Four Companies Collaborate For Almedia Theatre's 2009 Summer Fest 7/8-8/1

For The Almeida Theatre's 2009 Summer Festival (8 July - 1 August 2009), four cutting edge companies have been invited to collaborate with the Almeida at its home base in Islington and the surrounding area.

The Bradford based Slung Low, The TEAM (Theater of the Emerging American Moment) from New York and GULP will perform during the festival alongside Tiata Fahodzi who return following their sold out performances at the Almeida at the 2008 Festival. The Festival will culminate in a concert celebrating African music presented by Tiata Fahodzi.

SLUNG LOW'S- LAST SEEN

Slung Low, the Bradford based company led by seven artists collected from diverse creative backgrounds including movement, video, sound and direction, will present Last Seen. Last Seen takes audiences on a multi-media journey from the stage of the Almeida onto the streets of Islington. Performances are 8, 9, 10 and 11 July at 7pm and 9pm and 12 July at 6pm and 8pm. Tickets are £15.

In any one year over 200,000 people go missing. Most are found. Enter a world of those who have fallen through the cracks, a place for the unnoticed and a place where lost souls land.

The creative team is Alan Lane (Artistic Director of Slung Low), Matt Angove, Laura Clark, Ben Eaton, Heather Fenoughty, Lucy Hind, Ben Pugh and Richard Warburton. The writers are Simon Burt, Lolita Chakrabarti and Matthew David Scott.

Slung Low was created by Alan Lane and Matthew David Scott in 2000 after their success with Counter Balance at the National Student Drama Festival where they won the Sunday Times' Judges Award. In 2008 they were won the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award to create Helium - a theatre installation contained within 5 boxes, combining live and digital performance, presented at the Barbican Theatre as part of the BITE Festival to huge success.

www.slunglow.org

THE TEAM - (THEATER OF THE EMERGING AMERICAN MOMENT)

THE AMERICAN CAPITALISM PROJECT

The TEAM, a New York City based theatre company dedicated to dissecting and celebrating the experience of living in America today, will present the first public work-in-progress version of their latest show, The American Capitalism Project. Using the lens of cowboys, the myths and history of the American Frontier and the busting of Las Vegas, The TEAM will seek to define the character and shape of American capitalism. The American Capitalism Project has four performances during the Summer Festival on 16, 17, 18 and 19 July at 7.30pm. Tickets are £12.50.

The production journeys across the USA in search of an unbiased portrait of American Capitalism told through cowboy ballet, wailing pianos and people with bank accounts. Las Vegas needs saving. A woman working in a casino says she is Joan of Arc, two outlaws are on the run and there's murder in the wind. Where did our pursuit of happiness go wrong?

The TEAM, led by Artistic Director Rachel Chavkin and featuring Jessica Almsy, Frank Boyd, Heather Christian, Jill Frutkin, Elizabeth King, Jacob Margolin and Kristen Sieh, will collaborate with choreographer Will Tuckett to present The American Capitalism Project.

The TEAM were first seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2004 where they won their first of three Fringe First Awards. In 2006 they played the Traverse Theatre with Particularly in Heartland, winning them their second. This was followed in 2008 with their production of Architecting, which won the Company their third Fringe First Award. The TEAM has recently completed a run at The Public Theater in New York. Later this year they return to the UK to perform Architecting at the Barbican.

The TEAM is supported by the Eranda Foundation.

www.theteamplays.org

GULP'S

OR NEAREST OFFER

New Theatre Company GULP will present its inaugural production Or Nearest Offer, a new play by Tanya Ronder. Or Nearest Offer has been created in collaboration with fifteen young participants from the Young Friends of the Almeida LAB, who have explored the Theatre's season of plays to find the resonances within their own lives. Directed by Vik Sivalingam and designed by Fabrice Serafino, Or Nearest Offer, will be performed at The Almeida Theatre as part of the Summer Festival on 24 July at 7.30pm and on 25 July at 3pm and 7.30pm. Tickets are £8.

Everything must go - beds, mobiles, dreams and babies. Going, going, gone. What happens when you are all sold out?

For the Almeida Tanya Ronder wrote a new version of Lorca's Blood Wedding as well as contributing to Chain Play II. Her other work includes Vernon God Little and Peribanez for the Young Vic.

