New Paradise Laboratories Returns to Philadelphia Fringe Festival with HELLO BLACKOUT!

New Paradise Laboratories returns to the Philadelphia Fringe Festival with a fresh and compelling take on the idea of the creation myth. In this year's festival, NPL infuses its work with playful nonsense in an impossible setting - before, during, and after the Big Bang. Hello Blackout!, NPL's latest work, runs September 5-17 in the Proscenium Theater at The Drake, 302 South Hicks Street. The Opening performance is Thursday, September 7 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $29 for General Admission, $15 for students and 25 & Under, and $20.30 for Fringe Members.

A horror-farce with philosophical overtones, Hello Blackout! follows the eccentric Kissimmee family-triplets, their mother, and an elusive father-at the beginning of time. Blackouts engulf the family as they slam into an inexplicable future-with grim and hilarious results. The Kissimmee's journey acts as a pageant for the new American era, presenting a world where everything is unprecedented, and where we must learn to live happily with the unpredictability of the universe.

Hello Blackout! was conceived by New Paradise Laboratories Artistic Director Whit MacLaughlin and Composer Bhob Rainey. MacLaughlin choreographed the show to a mind-bending musical score by Rainey and played by a live quintet of virtuosic musicians. His quintet includes: Leila Bordreuil (Cello), Vasko Dukovski (Clarinets), Carrie Frey (Viola), James Ilgenfritz (Bass), and Andie Springer (Violin).

Performing in Hello Blackout! are NPL Company Members Kate Czajkowski, Emilie Krause, Kevin Meehan, Matteo Scammell, and guest artist Jeffrey Cousar. Company Member Matt Saunders is designing the set. Thom Weaver is the Lighting Designer and is helping create a series of "true blackouts". Tara Webb is the Costume Designer and Alicia Crosby is creating Props.

MacLaughlin told the Fringe Festival, "'Blackout' has many meanings, political and otherwise: It's what a government imposes when it doesn't want the press to reveal a piece of news. It's what you do to a window when you want to remain undetected by bombers flying overhead. It's something that happens when you drink too much or when you faint. It happens in theater to punctuate the end of a scene or play. We have concocted another meaning. It's what happens when a gust of air blows out the candle you're carrying through a dark hallway, or when the batteries run out in your flashlight; suddenly, you can't find your way. A blackout can be funny, infuriating, or frightening. It signifies that moment when you realize, again, that you can't know what's waiting for you in the future. Which is pretty much always."

To create this piece, the company has been studying ways that people try to predict the future. They have been studying two philosophers, Quentin Meillassoux and Elie Ayache. The company looked carefully at the school of thought that has sprung up around superstar philosopher Meillassoux - Speculative Realism - which suggests that the world makes itself up as it goes along in completely unpredictable ways. Meillassoux with Ayache - a derivatives trader/philosopher - also write about the limitations of probability.

"I've had fabulous meals with both Meillassoux and Ayache in Paris. What a great place to hang in cafés and indulge in fascinating conversation with brilliant minds! The fact is, there really isn't any philosophy or science that can predict what's to come with any certainty. This is both funny and harrowing. We try to see the future as something that exists, but chance always tricks us and catches us by surprise. Living is learning to deal with what you can never predict. Deal with it and enjoy it. This is at the heart of everything we do at NPL," said MacLaughlin.

Bhob Rainey is well known nationally and internationally as a composer of distinctive and inventive music that stretches the whole idea of sonic invention. Rainey is both an inventor of unusual sound and an improviser in his own right. The Blackout Quintet - the cream of a new crop of musicians with classical pedigree skilled also in extended techniques - will execute Rainey's compositions, live and as part of the performance.

Local audiences first met the Kissimmee triplets in 2015's O Monsters. As a companion piece to Hello Blackout!, NPL will be hosting screenings of O Monsters. O Monsters occurs in a strange alternative present time, while Hello Blackout! occurs in a very distant past.

NPL will also offer chats that they are calling The WTF Sessions (Welcome: The Future), in which a number of prominent local thinkers will speculate with the audience, meditating on topics such as "What is Infinity?", "What is Money?", and "What is the Absolute?" These sessions will take place at Rival Brothers Coffee at 1528 Spruce Street on Saturday, Sept 9 and 16 at noon, and on Sunday Sept 17 at The Drake Theatre at 8:15, immediately follow the performance.

Major support for Hello Blackout! has been provided to New Paradise Laboratories by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Independence Foundation New Theatre Works Initiative.

Major support for the research and development of O Monsters has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Independence Foundation New Theatre Works Initiative and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About New Paradise Laboratories

New Paradise Laboratories (NPL) is an experimental performance ensemble that explores radical means of expression to bend and reshape conventional ideas of theater. The company looks at theater as visionary experience, using a variety of creative strategies including company-devising techniques, cross-media design elements, and site-specific installation. Their work values sudden inspiration, paradigm shifts, and shocks to the system. The collaborative environment of NPL's working process influences the content of their shows. The company supports an artist-as-entrepreneur model in its organizational structure and tend to be multidisciplinary in their interests: designers, writers, and producers, as well as actors.

Hello Blackout! Facts
Created by New Paradise Laboratories
Conceived by Whit MacLaughlin and Bhob Rainey
Direction and Choreography Whit MacLaughlin
Composer Bhob Rainey
Set Design Matt Saunders
Lighting Design Thom Weaver
Costume Design Tara Webb
Props Alicia Crosby
Musicians Leila Bordreuil (Cello), Vasko Dukovski (Clarinet), Carrie Frey (Viola), James Ilgenfritz (Bass), Andie Springer (Violin)
Performers Jeffrey Cousar, Kate Czajkowski, Emilie Krause, Kevin Meehan, Matteo Scammell

Performances
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017 - 8pm - Preview
Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017 - 8pm - Preview
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017 - 8pm
Friday, Sept. 8, 2017 - 8pm
Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 - 3pm
Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 - 8pm
Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017 - 1pm
Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017 - 7pm
Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017 - 8pm
Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017 - 9pm
Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 - 9pm
Friday, Sept. 15, 2017 - 6pm
Friday, Sept. 15, 2017 - 9pm
Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017 - 3pm
Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017 - 8pm
Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017 - 1pm
Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017 - 7pm

O Monsters Screenings
Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 - 5pm
Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017 - 3pm
Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017 - 5pm
Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017 - 3pm

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