Event

THE BLACK GLASS

Money. Sorcery. Porn.

THE BLACK GLASS is a new, darkly comedic story of corporate power and intrigue by the award-winning writer and director Guy Zimmerman. Atlanta's PushPush Theater and Film and Padua Playwrights in Los Angeles are co-producing this hybrid production. The 70-minute performance mixes digital media, live performers and an original score by John Zalewski to highlight a rich, poetic text about greed and aggression.

A corporate executive is being blackmailed about his daughter's participation in internet porn that, bizarrely, hasn't happened yet. The blackmailers claim to have his daughter, but do they "have" her now, or in the future? And is she still his sweet little girl "tucked away in Spain," or an international porn star? Five characters play out the uncanny phenomenon of "retro-causality", where future actions affect the present and the present affects the past.

THE BLACK GLASS looks at the way greed and aggression have been institutionalized in the modern economy, leading to the rise of a new force that is both connective and subversively feminine. Drawing on perspectives from contemporary theorists, the play argues that capitalism involves a kind of sorcery in which aggression becomes institutionalized in the infamous military industrial complex, and greed in the form of consumer culture such as the porn industry sexual greed on steroids.

Despite its tragic aspect, the play enjoys a sense of humor about itself that keeps pace with its larger concerns. The Artistic Director of LA's landmark new play theater company Padua Playwrights, Zimmerman here teams up with PushPush and artists from both productions to remount a new hybrid version of this exhilarating new work.

THE BLACK GLASS received preliminary productions at PushPush last spring and at The Open Fist Theater as part of the L.A. Fringe Festival this summer. The new production will combine Atlanta and Los Angeles' cast members and be presented at two different Atlanta locations, The Goat Farm and The Nelson Street Gallery in Castleberry Hill, December 6 22. THE BLACK GLASS will tour to Artshare Performance Theater in Downtown Los Angeles this winter, and then travel to Berlin's Ballhaus Ost Theater.

Come "sit back into the comfortable couch of your not knowing, dude."

The Goat Farm Arts Center
1200 Foster St., Atlanta, GA 30328
Preview Thursday, Dec. 6, 8pm
Dec. 7, 8, 10 (artist night), 20, 21, 22, 8pm

Nelson Street Gallery
Castleberry Hill Arts District
364 Nelson St., Atlanta, GA 30313
December 16 & 17 (artist night), 8pm
For tickets to one of these shows go here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/296115