Know Theatre Announces 2010-2011 Season

Know Theatre is pleased to announce our 13th season producing innovative theatre in Over-the-Rhine. The season will consist of four mainstage productions, The 8th Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, The Know Theatre CityBeat NYE Speakeasy, The Know-to-Go Education Series, a few special events, and a new series of programs dubbed the Jackson Street Market.

Mainstage Season
The season will kick off on October 9th with the Regional Premiere of Skin Tight by New Zealand playwright Gary Henderson. The production will be directed by Drew Fracher with Scenic and Lighting Design by Andrew Hungerford and Sound Design by Doug Borntrager. The production will star local actress Beth Harris and visiting actor Jens Rasmussen. Skin Tight will show October 9 - 30, 2010.

This work from New Zealand, inspired by Denis Glover's poem The Magpies, tells the intimate story of a rural couple, Tom and Elizabeth, who engage in a theatrical dance of their union through an exhilarating feast of fighting, lovemaking, and tenderness. The characters explore the ecstasy and pain of a passionate love affair. As it transpires, the entire performance becomes an eternal moment paradoxically slowed down while the actors explode across the stage in a frenzy of physical activity. The show examines love and loss and the exquisite pain each can cause.

"Drew brought the idea for Skin Tight to us a couple of years ago." says Producing Artistic Director, Eric Vosmeier, "It's a unique piece combining beautifully poetic text with intense physical action on stage. I'm excited to see what Drew can do with this kind of show which I suspect will be unlike anything Know Theatre audiences have seen on our stage before."

This season's holiday offering, A Wrinkle In Time, adapted from the book by Madeline L'Engle by John Glore, will be produced in collaboration with Minneapolis-based Four Humors Theatre. Jason Ballweber, director of last season's Sideways Stories from Wayside School, will again direct and will be joined by two associates of Four Humors Theatre who will join the cast. A Wrinkle In Time will show November 27 - December 26, 2010.

On a dark and stormy night, Meg and her brother Charles Wallace encounter the strange Mrs. Whatsit and her friends Mrs. Which and Mrs. Who. They are soon whisked away to a distant planet to rescue their missing father from and evil and all-powerful IT. Their magical friends guide them through the mission they must accomplish, but the children are on their own in a dangerous and strange land. John Glore's adaptation of the popular children's story, brings this world of imagination and magic to life.

"A Wrinkle in Time was one of my absolute favorite books growing up." says Vosmeier. "This is a great opportunity to continue to work with Four Humors Theatre, whose work I admire. Our collaborations have been fruitful and inspired more long-term plans between the companies."

Know Theatre's third production of the season is currently still in the works and will be announced shortly. Vosmeier says, "I don't think there has been a season since I started here that we haven't made a mid-season substitution, or dropped a show, or changed some dates around. We like to keep our audience flexible and on their toes - and everyone loves a surprise." This production will show in January & February of 2011.

Finally, Know Theatre is excited to announce our fourth and final mainstage production of the season, The Dragon. The Dragon will be a co-production with Madcap Puppet Theatre. Local playwright and actor Alison Vodnoy will write a new adaptation of Eugene Schwarz's original 1943 play of the same name. Vodnoy wrote and performed In Rehearsal for the 2008 Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and most recently wrote and performed in a new adaptation of The Eyes of Oedipus at Know Theatre. The production will be directed by Irina Niculescu, an experienced puppet theatre director and who currently teaches puppet theatre directing at the University of Quebec in Montreal. The production's set, lighting, puppets, makeup and costumes will be designed by Andrew Hungerford and sound will be designed by Doug Borntrager. Two characters in the play, Lancelot and The Dragon, are played by people, and the rest of the characters will be played by puppets built at Madcap Puppet Theatre. The Dragon will show April 2 - May 7, 2011.

Anytown is under the oppressive rule of Dragon. As if in a fairytale, one day, Lancelot arrives to save the town from Dragon by slaying him in a mighty battle. But are the people of Anytown ready for such freedom? After hundreds of years of Dragon's reign, the citizens have become apathetic, even dependent upon Dragon's rule. Lancelot soon realizes that slaying the dragon is only a small part of what Anytown needs.

