2014 SPT Participants
Early 2014 saw the return of Stein-Holum Projects to the Frear Ensemble Theatre. SHP is a collaboration between performer/director Suli Holum '97 (Pig Iron Theatre Company, UK's Red Cape Theatre) and writer/director Deborah Stein '99 (Actors' Theatre of Louisville, Pig Iron, Workhaus Collective). They build tightly scripted theatrical events through an intensive collaboration between theatre makers who defy the traditional definitions of actor, director, playwright, and designer. They are currently working on their next collaboration, The Wholehearted. Using text, song, full-bodied physicality, immersive sound design, and live-feed sports-television video editing, The Wholehearted tells a fact-based fiction about love and violence, power and vulnerability, the stories we tell about ourselves, and the stories we wish were true. After being beaten by her lover and left for dead, an aging female boxer stages a comeback in a landscape of her own devising, where dubstep meets Appalachian murder ballads and a devastating left hook.
This year SPT also welcomed working rehearsals from New Paradise Laboratories latest - The Adults.
Described as a "family vacation to hell" - this is no run-of-the-mill vacation. Veteran and next-generation New Paradise Laboratories cast members come together to present the world premiere of The Adults, a multi-family vacation that takes an unexpected turn when adults start behaving badly. Influenced by Anton Chekhov and the paintings of Eric Fischl and set to a score by local experimental composer Bhob Rainey, The Adults is a highly physical show that explores intimate cruelty and shifting emotional landscapes.
