ODC to Present West Coast Debut of Lucky Plush Productions' THE QUEUE, 8/13-15

ODC Theater is proud to present the West Coast debut of Lucky Plush Productions.

This August the celebrated Chicago-based company will perform The Queue, a work for seven performers in collaboration with The Claudettes, a neo-vaudevillian drum and piano duo. Equal parts dance and theater, The Queue unfolds in a fictional airport where travelers stumble humorously, tragically and awkwardly into each other's private lives.

Created by Lucky Plush Founder and Artistic Director Julia Rhoads and Co-Founder of 500 Clown Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, The Queue finds its influences in early 20th-century slapstick, Busby Berkeley-style choreography, creaky one-act plays and a 1746 farce about a family inheritance.

The Queue opens Thursday, August 13 and runs for three nights through Saturday, August 15. Each show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $30 and $45 may be purchased online at odcdance.org/tickets or by phone at 415-863-9834, Monday through Friday from 12-3pm.

The central narrative of The Queue is adapted from Charles Macklin's obscure 18th-century farce A Will and No Will or A Bone for the Lawyers about a dying rich man and the relatives who gather around him in hopes of claiming a piece of his fortune. In Rhoads and Danzig's adaptation, a pair of gay newlyweds, a lawyer and her client, and a courier and his employer jostle in line with an anxious young woman in a collage of scenes at an airport. Physical comedy abounds, supported by the musical duo of drummer Michael Caskey and pianist Johnny Iguana, together The Claudettes.

"Clever choreography, danced with exquisite freedom and expression by the seven-member cast, flows out of everyday movement and early 20th-century forms," hailed the Chicago Tribune upon The Queue's world premiere last year.

Since its founding in 1999, Lucky Plush has premiered over 30 original works by Rhoads including performance installations, dance films and ten evening-length productions. Rhoads' independent choreography has been commissioned by Lookingglass Theatre, River North Chicago Dance Company, Redmoon, Alaska Dance Theater, Mordine and Company Dance Theater, Walkabout Theater, Hyperdelic and M5 among others. Rhoads is the recipient of the 2013 Alpert Award in Dance, a fellowship from the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, a Cliff Dwellers Foundation Award for Choreography, two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships for Choreography, and a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, and her collaborative work with Lucky Plush has twice been awarded a National Dance Project Production Award and a National Performance Network Creation Fund Award. In 2010, she was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" and included in NewCity's feature "The Players: The 50 people who really perform for Chicago." Rhoads is a former company member of the San Francisco Ballet and a collaborating ensemble member of XSIGHT! Performance Group, and she has been a guest artist with Beppie Blankert Danceworks, the Itinerant Theater Guild and Baubo Performance Project. She is currently part-time faculty and dance advisor at the University of Chicago.

Danzig is co-founder of the Chicago-based physical theater company 500 Clown, where she co-created and directed Macbeth, Frankenstein, Elephant Deal and Christmas. 500 Clown has played in Chicago at venues including Steppenwolf and Lookingglass and tours regularly throughout the US. Other credits include directing Redmoon's Hunchback at The New Victory Theater (NYC) and Float with About Face Theatre; co-directing The Better Half with Lucky Plush and The Elephant and the Whale, an original Redmoon production commissioned by Chicago Children's Theatre; touring nationally and internationally as an actor with NYC's Elevator Repair Service; and appearing as Masha in The Seagull in Lake Lucille, NY (director Brian Mertes). Danzig trained in physical theater and clown with Jacques Lecoq and Philippe Gaulier. She currently serves as program curator for the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago.

ODC Theater participates in the creation of new works through commissioning, presenting, mentorship and space access; it develops informed, engaged and committed audiences; and it advocates for the performing arts as an essential component to the region's economic and cultural development. The Theater is the site of over 120 performances a year involving nearly 1,000 local, regional, national and international artists. Since 1976, ODC Theater has been the mobilizing force behind countless San Francisco artists and the foothold for national and international touring artists seeking debut in the Bay Area. The Theater, founded by Brenda Way and currently under the direction of Christy Bolingbroke, has earned its place as a cultural incubator by dedicating itself to creative change-makers, those leaders who give the Bay Area its unmistakable definition and flare. Nationally known artists Spaulding Gray, Diamanda Galas, Molissa Fenley, Bill T. Jones, Eiko & Koma, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Ban Rarra and Karole Armitage are among those whose first San Francisco appearance occurred at ODC Theater. For more information about ODC Theater and all its programs, visit odcdance.org.

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