Boxcar Theatre Presents RHINO 5/6-5/29

Don't you feel the pressure to change? Your neighbor has become one. And so has your wife. With their beautiful horns, rough skin, and cacophonous trumpeting-don't you think they are just a little bit better than you? The answers to these questions (with even more questions raised) are at the center of RHINO -- the latest production from San Francisco's most innovative troupe -- Boxcar Theatre (www.boxcartheatre.org). Based on Eugene Ionesco's absurdist masterpiece, Rhinoceros.

RHINO runs Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm at Boxcar's South of Market home stage, 505 Natoma Street, at 6th, May 6 - 29, 2010.

"Rhinoceros is the kind of play that stays with you-it's filled with vivid images, has an unrelenting rhythm, and the dark metaphor at the heart of it is truly moving," says director Evren Odcikin. "I've always wanted to create an ensemble piece inspired by it and I cannot wait to delve into Ionesco's words with the amazing team we've assembled."

Created and performed by an ensemble of four, RHINO invites the audience to fully immerse themselves in the imaginative world of Ionesco's absurdist masterpiece Rhinoceros. With an ever evolving landscape requiring the audience to move about the Boxcar Playhouse space, this original piece defines what experiential theatre is all about. Physical transformations, ideological conformity, and that nagging feeling you might never ever fit in come together in this sometimes hard-hitting, but always playful work of art.

"As a company with a flexible black box space with an interest in unique spatial relationship, we have tried just about every possible configuration we can think," explains Boxcar Artistic Director Nick A. Olivero. "I was immediately captivated by Evren's bold concept to remove all of the chairs and have the audience move throughout the action."

"Evren mentioned that he pitched this show to a few other companies that were a little hesitant to say the least about his concept," says Boxcar Artistic Director Peter Matthews. "The risk factor and fail factor, which scared them off, is precisely why we chose his project. It brings us back to our roots."

Dedicated to high visual concepts and transformative theatre, Olivero and Matthews provide San Francisco with its most innovative and thought-provoking theatrical experiences through its "Boxcar" and "Sidecar" productions. Boxcar's commitment is to produce "Experiential Theatre" and is proud to be known as a "Directors' Theatre." This next season Boxcar re-imagines the familiar by taking well-known plays and turning them on their head. "You have to hand it to Boxcar; as other companies scale back and tighten belts, it steps forward and belts out scales." (Rob Avila, SF Bay Guardian)

RHINO is created and performed by El Beh, Allison Combs, Erin Gilley, and Ross Pasquale. The design team includes Sara Huddleston (sound), Amy Knight (costumes), and Evren Odcikin (sets).

Tickets for RHINO are progressive: $5 Previews (May 6 - 9); $15 First Week (May 10 - 15); $20 Second Week (May 19 - 22) and $25 Closing Weekend (May 26 - 29). Performances are Wednesday - Saturdays at 8pm. Tickets may be purchased online at www.boxcartheatre.org or by calling (415) 776-1747.

Bio:
Evren Odcikin (Director) is a San Francisco-based director, dramaturg, set designer, and theater administrator. His local directing credits include Machinal (Brava), which received three Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award nominations including Best Director and Best Production, Blood Wedding (Shotgun Players), Bare Knuckle (Brava), ECSTASY | a waterfable (Golden Thread Productions), The Greek Play (elastic future), 22 Minutes Remaining (Golden Thread Productions), Edge (Phoenix Arts Theatre), Road to Mecca (Secondwind), Death of Yazdgerd (Darvag), and the ensemble generated Heavy Days (Shotgun Theatre Lab). He was the dramaturg on Blue/Orange at Aurora Theatre Company and Mother Courage and Her Children, Owners, and Quills at Shotgun Players. He has directed numerous readings and workshops at Magic Theatre, TheatreFirst, Golden Thread Productions, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival and designed sets for Crowded Fire, mugwumpin, elastic future, Golden Thread Productions, and Shotgun Players. On the administrative side, he spent five years as the director of marketing and communications at Magic Theatre and is currently the public relations manager at A.C.T. Born and raised in Turkey, he is an associate artist with Golden Thread Productions, a founding company member with elastic future, and is a graduate of Princeton University.

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