SATIRICAL STAGE DEBUT
New theatre company set for inaugural production
A new local theatre company is making its debut by taking on the works of playwright Harold Pinter.
The Troy Foundry Theatre’s inaugural production of “New World Order: Six Short Plays” by Harold Pinter will open on Thursday, Oct. 19 at the James L. Meader Little Theatre at Russell Sage College, followed by a second set of performances at The Hangar on the Hudson. All performances are free of charge. Reservations are suggested.
Troy Foundry Theatre’s New World Order reinterprets six short plays by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter in a post-truth world. The production’s can be synopsized in the question “What if those in power didn’t have your best interests at heart?”
From the satirical to the macabre, each of Pinter’s plays depicts society as a prison without walls, where any hope of oppositional agency is buried within linguistic menace. Pinter presciently drafts what was a distant oppression, but now feels all too familiar and real, the company said in a press release.
The short works presented include One for the Road, Mountain Language, The New World Order, God’s District, Precisely and Press Conference.
Co-founder and artistic director David Girard, a Troy resident and Russell Sage College theatre program alum, said he decided to start Troy Foundry Theatre because he saw even as the city was experiencing a renaissance, there was no real, true professional theater company in the city. “There’s a lot of great stuff happening in Troy but the one thing that Troy does lack is a lot of live theater,” Girard said.
The mission of Troy Foundry Theatre is to explore the social issues of today by collaborating with a variety of artists from multiple disciplines. The company will produce and perform new work and reinterpreted classics through the means of new writing, devising and immersive performances.
This group of artists is committed to producing John Romeo, left, and Emily Curro act in “New World Order: Six Short Plays” by Harold Pinter, Troy Foundry Theatre’s inaugural production, which will premiere on Oct. 19 in Troy.
groundbreaking work in and around the Collar City, exploring popular culture and the important issues in today’s society in an interesting, entertaining and insightful manner.
Other goals of the company are to champion new work on the national and local level, and to provide opportunity for the diverse community of Troy to participate in and experience the arts in unique ways.
A Saratoga County native, Girard has been a mainstay on Capital Region stages for many years with Saratoga Shakespeare Company, the New York State Theatre Institute, and Capital Repertory Theatre. He is currently an adjunct professor with Union College, Siena College and Rowan University, as well as a teaching artist for the Brooklyn-based Stages on the Sound. This spring he will appear in the world premiere of the first full presentation of Tony Award-winning playwright John Guare’s acclaimed Lydie Breeze Trilogy.
Emily Curro, co-founder and the company’s artistic associate, is a Russell Sage College theater graduate with a master’s degree in Theater Management from Florida State University. She previously worked for the Tony Award-winning Williamstown Theatre Festival and is currently the development and marketing manager for the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton, Mass.
Alexandra Tarantelli, a co-founder and the company’s business manager, is also a Sage theater graduate and a senior fund accountant at LeverPoint Management, LLC. She previously worked for Golub Capital in New York City and has
worked professionally as an actress on regional and offBroadway stages.
“We’d have late night conversations talking about ‘Wouldn’t it be great to start a theatre company,’” Girard said, and they particularly wanted it to be in Troy, because they loved the city.
Now, it’s actually happening with the birth of Troy Foundry Theatre.
Troy Foundry Theatre is a participant in the Theatre Institute at Sage Incubator Program. Established in 2016, this program provides rehearsal and performance space for Russell Sage College alums who are creating new work or are at the beginning a new artistic endeavor.
Starting this new venture has been a lot of hard work, but “absolutely, really joyful,” Girard said.
Directed by Girard, the company’s first production New World Order features Capital Region favorite John Romeo (London-West End, Off-Broadway, New York Stage Theatre Institute, Saratoga Shakespeare Company). Romeo has also appeared in many independent films and has recently appeared in “Fighting For Freedom” with Bruce Dern and Kristanna Loken.
The ensemble of the cast includes Ethan Botwick (Julius Caesar, The Public Theater; Romeo and Juliet, Saratoga Shakespeare Company) Shayne David Cameris (The Birthday Party, Theatre Voices; The Blue Sky Boys, Capital Repertory Theatre), Emily Curro (Private Lives, Shanghai Repertory; The Full Monty, C-R Productions) and Alex Tarantelli (Dracula, Jenny Wiley Theatre;To Kill a Mockingbird, Capital Repertory Theatre).
In presenting Pinter’s works, “The theatricality of it is in the ambiguity,” Girard said. “As an audience member, you’re sort of thrown into a situation, almost in the middle of the situation and it’s up to you to kind of put it together. And I think every audience member kind of puts it together in their own way.”
He continued, “It makes the audience do a little bit of work, which I think is kind of the best theater in a lot of ways, when the audience is left to fill in a lot of the blanks in a way that is theatrical.”
Later this year, Troy Foundry Theatre plans to present a series of readings of new work called Theatre of Revolt: A Festival of Resistance, with details to be announced, along with a season full of events. Next year, Girard hopes to present a Shakespeare on the Roof production, and is currently seeking a rooftop location.
In choosing what type of productions Troy Foundry Theatre pursues in the future, “It has to connect to what’s going on in our world right now,” Girard said. “I don’t want to be producing work that isn’t commenting on what’s going on in the world.”
“New World Order: Six Short Plays” by Harold Pinter will be presented at 8 p.m. on Oct. 19, 20 and 21 at the James L. Meader Little Theatre at 65 First St. in Troy as well as 8 p.m. on Oct. 26 and 27 at The Hangar on the Hudson at 675 River St. in Troy. Seating is limited at the second venue.
Free tickets to “New World Order: Six Short Plays” by Harold Pinter can be obtained online at http:// www.troyfoundrynwo.bpt. me.
More information about Troy Foundry Theatre and its upcoming events is available online at www.troyfoundrytheatre.com. Troy Foundry Theatre can also be found on Twitter at twitter.com/TroyFoundry and Facebook at facebook.com/ TroyFoundryTheatre.
Supporters can donate to Troy Foundry Theatre at w w w.youcaring.com/troyfoundrytheatreinc-915093.