SUNDANCE — The Sundance Institute has chosen nine projects for its 2001 Theatre Laboratory July 9-29. The three-week workshop offers playwrights, directors, choreographers, composers and solo performers the time and support to develop new works or to explore new approaches to existing scripts and adaptations, without the pressure of public production.
"The 2001 Theatre Lab projects reflect the wide variety of theater being developed in this country today," says Philip Himberg, artistic director of Sundance's theater program, in a recent news release. "These individuals represent both emerging and established artists, who have challenged themselves to create work that is truly visionary and risk-taking."
"The Sundance Theatre Lab is unique because the development process is tailor-made to each project's individual needs," adds Robert Blacker, the lab's artistic director.
The lab takes place in July, but the process is already well under way. "I have begun to meet with the writers and directors who are coming to Sundance this summer to help them set realistic goals and reassure them that they are the only judges of its success," said Blacker. "There are no public presentations, so there is no pressure to show something before it is ready to be seen, or even to complete a project that is at an early stage of development."
The projects selected for this year's Lab include:
"Yiddisher Teddy Bears," a comic, vaudeville opera, with text and direction by Obie-award winner Richard Foreman and music by Stewart Wallace ("Harvey Milk" and "Hopper's Wife"), follows the exploits of a turn-of-the-century Jewish lothario who sets up a business selling teddy bears that look like him.
"Talk," by celebrated poet and spoken-word recording artist, Carl Hancock Rux, examines the connection between art, race and history through a fictional symposium on the life of an African-American novelist and political activist.
"When Grace Comes In," by Heather McDonald ("An Almost Holy Picture" and "Dream of a Common Language"), tracks a 40-something U.S. senator's wife at a critical juncture in love, marriage and motherhood.
"Wintertime," by Chuck Mee, is a wild, Chekhovian farce that explores love and infidelity, as four couples find themselves unexpectedly spending a weekend in the same country house.
"Making It," by Joe Hortua, a recent graduate of NYU's graduate writing program, takes place in the kitchen and dining room of a Manhattan restaurant where conversations about the American dream cross-hatch and interweave.
"99 Histories," by Julia Cho, another recent graduate of NYU's graduate writing program, is a play about a hip, young pregnant woman, who returns to her traditional mother's home to re-examine her life by alternately burying and excavating her past in scenes that may be memory or fantasy.
"Yellowman," by monologist Dael Orlandersmith, is a two-character play that deals with the relationship between a dark-skinned African-American woman and her light-skinned husband. The play was first written at the 1999 Sundance Theatre Lab.
"Switch Track" explores family mythology through a South African wedding ritual, in which the prospective bride and groom trade personal stories and dreams. Barney Simon of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, will develop the piece through improvisations and personal histories from her two actors.
"The Past" is a new play by novelist and screenwriter, Denis Johnson. In this homecoming play set in California, a family tries to come to terms with the incident that tore it apart years earlier.