teens write, produce and distribute their own short films, and serves as the Film Festival Coordinator for Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival. Most recently, Jordan co-produced The Beginning of Things + Fictions in a guest residency at the Southern Theater's ARTshare program as Creative Director of Dance & Other Behaviors. Jordan has also worked with organizations including James Sewell Ballet, the Minneapolis Television Network, and the Twin Cities Media Alliance. Jordan holds a BFA in Painting, a BA in Art History and Arts Management, and a certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Iowa.
(Photo credit: Makeen Osman) |
Photo: Night of New Works (2017) // Hannah K. Holman
