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Midsummer: A Banquet was a co-production of Third Rail Projects and Food of Love. The show has closed but there's more to see at both companies. For more information, use the links below.
Third Rail ProjectsHas been hailed as one of the foremost companies creating site-specific, immersive, and experiential performances. Their work has been profiled by The New York Times, Vogue, The New Yorker, and many more.
Past Productions |
Food of LoveProduces Shakespearean plays as full sensory experiences and grew out of 2018's Drama Desk nominated Off-Broadway hit Shake and Bake: Love's Labour's Lost.
Past Productions |
Synopsis
Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons for which he has commissioned Philostrate to find entertainment for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, marches into Theseus’ court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men, Demetrius (to whom Egeus wishes Hermia wed) and Lysander (whom she loves). Theseus gives Hermia until his wedding to decide between marrying Demetrius, being sent to a convent, or death. Instead, Hermia and Lysander plan to escape Athens and elope. They tell Hermia’s friend Helena (who is in love with Demetrius) their plans. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells Demetrius of the plans. He runs off into the woods after Hermia and Helen runs after him.
A group of Athenian craftsmen are rehearsing a play for the wedding festivities in these same woods, where a band of fairies also live, led by the quarreling King Oberon and Queen Titania. Seeking revenge on his wife, Oberon sends his servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of which makes someone fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Oberon plans to give it to Titania, but having seen Demetrius being cruel to the lovelorn Helena, he orders Puck to give it to Demetrius as well. However, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and gives him the potion. When Lysander wakes up, he sees Helena and falls madly in love, abandoning Hermia. As the night progresses, both Lysander and Demetrius end up in love with Helena. Meanwhile, Oberon enchants Titania who falls in love with one of the craftsmen, Bottom, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Eventually Puck fixes everything, Theseus and Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take them back to Athens to be married, and Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play.
A group of Athenian craftsmen are rehearsing a play for the wedding festivities in these same woods, where a band of fairies also live, led by the quarreling King Oberon and Queen Titania. Seeking revenge on his wife, Oberon sends his servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of which makes someone fall in love with the first thing they see upon waking. Oberon plans to give it to Titania, but having seen Demetrius being cruel to the lovelorn Helena, he orders Puck to give it to Demetrius as well. However, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and gives him the potion. When Lysander wakes up, he sees Helena and falls madly in love, abandoning Hermia. As the night progresses, both Lysander and Demetrius end up in love with Helena. Meanwhile, Oberon enchants Titania who falls in love with one of the craftsmen, Bottom, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Eventually Puck fixes everything, Theseus and Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take them back to Athens to be married, and Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play.
Meet The Cast
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The Creative Team
Third Rail Projects has been hailed as one of the foremost companies creating site-specific, immersive, and experiential performance. The company is led by Artistic Directors Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett, and is dedicated to re-envisioning ways in which audiences engage with contemporary performance. The company’s currently running, award-winning immersive hit, Then She Fell, was named as one of the “Top Ten Shows of 2012” by Ben Brantley of The New York Times and acclaimed as one of the best theater experiences of 2013 by Vogue. They have made work in New York and nationally since 2000 with projects including Ghost Light at Lincoln Center Theater, the immersive theater hit The Grand Paradise in Brooklyn, Sweet & Lucky with Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and Learning Curve in Chicago with Albany Park Theater Project, as well as internationally through the Global Performance Studio (GPS), which combines the company’s creative and educational offerings through a program of cultural listening and exchange. Third Rail Projects has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including: two New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards; a Chita Rivera Award for Choreography; several fellowship awards including two CEC Artslink Back Apartment Residencies (Russia); a Theater Fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy); an IllumiNation Award from the Ford Foundation and National Museum of the American Indian; and more. Third Rail Projects’ artistic directors were recently named among the 100 most influential people in Brooklyn culture by Brooklyn Magazine.
Food of Love Productions, produces Shakespearean plays as full sensory experiences and grew out of the 2018 Off-Broadway hit Shake and Bake: Love's Labour's Lost. The idea of combining Shakespeare and food was born when founder Victoria Rae Sook, while dancing in a holiday parade, smelled fresh chocolate chip cookies and was transported to Christmas Eve. It was then that she realized performing arts could become a full sensory experience with the addition of culinary arts. The first draft of Shakin’ Up Shakespeare, a one act environmental production of scenes from the Bard done in vignettes, with pop music mirroring the scenes as transitions, and bites of candy served through dance, was written four days later. The idea continued to percolate while Victoria finished college and moved to New York. Six years later, Love’s Labour's Lost opened (in her apartment) with friends and collaborators, before transferring to a commercial Off-Broadway run in 2018 retitled Shake and Bake: Love's Labour's Lost. The joy of found space, intimacy, theatrical magic, Shakespearean text, dance, and food has now been developed into Food of Love and we are delighted to partner with Third Rail Projects for this production. Together we shall "play on."