"We couldn't be more excited about this production. It's an entirely new experience for our production team to work on a show like this. I suspect the same will be true for our audiences and we're fortunate that our audience loves a challenge as much as we do." says Vosmeier, "The story is amazing and I'm pleased to be able work with Alison again as a writer".

2010-2011 Mainstage Season Dates
Skin Tight: October 9 - 30, 2010
A Wrinkle In Time: November 27 - December 26, 2010
Production TBA: January - February, 2011
The Dragon: April 2 - May 7, 2011

Jackson Street Market
This season Know Theatre is proud to launch a series of programs geared toward building and retaining our local artist community. This family of programs - tentatively dubbed The Jackson Street Market - will have a number of different facets.

The goals of the Jackson Street Market are to provide opportunity to local artistic entrepreneurs, to leverage Know Theatre's resources on their behalf, and to build upon the strengths of our artistic community by creating a space where they can experiment and play with new ideas.

"This past season reinforced how giving and supportive the local artist community is in Cincinnati." says Vosmeier, "Throughout the year, we worked with a number of groups and individuals who helped make our season one of the strongest in the company's history. This outpouring of support has inspired us to create a series of programs geared toward giving back to the Cincinnati community of artists who continue to give so much to Know Theatre."

A few of the highlights include:

The launch of a resource sharing website during the 2010-2011 season. This site will be a list of all available physical resources that Know Theatre can share. The system will function as an online library where an individual artist can check out costumes, props, scenic elements, etc. In exchange, Know Theatre will ask for some minimal volunteer hours of some form.
The bARTer lab will be an ongoing program led by Pones Inc and Know Theatre that seeks to create a forum for multiple artistic disciplines to merge and jointly explore creative change in Cincinnati. Monthly trade meetings will include an experiment, critical discussion, and prescription to a different theme or topic.
One group of local artists, including Artemis Exchange founder Chris Wesselman and Paul Lieber, will present regular workshops, performances, readings, and events in the Know Theatre's Underground.
Continuing on will be the Know Theatre's Playwrighting group which has been in existence since 2006. This group formed at the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center while Vosmeier was Theatre Director there. The group moved with him to Know Theatre where they have been meeting monthly ever since.
An inter-city Artist Exchange program is also in the works. Know Theatre will actively seek partner companies in other cities with whom we will create a two-way artist exchange program for directors, actors, designers, or entire productions.
"The specifics of each of the programs are being worked out currently. We have a strong starting point and we're starting to tinker with new ideas" says Vosmeier. "The thought is that the individual components will rotate in and out of the program as whole. Each season the specifics of the line up may change or adapt to the participants and needs of the local artist community."

Special Events
Each September, before the opening of Know Theatre's Season, we host the exciting Midpoint Music Festival. Know Theatre is pleased to be an integral venue in the festival each year as Midpoint continues to bring emerging national talent to Cincinnati and also showcases the incredible talent right here in Cincinnati. MidPoint is a music festival in Cincinnati's City Center of Downtown and Over-the-Rhine that focuses on showcasing musical talent from across the country and the Cincinnati region for a dedicated and passionate audience. Know Theatre is an Over-the-Rhine anchor venue having participated in the festival since moving into the facility on Jackson Street. More information can be found at www.mpmf.com.

Know Theatre, Midpoint Music Festival Schedule:
Thursday September 23 - Justin Townes Earle, Jessica Lea Mayfield, and Nathan Holscher
Friday September 24 - Orgone, The Uniphonics, Eclipse Movement, and Da Muttss
Saturday September 25 - Phantogram, Josiah Wolf, and Culture Queer

2010 Cincinnati Fringe Festival Robert J. Theirauf Producers' Pick of the Fringe, The Finkles' Theatre Show returns for a special encore performance this coming December. This best seller of the 2010 Cincinnati Fringe Festival, The Finkles; Theater Show will be performed on off-nights during the first two weeks in December. Showtimes and tickets will be available at knowtheatre.com shortly.

From the Finkles': "Hi there, friend! Come see our first ever theater show! We may be new to this, but we have seen a lot of theater, so we're pretty sure we know what we're doing! We were so excited when we found out that we got accepted into the Cleveland Fringe Festival! We can't wait to come back and meet all of you and show you what we've been working on. There's going to be singing, juggling, tumbling, guest stars, duels, and a gigantic musical number. It's going to be the greatest thing since sliced potato cakes. So bring your friends, your families, your neighbors, and your neighbors' neighbors (that's you silly!), and tell them that the Finkles are in town!" - Sincerely, Carl and Wanda (and Tinkles Sprinkles) Finkles.

