Brat Veterans Return For Leadership Positions

Brat Productions enthusiastically announces transition artistic leadership. Founding Artistic Director, Madi Distefano, and Brat veteran, Lee Ann Etzold are working as Interim Co-Artistic Directors. Along with Brat's devoted Board Members, they are determining new artistic leadership. Distefano and Etzold will work side by side to produce the rest of this 2010-2011 season as they plan the programming for a new 2011-2012 season. Michael Alltop, former Producing Artistic Director, left the position at Brat to pursue other opportunities.

So, while we determine what the future looks like... we'll just do Craic!
LAST CALL: Brat's Craic* fringes the Irish Theatre Festival.

No one does Irish theatre quite like Brat! That is why Brat Productions is fringing the Irish Theatre Festival this May in a return to Fergie's Pub where Brat's McPherson Festivals introduced Philadelphia to Conor McPherson's work in 2001 and 2002. Brat's production of EDEN garnered a Barrymore Award without leaving the barstool; and Mark O'Rowe's play HOWIE THE ROOKIE was performed in 2 different bars in Old City during one Fringe. BackStage Magazine noted "Brat is Philadelphia's premiere presenter of Irish Theatre". But what is special about our craic is that it's scrappy and fringey and smells like last night's Guinness. So it's appropriate that Brat is fringing the Irish Theatre Festival this May in a scrambling return to Fergie's Pub. The programming for LAST CALL will be announced as soon as we have all our Brat Alumni and a handful of new young lads confirmed to spin the yarns!

*Craic or crack is a term for fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation, particularly prominent in Ireland. The crack/craic has great cultural currency and significance in Ireland.

A RESIDENT ARTIST PROGRAM

Brat is eager to institute a program that serves to support young artists that exemplify exciting, original, rock and roll aesthetics. We have started a Resident Artist Program that ensures an infusion of daring and youth to the company. The first 2 artists selected are scrappy Brat veterans Jess Conda and Erik Ransom. These artists will produce a Brat retrospective fundraiser, and will also have workshop productions of original projects. Jess Conda has been working with Brat since 2004. She has appeared onstage in Moby Dick--Rehearsed, Grease and Desist, Eye 95: Re-tarred, A 24 Hour The Bald Soprano, Haunted Poe and Carrie. Erik Ransom just premiered his rock musical Coming: a Musical of Biblical Proportions with Traverse Arts Project. Projects with Brat include Carrie and Naked Cocktail.

WHO'S WHO IN THIS INTERIM ADMINISTRATION?

Madi Distefano, Interim Co-Artistic Director. Madi is the founding artistic director of Brat. She founded the company in 1996 as a means of making theatre more accessible to a new generation. She produced, acted, directed and wrote for Brat for 13 seasons before resigning to be a resident artist and pursue her freelance acting and directing work with other companies. Brat Directing credits include A 24 HOUR THE BALD SOPRANO, HAUNTED POE, EYE-95 RE-TARRED She is an 8 time Barrymore Nominee in 5 categories, and winner of Outstanding Actress (EDEN). Her one-woman show, POPSICLE'S DEPARTURE, 1989 won both a Fringe First for new writing and Best Solo Show of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. MFA Temple University.

"Go Brat go. Brat Productions is just like the teenaged brat it should be. Resilient, daring, and always going just a wee too far. The company needs an infusion of new ideas and fresh creative energy, yet also yearns to re-connect to it's gutsy inception. Jess is the most dedicated Brat we've ever worked with. From her incomparable voice to playing the violin and even working as a production manager, her talents never cease to amaze us. Erik Ransom's COMING was an explosion of untamed creative genius and his artistry is full of promise." Lee Ann Etzold is an original brat and has come to be respected as a new leader in the artistic community. Lee's experience with professional productions and with scrappy, fringy cabaret events, gives her the unique qualification to help steer Brat into the future. -Madi Distefano

Lee Ann Etzold, Interim Co-Artistic Director. Lee Ann Etzold is a Philadelphia-based actor, director, choreographer, writer, producer and teacher who has also worked in the UK, Spain, Czech Republic, and regionally in the United States. She has created original work with OBIE award-winning physical theatre companies, New Paradise Laboratories (founding member), Pig Iron Theatre Company, and with famed clown Bill Irwin for which she received a Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in The Happiness Lecture. She was also awarded a Barrymore for Outstanding Ensemble for The Comedy of Errors at the Lantern Theatre Co., and was a finalist for the Haas award for Emerging Artists. She received a BA in Theatre Arts and a BA in English from Virginia Tech, worked as an Administrator and Assistant Program Director for the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and participated in the Directors Lab at Lincoln Centre Theater. She has directed and choreographed new and scripted work for Brat Productions, New Paradise Laboratories, Arden Theatre Co., Lantern Theatre, Drexel Players, Philly Young Playwrights, and creates and produces her own work as MyKindaPony. Lee has taught at University of the Arts, Temple University and has acted as an educator, collaborator and creative consultant for Whitebox Theatre and the National Constitution Centre in Philadelphia.

"Brat Productions is a rock in Philadelphia's artistic foundation; a strong and dirty rock that has supported this theatre community and pushed it to the "fringe" for over a decade. Brat takes us out of our comfort zone and shows us that the art that isn't easy or commercially "safe" is often more rewarding and a real blast. I have known Madi and Brat as long as I have known Philadelphia and they are a huge reason why Philly is my artistic home. I see a bright future for Brat in which we create a network of collaborators who love this kind of theatre, and will hold it to a high standard. " Lee Ann Etzold.

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