Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Kitchen Theatre Company's KITCHEN COUNTER CULTURE series, featuring cutting-edge, outside-the-box work by guest artists from around the country, continues this month with a new play by New York City actress and teaching artist Vickie Tanner. Tanner will perform RUNNING INTO ME for three performances only: February 22, 23, and 24. All performances will be followed by a talkback with the artist.

Vickie Tanner knows firsthand the effect that poverty, drugs, and inadequate inner city schools can have on a teen. She grew up in South Central Los Angeles, in a home where, as she tells it, "no one saw to my breakfast, no one saw to it I was dressed in clean clothes, no one told me about my period... No one taught me how to survive." She did survive, though, and went on to earn a degree in theater from Cal State Long Beach and embark on a successful performing career that has included the national and European tours of the hit show STOMP and numerous film and television credits.

Like many artists, Tanner gives back to the community by working as a teaching artist in New York City public schools under the auspices of arts organizations including Roundabout Theater and Symphony Space. It is like meeting her own teenage self again, only now she is seeing to their need to be heard and to find their own voices. RUNNING INTO ME tells the stories of some of these young people woven together with memories of her school days. Tanner plays over a dozen characters: NYC teens, Los Angeles teachers and principals, and her own family and friends. In the hands of masterful storyteller Vickie Tanner and director Margarett Perry, the stories of challenge, hope, expectation and the importance of listening come to life in the Kitchen Theatre Company's presentation of the first full staging of this work. With parental permission, the play is appropriate for young people (14+) to attend who are concerned with current events. The play has strong language and discusses tough issues facing teenagers, teachers and school administrators.

Vickie Tanner (Playwright / Performer) holds a BFA in Theatre from California State University, Long Beach. She also trained with Maggie Flaningan at Maggie Flannigan Studio and William Esper Studio in New York. Among her theatre credits are STOMP (Orpheum Theatre, National and European Tours); the world premiere of TANTALUS at Denver Center Theatre Company and British tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company; TWO DAYS at Long Wharf Theatre; and THAT DAMN DYKSTRA at Access Theatre. Film credits include: Drop Back Ten, Acts of Worship, No Way Out and The Apology. Television: "NYPD Blue" ABC, "STOMP Out Loud" HBO, "Wonderland", ABC and "Law and Order SVU", NBC. Vickie has been a teaching artist for 10 years with Roundabout Theatre, Symphony Space, Early Stages and IDEAS and ENACT.

Margarett Perry (Director) has become a Kitchen Theatre favorite after four previous productions here (CLEAN ALTERNATIVES, MARRIAGE MINUET, STRANGERHORSE, and MEDIA MADNESS). Perry, based in New York City, directed the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production of CLEAN ALTERNATIVES by Brian Dykstra that won the Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was performed at the Kitchen in fall 2006. Last spring she directed Competing Narratives for GayFestNYC and Painting Churches at the Human Race. Other recent credits include Welcome to Arroyo's (NY Hip Hop Theater Festival), Brian Dykstra: Cornered & Alone (Off Broadway), The Retreat From Moscow (Human Race) and her own adaptation of Spring Awakening at Holy Cross College. During her tenure as the Producing Director of Access Theater she directed world premieres of 3 0'Clock in Brooklyn, That Damn Dykstra (the boxed set) as well as the NYC premiere of Forsaking All Others. Film/TV: Another Bed (short), Wet (short) and The King & Me (TVpilot-ABC). She is an Artistic Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center where she has worked with a variety of writers developing new plays and produced the Playwrights' Workshop with Arthur Kopit. She received her MFA in Directing from SMU and is a Drama League Directing Fellow alumni and a member of SSDC

Kitchen Theatre Company's KITCHEN COUNTER CULTURE series brings Central New York the cutting-edge, outside-the-box, bold, uncensored work of writer/performers who are fearless in their convictions and daring in their presentations. The series celebrates new voices and diverse approaches to the act of performance with artists who are breaking rules and breaking new ground. This season the series highlights five artists of color. First in the series was Indian American standup comedian and playwright Vijai Nathan's GOOD GIRLS DON'T, BUT INDIAN GIRLS DO. Darian Dauchan performed MEDIA MADNESS in November. The series continues in February with actor/teaching artist Vickie Tanner's new play RUNNING INTO ME and acclaimed performance artist Denise Uyehara's SHEDDING LIGHT, and concludes in April with playwright/poet Lenelle Moise's EXPATRIATE. It is funded by New York State Council on the Arts and sponsored by Foster Custom Kitchens, CSP Management and hospitality sponsor Hilton Garden Inn.

Performance Dates:

February 22, 2008, Friday at 8:00 pm
February 23, 2008, Saturday at 8:00 pm
February 24, 2008, Sunday at 4:00 pm

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