Grace, or The Art of Climbing by L M Feldman

Written by L M Feldman. Directed by Adin Walker

Faced with a painful chapter in her life and fighting the inertia of depression, Emm decides to enter the world of competitive rock-climbing. Her quest through the rugged and humorous terrain of physical training and personal relationships charts the journey of a young woman suspended between muscularity and vulnerability, falling and climbing, parents and children, and the ardor and grace of being human.

Cast: Emily Kitchens*, Lawrence Street*, Paulo Quiros*, Tiffany Iris, Javan Nelson, Thomas Muccioli, and Hank Morris

Art House partnered with the Hoboken-based rock climbing gym, Gravity Vault, who generously provided climbing training to the actors. Art House hosted a Gravity Vault members night on March 23rd.

In keeping with Art House's mission of making the arts accessible, the Art House Access Committee provided audio interpretation and sign language interpretation on Sunday, March 18th. 

Performances of Grace, or The Art of Climbing ran March 15th - April 1st, Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Tickets: $25. Students & Seniors: $18. 

*Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity.

 

About L M Feldman

L M Feldman (Playwright) is a queer, feminist playwright (and circus artist) who loves theatrically adventurous, physically ambitious, intimate, inquisitive, deeply honest plays - usually about outsiders, often about searchers, always about the human connection.

Her plays include ANOTHER KIND OF SILENCE (PlayPenn, O'Neill Finalist, Playwrights Realm Fellowship, Drama League New Directors/New Works Fellowship); AMANUENSIS (Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company commission); THE EGG-LAYERS (Jane ChambersHonorable Mention, O'Neill Finalist, New Georges/Barnard College co-commission); A PEOPLE (Jewish Plays Project NYC Residency); GRACE, OR THE ART OF CLIMBING (Denver Center Theatre Company, Nice People Theatre Company, ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award Nomination, Barrymore Nomination, The Kilroys List); several ensemble-devised works, including AND IF YOU LOSE YOUR WAY, OR A FOOD ODYSSEY (The Invisible Dog, New York Innovative Theatre Award Nomination), LADY M (Philadelphia Live Arts Festival), and THE APOCRYPHAL PROJECT (Yale Cabaret), among others; as well as a dozen short plays and an autobiographical solo piece. She has been nominated for the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award, Wendy Wasserstein Prize, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. She was awarded an artist grant through the Boomerang Fund and a creation grant from the State of Vermont, and she has been an artist-in-residence at Terra Firma, SPACE at Ryder Farm, the School of Making Thinking, Tofte Lake Center, Montana Artists Refuge, Montana Repertory Theatre, Sewanee University of the South, Cornell University, and Theater Emory/Brave New Works Festival. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, L is also a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a devised-work collaborator, a teacher of playwriting (Bryn Mawr College, McCarter Theatre, PlayPenn), and a freelance dramaturg. Hailing from Miami, Florida, she has lived in seven cities and is now based in Philly - where she is a proud Orbiter 3 playwright and mentor with the Foundry. For more: http://www.laurenfeldman.com/

About Adin Walker

Adin Walker (Director) graduated from Princeton University with degrees in English, Theater, and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Projects as director/choreographer include The White Dress (Araca Project), One Arm (Chautauqua Theater Company), Pin* and the Blue Fairy (Drama League Artist-in-Residence, Dixon Place), Gruesome Playground Injuries (TheaterLab NYC), Jacqmin Family in the Petrified Forest (Source Festival), Rent, and Singin' in the Rain(Princeton/McCarter.) As choreographer/movement director, Walker has collaborated with directors Mia Walker (NYC premiere of Normativity, NYMF), Dawn Monique Williams (Romeo and Juliet at Chautauqua Theater), Alexandru Mihail, Ethan Heard, Tracy Bersley, and Whitney Mosery. Walker has assistant directed on projects with CalShakes, the Guthrie, Woolly Mammoth, Rattlestick, LABA at 14th Street Y, Round House, and Chautauqua Theater Company (Directing Fellow.) Current and upcoming projects include a collaboration with Louisa Thompson and Flako Jimenez on a piece for young audiences (recent residency at New Victory), assistant director to May Adrales on the premiere of Idris Goodwin's The Way the Mountain Moved at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, assistant choreographer to Yehuda Hyman on Indecent at the Guthrie, and directing L M Feldman's Grace, or the Art of Climbing this spring at Art House Productions in Jersey City, NJ, where Walker is the Artistic Associate. www.adinwalker.com