LAB Theater Project Presents AN EVENING WITH EBERLEIN

LAB Theater Project will once again bring live theater to the Tampa stage by presenting An Evening with Eberlein, running March 18-April 4, 2021, at 812 E Henderson Avenue in Ybor City, with in-house and live streaming options, and Video-on-Demand.

An Evening with Eberlein consists of three plays: I'll String Along with You and Click: A Travel Motif directed by Caroline Jett, and Jack: A Love Story directed by Roz Potenza. In I'll String Along with You, we meet Sarah (Leah LoSchiavo) and Laurel (Katie Calahan), a married couple attempting to navigate a tense situation after Sarah's estranged son (Orion Flanagan) spends the night. "A mother's guilt, a broken relationship between mother and son, hiding things from a spouse, attempting to get a spouse to face an unpleasant reality, commitment to one's marriage, all this and more is packed into this moving one act," says Jett. "String speaks to family dynamics and turbulent relationships that many people face."

Click: A Travel Motif follows James (Chazzz Macartney) and Jerry (Lance Felton) in a thought provoking piece challenging the audience to be honest about deeply-rooted perceptions. In this fast-moving percussive-language piece, two successful Black men waiting for a bus interact with each other and the city traffic as they deal with and survive relentless snap judgements. "It is my sincere hope that this piece opens a conversation about bias and makes us examine how we react to those around us," commented Jett. "The smallest, seemingly innocuous things we say and do can have cumulative damage, but we have the ability to change."

Jack: A Love Story is a decidedly skewed look at what happens when the fairytale we think we know so well ends. With the help of an omniscient, offbeat Beatnik (Lance Felton) and the setting of San Francisco of the 1960s as a backdrop, we see yet another version of "Not so...Happily Ever After" unfold as Jack of all nursery rhyme and fairytale fame (Miles Randolph) and Brick of Three Little Pigs (Orion Flanagan), two cellmates recently released from Alcatraz, navigate life outside of prison. "As the Director of Jack, I've enjoyed pulling at the strings of this fractured fairytale and exploring the seamy side of things, says Potenza. "Not every story is as it appears and this is no exception."

Playwright Jared Eberlein says he was immediately struck by the rarity and privilege of the opportunity when LAB approached him about producing his three one acts. "I was moved by the realization that this production would open almost a year to the week after live performances around the world were put on indefinite pause due to a pandemic. It has been a year of witnessing artists as resilient, creative and adaptive creatures. There were many days when I wondered if these extraordinary times would bend us too far. To have a play running now is my answer: The times have changed us, changed the way we do things, but it has not broken us. And LAB Theater Project has been at the forefront of finding ways forward." Eberlein continued, "I have found myself landed in the middle of a cohort-a tribe-a family of Tampa-based artists who are committed to storytelling and to every season, cultivating a more creative and welcoming space for artists in the community. LAB has found and maintained a meeting place for committed creatives to tell stories and ask tough questions of the artists involved and audiences who share in the journey."

An Evening with Eberlein runs March 18-April 4, 2021. Performance times are Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday matinee at 3pm. Shows are available both by live stream and limited in-house seating. For the live stream online option, audience members will be emailed a link for home viewing the day of the performance. For the in-house option, please note that only 10 seats will be made available per performance, and house opens 30 minutes before curtain. LAB Theater Project has prepared the theater space firmly adhering to physically distanced guidelines for actors, crew, and audience safety. LAB Theater Project wants patrons to feel safe coming to the theater; full health and safety procedures may be found at http://www.labtheaterproject.com/covid-19.

Both in-person and livestream tickets are $28, and available only by Advance Purchase, not at the door. Starting the second week of the run, March 25, 2021, LAB will offer Video-on-Demand tickets for the remaining two weekends of the production. There will be no livestream tickets available during the final weekend of the run, April 1-4, 2021. To purchase tickets, please visit our website at https://www.labtheaterproject.com. For specific questions or interview requests, please contact our Box Office at 813-586-4272, or email us at information@labtheaterproject.com.

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