Sundance Institute Selects Acting Company and Creative Advisors for 04 eatre Lab at Sundance Resort

Sundance Institute Selects Acting Company and Creative Advisors for 2014 Theatre Lab at Sundance Resort Blair Brown and Daniel Davis Among Actors to Perform Latest Scripts from Emerging Writers & Pulitzer Prize Winners

One of 10 Summer Labs the Institute Leads for Independent Artists in Theatre and Film

Posted Jul 8, 2014

New York, NY Sundance Institute today announced the acting company and creative advisors that are participating in its 2014 Theatre Lab, which is now taking place and runs through July 27 at the Sundance Resort in Utah. The Lab is the centerpiece of the Institute's year-round work with the theatre community and is one of 10 residential Labs hosted by Sundance Institute this summer, collectively representing 15 weeks of residency support and mentorship for the most promising new independent theatre and film projects from the United States and around the world.

Under the supervision of Theatre Program Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the three-week Lab supports emerging and established playwrights and directors developing new work for the stage. The Institute provides rehearsal space, dramaturgical support, and an acting company, creating an immersive environment where artists can experiment, see their work take shape and collaborate with creative advisors, dramaturgs, actors and Institute staff to address the compelling needs of their text. The Lab's unique day-on, day-off rehearsal structure provides Fellows additional time to explore revisions and new writing between rehearsals. The Lab culminates in a closed presentation of each project for Lab participants, followed by a collaborative feedback session.

This year's participants include:

Acting Company

Phillip James Brannon (Belleville), Blair Brown (Copenhagen, Fringe), Dan Butler (Frasier), David Cale (Palomino), Amari Cheatom (Newlyweeds, Django Unchained), Jarlath Conroy (The Seagull, The Weir), Daniel Davis (The Nanny), Flora Diaz, Ramsey Faragallah (Betrayed), Wendell Franklin, Lynda Gravatt (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Doubt), Maria Helan, Annie Henk, Alex Hurt, Louisa Krause (Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Flick), Jennifer Lim (Chinglish), Nikiya Mathis (Milk Like Sugar), James McDaniel (NYPD Blue, Detroit 187), Emily McDonnell, Brian Mendes (Cook County Theatre Department), Dearbhla Molloy (Dancing at Lughnasa), Keith Nobbs (Bronx Bombers, Lombardi), Socorro Santiago (Adoration of the Old Woman), Micah Stock (It's Only A Play), Mickey Theis, Heather Velazquez, Johnny Wu (Chinglish)

Creative Advisors

Amy Freed, Indhu Rubasingham (Artistic Director, Tricycle Theatre, London)

Dramaturgs

Alex Barron, Mame Hunt, Janice Paran, Liesl Tommy

Kennedy Center Playwright Observer

Briandaniel Oglesby

Artists-In-Residence

Sheila Callaghan, Andia Kisia (Nairobi, Kenya)

Stage Management

Cynthia Cahill, Amy Ehrenberg, Carol A. Simon, Amanda Spooner

Production Assistants

Eliza Anastasio (Sarah Lawrence College), Kailee Ayyar (NYU),

Zachary Davidson (CalArts), Sarah Kachel (CalArts)

Special Guest

Lucien Bourjeily (Beirut, Lebanon)

As previously announced, the projects selected for the Theatre Lab are:

Caught

Written by Christopher Chen

Directed by Mark Brokaw

An art gallery hosts a retrospective of the work of a legendary Chinese dissident artist who was imprisoned in a Chinese detention center for a single work of art. Recently profiled in The New Yorker, the artist himself is present, and shares with patrons the details of an ordeal that defies belief. A labyrinthine exploration of truth, art, social justice and cultural appropriation, where nothing is as it first appears.

Ghost Supper (Spalding Gray, Youre Invited, Too)

Written by Sheila Tousey

Directed by Leigh Silverman

Ghost Supper (Spalding Gray, Youre Invited, Too) is the disquieting but humorous account of a woman remembering a tale told at the ghost supper she held for her deceased brother. Looking back on the spectre of suicide and her impending eviction, M begins to recall the story: My Grandmother Pretty Fields said, The story told at a ghost supper is the most important part of the ritual. It is the end of the end. The final good-bye.' Ghost Supper (Spalding Gray, Youre Invited, Too) is that story.

The Good Book

Written by Denis O'Hare & Lisa Peterson

Directed by Lisa Peterson

The Good Book tells the story of how the Christian Bible became the most powerful collection of texts in human history. Through the lens of two contemporary characters and their struggles with faith, The Good Book examines how and why belief becomes organized, and how the document known as the Bible grew from oral history into the powerful, even dangerous text that American fundamentalists use today.

The Last of the Little Hours

Written and directed by Annie Baker

The Last of the Little Hours follows the daily life of a group of Benedictine monks.

Posterity

Written and directed by Doug Wright

Norway's most celebrated sculpture is commissioned to create the last official portrait of her most famous writer, but Henrik Ibsen proves to be an irascible, contentious sitter, as the two men wage war over his legacy and his likeness.

Skeleton Crew

Written by Dominique Morisseau

Directed by Kamilah Forbes

In this third and final installment of a three-play Detroit cycle, a makeshift family of workers at the last exporting auto plant in the city navigates shifting power dynamics, foreclosure and inevitability as they are pushed to the limits of survival. When the barrier between blue collar and white collar gets blurred, how far over the lines are they willing to step?

So Go the Ghosts of Mexico, Part Two

Written by Matthew Paul Olmos

Directed by Lee Sunday Evans

Composer/Sound Designer Marios Aristopoulos

The second of a three-play cycle about the U.S./M xico drug wars focuses on the r

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