Lemon Boots PR Statement

Greetings!

Lemon Boots Physical Theatre presents their production, Lemon Boots, a devised work directed by Cal State University Long Beach faculty member Ezra LeBank and devised by students.

A visually stunning, kinetic theatre experience set in a world without water. Lives are made and broken on the promise of a drink.

Below you will find our press release for this production. It would be my pleasure to set aside tickets for you at any of our performances.

Production photos available upon request.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Benji Kaufman
[email protected]

STUDENTS TAKE KINETIC JOURNEY IN LEMON BOOTS
NEW DEVISED WORK CHALLENGES ASSUMPTIONS OF IDENTITY

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 2013 Lemon Boots Physical Theatre presents Lemon Boots, a new devised work, performing June 8, 13, 16, 22, and 28 at the Open Fist Theatre. Directed by Ezra LeBank and devised by a team of student performers and designers, Lemon Boots plunges the audience into a desolate, drought-stricken dystopia where lives are made and broken on the promise of a drink.

In a post-apocalyptic world with no water, a girl named Lemon is thrown off course and must go on a journey to rediscover herself and her place in the desolate environment. With this simple narrative as their starting point, LeBank and his team have devised a series of thirteen “moments” which incorporate different elements of live performance: movement, lighting, costumes, images, and interactions among actors and between performers and audience. The audience members themselves will take part in the story actively, following the performers on foot as they move around the theater.

Director Ezra LeBank explains that the creation process for Lemon Boots began last spring in a course on devised work. In casting the piece, LeBank sought out students eager to “play together and wonder together” about questions of identity, including “if whatever it is that your identity was based on was taken from you, who would you be?” The collaborators break away from long-held assumptions of identity to uncover new definitions of self.

The show originally performed in the Studio Theatre on the Cal State University, Long Beach’s campus in November 2012 and has now expanded its journey to the 2013 Hollywood Fringe Festival. The show opened to enthusiastic reviews from students and local press alike saying “Forget all you know, or think you know, about live theatre…It’s time to wake up and attend a new kind of production and be entertained by the resounding, thoughtful, picturesque, music-filled enlightenment of Lemon Boots” (Signal Tribune Newspaper). LeBank and the student devisors decided to take Lemon Boots to the Fringe Festival in hopes of bringing a different type of theatre to the LA area, as well as bringing the ideas of Lemon and her journey to a new audience.

Ezra LeBank is an Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts/Head of Movement at California State University, Long Beach, and the Artistic Director of Curbside. He has taught at The Juilliard School, SUNY Purchase, Vassar College/Powerhouse Theatre, and The University of Montana, as well as with Piobolus Dance Theatre, Stephen Sondheim’s Young Playwright’s Inc., and yoga and acrobatics studios around the world. He is the editor for the Association of Theatre Movement Educator’s national periodical ATME News, a member of the Advisory Board for Routledge’s Digital Performance Archive, and a Certified Level II AcroYoga Teacher with AcroYoga Montreal. He is the Co-Creator and Project Leader of the Los Angeles-wide art party ARTmageddon, that swept the news across the country during Carmageddon II. He has performed in theatre, film, dance, physical theatre, and opera around the world to critical acclaim including work with LaMaMa E.T.C., Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, The Talking Band, and Montana Repertory Theatre. As Artistic Director of Curbside, his original work includes: {Extinguish.}, Fresh Air, Roe V. Wade: The Abortion Debate, Making Epsom Salt Dissolve, The History of a Hand, and PITCH. At the 2010 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, {Extinguish.} was named the “#2 Next Big Thing” by The List, and his newest underground play PITCH will have its New York premiere in the near future.

Lemon Boots opens Thursday, June 13th, and runs for 4 performances, closing on Friday, June 28th. Performances are June 13th at 9:30pm, June 16th at 5pm, June 22nd at 11pm, and June 28th at 9:30pm. There will be a pay-what-you-can preview of the show Saturday, June 8th at 2:30pm. This production will take place on the Fringe Mainstage at the Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90038. Tickets are $12 for general admission, $11 for those with the Fringe button, $9 for seniors/students/SAG/AEA (with valid ID), $8 for festival participants, and $6 for kids (ages 6-10). Tickets may be purchased at the door or online at www.hollywoodfringe.org. For more information about the show visit us at www.facebook.com/vivalemon https://twitter.com/VivaLemon or our page on the 2013 Hollywood Fringe website at http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/1124 .

Best,

David Anthony Anis Manager
Lemon Boots