Drunk Enough to Say I Love You
By Caryl Churchill

Directed by Ben Hoover
9/19/12 – 10/ 21/12

Follow Guy and Sam as they navigate the tumultuous political love affair America has cultivated with the rest of the world, and its inevitable backlash.

The VIP
Written and Directed by Aldo Pantoja

1/16/13- 2/17/13

In 1996 hundreds of hostages were held captive by guerilla nationalists in Peru for 126 days. Ensemble member Aldo Pantoja explores the months the hostages were held, the relationships they formed, and their struggle to stay alive. A World Premiere.

The Tropic of X
By Caridad Svitch

Directed by Nathan A. Cooper
4/3/13 – 5/5/13

In a futuristic Polyglot America ravaged by war and poverty, the young are in search of love, community, and a constant high. A true connection is a rare find, and most will do anything to keep it.  A National Premiere.

A Sorcerer’s Journey:
Based on the Works of Carlos Castaneda
By Single Carrot Theatre

6/5/13 -  6/30/13

Carlos Castaneda’s controversial writings on mysticism captivated a culture.  Who was the man behind these writings, and what about them launched a movement? An all-new original journey from Single Carrot Theatre.

Check out our Workshops and Classes for next season below. Look out for dates and times and a special discount.

Workshops:
Dialect with Rachel Hirshorn
Improv with Bruce Nelson
Audition Techniques with Elliott Rauh
Stand-up Comedy with Jessica Garrett

Classes:
Beginning Acting with Genevieve de Mahy
Movement with Nathan Cooper

Single Carrot Theatre is hosting an open call for the 2012 – 2013 season and accepting applications for our Fellowship Program!

Auditions & Portfolio Review: May 19th, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Call Backs: June 16, 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Single Carrot Theatre, 120 W. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201

Please arrive 10-15 minutes early for your time slot. Please bring a theatre resume for

consideration in all positions.

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Single Carrot is seeking to fill roles in the following capacities:

Actors: please prepare two contrasting monologues; no more than 2 minutes total.  Actors please also bring an 8 X 10 head shot.

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The Fellowship Program is a unique opportunity to work in depth with the Single Carrot Theatre Ensemble for the 2012-2013 season. Fellows work both artistically and administratively, and gain experience working in one of the premiere ensembles in Baltimore. For more information and to apply please contact Elliott Rauh (erauh@singlecarrot.com). DOWNLOAD APPLICATION HERE  

Important Dates:
Applications Due: Friday June 8th by 5pm
Interviews Held: Sunday June 24th in the morning

When did you move to Baltimore?
September 18, 2008.

What’s your favorite role you’ve played at Single Carrot Theatre?
Joseph Cornell. Come see Hotel Cassiopeia!

Who do you look up to, as an actor, director, or arts administrator?
Hmm. Wow. Carlos Uriona of Double Edge Theatre because he has a tremendous capacity for warmth, seriousness, and silliness all at the same time.

You like birds a lot. What’s with you and birds?
Well I don’t have a pet, and I would like to have a pet, so this is a good intermediate, low cost, low maintenance way to interact with animals.

Carrots have a reputation for loving food. Can you enlighten the Single Carrot friends and patrons as to what “angry belly” is?
Imagine this. It’s Thanksgiving. You’ve already had three plates of food and suddenly a bunch of people show up with, like, six or seven pies. They pies there on the counter tempting you, and so you say, “Well, is anybody else gonna eat some of this pie? It’s not going to eat itself.” So you do the right thing, and you start eating pie. But nobody helped you because they’ve all had pie at other people’s houses. So suddenly you’re in a conundrum and your only option is to keep eating until it literally hurts to move, to talk, think, sit, breathe. And angry belly has arrived.

Baltimore or Boulder?
Combo. Outdoorsiness and scenic elements of Boulder (mountains) mixed with everything Baltimore has to offer.

So, basically take the Rocky Mountains, and put ‘em in the Mid Atlantic?
Perfect.

What  is a hope or dream you have for the future of art in Baltimore City?
More artists with sustainable, affordable space to produce their art.

Challenge: Offer a deal to Single Carrot patrons and friends, right now. Go.
If you send an email to info@singlecarrot.com with a picture you took of a grackle and tell me when and where you saw it, I’ll hook you up with a 1/2 price ticket to our summer show, Foot of Water. 

Still want more info on Nathan?  Check out the video below. 

The Press loves Single Carrot Theatre’s production of Hotel Cassiopeia by Charles Mee.

