Tag Archives: Lear

PRESS RELEASE: Single Carrot Theatre Hosts Continues Conversations Surrounding Lear

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Single Carrot Theatre Hosts Continues Conversations Surrounding Lear
Baltimore, MD – Single Carrot’s 11th Season is now open with its thought-provoking and
fast-paced regional premiere of Lear by Young Jean Lee. Like Shakespeare’s tragedy, Lee’s
text includes universal themes of family conflict, guilt, and madness; at the same time, it
takes a nuanced look race, wrestling with mortality, and the complex dynamics between
aging parents and their adult children. In the hope of continuing the conversations sparked by this vibrant production, Single Carrot will be hosting talkbacks with panelists from Morgan State University, Center Stage, the ACME Corporation, and Chesapeake
Shakespeare Company.
Race, Shakespeare, and Young Jean Lee
Sunday, October 15, following the 3pm performance
Join Gerrad Taylor of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company and Shirley Basfield-Dunlap of
Morgan State University for a discussion on the complex relationship between modern audiences and classical material. Share your thoughts on Young Jean Lee’s frenetic adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, and engage with our panelists on issues of race, identity and performance.
Pride Night at Single Carrot Theatre!
Thursday, October 19, preceding the 8pm performance
Join us for cocktails, live pre-show music from Christen B, and a fabulous evening of theatre celebrating the 9th Annual LGBT Center Awareness Day! More about the artist: Christen B seamlessly blends electronic and acoustic instruments with transcendent vocals leaving listeners in a state of euphoria! This Baltimore native is changing the way people experience music. She allows the audience to watch as she masterfully layers unique sounds while looping them on the spot and leaving the crowd wanting more!
Adapting the Classics
Friday, October 20, following the 8pm performance
Join Gavin Witt of Center Stage and Lola Pierson and Stephen Nunns of The ACME Corporation as they discuss the complicated task of adapting famous classical texts for a modern audience. Nunns and Pierson collaborated last year on an original adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stranger Kindness, which was recently named “Best Play” in City Paper’s Best of Baltimore Reader’s poll. Witt, along with Center Stage’s Kwame Kwei-Armah, is part of a national project to reimagine and update Shakespeare’s plays for a modern audience. Join them in a conversation on the nuanced process of bringing a well-known, perhaps beloved, text into the present.
About the Play:
Lear
By Young Jean Lee
Directed by Andrew Peters
Shakespearean drama meets millennial self-indulgence in this outlandish and driving take on King Lear. Boring, stuffy parents have been left for dead – consigning audiences to the not-so-tender mercies of a younger generation, a mix of heroes and villains indulging their own selfish whims. Despite sharp wits and sharper teeth, these Kardashian-esque kids are comically shallow, callous, and vain: more concerned with dancing and drama than their own doomed parents. But superficial pleasures can only reign for so long before their conscience catches up with them, unearthing ugly secrets, doubts, and fears. Regional premiere.
WHEN:
Previews: Wednesday, October 4 and Thursday, October 5 at 8pm
Running: October 6 – 29
Thursday- Saturday at 8pm
Sundays at 3pm
WHERE:
Single Carrot Theatre
2600 N. Howard Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Entrance on 26th Street.
Free parking available in adjacent lot and on the street.
TICKETS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Tickets: $10-$29
Web: singlecarrot.com
Phone: 443-844-9253
Email: boxoffice(at)singlecarrot.com
Twitter: @singlecarrot
Instagram: @singlecarrot

PRESS RELEASE: Glass Mind Theatre Founder returns to Baltimore to direct a Lear focused on family and mortality

