EastLine Theatre to Bring Pulitzer Finalist DANCE NATION To Long Island

EastLine Theatre continues their tenth anniversary season this month at the BACCA Center in Lindenhurst with Clare Barron's Dance Nation. Set in the cutthroat world of youth dance competitions, Dance Nation follows the trials and tribulations of the Pre-teen Elite Dance Squad of Liverpool Dance Works as they attempt to claw their way to the top at Nationals. Dance Nation was a 2019 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. This production marks the play's Long Island premiere.

The play is "a truthful coming of age story but also a hilarious send-up of Dance Moms," according to artistic director Nicole Savin, "it is full of contradictions, like growing up itself."

The dancers on the team (seven girls and a lone boy), Savin says, "face all of the problems of adolescence through the lens of a dance class: their changing bodies, young love, questions of ambition and self-confidence." She adds, "It feels very appropriate to be producing this examination of girlhood as Barbie-fever sweeps the nation and as women we collectively explore our cultural touchstones.

Performances will take place at the BACCA Center in Lindenhurst starting on August 12th and running through the 27th. Tickets are $25, they can be purchased at eastline.ludus.com. More information is available at eastlinetheatre.org or by calling 516-749-5047.

Dance Nation by Clare Barron is directed by Paul DeFilippo and presented by EastLine Theatre in partnership with the Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts. Choreography is by Deanna Ibrahim and costumes are by Lynn Adler-Ciorciari, assisted by Wendy Pollak Grimm.

The cast of Dance Nation features Jenna Agbayani, James Brautigam, Caitlin Cassidy, Meghan Fawcett, Farjana Islam, Victoria Kay, Megan Laguna, Christine Nelson, and Matt Rosenberg.

EastLine Theatre is a nonprofit theatre company that BroadwayWorld calls 'Long Island's best kept secret'. EastLine aims to create theatre in unlikely spaces while re-examining the canon, exploring modern plays, and bringing original works to the attention of the community.

EastLine Theatre returns to the BACCA Center after February's marathon performance of both parts of Angels in America. In recent years, EastLine has produced Prospero (Live!), an original musical based on The Tempest; the Long Island premiere of Paula Vogel's Indecent; a production of Treasure Island that BroadwayWorld said was "bursting at the seams with imagination"; and a production of In the Next Room by Sarah Ruhl that Long Island Theatre Scene said "raises the bar of creativity for all theaters." EastLine will return to Lindenhurst in December with Doug Wright's subversive Quills.

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