Photo Flash: The New Theatre Project to Stage The Dance of the Seven Veils

The New Theatre Project continues their exciting inaugural season with their next offering, The Dance of the Seven Veils. The Ann Arbor-based company has received critical acclaim for past productions like The Spring Awakening Project and Cloud Tectonics, and their next production promises to deliver more of that unique combination of lyricism and edginess they have come to be associated with.

The Dance of the Seven Veilsis based on Obie award-winning playwright, Charles L. Mee's work Salome. Mee publishes all his work online and claims that there is no such thing as an original play. He borrows heavily from classical sources as well as contemporary forms of communication such as blogs and Twitter, and then combines all of these into theatrical collages with a unique, organic narrative formed by multiple voices. On his website, the (re)making project, Mee invites others to use his words and texts and re-invent and re-interpret them - a challenge The New Theatre Project has readily risen to.

Veilsuses parts of Mee's script, but removes all of the narrative structure, replacing it with a story woven from the real lives of sex workers. The text of Veils was created using TNTP's interviews with sex workers, while also drawing materials from public domain blogs and books. Much of the text is derived from a social networking site for sex workers called NakedTruth.ca. The play involves three women who will represent one sex worker's story at multiple stages in her life. In reality, they are speaking the voices of several women, imagined and real, to comprise a singular, universal story of what it "means to be a woman."

As Keith Paul Medelis, Artistic Director of TNTP puts it, "We do not believe in propaganda theatre or theatre with an agenda. We believe truth is the essential component of beauty. Therefore, our play combines several truthful, real stories to create a varied, textural collage of the world's oldest profession."

The performance will incorporate dance, music and multimedia art to create a piece that is as compelling visually as it is thematically.

The Dance of the Seven Veilsis compiled and written by Amanda Lyn Jungquist and is under the direction of Keith Paul Medelis (Director, The Spring Awakening Project) and choreographed by Ben Stange (Director, Cloud Tectonics). The production features Amanda Lyn Jungquist (The Spring Awakening Project, Mother Courage in Concert), Linda Rabin Hammell, and Maria Thomas.

Special pay-what-you-can previews will be held on February 9 and 10. The production opens on February 11 and runs through February 28, Friday-Monday. All performances will start at 8 pm.

Tickets are $15, and students/seniors/industry tickets are $10 (cash or check only). Tickets can be reserved by calling or texting The New Theatre Project box office at (734) 645-9776 or emailing tickets@thenewtheatreproject.org. Seating is limited and reservations are strongly recommended.

Performances are held at the Pot & Box, 220 Felch St., Ann Arbor. Free parking is available onsite.

For more details, visit www.thenewtheatreproject.org.

 

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