When the weight of the world lies shattered on the ground, and you find yourself at a loss for….. what then…? Supported by music from Brahms, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and more, five brave souls, dumbstruck, forage for a way forward.
An Adaptation of The Misanthrope by Molière.
By Steven Epp, Nathan Keepers and Dominique Serrand
ORIGIN: from Latin, literally ‘place of refuge;’ an area in which a population of organisms can survive through a period of unfavorable conditions.
Refugia is an investigation into the lives of those who find themselves at the crossroads of transition, navigating life’s margins. It explores humanity’s constant state of passage — geographically, emotionally, and physically-- across those borders. Borders that only exist of our own creation.
Come Hell And High Water originated in our encounter with William Faulkner’s novella Old Man. His story of the great Mississippi River flood of 1927 led us to explore the quintessential American themes embedded in his work: race, religion, politics, the dispossessed, the uneducated, and the unforgiving forces of nature. We employed the diverse disciplines of narrative, character, song, and movement to bring this profoundly American story to life.
Our first question was “So where were we?” This became the catalyst for the work. Not only where were we as people living in the world post-pandemic, but where were we as artists and creators? All of us. Which led us to “what does it matter?” And “what were we making anyway?” So “where were we” is also “what’s next?” In that sense, ANAMNESIS is a piece about the theatre. It’s about what we want to see and where we want to go. It’s a work that thrusts us into a new direction, which if we’re honest with ourselves, is the only place we can go.
Werther and Lotte is a theatrical meditation on the innocent encounter, the misunderstandings and the riotous dance between Lotte and Werther as they navigate their tumultuous journey of love. Inspired by Johann Van Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, with additional input from Thomas Mann’s Lotte in Weimar and Jean Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract.
You’ve got to admit there’s a lot of ugliness out there right now. So we asked ourselves: “What would Moliere do?” Well, he’d look at it right in it’s wrong, ugly face. And make some fun out of it. In the satirical trajectory from Commedia to the Marx Brothers, to All In the Family, South Park and Portlandia, we bring you LIBERTY FALLS, 54321. Liberty Rose Johnson from Liberty Falls, Wisconsin, is turning 105! So of course the civil residents of Liberty Falls, right off Highway 47, and just up Constitution Creek, are planning a big old celebration: songs and speeches, a cavalcade of distinguished dignitaries, and cake! But, OH NO! Things don’t go quite as planned….
The ultimate meditation on love. A makeover to the seemingly familiar-- yet totally new. A re-imagined version of Love’s Labour’s Lost, drawing from all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays to form a new play. A mad festival of lovers, lunatics, and poets, let loose upon the verdant meadow of Shakespeare's mind.
The House Can’t Stand follows the story of one lone woman: a lifelong Republican, her husband dead, and her children gone. A chance phone call leads her on an endeavor to prevent a terrible act of violence. Her pursuit takes her deep into the recesses of her mind and the landscape of the American past. A journey at once comic and poetic, political and profound.
