Quality
Quality is a new play by Elaine Avila, set in the fiercely competitive world of high fashion and shoes. The play examines contemporary obsessions with beauty, sexiness, and consumption. It delves into the complex relationship between working women of different classes.
Witty, fun and modern, the play was performed during London Fashion week in the site-specific setting of the TN29 shoe-store on London’s Marylebone Lane.
Reviews
For more photos & reviews, visit Quality - The Play
Jack the Lad
Jack the Lad is a new play written by Matt Harris and directed by Phil Setren. A Freudian fairy tale without a happy ending, we hear about Jack, a male prostitute, who is pushed over the edge servicing his punters. It tells the story of Jack’s brutal childhood, interwoven with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Matt Harris spins this traditional children’s fairy tale into a modern, gritty story of emotional need, greed and seedy exploitation. Jack the Lad premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has gone on to play at Soho Theatre, London and Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.
Reviews
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Gabriel Gawin
Produced by Nordic Nomad and ArtsAgenda
Zecora Ura Theatre re-awakens our senses with their spicy, Latin-American take on the Bard's last play. An ensemble of artists of 9 nationalities brings to life the story of an enchanting but nightmarish island.
Don’t Feed the Lions
Tanja Raaste’s first collaboration with Zecora Ura Theatre – a theatrical experiment where actors were not allowed to leave the theatre during the week-long run at Oval House, and ate only what the audience brought them each night.
Reviews
Wet – a new opera
Libretto by Terese Svoboda
Directed by Nataki Garrett
Workshop Production
10th June 2005
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre
World Premiere
1st - 3rd December 2005
REDCAT, CalArts, (Walt Disney Concert Hall) Los Angeles
Set on a great American river during a flood, Wet takes comic detours while telling the tragic story of the impending world-wide water crisis and the selling of the world's water to multinational corporations.
The production involved setting up the Mermaid Fundraising Gala and sending out additional requests for funds to cover our main production in December. We also teamed up with Public Citizen for our marketing campaign and to get the word out to water activists in the area.
In Case of Love – Break Glass
Produced by Collage Dance Theatre
2nd - 5th June 2005
Emser Tile Building, Santa Monica Boulevard
A site-specific dance piece, performed on the outside of the Emser Tile building in west Hollywood, we dealt with the legalities of performing in a non-conventional venue, liaised with the owner of the site and with the city, and arranged logistics for 400 spectators each night.
The Shadow
Directed by Istelle Petra
Adapted by Stephen Oliver Price
Executive Producer Don Cesario
Assistant Producer Tina Gloss-Finnell
7th May 2005 - 12th July 2005
The art\works Theatre, Los Angeles
A satirical fairy tale for grown ups, The Shadow's deceptively innocent format takes an uncompromising stab at state power, servile obedience, bigotry, fame, and indifference. The plot charts the absurdist journey of a Scholar in a country where "fables and tales occur on a daily basis".
The production was an ensemble-driven performance, with a cast of 23, and with a Russian approach to development of the material. We arranged a fundraiser, an opening night event, recruited technical personnel, set up a press and marketing campaign, as well as the box-office and front-of-house and in general assisted with the process of bringing this piece to the stage.
Heart of a Dog
Adapted, Directed & Co-produced by Michael Franco
Co-produced by Tanja Raaste
15th October - 19th December 2004
The Lillian Theatre, Hollywood
Extended its run by a further 6 weeks!
Transcending "man bites dog," man is dog in this play based on Bulgakov's classic novella Heart of a Dog, the story of a dog turned into a man by science, with less than stellar results.
Winning several Ovation awards and extending its run by a further 6 weeks, this was a very successful production which reached out to the Los Angeles Russian community.
Awards
Ovation awards
LA Times Critics’ Pick
Best Bet Award at Plays411
Goldstar Roar of the Crowd winner
Reviews
Elizabeth Lopez at ReviewPlays.com
Les Spindle at Back Stage West
Good Fooling
Directed by Jen Harvey
In Elizabethan times, people kept house fools (people with mental disabilities) for entertainment in much the same way we have TV today. This is the story of Robert Armin, who traveled the British Isles studying house fools for his book ‘Nest of Ninnies’. He succeeded in becoming Shakespeare’s favourite clown, playing the part of the fool in plays from King Lear to Twelfth Night.
