Burning Coal Theatre Company Presents POLITHEATRICS FESTIVAL 2012, 6/28-7/8

A festival of devised work centering on the loose theme of politics from across the southeastern United States and beyond, June 28 – July 8, 2012 at Burning Coal Theatre Company's Murphey School Auditorium, 224 Polk Street, Raleigh, NC.

Performers include:

1. Urban Garden Performing Arts is local to Raleigh and dedicated to cross-pollinating arts audiences and practitioners. Since 2004 Urban Garden has produced 12 original live arts events in Indianapolis, IN, London, UK and Raleigh, NC. They are planning their first full scale season in the Triangle for the coming year. Featuring live music and original songs by the band, Bevel Summers.

Title - Mark Twain's Joan of Arc
Description - Twain meets True Grit in France. With dancing.
Performances – Thursday, June 28th at 8:30 pm, Saturday, June 30th at 4 pm, Sunday, July 1 at 8:30 pm, Sunday, July 8th at 8:30 pm

2. Awkward Elephant Project aims to present cutting-edge theatre and original ensemble work relevant and applicable for the progressive, adventurous audience. Founded by Alex Tobey, our work often explores taboo and controversial topics difficult to explore and receive, but always prompting a necessary dialogue with the self, the audience, and the artists. Awkward Elephant Project premiered as Necessary Dialogue in 2010 with columbinus, and will produce Daniel Talbott's Slipping in December.

Title – Blackout
Description - When the House of Representatives announced they were postponing plans to draft the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in January, many ???????? the death of what they considered censorship and a ????????? of First Amendment rights. Blackout explores the ??????? ????? and ??????? of censorship and the ??????????? it serves. Devised using an ensemble of Carnegie Mellon actors, the world premiere of Blackout has ????? and ????? for ?????????. ?? ?? very ?????? ??? ??? entertaining ?????!

Performances – Friday, June 29th at 7:30 pm, Saturday, June 30th at 9 pm, Sunday, July 1st at 7:30 pm, Saturday, July 7th at 8:30 pm

3. force/collision is an interdisciplinary contingent of artists/collaborators whose mission is the creation of new performance works. Based in Washington, D.C., force/collision was created by theatre director John Moletress for the purpose of bringing together artists of mixed disciplines in order to spark dialogue and create space for the presentation of new work. The force/collision ensemble is John Moletress, Sue Jin Song, Collin Ranney, Karin Rosnizeck, Daniel Paul Lawson, Frank Britton, Ilana Faye Silverstein and Dane Figueroa Edidi. Associate artists include Erik Ehn and Erica Rebollar/Rebollar Dance. 

Title – Shape by Erik Ehn.

Description - 1900 Ambrose Park, Brooklyn witnessed a vast spectacle of vaudeville dances, variety acts, folklore and songs with a cast of 500 African-Americans in the show Black America. In 1921, the Tulsa Race Riot destroyed the African-American community of Greenwood leaving close to 300 dead. Based loosely on the biographies of African-American vaudevillians Billy and Cordelia McClain, Shape concerns the life and labors of vaudevillian fairies exploited for their historical songs and dances, used by the dominant culture and abandoned at times of great need. force/collision will create a devised work which concerns the historical record of early 20th century African-American performance with text by associate artist Erik Ehn.

Performances – Thursday, July 5th at 7:30 pm, Friday, July 6th at 8:30 pm, Saturday, July 7th at 7:30 pm, Sunday, July 8th at 4 pm.

4. Neutral Ground Ensemble, based in New Orleans, is made up of young artists with big hearts and bigger courage. Our artistic vision is one that will tirelessly seek for the truth in us and in art as performance. In order to further our search we will not rely on what has worked in the past or attempt to recreate what audiences have enjoyed. Instead we will look for a new path in every single piece no matter the material and ask ourselves what is important to us and to the piece. In order to create original art we believe that we must face new challenges in process as well as material.

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