SPACE and Mad Horse Theatre Will Present Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' APPROPRIATE

SPACE and Mad Horse Theatre Company present Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' award-winning drama, Appropriate.

The plot of every American dysfunctional (white) family drama is thrown into one big pressure cooker in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Appropriate, presented by SPACE Gallery and Mad Horse Theatre Company, February 15th through March 1st, 2020.

Following last winter's sold-out, Maine-made production of Sam Shepard's True West, SPACE is proud to continue this winter tradition of live theater with a collaboration with Mad Horse Theatre Company, a professional resident ensemble based in South Portland. This is the first time the work of MacArthur Genius Fellow Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will be shown in Maine.

In Appropriate, the estranged members of the Lafayette clan have descended upon their crumbling Arkansas homestead to settle the accounts of the newly dead patriarch. After a disturbing discovery surfaces among their father's possessions, his three adult children are faced with a series of crackling surprises and confrontations.

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ear for dialogue is extraordinary," reflected Christopher Price, Mad Horse's director for this production. "The words spoken show the latent anger, the affection, the loathsomeness, the fear, and the vulnerability that make these characters impossible not to identify with and remember."

Jacobs-Jenkins is one of the most acclaimed and visionary minds at work in the theater today. With recent works including An Octoroon and Everybody, he has reimagined classics - from Greek myths to Americana strongholds - to explore how these archetypes can speak to our own complicated moment in history. As Jacobs-Jenkins remarked in an interview with The Guardian in 2016, "I think theatre is about checking in on some controversial ideas among people and seeing where we all square in our relationship to those ideas and to each other."

With Appropriate, the larger legacy of America's racial history simmers underneath the onstage drama about one troubled white family's heritage. "As we continue to explore the role of race in Maine," said SPACE Executive Director, Kelsey Halliday Johnson, "we're proud to be presenting a work that critically examines whiteness through the lens of one of our nation's most celebrated Black contemporaries."

For more information and tickets go to www.space538.org.

SUMMARY OF EVENT DETAILS

PRODUCTION DATES

Feb 13 - March 1, 2020

THURS | February 13 | Invited-Dress | 7:30p
FRI | February 14 | Invited-Dress | 7:30p
SAT | February 15 | OPENING NIGHT | 7:30p
SUN | February 16 | 2:00p *

THURS | February 20 | 7:30p *
FRI | February 21 | 7:30p
SAT | February 22 | 7:30p
SUN | February 23 | w/ Community Talk-Back | 2:00p *

THURS | February 27 | 7:30p *
FRI | February 28 | 7:30p
SAT | February 29 | 7:30p
SUN | March 1 | 2:00p

*Pay-What-You-Can dates
Box office and doors open a half hour before each performance

TICKETING

$18 ADVANCE
$20 DAY-OF
$15 SPACE MEMBERS

PAY WHAT YOU CAN POLICY: Pay-what-you-can tickets are available for three performances of Appropriate: Feb. 16, Feb. 20, and Feb. 23. These tickets will be offered at the door and availability will be determined by the number of advance tickets purchased. Additionally, pay-what-you-can tickets are available for any audience member under 25 for all shows. Again, this policy is for walk-up, day-of-show purchase only and availability determined by the number of tickets already purchased.

PLOT

Every estranged member of the Lafayette clan has descended upon the crumbling Arkansas homestead to settle the accounts of the newly-dead patriarch. As his three adult children sort through a lifetime of hoarded mementos and junk, they collide over clutter, debt, and contentious family history. But after a disturbing discovery surfaces among their father's possessions, the reunion takes a turn for the explosive, unleashing a series of crackling surprises and confrontations.

CAST + CREW

Cast
Toni: Christine Marshall*
Rhys: Luis Del Valle III
Bo: Burke Brimmer*
Rachael: Janice Gardner*
Cassidy: Maiya Koloski
Ainsley: Oliver Killeen
Franz: Brent Askari*
River: Marie Stewart Harmon*

Crew
Director: Christopher Price*
Production Manager: Nick Schroeder*
Stage Manager: Lauren Stockless
Scenic Designer: Christopher Price*
Lighting Designer: Corey Anderson*
Prop Designer: Stacey Koloski*
Costume Designer: Savannah Irish
Sound Designer: Nat Baldwin
Racial Equity Consultant: Keita Whitten

* Mad Horse Company Members

Mad Horse Theatre Company was founded in 1986 in Portland as a professional resident theater ensemble. The Company quickly developed a reputation for innovative interpretations of cutting-edge contemporary plays as well as the dramatic classics. After performing in a variety of venues, we secured a lease on our own building in 2009 from the city of South Portland. Being in our own space allows the actors to create and rehearse a production in the same 50-seat black-box theater where it will be performed. Our mission has been the driving force behind a history of productions that, we believe, have added to Maine's artistic enrichment and to the social discourse that is at the heart of a strong community. It is our sincere hope that the audience's experience is entertaining and engaging. In 2018, Mad Horse Theatre appointed Nick Schroeder and Mark Rubin to two-year terms as the new Executive Director and Artistic Director of the company. More at www.madhorse.com.

SPACE is a multidisciplinary arts non-profit in Portland, Maine, grounded in the belief that vital communities are activated by experimentation, conversation, and camaraderie. As an alternative platform for local, national, and International Artists, SPACE prioritizes original collaborations, risk-taking, and public engagement with programming across music, visual art, film, performance, literary arts and more. Beyond the 15 exhibitions and 200 events offered annually, SPACE uses the top floors of its building to rent below-market-rate studios to local artists and run an artist-in-residence program. SPACE is also the only Andy Warhol Foundation Regional Regranting partner in New England, entering its 6th year administering Kindling Fund grants for Maine artists.

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