We succeeded in realizing very high production values despite a very tight budget, basic theatre conditions and a shortfall in labour hours. The production used a very ambitious set, comprised of pieces that rolled on and off stage, concealing the actors within them.
Le Point Vierge Opera
Musical Director Lisa Sylvester
Writer/Director Team Melissa Weaver, John Duykers, Scott Graff, Douglas Kearney & Sylvia Desrochers
Executive Producer John Duykers
April 23-24 2004
Modular Theater, CalArts
The themes and story of this opera emerged from a truly collaborative process. We researched martyrdom and explored the threshold where conversion begins in the human heart. What emerged is a absurd and somewhat satiric rendering of a prison caper, exploring the nature of true power through the eyes of the powerless.
The latest in the CalArts opera class series directed by John Duykers and Melissa Weaver, Le Point Vierge was a collaborative piece between faculty, students and alumni of both the Schools of Music and Theater.
As well as facilitating and participating in the creative collaboration, we also put together a ‘pre-show audience participation event’ – by creating an Orwellian nightmare state check-point, through which all audience members had to pass through on entering the theatre.
Excerpts from the Pre-Show can be heard
here (MP3).
King Lear
Directed by Travis Preston
Produced by Carol Bixler
Assistant Producers Tanja Raaste & Dan Friedman
After its resounding success at The Brewery in Los Angeles, this modern, site-specific King Lear moved its all-female cast to Dijon for a 3 week run at the Frictions Festival.
The production took place at a disused military ‘casserne’ just outside Dijon city centre. A crew of around 20 people joined a 30-strong cast from the US for this ambitious and successful endeavour.
Hysterex
Directed by David Schweizer
Hysterex, the mythical queen for a group of priestesses, clashes with the king of a faraway land who has sent his sons out to enslave women and bring them back to his diseased kingdom. A chess-game of a tale, a tragedy of strategy and plotting, this production required careful handling due to its adult themes and edgy content.
Blood Wedding
Directed by Max Truax
13th - 19th March 2003
Ensemble Theater, CalArts
This was an imaginative adaptation of the classic tale of a woman torn between two lovers. Incorporating multimedia elements and a set built out of railway ties, this was a stunningly visual production. The audience were first seated in front of the raked stage, then moved and seated beneath it for the conclusion of the play.
The Visit of the Old Lady
Directed by Karin Coonrod
An old lady, now a millionaire, returns to her girlhood town with promises to rescue the town from its economic slump – but at a terrible price.
With over 70 actors, 20 crew and a dog (that got axed at the last minute), this show kept us busy from beginning to end. The audience sat in custom-built, revolving steel chairs in the middle of the action during the first act, and were then moved to a high vantage point for the remainder of the play.
Click to see photos of the set.
Heart of Darkness
Directed by Josh Moyse
Originally set in the jungles of the Congo, this visually slick production was transferred to a modern board room. Intensive rehearsals teased out superb performances from a tight cast. One of the jobs of the producer was to liaise with local businesses and request donations/loans of modern office equipment.
Trojan Women
Directed by Matt Wilder
Choreography by Ken Roht
Charles L Mee’s modern revisiting of the Greek tragedy was directed by Matt Wilder, who has directed several Mee’s plays, amongst them the world premiere of The War to End War. This play was performed in two locations nightly with an ensemble of 24 actors and featured a live band, songs and choreographed dance routines for the ensemble.
Bitter Coffee
Directed by Pilou Chapeaud
8-27 May 2001
Diorama Studio Theatre, London
Elaine is dabbling with magic. Karl is dabbling with Elaine. Martyn Dabbles with his balalaika. The Gnome of Doom has his own agenda entirely.
A refreshing dark comedy, set against a backdrop of new age superstition, throws into relief the office environment as an intimate and at times claustrophobic setting in which to live out life's dramas. Love them or loathe them, you spend most of your waking life with your colleagues. Now how do you take your coffee?