Aztec Economy
BUTCHER HOLLER HERE WE COME by Casey Wimpee
July 8, 9, & 10 2016
IN RESIDENCE: July 5- Aug. 1, 2016
Synopsis:1973, West Virginia. Following a cave collapse, 5 coal miners struggle to survive the dwindling supply of oxygen, the lack of food and water, the unravelling sense of passing time, and, even more threatening, their own competing natures. Brutally weaving through family histories, complicated friendships, crooked politics, childhood visions, audacious hopes, eerie dreams, criminal addictions, and fervent spirituality in this run-of-the-mill Appalachian community, Butcher Holler Here We Come is a descent into the male psyche-in-crisis where secret desires, carnal urges, and hidden memories come boiling to the surface in a primitive territory of Earth that mirrors the subliminal mind.
PERFORMANCES: July 8 at 8PM, July 9 at 7PM & 9:30PM, July 10 at 7PM
LENGTH OF SHOW: 75 minutes
PRICE: $15.00
At IRT:154 Christopher st. NYC #3B (third floor)
Butcher Holler Here We Come Creative Team is: Text: Casey Wimpee | Direction: Leah Bonvissuto | Featuring: Adam Belvo, Isaac Byrne, Michael Mason, Adam Laten Willson, & Cole Wimpee | Sound Design: Ryan Dorin | Graphics & Imaging: Kalli Newman | Photography: Yvonne Allaway | Additional Photography: Pete Churton & Scott Eslinger
AZTEC ECONOMY is a Brooklyn-based non-profit arts collective initiated in Spring 2008 to present new live performances for the public. Our work seeks to provide a fresh perspective on American culture and its relationship to ritual, mythology, madness, dreams, and deliverance.
AE‘s projects have been featured in NYC at the Obie Award Winning Ice Factory, the Ohio Theater in Soho, 3 Legged Dog in Lower Manhattan, The Tank in Tribeca, Dixon Place in the Lower East Side, P.S.122 in the East Village, Monkey Town & The Brick Theater & Big Sky Works & House of Yes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Fireproof, Bushwick Open Studios, the Bushwick Starr, Greenpoint’s Lutheran Church of the Messiah, at the New Orleans Fringe Festival, the Fridge in D.C., Collaboraction in Chicago, on board the Historic Steamship Lilac off the Hudson River, The Spindletop Boomtown Grounds in Beaumont-Texas, EMP Collective in Baltimore, The New Ohio in the West Village, The Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and bars, rooftops, churches, and backyards all over Brooklyn. Our non-profit sponsor organization is Fractured Atlas.
Media Quotes or Related Commentary:
“The piece is visceral”
– The New York Times
“Inspired direction by Leah Bonvissuto of a strong cast.” – Dallas Morning News
“It is a great inspiration to learn that theater is still alive in this country….exciting work that is food for the senses and the spirit” –Baltimore Examiner
The result fuses the creeping horror of The Shining with the tension of Mamet’s American Buffalo” – TheaterJones
“Shattering…[It] played like a combination nightmare, mystery rite, and horror ride at a depraved theme park.. The acting is terrific: elemental, raw, and persuasively aggressive. Leah Bonvissuto’s direction could hardly be more menacinge. Casey Wimpee’s script is, finally, awe-inspiring. The consistency of a shocking dream and authority of brutal poetry” –CreativeLoafing, Tampa
“Wonderful…exceptional performances and use of our own senses against us making it a standout Fringe 2013 experience….unnerving and allows us to experience the loss of our rational world even as the trapped coal-miners lose their grip on their own.”-Black and Gold Review
“Perfectly executed in performance.” –Southern Glossary Magazine
“An intense, funny, scary, dark experience… five excellent actors with an engrossing, serious script that keeps you on the edge of your seat… See the show, and be prepared to leave a piece of your soul in the dark space.” –CityBeat, Cincinnati
“An intense drama….the acting is excellent….very compelling” –New Orleans Defender
“Expertly Crafted…gripping from the opening seconds..this is a play about darkness and sound. The five actors work like a well oiled machine.”– –Pegasus News
IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT’s mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. Some of the artists we have supported include Young Jean Lee, Reggie Watts and Mike Daisey.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Office of Council Member Corey Johnson and The Nancy Quinn Fund, a project of ART-NY.