Margo Lee Sherman's compelling solo performance is based on the actual words of contemporary American soldiers who have served in Iraq. Through a series of fragments and vignettes composed of quotes from an amazingly diverse spectrum of real-life characters, Sherman gets at the human cost of the war. From two gung-ho nineteen-year-old girls killed in combat to a long-time professional soldier who reexamined his beliefs in the wake of Abu Ghraib and became a conscientious objector, these remarkable stories, performed with Sherman's unique intensity and concentration, convey the many dimensions of this complex tragedy with power and immediacy, offering new insights. Margo Lee Sherman has created over 30 critically-acclaimed solo performances over as many years. She was one of the early members of the legendary Bread and Puppet Theater, and has worked with Meredith Monk, Joseph Chaikin, Jean Claude van Itallie, and many other seminal artists of the off-off-Broadway movement. She has performed in twenty countries--including performances of Samuel Beckett's Not I and Footfalls in Czechoslovakia in 1989, the first artist permitted to present Beckett there in two decades.

FALL BLACK BOX STUDIO PRODUCTION
October 17 - 19 and October 23 - 26, 2008
All performances at 8pm except Sunday matinees which are at 2pm
The Insect Comedy (The World We Live In) by Josef and Karel Capek
Directed by ALMA BECKER

A wanderer who is something of a philosopher falls asleep after drinking in a forest. In his dream he observes the comedy and tragedy in the lives of the insects, whose problems and affairs are like those of humankind. The butterflies make violent love. The beetles hoard money and live selfishly. The ichneumon flies murder crickets and stuff their larders with food, and parasites greedily devour what others work to save. Finally the red and yellow ants wage war to see which shall have the right to travel a particular sunlit path between two blades of grass.

photo by Toph Brown

One of Shakepseare's most lyrical play, this is the first of his history series that continues with Parts 1 and 2 of King Henry IV and with King Henry V. The unpopular King Richard II, having bankrupted his country, banishes his cousin Henry Bolingbroke who later returns and deposes Richard. Richard is imprisoned, and later murdered while Bolingbroke is crowned King Henry IV.

photo by Jane Clausen

SPRING BLACK BOX STUDIO PRODUCTION
February 27 - March 4 2009
All performances at 8pm except Sunday matinee which is at 2pm
A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY by Tony Kushner
Directed by ALI SCHULTZ '09

This play follows a group of artists and political activists struggling to preserve themselves
in 1930s Berlin as the Weimar Republic surrenders to the seduction of fascism. It is a powerful
portrayal of individual resolution, irresolution, and dissolution in the face of political catastrophe.

SPRING SEMINAR PRODUCTION
April 3 - 5 and April 16 - 19, 2009
All performances at 8pm except Sunday matinees which are at 2pm
Franz Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS, a new adaptation by Lary Opitz
Directed by LARY OPITZ

The quintessential outsider, industrious Gregor Samsa wakes one morning to find himself transformed into a monstrous vermin. Set in Prague early in the 20th century, this new adaptation of Franz Kafka’s story explores both the terror and the dark humor of this visionary writer

SPECIAL SPRING EVENTS
February 13 (exact performance schedule to be announced in Studio A)
GUEST ARTIST PHIL SOLTANOFF
PERFORMANCE ART WORKSHOP

Phil Soltanoff is director of the Mad Dog Theatre company (www.maddogtheatre.org) whose productions include To Whom It May Concern, Lemnation TIME/PIECE, Wrench, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other and Five Movements for People and Sound; additional credits include Hybrid #17 (The Kitchen), Suite for Suits (Ontological-Hysteric Theatre), and Plan B, a collaboration with CIE 111 that continues with More or Less, Infinity. His work has been presented by the Williamstown Theatre Festival and Mass MoCA, and he has received grant support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Newman’s Own, the Puffin Foundation and Rockefeller MAP Fund. He has been a guest artist at the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, American Conservatory Theatre, University of Texas at Austin and Theatre Garonne (France). Soltanoff is also the co-founder, with performance artist Hanne Tierney, of five myles, the Obie Award-winning performance/installation in Brooklyn, NY.

April 22-26 THE LIVING THEATRE Residency (performance on Sunday, April 26)
POLITICAL THEATER EVENT
This will be a performance which is being developed by a class in Political Theater offered by Carolyn Anderson
Students will work closely in a workshop with members of New York's famous LIVING THEATRE
Known for experimental and political theater,
THE LIVING THEATRE is also one of the oldest continually operating theater companies in the United States

WORKSHOPS PRODUCTIONS
The workshop program provides students with the opportunity to explore their interests in acting, directing and playwriting. Each semester, students develop theater projects in consultation with a faculty advisor, culminating with performances in the Rehearsal Studios. Workshops are generally in Studio A on the second floor of the JKB Theater at 8pm unless otherwise noted.