Synchronicity Theatre Announces Winners of 2017-18 'STRIPPED BARE' Project
By: BWW News Desk Nov. 03, 2017
Atlanta's Synchronicity Theatre has announced the three works that will be produced as part of this season's Stripped Bare: Arts Incubator Project.
They are: Inch by Inch by Rachel Graf Evans (November 13 & 14, 2017); 2 The Left: A Tribute to the Life of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes by Kerisse Hutchinson (January 15 - 17, 2018); and The Ood: A Field Guide to Apocalyptic Worlds for _________ Children by Danielle Deadwyler and Minka Wiltz (May 14 - 16, 2018).
Performances are free and open to the public, but require reservations. Please go to synchrotheatre.com for more information. Complete project descriptions are below.
Stripped Bare focuses on projects that emphasize words and ideas, with minimal technical elements, and encourages artists to think about the essentials of theatre "stripped of" intricate sets, lights, props, sound design, and costumes. The focus will be on actors, words, passion, and ideas. Each winner will get up to three days in Synchronicity Theatre's performance space. They will receive a technician, producer and/or facility manager, house manager, and a box office staffer for each performance. Each project will also receive marketing support and mention on Synchronicity's website.
Inch by Inch
Directed by Elizabeth Dinkova
November 13 & 14, 2017
7:30 p.m.
Description:
Bridget and her partner Wyn have returned to Bridget's hometown for her mother's funeral. Bridget learns that she has inherited the house and vegetable garden, and finds she must reconcile her own deep-seated fears about family and identity before the Garden will let her leave.
About Rachel Graf Evans
Rachel Graf Evans (Playwright; BRIDGET) is a writer and theatre artist from Westtown, PA. Atlanta Playwriting: The Right Kind of Marigold (Working Title Playwrights 24h Plays); [If You Don't Know] The Pledge (Atlanta One-Minute Play Festival @ Actor's Express). Rachel currently serves as the Dramatists Guild Young Ambassador for Atlanta, is a member of Working Title Playwrights, and was a 2016-2017 Horizon Theatre Playwright Apprentice. She is also a Third Culture Kid (raised in Jerusalem and Jakarta), Quaker, a barbershop singer, and a general creative enthusiast. Oberlin College B.A. with High Honors: Theatre/Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies. Stay tuned at www.rachelgrafevans.com.
About Elizabeth Dinkova
Elizabeth Dinkova is a theater director from Sandanski, Bulgaria, and a graduate of the MFA Directing program at the Yale School of Drama, where she received the Julian Milton Kaufman Prize for Directing. At Yale, she served as the co-artistic director of the Yale Summer Cabaret's season Seven Deadly Sins, in which she directed the debut production of Miranda Rose Hall's Antarctica! Which is to Say Nowhere and the English-language premiere of Dea Loher's Adam Geist. Other Yale productions include Bulgaria! Revolt!, co-created with and written by Miranda Rose Hall, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka by Tori Sampson for the Carlotta Festival 2017, Othello by William Shakespeare and Best Lesbian Erotica 1995 by Miranda Rose Hall, as well as assisting director Rebecca Taichman on Indecent at the Yale Rep. Before Yale, Elizabeth was the Artistic Apprentice at the Studio Theatre. She is currently the Yale Directing Fellow at the ALLIANCE THEATRE, where she assisted Richard Garner on Shakespeare in Love, directed Mark Valdez's scene presentation from Road to a Dream, and where she is developing a devised piece about gun culture in America with the Education department.
2 The Left: A Tribute to the Life of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes
January 15 - 17, 2018
Time TBD
Description:
2 The Left: A Tribute to the Life of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes is an entertaining and inspiring multimedia, one-woman show filled with music, dance, and heart about TLC's (the 90's Atlanta-bred, highest-selling girl group of all time) most controversial member "Left Eye" who tragically passed away at the age of 30. Told with her signature high energy and unabashed honesty, Lisa invites fans to an exclusive listen to her solo album that introduces us to pivotal moments and people throughout her life. As self-revelations begin to unearth, she's led to seek out her true purpose: encouraging her fans to do the same. Dedicated "2 The Left" in us: What will you live for? What will you die for? What will your legacy be?
