Incubator Series: Vintage Theater Collective
When Lysistrata became Lizzie Strada
Posted by DCA Theater on March 7, 2012 in January - July 2012 Season, Incubator Series: Vintage Theater Collective
On Monday, February 27th, the DCA Theater Incubator Series Showcase featured Vintage Theater Collective presented a work-in-process called Lion on the Cheesegrater by Kristin Idaszak.
Managing Director of Vintage Theater Collective, Michael Mercier, welcomes the sold-out crowd and introduces his company and the play.
For a month, VTC has been working hard in the DCA Studio Theater and giving us a window into their process via our blog. Then, in last night’s public staged reading, they shared this piece with the world for the first time… and got the chance to talk with the audience to hear their reactions afterward.
Connect with the Cast
Posted by DCA Theater on February 24, 2012 in January - July 2012 Season, Incubator Series: Vintage Theater Collective
Mini-interviews with the actors currently working with Vintage Theater Collective on Lion on the Cheesegrater in the DCA Theater Incubator Series 
Name: Stephanie Chavara
Favorite role you’ve played? Bananas, The House of Blue Leaves
One thing you’d take with you to a desert island? A big Russian book like Anna Karenina, or olive oil. It makes everything taste better.
What super power would you like to have? Flying
Favorite film noir or femme fatale character? Rita Hayworth in Gilda. She can’t help herself and just destroys everything around her.
Contour of a Composer
Posted by DCA Theater on February 21, 2012 in January - July 2012 Season, Incubator Series: Vintage Theater Collective
Interview with Joshua Dumas, Composer, currently working with Vintage Theater Collective on Lion on the Cheesegrater in the DCA Theater Incubator Series 
Who is Joshua Dumas? What is your musical background?
My name is Joshua Dumas; I’m an artist in Chicago primarily composing music for dance, film, and theatre. I tend toward a distractible curiosity, so sometimes I make photographs, and artist books, and perform, and make films, and write poems, and make semi-operas.
I took the long back way to music composition, from years of playing punk, and then art-rock, then discovering free-jazz and noise, and from there drone, to finally realizing that these experimental musicians were looking to 20th century classical music for influence. I fell in love with that music, and with putting notes on a staff, and with that moment when notes on a staff become music in a room.
Meet the Director
Posted by DCA Theater on February 20, 2012 in January - July 2012 Season, Incubator Series: Vintage Theater Collective
Interview with Sarah Cameron Sunde, the Director currently working with Vintage Theater Collective on Lion on the Cheesegrater in the DCA Theater Incubator Series 
Q: Who is Sarah Cameron Sunde?
SCS: Well, nowadays I like to describe myself as a theater director who creates interdisciplinary performances for the stage and beyond. I started directing while living in England in 1997 and was influenced by European traditions of expressionism and devising work. In New York, I’m most well-known for bringing the plays of Jon Fosse from Norway to the U.S., being passionate about the art of translation, directing new American plays, and running New Georges with Susan Bernfield for the last 10+ years. Lately, I’ve been returning to my devising roots and making more work from scratch, with a particular interest in working with artists of different disciplines. Outside of Lion on the Cheesegrater, my main focus is a long-term project I’m developing with a dancer, a composer, an actor, a visual artist and two video artists. I’m more and more excited about finding the line between visual art and contemporary performance.
Engendering Genders
Posted by DCA Theater on February 8, 2012 in January - July 2012 Season, Incubator Series: Vintage Theater Collective
Submitted by Kristin Idaszak, Playwright currently working with Vintage Theater Collective on Lion on the Cheesegrater in the DCA Theater Incubator Series 
As I’ve spent the past few days feverishly working on a new draft of Lion on the Cheesegrater, Sarah and the ensemble have been diligently exploring the environment and the physical world of the play. Our ensemble is composed of eight women, all of whom will be playing both men and women. On Saturday the cast did a reading of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata and found connections between the original play and our reimagining, and then we dove into the tropes of noir headfirst.
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