Rec Room Arts Announces Inaugural 2017-2018 Season

Rec Room Arts announces a bold, multidisciplinary season that blends together theatre, ballet, opera, modern dance, visual art, and concert. Sitting in Rec Room's intimate bar across the hall from the performance space, artistic director Matt Hune explains: "We want to showcase the epic in a small space; to bring opera to people who would never go to the opera or ballet to people who would never see a ballet. What we're doing is accessible."

"Low brow; high art," echoes Aaron Asher, Rec Room's friendly neighborhood bartender. Aaron has spent lots of time working with Catstrophic Theatre and adds that the season feels so much like early Infernal Bridegroom Productions (IBP), specifically the "Speeding Motorcycle" days.

"All five shows center on a theme of what one does with the circumstances he or she has been given," Hune explains. "In a time of social divide and deadlock, I want to explore how we can move on, how we can continue to grow and change in a time where everything seems unchangeable."

"Everyone says this, but we really are trying to attract a new generation of audiences," says Executive Director Stephanie Wittels Wachs. "It's part of our mission. This is theatre in the age of television, texting and technology. It has to change. We have to adapt in order to survive. To that end, nothing in the season is longer than 90 minutes."

Being longtime theatre educators, Hune and Wachs are committed to providing their students professional opportunities. As such, students from HSPVA and the graduate opera program at Rice University will make up numerous roles in the company this year.

Hune is most eager to collaborate with visual artist Mina Gaber to create the wooded installation for Hansel and Gretel and also to work on a new Ike Holter play before it goes to New York. "Ike will be in town workshopping the play at Rec Room, which is super exciting," says Hune. "He's on fire in Chicago and New York. L.A. recently did Hit The Wall and extended it multiple times, running for nearly an entire year. This will help to continue to put Houston on the map."

Ultimately, Hune hopes that audiences don't just come to a show and leave right after, but rather, that they stick around and become part of our creative community, that they walk across the hall to the bar after the show and talk to others about what they've just experienced. "Show up early and stay late."

2017-2018 SEASON

WORLD PREMIERE ADAPTATION

THE RITE OF SPRING

Music by Igor Stravinsky

Directed by Matt Hune

Choreographed by Laura Gutierrez

Opening: June 15, 2017

Closing: July 8, 2017

An epic and iconic ballet re-envisioned for the modern American cultural landscape.

The limits of group responsibility are tested in a new dance adaptation set to Stravinsky's groundbreaking score. Laura Gutierrez, named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," teams up with Rec Room's Artistic Director Matt Hune to repurpose an unapologetically primitive exploration that examines how modern America assimilates, worships, and sacrifices. Hune describes the piece as a "punk rock ballet."

#RecRiteOfSpring

WORLD PREMIERE

DEAD ROCK STAR SING-A-LONG CLUB

Directed by Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Music Direction by Abby Seible

Opening: July 20, 2017

Closing: August 12, 2017

An edgy theatrical concert/movement piece honoring the work of George Michael and ShaRon Jones.

The second annual Dead Rock Star Sing-A-Long Club honors our most beloved musicians who have died within the year. Last year, it was a Prince and Bowie inspired rumination on loss and public vs. private grief. This year, it's George Michael and ShaRon Jones and it's all about romantic love. The audience gets songbooks at the door and is welcome to sing a long if they choose. Join us for this upbeat musical eulogy that's part concert, pArt Theatre, and total celebration.

#DeadRockStarHOU

REGIONAL PREMIERE

SENDER

By Ike Holter

Opening: October 19, 2017

Closing: November 11, 2017

A captivating 90-minute comedy by Chicago-based playwright Ike Holter that asks: "What does growing up mean and is it even desired in this day and age?"

