Projects: Past
Valparaiso
REVISED PRESS RELEASE February 7, 2001
Valparaiso Chillingly Entertaining
High-tech
play exposes far reaching affect of the media
Michael Majeski, an ordinary businessman, heads out on a routine trip to Valparaiso, Indiana, but ends up in Valparaiso, Chile. The press catches wind of his misadventure and turns him into a media darling over night. As Majeski's fame grows, his personal life erodes in front of the cameras; a creation of the media, he is caught between sanity and celebrity.
Valparaiso, a play from multi-award winning American novelist Don DeLillo (Underworld, White Noise) is a funny, sharp and deep reaching story about how the media shapes our lives. This devastating and chillingly entertaining play makes us look with unwavering directness at the world we inhabit - a world in which the virtual and the real are skewed.
The Canadian premiere of Valparaiso, runs February 16 - March 3 at Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver.
Directed by Jessie Award winner Michael Schaldemose with video sceneography by Drew McCreadie, computer graphic design by Martin Jackson and Adam Jones, sound design by Michael Low and original music by Alchemy. Valparaiso stars Jessie Nominee Andy Thompson (Reading Hebron, Brilliant!) as Majeski, Enuka Okuma (Madison, Big Sound), Brendan Beiser (Agent Pendrell of The X-Files), Ray Galletti (Da Vinci's Inquest, Best Restaurant in The World), Jessie Nominee Trevor White (KVETCH), Diana Swayze, and Jessie Award winner Daune Campbell (Little Sister). Michael Brooks is stage managing.
The cutting edge creative teams of The Virtual Stage and Way off Broadway team up to bring to life a theatrical vision of the media machine. Computer graphic animators, digital filmmakers and video sceneographers work together in this, an emerging, high tech form of the live theatre experience. The Virtual Stage is a theatre company dedicated to the application of emerging technologies in live performance. Artistic Director Andy Thompson explains, "Digital technologies are now in the hands of theatre artists. Before long, computer generated projection will be the norm in live theatre. Its role in live performance is an ever-evolving sea of possibility." This is an Equity approved Co-op.
Produced by The Virtual Stage Co-op, with the generous support of Way Off Broadway.
Valparaiso opens Friday, February 16 at Presentation House
Theatre and runs through March 3.
Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Preview February
15.
Box Office (604) 990-3474 Tickets $14/12 Preview and Wednesdays are Two for
One.
Presentation House Theatre, 333 Chesterfield (at 3rd and Chesterfield) North
Vancouver.
4 blocks from Seabus.
