Apollinaire Theatre Company to Present DANCE NATION Beginning Next Month

Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. And if their new routine is good enough, they'll claw their way to the top at Nationals in Tampa Bay. A play about ambition, growing up, and yearning to embrace our bodies and our souls.

Clare Barron's "glorious new work...conjures the passionate ambivalence of early adolescence with such being-there sharpness and poignancy that you're not sure whether to cringe, cry or roar with happiness." (New York Times) Her exploration of the feral passions and ambition of pre-teen girls striving to excel, is also, by the nature of their portrayal by three generations of adult actors, a memory play and reflection on who we were and who we longed to be.

Clare Barron is a playwright and performer from Wenatchee, Washington. Her play Dance Nation received its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in May 2018 and subsequently its UK premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London. It was a 2019 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and is the recipient of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and The Relentless Award established in honor of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Other plays include: You Got Older (Page 73; Steppenwolf) which received two Obie Awards for Playwriting and Performance, a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Play, and was a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist and the #1 most-recommended play on the Kilroys' List; I'll Never Love Again (The Bushwick Starr); and Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb; Woolly Mammoth).

Performances of Dance Nation are April 14-May 14, 2023Fri. & Sat. at 8:00, Sun. at 3:00

Press Night: Sat. April 15, 8:00

Performances are at the Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea.

Tickets are $30, $25 seniors, $15 students

Tickets can be purchased by calling (617) 887-2336 or on-line at www.apollinairetheatre.com

Information and directions at www.apollinairetheatre.com

Dance Nation by Clare Barron

April 14-May 14, 2023Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea.
(617) 887-2336 • www.apollinairetheatre.com

Cast:

Amina - Audrey Johnson
Ashlee - Schanaya Barrows
Connie - Srin Chakrovorty
Luke - Erik P. Kraft
Maeve- Ann Carpenter
Sofia - Alison Butts
Vanessa/The Moms - Paola Ferrer
Zuzu - Katie Pickett
Dance Teacher Pat - Dev Luthra

Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques
Choreographer: Audrey Johnson
Costume Design: Elizabeth Rocha
Scenic & Lighting Design: Nathan Lee, Jennea Pillay, Danielle Fauteux Jacques
Sound Design: Joseph Lark-Riley
Stage Manager/Assistant Director: Emily Larson
ASM: Arianna Diaz-Celon, Miguel Dominguez

Running Time: estimated 90-105 minutes

Apollinaire Theatre Company creates unique encounters with plays that inspire and entertain. Our programs -Teatro Chelsea, Apollinaire Play Lab, Apollinaire in the Park, Resident Artist Program- complement our production season and cultivate an ecosystem of artists of all ages and career stages in our home for adventurous art, the Chelsea Theatre Works.Apollinaire productions include our summer immersive bilingual productions And Your Little Dog Too and Romeo and Juliet, Don't Eat the Mangos by Ricardo Pérez González, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Uncle Vanya and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes by Kate Benson, Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee, and The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig.

Schanaya Barrows as Ashlee (front), Alison Butts as Sofia, Paola Ferrer as Vanessa, Erik P. Kraft as Luke

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