force/collision to participate in Arena Stage's Kogod Cradle Series

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater announces that force/collision, a Washington, D.C.-based interdisciplinary performance ensemble, will participate in this year's Kogod Cradle Series, which supports the exploration and development of new and emerging work. The company will present the U.S. premiere of Trust me, a devised dance/theater project created in collaboration with German playwright Falk Richter.Trust me explores the body and psyche in Western culture through dance, theater, video and music and runs June 13-16, 2013 in the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle.

"It is exciting to continue the Kogod Cradle Series and further our mission of cradling new work and emerging artists," shares Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith. "It's not your average theater space-a project like this from force/collision bridges mediums and presents challenges to the audience that will not only help the artists grow, but also the audience and indeed the entire field grow."

Trust me dialogues German and American culture by exploring the lateral effects of cross-continental influences and by examining the shaky foundations and mechanisms of human bonds against the background of current crises. Relationships build up and break down in ever shorter timescales, they become a resource in an increasingly intense competition. The project will also explore the divide between information and sensationalism in modern society and the individual by incorporating notions of media and pop-culture identities.

"One of our areas of inquiry with the project is the value of international collaborations in ensemble driven work," says force/collision Founding Director John Moletress. "How can we challenge ourselves to look introspectively into our own process by having dialogues with our colleagues overseas? As force/collision experiments with a cross-cultural collaboration, Arena Stage provides an exciting opportunity to host our work under the Kogod Cradle Series. We look forward to sharing our process with Arena's audiences."

Trust me is based on three of Richter's plays that originally premiered in Berlin-Trust, Rausch and Protect me. Force/collision has collaborated with Richter to combine these works and also add additional text to create Trust me.

"I am excited about force/collision's Trust me, which gives my work a new and original twist and places it into an American context," adds Richter. "I congratulate force/collision on this opportunity to present Trust me as part of the Kogod Cradle Series at Arena Stage."

Performances of Trust me will be followed by an open rehearsal, giving audience members the opportunity to see the process in action, along with a brief post-show discussion about the performance, development and work of force/collision.

The 8pm performance of Trust me on Sunday, June 16 will also be livestreamed on HowlRound TV at howlround.tv. HowlRound TV is a global, peer-produced and open source livestreaming and video project stewarded by HowlRound: A Center for the Theater Commons.

Moletress will be blogging about the development and rehearsal process for Trust Me at whereisthetrust.wordpress.com/.

"I'm thrilled to feature force/collision in our final installation of the Kogod Cradle Series for this season," comments Arena Stage Director of Artistic Programming David Snider. "Their inclusion in the series gives them a great chance to learn from the audience's participation in the process as they continue to develop this new piece. This is a great opportunity for us to again feature a local company, one that's asking big questions about collaboration, with an international focus to their work. Very exciting."

TICKETS: Tickets for the Kogod Cradle Series are $10. Tickets may be purchased online at tickets.arenastage.org/single/psDetail.aspx?psn=17320 or by phone at 202-488-3300.

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