TheatreLAB brings six new works to life

Theater lovers can be part of the creative process in the ASU TheatreLAB program, a “second stage” designed to help the School of Theatre and Film student playwrights develop their projects, during the program's spring series that opens March 21 through March 30.

TheatreLAB gives the audience an opportunity to experience works in various stages of development from readings of new scripts to full workshop productions that feature prototype sets and costumes. Each night of the nine evening series will feature discussions with the playwrights and creators and opportunities for the audience to share their responses to the works in progress.

The idea of a theatrical production as a creative process that needs to be honed and refined over time – with feedback from an audience – is at the heart of the TheatreLAB.

“It’s called a ‘lab’ for very good reason,” says Jacob Pinholster, artistic director of MainStage and director of the ASU School of Theatre and Film. “It moves the creation of new works away from the conservatory model and much closer to the model of research, development and discovery that you find in the sciences and technology. TheatreLAB is a great way for audiences to meaningfully participate in the creation of the theater of the future.”

The Spring 2013 TheatreLAB series features:

"Los Santos" by Paul Ryan Noble, March 21-22, workshop
A 19-year-old American Mormon missionary finds himself in a rundown apartment in Argentina, soaking wet from the rain. His trainer tries to make the "newbie" feel at home. But how does this missionary balance faith, missionary work, rules, family, temptation and doing the right thing?

"The Halfway House" by Cody Goulder, March 23-24, workshop
With money running short and career options uncertain, a hopeful Broadway actress is facing hard realities. The only things she can rely on are the relationships with her roommates, who are dealing with their own demons. As tensions rise, difficult truths and unexpected personal revelations emerge.

"The Echo Project," conceptualized by Brunella Provvidente and Megan Weaver, March 26, in the ASU Art Museum nymphaeum.
Created and designed by the ensemble. A theatrical suspension of memory and multiplicity, devised from Ovid, Proust, and the Surrealists. A narcissistic water play. With fountains. 

"Mother and Daughter Live 2.0," written and directed by Lee Quarrie, March 27-28
A young woman struggles with relationships, weight, and reality in a heavily mediated world.

"Ame," written and directed by Kirt Shineman, March 29
On a sweltering day, 10-year-old Ame is stuffed into a footlocker by her two cousins and left there overnight. When they open the footlocker the next morning they face the horror they created. The neighbors watch and their inaction increases the terror. Based on the true story of Ame Deal.

"Sea Monsters," conceptualized and composed by Chelsea Pace, March 30.
Sailors, sirens, mermaids, clownfish and other beasts far, far stranger inhabit this play. "Sea Monsters" reaches up from the murky depths, wraps the audience in its glistening tentacles and drags them into an alien, aquatic realm of myth, whimsy, terror and delight. Come take the plunge and discover what lies beneath.

The series performances, except for "The Echo Project," are held in the Directing Studio 133 in the Nelson Fine Arts Center, 51 E. 10th St., ASU Tempe campus. For information about parking, visit: herbergerinstitute.asu.edu/events/parking.php. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m

 All tickets are $8 except for the March 26 performance in the ASU Art Museum.