THE HUNGER ARTISTS
THEATRE COMPANY’S
10th ANNIVERSARY SEASON CONTINUES WITH
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
Jason Lindner’s The Pledge Drive:
Ruminations on The Hunger
Artist
May 12-June 4, 2006
FULLERTON,
CA – The Hunger Artists Theatre Company
proudly presents the world premiere of Jason Lindner’s The Pledge Drive: Ruminations on The Hunger Artist,
directed by Shannon C.M. Flynn May 12-June 4, 2006.
Specially commissioned for The Hunger Artists Theatre Company’s 10th Anniversary
Season, The Pledge Drive is a radical
reconsideration of the Franz Kafka masterpiece from which the company derives its name. It
marks the third collaboration between Flynn and her fellow Yale School of Drama alumnus
Lindner, author of the award-winning The Gog/Magog
Project.
Lindner’s hilarious
and surreal work features an all-star ensemble including Katie Chidester, Mark Coyan,
Kelly Flynn, Jeremy Gable, Scott Keister, Darcy Lythgoe, Kimberly K. Mitchell, Mary Anne
Mosher, Tracy Mutz and Amber Scott.
Joy Bice designs lights
for The Pledge Drive. Jill Johnson designs
sound. Margaret McGurr designs costumes. Set design is by Erik Furuheim. Brey Barrett is
the production’s assistant director and Jessica Lynch serves as production stage
manager.
Performances for The Pledge Drive: Ruminations on The Hunger Artist
will take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 7 pm. There will be a special
Monday evening performance on May 22, 2006 at 8 pm, and a Pay What You Will Preview on Thursday, May 11 at 8
pm.
General admission tickets for The
Pledge Drive: Ruminations on The Hunger Artist are $18; senior and students (with
valid ID) may purchase tickets for $15. To
reserve tickets, please call 714-680-6803. Tickets may also be reserved online by emailing
hungerartists@yahoo.com .
Originally published in 1992, Kafka’s “A
Hunger Artist” (also translated as “A Fasting Artist”) tells the story of a
man famous for his acts of public fasting, often for as long as forty days at a time. Even
at the height of his career, the hunger artist is unsatisfied with his work and frustrated
by both his manager and his audiences, who never fully appreciate his true talent or the
purity of his ‘‘art.’’ As the years go by, the hunger artist’s
profession goes out of vogue, audiences move on to newer trends in mass entertainment and
his cage at a run down circus is eventually used to house a panther, which draws admiring crowds who watch it eat large pieces
of meat.
“We are very excited to
be presenting this new adaptation of ‘A Hunger Artist’ for our 10th
Anniversary season,” says Flynn. “Jason uses Kafka’s story as a launching
pad for a remarkable exploration of ideas and phenomena as varied as media saturation,
celebreality and intuitional begging to ponder the question, ‘What makes a hunger
artist?’”
Classmates at the prestigious
Yale School of Drama, Flynn and Lindner previously collaborated on a world premiere
adaptation of Kafka’s masterpiece The Trial,
as well as the world premiere productions of Lindner’s The Gog/Magog Project and The Half-Life of Memory.
After graduating from YSD,
Flynn has gone on to a career in television direction, as well as directing critically
acclaimed, award-winning productions of Sweeney Todd,
Assassins, Othello and Hedwig
and the Angry Inch for The Hunger Artists. Lindner recently completed a stage
adaptation of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s hallucinatory Journey
to the End of the Night, commissioned by the Public Theater in New York. He has also created a world premiere adaptation of Frankenstein for the critically lauded avant garde
company The Flying Machine that debuted in New York
and has toured throughout the US. His plays The
Gog/Magog Project and Egyptian Rat Screw
have previously been produced Off-Off Broadway.
For more
information about The Pledge Drive: Ruminations on
The Hunger Artist or the 10th Anniversary Season, please visit www.hungersartists.com
. Programming, dates and times are subject to change.
FACT SHEET
The Hunger Artists Theatre Company presents The Pledge
Drive:
Ruminations
on The Hunger Artist
By Jason Lindner
Directed by Shannon C.M. Flynn
May 12-June 4
CAST
Scott
Keister ……………The Hunger Artist
Katie Chidester ……….. Colia
Mark Coyan …………… Rik
Tracy Mutz ……………. Bella
Amber Scott …………… Kelvin
Kelly Flynn ……………. Keilor
Darcy Lythgoe ………… Figgs
Jeremy Gable ………….. JB
Kimberley K. Mitchell .... Sipple
Mary Anne Mosher ……. Denise
DATES
Starting May 12
Special PAY-WHAT-YOU-WILL PREVIEW on Thursday May 11
Monday night show, May 22 at 8pm
TIMES
Fridays, Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 7 pm
WHERE
The Hunger Artists Theatre Company
699-A South State College Boulevard, Fullerton, CA 92831
located between Orangethorpe and Commonwealth, just
off the 91 freeway
TICKETS
$18 general admission, $15 for seniors/students with ID.
PHONE
714.680.6803
WEBSITE
www.hungerartists.com
PARKING
Free
ADVISABLE
CONTENT
Adult language, disturbing imagery and themes.
THE PLEDGE DRIVE:
