[NEohioPAL] Big [BOX] 2010 opens Friday! KILL WILL and CRAMPED

[Mindy Herman]

Cleveland Public Theatre Presents Big [BOX]
Award-winning artists in residency program returns


Cleveland Public Theatre Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bobgan is proud to announce the participating artists for the 2010 Big [BOX] series.  Big [BOX] is an award-winning residency program produced by Cleveland Public Theatre that focuses on the independent creative artist and the exciting things that can happen when one is given the space and time to create. Cleveland Public Theatre is proud to support and foster the work of area artists in this unique program. Over eight weekends, local artists are given keys to The James Levin Theatre and the freedom to transform the space for the presentation of their work.


Big [Box]
January 15 – March 7, 2010
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm
Sundays at 3:00pm
Tickets:  General Admission $15 | Students and Seniors $12


January 15th – January 17th
Kill Will
Created and performed by Josh Brown and Kelly Elliott
Directed by Alison Garrigan

Suicide. Revenge killings. Murders. Cannibalism. Is this the new Quentin Tarantino movie? No, it's Shakespeare! William Shakespeare - Sweet Bard of Avon or Shameless Merchant of Death? Kill Will will make you laugh, make you cringe, and make you wish you hadn't dressed up so nicely for the theater. Because there will be blood. Oh yes, there will...be...blood.

Cramped
Presented by Three Steps Back
Featuring Carly Garinger and Danielle Hisey
Directed by Doug Snyder

Pressure, Fear, Inadequacy – Cramped is the riveting exploration of two young women’s coming of age, set inside a children’s board game. The protagonists are intertwined, but not connected, individually struggling to come to terms with their own identity and mortality, while simultaneously playing a life-size board game that challenges them physically, emotionally and spiritually.

January 22nd  – January 24th
People4Change
Presented by The Them
Directed by Raymond Bobgan

Three Gen-Y’ers join forces to make a difference in the world after a random experience brings them together. Their efforts to "help the world," range from the naive to the sublime when they open a phone book and start calling random people for donations to their various causes. In a world inundated with global information (and global suffering), self-help and spiritual panaceas, and contradictory common values, People4Change examines the frustration, isolation, and passion of young professionals in North America.

All proceeds from the Sunday, January 24th matinee performance of People4Change will benefit Community Shares, Cleveland's only workplace giving federation with a focus on social justice. Community Shares generates essential operating funds for nonprofit organizations that are working for positive community change. Visit www.communityshares.org<http://www.communityshares.org> for more information on Community Shares.

January 29th – January 31st
Microscopes and Megaphones
Presented by Whisper to a Scream: a feminist performance art collective

Directed by Maura Haas

Microscopes & Megaphones is a collaborative project that uses dance, theatre, audio and visual arts to explore "the problem that has no name" plaguing the modern woman today. With progress made in reproductive choice, education, the workplace and at home, the modern Western woman's oppression manifests itself through subtlety, innuendo and the places you least expect. Offbeat and stripped down, Microscopes & Megaphones explores slutty fat girls, an oral sex memoir, baking as foreplay, the power of punctuations, the hypocrisy of language, degrees of touch and why Mom is the sexiest woman you know.

February 5th – February 7th
G.S.
Written by Jonathan Wilhelm
Directed by Jenna Messina

"Supposing everyone lived at one time, what would they say?" - Gertrude Stein

In G.S., Gertrude Stein finds herself sharing a flat in Paris with George Sand, along with their respective lovers, Alice B. Toklas and Alfred de Musset. Can a self-proclaimed genius learn about creating art from a self-professed hack? Can a serial monogamist learn about love from devoted lesbians? More importantly, what will Alice serve for dinner? For mature audiences only. Full male and partial female nudity.


February 12th – February 14th
Extra!, Extra!
Presented by FiveOne, Carly Dorman and Sara Lawrence-Sucato

Coming together again in an original collaboration, Cleveland’s premier new music ensemble FiveOne and dancers and choreographers Carly Dorman and Sara Lawrence-Sucato deliver the news. From the front page to the back of your mind, this performance promises a dynamic and physical journey through our daily newspaper.

February 19th – February 21st
Concentric Cycles
Choreographed by Lisa K. Lock, performed by Amy Compton and Lisa K. Lock

Choreographer and performer Lisa K. Lock's new work ponders questions about the privilege of owning a body, in a fable of incarnating souls. As time passes, memories weave a fabric that connects with the present, shaping every moment of our lives. A mysterious karmic tale that spans a lifetime repetitively gives second chances and allows for grasping wisdom through mistakes made in the heat of passion.
Dirt
Choreographed and Performed by Michael Medcalf

Dirt is the title piece and the first installment of a multimedia dance trilogy loosely inspired by the book The Prophet by poet, philosopher and artist Kahlil Gibran. Dirt is a solo dance piece performed by Medcalf along with live musicians and projected video.

February 26th – February 28th
Hum
Written by Sebastian H. Orr

In Hum, four characters gently weave their disparate narratives. A letter from a long-forgotten ex-girlfriend, a monster in the backyard, a math lesson, and a road trip to the Ohio Caverns. Four very different stories with one ominous, unifying thread. "Apparently Dan was just gone. He hadn't left a note or anything and he just wasn't there. Vanished. And so I suggested Randall take a look to see if Dan's car was still there, but Randall said Dan always got a ride, and poor Randall. He just didn't know what to do."

March 5th – March 7th
McInjun
Written and performed by Cat Kenney
Directed by Lisa Ortenzi

McInjun is the story of a geeky 15-year-old half-Seminole, half-Irish boy, new to the city of Cleveland, but not new to the feelings of isolation that being the oddest of all outsiders brings. When the bus leaves him stranded, he must make a late-night journey through Cleveland from the Playhouse to his home in Bay Village. With folktales, memory, and imagination, he combats fear, fatigue, and the unknown as he struggles to find his own path home.

HonkFest!
Created by James Krouse

HonkFest! 2010 is coming to Cleveland, and you're invited. HonkFest! is a festival of arts, culture, and ideas presented every year in Hohonkus, NJ. Originally conceived as the Hohonkus Festival of Arts, Culture, and Ideas in 1998 by the Hohonkus League of Women Leaders (with Jean Brackenbridge as the Executive Director), the festival was rebranded this past year as HonkFest! and now incorporates talent from all over the world under the leadership of Greg Musmeci, Artistic Liaison. Come hear actual Hohonks (as they like to be called) discuss art, culture, and their personal lives. Not necessarily in that order.


For more information about Big [BOX], including more detailed descriptions of the presented works and artist biographies, please visit www.cptonline.org<http://www.cptonline.org/> or contact Mindy Herman, Director of Communications, at 216.631.2727 x 203 or mherman at cptonline.org<mailto:mherman at cptonline.org>