The bows at a past Living Room Theatre production, “Her Name Means Memory.”
Living Room Theatre, the experiment-friendly New York and Vermont-based company that presents works in unique environments with boldly realized direction, premieres The Tyrant Play, written and directed by LRT co-founder Randolyn Zinn, July 15-Aug. 2 in North Bennington, VT. As in several past seasons, the production’s performance space is “The Pool,” a drained in-ground swimming pool on the campus of the Park-McCullough Historic Governor’s Mansion.
Theatergoers watch the action from seats around the lip of the pool, under the twilight sky beginning nightly at 7 PM. The idea of draining a political swamp seems especially potent with the setting, though this is not the first time the recessed cement space has been employed by LRT.
Here’s how Living Room Theatre bills The Tyrant Play — subtitled A Serious Comedy — an allegorical piece about governance: “The realm is in trouble! Language, liberty, peace, and a young maiden have been taken hostage by the King. Contending with the chaos, characters from different countries and time periods live in the palace where the past is alive in the present.”
Living Room Theatre co-founder Allen McCullough appears in “The Tyrant Play.”
The company of The Tyrant Play includes Matt Dallal, Aidan Ellison, Rick Howe, Elizabeth Kenney, LRT co-founder Allen McCullough, Valeri Mudek, George Olesky, Jeremy Webb, Tessa Weinland and Randolyn Zinn. Check out bios of cast members here.
Costume design is by Cynthia Flynt. Music is by Michael Chinworth.
The Tyrant Play aligns with Randolyn Zinn’s history as a theater maker: “I explore how myth and dream, memory, culture, history, and quotidian details live side-by-side,” she writes in an artist note on her website. “I walk an aesthetic tightrope between comedy and tragedy. I know that every character is right in his or her own way, and that sometimes poetry, music, dancing or the well-timed physical joke speak better than prose.”
Performances of The Tyrant Play are Wednesdays through Sundays at 7 PM. The rain site for the three-week run is the Park-McCullough Carriage Barn. “The Pool” at historic Park-McCullough House is at 1 Park Street, in North Bennington, VT. For tickets and information, write to info@lrtvt.org, call (802) 442-5322 or visit lrtvt.org.
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In the summer of 2012 founders Randolyn Zinn and Allen McCullough mounted Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull as an anniversary gift to each other. When the production resonated with audiences and actors, a theatre company was born.
Mission-wise, Living Room Theatre “re-energizes the intimate relationship between actors and audiences by presenting new and classic plays to elicit empathy, bring the past alive, and look to the future. Our productions are often set in real environments, driven by innovative direction, canny design, and great acting. Audiences experience a unique theatrical intimacy that draws each observer into a more personal relationship with the play. We create a safe and harmonious environment to discover and be inspired by the text, our environment, and each other. Our actors hail from diverse backgrounds and cultures to engage us with the world beyond our local community.”
Director-playwright-actor Randolyn Zinn.
Randolyn Zinn is a playwright, director, choreographer and actor. She has directed her own plays at LRT, including Get It Right, Amor & Psyche, Her Name Means Memory (also at BAM) and Lucy’s Wedding, all of which have been nominated for Berkie Awards. Also: Chuck Mee’s Adam & Evie (VT & NYC), Men of Tortuga (VT & NYC), three plays by Chekhov: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, Ionesco’s Exit The King and Strindberg’s Playing With Fire. Other productions include her Portrait of Frida at The Williamstown Theatre Festival, Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba and Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom at Circle in the Square, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and Arthur Miller’s All My Sons for The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall. New Georges produced her play Frank/Frank in New York, in which she also appeared and co-directed. As an actor, she appeared in LRT’s Constellations, as Nora in A Doll’s House Part 2 and Masha in Three Sisters.
Zinn’s choreographic work includes the original Pulitzer-prize-winning production of Sunday in the Park with George on Broadway, Guys and Dolls at the Guthrie, as well as two Shakespeare plays with director Liviu Cuilei; Electra and Ring Round The Moon at Juilliard directed by Michael Kahn; Stravinsky’s L’histoire du Soldat with the New York Philharmonic, and Jack Heifner’s Colette: Music Hall Sidelights at the Lion Theatre Co. She choreographed two films starring Harvey Keitel, and has taught actors at Julliard and Circle in the Square Theatre School.
For LRT, Allen McCullough has acted in Get It Right, Amor & Psyche, Her Name Means Memory, Constellations, A Doll’s House Part 2, Three Sisters, Circle Mirror Transformation, Men of Tortuga, The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya, The Seagull. Recent stage credits include Our Brother’s Son at Signature NYC; Nixon in Frost/Nixon at Palo Alto; Amy & the Orphans at Roundabout; As You Like It, R & J at the Folger Theatre; Malvolio in Twelfth Night at Baltimore Center Stage. He appeared in the Broadway tour of Twelve Angry Men. As a director: Shaw’s Overruled for LRT, All My Sons and Our Town at Hubbard Hall. He was born and raised in North Bennington, VT.
