The Subjective Theatre Co. Presents SWALLOW! 5/27-30

The Subjective Theater Company (STC) would like to invite its audience and all sufferers of HRRD* (Hypoactive Romantic Relationship Disorder) to be wooed by its fourth and final production of the 2009/2010 season and CoLab creation, SWALLOW.

Can love come in a pill? Is decreased romantic satisfaction a chemical imbalance that can be solved with a prescription, or is it a personal failing? SWALLOW explores how modern relationships are both hindered and influenced by society's idea of love and courtship when a pharmaceutical company invents a love drug called Amorex and assembles a panel of experts (a.k.a) "love gurus" to administer the test amongst unassuming couples.

*Hypoactive Romantic Relationship Disorder's symptoms range from initial awkwardness to the diminishing of romantic desire. We're trying to stay away from terms like "socially retarded" and "frigid".

Performances will run May 27th through May 30th at 8:00 pm with a Saturday, May 29th matinee at 4:00 pm and a Sunday, May 30th matinee at 3:00 pm and Tuesday, June 1 through Sunday, June 6th with 8:00 pm performances and a 3pm matinee on Saturday, June 5th and on Sunday, June 6th. For reservations, email reservations@subjectivetheatre.org. Space is limited.

CAST:

Chongsi Chang, James Bentley*, Scout Durwood, Dyalekt, Alix Fenhagen, Jason Alexander Grimste, and Lucy Pinetree Owen*

*Indicates actors appearing courtesy of the Actor's Equity Association

CREW:

Director: Jeffrey Whitted
Head Writer: Julia Holleman
Assistant Director: Rachel Wohlander
Stage Manager: Eva Peskin
Set Design: Edward T. Morris
Sound Design: Tim Boyce
Composer: Lucas Cantor
Costume Design: Sarah O'Brien
Board Operator: Mark Brinker

BIOS:

Chongsi Chang (actor/writer) recently graduated The City College of New York, majoring in creative writing and theatre. This is her first year working with Subjective's CoLab, and marks her professional debut as a writer and as a performer.

Jag Davies (writer) is a graduate of New World School of the Arts and New College of Florida. He has performed in over two dozen plays, including "An Inspector Calls" at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End. His theater experience also includes directing (The Dreamer Examines His Pillow) and writing (Lackluster, produced at Miami's New Playwrights Festival). He is currently Publications Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Valerie Feingold (writer) studied theatre at the University of Arizona and in New York at The Neighborhood Playhouse. She has worked with Subjective's CoLab in Tell and Parallax, and with Subjective Films on Handsome Zombies. Feature film credits include Saturday Morning, College Humor's The Old Man and the Seymour, and, currently in production, County Downe. She can be seen in fall of 2010 as Ophelia in The Shalimar's Hamlet.

Alix Fenhagen (actor/writer) Acting credits include: Party Discipline and Parallax, which she also co-wrote with the Subjective Theatre Company; Antigone (Mighty Theatre Company); Go, Dog, Go (MCT); Forensic and The Navigators (Michael Chekov Theater); Angel (New City Theater) and a variety of other collaborative projects around the city. Alix is a graduate of Northwestern and has studied at the École de Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Alix is also an award winning playwright.

Jason Alexander Grimste (actor/writer) wrote and directed the play Last Knight for his undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida. Relocating to New York, his musical aspirations took precedence. Having toured the country several times under his musical alias "brokeMC," his attention has turned once again toward writing and acting, most recently co-writing and acting in Subjective's CoLab production of Parallax.

Julia Holleman (Head Writer) is the Resident Playwright of the Subjective Theatre Company and heads CoLab, its collaborative theatre wing. She has served as the head writer of TELL (Collective: Unconscious, May 2008) and Parallax (Gene Frankel Theater, May 2009). She also co-wrote and co-created STC's Party Discipline (IGNITE! Festival, the Ohio Theater, October 2006; The Asian American's Writer's Workshop, January 2007). Her play Face of Beauty was produced at the 78th Street Theatre Lab in December 2008, and excerpts of it were published in Unsaid Magazine in February 2008 and June 2009. Recently, her play Now I am Finally Awake was selected to be in NYU's Festival of New Works in March, 2010. Julia is attending NYU's MFA Dramatic Writing program.

Stephanie Vella (writer) is a Brooklyn based theatre artist. She has collaborated with the Subjective Theatre Company since 2006, serving as a writer and performer in Party Discipline, TELL, and Parallax. She is currently a graduate student at Brooklyn College studying Theatre History and Criticism.

Jeffrey Whitted (Rehearsal Director) has served as Subjective's resident director for the past 2 years, most recently directing the collaboratively written pieces, TELL and Parallax. Regionally, he has directed two musicals for the Galveston Island Musicals. Jeffrey is also directing Subjective Films inaugural endeavor, Handsome Zombies. He received his MFA in directing from the University of Houston.

ABOUT CoLAB:

CoLab is an original STC program that is dedicated to creating new pieces through a rigorously collaborative and organic process. A group of resident actors/writers commit to nine months of creative development in which a show is created from its concept to its final performance. In the beginning of the procedure, a broad subject is chosen by the group; group members then research, write about, and explore it through structured rehearsals and improvisation. After several months, the group narrows the focus of the piece and each member undertakes to write a specific character and/or facet of the subject.

ONGOING STC PROGRAMMING:

READING SERIES
The Subjective Theatre Company's Reading Series provides a forum for playwrights to develop their work in a collaborative working environment by providing opportunities to aspiring playwrights, directors, and actors. STC's Reading Series has been proved a successful spring board as during its first season, Mel Nieves' Iraq: WAC made its way to a west coast premiere in Los Angeles while STC gave Paul Mullin's An American Book of the Dead its east coast premiere in the Rubin Museum of Art's Brainwave Festival. Now moving into its second season, the Reading Series will present monthly readings at Under St. Marks as part of STC's residency with the Horse Trade Theater Group.

This reading series will run every second Monday from October 2009-April of 2010 (with a break in December).

SUBJECTIVE FILMS
On November 2, 2009 STC presented Scorpio's Night Out 2: Day of the Zombies a launch party for Subjective Theatre Company's newest division: Subjective Films, which is a film production branch of STC with Lucas Cantor at the helm as Executive Producer. At this party, we screened Subjective Film's current project, Handsome Zombies (directed by Jeffrey Whitted, written by Jesse Cameron Alick and Julia Holleman) which is a socio-political zombie movie about gentrification in Brooklyn. Episodes are currently viewable at handsomezombies.com

SUBJECTIVE THEATRE COMPANY
Subjective Theatre Company's mission is to produce a wide range of politically and socially relevant theatre FOR FREE. STC is founded on the principles that art is not a commodity, culture should be without class structures, art is without boundaries, and that theatre should always be available to everyone. STC is guided by a philosophy of accessibility and the belief that theatre plays a vital role in the development of individuals and communities. STC is dedicated to cultivating an environment where quality theatre can exist for people of every economic and social background.

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