Temple Theaters to Presents AIRNESS This Spring

What does it mean to really (truly) rock? It's shred or be shredded in this exuberant, hilarious and totally sweet power-chord swelling comedy/drama about the incredible world of air guitar competition that turns it up to eleven! The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calls it "both funny and filled with heart," and DC Metro called it "fricking funny, hella heartfelt, and badass brilliant."

Directed by Marcus Giamatti, AIRNESS runs March 21st-30th, 2024, in Randall Theater (2020 N. 13th St., Philadelphia, PA) featuring Temple student performers. Tickets are available here: https://www.onthestage.tickets/show/temple-university-school-of-tfma/64ac587591148b0e48534270

The play tells the story of Nina who incredulously enters her first air guitar competition, thinking winning will be easy. But as she befriends a group of charismatic air guitar nerds, each committed to becoming the next champion, she discovers that there's more to this art form than playing pretend. She discovers that the strange world of air guitar is about finding yourself in your favorite songs and performing with raw joy. Will Nina be able to let go and set herself free onstage?

Since the premiere of AIRNESS at the 41st annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, in 2017, it has received almost universal praise. HowlRound said, "'AIRNESS stays with the viewer after the last guitar chord has faded because of the way its complex layers ask the question 'what is real?' when it comes to families, groups, and societies." It won the M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award in 2018, and has been making regular regional premieres ever since.

Temple Theater's regional premiere of AIRNESS transports the audience to a dive bar setting to give the full-throated effect of what it means to find the transformative power of music, while the story serves as a reminder that everything we need to rock lives inside us, with or without a guitar to thrash on.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS: 

AIRNESS

By Chelsea Marcantel

Directed by Marcus Giamatti

March 21st-30th, 2024 (March 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th at 7:30pm; March 23rd, 24th, and 30th at 2:00pm)

TICKET PURCHASE LINK

Artistic Team 

Director Marcus Giamatti

Asst. Director Hardik Gupta

Set Designer Mike Merluzzi

Costume Designer Becky Wetzel

Lighting Designer John Troy

Sound Designer Taylor Jedlinski

Props Master Amanda Hatch

Stage Manager Anna Szymanski

Cast

Shreddy Eddy: Zenande Simani

Golden Thunder: Anthony Cosgrove

D Vicious: JB Fantigrossi

Nina: Hannah Nguyen

Cannibal Queen: Amanda Henry

Facebender: Zach Holzberg

Announcer #1/Bartender/Hooded Figure/Sprite Director: Miles Avery

Announcer #2/Bartender/Interviewer: Paige Horvath

Understudies: Olivia Brown, Joel De Jesus-Pacheco

Manager/Bar Patron: Dennis Trowbridge

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