Zach Morris (Director and Co-Artistic Director of Third Rail Projects) is co-creator of the immersive theater hits Then She Fell, The Grand Paradise, Sweet & Lucky, and Ghost Light at Lincoln Center Theater’s Claire Tow Theater. Zach's work includes site-specific performance, multimedia installation art and environments, and experiential performance. He is particularly interested in creating projects that place contemporary art and performance in non-traditional contexts. Zach has been honored with numerous awards, including two BESSIE awards, and was recently named as one of the 100 most influential people in Brooklyn culture by Brooklyn Magazine. His work has been presented nationally and internationally with the support of numerous grants, commissions, and residencies and he has had the pleasure of teaching, mentoring, and creating new platforms to support the work of artists both at home and abroad. Zach holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University. www.thirdrailprojects.com
Emilie Baltz (Food Designer) is an internationally recognized experiential director and food designer who creates award-winning sensory-based work that moves people to discover new worlds one lick, suck, bite, sniff and gulp at a time. Her work includes inventing likable ice cream orchestras, cotton candy theremins, singing ice block speakers, bespoke dining experiences. Baltz’s commissions include EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, New Museum, Yale Art Museum, Museum of Art and Design, Museum of Sex and Panorama Festival. As an award-winning author and public speaker, Emilie had appeared at TEDx, DLD, PSFK Conference, Ignite Conference, Creative Mornings, TODAY Show, NBC, Wall Street Journal, Yale University and more. Emilie is based in New York City and works out of the New Lab for emerging technologies. She is a founding member of NEW INC, the first museum led incubator hosted at the New Museum and is also part of the founding faculty of the School of Visual Arts Products of Design MFA program, as well as founder of the Food Design Studio at Pratt Institute. Emilie is the author of the award-winning “L.O.V.E FOODBOOK“, recipient of Best First Cookbook in the World at the Prix Gourmand held annually in the Louvre, Paris; as well as the nationally featured cookbook, “Junk Foodie: 51 Delicious Recipes for the Lowbrow Gourmand“. She lectures and consults internationally on the transformative power of sensory experience in the lives of creators and consumers. www.emiliebaltz.com
Jason Simms (Scenic Designer) Jason has designed sets for well over 100 productions and is a set designer for Theater, Opera, and Musicals. New York Productions include (but are not limited to) Urge for Going (The Public Theater), The Bad Guys (Second Stage Uptown), A Bright New Boise, And Miles to Go, After, and Dutch Masters (Partial Comfort Productions), American Treasure and Melancholy Play (13P), When January Feels Like Summer, Finks, Against the Hillside, Winners, and Headstrong (Ensembe Studio Theatre), Donkey Punch (Soho Playhouse), and many productions for both the Drama Division and Vocal Arts Division at The Juilliard School. His regional credits include (but are not limited to) Sweat, Glass Menagerie, The Lion in Winter, and An Inspector Calls (Pioneer Theatre Co., Salt Lake City), Ragtime, Lost in Yonkers, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Sunshine Boys, RENT, and more (Bristol Riverside Theatre, Bucks County), The Whale (Denver Center Theatre Company), Be A Good Little Widow (The Old Globe, San Diego), 4000 Miles, Outside Mullingar, Disgraced, Having Our Say, (Philadelphia Theatre Company), The Immigrant, Trying, American Hero, American Son, The Whilpping Man, Sex with Strangers, Venus in Fur (George St. Playhouse), Dutch Masters, Hair, and The Puppetmaster of Lodz (Berkshire Theatre Group), Clybourne Park, (Chautauqua Theatre Company) and The Loudest Man On Earth (TheatreWorks, Silicon Valley). Additional Shakespeare productions include: As You Like It, The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet, Henry V, Cymbeline, Richard II, and an upcoming production of Love's Labor's Lost for Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis in Forrest Park. In addition to designing, Jason has taught and continues to teach at such institutions as Montclair State University, Fordham University, and Williams College. He received his training at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle (BFA) and NYU, Tisch School of the Arts (MFA). You can see Jason's work at www.jasonsimmsdesign.com. Follow him on Instagram: @simmsjason.
Tyler M. Holland (Costume Design) is excited to be working in Café Fae. As a New York-based costume designer, his work has been seen off broadway, internationally, and in immersive form. He has recently worked on Contradict This!: A Birthday Funeral for Heroes premiering both in Philadelphia (Cherry Street Pier) and NYC (La Mama.) He's also designed Enter Laughing, Christmas in Hell, and Marry Harry at The York Theatre. Other credits include: Red Line (Battery Dance), Passion Nation (Light Box, NYC), Peter Pan (Beijing), My Life Among the Serial Killers (Site Specific in Harlem, NYC), Toe Pick (Dixon Place, NYC), Up the Rabbit Hole (Theatre for the New City), Culture Shock (Brassaii Noir, Montreal). He has a BFA in Costume Design and Construction from UNCSA and a MFA in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon University. More work can be seen at www.tylermarkholland.com
Deborah Constantine (Lighting Design) is pleased to be designing lights for Midsummer: A Banquet. She is also currently designing Kate Hamill’s Little Women for the Hangar Theatre, Ithaca, NY. Other designs Romeo and Juliet: A Requiem for Peoples Light, Philadelphia; Fortune by Deborah Laufer at the Hangar Theatre and Geva Theatre, Rochester; They Call Me Firefly, New Perspectives Theatre Company, NYC; the New York City premiere of Fire for Chatillion Stage Company. Theatre companies include: Bristol Riverside Theatre Company, Capital Repertory Theatre, Bronx Opera, Blue Light Theatre, Barrington Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Primary Stages. www.DeborahConstantine.com.
