Exquisite Corpse Company's THIS IS A DISTRACTION Continues With LILIYA + KILLJOY

 

THIS IS A DISTRACTION - Exquisite Corpse Company's festival of original work - returns this Thursday with round two of new plays. Alexis Roblan's LILIYA and Alisa Zhulina's KILLJOY hit the stage in previews August 16th, and open Friday, August 17th.

The festival is a culmination of the ECC's inaugural Playwrights-in-Residence cycle, continues after a successful opening two weeks, including performances of Blake Bishton's BUFFALO BUFFALO and Phillip Christian Smith's THE CHECHENS.

Presented within non-traditional 5th Avenue performance space, The Parlour, the festival also features an art gallery curated by ECC Artistic Director, Tess Howsam. Performances run on an alternating schedule Thursdays-Saturdays throughout August at 6 PM and 8 PM; Sundays at 3 PM and 7 PM. Single show tickets and festival passes are currently on sale.

"If these two plays are any indication, the second half of Exquisite Corpse's This Is A Distraction promises to be worth catching." - Theatre is Easy

LILIYA

by Alexis Roblan

directed by Julia Sears

featuring Kristin Condon*, Trevor Eichhorn, Ana Mirabal, John-Paul Stewart*

August 16-26, 2018

Preview: Thursday, August 16, at 6 PM; Opening Night: Friday, August 17, at 8 PM

*Equity Approved Showcase .These actors appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association.

Moscow, 2005. Lillian, an American college student, falls ill with a mysterious disease. At the private "American" clinic, her first doctor is Spanish and the second is Russian, and soon her British ex-boyfriend has arrived through the window. As accents and cultures collide almost farcically, and time slips forwards and backwards in loops, Lillian's disease begins to mutate, causing new and different symptoms in each person it infects, turning the world topsy-turvy in its wake.

"For years, friends and family have been telling me to write a play about the time I was quarantined in a Russian hospital in 2005. Finally, in 2018, the world seems weird enough to warrant it. This is a play about the feeling of the world changing around you in rapid, confusing, and unsettling ways; and the impulse to passively adapt to those new norms rather than struggle against them." - Alexis Roblan

Alexis Roblan's plays have been produced and developed by and at Clubbed Thumb, Ars Nova, Dixon Place, Project Y, FringeNYC, New Perspectives Theatre Company, The Blank Theatre (Los Angeles), Theatre 503 (London), Edinburgh Fringe, Festival de Teatro Alternativo (Bogotá), World Interplay (Australia), and more. Originally from Coos Bay, Oregon, she is a graduate of the University of Southern California's MFA in Dramatic Writing program, and she is currently a playwright-in-residence with Exquisite Corpse Company in Brooklyn, NY. Alexis has been a Finalist for the Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission (SAMUEL), Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (AND IT SPINS TWICE), Nashville Rep's Ingram New Works Lab and The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (YOU FEEL SO FAR AWAY RIGHT NOW), and she is the recipient of the 2018 Thomas Barbour Playwrights Award (THE ANDREW PLAY). Her work as a screenwriter can be seen on the Go90 series Guidance (2017) and Love Daily (2018), and her play RED EMMA & THE MAD MONK will be headlining The Tank's LADY FEST, August 17 - September 1, 2018. www.alexisroblan.com

KILLJOY

by Alisa Zhulina

directed by Jillian Carucci

Featuring Isuri Wijesundara, Robyn Unger, Lee Collins, and Tim Marriott

August 16-26, 2018

Preview: Thursday, August 16, at 8 PM; Opening Night: Friday, August 16, at 6 PM

Welcome to the post-truth era. You're a CIA agent investigating a mysterious catastrophe that has changed the world. All is fair in love and war. So be on your guard. Find out what's real and what's not. Trust no one. Stay alive. Good luck.

"I wanted to explore the notion of trust. Killjoy is about what would happen if our world were so awash with fakes news and alternative facts that no one could trust anyone. On a deeper level, the play asks how we trust the things we know and the people we love." - Alisa Zhulina

Alisa Zhulina is a playwright and Assistant Professor of Drama at NYU Tisch. Her work has been produced by Exquisite Corpse Company, New Perspectives Theatre, the Theatre Project, Downtown Urban Arts Festival, and at the Festival de Teatro Alternativo in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.

The festival production team includes Tess Howsam (Artistic Director), Liz Frost (Producer), Blaire O'Leary (Casting Director/Associate Producer), Lee Collins (Technical Director), Tess Howsam (Set Designer), Sonya Plenefisch (Set Designer), Adrianna Covone (Costume Designer), Lizzie Mahoney (Lighting Designer), EK Quinn (Stage Manager).

The art gallery will feature pieces by visual artists Andrea Caldarise, Laurel Adams, Lillian Henehan, Justine Marosi, Rachel Long, Lavinia Roberts & Matt Chalk.

All performances are at The Parlour - 144 5th Ave Suite 2 New York, NY 10011

For tickets, please visit https://www.artful.ly/store/events/15670.

ABOUT EXQUISITE CORPSE COMPANY:

Exquisite Corpse Company is a Brooklyn based, integrated performance art collective. ECC's latest production follows last summer's The Enchanted Realm of Rene Magritte. The company's work has previously appeared on Governors Island & The Pearl NOLA (Secession 2015), (the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (Untitled #3), HERE (WareArt Festival), Galapagos Arts Space (WareArt: Subterra), Arts@Renaissance (Odd.A.See), and in the NY International Fringe Festival & Encore Series (Below). ECC is committed to creating original multi-disciplinary work through large-scale collaboration. The company aims to give voice to the stories of women and the LGBTQ community. For more information, visit www.exquisitecorpsecompany.com.