HOME in-theatre program

BRISBANE FESTIVAL AND AURECON PRESENT

GEOFF SOBELLE / BETH MORRISON PROJECTS (USA)

Brisbane Festival is an initiative of the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council

HOME P L AY H O U S E Queensland Performing Arts Centre 12 – 15 SEPTEMBER

BRISBANE FESTIVAL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR’S NOTE We all remember the house we grew up in.

And we treasure the things that made that house a home. Geoff Sobelle is a magician of the stage, and in HOME he creates a space into which we can pour all our memories.

Memories of family, of births and birthdays, of weddings and funerals, of love, loneliness and of washing the dishes. Finally, the stage is ours, just as home will always be ours, as we join the rest of the audience to cheer on the things that bind us. Like so many other Festival events this year, this is Brisbane onstage.

David Berthold

CREATOR’s Note Hello and welcome back.

A train maybe. Or at home, wherever that

Have you been here before?

might be. But right now this seat – this place –

Does it feel familiar?

I hope that you’re making yourself comfortable and getting ready for this thing to begin.

We are all very happy that you could make it – to come here, and make the time.

That’s great.

Just sit comfortably. It’s a good seat, isn’t it?

Sure – there may be better ones – every seat has its plusses and minuses – but this place – your place – this is a good place! At any rate – It’s all yours – so just make yourself at home.

this space – it’s all yours. Enjoy it.

But it IS funny, I suppose, this migration from one seat to another…

True story – there is a little crab, called a hermit crab, that makes use of other animals’ shells when they outgrow their own. They just move from shell to shell as it suits them and their lifestyle. Once they’ve outgrown a shell, they just find another one. Sometimes they don’t even use shells – they get super creative and use all kinds of things. Old camera lenses, bits of debris, whatever…

Feel your feet on the floor, your back against

Sound familiar? Just migratory animals

the backrest, maybe take a few deep breaths…

looking for a place to eat and sleep and

Feels good! To have YOUR seat. It’s all yours!

poop and call their own.

You have it all to yourself. You don’t even have to share! It’s just YOURS. There was someone here the other night… another person that came here before you and sat here… but no matter. It’s yours now. It used to be theirs - but not now. Now, it’s your place. ALLLL yours. Can’t even remember that other person! Oh - and tomorrow.

Tomorrow it will be someone else’s. So I guess in a way, you are kind of sharing it, if we’re speaking frank. But don’t worry about that right now. That doesn’t concern you now – by the time they’re sitting here, you won’t even WANT this seat! Can you imagine?

Hard to believe - but it’s true! Trust me…

You’ll gladly give it away and be happy to sit somewhere else. Maybe in a nice restaurant.

Or on a park bench.

By the way octopuses… (that is correct by the way – octopi is just a fancy latinization, it’s not actually bona fide) Anyway, octopuses are the only animal other than humans who put decorative things in their apartment for no other purpose than aesthetics. Not hugely important, but I thought I’d mention it since we were talking about interesting sea creatures. Is that what we were talking about?

OH! Your seat… Yes – it’s a good one. I can’t remember – you’ve been here before? What were you seeing? It’s a good space isn’t it?

They put on some great shows here. Can you remember any particular moments?

It’s funny, isn’t it? When the show is really going, you kind of forget the space of the theater, don’t you…

You get so drawn into the action that it’s

You can just think about all of the events

kind of like the theater itself sort of vanishes.

that have transpired in your day and

They call a theater a “house” by the way.

before you know it, you’ll just be floating

Not to put too fine a point on it – but this

through your doorway and hanging your

is the HOUSE, and you are right now residing

hat and haunting your haunt and flopping

in this house for just a short while before some

on your lily pad and whatever other adage

other body takes this same space and they

comes to mind… Some internal compass

claim it as theirs for a little while and they

will just unconsciously follow that trail of

have their experience of pretty much the

breadcrumbs and before you know it you’ll

same thing, though completely different of

be snug up in your bed and dreaming once

course, and they bring all of their own stuff

again… Dreaming of other homes you once

with them to this same space and it informs

made. Other spots, other places… Other

them of what they see… Anyway – I’m just

seats where you once sat, other cities you

stating the obvious since we have this time

once called yours; other shells where you

to kill before the show starts – but it’s great

once curled up, other gardens you once

to have you here. Love talking about this stuff.

tended. Other rooms. Other dens. Other nests.

Take a look around at all these people! Total

Remember the feel? The light. The smell.

strangers! For now – they’re your neighbors,

The unnameable thing that turns a simple

and they’re having a similar experience

set of coordinates into some psychic shelter

to you. Reading this. Looking around…

rooted deep inside of you. How will you find

Thinking about hermit crabs…

your way home? How will you know it once

It will be a great feeling too when all of this

you’re there?

is done and you can just unwind and head

Geoff Sobelle

on back home again. Love that feeling.

