Theatre Project: Baltimore, America
Tim Brown, writer, director performer, will be featured at Theatre Project next September.
His cuurent project "Wings" opens this week at Axis Theatre in Baltimore.
WINGS
by Arthur Kopit
Directed by Tim Brown
Axis Theatre
May 21 - June 6, 1999
Thurs. - Sat. evenings - 8:00PM
Sun. matinee - 2:00PM
Call (410) 243-5237 for reservations and directions.
WINGS takes us into the strange, terrifying, shattered world of a woman who, we realize as
the play unfolds and the pieces of the beautifully constructed mosaic begin to fall into
place, has suffered a stroke. For the woman, time, place, language, speech, and thought
have lost their meaning, and as we plunge into her confused mind we are engaged with her
trying to come to terms with terror and to re-create order and rediscover reality. The
hospital, the doctors, the nurses, and the other patients emerge and come into focus as the
woman struggles to reinvent her self and recover the past. We share with her the desperate
need to comprehend, to find words, to make sense of her splintered world.
WINGS is an emotionally powerful experience. It is a magnificent adventure into the mind
and a revelation of the strength and mystery of the human spirit.
It should be noted that this production will be taking place in May, which is annually
declared as National Stroke Awareness Month. A special benefit performance will take place
on Thursday, May 27th, at 8:00PM, with all proceeds going to support the efforts of the
Inch By Inch Stroke Survivors Support Group at Bayview Hospital.
Richard Eder, of The New York Times, called WINGS "an intensely moving vision, one of
uncanny perception; a voyage of illumination." He added:"WINGS is wise, magical, and
shattering."
"Kopit is one of America's most playful and prophetic playwrights, by turns ingenious,
hilarious, and sensational. His plays are among the high-water marks of American theatre."
- John Lahr, The New Yorker
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AN EXQUISITE DREAM OF FIRE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tim Brown (410) 323-9523, Director and Primary Collaborator
Baltimore, MD -- Baltimore-based theatrical ensemble, Funkopolis, follows the success of
last season's award-winning 3 Stories to the Ground with a new and original multi-media
production, An Exquisite Dream of Fire, which explores the internal world of individuals
with mental illness. Written and directed by Tim Brown, An Exquisite Dream of Fire is
produced by Funkopolis, in cooperation with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI) and Towson University's MFA Program in Theatre, and premieres at Baltimore's
Theatre Project on Thursday, September 23, and runs through Sunday, October 10, 1999. For
tickets, call the Theatre Project Box Office at (410) 752-8558.
While many theatrical productions have focused on elements of mental illness as an element
of the story, it is almost always a contrived plot device that breeds stigma and
misunderstanding. Based on real-life experiences, An Exquisite Dream of Fire strives to do
something different - to bring to the stage the inner voice of an individual living with a
brain disorder. Every performance invites the audience to see, hear and feel along with
the performers on stage, and as the performance progresses, the audience itself emerges as
a character and joins the interaction. Early reaction from pilot audiences have praised
the broad appeal of An Exquisite Dream of Fire, as well as the brave and open exploration
of mental illness from all sides of the issue.
The production is being funded in part by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
(NAMI), a grassroots advocacy organization for families and individuals dealing with mental
illness in their lives. NAMI has over 185,000 members in 1,100 affiliates across the
country. Laurie Flynn, Executive Director of NAMI, states, "Recent studies indicate that 8
to 10 percent of all Americans suffer from severe mental illness, and as many as one in
five families are affected. Tim Brown and Funkopolis have captured the facts about mental
illness in an artful and thought-provoking format. An Exquisite Dream of Fire is
groundbreaking in its ability to reach audiences with this powerful message across a wide
spectrum of the population."
Following the Baltimore premiere, Funkopolis will be touring An Exquisite Dream of Fire
across the United States, including stops in New York and Chicago, before arriving in San
Diego in July, 2000 to perform in coordination with the NAMI Annual Convention.
Funkopolis is a theatre ensemble who strives to explore in detail the plurality of
experience in America, not simply the multi-cultural, but multi-identitied. We reject the
naïve notion that all people share a common "culture" or "experience" in American society.
The strength, the power, the magic of America is the individual's experience, and the
constant need to explore our experience in it.
Currently based and working in both New York City and Baltimore, Funkopolis tours
nationally and internationally. Melding the ancient and the modern, the innovative and the
experimental, Funkopolis uses a unique method of artistic creation where directors,
designers, writers, actors, dramaturgs, and other artists are together in one space,
creating and rehearsing simultaneously.