Lit Moon Theatre Company
Reimagining the Theatrical Experience
Lit Moon Theatre Company
Reimagining the Theatrical Experience
“Humbug!” A (Lit Moon) Christmas Carol
A familiar classic gets a fresh look when the internationally acclaimed Lit Moon Theatre Company presents its new show December 21st and 22nd at Center Stage.
The show tells Charles Dickens’ great story of the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge in Lit Moon’s fresh and inventive style of theatre. Featuring four actors playing all the parts, traditional and original music, and some wonderful surprises, “Humbug!” promises to become a delightful contribution to the Santa Barbara holiday season.
In late September, Lit Moon flew to Skopje, Macedonia, to perform Lit Moon’s The Tempest at the MOT International Festival.
One of the oldest and most respected theatre festivals in southeastern Europe, recent MOT Festival programs have featured National Theatres from Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and such famed companies Theatre de Complicite from London and Eugenio Barba’s Odin Teatret from Denmark.
Lit Moon was honored to join the long list of companies invited to this important Balkan festival. The program for 2007’s festival was selected by Lilia Abadjieva from the National Theatre Ivan Vazov of Sofia, the director of the acclaimed Romeo and Juliet that played to sold-out audiences at the Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival.
City International Festival, Legnica, Poland
Sponsored and Co-produced by Teatr Modjeska
In September, Lit Moon embarked on one of its most exciting tours, with presentations at two different international festivals.
From the 9h-16th, the company was in Legnica, Poland, performing a new piece based on Nikolai Gogol’s The Wedding at the City International Festival in Legnica. Lit Moon World Shakespeare attendees will recognize Teatr Modjeska right away – they brought Othello to the Lit Moon festival, and filled the Lobero full to bursting with their atmospheric, intense adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. In the Fall of 2007, they returned the favor, and invited Lit Moon to perform in one of the most unique theatre festivals in the world – a site-specific festival of world premiere performances.
For the festival, 8 theatre companies from Europe and the United States created a new piece specifically for a particular site in the city of Legnica. Sites included a 13th century church; a 19th century munitions factory, an old boxing hall, and Lit Moon’s site – an abandoned discotheque – among others. Lit Moon was delighted and honored to be included with the following companies:
Teatr Modjeska, Legnica, Poland
Stalker Teatro, Turin, Italy
Theatre.doc, Moscow, Russia
Basement Theatre, Tbilisi, Georgia
New Baths Theatre, Krakow, Poland
Mouth to Mouth, Poznan, Poland
Double Edge Theatre (The Farm), Ashfield, Massachusetts
Surprise!!! We’ve all gone to surprise parties, events where the guest of honor is completely surprised by the assembled guests. In typical Lit Moon fashion, we turned the tables. In this case, the guest of honor knew everything about the party, and the guests were surprised!
Lit Moon will created a surprise party, at a surprise location, with a surprise performance, all in honor and celebration of 15 years of the Lit Moon Theatre Company in Santa Barbara.
In June 2007, the company offered one of the region’s most auspicious theatrical events – a mini-repertory of contemporary plays by some of Finland’s most celebrated playwrights.
Lit Moon was the first in the US to introduce fully staged productions written by Laura Ruohonen and Anna Krogerus, staged readings, and other events celebrating the rich theatrical climate of the Land of the Midnight Sun.
The event was a co-production between Lit Moon and the Finnish Theatre Information Center, generously underwritten with support from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Cultural Finnish Foundation, the Finnish Literature Information Center, and the EU Culture 2000 program.
Mikko Viherjuuri, resident director and literary advisor of the Tampere, Teatteri in Tampere, Finland, spearheadsd the project. Mr. Viherjuuri’s staging of Out Of Sheer Love Of Me was the first time a Finnish director staged a play by a professional theatre company in the United States.
Queen C, by Laura Ruohonen
Directed by John Blondell
Center Stage Theater
Based on Christina, the enigmatic mid-17th century Swedish monarch, QueenC explored the life of a woman
centuries ahead of her time.
Panic, by Mika Myllyaho
Staged Reading
Center Stage Theater
Three seemingly successful men struggle to find their way through their circumstances in the urban jungle
Ambush - Special Event!
Contemporary Arts Forum
Lit Moon showed the acclaimed 1999 Finnish film set in the early days of WWII starring Peter Franzen
and Irina Bjorklund who - that evening - appeared on stage in For Sheer Love of Me.
For The Sheer Love Of Me, by Anna
Krogerus
Directed by Mikko Viherjuuri
Center Stage Theater
Renewed intimacy and domestic
wholeness are provided by the 10-year-old daughter of self-absorbed parents. Premiered at the Finnish National
Theatre in Helsinki in January, 2006.
The Finnhorse, by Sirkku Peltola
Center Stage Theater
An award-winning story about a young man determined to forsake the farm in favor of two-wheeled horespower.
Consul General Manu Virtamo was most gracious to open his home to a gathering of theatre fans and Finnish friends. There were too many highlights to do it all justice, but among the favorites were:
Presentations by Manu Virtamo, Mikko Viherjuuri and Lit Moon's artistic director John Blondell.
...which were interrupted by Mr. Virtamo's "Great Aunt Nina", played by the amazing Nina Sallinen.
We also enjoyed a surprise trio of Anna Abbey, Finnish actress Irina Bjorklund (in For Sheer Love of Me), and Lit Moon's composer-in-residence Jim Connolly
A very good time was had by all!
Lit Moon’s newest Shakespeare production was celebrated as one of the year’s finest
performances in the Santa Barbara News-Press, and was the sleeper hit of the 2006
Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival.
News-Press critic Philip Brandes said, “Tucked away, almost as an afterthought, at the tail end of Lit Moon’s World Shakespeare Festival, the company’s Santa Barbara debut of The Tempest was easy to overlook. But those who caught it witness a gem – haunting, edgy, and the most satisfying marriage to date of Lit Moon’s experimental approach to Shakespeare. That’s saying a lot, given the praises heaped on the company’s past efforts.”
The performance is featured as the centerpiece of our Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration Weekend, which also includes an after party at a secret location. Seats are extremely limited, so please reserve yours fast at info@litmoon.com.
Lit Moon's signature Hearth and Home series returned for it second year of reading and acting Shakespeare in intimate home environments. Our season kicked off at the home of Jim and Colleen Sterne. The evening featured great food, interesting people, and one of Shakespeares great plays (Twelfth Night)in an evening centered around reading, acting, and listening to Shakespeare. It was fun, it was food, it was a great way to "play"!
Eight Days in October, 2006
2006 World Shakespeare Festival
An unprecidented Shakespeare festival as only the Lit Moon Theatre Company and a half a dozen of it's closest European friends (companies) can produce. 10 Days, 26 Performances, 8 Special Events, 9 Plays (3 World Premieres), 6 Venues, Only 1 of it's kind.