New Paradise Laboratories to Present 707 HAZARDOUS MOVES at FringeArts Festival

The Philadelphia-based experimental theater company New Paradise Laboratories will bring its newest work 707 Hazardous Moves to the curated FringeArts Festival, September 16 - 18, 2021. This philosophical investigation of chance through the lens of MacLaughlin's life history and Stéphane Mallarmé's astounding poem A Throw of Dice Will Never Abolish Chance will take place at the FringeArts' waterfront headquarters, 140 N Columbus Blvd. (at Race St.). Tickets cost $35 and are available online at https://fringearts.com/event/707-hazardous-moves/.

Says New Paradise Labs:

"A veteran experimentalist returns to performance to expose his nine-year struggle to stage the poem that bedeviled the 20th century.

Whit MacLaughlin has been obsessed with Stéphane Mallarmé's A Throw of Dice Will Never Abolish Chance since he first read it in 2012. Subsequently, he traveled to France to sit at the feet of philosopher Quentin Meillassoux, invented a new team sport, mounted four related pieces with his company New Paradise Laboratories (one in Turkey), took a bullet, gave up theater, left the country for a third time, and finally, in quarantine with an OCD diagnosis, attempted seven successive versions of the work. 707 Hazardous Moves details his history with uncertainty, and charts the anatomy of his obsession."

Says MacLaughlin: "I tell it straight from the heart. Why do we care so much about what's coming up next even though we can't do a damned thing about it? Seems like this is the core of so much of what we are living through and thinking about these days. I long for everyone to become a zen cowboy riding the bucking bronco of life with ease."

As a way of predicting something, it is explained that there are 707 words in the poem, so there will be 707 moves in the performance. 707 Hazardous Moves therefore features Philly fixtures Jo Vito Ramírez and KC Chun as Movers, and Cinco Placensia and Rohan Hejmadi as Counters. Every gesture is counted. This inanity gives audiences access to a level of purposeful unpredictability that is at the core of the production's message..

Telling pertinent stories from his experiences, MacLaughlin weaves a tapestry of sight and sound that illuminates the weird twists and turns of his fate, giving insight into the work of New Paradise Laboratories, and focusing on the vicissitudes that we all endure on our own paths through life.

DETAILS:

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Thursday September 16; 7 pm

Friday, September 17; 7 pm

Saturday, September 18: 3 pm and 8 pm

CREDITS

707 Hazardous Moves

Conceived, Written, and Directed by Whit MacLaughlin

Dramaturg: Jessica Rizzo
Music Composition: Bhob Rainey

Light and Production Design: Thom Weaver

Speaker: Whit MacLaughlin

Movers: Jo Vito Ramírez and KC Chun

Counters: Rohan Hejmadi and Cinco Pacensia

Run Time: 70 minutes

TICKET INFORMATION

$35 with discounts for members, students, and seniors

Visit https://fringearts.com/event/707-hazardous-moves/ to purchase tickets.

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