On New Year's Eve, Know Theatre will again hold the 5th Annual Know Theatre CityBeat NYE Speakeasy Party from 8pm - 1am. Over 300 people dressed to the nines and attended last year's swingin' toast to the New Year to enjoy casino games, dance lessons, delicious fare, martinis, and a champagne toast at midnight. Funds raised from this annual event support operations for Know Theatre and the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Tickets are available for $12 in advance and $20 the week of (starting on December 27th).

Education
Know Theatre's national tour of Calculus: The Musical! has now performed in 24 different states for over 26,000 students. Sean Powell & Jae Boley, last year's touring cast, will be returning again this year to bring calculus into the minds and hearts of students across the country. The tour continues to expand each year.

"We're very pleased to have Sean and Jae returning to the tour." says Vosmeier, "The Calculus tour has quickly become a flagship program of the theatre. This year we're aiming for 100 performances of the show in more than twenty states."

Our local education programming will continue to offer free educational matinees of our original productions on select Saturdays throughout the season. These productions are a great way for families to come together to experience the arts, for free, in Over-the-Rhine. Programming to be announced shortly.

This winter, Know Theatre's educational team will join forces with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to present an original work about the life and music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Written by Sadie Bowman & Eric Vosmeier, the piece will be performed at Music Hall, with the full orchestra, in January of 2011.

2011 Cincinnati Fringe Festival
Know Theatre's season would not be complete without the 8th Annual Fringe Festival, which will kick-off May 31 through June 11, 2011. As always, Ohio's largest performing arts festival will take over Downtown/Over-the-Rhine with 12 days of theatre, music, dance, film, art and everything in between. This year saw the addition of some new programming to the Fringe which will continue on into the 2011 Festival. Events such as Fringe Prom, the 22.5 Hour Play Project, and workshops for artists will all continue to develop and grow as we seek to strengthen the Fringe community.

Artistic Leadership
Know Theatre of Cincinnati enters its 13th season under the innovative direction of newly appointed Producing Artistic Director, Eric Vosmeier. Following the departure of Founder, Jay Kalagayan and Producing Artistic Director, Jason Bruffy in September of 2009, Vosmeier navigated the theatre through a challenging and ambitious season that ended as one of the most successful to date.

"Over the past year, Eric has provided exemplary leadership in guiding the organization through the theatre's most dramatic transitional period since its inception," says board President, Jeff Syroney. "His vision, passion, and innovation have bolstered the organization's foundation while charting a new direction for the theatre built around the tenets of community, collaboration, and a sense of play. The board joins me in my support of Eric's vision for the next chapter of the theatre's growth."

"I'm honored to accept the position of Producing Artistic Director. This past season has been thrilling for me and I look forward to continuing to push the theatre in new directions. We made some huge strides in the past 12 months and I look forward to seeing what else we are capable of as a company".

Tickets
Know Theatre is once again honored to partner with the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Halie Jr./US Bank Foundation this season to offer tickets for just $12 in advance, or $15 during the week of the performance, starting on Monday of the performance week. Season subscriptions are available for $48. Tickets can be purchased by visiting knowtheatre.com or by calling the box office at 513.300.KNOW (5669)

Additional Information

Skin Tight

Skin Tight was first produced by The Strawberry Theatre and performed at Bats Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand in 1994. The play won the coveted Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1998 during a sell-out season at the Traverse Theatre. It received subsequent productions across New Zealand as well as in South Africa, Great Britain, Canada, and in New York City.

Gary Henderson (Skin Tight) is a playwright and director based in New Zealand. In addition to directing his own scripts, he enjoys directing plays by other New Zealand writers, and has often acted as a mentor, helping to develop new work by emerging playwrights. He has also written for television, film and dance. Gary has taught playwriting at Whitireia Community Polytechnic, Allen Hall Theatre and has conducted many workshops and classes for schools and various other theatre organizations. Gary currently teaches playwriting at Unitec's School of Performing and Screen Arts in Auckland. His other plays include Mo & Jess Kill Susie and An Unseasonable Fall of Snow among others.

