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Event
The Chairs by Eugène Ionesco
Inspired by Silent Film Clowns and Vaudeville:
Eugene Ionescos Tragic Farce The Chairs
presented by The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium
Tuesday, September 6 through Sunday, September 25
The Walnut Street Theatres Studio 5 transforms into a lighthouse at the edge of a watery nighttime universe for Eugène Ionescos hilarious meditation on life, previewing Tuesday, September 6 and Wednesday, September 7 at 7:30 pm, opening Thursday, September 8 at 7:30 pm. The IRCs 2016 season celebrates the companys 10th anniversary of accessible, buoyant productions written by authors from the loosely-defined genre to the Philadelphia region.
The Chairs will have 18 performances as part of the 2016 Philadelphia Fringe Arts Festival and features IRC founders Bob Schmidt and Tina Brock as the Old Man and Old Woman, along with Tomas Dura as The Orator. The Chairs production/design team includes Lisi Stoessel (Set Design), Robin Stamey (Lighting Design) and Erica Hoelscher (Costume Design). Producing Artistic Director Tina Brock will direct. The Chairs was originally presented by the IRC in 2009 in a critically-acclaimed sold-out production, staged at the Society Hill Playhouses historic Red Room.
Considered by many to be the father of the loosely-defined absurdist movement, Ionesco spent much of his childhood in Paris, where The Chairs was first performed on April 22, 1952. At the time he was still a struggling playwright, and as the idea of a theater of the absurda literary form exploring the futility of human existenceevolved, The Chairs came to be regarded as a seminal example of the genre. The Chairs was Ionescos third play to be produced. Ionesco wrote to the director of the original production that the play's subject `is not the message, nor the failures of life, nor the moral disaster of the two old people, but the chairs themselves; that is to say, the absence of people, the absence of the emperor, the absence of God, the absence of matter, the unreality of the world, metaphysical emptiness. The theme of the play is nothingness."
Lisi Stoessel (Set Design) is a hybrid artist working in the Philadelphia area. She has designed for the IRC since the original production of The Chairs in 2009. Lisi's work has been shown both locally and internationally. She is Co-Director of feminist punk rock dance band Tia Nina (Washington, DC) and an Artistic Associate of immersive arts company Submersive Productions (Baltimore, MD). She has performed with puppets live and for music videos in Czech Republic, Germany, and the US. Lisi has created sets and puppets for many companies along the east coast of the US and beyond, including Single Carrot Theatre, Synetic Theater, force/collision, Swim Pony Performing Arts, The Berserker Residents, Pig Iron Theatre Company, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Forum Theatre Company, Constellation Theatre Company, Sideshow Theatre Company, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, Inis Nua Theatre Company, and Adventure Theater. Awards include a Jeff Award in Artistic Specialization for her robot design for Sideshow Theatre Company's Heddatron (Chicago). Lisi holds her MFA in Scene Design from the University of Virginia.
Robin Stamey (Lighting Design) graduated from Arcadia University where she earned her B.A. in Theatre Arts. In addition to working on many shows in various capacities at Arcadia, she has worked as a lighting designer with The Berserker Residents, Azuka Theatre, Band of Artists, The Renegade Company, Hedgerow Theatre, The Bearded Ladies and Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium. She is a producing company member of Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, a board member of Theatrical Trainer, and co-founder of Seven Engines. She currently works at the National Constitution Center as the Theatre Programs Manager and with The Renegade Company as their production manager and lighting designer.
Erica Hoelscher (Costume Design) serves as the Associate Artistic Director of the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, and is currently the chairperson of the department of theater at Lehigh University. Erica has designed costumes and set for many productions since joining the company in 2010, including Exit the King and Rhinoceros, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Twelfth Night, Dead Man's Cell Phone, and Euripides' Medea at Lehigh University. Costume design for the IRC's Marriage, Ivona, Princess of Burgundia, and The Castle, as well as for various theatres in Philadelphia, NY, Chicago. Erica holds an MFA in stage design from Northwestern University, and is a faculty member of the department of theatre at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, where she has designed nearly fifty productions since 1995.
The Chairs runs September 6 through September 25, 2016 with performances Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday matinee at 2:30 pm. Running time is 80 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $15 for Preview Performances (9/6 & 9/7), $25 for Opening Night (9/8), $22 Wednesday and Thursday nights and $25 Friday, Saturday & Sunday, and can be purchased online at http://TheChairs.bpt.me, www.FringeArts.com, or by calling 215.285.0472. Student, senior and industry discounts are available. Seating is very limited; reservations are recommended.
In the 10 years since its formation, the IRC has become recognized for humorous, accessible interpretations of classic absurdist works from Eastern Europe and around the globe. In recent seasons, the company has produced critically-acclaimed, sold-out main stage productions of Eugène Ionescos Rhinoceros and George Bernard Shaws Misalliance as well as the Philadelphia premiereJoin us at a lighthouse at the edge of a night time watery universe for this classic farce, featuring an elderly couple engaging in painstaking theatrical preparations to share their lifelong message. This extraordinary comedy showcases the physical slapstick and dazzling language that made Ionesco one of the most beloved playwrights of the modern experimental theater.
Tuesday thru Saturday Evenings - 7:30 pm
Sunday Matinees - 2:30 pm
Tickets:
Preview Performances (9/6 & 9/7 ) - $15
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday - $22
Friday, Saturday & Sunday - $25
Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5
825 Walnut Street (Fifth Floor)
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Seating is very limited; early arrival is encouraged. Doors open one half-hour before curtain.
IRC. We bring good nothingness to life.
www.idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.org
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LocationWalnut Street Theatre Studio 5 (View)
825 Walnut Street (Fifth Floor)
Philadelphia, PA 19107
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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