Brown/Trinity Rep Announces Spring Rep Plays EURYDICE And PROWESS

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs end their 2017-18 season with two plays in rep, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, and Prowess by Ike Holter. Eurydice, directed by Addie Gorlin ('19), tackles grief and growing up through the lens of the reimagined Greek myth, and will be performed May 4-19, 2018. Prowess, directed by Ken-Matt Martin ('19) explores accountability in a world of vigilante justice, and can be seen May 5-20, 2018. All performances take place on the same set at the Pell Chafee Performance Center, 87 Empire Street, Providence. Tickets are on sale now at Trinity Rep's box office, by phone (401) 351-4242, or online at www.TrinityRep.com.

Both shows share a set and themes of decisiveness and consequences-both works feature female leads with big choices to make, who must then deal with the fallout of their actions. The plays feature the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA class of 2019 acting students. This marks the first performance of Eurydice at Brown or Trinity Rep, an exciting prospect for playwright Sarah Ruhl's alma mater. Prowess will transfer to the Pyramid Theatre Company in Des Moines with this cast in June.

In Eurydice, the title character has been in mourning for her father, but has a chance at happiness by marrying Orpheus, but that's cut short by her untimely death. Orpheus mourns for her as she tries to make sense of the Underworld after being stripped of her memory. It's a place of little logic, but her father, still clinging to his identity out of love for her, helps her navigate it, and find herself again. When Orpheus finds a way into the Underworld, Eurydice has a chance to return to life and be with him, but that means leaving her father behind forever. Torn between the men she loves, Eurydice must navigate her grief and her desire to move on in this soulful retelling of the Greek myth.

Performances for Eurydice are May 4, 6, 7, 12, 18 and 19 at 7:30 pm, with a 2:00 pm matinee performance on May 13.

Director Addie Gorlin was drawn to the play for its perspective on grief. "Playwright Sarah Ruhl's father died when she was in grad school here at Brown, and she was getting married. The nonsensical sense of the Underworld in the play comes from grief being at the heart of it, and grief not making sense." That this play revolves around a wedding, a rite of passage into adulthood, also appeals to the engaged Gorlin. "A wedding is a nexus between childhood and adulthood. You think 'Now we'll know everything! Now we'll have a map!' But you don't. As it says in the play, 'I'm looking for directions...There are no directions.' Grief clouds everything further."

Addie Gorlin's productions have been described as "elegant," "politically poignant," and "radiating the humanity, passion, and warmth you'd find in the young adult section of a library." After graduating from Dartmouth College, Gorlin obtained a teaching credential and worked as a middle school English and Drama teacher in the California Bay Area. She concurrently served as the Directing Fellow at Cutting Ball Theater. Subsequently, Gorlin was the National New Play Network Producer-in-Residence at Mixed Blood Theatre and worked as a freelance director in Minneapolis at theaters such as The Children's Theater, Playwright's Center, Mixed Blood, and The Guthrie. Gorlin is also engaged in civic theater practice.

Performed in rep with the play is Ike Holter's Prowess. Vigilantes aren't only on the pages of comic books-sometimes, they exist in our world, on the rooftops of Chicago learning how to fight each other. A group of damaged people, sick of being afraid, want to take out the people who have made their city unsafe to live in. Maybe once they can throw a punch, the villains can be defeated, and they'll feel safe in their homes again. But actions have consequences, and when you punch, sometimes the bad guys punch back. This team will learn that sometimes those punches come a little harder than you expect, and in places that you can't block.

Performances for Prowess are May 5, 11, 13 at 7:30 pm, and 2:00 pm matinee performances on May 6, 12, 19, and 20.

Director Ken-Matt Martin was pulled to the play for the fighting, but even more so for what the characters are fighting for and about. "The short sexy version is there's a lot of action, it's exciting. The deeper punch in the face-pardon the pun-is being accountable for our actions." Familiar with the parts of Chicago Ike Holter is writing about, Martin hopes to explore "what we do to better our own communities as well. Very rarely do we get to see ourselves, black people, people of color, as heroes. Who we make out as villains, as heroes, is important, in the play, and in the world as well."

Ken-Matt Martin is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Pyramid Theatre Company in Des Moines, Iowa. He spent the 2016-17 season as the full-time Apprentice General Manager at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Martin has appeared in plays and musicals at StageWest Theatre Company, the Des Moines Social Club, Des Moines Playhouse, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and the Tent Theatre. His directing and producing credits include productions of Fences, A Soldier's Play, A Raisin in the Sun, Once on this Island, The Amen Corner and various new plays. Martin is a two-time Cloris Leachman Excellence in Theatre Award winner and a proud graduate of Drake University with degrees in Musical Theatre and Journalism.

The Brown/Trinity Rep MFA Programs provide a three-year professional training program for eighteen students under the auspices of an Ivy League university and Rhode Island's Tony Award-winning theater company. Brown University's Department of Theater and Performance Studies is internationally recognized for the quality of its faculty and instruction. Trinity Rep, with its deep tradition of resident artists, provides powerful artistic assets and creates a firm foundation for a new generation of theater artists.

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