Read, share, and spread the word.

“Nimble and imaginative… provides much to ponder and to savor” – Baltimore Sun

“generates a genuine theatrical experience, one with a strange beauty, [and] a curious pull” – Baltimore Sun

“One of the most compelling artworks I have ever seen… Cooper is magnificent” - Broadway World

“Valiant cast” – Baltimore City Paper

“Cooper masters this role” – DC Metro Theatre Arts

“Come with an open mind, an open heart, and a willingness to go along for the ride, and you will surely not be disappointed.” – What Weekly 

Don’t miss out and purchase your tickets HERE

Photo: Chris Hartlove

As with any methodology lessons are passed on from teacher to student and in May, 2012, Double Edge is presenting an intensive workshop with one of their teachers, Rena Mericka. For any theatre artist, this is a tremendous opportunity to develop your craft with a great artist of our time.  Rena was one of the founding members of Jerzy Grotowski‘s Laboratory Theatre, and performed in some of Growtoski’s most famous works including Akropolis. This is sure to be a unique experience. If you can’t make the session with Rena, consider joining the Double Edge ensemble for another training opportunity throughout the year.

If you aren’t familiar with Double Edge, be on the look out, they are an inspiring and lovely ensemble theatre residing on a farm, in Ashfield Massachusets. They create original devised work in a true laboratory setting, and work to create a permanent center of performance, training, research, and cultural exchange. They will be premiering their newest work The Grand Parade at Arena Stage in February 2013, and will preview in collaboration with the Baltimore Open Theatre in December 2012. Keep on the lookout for this piece, I was fortunate to have seen a rehearsal last fall and I’m going to be sure to catch the piece as it tours through the Baltimore/DC area.

Lots of love to all, see you at Hotel Cassiopeia if you haven’t made it just yet.

Nathan Cooper

Nathan

For someone entering into Single Carrot Theatre you might be instantly drawn to the large white box at the Northwest corner of our space.  It is much larger than the other set pieces, and a distressed white color, similar to that of old paper left in the sun.

Yet when I look at this set piece the thing that draws my attention is the constellations portrayed in the back of the box.  One constellation in particular catches my eye… and it isn’t Cassiopeia.

It’s Bootes, the plough man of the heavens.  He is pictured next to his dogs, the Cannes Venatici, named Asterion & Chara.  What makes him so amazing to me is that he uses his dogs to chase the constellation Ursa Major across the sky, ensuring the constant rotation of the heavens. Another story for it’s origin holds that he was given his place in the sky by Demeter for inventing the plough.  And yet he is a secretive figure because it’s not clear who in Greek mythology he actually represents.

For Joseph Cornell he is an antagonist.  He ensures the passage of time while Joseph fights to preserve each individual moment.  For those of us looking to keep life from slipping through our fingers we must face the fact that the heavens, much like time, will keep marching on.

Tonight we open Hotel Cassiopeia, and I am honored to share Joseph Cornell’s world with audiences for the next five weeks.  Please come join us, and share the gifts that Joseph Cornell left for us all.

Charles Mee has written a beautiful line for Joseph in the play, “This is how I spend my time and I never grow tired of it I can see it again and again it only fades in a hundred years when new windows take it’s place”. May we all be so lucky to see the world each day with a renewed sense of enchantment, gratitude, and appreciation for true beauty.

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Untitled (Grand Hôtel de l’Observatoire), 1954

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Custodian II (Silent Dedication to MM), 1963

• This box was dedicated to the memory of Marilyn Monroe.

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Untitled (Butterfly Habitat), 1940

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Nathan Cooper

In the Hotel Cassiopeia script, Mee writes beautifully evocative stage that serve as a feast for the imagination, ”An entire back wall of the theatre with bottles with things in them or the entire fabulous window of a pharmacy or the fantastical window of a Paris  shop or a thousand  sorts of watch springs.”

These stage directions either refer to specific boxes made by Cornell, or are inspired by Cornell’s work. It is the job of the team producing the play to figure out how to give life to these stage directions, and thereby give life to Joseph Cornell’s boxes.  The images shown below were likely inspirations for Charles Mee when writing the stage direction listed above.

And here it is, your weekly dose of Cornell images:

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L’Egypte de Mlle Cléo de Mérode Cours Elémentaire d’Histoire Naturelle, 1940

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Solomon Islands (interior), 1940-42

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Untitled (Pharmacy), 1942

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L’Humeur Vagabonde, 1955

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Looking forward to seeing you at the show,

Nathan Cooper