Village
Theatre Project Completes Annual Retreat
Tuesday
July 18, 2006
Contact: Troy Siebels, (781) 640-5625
ASHBY –
Members of Village Theatre Project’s professional performing
ensemble gathered in Ashby center this weekend for the new theatre
company’s second annual Retreat. The yearly summer event is
an intensive focused on the development of new plays, as well as
on development of the Company members themselves through workshops
and master class-like sessions.In July 2005, Village Theatre Project’s
first Retreat brought together fifteen actors, directors and playwrights
to work collaboratively through rehearsals on three promising new
scripts.
“It couldn’t have been a bigger success,” recalls
Artistic Director Troy Siebels.
“One of the three, Shawn
Sturnick’s farce ‘Better Off Dead,’
was such a great piece that we ended up doing a fully staged production
of the play in April, in Groton. Another, ‘Theresa at
Home,’ will be staged and produced in April 2007 in partnership
with Boston Playwrights Theatre and will play both in Boston and
in Groton.
This summer’s Retreat brought together members
of the performing Company in workshops to focus on Commedia dell’Arte
characters in physicality and mask work, as well as exploration
of the Linklater acting techniques. Another major focus of the
Retreat was a new script based on the life and writings of Etty
Hillesum, a Dutch jewish girl who grew up in Amsterdam and died
in Auschwitz in 1942. Company member Anne
Gottlieb led a team of artistic collaborators in furthering
the script, currently titled “The Etty Project,” which
has been under development for over a year. Village Theatre Project
anticipates a Boston area production of the piece in spring 2008.
Village
Theatre Project’s 2006-2007 performance season begins in
late September at the Groton-Dunstable Performing Arts Center
in Groton. Play selections and performance dates will be announced
in mid-August. For more information, or to join the theatre company’s
mailing list, please call (978) 456-7898 or email info@villagetheatreproject.org.
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