WAPAVA Presents: Olney Theatre Center’s Colossal

WAPAVA Presents: Olney Theatre Center’s Colossal

New Pilot Program Offers Public Viewing of Archived Production & Panel Discussion
Monday, December 14, 2015 . 7:30PM
Olney Theatre Center's Colossal
Olney Theatre Center's Colossal

WAPAVA will show a video recording of the Olney Theatre Center’s live performance of Colossal and host a panel discussion with production participants and Dr. Faedra Chatard Carpenter as the moderator.

Dr. Carpenter is the Director of Undergraduate Theatre Studies at the University of Maryland College Park. Invited panelists include Artistic Director Jason Loewith, Scenic Designer Misha Kachman, and Actor James Whalen.

Colossal, written by Andrew Hinderaker and directed by Will Davis, is an extraordinary story of emotional and physical endurance, love, and family. Structured like a football game (performed in four quarters with a pre-show training session and half-time show), Colossal tells in vivid, physical flashback the story of Young Mike, a college football player who took a hit in a game that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Mike now relives the memory of his accident with the help of a live football squad onstage, finally confronting his demons in the play’s extremely powerful and uplifting conclusion. Featuring Michael Patrick Thornton, star of ABC's Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice. Winner of the Kennedy Center’s Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award. (Recommended for ages 14 and up)

Colossal is a 2014 production and the recipient of a 2014 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award. It also won 4 Helen Hayes awards among its 6 nominations:

  • The Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding Original New Play or Musical - Andrew Hinderaker
  • Outstanding Director of a Play-HAYES Production - Will Davis
  • Outstanding Choreography in a Play-HAYES Production - Ben Cunis (Fight & Movement Choreographer) and Christopher D'Amboise (Choreographer)
  • Outstanding Sound Design-HAYES Production - Christopher Baine