Prof. Natsu Onoda Power Adapts and Directs Sci-Fi Classic The Lathe of Heaven in new partnership with Spooky Action Theater
Part of Women’s Voices Theater Festival, a co-production of Spooky Action Theater and Georgetown University
Spooky Action Theater and the Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program present The Lathe of Heaven, based on the 1971 award winning science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, as part of Washington’s 2018 Women’s Voices Theater Festival. Adapted and directed by Natsu Onoda Power, Associate Professor of Theater and Performance Studies and Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown University, the production features a blended cast of Washington professionals and GU student actors. The production previews for one weekend at Georgetown (Jan. 25-27, 2018), followed by a four week run at Spooky Action Theater (Feb. 15 –March 11, 2018).
Author Ursula K Le Guin has received a host of awards for her work, including Hugo, Nebula and National Book Awards, PEN-Malamud, and the National Book Foundation Medal. Her recently published book “No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters” is a set of engaging personal essays that has won over a wide range of readers.
The Boston Globe calls the work of “singular playwright-director” Natsu Onoda Power “bracingly original and head-spinning,” and The Washington Post applauds her style as “breathtakingly imaginative, eye-delighting.”
Onoda Power’s projects as director have been seen in the Washington region at Studio Theatre, Mosaic Theater, Theatre J and Center Stage Baltimore, in addition to many productions at Georgetown University. Spooky Action Artistic Director Richard Henrich is excited by Onoda Power’s “unique style, which includes hands-on contributions in set, props and puppetry design in addition to directorial oversight. Natsu brings a thoroughly integrated artistic vision to a complex, highly imaginative story.”
The Lathe of Heaven takes place in a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophe, in which George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams, over which he has no control, effectively alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a dream psychologist who immediately grasps the potential power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself, as Dr. Haber warms to the task of manipulating George’s dreams to transform the world.
Director Onoda Power says, “The book is deeply resonant now, when all of our nightmares are becoming reality, every day. Though written over forty years ago, the fundamental hopes and fears of the characters land right on target. Working on this project is a great opportunity for us to explore how the past imagined the ‘future’ – and how that future is our present today.”
The Cast is led by veteran Washington actors Matthew Marcus, Erica Chamblee and Matthew Vaky, supported by an ensemble of Georgetown University theater students, including Mark Camilli (COL ’19), Vanessa Chapoy (COL ‘18), Jonathan Compo (NHS ‘20), Michaela Farrell (COL ‘18), Kate Ginna (COL ‘18), Maddy Rice (COL ‘20), and alumnus Adrian Iglesias (COL ‘14).
The Lathe of Heaven Production Team includes Lighting Designer Adam Bacigalupo (COL ‘16), Sound Designer Roc Lee, Costume Designer Debra Kim Sivigny, Props Designer Caolan Overman Eder (COL ’18) and Projection Designer Danny Carr.
The Lathe of Heaven
Adapted and Directed by Natsu Onoda Power
Based on the novel by Ursula K. Le Guin
GEORGETOWN RUN (PREVIEWS)
Showtimes:
Thursday and Friday, January 25 and 26 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, January 27 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Location:
Davis Performing Arts Center, Devine Studio Theatre
Located on Georgetown University’s main campus at 37th and O Streets, NW in Washington, DC 20057.
Tickets:
FRIDAY/SATURDAY EVENING: $18 GENERAL | $15 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR | $10 STUDENT WITH I.D.
ALL OTHER PERFORMANCES: $15 GENERAL | $12 FACULTY, STAFF, ALUMNI, SENIOR | $7 STUDENT WITH I.D.
Space-available GU student tickets for opening night on Nov. 12 are free (limit one), I.D. required at pickup.
To order, visit performingarts.georgetown.edu or call 202-687-ARTS (2787) Monday through Friday, 3-6 p.m.
SPOOKY ACTION THEATER RUN (scroll down)
Showtimes:
Thursday, February 15 at 8 p.m.: Pay-what-you-can
Friday, February 16 at 8 p.m.: Pay-what-you-can
Saturday, February 17 at 8 p.m. (PRESS NIGHT)
Sunday, February 18 at 3 p.m.
Thursday, February 22 – Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, February 25 at 3 p.m.
Thursday, March 1 – Saturday, March 3 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 4 at 3 p.m.
Thursday, March 8 – Saturday, March 10 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 11 at 3 p.m.
Location:
1810 16th St NW | Washington, DC 20009
Use main entrance to the Universalist National Memorial Church on 16th St.
Tickets:
THURSDAYS AND SUNDAYS: $30
FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS: $40
(Seniors $5 off; Students $20 – bring student ID to will call)
To order, visit www.spookyaction.org or call 202-248-0301.
