The Sticking Place

Directed by Chris Covics, with Art Horowitz, Ph.D. as Dramaturge

Ensemble: Angie Stern, Erika Stone, Kathy Bell Denton, Brittany Slattery, Yuri Brown, Mia Tramz, Amy Tzagournis, and Toni Trenton

Currently in Phase One Development
For more information regarding the Unknown Classics Project, click here

The Sticking Place in the working title for an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The initial stages of the nearly year-long development process began in December of 2007. The final adaptation is scheduled to open on Halloween of 2008, with in-progress workshop performances slated for April and July.

The current imagining of the final concept is a kind of one-woman show with an all female supporting ensemble of about 8. The baton may be passed from night to night in performance, with a different woman reliving her version of the tragic purgatorial nightmare each evening.

Some threads of investigation are: the female identity as seen both through the male and female lenses, especially as it relates to the notion of ambition; the relationship of fear and spirituality and how both of these define a self-fulfilling image of the world; and finally the role of the audience as accomplice rather than spectator.

Workshop and rehearsal schedule outline:

JANUARY - TABLE WORK:
We comb through an act a week, clarifying textual questions, learning the story, make observations regarding poetic imagery, structure, rhythm, etc.

FEBRUARY - MAKING THE WORDS OUR OWN:
We begin to explore the work on its feet twice a week, diving deeper into character and textual analysis. We begin playing with the idea of the story as a recursive nightmare entirely from the perspective of Lady Macbeth.

MARCH - REHEARSALS FOR PHASE ONE PERFORMACES IN APRIL.

APRIL - PHASE ONE PERFORMANCES:
SATURDAYS & SUNDAYS AT 2PM, Starting April 12th
Special late-night performances Thursday the 10th and the 24th at 10PM

MAY, JUNE - FINDING CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE AND PERSONAL CONNECTIONS.

JULY - PHASE TWO PERFORMANCES

AUGUST - 'FINAL' SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT

SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER - MAKING THE KNOWN UNKNOWN: Rehearsals for the Main Event adaptation of Macbeth called The Sticking Place, currently scheduled to open on Halloween 2008 with performances Thursday - Saturday at 8pm and Sundays at 6pm.

Visit the Unknown Classics about page for a description of The Unknown Classics Project.

Back to top

Blood Wedding - by Federico Garcia Lorca

Directed by Dan Oliverio

A hopeful groom, a brooding husband, and a runaway bride.

Blood Wedding is the story of a passionate love triangle from Federico García Lorca, Spain's most famous poet. Inspired by a story in a local newspaper, Lorca weaves the actual events of a small-town feud into a universal myth in which isolation and despair ignite consuming passions.

The mission of Unknown Classics is to make the known Unknown--to explore and develop classical plays in ways that do more than revive them, but that reinvent them in a way that makes them excitingly unfamiliar. For Blood Wedding, our first phase of development explored Lorca's poetry to render it as closely as possible in English to the way Lorca intended it. The result of this exploration was seen in a series of workshop productions on five Sundays in 2007: May 27th, June 3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th.

In the second phase, to begin soon, we will investigate the play's current relevance and resonance.

We hope you'll come with us on this exciting journey into the poetry and passion of Blood Wedding. Keep an eye on this page for developments and upcoming Blood Wedding performances.

Back to top