EgoPo Classic Theater

Last updated

EgoPo Classic Theater [1] is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit repertory theater specializing in performing "Classic Theater on the Edge," often producing works of a collaborative nature that incorporates original music, dance, and masks. It was founded in 1991 in San Francisco by Lane Savadove who remains the company's Artistic Director. EgoPo [2] has staged over two dozen productions and hundreds of performances in Philadelphia, New York, New Orleans, Chicago, Washington D.C., and internationally, in Indonesia and Croatia. A volunteer Board of Directors governs EgoPo. EgoPo is headquartered at 1219 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Contents

EgoPo’s History

EgoPo, whose name is derived from the French concept "The Physical-Self," was begun in San Francisco in 1991, as a theater company as well as an acting style. EgoPo moved operations to New Orleans in 2002, and built a new theatrical home, the Jewel Theater. The theater opened with a half-masked, expressionistic version of Frank Wedekind’s masterpiece, Spring Awakening (play) . The production experienced a six-week sold-out run and garnered many awards. Also notable was a production of Company (see Company by Samuel Beckett). [3]

On August 27, 2005, the EgoPo company arrived in Philadelphia to begin technical rehearsals for a production of The Maids x 2, a ground-breaking version of Jean Genet’s classic, The Maids . Three days later EgoPo became known as Philadelphia’s "stranded theater company." EgoPo lost its theater to Hurricane Katrina, most company members lost their homes, and their funding base was gone. [4] [5] [6]

An outpouring of financial and emotional support from the Philadelphia theater community, including The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, and the Arden Theater Co., enabled EgoPo to permanently relocate to Philadelphia. In February 2006, EgoPo staged The Maids x 2 Off Broadway at the Bouwerie Lane Theater.

In 2007, EgoPo began its new life as a Philadelphia company with a restaging of its Barrymore-nominated production of Spring Awakening at the Mainstage of the Adrienne Theater and restarted its professional conservatory.

Since that time, EgoPo has produced the Tennessee Williams’ Festival, and the Expressionism Festival, including the Burns’ Classic Reading Series, during which EgoPo united ten other Philadelphia-based theater companies for the yearlong event. The 2009-2010 season featured a yearlong Philadelphia Beckett Festival, including three mainstage performances and a dozen short Beckett plays presented at the Painted Bride Art Center.

Since their relocation to Philadelphia, EgoPo has become known for its themed seasons which allow for a much deeper audience engagement than normal artistic programming allows. For the 2010-11 season, EgoPo produced a year-long "Theater of Cruelty Festival", the first season investigating the theory and work of Antonin Artaud since Peter Brook produced a similar season with the Royal Shakespeare Festival in 1964. This season featured an interactive cabaret production of four world premier adaptations of Artaud's writing, as well as a version of Peter Weiss' Marat Sade in West Philly's historic Rotunda, and a world premier adaptation of Henri Barbusse's Hell (L'Enfer). For the 2011-12 season, EgoPo produced a year-long "Jewish Theater Festival" including an environmental production of Anne Frank, a world-premier version of the Golem, and the Philadelphia premier of Tony Kushner's Dybbuk. For audience engagement, EgoPo is holding public Passover Seders and presented the Auschwitz trial documentary The Investigation.

Awards

EgoPo's awards include: two Barrymore Nominations for Outstanding Sound Design/Original Music and Outstanding Music Director. "Best Production of 2000" in New York by Backstage, two Big Easy nominations, five Storer Boone nominations, one Ambie Award, nine Marquee Nominations, six Louisiana Theater Festival Awards, and two Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theater nominations.

EgoPo's renowned productions include a 72-hour performance in the Nevada Desert commissioned by the Desert Siteworks Project. [7] and a commission from National Public Radio to adapt Beckett's prose Company, which was broadcast nationally, then went on to a yearlong run in three cities, and was awarded "Best Play of 2000".[ citation needed ]

Recent notable productions are: Waiting for Godot , [8] [9] Endgame , [10] Company, Bluebird, [11] [12] Woyzeck , [13] and Spring Awakening . [14]

Related Research Articles

Woyzeck is a stage play written by Georg Büchner. Büchner wrote the play between July and October 1836, yet left it incomplete at his death in February 1837. The play first appeared in 1877 in a heavily edited version by Karl Emil Franzos, and was first performed at the Residence Theatre in Munich on 8 November 1913.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olney Theatre Center</span> Arts center in Olney, Maryland, United States

