[ This Just In! ]
For Immediate Release
Date: October 31, 2007
Contact: Lee Eddy (512) 474-7886
SALVAGE VANGUARD KICKS OFF 2007-8 NATIONAL TOUR OF INTERGALACTIC
NEMESIS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: October 30, 2007
CONTACT: Lee Eddy, (512) 474-7886
(AUSTIN, TX) —In 2008, Salvage Vanguard Theater will be producing its first full season in its new home at 2803 Manor Road.
The season includes two world premieres, a play reading series, six gallery openings, and dozens of films, concerts, dance shows, and plays from companies across the nation. In addition, the company is developing a new play called Difference by Dan Dietz through a prestigious NEA/TCG Playwright Residency Grant.
“Now that we finally have our own space,” says Artistic Director Jason Neulander, “we can finally program in the way we’ve always dreamed.”
SVT anticipates hosting and producing shows six days a week in 2008, including the world premieres of Hamilton Township by Jason Grote in May/June of 2008 and Perfect Season by Shannon McCormick and Graham Reynolds in October.
Playwright Jason Grote has been produced around the country. His introduction to Austin came in May, 2007, when SVT flew him to town for a reading of his play Moloch and Other Demons.
“I couldn't be more thrilled that Hamilton Township is getting its premiere with Salvage Vanguard,” says Grote. “I did a lot of residencies in 2007, and my time with SVT was probably my favorite one. I feel very lucky indeed and I can't wait to see this play in SVT's new space.”
Jenny Larson, SVT’s associate artistic director, is directing the production.
“The script is funny, dark, and stormy!” says Larson, “There are mysterious boxes, nerdy boys coming of age, a prostitute named Babydoll, a thug, a mysterious green glow, attempted murder, and a sleeping old woman who never wakes up! What more can you ask for?”
Perfect Season is an experimental performance piece combining improv and sound inspired by the National Football League. McCormick and Reynolds, both avid football fans, have created a fictional team, the Oxen, based on an amalgamation of real NFL teams and players. Expect each night to be different, as the text of the piece shifts and adjusts to external forces in the performance space, much like happens to even the most meticulous game plan come game day.
Co-creator McCormick says: "I think Graham and I were both surprised when we discovered that the other was a fan of professional football. Something about being an artist creates the expectation in others that one wouldn't also follow sports, even in the company of other artists. I think that discovery laid the groundwork for our upcoming piece, "
In addition to these two shows, SVT is producing SVT Reads!, three play readings by out-of-town writers over the course of the year: Phosphorescence by Corey Hinkle, That Pretty Pretty, or The Rape Play by Sheila Callaghan, and A Brief Narrative of An Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits by C. Denby Swanson. SVT Reads! is curated by Jenny Larson.
The Church of the Friendly Ghost will continue to curate its music series and Screen Door Productions will continue to curate its film series. Bedlam Faction and Yellow Tape Construction will be producing plays in the space. Ellen Bartel will be producing her new Big Range Festival. And SVT will serve as a venue for the annual Fusebox Festival.
The company will also be continuing its highly successful summer program for elementary school-age children, SVTKids.
Meanwhile, SVT’s The Intergalactic Nemesis continues to tour the nation with bookings through May of 2008, including a show at the Paramount Theatre in Austin on May 9.
Currently, the gallery is in the process of selecting its six shows to present over the course of the year.
“We say it every year, but this time it’s really true,” says Neulander. “2008 is going to be our best year ever!”