2015-16 Touchstone Apprentices to Present Fresh Voices Showcase

The Fresh Voices showcase returns to Touchstone Theatre on July 8 and 9, 2016. This annual event is a celebration of new theatre, featuring original works-in-progress by the 2015-16 Touchstone Apprentices, Raven Dailey and Julia Elberfeld. The evening is composed of three original works-in-progress and this year, centers around the female experience.

Touchstone's Apprenticeship Program annually selects emerging and transitioning artists to study within the company and learn about life in a professional ensemble theatre. Their work touches every aspect of the company and includes acting, stage management, playwriting, teaching, prop making, and more. Over the past fifteen years, Touchstone has graduated 60+ theatre artists from its program with more than a decade of Fresh Voices productions produced. Past apprentices have gone on to start their own theatre companies, continued their work as playwrights, designers, actors, teaching artists, and contributed to the field of original theatre at large locally and abroad.

"Thematically, this year's Fresh Voices showcase came together organically," says Emma Chong, Touchstone Ensemble Member and apprentice coordinator. "Julia and Raven's solo and collaborative performances connect to and complement one another, and it really mirrors the way they've worked so well together all this season."

Each apprentice takes on the creation of an original solo piece. In hers, Elberfeld examines the relationship between a woman and her body, picking apart the quirks of that relationship. Dailey's solo work evolved from an interest in the variety of advice that women receive from many sources throughout their life, in regards to what it means to be "your best self."

"From the very start of this process, we wanted to look at each of the pieces through the lens of being women," says Elberfeld. Dailey adds that the play is about "how we relate to one another, and the bits and pieces that make us who we are."

In their collaborative piece, the two apprentices wrote a scene that starts out as a straightforward job interview and then quickly begins to spiral out of control. They embraced the challenge of taking a straight scene and turning it on its ear, building to moments of heightened physicality and fantastical hyper-reality.

"Fresh Voices is one of our season favorites," continues Chong. "We look forward to it every year, and our regular audiences do, too; it's inspiring to see each class of apprentices, year after year, spread their wings and take off under their own creative power."

Touchstone's season is sponsored locally by season sponsors First Generation and RCN. WDIY provides media sponsorship and Working Dog Press provides print sponsorship.

Fresh Voices runs July 8 and 9, 2016, 8:00 pm at Touchstone Theatre. There will also be a post-show reception on the 8th and a talk-back with the apprentices on the 9th. Tickets are Pay-What-You-Will at the door, with a suggested donation of $10 or can be purchased in advance for $10, available at (610) 867-1689 or www.touchstone.org

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