TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater explores the feelings, facts, heart and humor behind caregiving in Take Care, a new multi-disciplinary play set for performances in Madison, Thursday – Sunday, May 3 – 6 in Promenade Hall at the Overture Center.

The play, inspired by real-life caregivers, explores the relationships which develop between a member of the “Sandwich Generation” and her mother’s caregivers as they try to navigate the physical, emotional and institutional terrain of aging in America.

While the story is fictional, it’s based on workshops and interviews with more than 300 caregivers, social workers, older adults, agency staff, Hospice workers and family members, conducted around the country.
Take Care takes a personal approach to widespread social concerns, delving into everything from finding and affording care to confronting race and unresolved family issues.

Tamara Moschea, director, helms the production, which features an original script and lyrics by Danielle Dresden, an original score by Jane Reynolds, video projections by Wendy Nelson, choreography by Donna Peckett, a social networking set by Christopher R. Dunham, lighting design by Patricia Micetic and costumes by Sharon White. Milwaukee-based actor Sheri Williams Pannell and Chicago-based actor Kay Dixon join Peckett and Dresden in the cast. Dr. Kay Heggestad serves as consultant to the project.

Take Care premieres in Wausau Thursday, April 26, 7:00 pm at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, which has partially supported the project from its inception.

Madison performances of Take Care are scheduled for Promenade Hall in the Overture Center, 10:30 am May 3; 10:30 am and 7:30 pm May 4; 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm May 5; and 2:00 pm May 6.

The production journeys to Valdez, Alaska, where it will be featured in the Last Frontier Theater Conference, Tuesday, June 12, 7:30 PM

Tickets for the Madison performances of Take Care are $20 for general audiences and $15 for students and seniors. To purchase tickets, please call the Overture Center Box Office at 608.258.4141 and select menu option 1, or visit the Overture Center website at www.overturecenter.com. For more information, contact TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater at 608.244.2938 or info@tapitnewworks.org.

Take Care is supported, in part, by the Pleasant Rowland Great Performance Fund for Theater, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation; UW-Marathon County, Center for Civic Engagement, Wausau, Wisconsin; the Wisconsin Arts Board, with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts; Dane Arts, with additional funds from Overture Foundation and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation; The Wisconsin Medical Society Foundation; The Evjue Foundation Inc., the charitable arm of The Capital Times; Alliant Energy Foundation; the Neil Allen Peckett Memorial Fund of TAPIT/new works, Inc.

“Take Care: A Play for Our Times,”

UW Marathon County Wausau, Wisconsin, Thursday, April 26, 2012;

Overture Center, Promenade Hall, Madison, Wisconsin, Thursday – Sunday, May 3 – 6, 2012;

The Last Frontier Theater Conference, Valdez, Alaska, Tuesday, June 12, 2012.

Can you imagine children cheering for vegetables?

They do when they’re watching The Food Connection: A BB Broccoli and Sweet Potato Adventure.

This 45-minute musical adventure for children is full of action, humor and nutritional content; making it engaging entertainment for family series and school shows for kindergarten through 4th grade.

The Food Connection blends comedy, music and dance to help young audiences discover the links between food, health and having fun. The play is rich with curriculum tie-ins, and a Study Guide helps teachers connect the performance with classroom activities.

The Food Connection takes place in Iconland, where symbols live, and where the evil Dr. Smush and his sidekick Additive are plotting to take over the world by altering the Food Plate.

Fortunately for everyone’s health, our two valiant vegetables save the day, with help from the Titanium Cook and the Liberated Lunch Lady, songs like “Vegetables Can Save the World” and their own fiber content.

The Food Connection is a production of TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater, an internationally touring performing arts group founded in Madison, Wisconsin in 1985. The Food Connection features an original score, eye-popping sets, fanciful costumes and the company’s award winning producing artistic directors, Donna Peckett (choreographer & actor) and Danielle Dresden (playwright & actor) playing six characters.

Photo: Marcia Yapp

I was really impressed by the attentiveness of the kids, with the amount of information presented. I believe it reflects the teachers’ efforts and the performers for making it fun. — Franklin Elementary School, Madison, Wisconsin

The Food Connection paid an enormous amount of attention to detail. It was carefully designed to promote healthy choices, a current and significant topic in education. — Sugar Creek Elementary, Verona, Wisconsin

My daughter was talking about the show all weekend. She was literally parading around the house singing “Vegetables rule,” and she wanted to eat a carrot. — Woodland Montessori School, Madison, Wisconsin

Click here to learn more!

Ilia Guzei (c) 2010

The class schedule can be found here.

]]> http://www.tapitnewworks.org/news/2011-winterspring-tap-class-schedule/feed/ 0 http://www.tapitnewworks.org/reviews/booklist-excerpted-bullying-the-musical-review/ http://www.tapitnewworks.org/reviews/booklist-excerpted-bullying-the-musical-review/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:35:07 +0000 Web Admin http://www.tapitnewworks.org/?p=215 “… Based on material gathered at more than 50 workshops (with school age students) … the production, filmed before a live audience, relies on music, clever dialogue and humor. The teenage cast presents a series of brief vignettes set in school hallways, cafeterias, and bus stops, touching upon such topics as body weight, race, cheating, harassment, gossip, sexual orientation… Cast members go a ‘labyrinth-walking fieldtrip’ in which they must face their inner feelings to find their way out … The messages about bullying come through loud and clear.”

