Theatre Project announces its 38th Season Line-up And Performers

Theatre Project Producing Director Anne Cantler Fulwiler has just announced the season line up for the Baltimore institution's new subscription series. The season will include the return of three popular past Theatre Project performers, Sara Felder of Philadelphia (June Bride), Al Letson of Florida (Essential Personnel, Griot, Summer in Sanctuary) and Vermont's Sandglass Theatre (Richard 3.5: Light Ruminations on Murder), and collaborations with three Maryland companies, Performance Workshop Theater, Quest: Arts for Everyone (with White Box Theater), and VT Dance. Fulwiler says of the line-up "These six shows exemplify our mission goals to support alternative theater, to assist artists in creating new works, and to introduce that work to an appreciative audience of daring theater-goers. The work may take you out of your comfort zone, but I guarantee a satisfying experience." A more complete description of the works follows.

The season will also include many other offerings from local, national, and International Artists including: The High Zero Festival (Sept 10-13); a Thunder Thigh Revue Reunion with Joyce J. Scott and Kay Lawal-Muhammad (Sept 19); David Keltz in An Evening with Poe (Sept 24 - Oct 4); American Opera Theater's Kurt Weill Songspiel with Sylvia McNair (Nov 6 - 14) and Le Cabaret de Carmen (January 20 - 24); DanceRink's Dracula (Oct 28 - Nov 1) and Alice in Wonderland (Dec 16 - 23) ; Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company (Nov 19-22) ; Susan Mele's Love's Labias Lost and Mother May I? (Jan 7-17); Peabody Chamber Opera in Conrad Souza's Transformations (Jan 18-21); Kuumba Collective (Jan 25-28); Scott Turner Schofield's Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps (Mar 31 - Apr 3); and the Margolis/Brown Adaptors in a new work (Apr 8 - 11).

Subscriptions will go on sale July 17th (Artscape weekend) and are priced at $80 for the six shows with discounts available for Seniors and Students. Single tickets will go on sale August 17th. Single tickets for subscription productions are $20 general admission, $15 for seniors and artists, and $10 for students. New this year, Theatre Project will offer the first Thursday of each subscription show as Pay- What-You-Wish Press Dress, an opportunity to see the show first and pay what's comfortable for the individual pocketbook. "Since Theatre Project first began as a free theater, and providing access to everyone is really important to us, I was driven to find a new way to share our offerings with an audience who may be unable to pay even $10," says Fulwiler. "Our goal is always to make our work available to any and all adventurous souls who seek decidedly different performance offerings. We hope this will help reinvigorate Theatre Project's presence in the Baltimore cultural community as a welcome meeting place for all. And you can always count on meeting the performers after the show."

Fulwiler also plans to add more post-show Q&As, and many of the visiting artists will offer workshops open to the general public. "Whatever your background, Theatre Project strives to present the stories of diverse cultures that speak with universal truths we can all understand."

Subscription Series 2009-2010

October 9 - 25, 2009

Baltimore's Performance Workshop Theatre's acclaimed production of The Puppetmaster of Lodz by French playwright, Gilles Segal. Himself a survivor of the Holocaust, Segal tells the story of Samuel Finkelbaum, a survivor of the Birkenau concentration camp, who, five years after the war has ended, refuses to believe that the war is over. In his tiny garret apartment, in post-war Germany, he continues to hide and to recreate the people and events of his lost world with puppets.

December 3 - 13, 2009

Solo performer Sara Felder's, Out of Sight, a work that literally juggles God, Israel and her Mom in a play about the art of seeing. Felder tells the tale of a mother, nearly blind, and her adult lesbian daughter as they try to bridge their many differences. Felder's work brings circus tricks, shadow puppets and a Jewish queer sensibility to questions of family loyalty and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and allows us to explore the big questions of our lives, laughing along the way as we recognize ourselves in her stories.

Jan 28 - Feb 7, 2010

Pennsylvania's White Box Theater in Sea of Birds by Artistic Director Sebastienne Mundheim. Fragile paper sculptures animated by dancers, a lyrical voice, a sonic landscape, live music, light and shadow play bring to life the world of Sea of Birds. Already a stunning visual work with lyrical imagery suitable for all ages, Theatre Project presents this work in conjunction with Quest: Arts for Everyone in a new adaptation accessible to all audiences regardless of hearing or language barriers.

March 4 - 14, 2010

Sandglass Theater in their newest work, Bad Weather Ballads, a visual theater piece incorporating original ballads by master puppeteer Eric Bass with music by Keith Murphy. The five-song cycle portrays the stages of life through metaphors of the northern rural experience, when we are stuck in the mud, lost in the aroma of harvest fruit, or reflected in the frozen membrane of an icy lake. It is about a sense of place and those moments when we look both forward and backward in time. BWB is a performance of dry humor, ironic poignancy, and elemental cursing.

March 18 - 28, 2010

VT Dance, under the direction of acclaimed artistic director Vincent Thomas, recent recipient of a Baker Awards' Peoples' Choice Prize among many other honors, presents The Grandmother Project, a work that investigates the essence of grandmothers from a personal and a global perspective. The project captures reflections and memories of loved ones through spoken text, movement, music, video and projected images, and features the company's rich palette of witty, poignant and athletic movement.

May 13 - 23, 2010

Crumbs: a possibly true story is the tale of Al Letson's stint working for a private investigator. Out of work, he is hired by the upper management at a bread factory to spy on a middle manager suspected of an insidious plot, only to realize the case is not what it appears to be. Funny and moving, Crumbs is the second (following Summer in Sanctuary) in a trilogy of autobiographical plays using Letson's signature style to mix poetry, music, theatre and a cast of talented actors in a piece that promises to enlighten and entertain.