Sundance Institute Selects Acting Company and Creative Advisors for 05 eatre Lab at Sundance Mountain Resort

New York, NY Sundance Institute today announced the acting company and creative advisors that are participating in its 2015 Theatre Lab, which kicked off yesterday and runs through July 26 at the Sundance Mountain Resort in Utah. Under the supervision of Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the Lab is the centerpiece of the Institute's year-round work with the theatre community and is one of 24 residency Labs the Institute hosts each year for independent artists in theatre, film, new media and episodic content.

The Theatre Lab supports both emerging and established theatre-makers developing new work for the stage, with a focus on assuring that the playwright's deepest impulses and visions can be realized. For the three-week Lab, 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 and actors. The Lab culminates in a closed presentation of each project for Lab participants, followed by a collaborative feedback session.

More than 85% of Sundance-supported plays and musicals find production, including this year's Tony Award Winner for Best Musical, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's Fun Home,and last year's winner, Robert L. Freedman & Steven Lutvak's A Gentlemans Guide to Love and Murder, as well as titles such as ToasT, Iow@, Appropriate, Circle Mirror Transformation, An Iliad, The Lilys Revenge, The Good Negro, The Light in the Piazza, Passing Strange, Stuck Elevator, Spring Awakening, Laramie Project and I Am My Own Wife.

This year's participants include:

Acting Company

David Abeles (Once, Million Dollar Quartet), Jonathan Brooks (The Addict, Neil Young's Greendale, Once Around the Sun), Cornelius Davidson, Tesiana Elie (June Moon, Kinship), America Ferrera (Ugly Betty, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), Alex Hurt (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Tenaj Jackson (American Horror Story: Coven), Jenny Jules (Father Comes Home From the Wars), Emily Kuroda (Gilmore Girls, Drop Dead Diva), Crystal Lucas-Perry (Little Children Dream of God), Nadine Malouf (May in the Summer, Shame), Piter Marek (Disgraced, Cyrano De Bergerac), Forrest McClendon (The Scottsboro Boys), Tony Plana (The Boys of Winter, Zoot Suit), Will Pullen (Punk Rock, The Wayside Motor Inn), Andy Robinson (Dirty Harry, Hellraiser), Stacey Sargeant (Big Love, Our Lady of Kibeho), Andrew Schneider (Youarenowhere, Field), Margo Seibert (Rocky), Ching Valdes-Aran (Across the Universe, Macbeth)

Creative Advisors

Ayad Ahktar (Recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Indhu Rubasingham (Artistic Director, Tricycle Theatre, London)

Dramaturgs

Janice Paran (Senior Program Advisor), Jocelyn Clarke, Christian Parker, Lisa Timmel

Kennedy Center Playwright Observer

Kristin Idaszak

Artists-In-Residence

Jaouad Essounani (Morocco), Sondos Shabayeh (Egypt)

Stage Management

Catherine Bloch, Amy Ehrenberg, Melanie Lisby, Nicole Marconi

Production Assistants

Estey DeMerchant, Sierra Ducharme-Hanson, Keri Hale, Toran Moore

Special Guests

Jumana Al-Yasiri (MENA Manager), Roberta Levitow (Senior Program Associate-International)

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

abominable

By Phillip Howze

Directed by Mark Brokaw

Memory and myth collide in this tragicomic story of a family who embark on an affordable vacation days before the husband must depart to war. Their good-natured adventure soon descends and as the countdown to deployment tests their principles and allegiances, who and what will get tossed into the void?

Annie Salem: An American Tale

Adapted from the novel by Mac Wellman

Written & directed by Rachel Chavkin

Composer and co-lyricist Heather Christian

Performer/Designer/Co-creator Andrew Schneider

Set in both the ruined rustbelt and ancient Martian plains, Annie Salem is part social commentary, part love story, part sci-fi yarn. A howling, surreal new musical adapted from experimental grandaddy Mac Wellmans novel, it tells the story of teenage misfit Jack who loves a girl named Annie. Annie Salem is also being developed at the Royal Court and Ars Nova's Uncharted Program.

awe/struck

by christopher oscar pe a

Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz

Denia arrives in Chicago, looking to create a place for herself in this unfamiliar land. Monique's never left Chicago but feels more and more like a stranger in her own home. A chance encounter between them transforms their lives forever in this new play about identity and perception. awe/struck is a commission of the Goodman Theatre.

Catch The Wall

By Gabrielle Reisman

Directed by Colette Robert

Choreography by Ro Tyler

After a New Orleans bounce MC dies, middle-schoolers Cleo and Justice plot a music video so their mentor's memory can live on. As the MC's ghost tangles with the girls' young teachers, students and educators push back against a button-down charter school climate, working to get their own stories heard.

Jonah

By Len Jenkin

Directed by Katherine Owens

Jonah is a contemporary re-telling of the story of the unfaithful servant. A bar band, a lounge singer, a biblical scholar, blind Mr. Bones, a storm at sea, three or four love stories, the evil city of Nineveh, a Dairy Queen, the reluctant prophet, and of course, the whale.

Sell/Buy/Date

By Sarah Jones

Directed by Carolyn Cantor

Sell/Buy/Date is a multi-character, one-person play inspired by stories of people, especially women and girls, directly impacted by sex-trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Through monologues the piece explores the perspectives of diverse characters and illuminates the universal challenges of life in an increasingly complex global world.

TAHA

By Amer Hlehel

English tra

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