10th Anniversary Summer 2007

This year marks NACL's 10th anniversary!

Founders Brad Krumholz and Tannis Kowalchuk started NACL (North American Cultural Laboratory) in New York City in 1997 at La MaMa ETC. In 2000, NACL took possession of an amazing theatre complex in Highland Lake, NY and began to produce The NACL Catskill Festival of New Theatre. The festival, an international celebration of experimental, devised, and ensemble theatre became an annual event very quickly thanks to support from NYSCA, the NEA, and our excellent Sullivan County and Delaware Valley audiences. Since February 2006 the company has operated year round at NACL’s work center, a large church-turned-theatre and next door to it, an artists residence in what was once an old summer boarding house affectionately known as Lakewood House. NACL has created 9 full performances since 1997. We have toured North America extensively as teachers and performers. We have toured Europe. This year NACL is celebrating a decade of work in original theatre creation, as actors, as teachers of performer training, as producers, as cooks, and as hosts whose mission it is to bring together artists and their work in a beautiful location and supportive community.

Our Summer Season 2007 features a variety of NACL productions. We hope to share our production history with our audiences, friends, and colleagues in North America.

Here is the SUMMER SCHEDULE:

July 13 and 14, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM
10 BRECHT POEMS (2003)
This successful performances will return to NACL after over 40 engagements in venues that have included The Goethe Institute in Washington DC, the Brecht Forum in New York City, Theatre Building Chicago, PS 122, Austin Arts Center, Maryland Ensemble Theatre, Rutgers University, NYU, SUNY schools, Brown University. The performance is a delightful collaboration between NACL’s Tannis Kowalchuk and Leese Walker of Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble. The two women began to create the performance—a vaudevillian presentation of poems by the great German playwright Bertolt Brecht in 2001 and finally premiered it at The Brecht Forum in NYC in 2003. The performance is filled with songs, epic theatrical moments, show tunes, and some hard line anti-war sentiment contained in the excellent poetry of Brecht. The words were written over 60 years ago, but it remains relevant still today. The Village Voice says: Tannis Kowalchuk and Leese Walker could be serving fairy tales to the kiddies, but their intent is far more poignant and appreciated. This is a performance for ages 10 and up. Tickets are $15 and $10 for students and seniors.

July 21, Saturday
at Sullivan County Community College at 8 PM
July 27 and 28 at NACL Theatre at 8 PM
THE CONFESSIONS OF PUNCH AND JUDY (2004)
Created and performed by Tannis Kowalchuk and Ker Wells and directed by Raymond Bobgan of Cleveland Public Theatre, The Confessions of Punch and Judy is a wild all-night argument that captures the anarchic spirit of the classic Punch and Judy puppet show. Slaptsick, stylish, viciously honest, and full of surprises, the show is performed by two virtuoso performers who leap between realism and surrealism, exposing the horror and beauty of a long-term relationship. Voted best of 2005 by Theatremania NYC, the performance has played in New York City, Cleveland, Toronto, Halifax, New Orleans, Winnipeg, Northern California, and New Hampshire. Tickets are $15/$10.

August 10, Friday at 8 PM
ROMEO AND JULIET - A Youth Drama Presentation
Under the direction of NACL, local teens will perform an original and contemporary re-telling of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. This is a public presentation that is the culmination of a week-long summer theatre workshop for teens (call 845-557-0694 to register). The performance will feature original music and text written and performed by area students in an exciting adaptation of the Shakespearean classic. Donations will be accepted at the door.

 

August 14, Tuesday at Sullivan County Community College at 10:30 AM
THE TIME CYCLE - Children's Theatre (2001)
An ordinary science-class lecture is interrupted by the appearance of Grace Faluta, a time traveler from the year 2207. Grace has set out on a trip into the future, but it seems that her time machine will only go in reverse, and it has brought her to the year 2007. Grace decides she needs to fix her machine, and so she goes back in time to get assistance from Albert Einstein, Leonardo DaVinci, and a famous medieval alchemist named Terra Incognita. NACL mixes science, art, historical facts, and world music to tell an adventurous tale about the power of knowledge, imagination, and belief. NACL brings an intelligent and delightful theatre experience to children and youth. Call 845-434-5750, ext 4292 for reservations.

August 17 and 18, Friday and Saturday at 8 PM
THE PASSION ACCORDING TO G.H. (1998)
A solo performance featuring Tannis Kowalchuk who portrays G.H., a woman whose normally uneventful life is turned upside down by the discovery of an enormous cockroach in her home. The performance is directed by Brad Krumholz who also adapted the novel The Passion according to G.H., by the Brazilian author Clarice Lispector. The Village Voice writes: Kowalchuk’s beautiful performance makes the evening a delight. She simply glows as a woman whose ordinary life turns on its head when she discovers a cockroach in her home. Kowalchuk has one of those rare qualities only good Beckettian actors have: she manages to wrench meaning and drive spectators to metaphysical flights out of the most quotidian matters. The performance was developed in 1998 while the company was in residence at La MaMa in New York City. The show premiered October 1998 in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Loon Tree Festival and has since played at Access Theatre and House of Candles in New York City, at The Brazilian Cultural Institute in Washington, DC, The University of Sciences in Philadelphia, Rutgers University, University of Toronto, The Catskill Festival of New Theatre; the Network of Ensemble Theatre conference in Maine, The National Theatre School in Montreal, at theatres in Winnipeg, Halifax, Toronto, and most recently at Pilgrim Theatre in Boston.  Tickets are $15/$10.