New Village Arts has become known as one of the best ensemble theatres in Southern California. But what exactly does that mean? And how does an ensemble actually work? For its eleventh season, NVA has decided to delve fully into these questions to emerge with a strong, specific artistic vision.
Although NVA's Ensemble is considered one of the best in the region, we are unable to offer that Ensemble consistent employment. The goal of THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT is to create an artistic environment where a group of 14 artists can comfortably and courageously create a season of theatre and share that experience with an audience that will grow and recognize those specific artists.
Theatre is by nature a collaborative art. Often, we are forced to create a season of plays with an entirely
New Group of artists for every show. THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT creates the opportunity to see what happens when one group of fourteen artists is responsible for an entire season - what kind of artistic creation can happen over an entire year? How will the experience change and grow as the season progresses? Where will the weaknesses be? The strengths? THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT enables NVA to go into its next ten years of production with a solid basis and understanding of what Ensemble-based theatres are able to produce.
The best way to test how this process has worked is to put it in front of an audience. To do that, NVA has hired New York based playwright Suzanne Bachner to create an original play using the individual talents of NVA's Ensemble. Throughout the year of THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT, Ms. Bachner will meet with the Ensemble and create a world premiere production for June 2012. By this time, the Ensemble will have created six full productions together and will put all their talents, experiences and energies into this seventh, final production. Both Ms. Bachner and NVA's Executive Artistic Director Kristianne Kurner graduated with Masters Degrees from the first graduating class of
The Actors Studio Drama School in New York and have worked together on numerous projects since then.
The NVA Ensemble is made up of actors, directors, designers and stage managers. The first six plays in THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT will be by various American and world playwrights in currently published work and will feature a wide range of genre and style. The final play will be created specifically for this Ensemble and be a fully staged world premiere.
THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT gives New Village Arts the opportunity to fully explore the group mind at work in a theatrical setting. The collaboration of this group will create a stronger art form than an individual alone and allow New Village Arts to continue its Ensemble experience with a better understanding of the potential of concentrated Ensemble work. It will be a thrilling time for both NVA's artists and audiences.
To kick off THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT, NVA will look to a classic American romantic comedy,
Eugene O'Neill's AH, WILDERNESS! Directed by Ensemble Member Amanda Sitton, AH, WILDERNESS! is O'Neill's only comedy and will feature every member of THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT. The play is a nostalgic, thought-provoking examination of a young man coming to terms with growing up, accepting responsibility and falling in love on the fourth of July near the turn of the century in Connecticut.
Up next will be the San Diego Premiere of a show that lit up New York -
Will Eno's THOM PAIN (based on nothing). The New York Times calls this one man show "stand up existentialism" and NVA's Executive Artistic Director Kristianne Kurner will direct Ensemble Member Adam Brick in what Kurner calls "my favorite new play of the last six years". A thrilling ride that examines the relationship between the audience and the actor and one man's search for meaning in the everyday.
NVA will travel to classic California for the next production,
John Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN. Ensemble Member Daren Scott played the role of Lennie in the Renaissance Theatre Company's production of the play about six years ago and he returns to NVA's OF MICE AND MEN as the director. Ensemble Members Manny Fernandes and Justin Lang star as Lennie and George, two migrant farm workers searching for a place to call home.
The holidays will bring a return to what has become a New Village Arts tradition:
David Sedaris's THE SANTALAND DIARIES, featuring Daren Scott. This year, the production will be directed by Sam Sherman, NVA's Production Manager and the stage manager of the show for the first two years.
January of 2012 will feature a return to the New Play Festival: two weeks of workshops of new plays created by members of NVA's Ensemble. Plays are still being chosen for the Festival and will be announced soon.
The next two shows will feature playwrights that NVA has become well known for interpreting:
William Shakespeare and
Sam Shepard. New Village Arts will bring Shakespeare back indoors for the slapstick romp COMEDY OF ERRORS, directed by Ensemble Member Justin Lang. Lang is placing the world of COMEDY OF ERRORS as if it was a taping of a television sitcom - in front of a live theatre audience!
Sam Shepard's BURIED CHILD will be presented in April of 2012. This will be the final installment in Shepard's family-oriented plays that NVA has produced. BURIED CHILD is Shepard's masterpiece - his finest work - and Ensemble Member
Lisa Berger will direct the production.
The culmination of the entire season will be the yet-to-be-titled ENSEMBLE PROJECT. Suzanne Bachner has been commissioned to create this World Premiere play, based completely on the work of NVA's Ensemble. A thrilling, risky, daring adventure to test the limits of Ensemble work.
Season passes are now on sale and can be purchased by visiting
www.NewVillageArts.org or by calling 760-433-3245.
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