Pig Iron's Sarah Sanford Directs APPETITE 4/30-5/3

Pig Iron Theatre Company Member Sarah Sanford makes her local directorial debut with the Philadelphia premiere of her co-creation Appetite. This dance-theatre feast she concocted with Toronto-based The Exchange Rate Collective is presented by Volcano USA and will run April 30-May 3 at The Wolf Building, 340 North 12th St. Tickets cost $20 and are available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57553 or 1-800-838-3006. There will only be five performances of Appetite, which comes to Philadelphia immediately following a 10-day run at run at Toronto's historic Theatre Passe Muraille.

Appetite brings together dance and theatre to reveal the cycles of life, love and mass food production that converge at the dinner table. Clown, song, text and dance collide in a vibrant rumination on where exactly our appetites lead us. Inspired by the work of Jo Strømgren and Pina Bausch, this haunting, physical, and virtuosic work tells a fractured tale of a slaughterhouse employee whose harsh workaday reality and fantasy world begin to bleed together.

"We started researching eating competitions and slaughterhouses as two extreme manifestations of appetite in our society," says Sanford. "What is it that brings two people together physically, and is it the same thing that holds them together for life? Or does it get replaced by something else? How do we make sense of our appetites for food and sex, and why do we seek either oblivion in them or control over them?"

During the piece, the performers embody livestock, sing love songs, and execute bizarre mating dances and eating competitions in pursuit of an ever-elusive fulfillment. The result is an absurd and touching portrayal of loneliness and our growing detachment from the food we eat and the love we seek.

Appetite's ensemble, who, with Sanford, collectively created the work, are performers Claire Calnan, Adam Lazarus and Linnea Swan. Multiple award-winning Canadian choreographer Kate Alton is Associate Director and Choreographic Consultant.

Appetite premiered at the Toronto Summerworks Theatre Festival last year. The show garnered high praise from audiences and press in its debut, and won Sanford the Best Emerging Director award. Toronto's NOW Magazine raved about the show:

"**** (Four Stars) physical theatre ace Sarah Sanford helms a visually stunning and visceral work about our appetites for food, sex, and whatever else is on life's menu. The hard-working collective uses all of their muscles to help us digest the show's humor and insights, while the design elements tease and seduce all five senses." - Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine

The technical team for the show includes: Gillian Gallow (set and costumes), Rebecca Picherack (lighting), and Robert Perrault (sound).

Sanford is an actor, director, and teacher based in Philadelphia. A member of the internationally-acclaimed Pig Iron Theatre Company since 2002, she has performed in six company works including the Obie Award-winning Hell Meets Henry Halfway; Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/365 Plays at the Public Theater in New York City; and the Joe Chaikin-directed Shut Eye in Edinburgh, Poland, New York and Philadelphia. With Pig Iron, she has toured across the United States and Europe. She has also performed with New York's The Riot Group, in Edinburgh and London, England, and Toronto's Volcano in Vancouver and Victoria. Upcoming is a tour of Norway in Jo Strømgren's The European Lesson, which premiered at the 2008 Live Arts Festival. For her work in Philadelphia Theater, Sarah was short-listed for the 2008 F. Otto Haas award for Best Emerging Theater Artist. She graduated from Swarthmore College and École Jacques Lecoq in Paris and has taught physical theatre in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, California, and Poland.

"In a sense, I am only known in Philly as an actor. This opportunity to present myself as a director here at home is thrilling. Philly is unique in that artists can branch out and try new things, change hats, shift identities" said Sanford. "Philly has been really good to me; it's a community that really wants its artists to grow and expand. It makes you want to push yourself."

Appetite
Directed and co-created by Sarah Sanford
Performed by: Claire Calnan, Adam Lazarus & Linnea Swan
Set/Costumes By: Gillian Gallow
Lighting By: Rebecca Picherack
Sound By: Robert Perrault
Stage Manager: Sherry Roher
Technical Director: Doug Morum

Tickets: $20 ($5 off for students, except Saturday)

Thursday, April 30 7 pm
Friday, May 1 7 pm
Friday, May 1 10 pm
Saturday, May 2 8 pm
Sunday, May 3 2 pm
Tickets available online at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57553 and by phone at 1-800-838-3006.

 

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