
Hospital 2011
Conceived & Written by Randy Sharp and Axis Company
Directed by Randy Sharp
July 8 - August 20, 2011episode one July 8, 9, 15, 16 | episode two July 22, 23, 29, 30 | episode three August 5, 6, 12, 13 | episode four August 19, 20 (two shows only)
Adults $12; Seniors/Students $6
Axis Company's episodic play Hospital, about the interior life of a person in a terminal coma, is something of a signature for the company, which has produced a new installment of the drama nearly every year since 1997. Conceived, written and directed by Randy Sharp (Edgar Oliver's East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House), the show is a summer downtown phenomenon beloved for its balance of horror, humor, and weirdness. The company will present the 11th production in the series July 8 - August 20.
While most audience members return to see multiple, if not all four, parts of the summer's production, each episode is a self-contained short play that can be seen in isolation. The brief premise film that begins each year's production—depicting the event that brought on the coma—is shown at the beginning of each performance.
Each annual production of Hospital has a new protagonist, who enters a coma in a different way. This year's iteration imagines a young grade school teacher with epilepsy—played by Britt Genelin, and by Madeleine Birnbaum in childhood flashbacks—who has grown tired of taking the deadening medicine she requires to live normally. Accepting the risk of a major seizure, she stops taking the pills. On a much-anticipated date the following night, she goes up to the roof to look at the night skyline in the beginnings of a summer storm. Her companion briefly leaves her, and she has a serious epileptic event, slipping from the roof and falling to the pavement below. Once in a coma, she travels through the vast, dark interiors of her dying mind, utilizing dream-like characters from her class subjects, distant memory and imagination to guide her to the end.
While most audience members return to see multiple, if not all four, parts of the summer's production, each episode is a self-contained short play that can be seen in isolation. The brief premise film that begins each year's production—depicting the event that brought on the coma—is shown at the beginning of each performance.
Each annual production of Hospital has a new protagonist, who enters a coma in a different way. This year's iteration imagines a young grade school teacher with epilepsy—played by Britt Genelin, and by Madeleine Birnbaum in childhood flashbacks—who has grown tired of taking the deadening medicine she requires to live normally. Accepting the risk of a major seizure, she stops taking the pills. On a much-anticipated date the following night, she goes up to the roof to look at the night skyline in the beginnings of a summer storm. Her companion briefly leaves her, and she has a serious epileptic event, slipping from the roof and falling to the pavement below. Once in a coma, she travels through the vast, dark interiors of her dying mind, utilizing dream-like characters from her class subjects, distant memory and imagination to guide her to the end.
Featuring: *Paul Marc Barnes, *Brian Barnhart, *Regina Betancourt, *David Crabb, *George Demas, *Britt Genelin, *Laurie Kilmartin, *Lynn Mancinelli, Matt McGorry, Jason Nahum, *Edgar Oliver, Brian Sloan, *Jim Sterling
director: Randy Sharp
light designer: David Zeffren
sound designer: Steve Fontaine
asst. light designer: Amy Harper
costume designer: Elisa Santiago
set construction: Chad Yarborough
prop designer & construction/lobby installation: Lynn Mancinelli
dramaturgy: Christopher Swift
cinematography: Adrian Correia, Sean Martin, Ben Wolf
art director-film: Lynn Mancinelli
film editor: Nicole Turney
film score: Paul Carbonara
stage manager: Edward Terhune
sound technician: David Balutanski
production assistant: Heather Farley
photography: Dixie Sheridan
website & graphic designer: Ethan Crenson/Red Shift
publicity/pr: Blake Zidell & Assoc.
box office: Brendan Malafronte
AXIS COMPANY
Artistic Director - Randy Sharp
Producing Director - Brian Barnhart
Executive Producer - Jeffrey Resnick
Thank You to Jose Torres; Michael Birnbaum; Ros Winner Sterling, Mollie O'Mara & the students of The Epiphany School
Axis Company gratefully acknowledges the cooperation and assistance of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
This production is made possible by a generous grant from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation
*Actors appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association
This is an Equity Approved Showcase
Axis Company gratefully acknowledges the cooperation and assistance of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
This production is made possible by a generous grant from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation
*Actors appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association
This is an Equity Approved Showcase
“...one of the strangest and most inspired theatrical events of the summer.”
New York Magazine
“...a new edition of their extraordinary serial...Hospital's style is wonderfully, bizarrely off-kilter; baroque, even...with a level of imagination and invention that never ceases to amaze.”
Martin Denton, NYTheatre.com
WATCH the premise film for HOSPITAL 2011