machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines
rainpan 43 Remounts 2002 Fringe Hit,
May 31 – June 17, 2007
with Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel, Trey Lyford,
Geoff Sobelle

Philadelphia based theatre company rainpan 43 will present a new production of the 2002 Philly Fringe cult hit machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines from May 31^st through June 17^th at the Alter(ed) Garage at 818 Alter Street in South Philadelphia. Tickets are $20 to $25 and are available by calling (215) 351-3185 or visiting www.machinesmachinesmachines.com.

Originally presented as a workshop performance at the 2002 Philly Fringe, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machineswas a runaway hit with standing-room only houses and an extended run. Newly reimagined and performed by original co-creatorsGabriel Quinn Bauriedel and Geoff Sobelle, of Pig Iron Theatre Company, with rainpan 43 co-founder Trey Lyford, the play is a physical and comic send-up of America’s obsession with technology and security.

Through a unique blend of clowning and engineering, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machinesreveals the claustrophobic bunker of three paranoid brothers so fixated on protecting themselves from the outside world that they themselves become the objects of suspicion. In an attempt to simplify their lives, they bury themselves in a cacophonous landslide of ingenious – if poorly made – machines. At the heart of the play are the ridiculously complex machines, based on cartoonist Rube Goldberg’s vision of technology and the equation: the most amount of effort to achieve the least amount of gain.

Critically acclaimed for their original works – all wear bowlers and last year’s Live Arts Festival success, Amnesia Curiosa – rainpan 43 once again collaborates with all wear bowlers director Aleksandra Wolska, with the intricately futile machines designed and built by Philadelphia sculptors Steven Dufala and Billy Blaise Dufala. The set is designed by Hiroshi Iwasaki, with lighting design by James Clotfelter, and sound design by James Sugg. The company is also working with renowned Italian theatre artist and clown Giovanni Fusetti to further develop the characters and the world of machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines, machines.

Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel is a founding Co-Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company. He has performed in many of the company’s productions including Hell Meets Henry Halfway (OBIE Award), Cafeteria (Barrymore Award), and The Lucia Joyce Cabaret. Last year he designed the set for Mission to Mercury (with Horoshi Iwasaki). Bauriedel teaches Dance-Theatre at Swarthmore College and Princeton University.  

Trey Lyford is a New York based theatre artist and Co-Artistic Director of rainpan 43. Along with creating his own work, Lyford is an associate artist with the OBIE Award-winning company, The Civilians. Further credits include HBO Aspen Comedy Fest, Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse, Folger Theatre, and London’s Gate Theatre. He has created original pieces with Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theatre Company and San Francisco’s Joe Goode Performance Group. Lyford has a BA from Vassar College and an MFA from UCSD.

Geoff Sobelle is a Philadelphia based theatre artist and Co-Artistic Director of rainpan 43. He is a company member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, with whom he has created and performed both at home and abroad. He received a 2006 Pew Fellowship in the Arts as a performance artist. Sobelle has been nominated for two Barrymore Awards and was named 2004’s Best Theatre Artist by Philadelphia Magazine. Sobelle is an accomplished magician, a graduate of Stanford University, and attended L’Ecole Jacque Lecoq in Paris.

Aleksandra Wolska(Director) holds a Ph.D. from Stanfordin dramatic theatre and criticism andan M.F.A. in directing from BostonUniversity. She is a member of RainshadowFilm Company, the co-founderof Stanford Summer Theater (SST)and a former assistant professor oftheatre arts at University of Minnesota.Wolska has conducted extensive researchand study of Renaissance drama,Shakespeare, performance theoryand phenomenology of performance and is currently completing herbook on early modern stage practicesentitled ShakespeareÕs EnchantedObjects: Alchemical Transformationson the Renaissance Stage.

machines machines machines machines machines machines machines was made possible in part by a grant from the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by the University of the Arts, and by the Phoebe Haas Charitable Trusts B.

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