Vik Sivalingam was Assistant Director on the Almeida/Headlong co-production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. His other directing credits include numerous productions for Pulse Festival Ipswich and the New Wolsey Theatre Studio and Swingin' in Mid-Dream! for the Albany Theatre.

www.yfalab.blogspot.com

TIATA FAHODZI RETURN TO ALMEIDA FOLLOWING SELL-OUT SEASON IN 2008

THE GOLDEN HOUR

Following last year's sell-out performances at the Almeida's 2008 Summer Festival, Tiata Fahodzi will return to present The Golden Hour, a new play by their award-winning commissioned writer Michael Bhim. Directed by Femi Elufowoju Jr, The Golden Hour will be rehearsed over three days and then performed, script in hand. Performances are 29, 30 and 31 July at 7.30pm. Tickets are £12.50.

Adrian is a triage nurse, British, of Zimbabwean descent, working in a London NHS hospital alongside his long-term English girlfriend, Jessica. Suddenly he finds himself drawn into a drama of ethics and loyalty when he encounters an African baby whom he suspects has been brought into the country illegally.

Tiata Fahodzi, led by Artistic Director Femi Elufowoju Jr, are an Islington based theatre company producing new work that explores the richness and heritage of theatre sourced from people living within British African communities. Their previous work includes Joe Guy by Roy Williams at the Soho Theatre in 2007 and Tiata Delights at the Almeida in 2008.

Femi Elufowoju Jr worked for six years as an actor, performing at The National Theatre and the Royal Court. His previous directing credits for Tiata Fahodzi include Joe Guy, The Estate, The Gods are Not to Blame and national tours of Abyssinia, Makinde and Bonded. His other theatre credits include Bone for the Royal Court, Medea and Off Camera for West Yorkshire Playhouse, Dealer's Choice for Salisbury Playhouse, Tickets & Ties and It's Good to Talk for Theatre Royal, Stratford East. His current production for Tiata Fahodzi is Ìyà-Ilé by Oladipo Agboluaje which can be seen at Soho Theatre from 14 May to 20 June 2009.

Michael Bhim is a young playwright who has worked with The Royal Court Theatre, Soho Theatre, the Tricycle Theatre (as part of the Bloomberg Writers Group), Paines Plough (as part of the Future Perfect Scheme) and is a past winner of the Alfred Fagon Award for the Most Outstanding Achievement by a Writer of Caribbean descent. Bhim's play Pure Gold was produced at the Soho Theatre last year to critical acclaim. He is currently under commission to write new plays for The Royal Court, The Hampstead Theatre and the Caribbean Unity Theatre. He also writes for radio and is currently working with the BBC.

www.tiatafahodzi.com

BEYOND THE SHOWS

TIATA FAHODZI FESTIVAL CONCERT

Tiata Fahodzi's Concert of British African Music will close the Festival on 1 August at 8pm, with UK based UganDan Band The Ganda Boys who were recently featured as The Mutilators on the BBC's Moses Jones.

LOST PROPERTY

Devised and created by Theatre director and community artist Lu Kemp, Lost Property, an installation running throughout the Summer Festival, will invite audiences to create a series of narratives around things they have lost during their lifetimes.

Lu Kemp is a director and dramaturg, with a particular interest in public work. For the Gate Theatre she created two participation projects and is currently working on Funny Old Me. Her previous work as a director includes Pinocchio (Northampton Theatre Royal), How to Tell The Truth (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Almost Blue (Oxford Samuel Beckett Award 05 at the Riverside Studios).

ALMEIDA SUMMER FESTIVAL SPONSORS

The Almeida Theatre is very grateful to American Airlines - Airline Partner of the Almeida

LISTINGS INFORMATION

ADDRESS Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, Islington, London, N1 1TA

CAFE-BAR The Almeida Bar serves food, drinks and snacks. For opening times during the Festival see www.almeida.co.uk

BOX OFFICE

Phone 020 7359 4404

In person 10.00am - 7.30pm, Monday - Saturday

On line www.almeida.co.uk

Almeida Summer Festival

public booking opens 29 April

Seating for the Summer Festival is un-reserved

For ticket prices see above

WEBSITE www.almeida.co.uk

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