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Glass Mind Theatre Founder returns to Baltimore to direct a Lear focused on family and mortality
Baltimore, MD – Single Carrot is thrilled to welcome director Andrew Peters back to Baltimore to helm its October production of Young Jean Lee’s Lear. Lee’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear is a challenging mix of postmodern satire, meditative exploration, and nuanced relationships. For Peters, these interpersonal conflicts are some of the most fruitful artistically.
“The relationship between Lear and his daughters [in Shakespeare’s text] is so incredibly complicated,” he states. “We expect to see the madness, but we realize we are watching children cast off their father. It’s heartbreaking. Young Jean Lee’s Lear amps this up; we only see the young people of this world, confronting and accepting mortality, doing whatever that can NOT to think about Dad. And this comes back to bite them in the ass. Hard.”
He adds that the show is also particularly relevant “at a volatile moment in our history,”
drawing parallels between Lee’s characters and the contemporary reality of “families in
turmoil.”
“I feel the heartbeat of this play so strongly when I think of those relationships,” Peters
muses. “At some point in our lives we recognize that our parents are human beings. When have we wanted to throw them into ‘the storm’?”
But, he is quick to point out, while Lear’s themes are weighty, it is far from a dramatic,
existential meditation. “We watch these people within the frame of a specific world,” he
says. “We recognize how absurd they are, want to grab the popcorn and watch the
trainwreck unfold. But there’s a big turn. A lot of the rules of this world get broken and,
suddenly, we have to take a step back. Everyone in the room needs to, in some way,
participate in a meditation on mortality. This isn’t just about King Lear and his daughters. It’s about our relationship to our own families.”
Andrew Peters founded Glass Mind Theatre in 2009 and served as its Artistic Director for four years. He has directed numerous productions in Baltimore, DC, and Chicago, where he worked at DePaul University and Victory Gardens Theatre. He holds an MFA in Directing from The Theatre School at DePaul University, as well as a BS from Towson University. Peters will also be teaching at Stevenson University this fall.
Lear
By Young Jean Lee
Directed by Andrew Peters
Shakespearean drama meets millennial self-indulgence in this outlandish and driving take on King Lear. Boring, stuffy parents have been left for dead – consigning audiences to the not-so-tender mercies of a younger generation, a mix of heroes and villains indulging their own selfish whims. Despite sharp wits and sharper teeth, these Kardashian-esque kids are comically shallow, callous, and vain: more concerned with dancing and drama than their own doomed parents. But superficial pleasures can only reign for so long before their conscience catches up with them, unearthing ugly secrets, doubts, and fears. Regional premiere.
WHEN:
Previews: Wednesday, October 4 and Thursday, October 5 at 8pm
Running: October 6 – 29
Thursday- Saturday at 8pm
Sundays at 3pm
WHERE:
Single Carrot Theatre
2600 N. Howard Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Entrance on 26th Street.
Free parking available in adjacent lot and on the street.
TICKETS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Tickets: $10-$29
Web: singlecarrot.com
Phone: 443-844-9253
Email: boxoffice@singlecarrot.com
Twitter: @singlecarrot
Instagram: @singlecarrot

PRESS RELEASE: Single Carrot Theatre kicks off Season 11 with Lear

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Single Carrot Theatre kicks off Season 11 with Lear
Baltimore, MD – Single Carrot Theatre’s 11th season begins with an outrageously original
take on a familiar story: Lear by Young Jean Lee. This adaptation of Shakespeare’s text
shuffles the titular king into the wings, allowing a younger generation to step into the
spotlight. With modern language, classical characters, music, dance, and fantastic violence, Lee crafts a masterful portrait of parents, children, and the exchange of power.
Young Jean Lee is an acclaimed writer and director whose work has been performed
worldwide – including at Single Carrot Theatre, where Lee’s Church was produced as part of the company’s 5th season. Lee will make her Broadway debut in 2018 with Straight White Men; she will be the first Asian-American woman in history to see her work produced on Broadway.
Lear will be directed by Andrew Peters, and feature Ensemble Member Paul Diem
alongside four other local actors. Final casting decisions will be announced in the coming
week.
Lear
By Young Jean Lee
Directed by Andrew Peters
Shakespearean drama meets millennial self-indulgence in this outlandish and driving take on King Lear. Boring, stuffy parents have been left for dead – consigning audiences to the not-so-tender mercies of a younger generation, a mix of heroes and villains indulging their own selfish whims. Despite sharp wits and sharper teeth, these Kardashian-esque kids are comically shallow, callous, and vain: more concerned with dancing and drama than their own doomed parents. But superficial pleasures can only reign for so long before their conscience catches up with them, unearthing ugly secrets, doubts, and fears. Regional premiere.
WHEN:
Previews: Wednesday, October 4 and Thursday, October 5 at 8pm
Running: October 6 – 29
Thursday- Saturday at 8pm
Sundays at 3pm
WHERE:
Single Carrot Theatre
2600 N. Howard Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Entrance on 26th Street.
Free parking available in adjacent lot and on the street.
TICKETS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Tickets: $10-$29
Web: singlecarrot.com
Phone: 443-844-9253
Email: boxoffice@singlecarrot.com
Twitter: @singlecarrot
Instagram: @singlecarrot