A new comedy by one of the country's finest emerging playwrights and winner of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for drama. A year after his assumed death, a Midwestern millenial shows up in his former Chicago apartment alive, well, and ready to fix what went wrong...with a three way. According to Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune, "Sender is quite unlike the works for which Holter is best known: Hit the Wall (which deals with the advent of gay rights) and Exit Strategy (which is currently playing in New York City and explores the threatened closure of an underperforming Chicago public school). Both of those works are political at their core; Sender has a more personal focus, and this different side of Holter is a very welcome addition, especially since it comes with the same gorgeously poetic riffs and this hugely gifted writer's restless need to subvert form."

#RecSender

UP CLOSE OPERA

HANSEL AND GRETEL

By Engelbert Humperdinck

Directed by Matt Hune

Designed by Mina Gaber

Opening: December 7, 2017

Closing: December 23, 2017

An new Houston holiday tradition where the audience is immersed in the Winter woods.

This dark take on the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale is set in a stunning wooded installation by visual artist Mina Gaber. Audiences of all ages can expect a truly immersive experience in Rec Room's 600 sq. ft Back Room. This stripped-down English version of Humperdinck's folk-inspired opera is ideal to become the next Houston holiday tradition.

#HanselGretelHOU

THEATRE

A NUMBER

By Caryl Churchill

Opening: February 22, 2018

Closing: March 17, 2018

"A gripping dramatic consideration of what happens to autonomous identity in a world where people can be cloned." - New York Times

Human cloning is the subject of this beguiling hour-long psychological thriller that blends topical scientific speculation with a stunning portrait of the relationship between fathers and their sons. Theatre veteran Charles Krohn stars in this Evening Standard winner for Best Play.

#ANumberRec

ABOUT REC ROOM ARTS

Rec Room Arts is a non-profit arts organization that develops multidisciplinary performances that are frequent and diverse.

OUR MISSION IS TO DEVELOP INNOVATIVE WORK BY EMERGING AND ESTABLISHED ARTISTS ACROSS DISCIPLINES IN ORDER TO ENERGIZE A NEW GENERATION OF AUDIENCES FOR THE ARTS.

Along with the Main stage performances, Rec Room Arts supports the work of artists in residence by providing time, space, and resources to create and present new work. From established artists to emerging, fringe and up-and-coming artists, Rec Room Arts is interested in supporting individuals who work to bend and break the rules of conventional performance. We support the development of new work by inviting artists to propose, create, and present works of theatre, dance, music, opera, performance art, film and more - free of charge.

Current Residents of Rec Room Arts include comedians Hoja Lopez, Stacey Daniels, Kathryn Way and Britt Vasicek, experimental modern dancer, Laura Gutierrez, and global percussion music ensemble, Space City Performing Arts.

Residency performances thus far have included a site-specific dance piece called The Back Room by Laura Gutierrez featuring Houston Ballet's Chun Wen, Britt Vasicek's The Probably A Show Show, So Like Basically with Kathryn Way, and Relationshit Live with Stacey and Hoja featuring Houston celebrities Fat Tony and Kam Franklin of The Suffers.

The executive director of Rec Room Arts is Stephanie Wittels Wachs. Matt Hune serves as Artistic Director. The Board of Directors includes Abby Koenig (President), Ryan Leach (VP) and Cynthia Ogden (Treasurer). Staff members are Tasha Gorel, Gregory Starbid and Grace Cunyus.

Rec Room Arts is currently performing at Rec Room, Houston's newest performance space nestled in the heart of downtown Houston. Ticket prices for Rec Room Arts events typically range between $10 and never exceed $25, ensuring that the art is accessible to everyone in our community.

TICKET AND MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

Tickets can be ordered online (www.recroomarts.org) or in-person at the box office before the show. Tickets for the five-show season range between $10 (student) - $25 (general admission) and a season pass is $100.

Memberships range between $19 - $49 per month for unlimited access to every Rec Room Arts event plus discounted drinks at the bar.

All performances are downtown at Rec Room, 100 Jackson Street, Houston, TX 77002.

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