Company
History
Founded in 1990 by choreographer and artistic
director, Fay Simpson, and Executive Director Lauren Cramer, Impact
Theatre (formerly known as Fay Simpson Dance Theatre) is
a collective of theatre artists who have come together to create
a repertory that draws richly on cabaret, vaudeville, and modern
dance.
The company co-produced with The Manhattan Class Company from 1992-1995.
They produced a series of work some of which include a slap-stick
one act in 15 minutes entitled Research and Development (
with Joseph Knight and Gregory Wolfe), as well as D-Train, a
collaboration with James Bosley and Myra Melford. This physical
theatre piece, set in the forties, portrays a gangster who discovers
his sensitive consciousness through the pain of loss.
The Ko Festival of Theatre at Amherst co-produced Kurt's
Wife, A Portrait of Lotte Lenya, developed with actor/director
Joseph Siravo, written by Michael Oakes and Jennifer Wells, composed
by Earl Wentz. This piece deals with the troubled life of Kurt
Weill's neglected wife . Lotte, when she returns to the studio after
his death to record an album of love songs that summon forth Kurt's
ghost.
The Company held their 1997New York season at The Ohio Theatre in
NYC, where they premiered The Marital Bliss Of Francis and
Maxine, a collaboration of Fay Simpson, actor/writer Liam
Torres, and Earl Wentz. Set in the morally complex 1920's, Francis
and Maxine masquerade by day as a famous singing couple on the radio,
though come nightfall, they slide into their true homosexual identities,
and dance the tango at a gay speakeasy in Harlem.
Trapped In Seven, is a solo piece written and performed
by Fay , directed by Deborah Kampmeier, with intricate choreography by Patrice
Regnier. This piece played at The Acting studio in NYC in 1998, and The Harold
Pinter Studio in Londonin 1999, and has toured Colorado, and Tennessee.
Produced at RawSpace in 2002, Triptych is
a three paneled work involving dance, music, dialogue, and a
stairway to the Gods.
A three course feast of sexuality skewered into battles, dragons,
and juicy women, this evening presents a love-affair with swords,
and an exploration into the male and female psyches lurking behind
those weapons. With insight and comic flair, Triptych focuses
on the changing nature of society: how the guys and dolls grapple
with sexual expectations and role reversals in our modern age.
• Eating The Dragon
• Metaphysics of a Rain Dance
• Juicing The Fruit
Conceived and Directed by Fay Simpson with Deborah Kampmeier, assisted
by Ido Mizrahy.
Projects and Activities the last three years
2008: Joel Pommerat’s Little
Red Riding Hood. Excerpt performed at the Vineyard theatre.
Proposed season Spring 2009.
2007: Bird Girl; a workshop production at Here Center
For The Arts. Colored Funny; a collaboration in the development
of a one man show with actor/writer Liam Torres, work-shopped at Intar
Theatre
2006: Yes, Here We Are, an adaptation of the
Dorothy Parker short story, Here We Are; Michael Howard Studios. Samsara; a
commissioned work for Marymount Manhattan College. Late Summer
Storm in collaboration with poet Alehandro Crawford and Urban
Bush Woman, Sita Fredericks; Bowery Poetry Club
2005: Shadow of Olema in collaboration with
Jazz musician, Myra Melford; Project Theatre Artaud, San Francisco. Lucid
Sound Painting (Rockefeller Grant with Young Audiences of New Jersey) A
collaboration with Walter Thompson for Woodrow Wilson Middle School. Intermission,
collaboration with musician Evan Mazunik; HERE Center for the Arts, NYC
2004: Metaphysics of a Rain Dance; HERE Center; Theatre Project; Baltimore, Md Non-Impact Funded Work:The Cherokee Lottery; Fay Simpson Co-Director/ Choreographer with Professor David Landon; Tennessee Williams Theater, TN. Tennessee Williams Poems. Julie of the Wolves, (musical adaptation of book by Jean Craighead George) Fay Simpson, Co-Director and Choreographer with director Peter Dalto and members of Impact Theatre; Museum of Natural History, NYC