#hammertrinity

[ludonarrativeassonance-blog]

Running lines at the end of final tech. #hammertrinity (at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts)

[matt-edmonds]

SEVEN THINGS

Have you ever played "Seven Things"? It's like an improv-y type game? One person gets told a category and they have to shout stuff in it as fast as they can and the group counts off loudly as they finish each one? Let's play. Matt! Seven things you did since your last website update, go! Oh! Me?? Uhh, ummm...Titanic got nominated for a whole bunch of Jeff Awards! ONE! Uh, I'm understudying four tracks in Hammer Trinity at the House Theatre of Chicago! TWO! Hammer Trinity got Jeff Recommended and four stars from the Trib and people like it a lot! THREE! I'm going on for closing! In a track that is not one of the four I cover! FOUR! wait what Yeah, it's dramatic! Umm, what else, I did a Four Loko commercial?? hahah FIVE! I...just performed in a one-minute play festival, which was weird but a lot of fun??? SIX! Oh! I got new headshots!! SEVEN! SEVEN THINGS!!! That wasn't quite as funny as a normal game of Seven Things, but it was way more informative if you're here and are like "Where the hell has Matt been."

[hainsworthy]

#techirony #hammertrinity

[thehousetheatre]

July Speaks! The Hammer Trinity Workshop is underway!

July of the Seven Foxes welcomes you to her favorite month of the year!

    This summer is exciting for The House. We are very fortunate to be a part of Summer, Inc. Summer, Inc. is a residency program hosted by the University of Chicago’s Theatre and Performance Studies aiming to support performance artists from all disciplines to develop original works at the state-of-the-art Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts.

We are using Summer, Inc. to workshop The Hammer Trinity, an epic fantasy trilogy exploring the meaning of liberty, destiny, and the formation of a nation. Taking place in a parallel-proto-America, The Hammer Trinity is inspired by the legend of King Arthur, but with an American twist. The first two episodes, The Iron Stag King, and The Crownless King, were audience favorites in our last two seasons. Since the trinity deserves a conclusion as magical as its first two plays, we will spend most of Summer, Inc. developing The Excelsior King, the final installment of the trinity. We will also rework parts of The Iron Stag King and The Crownless King to ensure that The Hammer Trinity as a whole is even better than the sum of its parts. In spring 2015 we will produce all three plays as a part of our 13th season, with single features on weeknights, and full marathon performances of the entire trinity on the weekends. This will be the most ambitious project The House has undertaken.

We began our Summer, Inc. workshops a week ago with something we have never done before: a read-through of the entire Hammer Trinity. It took us seven hours (with lots of snack breaks) to tell the complete tale of Casper Kent’s recovery of the Hammer, using it to defend the Land from the Crownless, and choosing how to use it for the greater good. We embraced retuning actors, and welcomed guest artists who are joining us for the workshop phase of The Hammer Trinity. The mix of returning and new actors created great chemistry across the room. Everyone was so immersed into the story that the seven hours passed by quickly! The complete read-through provided useful insights for the playwrights and the actors, as thoughts and questions about the characters and the underlying themes of the trinity were illuminated when the plays were heard side by side. Everyone enjoyed the read-through immensely, and is psyched to make the words come to life on stage.

  The entire cast gathered at Logan Arts Center Theatre West for the read-through. Check out the rest of the photos here.

Excited? Want to see what we will have come up by the end of the Summer, Inc.? Come to The Trinity Tour on Thursday, July 24 from 6:30-9:00pm at the Logan Arts Center! It is a great opportunity to get an insider’s look on the new work development process.  Visit various spaces in the Logan Center, each highlighting a part of the process, including our new dragon puppet protoype. Then, hang out with the actors and writers in the beautiful Performance Penthouse.

  (You can see the entire UChicago campus from the Performance Penthouse. Some say it looks like Hogwarts. We have definitely chosen the right place to workshop The Hammer Trinity.)

Stayed tuned as I will regularly blog about the progress of The Hammer Trinity workshops!