Fortune: The Rise and Fall of a Small Fortune Cookie Factory: 1987
An expressionistic melodrama played on a blank stage using gesture-based dance and bamboo sticks manipulated by the actors to create a factory in many configurations. Set in San Francisco in the late 1930's, masked scenes add to the dance work to heighten the juxtaposition of a film noir style of acting, portraying a triangular love story within a struggle for worker's rights at the dawn of the age of modern Capitalism.
Performance History: The Kimo Theater, Albuquerque; Occidental College, Los Angeles; Santa Fe Armory for the Arts; Colorado College, Colorado Springs; The Performance Network, Ann Arbor; Ilfield Auditorium, Las Vegas, NM, Ursinus College, Philadelphia; Oakland Community College, Detroit; Virginia Wesleyan University, Norfolk; Harrisburg Area Community College; SUNY Binghampton, Alverno College, Milwaukee; Henry Ford Community College, Detroit; University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, The Santa Fe Playhouse, The Healy Mathews Building, a site-specific production in Santa Fe in 2007.
Reviews
"...a performance of delightful humor, emotional range and endless surprise....the essential magic of live theater, a reminder to the Santa Fe community of Theater Grottesco's crucial role in the fortunes of local performing arts."
The Santa Fe Reporter
"a panoply of unfolding sounds, rhythms and gestures in a magnificent dance...highlighted with beautiful and haunting visual imagery"
Albuquerque Crosswinds Weekly
"one of the most exciting theater pieces to come along in memory"
Oakland Press
"this is physical theater at its most vivid and arresting"
The Philadelphia Enquirer
"the fragile thread between burlesque and tragedy is beautifully controlled"
Metro Times, Detroit
"a spectacle of movement - a modern circus of sight, sound, and action"
The University of Notre Dame Observer
"there was a hectic, joyous energy bouncing off the walls"
Detroit Free Press
"one of the most unique experiences in American theater"
The South Bend Tribune
"riotously and painfully evocative ... they've brought us the best of the last 500 years or so"
Ann Arbor News
Touring Requirements
Running Time 2 hours
Personnel 7 performers/2crew members
Sound 3 CD players, 8 speakers, 1 subwoofer, 4 amps, mixing board
Lighting 100 instruments, 96 dimmers (minimum, varies according to space)
Stage 30 X 30 X 18 minimum. Proscenium, thrust, or black box
Wooden, dance or sprung floor, marley
Set Up 2 day minimum, 2 hour strike
Assistance Pre-hung plot, crew for load-in, set up, focus, and load out.
Light and sound operators
Fortune was funded by The National Endowment for the Arts.