[NEohioPAL] Theater Ninjas Create Worlds in Their Eighth Year

[Ryan Lucas]

Theater Ninjas Create Worlds in Their Eighth Year
Theater Ninjas launch into Eighth Year with Regional Premieres, Immersive Improvisation, Touring Performances and Dynamic Collaborations

CLEVELAND, OHIO (August 20, 2013) — Cleveland's architects of out-of-the-ordinary experiences, Theater Ninjas, are following up their electric seventh year with another lineup of mind-bending theatrical explorations. The multi-talented troupe is building off many recent successes, including a lauded four-month partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art. The next year marks a year of firsts for the growing company: an inaugural touring performance, world premieres, new partnerships and original genre-bending projects that extend beyond the boundaries of the traditional theater-going experience. 

In the coming year, Black Cat Lost will bewitch audiences with an intricately-woven kaleidoscope of voices. [sic] drills into the hearts and minds of three friends. The cold beauty of math and programming informs the Ninjas’ original production, C0d∑. The regional premiere of Cleveland playwright Eric Coble's Stranded on Earth, an exciting co-production with Mamaí Theatre Company, renders a compelling portrait of artistic and personal rebirth. Game Night is your invitation to bring your world to the Ninjas.

“We’ve never been content to just repeat ourselves,” says Artistic Director Jeremy Paul, “Scripted shows, original work, quasi-theatrical installations...our goal is always to create new worlds: different yet familiar environments that have to be experienced. Over the next year, we will be stretching and redefining ourselves, reinventing how our work can be strange, exciting, funny, moving and utterly unique experiences.”

“Our spring at the Cleveland Museum of Art gave us a ton of experience in connecting with our audience. Whether an audience of one or 1,775, the relationship needs to be direct, playful and honest,” said Associate Artistic Director Ray Caspio. “That honesty lives in the passion for the themes we explore: dealing with loss, messy existences vs. structured math, and our exploration of nuanced queer lives. Through multiple productions, we will be working with a clearer sense of how the audience is a present, vital participant more than ever.”

“This next year gets to the heart of what Theater Ninjas is all about,” adds Paul. “We don’t have the answers. We’re looking for the questions.”

Theater Ninjas was founded in 2006 with the goal of creating out-of-the-ordinary theatrical experiences. The Cleveland-based company produces innovative, exciting live events using an ensemble-driven process and a wide range of techniques including physical improvisation, chance, interactivity, clown, song and most importantly the power of the human body to tell a story. The Ninjas believe in reducing barriers to the avant-garde and providing opportunities for new artists and new audiences to engage with each other.

BLACK CAT LOST
World Premiere
Written by Erin Courtney
Directed by Jeremy Paul
October 24-November 9, 2013
East & West Cleveland, Akron
Obie Award-winner Erin Courtney's Black Cat Lost dives into the beauty of impermanence using ritual, song, zen poetry, silent film and memoir. Three shifting characters move through a kaleidoscopic view of life, death and the unseen. This will be the Ninjas’ first touring performance, moving to a different location in Northeastern Ohio every weekend.

C0d∑
Ninjas Original
Created by Theater Ninjas
Various showings January thru May, 2014
This original production is an ambitious exploration of the way we talk to our computers, the language and beauty of math and the struggles of computing genius Alan Turing. Breaking out of the expected, Cod∑ features the work of musicians, programmers, visual artists and an actor to tell their stories in inter-connected modules.
Supported in part by funding from the Ohio Arts Council.

[sic]
Regional Premiere
Written by Melissa James Gibson
Directed by Pandora Robertson
February 27-March 15, 2014
Three self-obsessive neighbors cling to their friendship as they attempt their masterstrokes – with varying degrees of success. Gibson's script flows with natural language and comedic musicality through failed book pitches, misfiring roller coaster theme songs and an extreme course in professional auctioneering.

STRANDED ON EARTH
Co-produced with Mamaí Theatre Company
Regional Premiere
Written by Eric Coble
Directed by Jeremy Paul
Starring Derdriu Ring*
*Appears courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association
June 5-22, 2014
Comprising the middle of Cleveland playwright Eric Coble's "Alexandra Plays" trilogy, this story of visual artist Alexa contemplates the exchange between personal freedom and putting down roots against the backdrop of a personal tragedy. The Ninjas are teaming up with Mamaí Theatre Company to bring you this extraordinary one-woman show, whose sister play, The Velocity of Autumn, is headed to Broadway this December.

And introducing...

GAME NIGHT
Ninjas Original
Free!
Future dates to be announced on theaterninjas.com
Expanding beyond the scope of performance, the Ninjas host a monthly event open to the public called Game Night. An acknowledgment of theater's fascination with games and the role story fills in play, Game Night is a free event in which the Ninjas introduce participants to easy-to-learn, open-ended games of all shapes and sizes. Each event will be wildly different, all drawn to the common thread of how we use rules and play to tell stories. Have a seat, grab some dice or a pair of jogging shoes, and join the adventure!

Follow Theater Ninjas:
www.theaterninjas.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/theaterninjas
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheaterNinjas

Contact: Ryan Lucas, Marketing Coordinator, rlucas at theaterninjas.com

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