About Kerisse Hutchinson
Kerisse is a multi-talented award-winning actress, dancer, and writer from New York City. She received her dance training at the Alvin Ailey School. Theatrical achievements include: Trojan Woman (Drama Desk Award), Macbeth (Classical Theatre of Harlem) in Germany, and the starring role in the hip-hop musical, Honey Bo and the Goldmine by Will Power (La Jolla Playhouse, CA) where she showcased her acting, dancing, singing, and rapping talents. Film credits include: the Gotham Award-nominated August the First (Best Actress Award (SXSW); Rise of the Zombies (Sy-Fy Channel); Dough Boys (Paramount/BET); and The Janky Promoters (Weinstein Co). Television credits include: recurring on "All My Children," and guest starring on "The Defenders," "Law & Order: SVU," and "The Whole Truth." Kerisse also founded the nonprofit GuiDANCE Autism, Inc., bringing the joy of dance to children with special needs.
The Ood: A Field Guide to Apocalyptic Worlds for _________ Children
By Danielle Deadwyler and Minka Wiltz
May 14 -16, 2018
Time TBD
Description:
From within a liminal womb, a triptych of women figures navigate the specters of their children across troubled terrain - present, past, and future. Sound tracked by an Opera, tongues (glossolalia) and hip hop aesthetic, The Ood guide those in incubation, questioning motherhood, language, the sexbody, and myth in this performance art experience.
About Danielle Deadwyler
Danielle Deadwyler is a congregation of artistic personas and firebrand talent. Her sophisticated spunk and ingenuity is reflected on stages, screens, and pages. As a professional actor, Deadwyler has performed in productions with Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Synchronicity Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Aurora Theatre and the Tony Award-winning ALLIANCE THEATRE. She is the Creative Loafing Atlanta Critics Pick for Best Actress (2013) and Reader's Pick for Best Performance Artist (2017). 2015 found her the winning recipient of the Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a play. She presented (dis)possessed: the live mixtape in Fall 2013, a one-woman theatrical performance art project she conceived, at Spelman College's Museum of Fine Art as a part of their Black Box series. She has been a guest-star in BET's Being Mary Jane, OWN's Greenleaf, as well as a cast member of Tyler Perry's and OWN Network's The Haves & The Have Nots. As a poet and performance artist, Deadwyler is an observer/practitioner of all things hip hop culture and gender-centric. Her video/performance works have been included in MAMBU BADU collective's exhibition If We Came From Nowhere Here, Why Can't We Go Somewhere There? (D.C.); Mint Gallery (ATL); Whitespace Gallery (ATL); The Luminary (STL); and Atlanta Film Festival, among others. She has been supported by grants from IDEA CAPITAL (2014), ELEVATE Atlanta, and was the 2016 Living Walls Inaugural Laura Calle grant winner. She is currently an Atlanta Film Festival Filmmaker-in-Residence and a WonderRoot Walthall Fellow.
About Minka Wiltz
Minka has been acting for 15 years and singing for 32 years. After graduating from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Minka went on to pursue a professional career in the theater that has brought her success on the stages of Atlanta. She has worked with Alliance Theater, Horizon Theater, Actor's Express, Synchronicity Theatre, The Atlanta Opera, and Working Title Playwrights. She has been nominated for five Suzi Bass Awards (two Lead Actress, one Featured Actress, and two Best Ensemble). She wrote, performed, and co-produced Freedom Paralyzed in 2017; an original fairytale operatic love letter Breathing Fire Moving Earth (BFME) 2016; and her one-woman show Shaking The Wind (STW) 2015 at Theatre Emory. Minka will reprise her role as Alberta "Pearl" Johnson in Black Pearl Sings at San Diego Repertory Theatre directed by Tom W. Jones II in November.
Synchronicity Theatre, led by Producing Artistic Director Rachel May and Managing Director & Artistic Associate Lee Nowell, produces smart, gutsy, high quality theatre that sparks community connections and uplifts the voices of women and girls. Synchronicity supports women artists, forges long-term and effective community partnerships and develops new work. Synchronicity was founded in 1997 by four women with a desire to work collaboratively and bring challenging, meaningful theatre to Atlanta audiences. We now reach nearly 8,000 patrons through our season of plays for adults (Bold Voices) and families (Family Series); community outreach; and educational programming, including our Playmaking for Kids (PFK) summer camps and after school programs and our award-winning Playmaking for Girls (PFG) program. Our intimate theatre in the heart of midtown at Peachtree Pointe became our home in the summer of 2014.
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