Jason Simms (Scenic Designer) Jason has designed sets for well over 100 productions and is a set designer for Theater, Opera, and Musicals. New York Productions include (but are not limited to) Urge for Going (The Public Theater), The Bad Guys (Second Stage Uptown), A Bright New Boise, And Miles to Go, After, and Dutch Masters (Partial Comfort Productions), American Treasure and Melancholy Play (13P), When January Feels Like Summer, Finks, Against the Hillside, Winners, and Headstrong (Ensembe Studio Theatre), Donkey Punch (Soho Playhouse), and many productions for both the Drama Division and Vocal Arts Division at The Juilliard School. His regional credits include (but are not limited to) Sweat, Glass Menagerie, The Lion in Winter, and An Inspector Calls (Pioneer Theatre Co., Salt Lake City), Ragtime, Lost in Yonkers, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, The Sunshine Boys, RENT, and more (Bristol Riverside Theatre, Bucks County), The Whale (Denver Center Theatre Company), Be A Good Little Widow (The Old Globe, San Diego), 4000 Miles, Outside Mullingar, Disgraced, Having Our Say, (Philadelphia Theatre Company), The Immigrant, Trying, American Hero, American Son, The Whilpping Man, Sex with Strangers, Venus in Fur (George St. Playhouse), Dutch Masters, Hair, and The Puppetmaster of Lodz (Berkshire Theatre Group), Clybourne Park, (Chautauqua Theatre Company) and The Loudest Man On Earth (TheatreWorks, Silicon Valley). Additional Shakespeare productions include: As You Like It, The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet, Henry V, Cymbeline, Richard II, and an upcoming production of Love's Labor's Lost for Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis in Forrest Park. In addition to designing, Jason has taught and continues to teach at such institutions as Montclair State University, Fordham University, and Williams College. He received his training at Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle (BFA) and NYU, Tisch School of the Arts (MFA). You can see Jason's work at www.jasonsimmsdesign.com. Follow him on Instagram: @simmsjason.
Tyler M. Holland (Costume Design) is excited to be working in Café Fae. As a New York-based costume designer, his work has been seen off broadway, internationally, and in immersive form. He has recently worked on Contradict This!: A Birthday Funeral for Heroes premiering both in Philadelphia (Cherry Street Pier) and NYC (La Mama.) He's also designed Enter Laughing, Christmas in Hell, and Marry Harry at The York Theatre. Other credits include: Red Line (Battery Dance), Passion Nation (Light Box, NYC), Peter Pan (Beijing), My Life Among the Serial Killers (Site Specific in Harlem, NYC), Toe Pick (Dixon Place, NYC), Up the Rabbit Hole (Theatre for the New City), Culture Shock (Brassaii Noir, Montreal). He has a BFA in Costume Design and Construction from UNCSA and a MFA in Costume Design from Carnegie Mellon University. More work can be seen at www.tylermarkholland.com
Deborah Constantine (Lighting Design) is pleased to be designing lights for Midsummer: A Banquet. She is also currently designing Kate Hamill’s Little Women for the Hangar Theatre, Ithaca, NY. Other designs Romeo and Juliet: A Requiem for Peoples Light, Philadelphia; Fortune by Deborah Laufer at the Hangar Theatre and Geva Theatre, Rochester; They Call Me Firefly, New Perspectives Theatre Company, NYC; the New York City premiere of Fire for Chatillion Stage Company. Theatre companies include: Bristol Riverside Theatre Company, Capital Repertory Theatre, Bronx Opera, Blue Light Theatre, Barrington Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Primary Stages. www.DeborahConstantine.com.
Sean Hagerty (Sound Design) Sean Hagerty is a sound designer, composer, and violinist based in NYC. With Third Rail Projects, he's created immersive soundtracks for Then She Fell (Bessie Award), Ghost Light (LCT3, Lincoln Center), The Grand Paradise, Sweet and Lucky (DCPA), Behind the City, Confection (Folger Shakespeare Library), Roadside Attraction, Oasis (Brookfield Place), Midnight Madness, All Hallows Eve, House 17, Medicine Show (Burning Man), and the documentary film Between Yourself and Me. Other shows include Hit the Body Alarm (Performing Garage), the off-Broadway revival of Around the World in 80 Days (Davenport Theater), The Wild Party (DCPA), The Net Will Appear (59E59), The Anthem (Lynn Redgrave Theatre), Symphony of Shadows (Dixon Place), Hound of the Baskervilles (Weston Playhouse, Florida Rep), and 66 one act plays with the Actors Studio Drama School (Gibney Dance, 3LD). www.seanhagerty.com
Contactfoodoflovenyc@gmail.com
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