Zoo Motel at Buntport Theater

Theatre director, designer and performer Thaddeus Phillips, returns to Buntport via the virtual with 'ZOO MOTEL' . Mysterious & playful, and filled with Phillip's hallmark theatricality, ZOO MOTEL is a live (yet remote) interactive & intimate theatrical/cinematic play broadcast live from a village in South America.

This wildly inventive exploration of the possibilities of live virtual theater and the magic of cinema combine a creative use of zoom and complex camera choreography to create a play that has the feel of live theater and a movie simultaneously. A specially designed miniature camera crane serves as an 'eye' to allow for 360 tracking and panning camera shots and for quickly shifting perspectives across a surreal motel room that is populated with paintings of bizarre phone booths, a Japanese Maneki-Neko beckoning cat, a miniature Titanic, and various surprises.

By purchasing a ticket for ZOO MOTEL, participants reserve one of 21 'rooms' in the imagined motel. Then an email file which includes a printable room key, motel stationary, motel brochure and interactive set piece is sent. A deck of cards will also be needed to participate. At showtime, the night clerk opens the motel to welcome guests and then the live interactive transmission opens the door to specially crafted motel room set designed in collaboration with award winning designer Steven Dufala (Obie award winner and designer of HOME and THE
OBJECT LESSON).

Phillips stages and shoots the show live, interacting with the audiences while reimagining his signature stage craft to this bizarre new format. Director Tatiana Mallarino has been in quarantine with Phillips, and directs by watching the work on a monitor as if on a movie set. New York City's famed sleight of hand master, Steve Cuiffo has been training Phillips over Skype in various magic tricks designed especially for Zoo Motel and the Spanish/Ukrainian dancing team of Fernando & Katya have been sending choreographies for Phillips via instagram from Madrid.

ZOO MOTEL DETAILS:
WESTERN PREMIERE - 21 Shows Only
Opening Night: NOVEMBER 4th, 2020
Run: NOVEMBER 5th to DECEMBER 19th, 2020 (no show on Thanksgiving NOVEMBER 26th)
8pm


PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Thursdays to Saturdays - 8:00 p.m. MT
Running time: 63 minutes with no intermission.

TICKET INFORMATION
Room Rates (tickets) Tickets are $19.95 for Thursday nights. 22.97 for Friday nights and 24.99 for Saturday nights Each room per household and go on sale OCTOBER 15th, 2020 and available
online at:
www.zoomotel.org