Kirsten Brandt has been named the new Artistic Director of Sledgehammer Theater, one of the country's most innovative and original alternative regional theaters. Brandt replaces founding Artistic Director, Scott Feldsher, and announces the new season with a collaboration between herself and playwright Kelly Stuart.
Last season, Brandt was officially named a resident director for the company, having directed productions including The Frankenstein Project, Sweet Charity, as well as their mounting of Kelly Stuart's Demonology. Brandt also created STEP -- the Sledgehammer Theater Education Program, an outreach program for elementary school children in the region.
The new season will include:
Sam Shepard's True West, directed by Feldsher, June 13-July 5. After creating new ways of looking at other Shepard plays (Action, Seduced, and Angel City), Sledgehammer's founding Artistic Director Scott Feldsher tackles his arguably most famous piece about two diametrically opposed brothers.
Sept. 23 - Oct. 3, Sledgehammer will bring in their annual "Alternative Guest." Past years included alternative media programming, new solo performances and D.Film.
Phenomenal Acceleration by Tim West, conceived and directed by Ethan Feerst, will play Oct. 31 - Nov. 28. In Acceleration, Feerst welcomes the audience to the premiere So Co end of the century event -- including Bill Gates dancing to the choreography of Jean Isaacs, Slobodan Milosevic and Boris Yeltsin playing 8-ball, China Blues, The Utopia Panel (a rotating panel of live guest interviews), and "The Apocalypse Chow" all the domestic products you need to own. Stuart, author of Demonology & Interpreter of Horror, will collaborate with Brandt for the world premiere of her latest, The Sites of Blood, Feb. 6-27, 2000. Based on Aeschylus's The Oresteia, in Blood victory has the high price in the House of Atreus.
Sledgehammer Theater (which uses "sledgehammer" as a verb, as in "to sledgehammer theater") was established in 1985 by Scott Feldsher, Ethan Feerst, and Robert Brill. Over the past twelve years, the company has gained a reputation for producing large shows on small budgets and their intense dedication to new voices in American theater. It has introduced new works by such acclaimed playwrights as Erik Ehn, Kelly Stuart, Charles Mee and Mac Wellman.
For tickets or more information, call (619) 544-1484.
-- By Sean McGrath
