THE INSTITUTE FOR THE OPPOSITE OF LONGING Gets World Premiere At Hollywood Fringe

For Fringe veteran Lindsay Beamish, the ideas for her next project always come from a place of no ideas. She simply finds a rehearsal room and starts to experiment. Earlier this year, as she and her collaborator Vanessa Peters walked into a room on the Emerson Los Angeles campus, they noticed a cryptic sign with the initials "DL" in the middle. From just that sign came improvised corporate sales pitches, contemplation of parenting, fertility and need and the memory of a powerful haiku that defines Beamish at her core.

Through that theatrical devising work came The Institute for The Opposite of Longing, making its world premiere this June at The Actor's Company as part of the Hollywood Fringe.

The promotional summary for this experimental show reads as follows: Please enter the Opposite of Longing Chamber and state your primary symptom of longing. And where do you feel it in your body? And how much do you feel it on a scale of 1 to 10? And are you running out of time? The Institute for The Opposite of Longing can cure that thing deep in the pit of your body. But what happens when its owners and operators can't let go of the little boy they had to give back? And can't stop reenacting the day they packed his bags and watched him go. Or tucking him in at night or talking to his empty shoes or unpacking the bag of his things they keep hidden. What happens when these are the women who are responsible for curing that thing, that thing you feel deep in the pit of your body? Please enter the Opposite of Longing Chamber. We can help you. The process is simple.

"I'm so excited to bring this to Fringe because I want to do work in intimate spaces that are untethered to profit and salability, and in which innovation and experimentation can happen freely and with extreme intimacy," Beamish said. "The Fringe is a good place for that."

Beamish is an accomplished actress across various mediums, perhaps known most for her notable dominatrix role in John Cameron Mitchell's controversial cult classic film Shortbus, as well as performances in Forgetting the Girl and The Greatest. She was last seen on the Fringe stage in 2017 with the highly praised devised piece Wigs and now serves as an assistant acting professor at Emerson. Her partner in this production, in which they both worked as not just the actors, but also the writers and co-directors is Peters, a star of the indy film scene with films like American Zombie, How to Cheat and Dark Streets and the popular web series The Bartender Hates You along with her stage work.

Beyond the show's message that the pair expects audiences to identify with in a rather surprising way, Beamish said what makes this show really sets their show apart is the world they created through their work.

"I think the intricacy and specificity of the world we've built is what makes it unique, and how we balance the absurd, the mundane, and the deeply emotional," she said. "Nothing about the show is lazy or casual or flung together. Every single second of it has been deeply and carefully crafted, and we didn't give up on shaping a single second of the show until each moments' emotional and tonal chord was perfectly struck."

For more information visit: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/6174

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