Located in Olney, Maryland, the Olney Theatre Center offers a diverse array of professional productions year-round that enrich, nurture, and challenge a broad range of artists, audiences and students. One of the two official state theaters of Maryland, Olney Theatre Center is situated on 14 acres (57,000 m2) in the middle of the Washington–Baltimore–Frederick "triangle." There are three indoor venues: the Historic Theatre, the Roberts Mainstage, and the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab. There is also an outdoor venue, the Root Family Stage at Omi’s Pavilion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ritz Theatre (Haddon Township, New Jersey)</span> Theater in Haddon Township, New Jersey, USA

The Ritz Theatre is a theater located in Haddon Township, New Jersey. The venue is owned and operated by The Ritz Theatre Company, a nonprofit organization. The theater was added to the New Jersey and National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrymore Awards</span>

The Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre is an annual, nationally-recognized award program that is sponsored by Theatre Philadelphia for professional theater productions in the Greater Philadelphia area. Each season culminates with an awards ceremony.

Black Swan State Theatre Company is Western Australia's state theatre company. It runs an annual subscription season in Perth at the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia, tours its productions regionally and interstate, and screens live broadcasts around the state. Black Swan's Artistic Director is Clare Watson; past artistic directors include Kate Cherry, Andrew Ross and Tom Gutteridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arden Theatre Company</span> Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US

The Arden Theatre Company is a professional regional theatre company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The company includes three theatres: the 175-seat Arcadia Stage and the 360-seat F. Otto Haas Stage, located in the main property at 40 N 2nd Street; and the 100-seat Bob and Selma Horan Studio Theater at the Hamilton Family Arts Center up the block at 62 N 2nd Street. In addition to the theater spaces, the two properties also house the Arden's administrative offices, production shops, rehearsal space, and classrooms for its educational programming through Arden Drama School.

Bruce Walsh is a contemporary American playwright and a prominent Philadelphia fringe artist. His works have received attention due to their unique brand of site-specific theater. In addition to theater, he is regular contributor to Metro a free city paper in Philadelphia.

Gideon Glick is an American actor. His Broadway work includes originating the roles of Ernst in the musical Spring Awakening, Jimmy-6 in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Jordan Berman in Significant Other, and Dill Harris in Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he was nominated for the 2019 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Ansill</span> Celtic musician

Jay Ansill is a composer and folk musician, known primarily as a Celtic harpist and fiddler. Ansill has released several solo albums including Origami, A Lost World, and three privately released tributes to The Incredible String Band. Ansill has worked as a collaborator with Robin Williamson, Tony Trischka, Maria del Mar Bonet, Anthony Green Rodney Anonymous, Marah, and Honeychurch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hedgerow Theatre</span>

Hedgerow Theatre is a theatre company based in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, founded in 1923. It was "for many years the only true U. S. professional repertory theater." The building is a contributing structure in the Rose Valley Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jennie Elizabeth Eisenhower is an American actress, director, and realtor. She has performed in Off-Broadway theater productions and in regional theatre, being nominated for seven Barrymore Awards and winning two of them. She has played minor roles in several feature films. She is a great-granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower and granddaughter of Richard Nixon, both presidents of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilma Theater (Philadelphia)</span>

The Wilma Theater is a non-profit theater company located at 265 S. Broad Street at the corner of Spruce Street in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City, Philadelphia. The company's current 296-seat theater opened in 1996 and was designed by Hugh Hardy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philly Improv Theater</span> Comedy theater group in Pennsylvania

Philly Improv Theater, or PHIT, is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania comedy theater which formerly presented shows at The Adrienne Theatre in Center City Philadelphia. The theater currently operates a training center with programs in improv comedy, sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. PHIT's most notable alumnus is stand-up comedian Kent Haines, who was the 2008 winner of the Philly's Phunniest contest at Helium Comedy Club and has appeared on public radio show The Sound of Young America and Season 4 of Comedy Central's program Live at Gotham. In addition to Haines, other comedians from Philadelphia who appeared on stage at PHIT have gone on to perform at major comedy venues in cities like New York and Los Angeles, founded their own theatre companies, and appeared in touring productions for The Second City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Shiomi</span> Japanese-Canadian playwright, stage director, artistic director and taiko artist

Rick Shiomi is an internationally recognized, award-winning Japanese Canadian playwright, stage director, artistic director and taiko artist, and a major player in the Asian American/Canadian theatre movement. He is best known for his groundbreaking play Yellow Fever, which earned him the Bay Area Theater Circle Critics Award and “Bernie” Award. Over the last couple decades, Shiomi has also become a notable artistic and stage director. He directed the world premiere of the play Caught by Christopher Chen for which he received the Philadelphia Barrymore Award Nomination for Outstanding Direction. He is currently the Co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theater Company.

