Rec Room Arts presents Modern Adaptation of Iconic Ballet, THE RITE OF SPRING

Rec Room Arts (Artistic Director, Matt Hune; Executive Director, Stephanie Wittels Wachs) announces the cast and creative team for THE RITE OF SPRING. The production previews Wednesday, June 14th, opens on Thursday, June 15th, and continues through Saturday, July 8, 2017 in the 600 sq. ft. Back Room at Rec Room.

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THE RITE OF SPRING (Le Sacre du printemps) originally premiered in 1913 as a collaboration between Igor Stravinsky and designer Nicholas Roerich. The avant-garde score and original jarring choreography created a scandal that descended into a near riot in the streets of Paris.

Today, it is considered one of the most influential musical works of the twentieth century.

Rec Room uses the original story line as an investigation of modern American youth. "Our production is a coming of age story," explains director Matt Hune. "The story focuses on a group of young women and explores how they navigate growing up confronted by the mechanisms of American culture: the inheritance of capitalism, education, religion, sexism, and the sacrifices they have to make in order to survive."

"This piece is a perfect opener to our first full season," Hune says. "Not only does it represent a true collaboration between artistic mediums and artists, which is at the core of what we do, but many modern art scholars consider the work as a gateway to modernism and the 20th Century. For Rec Room Arts, RITE is serving as the gateway into our future, progressive body of work."

The piece is intentionally being performed in the smaller, 600 sq. ft Back Room at Rec Room. When asked why he chose to stage the piece in there instead of in the 82-seat theatre across the hall, Hune said he wanted the audience to be directly involved in the ritual. Plus, he notes, "the room is blank canvas and full of possibility. It's a room in an American warehouse that's been here since the 1800's. It's the perfect place to set a story that's about American culture."

Laura Gutierrez, a Rec Room Resident Artist and one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," is choreographing the piece and describes it as a "clusterfuck of American ideals." She explains that in the original version, the young woman at the center of the story was being sacrificed. "I definitely didn't want to sacrifice the young women since ballets always focus on sexualizing women. Instead, I wanted to show how strong women are even during difficult, messed-up situations both socially and culturally."

About the original score, Gutierrez says, "Choreographically, music rarely inspires my bigger projects but with Stravinsky's score, it's very powerful and can't be ignored."

Hune decided to cast performers who are recent graduates of The High School for Performing and Visual Arts, which is symbolic as these young artists are in the midst of their own coming of age stories as they prepare to leave their homes in the Fall and go on to the next chapters of their lives.

THE RITE OF SPRING is choreographed by Laura Gutierrez and directed by Artistic Director Matt Hune. The cast of dancers and actors includes Claire Domenic-Smith, Sarah Gowdy, Amelia Hernandez, Amy Oden, Maya Parker, and Emma Singleton. The creative team includes costume design by Maegan Fahy, sound design by Nathan Richardson, and lighting design by Sydney Gallant. The assistant director is Isabella Eleuterius.

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Performances of THE RITE OF SPRING are 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The bar opens for happy hour at 5 pm and stays open post-show until 12 am. $20 - $30. For information, please visit recroomarts.org.