BWW JR: OFF THE MAP

TRUSTY SIDEKICK THEATER COMPANY

TO PREMIERE NEW PRODUCTION FOR AGES 2-5

OFF THE MAP AT THE UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT

A subway train has fallen off the map, and everyone is eager to see the conductor put it back where it belongs...well, almost everyone. When one adventurous girl boards the train with a plan of her own, just how far will the the conductor follow her to get the train back on track? This new performance for 2-5-year olds utilizes puppetry and projection combined with original music and innovative storytelling.

On April 20, 2013, The Performance Project @ University Settlement and Trusty Sidekick Theater Company (TSTC) will co-present the world premiere production of Off the Map, a new play developed especially for audiences aged 2-5. The production will run over three consecutive Saturdays (April 20- May 4) at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at Speyer Hall in the University Settlement, located at 184 Eldridge Street in New York City.

To develop Off the Map while in residence at The Performance Project @ University Settlement, Trusty Sidekick Theater Company artists collaborated with their target audience, leading development workshops with students aged 2-5 in the Settlement's early childhood program. Through a series of creative play and story development workshops led by a team of teaching artists, the students offered their ideas about the nature of shadows and acted as dramaturgs, informing the devising process of the artists as they created the show.

The Performance Project @ University Settlement provides established, emerging and young artists and local audiences with opportunities to connect and enrich each other's lives. They aim to encourage greater participation in the live arts and to help cultivate diverse creative communities on the Lower East Side. Resident artists are fully immersed in the Settlement House community though a year long process in which they will engage program participants and staff while documenting their experience. Performance opportunities include a shared Works in Procress Festival in the winter followed by a weeklong performance run in the spring, giving artists the chance to continue developing their work in a familiar space over an extended period of time.

Trusty Sidekick Theater Company is a Brooklyn-based theater company creating bold, sophisticated and high-quality artistic performances for young people and their families. The company combines immersive staging and inventive theatricality to tell old and new stories, challenge preconceptions of live performance, and introduce theater to a new generation. The company's work is multidisciplinary, and its ensemble of collaborators includes artists trained in physical theater, puppetry, music, dance, animation, and video projection. Since its founding in early 2011, Trusty Sidekick has developed and presented new work at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The New Victory Theater, Cleveland PlayhouseSquare, Old Stone House, Abrons Arts Center (The Little One and the Sea of Letters), and The Performance Project @ The University Settlement (Shadow Play, March 2011).

Off the Map is Trusty Sidekick's third production of the 2012-13 season.

@BroadwayWorldJr

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