Productions
The Sheet Fort Experience April 2011
A multimedia performance of found text followed by a community Show and Tell session. Through live interpretation, video, and audio performances, the ensemble curates and devises a show from text found in the environment and performs it all in a Sheet Fort.
A special thank you to Hannah from Little Bread Co. for the pizzas , Davy Rothbart from FOUND magazine, Harps for supplies, Radiolab for permission to reproduce “The Voices Inside my Head” and a big thank you to Ozark Natural Foods for their sponsorship!
Dear Audience,
Why a Sheet Fort?
It’s about having an experience together. It’s about finding different ways to have the experience. The Sheet Fort is an experiment in theatre. The Sheet Fort is an experiment in community. Through our experience, we will experiment with the different ways to tell you stories. Meanwhile, you experiment with how to best eat pizza and drink beer all cuddled up in a Sheet Fort.
Tonight’s experiment, “Show and Tell” is created from found text and stories from the world. We are not playwrights, but curators. We only choose how to present the material to you and make it fun and most interesting, and hopefully, most inspiring.
We will show you things and we will tell you things.
You will look and you will listen.
Sincerely,
Your Sheet Fort
The Ensemble:
Christy Hall
Sean Philip Mabrey
Erika Wilhite
Darcy Ames Harris
Tobias Wary
Thomas Hunter
Video performances by Jordan Haynes, Caden Worley, Rachel Culp, Mike Thomas Recorded voice performance by Jim Goza, Echo Sunyata Sibley, Justin Cunningham
Sound Guy: Owen Buffington
Image Guy: Rodney Wilhite
Director: Erika Wilhite
Craigs’s List Consultant: Christy Hall
Video Design: Erika Wilhite
Sound Design: Erika Wilhite, Sean Philip Mabrey
Text Design: Erika Wilhite, Sean Philip Mabrey, Christy Hall
Reviews:
Sheet Fort’s "Show and Tell" is giddy and gutsy... Unpredictable, tears-in-your eyes hilarious and edgy at points... Entering the Sheet Fort is an adventure. It’s money well spent on an evening of experimental theater.
- Ozark's Unbound
“Hello, sheet fort. We just saw the sheet fort and it was very good. We laughed very hard. And uh, we were pretty surprised to find a sheet fort like this in the middle of downtown… an anomaly in the city.”
- Audience Answering Machine testimonial
“Thank you for helping us to think for a few hours. Beautiful and moving work!”
- Post-It Note testimonial
Bombs, Babes, and Bingo New Orleans Fringe Festival 2010
Written by Merri Biechler
Directed by Anna Brenner
Scenic Design by Alan Edward Schwanke
Lighting: Christy Hall, Anna Brenner and company
Sound Design by Erika Wilhite and Anna Brenner
Stage Manager: Merri Biechler
Assistant Stage Manager: Tobias Wray
When: November 2010
Where: Whole Earth Organic Lounge, Fayetteville
Actor's Warehouse, Oklahoma City
Den of Muses, New Orleans
Rehearsal space courtesy of B-Unlimited, Fayetteville
The Sheet Fort Experience
What: Time to Burn by Charles Mee
How: The Sheet Fort Experience
Where: Matt Miller's Studio
When: November 5th 2010
Why: We Are In It Together
You remember the sheet fort. Constructed with a few sets swiped from the linen closet on an “inside day” or for a slumber party, or for meetings of secret societies- we crawled in and dreamed, schemed, and told sensational stories to each other, often in the shadows cast by dad’s flashlight. Tonight, we bring you into the secret society again. We initiate you by bringing you into our story. Once you cross the threshold, regardless of how you enter, we are officially in it together.
Directed by Erika Wilhite
Sheet Fort by Mike Davis Gutierrez
Poster by Jessica Earley
Performed by: Christy Hall, Tobias Wray, Darcy Ames Harris, Sean Phillip Mabrey, David Michael Seals, Caden Worley, Josh Kellman, and Kevin Kinder
Photos courtesy of Ellen Gregory
Babes, Bombs & Bingo
An original play by Merri Biechler, Bombs, Babes and Bingo is a play that deals with a war, the fallibility of memory, the division of family and the struggle of a scientist’s quest to make sense of his life and work. Bookended by two fixed scenes, a series of ten more is determined randomly in a game of bingo and is played out differently every performance, mirroring the dissolution of a bomb scientist’s mind. Neither the audience nor the cast know the order until the moment the bingo ball number is called out. As a result, each performance is unique and exciting, and according to the math, there are 39,916,800 versions of the play.
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Click here to view photos from the show.
Babes, Bombs & Bingo
The Arkansas Artist’s Laboratory Theatre Announces Its Premiere Production***NOTE: This production is over. Scroll to the top of the page for the NEWEST ALT show information***
Fayetteville, AR - July 6th, 2010 – The Arkansas Artist’s Laboratory Theatre presents its premiere production: "Bombs, Babes and Bingo," an original play by Merri Biechler. Performances will be held August 5th thru August 8th at 2183 #1 N. College (just behind Foghorn’s). Tickets will be $10 at the door.
8/5/2010 Thursday: Doors open at 7:30pm, Performance begins at 8:00pm.
8/6/2010 Friday: Doors open at 7:30pm, Performance begins at 8:00pm.
8/7/2010 Saturday: Doors open at 7:30pm, Performance begins at 8:00pm.
8/8/2010 Sunday: Doors open at 7:30pm, Performance begins at 8:00pm.
A brand new addition to the NWA arts community! The Arkansas Artist’s Laboratory Theatre is a collaborative ensemble company dedicated to the storytelling process through the use of experimentation. The alt proposes that the scientific and artistic principles of exploration ask the same fundamental questions. The alt tests the premise and ideas of each project in a "Performance Lab" environment. Members of the alt company and Lab Artists from the surrounding community collaborate and experiment together to answer the questions asked by the playwright and their text.
For its first project alt is employing this scientific method in its approach to the script of "Bombs, Babes & Bingo," a new play that explores the inner workings of the human memory. The questions of this play lay in its structure. For each performance, the scenes of the play are presented in a random order that is determined by the drawing of Bingo Balls. As a result, each performance is sure to be completely unique. But the big question is: will the story stay the same? Does the order of the events in our lives affect who we are and the decisions we make?
In addition to the production of "Bombs, Babes & Bingo" in August, the alt will also be showcasing its very first Science Fair: an evening of performances, by the Lab Artists, that are exclusively developed from the work done and the conclusions derived in the Performance Lab. A chance for the Lab Artists to "present their findings" to the community. The Science Fair begins at 8:00 PM on 7/23 at 2183 N. College #1. Doors will open at 7:00 PM for the gallery viewing. The show will be a chance to meet the artists and peek into their unique process. Suggested donation is $5 at the door.
Follow the "lab work" and rehearsal journals at: www.artlabtheatre.com and theartistslaboratorytheatre.blogspot.com.
Contact:
Erika Wilhite
Artistic Director
erika@artlabtheatre.com
(405) 535-6652