COUNT DOWN
Workshop production at the Puffin Theater, Teaneck, NJ. 2005
(L-R) Kasey Lockwood Reina Cedeno Adepero Oduye
Scenic Design: Gina Miccinilli
Count Down is a theater dance piece written by New Jersey playwright, Dominique Cieri and choreographed by Catlin Cobb. It is based upon a multi-disciplinary residency at Devereux Deerhaven in Chester, New Jersey, a residential treatment center for abused and neglected teenage girls where Dominique Cieri and Catlin Cobb led a 40 day arts residency in collaboration with arts coordinator Alexis Marnel. The residents were crack babies, adoptees, and girls from privileged homes. Count Down is told from the point of view of a teaching artist and describes the rapport that was eventually developed between the teaching artists and the students. This theater dance piece weaving text, movement, and visual arts into a unique presentation of social relevance dramatizes the profiles of emotionally disturbed girls who spend their childhood and adolescence in the child welfare system. Excerpts from the residents’ writings and personal histories document the story of the residency. Count Down is an odyssey into the psyche of the at-risk adolescent girl offering a spectrum of deeper social concerns and questions about today’s adolescent girls. Count Down informs the public of society’s need to take notice of the emotional health of children who are being raised in foster care and group homes. It allows the audience to open up and discuss their responses and concerns in the Q&A sessions after the performance.
(L-R) *Dina Ann Comolli Reina Cedeno Olivia Baptista Kasey Lockwood Valerie Blazek
Director: Elyse Knight
Playwright: Dominique Cieri
Choreographer: Catlin Cobb
Scenic Design: Gina Miccinilli
Performers Olivia Baptista, Valerie Blazek ,*Dina Ann Comolli, *Alex Emanuel, Kasey Lockwood, Shawand McKEnzie, Adepero Oduye, Anna Stumpf
Lighting Design: Rie Ono
Stage Manager: Janet L. Casson
Producers: Off World, Puffin, Actors Collective
* Actors Equity
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