For Immediate
Release:
Perihelion Theater
Company and Productions presents
THE SPIRIT OF FRANCES WRIGHT
(Love is an Action Verb)
written and
directed by Karyn Traut
Featuring Dylan Guy
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AFTER (nearly) 200 YEARS FRANCES
WRIGHT RETURNS TO SCOTLAND! Once here she takes you on a journey back to Tennessee and the mid
1920’s where she confronts the audience as if on a fund raising trip for her
beloved commune, Nashoba. Describing
her upbringing and ideals that led her to creating the commune where slaves
could work to earn money to free themselves, women could experience love
without giving up their rights of property and freedom to a husband, where
blacks and whites could co-mingle and produce children whose skin, according to
Frances, would be more suited to the blistering Tennessee sunshine, she reveals
her unexpected confrontations, successes and failures. All at Nashoba were expected to work the land
to feed the group. Ride sidesaddle while
clearing trees? Not for her. She doffed the billowing mounds of fabric
skirts and petticoats in order to ride astride, and… cropped her hair. Such ‘manly’ couture created nearly as much
outrage as her wearing of --what today
would look more like harem --trousers.
Has she acquired an American accent? We think so.
Gifted as a linguist who spoke both French and Italian, she apparently
had no trouble adapting to the rustic American tongue. Her shocking activities
never ceased. She wrote a play, Altorf,
actually signing her name to it. By itself such signature created a stir but
when the play was performed with an affianced couple’s kiss—it was too hot for
the 19th century. Late in
life, Fanny, as she was known, took on workers’ rights. Was there anything she missed? Why doesn’t everyone know about her? Perhaps she was too hot to handle. Come find out.
Influenced by Pirandello, Strindberg, and American
playwright, Megan Terry (who was herself influenced by Gertrude Stein) Karyn Traut brings
Frances Wright from 1820 into the present. Perihelion continues with its
tradition of hosting discussions about the content of the play after each
performance AND rehearsing on skype
-- possibly the first theater company on earth to do so. In 2011 Brian Wescott was in Fairbanks, Alaska during
one rehearsal while actress, Anoo Tree Brod and director, Karyn Traut were in
Chapel Hill North, Carolina.
This year actress Dylan Guy is in New York City
while Karyn Traut is in Chapel Hill, where
Perihelion is based. Dubbed ‘Home of the
Healing Play” by Spectator Magazine (of the Research Triangle of North
Carolina) in 1998, Perihelion Theater Company, was incorporated in 1989 as an
American 501c3 tax exempt corporation.
We are delighted to be returning to the fringe and Sweet
Venues where our 2011 production of THE REALM OF LOVE OR FOLDING LAUNDRY
garnered 4 stars: “Enlivening, inspiring and immensely thought provoking.” http://www.theatreguidelondon.co.uk/reviews/edinburgh2011-2.htm
Venue 18 – Sweet International 4
Dates: 3rd-17th, 19th-24th, 26th-27th
August
Time: 13.10 – 14.00 (includes 10 min
Discussion after
the show)
Cost: Aug
3:
Box Office Tel no: 0131 243 3596 (Active from 1st
August)
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Contact:
Karyn Traut email: Ktraut@nc.rr.com
Tom
Traut email: Traut@nc.rr.com
Press
contact for Sweet Venues- Lynne Campbell
Email:
lynne@sweetvenues.co.uk
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