Irondale & Serious Play! Present BLIND DREAMERS, Beg. Tonight

The Irondale Center and Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble present BLIND DREAMERS an ensemble-created production that pays homage to visionary German choreographer Pina Bausch. There will be three performances of Blind Dreamers at the Irondale tonight, August 15 and August 16 & 17.

Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for students and seniors please go to www.irondale.org or call 866.811.4111. Additional information at www.seriousplay.org.

Director Sheryl Stoodley has worked with 10 actors to create a haunting, dreamlike family portrait, and to explore what lies beneath this family's veneer of polite civility. Family members strive for connection while struggling to meet familial and societal expectations.

The narrative unfolds through gesture and movement, augmented with song, text and a live original score by guitarist/composer John Sheldon.

Bausch, who died in 2009, used a variety of "actor-tasks" in creating her company's work in order to uncover basic human motivations. Through physical action, relationships are revealed and developed, and the way a gesture is performed begins to define a relationship and connect to larger themes.

As with Bausch's work, Blind Dreamers is built on elements of the actors' own experiences, translated into gestures of connection, personal struggle, and striking interaction. Through structured improvisational compositions, wild games, actor-tasks assigned by Stoodley and choreographer Lisa Enzer, a physical language specific to Blind Dreamers emerged within the ensemble.

The actors who make up the ensemble and who have collaborated in the creation of Blind Dreamers are Axel Cruz, Carissa Dagenais, Rand Foerster, Rachel Garbus, Constance Leslie, Taylor Middleton, Annelise Nielsen, Carolyn Shakti Sadeh, Kaliis Smith and Katelyn Tsukada. Lighting design is by Reilly Horan, costume design by Elizabeth Smolin, technical coordination by Kathy Couch and Robin Doty.

Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble is based in Northampton, Massachusetts, where it was founded almost 20 years ago. The company works to create a dynamic integration of movement and text, and has a history of engagement with lively, ensemble-created scripts that are informed by contemporary issues [from Paul Zimet/Talking Band, NYC: "It was my pleasure to meet you and your company and see the commitment you all have to the work"]. Productions have toured to Athens, London, and Edinburgh [in The Scotsman/Aug. 2005: Serious Play!'s production of Alice Tuan's COASTLINE features "strong performances, a superb rap, and innovative staging"]. Serious Play! was the first American company to perform at the JoakimInterFest in Kragujevac, Serbia, where its production of the politically charged Milosevic at the Hague, by Milan Dragicevich, won an award for "dramatic innovation and theatrical boldness" [in American Theatre magazine/Feb. 2010: During Serious Play!'s presentation of MILOSEVIC AT THE HAGUE in Serbia, "the tension broke when the audience burst into applause and rose to their feet"]. Serious Play! is a member of NET, the Network of Ensemble Theaters.

Tickets are $20/15 and available at www.irondale.org or call 866.811.4111.

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