AT BLACK LAKE
By Dea Loher - Translated by Daniel Brunet
Directed by Ashley Tata
Presented by Tank and *Necessary Digression July 20-25, 2019
ABOUT THE PLAY
It’s been four years since that night. Else and Johnny reunite with Cleo and Eddie at Black Lake. But when innocent assumptions become scalding questions, and every recollection a wounding taunt, that promises a hidden clue, they wrestle with just how little they know about their children. Dea Loher weaves an eerie tale of uncertainty and distortion through small gestures of everyday life, the cost of relationships and the variability of memory.
DIRECTOR
ASHLEY TATA
Director
Ashley is a director and designer of multi-media works of theater, contemporary opera, performance, live music and immersive experiences. Her work frequently sits at the intersection of music, installation and performance and has been presented in venues and festivals throughout the U.S. and internationally including LA Opera, AustinOpera, The Miller Theater, Mass MoCA, National Sawdust, The Kitchen, EMPAC, BPAC,Dixon Place, Roulette Intermedium, HERE Arts Center, PROTOTYPE Festival, The Crossing, The Line Festival, the Holland Festival, The Big Ears Festival, The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, and the Bard Fisher Center
CAST
HEATHER BENTON*
Heather is an actress and theatre maker who has performed internationally (Russia, Italy), nationally (two U.S. tours), in regional theatre, and downtown NYC theatre over the past eighteen years. Former company member of East River Commedia, collaborator with Theatre Trouve and Blessed Unrest, her work has been seen at P.S. 122, Collective: Unconscious, The Clemente, The Nuyorican in NYC and American Repertory Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, Montana Repertory Theatre, Sierra Repertory Theatre, Village Theatre, North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Luna Stage etc. MFA in Acting from ART/MXAT, member of Actor’s Equity and the Stage Directors and Choreographers’ Society.
CHRIS J. CANCEL-POMALES
Chris is a designer/performer born in Puerto Rico and resident in Brooklyn, NY. Studied Stage Design and Technical Theater at CUNY Brooklyn College, he’s currently INTAR's Production Manager/Technical Director and member of Casa Cruz de la Luna since 2007. Constantly collaborating with groups like Cloud of Fools, One-Eighth Theater, M34, Pregones/PRTT, Caborca, Walk Up Arts, Drama of Works, among others. Recent works include Aravind Adyanthaya’s The Story of the Woman of the Sea, Hagiografias & The Marquis de Sade is Afraid of the Sea(Casa Cruz de la Luna), Daniel Irizarry’s The Maids and Madman and the Nun(One-Eighth), Europa, All that Dies and Rises & Dark Eyes (Cloud of Fools).
DARRELL STOKES*
In New York, Darrell has performed in Body: Anatomies of Being; Eurydice’s Dream; The Storm; Machinal; Nick; Burn, Crave, Hold; All’s Well That Ends Well; Lying; and Life is a Dream (Blessed Unrest). Chicago: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Timon of Athens, and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Gross Indecency, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Cherry Orchard, and An Ideal Husband (Court Theatre). Other regional: The Midnight Circus, Life in the Trees, Charlotte Cushman, The Blue Hour, Spoon River Anthology, The Actor’s Nightmare. Darrell studied at Wayne State University and Northern Illinois University.
APRIL SWEENEY*
April is an actress and theater maker who has performed internationally in theaters and festivals in Europe (Belgium, France, Hungary) and Latin America (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica). In the U.S. she has performed in regional theater, a national tour, off-Broadway and downtown NYC theater over the past fifteen years. Recent performance projects include collaborations with the Argentine interdisciplinary performance artist Matías Umpierrez (Distancia and LONEtheater). Her work has been seen at P.S. 122, The Kitchen, Under the Radar, La Mama etc, BOOM Arts, Arkansas Repertory Theater, Montana Repertory Theater, Syracuse Stage, Dixon Place. MFA in Acting from Columbia University, member of Actor’s Equity and the Stage Directors and Choreographers’ Society.
* appears courtesy of Actors Equity Association
CREATIVES
HUNTER GAUSE
Assistant Director
Hunter is a director whose body of work stretches across a variety of forms including new and classical plays; dance; art installation. His work has been seen at Dixon Place, Danspace Project, Allouche Gallery, Hangar Theatre Studio, Stella Adler Outreach, and New York City Department of Correction. As Assistant Director, Hunter has worked on three workshops of new plays and musicals at New York Theatre Workshop. He is a Play Company Literary Wing Reader. Hunter is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, continued his education by working with The Wooster Group and The Play Company. This summer he will attend the La MaMa Umbria International Director’s Symposium.
CORY LARSON
Sound/Music
Cory is a composer, musician and visual artist based out of New Jersey and originally from North Dakota. Over the past twenty years he has released several albums of original music (Portrait of Observation, Residence Called Destruction, Silhouette of Noise, Tribute to Chris Whitley’s Dirt Floor) as well as multiple recording projects with (Electric Ottoman, Pale Figures and Silhouette of Noise). As a visual artist, his recent work is comprised of a large body of ink drawings based on distortions of the human form. He is interested in the intersection of drawings, storytelling, music and sound. Two years as a BA in music theory at the University of North Dakota, BFA in painting/ drawing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
CELINA REVOLLAR
Stage Manager
Celina is a senior at Montclair State University, majoring in Theatre Production and Design with a concentration in Stage Management. Throughout the past few years Celina has worked as a stage manager on shows such as Twelfth Night, Mad Forest, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Dance Collage 2019 at Montclair State. In addition to stage management she has also worked as a choreographer and makeup designer on shows such as Hairspray Junior, High School Musical Junior, and Legally Blonde Junior with the Belleville Middle School Theatre Arts Company. Last summer she also worked on musical revues of Dear Evan Hansen and Anastasia as a Production Assistant under the direction of Elisa Heinsohn.
KRISTA SMITH
Lighting/Environment
Krista is a New York based theater and visual artist. Recent credits include: Good Person of Setzuan (Atlantic Theater Company), Machinal (Lee Strasberg Institute), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Williams College), A Doll’s House, Pt3 (Exponential Festival), Twin Size Beds (Under the Radar Festival), This American Wife (New York Theater Workshop Next Door), Doll’s House Pt3 (Ars Nova), An Enemy of The People (Yale Repertory Theater). Regional: The Marriage of Figaro (Cinnabar Theater); The Great Tragedies by Mike Daisey (California Shakespeare Theater); A Doll’s House, The Wild Party, Flu Season, and Sueño(A.C.T. Conservatory). MFA Yale School of Drama. www.KristaSmithLD.com
RUBY VADIVELOO
Associate Producer
Ruby is an Australian actor and director based in New York City. Recent New York theatre includes: Deadly Humor (Off-Broadway, NY premiere), Holy Day (NY premiere), Love and Information, The Polar Express, Rabbit Hole, Twelfth Night. Film/TV: Outbreak, Opera of Cruelty, Hackerland, Trimester 24, Sacred Ground, Optus ASOC (commercial). Ruby is honoured to be involved in this production.