Elephant Run District's hERD Pocast Series Kicks Off Today with TURING TEST at the Tank

Elephant Run District debuts The hERD Podcast, a curated platform for audiences to experience work by playwrights and artists performed live in New York City and then streamed around the globe on the internet, at the Tank tonight, Jan. 14, 2016 at 9:30 p.m.

The first production in this series is Dominick DeGaetano's suspenseful sci-fi play TURING TEST, directed by ERD's Artistic Director Aimee Todoroff and featuring Deven Anderson, Chris Harcum, Mel House and Sawyer Spielberg.

David McKenna has a baby on the way; he needs money. Unluckily, the former enfant terrible is only qualified to do one thing: teach poetry. He lands a position at a large research university, but only after agreeing to a strange request: to tutor a single eager student, Adam, while under observation, as part of a top secret government experiment. Soon, events beyond their control, and the increasing demands of the experiment, will force David and Adam to come to a reckoning with the meaning and intent of their lessons, and the consequences such knowledge brings.

"There are so many excellent artists that don't get nearly enough exposure, and so many great plays, but reading the text of a play, as wonderful as that can be, only provides part of the equation needed to create the magic of theater," says Artistic Director Aimee Todoroff on the creation of the hERD Podcast. "This podcast is a way for the audience to experience that magic when it's not possible to see the play in a theater or travel to New York City."

In describing TURING TEST, Dominick DeGaetano says, "This play takes place in an exaggerated version of our world, and has a lot of the same problems. I feel like everyone feels compromised by their complicity in our culture, and are exhausted by the choices they've been given. For a play about robots and government conspiracies, this is pretty close to the most personal play I could write. I've had, like everyone else, a lot of messed up mentor relationships, where people try and tell you the 'right way' to live your life. And none of that advice ever works! It just makes you feel, well, like a robot."

"A theatrical performance is more than the words on the page spoken out loud and our podcasts of plays will not be a sterile recording of the text of a play," says Todoroff on what listeners to the podcast will experience. "They will be full, complex theatrical events that the listener can experience in their own time. The hERD Podcast will feel, to the listening audience, like being present at the play. People may expect a dry recording of text in a fussily produced package, but we will be preserving the textures of a live performance, including laughs, gasps, and the delicious sensation of expectation that comes when an entire audience is on the edge of their seats. That feeling will be true, whether your seat is in the theater at a live recording, or on a subway train."

DeGaetano details why he thinks TURING TEST will work well in a podcast format by saying, "The best part for me about this play isn't the applause in the end, but the audience in the lobby after the show, piecing the thing together. I always overhear at least one animated argument about what it all means. The internet's the biggest theater lobby that we have, and I'm looking forward to the kind of conversation we can have, about this and every other play coming down the pipeline."

In explaining her vision of what outcomes might manifest from creating this project Todoroff says, "My hope is that the podcast becomes a two-fold benefit to all the artists involved: bringing the writers and actors greater exposure, helping them find to their potential audiences around the globe, and giving the artists a real, tangible product that can be used to submit to artistic institutions or granting organizations. We work in our communities and therefore we are known as artists in a certain sector or town. The podcasts will let someone in Sante Fe or Portland experience a play they would have no access to without the podcast."

About the artists:

Aimee Todoroff (director): is proud to have been a part of several Obie Award winning productions, including HeadshotBrick performing in the Peculiar Works Project's Off Stage-the East Village Fragments and directing Green for the Metropolitan Playhouse's 2010-2011 Season. She has also directed at Primary Stages, The Living Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Writopia Labs, and elsewhere. She has directed the premieres of works by Cusi Cram, Daisy Foote, and Chris Harcum, including Green, We Haven't Told Anyone About This, Rabbit Island, and American Gun Show, a 5-star reviewed show in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Aimee received her MFA in Directing from Southampton Arts, studying with Marsha Norman, Nick Mangano, Rinde Eckert and Austin Pendleton among others. Aimee was the Assistant Director under the director John Rando and the playwright David Ives for Classic Stage Company's production of The Heir Apparent.

Dominick DeGaetano (playwright): Plays include TURING TEST (Semifinalist, National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center), Hunter, and Preoccupied. His plays have been developed at Guild Hall of East Hampton, the Southampton Writers Conference, and the New Plays Festival at George Washington University. BA: GWU (Dean's Scholar in Shakespeare). MFA: Stony Brook University. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and the New Works Coordinator at Elephant Run District.

Deven Anderson (Seidel): Romeo and Juliet (Sink or Swim Rep.), Ghosts of Provincetown (New World Stages), Hurlyburly and The Pillowman (Variations Theatre Group). Deven is one of the creators and principal performers of The Usual Rejects, a staged reading focusing on action films of the '70s, '80s and '90s. Their most recent project was I've Got a Bad Feeling About This: Star Wars: A New Hope. Deven attended Indiana University and the Circle in the Square Theatre School.

Chris Harcum (David): is an actor and playwright. He has created and performed several solo shows including American Gun Show, Green, and Some Kind of Pink Breakfast. His plays include Rabbit Island, We Haven't Told Anyone About This, and The Devil in Ms. Spelvin. Chris is a founding member of Elephant Run District and a recipient of the Indie Theater Hall of Fame Award (2011) and Leading Lights of Independent Theater Award (2015).

Mel House (Dr. Aaronofsky): is an actress, activist, producer and playwright. Credits include: Peter Weiss' Night with Guests (NYFringe), Hedda Gabler (Baruch Performing Arts Center), In the Bones (2015 NYIT Award for Outstanding Actress), Shrunken Heads (Playwrights Horizons), Rabbit Island (Backstage Critics Pick), Homunculus: Reloaded (3 NYIT Awards), East of the Sun West of the Moon (Baltimore's Centerstage), Much Ado About Nothing (Baltimore Shakespeare Festival), and Nerve (Edinburgh Fringe Festival).

Sawyer Spielberg (Adam): is a Californian native who moved to New York City and studied at the Atlantic Theater Company. Sawyer has worked mostly on stage playing Peter Van Daan in Bay Street Theater's 2013 production of Ann Frank, Guild Hall of East Hampton's 2014 production of Hamlet playing Guildenstern and Fransisco. After completing Bay Street Theater's 2015 production of Of Mice and Men playing the young ranch hand Whit, Sawyer is excited to portray Adam in Elephant Run District's hERD Podcast Series.

Elephant Run District is an indie theater and film company devoted to challenging expectations, inspiring dialogue in our community and creating long-lasting memories. ERD seeks to entertain its audiences while addressing issues that affect our society. The District is a place where traditions collide and new possibilities are explored in the hunt to create stories that are ultimately human. www.elephantrundistrict.org