Definitely Human Theatre’s “Dance Nation” Opens in Rhinebeck, NY This September
Our friends with Definitely Human Theatre have a new show opening in Rhinebeck this weekend!
Definitely Human Theatre Group
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Definitely Human Theatre is a bunch of self-proclaimed freakazoids with a strong passion to create art. They’ve spawned out of the deepest pits of the Hudson Valley, just outside of NYC, but not close enough to be considered cool. Their team is dedicated to independently producing contemporary theatre using modern techniques and practices of performance creation. Ultimately, their mission is to use their productions to reach a wider audience than regional theatre usually does. Their express purpose is demystifying the theatrical process to inspire more theatre practitioners to create work of their own.
Dance Nation Opens in Rhinebeck Friday, September 8th
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Definitely Human Theatre and The CENTER for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck present Clare Barron’s Dance Nation. Below is the description of the show:
Everyone is nice.
Everyone is vulnerable.
And everyone is trying their hardest.Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world.
And if their new routine is good enough, they’ll claw their way to the top at Nationals in Tampa
Bay. An unorthodox play about ambition, growing up, and how to find our souls in the heat of it
all.
This is an intense play, and is not intended for all audiences. Definitely Human Theatre issues a content/sensory warning stating that Dance Nation contains coarse language, depictions of self-harm, simulated masturbation, descriptions of masturbation, sex and sexual violence and moments of intense lighting and loud, sudden noises.
About the Playwright, Clare Barron
Clare Barron is a playwright and actor from Wenatchee, Washington. She won the 2015 Obie Award for Playwriting for You Got Older. She was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dance Nation.
Barron became interested in theatre in her early teens. She was in a Shakespeare troupe for children in her hometown of Wenatchee. In high school, she did the Tisch Summer Program's writing workshop. As for college, Barron graduated from Yale University.
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Barron's play Dance Nation received its world premiere Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in April 2018. The play was the winner of the 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, which included a $25,000 award. The play involves pre-teen competitive dancers and their competition at the Boogie Down Grand Prix.
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It was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The committee wrote: "A refreshingly unorthodox play that conveys the joy and abandon of dancing, while addressing the changes to body and mind of its preteen characters as they peer over the precipice toward adulthood."
The reviewer for The New York Times Ben Brantley noted the "insanely talented playwright" and named the play a Critics Pick: "... conjures the passionate ambivalence of early adolesence..."
The play received the 2019 Drama Desk Award, Ensemble Award. The play received a 2019 Obie Award special citation for Clare Barron (playwright) and Lee Sunday Evans (director).
More of Definitely Human Theatre Group
Get your tickets to the show at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck's website. The show dates are as followed:
- Friday, September 8th at 8pm
- Saturday, September 9th at 8pm
- Sunday, September 10th at 3pm
- Friday, September 15th at 8pm
- Saturday, September 16th at 8pm
- Sunday, September 17th 3pm
Get to learn more about the members of Definitely Human Theatre, and check out my conversation with Patrick Dougherty and Joey Taylor, two of the founders of Definitely Human Theatre, when they were putting on their rendition of Howie the Rookie.
Meet the Members of Definitely Human Theatre
Definitely Human Theatre Presents "Howie the Rookie"
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