Eugene, Ore. – Oregon Performance Lab hosts a residency reading of SPILL, Written and Directed by Leigh Fondakowski, August 14th and 15th at 7PM in the Performance Hall at Lane Community College.
On April 20, 2010, the BPowned oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the shores of Louisiana, killing 11 and sending millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. With a dramatic story spun from hundreds of personal interviews with oil industry employees, fishermen, politicians, cleanup workers, scientists, and the families of those lost, SPILL probes into a vivid behind-the-news narrative of the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history from the Head writer of THE LARAMIE PROJECT.
Oregon native visual artist Reeva Wortel who conducted the interviews with Fondakowski, also painted life-sized portraits of many of the interviewees. Wortel will share images from this collection [and share insights into the process] in a talk back following the Saturday reading.
Tickets $16 general public; $12 seniors; $8 members/students. Tickets available online at www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006. Theater located at Lane Community College, 4000 E. 30th Ave Eugene, OR 97405. Oregon Performance Lab is a creative residency dedicated to artists developing new live performance works. For more information, visit www.oregonperformancelab.com.
Lane Community College
Performance Hall
4000 E 30th Ave, Eugene, OR 97405
Performances & Events
SPILL, Friday, August 14th @ 7PM
SPILL, Saturday, August 29th @ 7PM
Tickets
General Admission $16
Seniors $12
Oregon Performance Lab Members/Students: $8
Press and Interviews
To schedule an interview, receive additional materials or to make a press reservation, please contact Willow Norton at nortonwillow@gmail.com.
SPILL:
Written and Directed by Leigh Fondakowski
Based on interviews conducted by: Leigh Fondakowski and Reeva Wortel.
Dramaturgy by: Sarah Lambert, Kelli Simpkins, and Reeva Wortel
Art Work by: Reeva Wortel
OREGON PERFORMANCE LAB
Oregon Performance Lab is a creative residency dedicated to artists developing new live performance works. Lane Community College in Eugene will host the inaugural residency August 10 - 30.
The program provides playwrights, directors, composers, choreographers and ensembles rehearsal space in large well-equipped facilities for intensive creative development and production work. Project residencies are 1 - 2 weeks long culminating in reading and workshop presentations.
For Lane county audiences this is a chance to see new contemporary work bound for venues across the United States in the coming year. SPILL and PREDATOR SONGSTRESS, our two mainstage projects will have runs in Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and New York. Before they do.... these pieces will take to the stage as works in development at Lane Community College.
In the Lab, our audience serves a vital function, acting as the focus group for these artists who making their final major rewrites or completing the only fully realized staging of the piece ahead of a major professional presentation.
Visit www.oregonperformancelab.com
ENSEMBLE
Lanny Mitchell, Andy Hock, Brian Haimbach, John Schmor, Carmen Brantly-Payne, William Campbell, and guest artist Kelli Simpkins. Three more artists will round out the production, TBA.
CREATIVE TEAM
LEIGH FONDAKOWSKI (DIRECTOR, WRITER AND INTERVIEWER: SPILL)
Leigh Fondakowski was the Head Writer of The Laramie Project and is a veteran member of Tectonic Theatre Project. She is an Emmy nominated co-screenwriter for the adaptation of The Laramie Project for HBO, and a co-writer of The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later. Her latest play SPILL premiered at Louisiana State University's Swine Palace in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in March 2014. Other original plays include: The People's Temple, which was performed under her direction at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, American Theater Company and The Guthrie Theater, and received the Glickman Award for Best New Play in the Bay Area in 2005, and I Think I Like Girls, which premiered at Encore Theater in San Francisco under her direction and was voted one of the top 10 plays of 2002 by The Advocate. Leigh is a 2007 recipient of the NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights and a 2009 Macdowell Colony Fellow. She was an Imagine Fund fellow and guest lecturer at the University of Minnesota in 2010 where she completed her play, Casa Cushman. She recently co-directed The Laramie Cycle at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and her first creative non-fiction book, Stories from Jonestown, was published the University of Minnesota Press.
REEVA WORTEL (INTERVIEWS, DRAMATURGY AND ART: SPILL)
Reeva Wortel is an interdisciplinary artist who creates portrait-based projects that combine interview, social commentary, performance and large-scale installation. Driven by a commitment to develop the technique of portraiture beyond its traditional limits, Wortel has worked in communities as a social justice advocate and artist honing a technique to create portrait collections that narrate the stories of our time, a process that involves in-depth interviewing, photography, painting and installation. Wortel has been the recipient of several grants as a muralist, choreographer and installation artist. She has exhibited her work in Oregon, New York, Colorado, California, New Zealand and Amsterdam.
