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That Ugly Month in September
TWO ODD PLAYS ON TWO ODD DAYS

SHOTGUN THEATRE LAB PRESENTS TWO NEW PLAYS BY DANA VINGER

Someone is eating dessert in the desert, and the double-decker has fallen apart. Demon lovers are making demon babies. One wishes for mommy, daddy and sister Ingrid (who may or may not be in Madrid). The other hides the door. The furniture is broken. The pipes are steaming. And the landlord has run away. Welcome to the lives of the ratty-looking X and Y, one of two new plays written by Dana Vinger and produced by Shotgun Player’s Theatre Lab at La Val’s Subterranean Theatre in Berkeley.

In the second half of the evening, audiences will be entranced by Blue Lips, a play about searching and forgetting; searching some more and forgetting again. Inhabiting a small world of oddities, its characters deal with the absurdity of life and death, with the reality of being had. We all want to understand, to make sense of what we see and hear, but "To explain...is not always easy."

Writer, teacher and theater artist Dana Vinger was recently awarded a scholarship to participate in the Intensive Workshop for Playwrights with Mac Wellman, held by San Francisco's Playwrights Foundation (2002). Ms. Vinger has also been selected to participate in the 12th International Session of the International School of Theatre Anthropology under the direction of Eugenio Barba in Bielefeld, Germany. Locally, Ms. Vinger had work recognized through Risk is This...The Cutting Ball New Plays Festival (San Francisco, 2001).

Director Mark Swetz was introduced to Ms. Vinger’s work through Paul Walsh, Resident Dramaturg at ACT. Part of Swetz’s attraction to the work was that “no one writes plays like this anymore … part Beckett, part Pinter, but definitely a writer with her own voice and very interesting ideas.” Swetz recently helped adapt Vinger’s Circle for a performance at the Oakland Playhouse (Oakland Blackbox) with dancers Nadia Adame (Axis Dance Company) and Jennifer Wright Cook (Joe Goode Performance Group), and local composer/musician Liza Wakeman. Swetz’s last show in LaVal’s was Dasvedanya Mama for the Shotgun Players in 2000. Locally, he has Assistant Directed at Berkeley Rep and ACT and has premiered work at the SF Fringe Festival. Swetz spent all of 2001 in London and Edinburgh developing and collaborating on new performance works. The company put together for these two plays is a showcase of young talent from the Bay Area. Actors Alan Quismorio and Robert Martinez are both company members with Crowded Fire (SF), and have diverse involvement with other regional theatre groups. Nadia Adame is a chorographer and principal dancer with Axis Dance Company, and is the artistic director of Tumaradanza in Madrid, Spain. Tyler Fazakerley, is a new talent in the area, most recently being seen as Troilus in Shotgun’s production of Troilus & Cressida. As with most experimental theatre, these actors have equally collaborated in shaping and developing Vinger’s plays into the performances you will see in That Ugly Month in September.

Two odd plays on two odd days, X & Y and Blue Lips By Dana Vinger, opens on September 9th and runs Mondays and Tuesdays through September 27th at 8PM. There will also be two late night performances, Monday and Tuesday September 23rd and 24th at 10pm. All performances will be held at La Val’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Avenue in Berkeley, just north of the entrance to UC Berkeley Campus. For reservations or information the public may call 510.704.8210 or check www.shotgunplayers.org. Reservations are available in advance, but all tickets must be purchased at the door.

When: September 9-17, Mondays and Tuesdays only at 8pm, September 23-24 Late night shows at 10pm only

Admission: All tickets $10

Performed At: La Val's Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid Avenue, Berkeley

CONTACT: 510.704.8210 for reservations or check www.shotgunplayers.org

Alan Quismorio
Robert Martinez
Nadia Adame
Tyler Fazakerley

Mark Swetz, director