The Civilians & Ethan Lipton
School Project
DUKE PERFORMANCES PREMIERE: WED, OCT 4, 2017
FIRST WORK-IN-PROGRESS SHOWING: SAT, JAN 28, 2017
The Civilians, Duke Performances Artists-in-Residence and practitioners of investigative theater, approach their work as researchers of the national consciousness. They construct their kaleidoscopic shows from hundreds of conversations about life’s most vital questions with ordinary people and experts alike. The Civilians are, as New York Magazine called them, a “giddily sociological theater company.” In the 2017-2018 season, Duke Performances hosted Obie-winning writer Ethan Lipton (The Outer Space) and Civilians artistic director Steve Cosson as they developed a new play, School Project.
An examination of the debate over school choice and the validity of the charter school movement, School Project is based on interviews with North Carolina students and parents, lawmakers and lobbyists, advocates and analysts. On October 4, 2017, the Civilians gave a workshop reading at Motorco Music Hall in downtown Durham, offering deep insight into one of the country’s most pressing political issues.
ARTIST BIOS
Ethan Lipton, Playwright
Playwright Ethan Lipton’s productions include The Outer Space (Lortel Nominations), Tumacho, Red-Handed Otter, Luther, Goodbye April Hello May, 100 Aspects of the Moon, and Meat. His Obie-Award winning musical No Place to Go was produced by the Public Theater in Joe’s Pub and has been presented in more than twenty cities across the U.S. and U.K. Ethan is an alum of the Public’s Emerging Writers Group, a Clubbed Thumb associate artist, and a Playwrights Realm Page One fellow. He has received grants and commissions from NYFA, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, True Love Productions, MTC, the Public, the Civilans, and Barrington Stage Co.
Steve Cosson, Director
Recent credits: the world premieres of José Rivera’s Another Word for Beauty at the Goodman Theatre; Rimbaud in New York at BAM (writer/director); Michael Friedman and Bess Wohl’s musical Pretty Filthy; and the Off-Broadway revival of The Belle of Amherst starring Joely Richardson. Recently, the Civilians was the first theater company in residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Other world premieres include The Great Immensity (writer/director) at The Public Theater and Kansas City Rep; Anne Washburn’s Mr. Burns at Playwrights Horizons and Woolly Mammoth; In the Footprint (writer/director); This Beautiful City (writer/director) at Vineyard, Kirk Douglas Theatre, and Humana Festival; (I am) Nobody’s Lunch, Fringe First Award in Edinburgh and Soho Theatre, London; Gone Missing with several U.S. and U.K. productions and a one-year run Off-Broadway at Barrow Street; Anne Washburn’s A Devil at Noon (Humana Festival); Ethel’s Documerica (BAM Next Wave) and Paris Commune (Public Theater, BAM Next Wave, La Jolla Playhouse). Other highlights Dael Orlandersmith’s Stoop Stories, Spring Awakening, and Bus Stop; the U.S. premiere of Attempts on Her Life. Cosson’s plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, Oberon Books, and Playscripts, Inc.
CREDITS
THE CIVILIANS
Steve Cosson, Artistic Director
Margaret Moll, Interim Producing Director
Tommy O’Malley, Project Manager
Jacey Erwin, Literary Associate
Megan McClain, R&D Group Coordinator
Patricia Taylor, Finance Manager
Bryan Hunt, Company Manager
Lana Richards & Jiawen Hu, Artistic Interns
Octopus Theatricals/Mara Isaacs, Tour representation
CAST
Joe Adams
Jeff Biehl
Nambi E Kelley
Kelly McAndrew
Danielle Skrastaad
Lance Coadie Williams
DIRECTOR
Steve Cosson
PLAYWRIGHT
Ethan Lipton
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Caitlin O’Connel
INTERVIEWER COORDINATOR AND INTERVIEWER
Danita Mason Hogans
Made possible, in part, with support from the Department of Theater Studies & the Program in Education at Duke University.
PRESS
- Triangle Arts & Entertainment, The Civilians’ New Workshop Reading for Duke Performances Examined the Charter-School Controversy
- SPACE on Ryder Farm, Ethan Lipton / Playwright / Sheep