Treat yourself to a heaping helping of humor, heart and genuine Italian food when “Mangia, Mangia!” returns for two evening performances at the Elks Club, 711 Jenifer Street, Thursday and Friday, July 12 and 13, 2012, at 7:00 PM.  Tickets are $15.00.  Please call Dianne Redsten at 608.221.3225 for reservations and information.

“Mangia, Mangia,” the hit play from TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater, brings Madison’s legendary Greenbush neighborhood to life through comedy, drama, old family photos and more.

Based on interviews with former Greenbush residents and a series of cookbooks featuring recipes and memories of the Greenbush by Catherine Tripalin Murray, “Mangia, Mangia!”’ transports audiences to a time when less was more – except when it came to food. To get you in the mood for a trip to the fictional Greenbush, a special menu has been created by our chef.  Please make your dinner reservations early by calling Julie at 608.255.1644.

For more information about the play, “Mangia, Mangia!” contact TAPIT/new works at 608.244.2938 or visit www.tapitnewworks.org.

“Mangia, Mangia!” is written by Danielle Dresden, directed by Jody Reiss, features a cast of four, including Sarah Whelan, Donna Peckett, Emily Morrison Weeks and Danielle Dresden.  Technical support by Gabe Reiss, and the co-producer is Jeff Knupp.  “Mangia, Mangia!” is a production of TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater a 26 year-old professional theater, based in Madison and touring throughout the US and abroad.  For more information about the Company, please visit our website: www.tapitnewworks.org or on Facebook.

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Featuring an all-youth ensemble cast, Bullying: The Musical, is based on 50 workshops conducted by TAPIT/new works producing artistic directors Donna Peckett and Danielle Dresden with more than 1,300 Dane County elementary and middle school students from October 2010 through February 2011.

The real-world bullying experiences students shared in these sessions form the basis for Bullying: The Musical.

Directed by Lorraine Jaki-Terry, a spoken word artist and UW-Madison Theater Department graduate student in the Theater for Cultural and Social Awareness program, Bullying: The Musical features a script and lyrics by Dresden, score by Dave Adler, choreography by Peckett, set by Christopher R. Dunham, costumes by Rebecca Sites and light design by Patricia Micetic.

The production follows eight teenagers, Taylor Agnew, Alex Chen, Addie Clearwood, Kaylin Langer, Matt Kulju, Savannah Valigura, Isabella Virrueta and Frost White, as they confront multiple forms of bullying, both in school and online.  When tensions threaten to get out of hand, the students are sent on a labyrinth-walking field trip and discover that sometimes the way out is found by looking more deeply within.

It’s bound to sound familiar to the 1,300+ students from Lowell, Emerson, Marquette, Randall, Bird, Eastside, Royal Oaks, Shorewood and Van Hise Elementary Schools; Whitehorse, Velma Hamilton and Georgia O’Keeffe Middle Schools, students who helped inspire the development of Bullying: The Musical.

Along with helming the production, Jaki-Terry will coordinate pre- and post-performance discussions designed to create a safe and supportive context for exploration of this charged issue.

TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater is a professional performing arts organization based in Madison and touring throughout the United States and abroad.  Founded in 1985 by Donna Peckett and Danielle Dresden, an award-winning choreographer and playwright, artistic innovation and community connection drive the Company.

Bullying: The Musical is supported, in part, by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission with additional support from the American Girl’s Fund for Children, the Overture Foundation and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, Inc.; The New Harvest Foundation; Alliant Energy Foundation; The Cremer Foundation; Richard B. and Marilyn Mazess; the Neil Allen Peckett Memorial Fund; and participating schools.

These funds, allocated to support professional theater in the Overture Center, will help support the Madison debut of the Company’s newest production, entitled Care: A Play For Our Times.

Six performances of Care are scheduled for May 3 – 6, 2012, in Promenade Hall in Madison’s Overture Center.

Employing drama, comedy, rhythm dance and an original score, Care will explore the underground entrepreneurial world of those who look after older adults who can’t quite live on their own.   The way this care-giving underground is structured – who participates and how, as well as who benefits and how – has worlds to say about how our society deals with aging, death, intimacy, race and class.

Based on outreach workshops and interviews with older adults, caregivers and family members in Dane County and Marathon County, Wisconsin, as well as in Georgia and Florida, Care will follow the evolving relationships between elderly individuals, their children and their caregivers, revealing key issues of our day and highlighting timeless questions of how people confront intimacy and death.  As opportunities for the most profound human connection are grasped, acknowledged or ignored, the play’s characters must confront their capacity for connection and redemption.

Workshop participants will be invited to attend special reduced-fee matinees.

The creative team for Care includes TAPIT/new works’ producing artistic directors, playwright Danielle Dresden and choreographer Donna Peckett, director Tammy Moschea, actors Sheri Williams Pannell and Kay Dixon, composer Jane Reynolds, scenic designer Christopher R. Dunham, lighting designer Patricia Micetic, costumer Sharon White.

In addition to the Pleasant Rowland Great Performance Fund for Theater, Care is also supported, in part, by the Wisconsin Arts Board, with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Neil Allen Peckett Memorial Fund of TAPIT/new works, Inc.; and the UW-Marathon County, Center for Civic Engagement, Wausau, Wisconsin.

Visit the Company’s website at www.tapitnewworks.org, or like us on Facebook for updates on Care.

It is, after all, a musical.