Berkeley Rep's GROUND FLOOR Announces Residencies

This June, as part of an extraordinary new laboratory for collaboration, some of the nation's most prominent and promising writers, directors, and composers converge on Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Today, the renowned nonprofit announced 18 selections for the second sizzling summer lab at The Ground Floor, Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. During an intense four-week period, dozens of artists will live, dine, create, and collaborate at the Theatre's new campus in West Berkeley.

From hundreds of applications, 18 projects featuring 27 innovative artists have been chosen. Residencies of a week or more have been awarded to Lucy Alibar (Beasts of the Southern Wild); Janet Allard and Nikos Tsakalakos (Driving West and Pool Boy); Todd Almond (Girlfriend) and Lisa Peterson (An Iliad); César Alvarez (Futurity); Jeff Augustin (Cry Old Kingdom); Hannah Bos, Oliver Butler, and Paul Thureen of the Debate Society (Blood Play and Buddy Cop 2); Sarah Burgess (Earthsiege: Commence); Jackie Sibblies Drury (We Are Proud to Present a Presentation...); Larissa FastHorse (Cherokee Family Reunion); Idris Goodwin (How We Got On) and Adam Mansbach (Go the Fuck to Sleep); Lauren Gunderson (Exit Pursued by a Bear); David Hanbury (Mrs. Smith Live at the Bowl) and Andrew Rasmussen (When a Man Loves a Diva); Kristen Kosmas (Hello Failure), Gregory S. Moss (Punkplay), and Paul Willis (Lascivious Something) of Rihanna; Victor Lesniewski (Where Bison Run); Mona Mansour (The Hour of Feeling)
and Tala Manassah (The Letter); A. Rey Pamatmat (Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them); Nicholas C. Pappas (The Ballad of 423 and 424); and Heidi Schreck (Creature).

Joining them to work on projects at The Ground Floor are respected directors such as Sarah Benson (Blasted), Kip Fagan (The Revisionist), and Maureen Towey (Finding Penelope), as well as numerous local and out-of-town actors. The Ground Floor is made possible by a $1 million grant from the James Irvine Foundation's Artistic Innovation Fund with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.

The Ground Floor, Berkeley Rep's Center for the Creation and Development of New Work, is a bold new initiative designed to raise the bar on the Tony Award-winning nonprofit's already successful record of artistic innovation. Think of it as an incubator for theatrical start-ups or a top-notch R&D facility for artists. The Ground Floor promotes cross-pollination among artists and champions the spirit of innovation inherent to Berkeley and the Bay Area. Two shows developed through the program have already made their way into Berkeley Rep's season: Dan LeFranc's Troublemaker, or the Freakin Kick-A Adventures of Bradley Boatright had its world premiere in January, and Marcus Gardley's The House That Will Not Stand will debut in 2014.

The Ground Floor became possible when Berkeley Rep united all its preproduction activities - its costume shop, prop shop, scene shop, and offices - at a spacious campus in West Berkeley. The Theatre is transforming a vacant warehouse on that site into a vibrant new creative center that will ultimately include rehearsal halls, intimate studios, and even housing for visiting artists. The result will be a dynamic home for play creation - an organic and energetic environment for artists where they can live, develop work in a flexible setting, challenge each other to expand the boundaries of theatre, and intersect with the public to create community. The leaders of this effort are Madeleine Oldham, Berkeley Rep's resident dramaturg and director of The Ground Floor, and Karena Fiorenza Ingersoll, Berkeley Rep's associate managing director and manager of The Ground Floor.

"For decades, Berkeley Rep has developed new work and nurtured innovative projects," says Oldham. "Last year, we launched The Ground Floor to devote even more time, space, and resources to creating plays and daring ourselves to create them in new ways. Our inaugural summer lab was wildly successful. With so many talented artists all working under one roof, it felt like the entire building was vibrating for four weeks.

"So we're thrilled to announce another session and this terrific selection of artists," she continues. "The projects we're supporting this year are enormously diverse - from a comedy about a shark to a drama about the Syrian civil war, from a musical set in Alaska to a children's show on Mars, from a vaudeville act about obesity issues to an interactive experience with electronic music. Our vision is coming true: artists from across the nation are gathering here to enjoy the atmosphere that gave birth to Berkeley Rep and to take advantage of the
creative, collaborative, forward-thinking, and risk-taking culture that is the hallmark of life in the Bay Area. I can't wait until June!"

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