Where are you staying by the way? Are you living near here? Long commute? Funny isn’t it, how you can just head on home without really having to even think of it… Unless of course you’re not from here and you’re really working hard to navigate the area to make it back to a friend’s place or a hotel or some place that – try as it might – won’t ever really feel like home… But if you ARE heading home after this… well you barely even need think of how you’ll get there.

GEOFF SOBELLE

Steven Dufala

Creator/Performer

Scenic Designer

Geoffe Sobelle is an actor, director and

Steven Dufala is a multidisciplinary artist

maker of absurdist performance works.

based in Philadelphia. While he works

His independent work includes Flesh and

primarily in collaboration with his brother

Blood & Fish and Fowl (Edinburgh Fringe First

Billy as the Dufala Brothers, he also works

Award), The Object Lesson (Bessie Award,

on as many other projects in as many other

Edinburgh Fringe First Award, Carol Tambor

fields as possible, being drawn in particular

Award, Total Theatre Award, NYTimes Critics

to works that explore overlapping concerns

Pick) and HOME. His work under the name

of various disciplines. He makes drawings,

Rainpan43 includes all wear bowlers (Innovative

clothes, furniture, prints, music, sculpture,

Theatre Award, Drama Desk nomination),

photos, books, and thinks an awful lot about

Amnesia Curiosa, machines machines machines

what all these things have in common and

machines machines machines machines (OBIE

what on earth people do with them. Steven

award – design), and Elephant Room. He was

has been working intermittently with dance

a company member of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron

and theatre as a designer for about 20 years,

Theatre Company from 2001-2012. His work

and over this time has worked with Pig Iron

has been supported by the Independence

Theatre Company, BalletX, anonymous bodies,

Foundation, the Philadelphia Theatre

Geoff Sobelle, Thaddeus Phillips and others.

Initiative, the Wyncote Foundation, USArts

With his brother Billy, he received an Obie

International, the Princeton Atelier, the MAP

Award for design with rainpan 43’s machines

Fund and the New England Foundation for

machines machines machines machines machines

the Arts. He is a 2006 Pew Fellow and is a 2009

machines, and shared a Bessie award with the

Creative Capital grantee. Geoff is a graduate

entire design team for Geoff Sobelle’s The

of Stanford University, and trained in physical

Object Lesson in 2015. Steven and Billy co-teach

theatre at École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France.

sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and are represented by the Fleisher/Ollman gallery in Philadelphia. Their work is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum or Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the West Collection, and many private collections.

L E E S U N D AY E VA N S

Elvis perkins

Director

Original songs/Performer

Lee Sunday Evans is an Obie Award-winning

Elvis has released three full-length collections of

director and choreographer. Her work has

songs, two under his own name (‘Ash Wednesday’

been seen at The Public Theater, Lincoln

’07 XL Recordings & ‘I Aubade’, ’15 MIR) and one

Center, The Play Company, The Bushwick

under the band name Elvis Perkins in Dearland

Starr, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Hudson Valley

(’09 XL Recordings). The band with whom he

Shakespeare Company, Humana Festival at

has toured extensively also released the six-track

Actors Theater of Louisville, Dallas Theater

‘Doomsday EP’ in 2009 (XL). In the past two

Center, Clubbed Thumb, Women’s Project,

years Elvis has made two film scores: ‘I am the

Sundance Theater Lab, BAX, CATCH, LMCC,

Pretty Thing the Lives in the House’ (Netflix,

Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Juilliard.

October ’16) and ‘The Blackcoat’s Daughter’

She recently received the Susan Stroman

(A24 ’17). A soundtrack album for the latter

Directing Award from The Vineyard Theater.

was released via Death Waltz Recording Co.

Upcoming: Dance Nation by Clare Barron

in March 2017. He currently calls Hudson,

at Playwrights Horizons.

NY and Cape Cod, MA home.

