The Seeing Place Announces The Cast of CLOUD 9

The Seeing Place Theater, known for intense & intimate ensemble work, brings you Caryl Churchill's revolutionary masterwork, CLOUD 9 - co-directed by TSP's artistic team, BranDon Walker and Erin Cronican. This play kicks off "The Empathy Initiative," the company's year-long commitment to addressing oppression in all forms through the power of theater.

"We're very proud to announce that four of seven plays we're presenting this season are written by female playwrights," says Cronican. "We start with Ms Churchill's seminal work which explores power, perception, and sexual fluidity. We see our societal assumptions turned on their head by watching one family in two distinct eras - one that celebrates the patriarchy and one that smashes it. And we're delighted to be telling this story using the same Brechtian techniques championed by Churchill herself."

The ensemble cast for CLOUD 9 includes Erin Cronican* (The CW's "Veronica Mars", The Seeing Place's "Getting Out" and "Macbeth"), Jane Kahler* (European Tour of "Macbeth", The Seeing Place's "Getting Out" and "Macbeth"), Bill McAndrews, Sabrina Schlegel-Mejia (The Seeing Place's "Macbeth"), Robin Friend Stift (The Seeing Place's "Getting Out" and "Macbeth"), Ari Veach (The Seeing Place's "Macbeth"), and BranDon Walker* (The Seeing Place's "Rhinoceros" and "Macbeth"). Stand-by for Joshua/Martin: Michael Stephen Clay (The Seeing Place's "Three Sisters.") Narrators: Mariel Reyes, Clinton Powell.

This production is directed by BranDon Walker, with co-direction by Erin Cronican. Lighting Design is by Duane Pagano, Sound Design is by BranDon Walker and Set/Costume Design is by Erin Cronican. Assistant Direction is by Candice Oden, Assistant Production Design is by Robin Friend Stift and Dialect Coaching is by Jane Kahler.

With an organic presentation style emphasizing the edgy, American style of acting developed by The Group Theatre, The Seeing Place allows audiences to experience modern classics with deeper understanding of how it relates to the social-political struggles our society faces today. Best of all, general admission prices are just $15, making theater affordable for all.

This limited engagement has previews beginning Friday, June 30, 2017, with Opening Night set for July 3, 2017 running through July 16, 2017 at the The Seeing Place's space at the Access Theater, 380 Broadway, 4th Floor, in New York City. General Admission tickets are $15, with limited premium seats for $20, which can be purchased at www.theseeingplace.com

CLOUD 9, a searing comedy, is a parody and spoof of the Victorian Empire and its rigid attitudes, especially toward sex. There is Clive, a British functionary; his wife Betty (played by a man); their daughter Victoria (a rag doll); Clive's friend Harry, an explorer; Mrs. Saunders, who runs about dressed in a riding habit; Clive's son Edward, who still plays with dolls and is played by a woman; and Joshua, a native servant who knows exactly what is really going on. What really is going on is a marvelous send-up and a non-stop round-robin of sexual liaisons. All this time the natives are restless in the background. The second act shifts to London in 1980. Except for the surviving characters, it is only twenty-five years later, and all those repressed sexual longings have evaporated, along with the Empire.

In the essay, "As You Can See: Brecht, Butler, and the Body in Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine" Hannah Hammel writes: "Cloud Nine is a play in which the actors are not always meant to traditionally match the gender or race of the character they portray. Further, the actors do not play one character throughout the entire show but, rather, switch roles between Acts I and II. This nontraditional casting establishes an immediate contrast between the perceived identities of the characters as set out in the dialogue and their embodiment on the stage. The mismatching of (traditional) body and performance of the characters is a tactic of alienation, a technique defined by Bertolt Brecht, which forces the audience to question enacted societal norms as it sees them represented on the stage. By extension, this is meant to make the audience question the norms that they accept and expect in their daily lives. The theater, for Brecht, is not only a means of telling stories, but a means of showing the audience the momentary and flexible nature of all concepts through which we ground our society. In Cloud Nine, Brechtian alienation is used to reaffirm the fluidity of normative roles throughout history and in contemporary society, and also to present a critique of the theater arts themselves."

To read the full essay, please go to: https://scholarship.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/bitstream/handle/10066/8114/2012HammelH_thesis.pdf

"The Seeing Place" is the literal translation of the Greek word theatron: "...the place where we go to understand ourselves." The Seeing Place Ensemble is an actor-driven company: built by actors and managed by actors to be a base for actors who want to grow & hone their craft in a creative and supportive artistic home. TSP is forcefully committed to four key elements of theatre-making: developing highly trained actors into thriving self-producers; honoring the craft of the acting process through rehearsal and into performance thereby bringing organic, "fully lived" storytelling to our community; presenting compelling works by master playwrights that reflect the struggles and triumphs of our current society; and making theater accessible for all New Yorkers by keeping ticket prices low and affordable.

The Seeing Place's 8th Season includes Main Stage productions of: CLOUD 9 by classic feminist playwright Caryl Churchill - running June 30-July 16, 2017 at the Access Theater; JACK GOES BOATING, a NY Times Critics Pick by Bob Glaudini, running in September 2017; and a repertory presentation of the Tony award winning play, TAKE ME OUT by Pulitzer Prize nominee Richard Greenberg alongside NECESSARY TARGETS by Tony award winning playwright Eve Ensler, being presented in December 2017. The "TSP Unplugged Series" gives patrons an exciting and exclusive look behind the scenes at The Seeing Place, and includes an opportunity to participate with its artists in exploring three important texts of our time. We begin with OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD by Timberlake Wertenbaker on July 10, 2017, originally performed at The Royal Court Theatre in London in 1988 to critical acclaim; THE HAIRY APE by Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O'Neill in Fall 2017; and Spin Cycle, a world premiere by NYC playwright and lyricist, Cornelia Ravenal, in late Fall 2017.

For more information about The Seeing Place, visit www.seeingplacetheater.com

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