The Acme Corporation Presents STRANGER KINDNESS

The Acme Corporation, Baltimore's award-winning theatre ensemble, will present Stranger Kindness, adapted, arranged, and directed by co-artistic directors Stephen Nunns and Lola B. Pierson, December 1 through 17 at The Great Hall at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1900 St. Paul Street, Baltimore.

Stranger Kindness, The Acme Corporation's newest piece, is a misinterpretation of the American classic A Streetcar Named Desire. Using the intentions and emotions of the original script, the piece alternates between a play and a video being live filmed for the audience. Incorporating language from canonical American plays, modernist existentialist writers, and Marxist feminism Stranger Kindness is much more interesting than it sounds like it will be.

The Acme Corporation production considers the mythology created by the classical American theatre and how that mythology is impacted by plays being made into films. Using live video and inspired by the film version of Streetcar the piece explores how much we rely (or don't rely) on language to convey meaning.

Stranger Kindness is adapted, arranged, and directed by co-artistic directors Stephen Nunns and Lola B. Pierson. Stranger Kindness marks the pair's first full-fledged collaboration since The Acme Corporation's 24-hour marathon version of Samuel Beckett's Play in 2013, which was recognized as "Best Production of the Year" by the Baltimore City Paper that same year.

Lighting is by Acme company member Eric Nightengale. Scenic design is by Alison Mark. Costume design is by Julie Potter and Emily Johnson. The show stars Britt Olsen-Ecker, Jamil Johnson, and Acme company member Sophie Hinderberger

Baltimore native Lola B. Pierson is a writer, playwright, and director. She is the co -founding artistic director of The Acme Corporation and the creator of Baltimore's Ten Minute Play Festival. Lola holds a B.A. in Human Rights and Playwriting from Bard College and a MFA in Theatre Arts from Towson University. She has been awarded "Best New Playwright" by the Baltimore City Paper and her production of Beckett's Play won "Best Production of the Year." In 2014 she was the recipient of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance's Ruby Award for Literary Arts, which she is using to complete a book of short stories entitled A Day By Yourself, and the Baltimore City Paper's "Best of Baltimore" for her production of Peter Handke's Kaspar. Most recently Thr3e Zisters, her contemporary response to Chekhov's Three Sisters, was performed at Salvage Vanguard Theatre in Austin, Texas. She is passionate about the intersection of language and presence and about using words like "intersection" in her bios. Other words she has used to apply for grants include explore, invigorate, probe, reframe, and contextualize.

Stephen Nunns is an associate professor at Towson University. He is the cofounder of The Acme Corporation and co-directed the company's 24-hour production of Samuel Beckett's Play. He also directed Single Carrot Theatre's production of Václav Havel's The Memo, which won Best Revival in City Paper's Best of Baltimore in 2014. Before coming to Baltimore, he lived in New York City for fifteen years, directing, writing, and composing music for theatre pieces at a variety of off-off Broadway venues. He was an associate artist at the seminal avant-garde theatre company Mabou Mines, where he created three theatre pieces, including the Obie Award-winning The Boys in the Basement. He was also an associate editor at American Theatre Magazine from 1995 to 2000. His new book, Getting Off: The Work and Life of Lee Breuer will be published by Theatre Communications Group next year.

Performances of Stranger Kindness run Thursday through Saturday, December 1st through December 17th at The Great Hall at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 1900 St. Paul Street, Baltimore Tickets are $7-$22 (sliding scale) and are available online and at the door. Advance sale tickets are available at www.theacmecorporation.org. All shows are at 8:00pm.

The Acme Corporation is the critically acclaimed Baltimore-based theatre ensemble that brings the professional, educational, and DIY communities together, focusing on original, new, and re-imagined classics. Previously, the Baltimore City Paper recognized the company for Best New Playwright (company member Lola B. Pierson for her play Office Ladies, which was produced by The Acme Corporation); Best Production (the company's 24-hour marathon version of Samuel Beckett's Play); Best Actress (company member Sophie Hinderberger for her performance in Play) and Best Adaptation for the company's coproduction of Gertrude Stein's The World is Round.

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