Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Kitchen Theatre Company's 2018-19 Season continues with 2.5 Minute Ride by three-time Tony-winner Lisa Kron, writer of Broadway's Fun Home. Performances of 2.5 Minute Ride begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in the Percy Browning Performance Space on November 25th and run through December 9th. Opening night is Thursday, November 29th.

In 2.5 Minute Ride, Lisa Kron invites her audience on a roller coaster ride through the Kron family album. The play switches back and forth between Kron's Michigan family's annual pilgrimage to a Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park; her journey to Auschwitz with her septuagenarian father, a Holocaust survivor; and her brother's marriage to an Internet bride. Using a complex and surprising mix of humor and seriousness, the play takes on the big things, the little things, and the unexpected ironies that tie them all together.

Lisa Kron has been a vital voice in the American theatre for decades. Her work is probing, sensitive, disarming, and wildly funny. And in 2.5 Minute Ride, she cracks open the whole medium, exploring why we tell stories and how the act of sharing a story and a laugh can change us.

"2.5 Minute Ride is about our hunger for story," says director Zoë Golub-Sass. "Lisa Kron is not only writing about her father's life, but she is simultaneously investigating what drives her to tell his story. The play explores our urge to connect through story and our intense desire to have one that's worth telling."

"Like going for a ride on the Mean Streak (the rollercoaster Kron highlights in the play), we are invited to give over to something greater than ourselves," says M. Bevin O'Gara, Producing Artistic Director. "By exploring both a personal and a global history and juxtaposing events that don't seem like they could ever be related, we are taken from the apex of the coaster and around each curve of the wooden track with Kron's signature humor and heart. This production also allows me the honor of giving our wonderful returning Artistic Fellow her professional directorial debut. Zoë is wise beyond her years, funny as hell, and just so talented. Creating opportunity for young artists like Zoë is a big part of what I plan to do here at the Kitchen."

Playing Lisa is Lena Kaminsky, previously seen at KTC in Birds of East Africa and Swimming in the Shallows. The play is directed by Kitchen Theatre Artistic Fellow Zoë Golub-Sass. Scenic and Costume Design is by Megan Parker, Lighting Design is by Daisy Long, and Sound Design is by Pornchanok (Nok) Kanchanabanca.

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