Ivania Stack Named Ring Leader of dog & pony dc; Theatre Expands Staff and Local, National Programming in 2014

With two original productions on tour and one in preparation for its world premiere, dog & pony dc is proud to announce the advancement of Ivania Stack to "Ring Leader." In this position, Ms. Stack will join with the current three d&pdc Ring Leaders, Rachel Grossman, Lorraine Ressegger-Slone and Jon Reynolds in focusing, directing, and propelling the company forward. (Ms. Grossman and Ms. Ressegger-Slone are also d&pdc co-founders.)

Having been involved with d&pdc as a costume designer, deviser, and touring director since 2009, Ms. Stack became a company member, or "Conspirator," in 2011. Ms. Stack's work can be seen on stages throughout the area from Woolly Mammoth to Olney Theatre Center, Round House Theatre, CENTERSTAGE, and Theatre J. With d&pdc she just served as the touring co-director of the ensemble's production of A Killing Game at Cleveland Public Theatre and is the devising project leader of Toast.

Ms. Stack comes into her position as this much evolved and lauded ensemble of artists is making news across the national theatre landscape for their daring, unique devised productions and methodology.

In the fall of 2013, dog & pony dc was selected by the Carnegie Mellon University Masters of Arts Management program to be a case study in "Systems Synthesis." A cohort MA students studied d&pdc with the goal of researching potential shared-management organizational structures that d&pdc might be able to emulate or mold to fit its growing needs.

The study was instructive, illuminating and enjoyable, with one of the outcomes resulting in the addition of Ms. Stack as a new Ring Leader. Each Ring Leader has a focus in one of four areas: devising, production, connectivity, and advancement. Ring Leaders are asked to be mindful of the company's greater mission, values, and vision, and how the work and the way it's generated expresses and aligns with that vision. Ms. Stack's focus will be on the devising area of the company's work.

Says Ms. Stack, "It wasn't until I started working with dog & pony dc, that I began to explore a deeper kind of artistic collaboration. I am so excited and humbled to take up this new role as the Ring Leader for devising. I am proud to support other conspirators as they take their dream projects from a hopeful kernel of an idea to a shared experience."

Led by Ring Leaders, and shaped by Conspirators, dog & pony dc begins its sixth year poised for a bright future with a number of projects slated for 2014.

This month, d&pdc is presenting 2012's A Killing Game at the Cleveland Public Theatre over a two-week period.

In May and October, company members will conduct Audience Integration Workshops at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in DC. They will also participate in the Zeitgeist Festival in May. Held at Goethe-Institut and Georgetown University the festival will focus on the cutting-edge theater genre "Participatory Theater" and include theatre-makers from Germany, Austria, Sweden, and the U.S. d&pdc is the featured local company at this gathering.

Earlier this year, the 2011 devised production Beertown enjoyed a successful three-week run in New York City at 59E59 Theaters. This May, d&pdc artists will travel to Cincinnati to conduct Beertown workshops. (Beertown was a featured show in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival in 2013). Beertown will be the first d&pdc creation to be staged outside the directorship of company members, and the Cincinnati workshops are part of the process to form the show into a marketable theatrical production.

In September 2014, the company's newest devised piece, Toast, will have a rolling-venue world premiere. Toast is described as a participatory theatrical performance meets science experiment, which explores invention and discovery, the development oftechnology, and the intricate networks that weave us together.

dog & pony dc will end the year presenting workshop performances of new material that will eventually premiere in 2015 and 2016.

dog & pony dc is an ensemble-based devised theatre company focused on providing audiences new ways to experience theatre. The company creates ("devises") new plays as a collective ("ensemble") which playfully explore the elastic relationship between artist and audience. dog & pony dc has been recognized as the "upstart company" blazing a new path for audience engagement in performance. Since its founding in 2008, d&pdc has devised and mounted eight theatrical productions, including five world premieres and two original adaptations, all created collaboratively by the ensemble. The most recent productions, Beertown and A Killing Game, have received widespread critical acclaim. Beertown was nominated for a 2011 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play (the first ensemble-based devised play to receive this nomination), before making The Washington Post's top-10 shows list for 2012. A Killing Game (AKG) won "Producer's Pick of the Fringe" and League of Cincinnati Theatre's "Best use of Improvisation/Audience Participation" at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival in June 2013. dog & pony dc has presented about it's work locally (ShakespeareTheatre, Capital Fringe) and nationally (Theatre Communications Group, Animating Democracy, Assoc. for Theater in Higher Education) and was included in American Theatre magazine's July 2013 cover-story on immersive theatre. In January 2014, dog & pony dc made its Off-Broadway debut with Beertown at 59E59. They are big fans of moustaches and props. For more information, visit dogandponydc.com.

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