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Also this issue: History Repeating First Friday Focus Sometimes It's Hard to Be a Nazi Let's Talk About Sex Take Two By The Book |
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January 2- 8, 2003
artpicks
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As the new year begins, a new theater company presents a new play. Whew. The Bula Rasa Project is made up of three local performers and a designer: Doug Durlacher, a Philly native who has acted with companies all over the U.S.; Sarah Gallagher, who teaches storytelling and theater at Lower Merion High School and the Philadelphia Young Playwrights' Festival; Tim Gallagher (Sarah's husband), an actor and an adjunct professor at Montgomery County Community College; and Michael A. Ranney, a scenic designer who worked in Santa Fe and Santa Barbara before coming to Philadelphia.
The foursome, longtime friends, got together to read Sarah's play, Crown Thy Good, a dark comedy focusing on the struggle between the public and the government. After the reading they decided they wanted to produce it. Thus, a company was born. Durlacher says the group isn't sure what its next step will be after Good, but that he knows the idea of ensemble is central to the way that we want to approach anything. Durlacher says Bula Rasa is also interested in the dialogue between audience and performer. The group has invited what Durlacher describes as non-theater-going friends to their rehearsals to offer feedback. One conversation resulted in the entire opening of the show being changed. Says Durlacher, We were elated to have learned something from them that [didn't] just affect our performance, but really changed what we will do on stage.
Crown Thy Good, Jan. 3-11, $8-$10, Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5, Ninth and Walnut sts., 610-284-6055.
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