Drew Fracher (Director, Skin Tight) Drew is a freelance director, fight arranger and actor, serving as a Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors. As a director his work has been seen at Actors Theatre of Louisville, American Stage, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, New Stage Collective, Florida Stage and the Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and Cincinnati Shakespeare Festivals. As a fight director his work has been seen for over 25 years at a wide variety of theatres throughout the U.S. Most recently he directed boom and Angels in America: Perestroika at Know Theatre, Dying City at New Stage Collective and Wait Until Dark at the Human Race Theatre Company. He spent June teaching stage combat to the graduate students of Pennsylvania State University and directed fights for Cincinnati Opera's Carmen.

A Wrinkle In Time

A Wrinkle In Time was first produced at the Seattle Children's Theatre during their 1994-1995 Season and more recently was produced February of 2010 at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Los Angeles where Glore is currently the Associate Artistic Director.

John Glore (Playwright, A Wrinkle in Time) Currently South Coast Repertory's Associate Artistic Director, is an award-winning playwright whose produced plays include On the Jump, The Company of Heaven, City Sky (scenario for a dance piece), Wind of a Thousand Tales, Folktales Too, Rhubarb Jam, The Day After Evermore and an adaptation of The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. With the performance trio Culture Clash he has co-authored adaptations of two plays by Aristophanes, The Birds and Peace. His work has been produced at South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, ChildsPlay, the Coterie, the Getty Villa and elsewhere. He received a 2000 Playwrights Fellowship from the California Arts Council and has occasionally taught playwriting and related subjects at UCLA and Pomona College.

Jason Ballweber (Director, A Wrinkle In Time) Jason Ballweber received a BA in Theater from the University of Minnesota. While there he started his work with Four Humors Theater and is now the Artistic Director. Jason recently directed Sideways Stories from Wayside School at Know Theatre in 2009 for which he won an Acclaim Award for Direction. Jason has also worked with companies such as Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Open Eye Figure Theatre, Three Sticks, Jon Ferguson Theatre, Live Action Set, The Bedlam Theatre and The Minnesota Orchestra.

The Dragon

The Dragon, by late Russian playwright Eugene Schwarz, was originally presented as a children's play in Russia. Some of his other works were banned and censored by authorities for his demonstration of the repression, militarism, racism and brutality of his homeland under Stalin's regime from the 1930's to 1950's. Because of this climate, Schwarz was able to perform a new political fable under the guise of a children's story.

Alison Vodnoy (Playwright, The Dragon) Playwright and performer, Alison Vodnoy toured her original one-woman show, In Rehearsal, to the Cincinnati, Minnesota, and Indianapolis Fringe Festivals, as well as to theaters just outside the cities of Chicago and Cincinnati. For its 2008 premiere in Cincinnati, In Rehearsal was recognized with two Cincinnati Acclaim Awards, one for solo performance and one for solo script. In addition to In Rehearsal, she has written The Whole, a full-length play which explores stripping and sex work through monologue, dialogue, and strip-tease. Last year, Alison's play, The Eyes of Oedipus, a re-imagining of King Oedipus for two actors, premiered at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati in May 2010, receiving excellent reviews. In addition to playwriting, Alison also writes for Soapbox Media, an online magazine that focuses on urban renewal and green innovation. She has several poetry cycles ranging from themes of love to Elementary School, and is working on a novel that is a bit of a throw-back to Kerouac's On the Road, with a horny, female protagonist.

Irina Niculescu (Director, The Dragon) Irina received her MFA in theatre directing from the Academy of Theater, Film and Music at Charles University in Prague. She began her professional career at Tandarica Theater in Bucharest, Romania; she has since directed shows at: Riksteatret, Agder Teatr, Hordaland Teater in Norway, Marionnettes de Geneve in Switzerland and numerous theatres across Europe and the USA. Recently, Irina directed De Falla's opera Master Peter's Puppet Show with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Madcap Productions and Bowling Green State University. As assistant professor Irina taught at the Academy of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest. She has also taught at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, Instituto de Actores in Seville, L'Ecole Superieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezieres, and Theatre du Grutli in Geneva. In the United States she has offered master classes and conferences at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, and Xavier University. Irina is currently teaching puppet theatre directing at the University of Quebec in Montreal.