Thaddeus Phillips Partners Steven Dufala And Steve Cuiffo To Present ZOO MOTEL September 28-October 25

Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental & The Miami Light Project announce the world premiere of Zoo Motel, a live remote and interactive theatrical experience created & performed by Internationally acclaimed theatre director, Thaddeus Phillips and designed by Obie & Bessie award winning artist, Steven Dufala (set designer for Home and The Object Lesson).

By purchasing a ticket for Zoo Motel, participants reserve one of 21 rooms in the motel. Then an email file which includes a printable room key, a take out menu and a foldable set piece is sent to them. Thirty minutes before show time, a clerk checks you in to your room and the interactive work begins when Phillips enters his own room which is has an unexplainable connection to the other 21 rooms.

Zoo Motel was created and will be performed live from Phillips` studio in Cajica, Colombia, a village on the outskirts of Bogota. As of today, Colombia remains in one of the worlds strictest quarantines, and Phillips can only venture outside on Wednesdays for 3 hours to get essentials. Zoo Motel has been created via an intricate and compacted logistical puzzle in order to send materials and set pieces from Dufala's studio in Philadelphia to Phillips´ studio in South America.

Phillips & Dufala have transformed Phillips´ studio into a fictional motel room that could be anywhere on earth and fitted it with a central rotating camera that allows for a constantly moving and shifting perspective and an array of magic, transformations and surprises.

Phillips stages and shoots the show live, interacting with the audiences while reimagining his signature stage craft to this bizarre new format with significant inspiration from the cinematic work of Orson Welles and the theatrical wizardry of Robert Lepage (with whom Phillips has collaborated). 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.

Beth Boone, Artistic Director of the Miami Light Project, says:

"Thaddeus and Steven have come up with a combined use of theatre and film that is a one of a kind hybrid only possible in this format. We are thrilled to be co-presenting "Zoo Motel", a fun, inventive, and evocative work that could only have been conceived during this global crisis, and is an example of the creativity that has sprung from it. What is also so exciting about this work is that it it is going to be performed and broadcast live from South America and can reach audiences not only in Miami but in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and really anywhere in the world."

Steven Dufala says: "Thaddeus and I have worked to create a completely analog play for a digital playback. Our Zoo Motel room is filled with analog devices, a rotary phone, an Olivetti Valentine Typewriter, a record player. All the transitions, odd perspectives, top shots and miniatures are done with no cuts and no editing but live, in the moment and in real time."

On the project, Phillips stated: "I was directing a show about the climate crisis, and in fact, pandemics in Madrid in February of 2020, and in trying to get back to the Americas, my flight had to stop in Iceland where we stayed for a night in this quite odd motel. I took many notes on the motel stationary, just as the world was about to change, and they became this project. This show is about connection and disconnection, or rather our connections in the current disconnection. The earth, seen from space, especially now, is like a huge zoo, and the planet a motel of sorts - a place we all get to visit for a while. Thus the idea behind the show is to play with large scale ideas from the confines of a small motel room. The room itself is a portal, a place in which planes have suddenly stopped, passports invalid and time stands still, and from that, something new and magical fights to emerge. Simple objects in the room transform, and a dream logic akin to a Michel Gondry film becomes apparent. . . Zoo Motel feels and flows like a live movie yet it has the intimacy and rough magic of a theater work."

Zoo Motel is the third collaboration between Thaddeus Phillips and the Miami Light Project. In 2015 they presented 17 Border Crossings and in 2019, they commissioned and presented the World Premiere of Inflatable Space which opened at the historic Colony Theatre in Miami in May of 2019.

ZOO MOTEL

PREVIEWS

Monday, September 28 to Sunday, October 4th.

Opening Night, October 5th.

Performances from Wednesday to Sunday Nights, October 7th to October 25th. 8:00PM

Press Invited: starting Thursday October 1st to the 4th of October and are also invited to Opening on October 5th or any subsequent performance.

Written and Performed by Thaddeus Phillips

Designed by Steven Dufala & Thaddeus Phillips

Directed by Tatiana Mallarino

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Thursdays to Sundays - 8:00 p.m. EST

Running time: 63 minutes with no intermission.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets are $35.00 per household and go on sale September 7th, 2020.

Available online at www.zoomotel.org.

No fees apply.

Given the unique nature and logistics of this production, it is ideal to have a printer and print materials before the show. An email will be sent with a "ZOO MOTEL WELCOME PACK" Pdf, specifically designed by artist Steven Dufala, to be printed and prepared before the show.

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