Factory 449: a theatre collective presents the DC premiere of THE AMISH PROJECT by Jessica Dickey (Row After Row and Charles Ives Take Me Home). The show is directed by Helen Hayes Award winner Holly Twyford and featuring Helen Hayes Award winner and Factory 449 Company Member Nanna Ingvarsson.
THE AMISH PROJECT continues through May 11th at The Anacostia Arts Center -1742 Good Hope Road, SE, in Washington, DC.
Performances are Thursday – Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets for all performances are $20.
“Ever since Factory 449’s creation back in 2009, I have been on the lookout for a vehicle to showcase the talent and versatility of company member Nanna Ingvarsson,” states Factory 449 Producing Artistic Director Rick Hammerly. “When I came across Jessica Dickey’s THE AMISH PROJECT, I knew I had not only discovered just such a script, but also a poetic, compelling, and wonderfully written piece of contemporary theatre.”
“Sadly, it is unrealistic to think that such a devastating, tragic attack on our children will never happen again,” notes director Holly Twyford. “However, THE AMISH PROJECT offers a way to respond to such darkness with light. Jessica Dickey’s play is a study in beauty – beauty of the soul, beauty of the heart and the beauty of simplicity. The sense of understanding expressed in Dickey’s fictionalized account, allows us to meet darkness with light, to forgive, and perhaps, to make the world that much brighter.”
THE AMISH PROJECT
Produced by Rick Hammerly, Gillian Shelly & Factory 449
Anacostia Arts Center
1742 Good Hope Road, SE
Through May 11, 2014
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 pm. Sundays at 3 pm.
Additional Industry Night performance Monday, May 5 at 8 pm.
All tickets are $20 available online at TheAmishProject.brownpapertickets.com
More information available at www.factory449.org
or by calling (202) 355.9449.
ABOUT THE PLAY
At 10:25 a.m. on October 2, 2006, a gunman entered an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, PA. Forty minutes later, he shot 10 young girls, killing 5, then turned the gun on himself. What occurred in the wake of this tragedy stunned the Nation.
THE AMISH PROJECT is an unforgettable account of the Nickel Mines shooting and its aftermath, seen through the eyes of 7 characters, brought to life by Helen Hayes Award winner and Factory 449 company member Nanna Ingvarsson, and directed by Helen Hayes Award winner Holly Twyford.
PLAYWRIGHT
Jessica Dickey is an actor and playwright best known for her one woman show The Amish Project, which began at the New York International Fringe Festival, premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, was published by Samuel French, and has since been produced worldwide. Charles Ives Take Me Home (nominated for the prestigious Susan Blackburn Prize) premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in NYC in 2013 and was met with praise from audiences and critics alike. Her new play Row After Row (also nominated for a Susan Blackburn Prize), a comedy about Civil War re-enactors, premiered at City Center in NYC with the Women’s Project in January 2014. As an actor Ms. Dickey was most recently seen in Hit The Wall at Barrow Street Theatre in NYC, Proof at McCarter, the Broadway production of Wit at Manhattan Theatre Club, Miss Lilly Gets Boned with the Ice Factory/Studio 42, and television shows “The Big C,” “Law & Order,” and the Lifetime movie Amish Grace.
DIRECTION & DESIGN
Holly Twyford (Director) made her directorial debut in 2011 with Diana Son’s Stop Kiss at No Rules Theatre Company and most recently directed the critically acclaimed Edgar & Annabel by Sam Holcroft at Studio Theatre 2nd Stage. Her Assistant Director credits include: Measure for Measure (Aaron Posner, dir), Elizabeth the Queen (Richard Clifford, dir), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Joe Banno, dir) at Folger Theatre and Twelfth Night at WSC/Avant Bard. Her acting awards include four Helen Hayes Awards and an Emery Battis Award from The Shakespeare Theatre Company.
The Production and Design team includes: Factory 449 company members Rick Hammerly (Producer), Gillian Shelly (Producer), Joseph R. Walls (Lighting design), Greg Stevens (Set design), as well as Kevin O’Connell (Sound design), Eric Reynolds (Properties design), Scott Hammar (Costume design) and Solomon HaileSelassie (Production Stage Manager).
CAST
Nanna Ingvarsson, has appeared regularly on DC area stages since 1985. A Helen Hayes Award winner for her role as Janet in Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s production The Rocky Horror Show, she was most recently seen as The Duchess of York in Folger Theatre’s production of Richard III. Her numerous other DC area include: The Illusion, The Language Archive, One Flea Spare, Angels in America, The Skriker (Forum Theatre); Seagull on 16th Street (Theatre J); The Green Bird, Three Sisters, Marriage of Figaro, The Oresteia (Constellation Theatre); Six Characters in Search of an Author, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, Fool for Love (WSC/Avant Bard); Boeing Boeing (Rep Stage); The Marriage of Maria Braun, Greek, Sink the Belgrano!, The Maids(SCENA Theatre); Woman and Scarecrow, Scenes from the Big Picture (Solus Nua); Man with Bags (Longacre Lee), Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (Actor’s Theatre of Washington); The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Hostage (Keegan Theatre). Ms. Ingvarsson is a Boomerang Fund for Artists grant recipient and a founding company member of Factory 449. www.nannaingvarsson.com
ABOUT FACTORY 449
Formed in April of 2009, Factory 449: a theatre collective supports the following working mission:
To unite and maintain an ensemble of multi-disciplinary artists and professionals who are dedicated to the collaborative process of creating challenging and original contemporary theatre. In developing new artistic, intimate and affordable experiences for its audiences, the members of this collective will assume roles involved in the development of new theatrical productions, exploring opportunities to write, act, direct, design, educate, and produce.
Factory 449: a theatre collective is Jesse Achtenberg, Debbi Arseneaux, Sara Barker, Tom Carman, Oscar Ceville, Felicia Curry, Chris Dinolfo, Rick Hammerly, Brian Hemmingsen, Nanna Ingvarsson, Lisa Hodsoll, Amy McWilliams, Jennifer Phillips, Karin Rosnizeck, Gillian Shelly, Greg Stevens, Tom Story, Hunter Styles, and David Lamont Wilson.
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The article is by Rick Hammerly.