KELLI SIMPKINS (DRAMATURGY AND PERFORMACE: SPILL)
Kelli Simpkins is a member of the Study Group and has worked on SPILL as a lead performer and dramaturge for two years. She is also an artistic associate of About Face Theater in Chicago and is a company member of Tectonic Theater Project in NYC. She is one of the original creator/performers of The Laramie Project--Off-B'Way, Denver Center, Berkeley Rep., LaJolla Playhouse. THEATER CREDITS: Teddy Ferrara at Goodman Theatre; The Kid Thing at Chicago Dramatists (Jeff nomination for principle actor); Pony at Chopin Theater; In Darfur at Timeline Theater; Late: A Cowboy Song at Piven; The Laramie Tour: TLP & TLP Epilogue, 10 Years Later; Celebrity Row at ATC; Fair Use, Good Boys and True and One Arm all at Steppenwolf Theatre; Execution of Justice at About Face Theatre; The Peoples Temple at The Guthrie, Perseverance and Berkeley Rep., and I Think I Like Girls at HERE Arts Center, Cherry Lane Theater and Z Space; 33 Variations: 5 years as performer/dramaturge prior to the premiere;. She has also been seen in Film and on TV in Betrayal, A League of Their Own, Chasing Amy, The Nearly Unadventurous Life of Zoe Cadwaulder, Law & Order: C.S.I. and HBO's The Laramie Project. She is a certified teacher in Tectonic's "Moment Work" technique. Kelli is a proud 2013 recipient of the Chicago 3Arts Award.
SARAH LAMBERT (DRAMATURGY AND DESIGN: SPILL)
Sarah Lambert Collaborations with Leigh Fondakowski include set design/dramaturgy for The Peoples Temple (Berkeley Rep, Perseverance, The Guthrie, and the American Theater Company, Chicago) and work-in-progress Casa Cushman (Tectonic Theater Project, The Orchard Project and The MacDowell Colony) as well as previous workshops of SPILL (LSU, NOCCA and Wesleyan.) Other designs include Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (New York, London, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Caracas, Venezuela), Spectators at an Event (Susan Marshall & Co, BAM Next Wave Festival and tour) as well as over 150 other pieces produced in New York and regionally. Dramaturgy credits include The Laramie Project (NYC and HBO) and Playing Alexina (Theater of Necessity and Orlando Playfest.) She holds a BA from Cornell and an MFA from Yale. Full resume and biography can be found on her website (www.SLLinc.com)
COREY PEARLSTEIN (Creative Producer Oregon Performance Lab)
In the Pacific Northwest, Corey Pearlstein has served as Managing Artistic Director for The Lord Leebrick Theatre in Eugene, Producing Artistic Director for Consolidated Works in Seattle and Executive Director at the The Majestic Theatre in Corvallis. In Pennsylvania, he worked as Managing Director for InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia and Producing Artistic Director at Theatre Outlet. In New York, Pearlstein has worked as a General Manager for The Pearl Theatre Company, Clement Arts and 300 Bags of Rice and as Business Manager for The Builders Association. He currently works in business administration at Electronic Arts Intermix, as General Manager for Clement Arts and is Producer for Seattle based Degenerate Art Ensemble. Recent works include the jazz musical FOR THE LAST TIME with Clement Arts and Epic Theatre, the stage adaptation of DELIVERANCE by Godlight Theatre, the Korean tour production of SUNFISH to Daegu International Music Festival and The Pearl Theatre Company 2013-2014 Season. Pearlstein is a multidisciplinary producer and programmer with an established record presenting visual arts, music, theater, dance and film. He has programmed a wide variety of music events spanning every genre from classical to heavy metal, jazz to jug band, electronic and hip hop. Social justice, diversity and inclusion have been a leading aspects of his work through his career. Pearlstein, who grew up in a small town, is also dedicated to the idea that great art and new work can flourish outside of larger cities. As a director, Pearlstein has staged more than 50 productions, including AND MY NAME AIN'T PEACHES, TRIGGER KIDS, SMILE YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM and REALITY IS A KNIFE. In Eugene while Artistic Director at Lord Leebrick Pearlstein directed ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST, ESCAPE FROM HAPPINESS, HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, and CLOUD 9.
WILLOW NORTON (Artistic Director Oregon Performance Lab)
Willow Norton is a Director and Teacher focused on new work development. Recent directing projects include; GOODBYE AVIS at 4th Street Theatre; IN THE NEXT ROOM OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY for Lane Community College; ¡BOCON!, RENT, and A THOUSAND CRANES for The Majestic Theatre; S.H.A.V.E.D. at HERE Arts Center and The Philly Fringe; INSTRUCITIONS INCLUDED for The Midtown International Festival; REACH for At Hand Theatre Company; IN THE WAY for Philadelphia Young Playwrights; and POP IN THE NIGHT for At Hand Theatre Company. She has worked as an assistant director with The Builders Association and The Wilma Theatre. Norton is a 2012 Director's Lab West Alumni. Mrs. Norton received her BFA in Theater; Original Works from Cornish College of Arts in Seattle, WA. She currently also works for The Shubert Organization.
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Lane Community College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.
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