HAPPYLAND BY TIL LALEZAR THEATRE COMPANY

February 17 and 18, 2017, 7:30 pm at Shea Theatre, 71 Avenue A, Turners Falls, MA

What happens when three young women from around the world meet up to create a resonant work of theatre that is visceral, athletic, and engages the mystery underlying all experience? Eggtooth Productions is proud to present that result. The show is called HAPPYLAND and was born out of an M.F.A. thesis project at Dell’Arte International School in Blue Lake, CA where Vida Tayebati from Iran, Grace Booth from Gill, MA, and Tone Haldrup Lorenzen from Denmark found each other while pursuing their M.F.A., soon after joining with Danish guest director/dramaturg Linn Haldrup Lorenzen.  HAPPYLAND, that will be offered in try out form on February 17 and 18 at 7:30 pm at the Shea Theatre, pits the Poet against the Dictator in the wild world of a Wrestling Match.  Tickets are $15 and available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2806332 and at the People’s Pint on Federal Street in Greenfield.

The women call their new international female theatre troupe TIL LALEZAR THEATRE and have created a comic, surreal, gender-bending drama in which the scrawny fists of Hope must battle the shadow of the System. In the development of HAPPYLAND, the three question "What is the effect of Poetry on a land subdued by Fear? How do the dreams of an Outsider cause a Regime to destabilize and crack? Created during the rise of Brexit and Donald Trump, HAPPYLAND mirrors a social reality with themes of individualism, fear of the elite, gender wars, and late-stage democracy.”

And the place they met is quite a place. The Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre is located in Northern California in the town of Blue Lake, CA. It is the North American center for theatre training, research, and performance of the actor-creator. They are a committed community of artists who model and share in a sustained ensemble artistic practice. As their website states, “One of our deepest values is engendering the relationship between art and place, artist and community. We are a committed community of artists who for over 35 years have modeled and shared a sustained ensemble practice.” 

The founders have rich experiences that belie their youth. Vida Tayebati (age 29) is a devised theatre maker, actor and dreamer from Tehran, Iran. She studied software engineering at the QIU university of Iran. She is a freelance educator, seeking ways to communicate with people using theatre as a bridge. This journey has led her to participate in the underground theatre scene in Iran (where performances are held in cafes, houses, and galleries), to Indonesia in the study of mask-making/performing, to New York for project “Body” with Blessed Unrest, and finally to Greenfield, MA in a collaboration with The People’s Pint.

Grace Booth (age 27) is a traveling theatre-maker and teacher born in Gill, MA. She left the Pioneer Valley to study at Dell’Arte International, where she received an M.F.A. in Ensemble Physical Theatre. She is thrilled to be back in ‘the valley’ collaborating with her parents (Lissa Greenough and Alden Booth) and their local business The People’s Pint to create new community and art space 12federal in Greenfield, MA. Grace co-founded Til Lalezar Theatre in 2016 and Hungry Bird Theater (Oakland, CA) in 2014. She is an author/producer on anti-sex trafficking play “Jane Doe in Wonderland” (www.janedoeinwonderland.com). She has worked and taught in the Czech Republic, the Caribbean Islands, Indonesia, and throughout the United States. 

Tone Haldrup Lorenzen (age 23) is a traveling actor, singer, and director born and raised in Denmark. Tone has been traveling around the world since infancy and her journey has now led to Greenfield, where she with her Theatre Company Til Lalezar Theatre, is in a one year residency in partnership with The People's Pint. Studying and working abroad since the age of fifteen, the observations and the experiences of living in other cultures and meeting people with different mindsets is what inspires her to create. She collects souls, smells, colors and tastes in her suitcase and opens it on stage to reveal grotesque characters put in raw surreal universes. Tone sees the world as a mysterious dream; through the medium of theatre and music she shares her perspective of the moving world. Tone graduated from Dell’Arte International the summer of 2016, where she received her M.F.A in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre. In 2013, Tone graduated from Performers House, an international performance art school.

Linn Haldrup Lorenzen (age 26), guest director and dramaturg on HAPPYLAND is a Danish physical performer, creator and musician, and co-founder of the physical music theatre-company Teater Arrièregarden (2011). She has been studying at the interdisciplinary art school Performers House (Silkeborg) and The Academy of Stage Arts (Copenhagen). Currently she is based in Copenhagen, but have been performing and teaching in Russia, Columbia, Poland, UK and many other countries. Besides her work as performer and teacher she is currently studying a BA in Theatre and Performance Studies in the University of Copenhagen. Among other companies she worked with are Sisters Hope Academy (Denmark), Collectivo Teatral Luz de Luna (Columbia) and A3-Theater (Poland).