** PRESS NIGHT: Saturday, Feb. 17, 2018 AT 8 p.m. (Spooky Action Theater) **
The Past/Present 2017-18 season at Georgetown’s Davis Center wraps with the world premiere of Lauren Feldman’s “Amanuensis,” directed by Prof. Maya E. Roth (April 12-21, 2018). Spooky Action’s 2017-18 season closes with ”The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs,” by Carole Fréchette, translated by John Murrell; and directed by Helen Murray (May 17 – June 10, 2018)
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY THEATER & PERFORMANCE STUDIES PROGRAM
Housed in the Davis Performing Arts Center, the Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program features a nationally recognized faculty of leading scholar/artists and professional practitioners who offer a dynamic interdisciplinary major that emphasizes the interaction of artistic and analytic inquiry. The Program has rapidly attracted significant national attention for its distinctive curriculum, which integrates the political and international character of Georgetown, a commitment to social justice, and high-quality, cutting-edge production seasons, including world premieres. In 2012, Backstage selected the Program as one of the top five college theater programs outside of New York City. The Theater & Performance Studies Program provides unique focus on adapting, devising and developing new work, interdisciplinary research-to-performance projects, cross-cultural performance studies, and innovative approaches to design and multi-media, as well as playwriting, directing, dramaturgy, ensemble, and solo performance. The Program invests in a distinctive array of professional partnerships and collaborations, including with Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, with a growing focus on global performance and politics, as represented by international residencies (DAH Teatar, Ping Chong, Timberlake Wertenbaker) and by the establishment of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, a collaborative initiative with the School of Foreign Service. Each year the Program hosts residencies with guest artists who collaborate deeply with students. Our major prepares students for lives as professional theater artists, scholars, activists and entrepreneurs, as well as for careers in the wider fields of education, cultural criticism, and public service.
SPOOKY ACTION THEATER
Located in the historic U Street corridor of Washington, D.C., Spooky Action Theater (SAT) is a dynamic, young theater company that has been recharging the audience’s imaginative, intuitive, emotional core by linking artists & audience in a collaborative enterprise. We designed and built a versatile performance space that accommodates multiple seating and staging configurations. We believe a good play imparts a special kind of rapture. Albert Einstein coined the term spooky action at a distance to describe a bit of quantum mechanics even he found incredible: two particles can become entangled such that, forever after, a change in one is matched by instant change in the other, no matter what the distance between them. Spooky action happens when actors provide a bare framework to be fleshed out by the imagination of the audience, creating the world and action of the play.
URSULA K. LE GUIN (PLAYWRIGHT) lives in Portland, Oregon. She has published 21 novels, 11 volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, 12 books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation. She has received many awards including Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, and the National Book Foundation Medal.
PROF. NATSU ONODA POWER (ADAPTER/DIRECTOR) is an Associate Professor in the Georgetown University Theater & Performance Studies Program and Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center. Playwriting credits include “Alice in Wonderland” (National Players, 2017); “The T Party” (Forum Theatre; Company One Theatre, Boston), “A Trip to the Moon” (Synetic Theatre), “Astro Boy and the God of Comics” (Studio Theatre 2nd Stage; Company One, Boston, Elliott Norton award for outstanding director). Directing credits include projects at Center Stage Baltimore, Studio Theatre, Mosaic Theater, Theatre J. On Georgetown’s campus, she has directed “Wind Me Up, Maria! A Go-Go Musical,” “War with the Newts” (adapted from Karel Čapek); “On the Origin of Species” (adapted from Charles Darwin); “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (adapted from Michael Pollan), “Madness and Civilization” (adapted from Michel Foucault); “Trees and Ghosts” (adapted from Osamu Tezuka); and “Swimmy and Other Stories” (adapted from Leo Lionni). Her set design has been seen locally at Imagination Stage, Synetic Theatre, the Hub Theatre, Forum Theatre. Onoda Power holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is the author of “God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga” (The University Press of Mississippi in 2009).
WOMEN’S VOICES THEATER FESTIVAL
Following the enormous artistic and cooperative success of its first Festival in 2015, the Women’s Voices Theater Festival will return Winter of 2018 in January and February, with the continued mission of highlighting both the scope of plays being written by women, and the range of professional theater being produced in and around the nation’s capital.
Led by the area’s premiere theaters, including Arena Stage, Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the 2018 Festival will advance this mission with unprecedented collaboration across the D.C. artistic community, with an expected 30 professional theaters producing plays by some of the nation’s most talented and innovative female and female-identifying playwrights. While the 2015 Festival was limited to world premieres only, the 2018 Festival will include second and third productions of works by female playwrights, nationwide Festival-related activities, and a variety of events for theater-makers and theater-lovers from across the country.
Georgetown University, Dept of Performing Arts
Public Relations Manager, Laura Mertens
lmm236@georgetown.edu
202-687-6933
Spooky Action Theater
Public Relations Manager, Roberta Alves
roalves@spookyaction.org
202-352-5623