OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) Second Stage and club theater venue, presents Spring programming for The Mini Series.
temping, written and created by Wolf 359, is a comic tale of an employee's inner life, performed in an office cubicle for an audience of one. Violet, directed by Sammi Cannold and featuring Allie Trimm, explores healing, love, and what it means to be beautiful-performed on a moving bus.
The Mini Series: Performance for Small Audiences is a series designed for audiences of one to twenty-five. These intimate experiences blur the boundaries between performer and spectator, challenging our notions of form and content. Past performances include U R ? and The Garden.
Performances in The Mini Series will take place in various locations around Harvard Square. Prior to the performance, patrons will be alerted of the performance location and/or location to meet a show representative whom will accompany the audience to the performance space.
Tickets for The Mini Series are available by phone and in-person sales only. Patrons are highly encouraged to contact the Ticket Services Office with any mobility concerns or questions. Ticket Services can be reached at 617.547.8300 and in person at the Loeb Drama Center (Tues - Sun, noon - 5PM; 64 Brattle St, Cambridge, MA).
Additional tickets for The Mini Series performances may be released daily during performance periods. There will be a standby line for each performance in the event that tickets become available. Information on standby procedures can be found at americanrepertorytheater.org/MiniSeries. Patrons should also follow @americanrep on Twitter and Facebook for updates on availability.
TEMPING
By Wolf 359
March 7 - 19, 2017
Tickets $45 - On sale now
Somewhere in a filing cabinet in Delaware or Indiana, there is a table that shows how long we're expected to live. Most of us will never see it. But what if your job was to update these tables, to record the beginnings and ends of thousands of lives? What if you found the formula to predict your own lifespan?
Sarah Jane Tully, a 53-year-old actuary, is taking her first vacation in years, and you've been hired to cover for her. temping, the strange and comic tale of an employee's inner life, is performed for an audience of one by a Windows PC, a corporate phone, a laser printer, and the Microsoft Office Suite. Filling in at Sarah Jane's cubicle, you'll update client records, send emails, and eavesdrop on intra-office romance. Each performance is unique, depending on which tasks you accomplish and which of your co-workers you decide to trust.
Contrasting the anonymity of an Excel spreadsheet with furtive moments of human intimacy, temping brings you deep into the heart of corporate America. Congratulations, you're the new temp! Get ready to work.
temping is the newest work by Wolf 359, a company of narrative technologists whose productions have been seen at Lincoln Center, Joe's Pub, the New York Film Festival, Berlin's Voices of Change Festival, and Ars Nova, among others. Wolf 359 returns to Cambridge after their OBERON Presents debut in October 2015 with Song of a Convalescent Ayn Rand (Giving Thanks to the Godhead in the Lydian Mode).
VIOLETMusic by Jeanine Tesori
Book and Lyrics by Brian Crawley
Based on The Ugliest Pilgrim by Doris Betts
Directed by Sammi Cannold
April 5 - 15, 2017
Tickets $35
Violet on a bus is the travel musical that actually travels. Violet tells the story of a young woman who journeys cross-country to seek treatment for a disfiguring scar she's had since childhood. Much of Violet's tale unfolds on a bus bound for Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1964 South. In this production, when Violet boards that bus, you will too. This spring, join Violet on her journey aboard a vehicle complete with singing and dancing passengers and a heart-warming story that explores healing, love, and what it means to be beautiful.
Violet includes Allie Trimm (13, Bye Bye Birdie) as Violet, Elizabeth Crawford (Tuck Everlasting) and Eowyn Young as Young Violet, Joey Donnelly (James and the Giant Peach) as Farmer Karl, Frankie DiCiaccio (James and the Giant Peach) as Preacher, Mary Niederkorn as Old Lady, Jason Hunter as Flick, and Ryan Cupello as Monty. The ensemble is composed of Adrienne Powell (James and the Giant Peach), Alexander Pepperman (James and the Giant Peach), Ashley LaLonde, Chloe Brooks, Jacob Rienstra, Jordan Ari Gross, and Lauren Noll (James and the Giant Peach). Stage managed and associate directed by Brandon Powell, music directed by Makulumy Alexander-Hills, assistant directed by Lindsey Ruggles, assistant stage managed and assistant music directed by Brian Ge, scenic design by Madie Hays, costume design by Liz Rocha, props design by Connor O'Leary, lighting design by Justin Paice, sound design by Alex Giorgetti.
Violet on a bus was originally produced by At the Fountain Theatricals at Stanford University in the fall of 2013.
Violet is presented in collaboration with the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training.
OBERON is the American Repertory Theater's Second Stage, a destination for theater and nightlife on the fringe of Harvard Square. In addition to offering work from the A.R.T.'s main season, OBERON is also a thriving incubator for local, emerging and celebrated artists to imagine new projects that could only exist in this exciting club-theater environment. Thousands of artists and performance groups bring work to the space each year. OBERON regularly features local performers including aerialists, beat poets, food artists, tap dancers, gender-bending sketch troupes, comedians, hula-hooping burlesquers, and pop-and-lock human statues to name a few.
OBERON is located at 2 Arrow Street at the corner of Mass Ave. in Harvard Square, Cambridge. For tickets, call 617.547.8300, or visit cluboberon.com.
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