TheatreZone's Director Series Presents
"Shape of Things" and "Rhinoceros"

TheatreZone's New Directors Series is introducing the work of two emerging directors tackling two very dissimilar tragic comedies sharing a common theme -- our struggle as individuals to maintain our identity and integrity.

Eileen Rooney will directed Neil LaBute's "The Shape Of Things" and Caleb Hammond will direct Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros."  In "The Shape of Things," Adam let's himself be molded by a modern Eve, while in "Rhinoceros" the push towards conformity takes an even more beastly turn.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS by Neil LaBute

How far would you go for love? For art? What would you be willing to change? What price might you be willing to pay? Such are the painful questions explored  in "The Shape of Things" when a young student drifts into an ever-changing relationship with an art major.

"The Shape of Things" is an intense and disturbing study not only of the uses of power within human relationships, but also of the ethics involved in the relationship of art and life.

Neil LaBute is a playwright and filmmaker whose plays include "Bash" and "The Mercy Seat."  His films include, "In the Company of Men" (which received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Feature and the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival), "Your Friends and Neighbors," and "Nurse Betty."

Director Eileen Rooney is a recent graduate in directing from U-Mass Boston, where her directing credits included A.R. Gurney's "The Problem" and UMB's new playwright series.  She has worked behind the scenes on numerous TheatreZone productions including "Dinner with Friends" by Donald Margulies, "Blood Wedding/Bodas de Sangre" by Federico Garcia Lorca, "Anger Box" by Jeff Goode, and "Shopping and Fucking" by Mark Ravenhill.

RHINOCEROS by Eugene Ionesco

Considered by many to be one of the greatest plays of the last century, "Rhinoceros" uniquely studies the contemporary tension between individuality and adaptation, reason and nature. 

Enter Berenger, an alcoholic, sexually frustrated bachelor trying to turn his life around with the help of his close friend Jean. As the two share Sunday brunch at a local outdoor cafe, a rhinoceros runs through the town square. Inconceivably, the townspeople begin to turn into rhinoceroses. Instinctive terror turns into justification as people learn to "move with the times." And the epidemic begins.

Eugene Ionesco, an internationally renowned playwright and absurdist master, has been credited with profoundly altering the face of modern drama.  He wrote more than 20 plays, including "The Bald Soprano" and "The Chairs," and was elected a member of the French Academy.  He is acknowledged as one of the most important figures in the history of avant garde theatre.

Director Caleb Hammond has directed, performed and displayed work throughout the US and abroad, most notably at the Prague Fringe Festival in the Czech Republic, ATA Screening Room in San Francisco, the Red Room in Manhattan, the Flux Factory in Queens, and the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas.  He recently produced his Quixotic Arts Festival at the Chelsea Theatre Works.

TheatreZone was founded in 1995 to produce challenging and provocative theatre works, and to make participation in the arts accessible to the community both as audience and participant through affordable prices, educational programs for youth and adults, opportunities for members to stretch into new creative capacities, and through the creation of the Chelsea Theatre Works.  The New Director Series is an outgrowth of that commitment to provide opportunities for artists to stretch creatively.

Performances of "The Shape of Things" are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., February 27-March 13. Performances of "Rhinoceros" are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., March 19-April 3.  Chelsea Theatre Works is located at 189 Winnisimmet Street in Chelsea.  

For information and tickets, call 617-887-2336 or log onto www.theatrezone.org.

-- OnStage Boston

2/17/04