Christopher kuhl

BRANDON WOLCOTT

Lighting Designer

Sound Designer

Christopher is a lighting, scenic, and installation

Brandon is a NYC-based sound designer

designer for new performance, theatre, dance

and composer. Off-Broadway: The Profane

and opera. Recent work includes: The Elephant

(Playwrights Horizons) Venus, Everybody,

Room (St. Ann’s Warehouse); Straight White Men

Signature Plays (Signature); The Record, The Fever

(Young Jean Lee’s Theatre Company, The Public

(600 Highwaymen/Public Theater); Coriolanus,

Theatre, Kaai Theater, Centre Pompidou);

Hit the Wall (Barrow Street); Kill Floor (LCT3);

The Institute of Memory (The Public, T:BA Festival);

The Nether (Lortel nomination, MCC); Good

Citizen (Reggie Wilson Fist and Heel, BAM); The

Person of Szechwan, Titus Andronicus (Public);

Source (BAM); Dog Days (Prototype Festival,

Habeas Corpus, Kiss the Air (Park Avenue Armory),

REDCAT, LA Opera); ABACUS (Early Morning

Equivocation (MTC); Collaborations with Marina

Opera, BAM, Sundance Film Festival, EMPAC);

Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, Faye Driscoll,

Quartier Libres with Nadia Beugré (New York

Nicolas Jaar, Elizabeth Streb, Woodshed

Live Arts, Walker Art Center); Cipher (Samita

Collective, Red Bull, New Georges, Clubbed

Sinha, The Kitchen). He has received two

Thumb, and many more.

Ovation awards and a Sherwood, Drammy, Horton, award. He also received a 2014 and 2015 Bessie award for Outstanding Visual Design.

CAST AND CREDITS

BETH MORRISON PROJECTS STAFF

Created by Geoff Sobelle Set designed by Steven Dufala Directed by Lee Sunday Evans Original songs by Elvis Perkins Lighting Design by Christopher Kuhl Sound Design by Brandon Wolcott Costume Design by Karen Young Illusion Design/Assistant Director Steve Cuiffo Assistant Director Daisy Sanders Co-created with Sophie Bortolussi, Justin Rose, Jenn Kidwell, Ching Valdes-Aran, Elvis Perkins and Josh Crouch Performed by Geoff Sobelle, Sophie Bortolussi, Justin Rose, Ayesha Jordan, Ching Valdes-Aran, Elvis Perkins and Luke Whitefield Choreography by David Neumann Dramaturgy by Stefanie Sobelle Props Design by Victoria Ross Creative consulting by Julian Crouch Production stage management by Lisa McGinn Assistant Stage Manager Kevin Hanley Lighting Associate Devin Cameron Technical Direction & Production Management Christopher Swetcky Wardrobe Supervisor Stephen Smith Developed & produced by Jecca Barry Producer Beth Morrison Projects

President & Creative Producer Beth Morrison Executive Director Jecca Barry Director of Development Noah Stern Weber Production Manager James Fry Associate Producer Mariel O’Connell Associate Producer Christopher Mode Company Manager Julie Hurley

BETH MORRISON PROJECTS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Board Chair Frederick Peters Treasurer Sue Bienkowski Secretary Judy Brick Freedman Miles Benickes,Sarah M. Brown, Connie Chen, Ralph Dandrea, Pamela Drexel,Nicholas Firth, David Gindler, Jane Gullong,Lynn Loacker, Nancy Sanders, Mike Siegal and Raymond Steckel

Brisbane Festival Chair Paul Spiro Deputy Chair Philip Bacon AM Artistic Director David Berthold Chief Executive Officer Charlie Cush

HOME was commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music, Arizona State University – Gammage, New Zealand Festival, the Edinburgh International Festival and Beth Morrison Projects. HOME was funded, in part, by The Wyncote Foundation, Diane & Adam Max, Garth Patil, Jeanne Donovon Fisher and Wendy vanden Heuvel, and received developmental support from LUMBERYARD Contemporary Performing Arts (formerly ADI). Residency support has been provided by MANA Contemporary, BRIC, Pennsylvania State University and ArtsEmerson. HOME received support from the New York Theatre Workshop annual Usual Suspects summer residency at Dartmouth College. HOME was developed, in part, with assistance from the Orchard Project (orchardproject.com).

QPAC EMERGENCY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Patrons are advised that the Performing Arts Centre has EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURES, a FIRE ALARM system and EXIT passageways. In case of an alert, patrons should remain calm, look for the closest EXIT sign in GREEN, listen to and comply with directions given by the in house trained attendants and move in an orderly fashion to the open spaces outside the Centre.

In keeping with the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Brisbane, the Turrubul and Jagara Yuggera Peoples, and recognise that this has always been a place of creative expression. We wish to pay respect to their Elders – past, present and emerging – and acknowledge the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within our creative community.

D O N ’ T M I S S B R I T T E N ’S A LT O G E T H E R E P I C O P E R A !

“Stuart Skelton is the best Peter Grimes I’ve ever seen.”

The SPECTATOR, UK

BRISBANE FESTIVAL, OPera queensland, philip bacon am, queensland performing arts centre and queensland symphony orchestra present

BY BENJAMIN BRITTEN (uk)

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20 & 22 September | Concert Hall, QPAC