The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) was an Off-Broadway theatre company founded in 1992 by a group of New York stage veterans. For several years, TACT produced many concert performances, a cross between a staged reading and a full production. In 2006, TACT began a residency at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row to produce two full plays a year. TACT focused on reviving lesser-known productions that have not been performed in New York for several years. According to their website, their mission statement was "to present neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit, with a focus on creating theatre from its essence: the text and the actor's ability to bring it to life."

Anne Kauffman is an American director known primarily for her work on new plays, mainly in the New York area. She is a founding member of the theater group the Civilians. She made her Broadway debut with the Scott McPherson play Marvin's Room (2017) and returned with the revival of the Lorraine Hansberry play The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (2023) and Mary Jane (2024).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj</span>

Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj is an Indo-Afro-Caribbean American theater director, playwright, producer and activist. He holds an associate degree in Criminal Justice from St. John's University, a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts from St. John's University, and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatrical Directing from Brooklyn College. He is currently the Associate Artistic Producer of Milwaukee Repertory Theater. He started Rebel Theater Company in 2003 in New York City, and served as Producing Artistic Director. He is the former Artistic Director of New Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia. He is the Third Vice President for the Brooklyn Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He is the Chair of the Equity in the Arts and Culture Committee for the NAACP Brooklyn Branch.

Landmark Productions is a theatre production company in Dublin, Ireland. Established in 2003 by Anne Clarke, Landmark produces plays in Ireland and tours Irish work abroad. The company has an association with several Irish writers including Enda Walsh and Paul Howard, the creator of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly. Recent award-winning productions include Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk and Arlington, Conall Morrison’s Woyzeck in Winter and the Donnacha Dennehy/Enda Walsh operas The Last Hotel and The Second Violinist.

Woyzeck is a 2000 musical with music and lyrics by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, and book by Robert Wilson, based on the unfinished play Woyzeck by German playwright Georg Büchner. It is Waits, Brennan and Wilson's third collaboration, after the 1990 musical The Black Rider and the 1992 musical Alice. Waits recorded many of the songs from Woyzeck for his 2002 album Blood Money, which was released alongside Alice, his recording of songs from the musical Alice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Robson (playwright)</span> American playwright and educator

David Robson is an American playwright and educator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has written more than thirty plays, including Playing the Assassin, After Birth of a Nation, Blues in My Soul, Without Consent, Killing Neil LaBute, and Man Measures Man, and more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from social justice to history to mythology. Robson is a professor of English at Delaware County Community College. He is married to actress and photographer Sonja Robson and is currently based in Wilmington, Delaware.

References

  1. ↑ "EgoPo Classic Theater : Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia". Theatrealliance.org. Archived from the original on 2013-01-17. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  2. ↑ "EgoPo Classic Theatre | Edgy. Innovative. Inspiring". Egopo.org. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  3. ↑ Salamensky, S. I. (2003). "Dramaturgies of the Skin: Beckett’s Company in Post-Beckettian Production". Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 13(2), 123-131.
  4. ↑ "The big uneasy: Impact of hurricane Katrina on theaters in New Orleans". American Theatre. 1 November 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  5. ↑ "For New Orleans troupe in Phila., show will go on, but after that . . . For now, troupe's show will go on". Philadelphia Inquirer. 1 September 2005. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "Welcome to Our Theater Gateway!". TotalTheater.com. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  7. ↑ Whiting, Sam (1995-02-04). "Entering Beckett's Dark Frame of Mind / Blindfolds help EgoPo audience". sfgate.com. Retrieved 2018-10-20.
  8. ↑ "The Philadelphia Inquirer Digital Edition". Philly.com. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  9. ↑ "Beckett's 'Waiting For Godot,' by EgoPo". Broad Street Review. 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  10. ↑ "Beckett's 'Endgame' by EgoPo (3rd review)". Broad Street Review. 2009-11-17. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  11. ↑ Hope, Erica (24 April 2009). "'Bluebird' promises to deliver hit". The Triangle. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  12. ↑ "EgoPo's 'Bluebird' (2nd review)". Broad Street Review. 2009-05-14. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  13. ↑ "Fringe reviews: Woyzeck, The Show Must Go On, Louder, The Lost Book of Miriam". Philly.com. 2008-09-12. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
  14. ↑ Zinman, Toby (2007-03-12). "Variety Reviews - Spring Awakening - Legit Reviews - Regional - Review by Toby Zinman". Variety. Retrieved 2012-09-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.