Kolt Run Creations
2011 Season
P.O. Box 163805
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 454-1500
www.koltruncreations.com
REVELATIONS 2012
KOLT Announces First Full Season, Original Work, Loyalty Card Program
SACRAMENTO (August 30, 2011) – Sacramento's daring, critically acclaimed theatre company, KOLT Run Creations, unveils its first season of programming for this Fall and next year, including three full-scale productions (all by female playwrights), an original work in development and an exciting new audience loyalty program.
KOLT is thrilled to announce three exciting regional premieres for 2012, all by female playwrights. First up in February 2012 is Lucy Thurber's Where We're Born. Lilly, a local girl made good, returns to her rural hometown on a break from college to spend time with her beloved cousin Tony, his longtime girlfriend Franky and their misfit friends. As they drink, smoke and while away the time, bonds are cemented and dissolved as Lilly confronts the idea that sometimes, in order to truly return home, you have to destroy it. Where We're Born stars Elly nominee Jessicah Neufeld and KOLT Executive Director Kelley Ogden with Artistic Director Lisa Thew directing. Next up in April-May 2012 is a regional premiere of the dark comedy Smudge by Emmy-award winning writer Rachel Axler (The Daily Show, Parks & Rec). When a hopeful, young couple give birth to a "smudge," their ambition for the typical American dream gives way to much more difficult realities. The New York Times raved, "Creepy and funny. Precise and imaginative. Parenthood never looked weirder or more terrifying than it does in Smudge." Smudge stars Ogden and is directed by Thew. KOLT's final production of 2012 will be Vinegar Tom, an early work by celebrated British playwright Caryl Churchill. A feminist classic about the English witch hunts, Vinegar Tom also features musical numbers with original music by Patrick Claypool, who beautifully underscored KOLT's previous production of Crime and Punishment. Vinegar Tom features Ogden and KOLT Associate Artist Kellie Yvonne Raines and will be directed by Thew.
KOLT is also proud to announce the world premiere of their first original work, Church of the Gay Agenda (CGA). At the intersection of church and theater, using the styles of clown and realism, with touches of both piety and blasphemy stands CGA. Led by the bombastic, perfectly-coiffed Rev. Poppa Cherry, CGA brings an urgent message to the Sacramento community: repent your homophobia and accept LGBTs as God's chosen people. As a traveling tent revival show, CGA will have its inaugural performance during an Equality Action Now event on Oct. 11 (National Coming Out Day) and will run throughout 2011-2012 in various locations.
As a token of appreciation to their growing audience, KOLT will also be unveiling the "KOLT follower" loyalty card program. Anyone who places a full-price ticket order for any KOLT production becomes eligible for a "KOLT follower" card, which gives them discounts on any future ticket orders or KOLT merchandise purchases. They will also receive discounts at participating community businesses with their "KOLT follower" card. As a growing community theater, this allows KOLT to contribute to and strengthen relationships with local businesses in an effort to build the entire community as a whole.
Since 2007, KOLT Run Creations has consistently produced exciting, edgy community theatre in Sacramento, earning critical acclaim, popular success (including sold out and extended runs), multiple Elly nominations and awards and a steadily growing, regional fan base. KOLT was founded by Kelley Ogden and Lisa Thew, who have spent the last decade as artistic collaborators. Ogden and Thew met while studying performance at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago and have forty years of combined theatre experience. In addition to performing, both have worked in various capacities onstage, backstage and in arts management for such companies as Steppenwolf Theatre, Illinois Theatre Center, Stages Repertory, Capital Stage, Sacramento Theatre Company and the Houston Ballet.
KOLT recently added four long-term collaborators to the company as Associate Artists, who have added their voices and insight to the revamp process: production designer Nastassya Ferns and performers Patrick Murphy, Kellie Yvonne Raines and Brian Rife. In its five-year history, KOLT has gained an impressive reputation with the Sacramento Bee calling them "fresh and distinctive producers with daring artistic sensibility" and "a significant factor in local theater" and Sacramento News & Review describing their work as "thought-provoking", "emotionally powerful", and "precisely what political theatre ought to be."
As they begin a new phase in KOLT's artistic development, Artistic Director Lisa Thew remarks: "As our company evolves and we continue to forge an identity for the work that we do, we've found that the stories we are most interested in telling are the untold ones—about those who exist on the fringes of our society. We're lucky to have found a handful of incredibly engaging and provocative scripts that take big risks in getting those stories told, that challenge and hopefully push us and our audiences beyond our comfort zones and into a place of revelation."
Where We're Born will run from Feb. 3—26 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sunday performances at 2pm on Feb. 19 and 26. Smudge will run from April 27—May 20 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sunday performances at 2pm on May 13 and 20. Vinegar Tom will run from October 12—November 3 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. All shows will be at the Ooley Theater, 2007 28th Street in midtown Sacramento. All tickets are $20 general admission ($15 for "KOLT followers") and can be purchased online at www.KOLTRunCreations.com.
These productions are made possible through the generous support of Uptown Studios and Outword Magazine.
