Ploys for Ensemble Glitz and Crisis Actors

(2019)

Ploys for Ensemble Glitz and Crisis Actors finds something sinister buried between The Theatre and The Theater. The audience sits in the back row of a theater full of empty seats with nametags on them. Two performers use scrambled theatrical acting, text-based improvisation, and real-time conspiratorial thinking to celebrate the mental gymnastics of everyday life. Ploys takes a keen, empirical interest in the obvious truth!

Read Jay Gabler’s (City Pages) review of the Minnesota Fringe production here.

Premiered May 2019

Presented at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, The Southern Theater (Minneapolis, MN), and North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)

Created by Eric Larson

Collaborative Conspirators: Charles Campbell, Ed Euclide, Emily Gastineau, Sam Johnson, Meena Mangalvedhekar, David Melendez, and Noah Savoie

Developmental Performer: Neva Dalager

Performed by Kenzi Allen and David Melendez

Producers: Jo Kellen (HOTB), and Ryan Bockenhauer (The Southern Theater)

​Work-in-progress showings of Ploys… were performed in LALA Fest 2018 at Hair + Nails Contemporary Art Gallery, and at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre.

Two performers, one in a grey dress and one in everyday pants and button-down, stand on an empty stage. Six rubber halloween masks sit on the edge of the stage. The performers look like they're searching for something.
A performer, in a grey dress and wearing a halloween mask with an exposed brain and long tongue, moves through the empty blue audience seats of a theatre. Another performer in everyday clothing stands behind her on a platform, reading out loud from a
A performer in a grey dress stands in the audience seats of an empty theatre. She wears a halloween mask that looks like a horned demon. Her arms are outspread and searching for something.
A performer in a grey dress stands onstage on a plastic sheet. A rubber halloween mask is on the ground. The performer is standing on one leg with her head back, reaching towards the ceiling.
A performer in a grey dress is laying on a plastic sheet onstage. A rubber witch mask lays in front of her. There is motion blur and it looks as if the performer is turning or rolling around.
A performer in a button down and jeans stands in the audience of a theatre, looking towards the stage. He is gesturing intensely and talking.

Photo credits: Zoe Cinel (top three in slideshow), Ryan Bockenhauer (bottom three and top).