A.R.T., Half Straddle and More Join The Exchange's 2013 Orchard Project, Now thru 6/29
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 15, 2013
The Exchange's Artistic Director, Ari Edelson, has announced the artists and companies who participating in the 2013 Orchard Project Summer Residencies. An unprecedented twenty-one companies, teams, and individual artists have been selected from hundreds of applicants to develop new work at The Exchange's Orchard Project. The Orchard Project (Ari Edelson, Artistic Director, Dean Strober, Executive Director) runs now through June 29, 2013 in New York's Catskill Mountain Preserve.
International companies, American vanguards, and rising-stars are represented, including:
- American Repertory Theater (MA, Pippin, Once)
- Colt Coeur (NY, Seven Minutes In Heaven)
- Half Straddle/Tina Satter (NY, Seagull:Thinking of you)
- The Lark Theater/Julian Fleisher/Kirsten Guenther (NY, Almost, Maine, Coraline)
- New Paradise Laboratories (PA, Fatebook, PROM)
- Nichole Canuso Dance (PA, Wandering Alice)
- Pig Pen (NY, Old Man and the Old Moon)
- Sky-Pony/Play Company (NY, Invasion!)
- Team Sunshine Performance Corporation (PA, Japanamerica Wonderwave)
- Theater Nohgaku (Japan, Pine Barrens, Pagoda)
The Orchard Project will also host a record number of artists and teams, including:
- Aaron Landsman (NY, City Council Meeting)
- Anne Garcia-Romero (IN, Provenance, Paloma)
- Carey Perloff (CA, The Colossus of Rhodes, Luminescence Dating)
- Dave Malloy/Eliza Bent (NY, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Beowolf..., The Hotel Colors)
- Greg Wohead (UK, The Ted Bundy Project, The Many Apologies of Pecos Bill)
- Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk (NY, Henry and Mudge, The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown)
- Krissy Vanderwarker (IL, God's Ear, Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler)
- Lance Horne (NY, Amandine, The $trip)
- Louis Cancelmi (NY, The Briefcase, The Lie Is To Our Benefit)
- Lucie Tiberghien/Michael Yates Crowley (NY, Don't Go Gentle, The Pavilion, The Tourist)
- Robert Schenkkan/Tom Bryant (WA, CA, The Kentucky Cycle, All the Way)
- Sarah Lazarus/Abby Pajakowsky (IL, MD, past members of Orchard Project Core Company)
- Suli Holum/Deborah Stein (NY, Chimera)
In addition, the Orchard Project will host its first ever "hackathon," pairing cutting-Edge Theater makers and technologists to co-create innovative technologies. The OP Hackathon will be a one-of-a-kind theatrical event that takes place from June 21 to 23. Over the course of 48 hours, these teams will be developing and pitching new "experiential apps" - games, social media, artworks or other product that push the boundaries of both theater and technology. Guest participants include technologists Scott Varland, Brendan Berg, and playwright Krista Knight, plus others to be announced.
"I can't wait to see what the innovative artists of the Orchard Project create this summer," Edelson said. "Our unique approach moves past development for development's sake and has already pushed extraordinary work to stages across the world. We are excited to support even more work this summer."
"The Orchard Project is run by artists, and we are proud to support fellow creators," the Executive Director of the Orchard Project, Dean Strober, said. "We are looking forward to creating an environment where artists can focus on developing their big ideas."
Companies join the Orchard Project for overlapping residencies, during which they are provided free rehearsal space, room and board, and support from fellow artists. Throughout the residencies, open rehearsals invite industry members from around the country to play an active role in the development of new works.
2013 also marks the sixth year of the Core Company at the Orchard Project, a nationally sourced apprentice program in which young artists train and create new work alongside resident artists and companies. Run by program directors Claire Kiechel and Catherine Mueller, this program for the innovative theatre makers of the future continues with the support of programs like the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Run by working artists for other working artists, The Orchard Project supports people over projects, and uniquely puts its faith in its artists to create new works while at the retreat. It is this faith that attracts leaders in the industry interested in developing their new work - whether it is brand new or in later stage.
The Orchard Project has birthed more than seventy shows over its first seven years, including the TONY-winning 33 Variations on Broadway, The Royal Court's Posh (also West End), Obie-winning The Aliens, The Shipment, and Architecting, and Robert Schenkkan's Steinberg and Kennedy-winning All the Way, slated to come to the American Reparatory Theater and Broadway next year. Shows developed at the Orchard Project have been or will be produced at the Royal Court in London, The Public Theatre, the Humana Festival, The National Theater (UK), American Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Atlantic Theater Company, Center Theater Group, Playwrights Horizons, Theatre Di Roma, Philadelphia Live Arts, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and many other theaters across America and Europe.
The work of the Exchange is generously supported through the donations of countless visionary individuals. Major support comes from the New York State Council for the Arts and The Dramatists Guild Foundation.
More information about the residencies and the Orchard Project is available at www.exchangenyc.org.
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