RIPE Theatre presents the WORLD PREMIERE of...

Akin, It's in the blood

 

Ripe Theatre explores the choices that shape life and death within one family.

You see the world through your own eyes, and everything in that world revolves around you. The people you come into contact with everyday are a part of your world. You make decisions based on your perceptions and the directions you want to take in that world.
You’re driving to work-- the woman in the car in front of you decides not to turn left on the yellow light. When the light turns green she pulls into the intersection and a man running his red light plows into her car, killing her. If the man had not run the red light, she would not have been killed. If the woman had turned with the first light, she would be alive, and you would have taken her place in the intersection. Choices you make affect other people. Choices other people make affect you. This connection makes us more related to each other than most people care to think.

In their new thriller, Akin, Ripe Theatre explores the choices made within one American family and the effect those choices have on it’s members. The story begins with two siblings packing up their childhood home after both of their parents have died. They talk of regret and doing things differently, if they had the chance. A startling secret disclosed in a letter sends this play on a twisting time warp to one decision made long ago that drastically changed all of the character’s lives forever.

The roots of this play are based on the ideas of cause and effect and that we are all connected. It’s in the blood, the subtitle of Akin, not only refers to the blood relations of the characters, but an underlying theme of the shark-like mentality that some people display as they move through life. While developing the script, Ripe Theatre worked to comment on the survival instinct that exists within us all and how that affects our lives, for good or bad.

After years of acting in “traditional” productions with other people’s ideas and visions, members of Ripe Theatre joined forces to write, produce, and perform their own work. In less than three years, Ripe Theatre has produced four all-original shows. Wacky Pie debuted in July 2000 at the Next Stage and Ambrosia on a Stick ran at Venue 9 in September 2001. <52, played to all sold-out audiences at the 2002 San Francisco Fringe Festival and was awarded “Best of the Fringe.” Pat Craig of the Contra Costa Times called the cast of <52 “ versatile performers, with a good sense of comic timing and wonderfully expressive physicality…Ripe Theatre is worth watching.” And in January of 2003 Mammoth Under the Bathmat premiered at the Next Stage Theatre with critical acclaim. Chloe Veltman of the SF Bay Guardian called it ‘Tight, dark and abounding with absurdist wit.”

This up-and-coming ensemble currently consists of four members: Gabrielle Fisher, Noah Kelly, Sarah McKereghan, and Peter Parish. Three of the members (Kelly, McKereghan, and Parish) and the director of Akin (Michael Lindsay) studied theatre arts together at Humboldt State University, where the program emphasized the creation of original, self-produced theatre. Akin, a full-length drama/thriller, is a new and exciting departure from Ripe’s usual sketch comedy format.


WHAT: Ripe Theatre’s world premiere of Akin a new dark thriller about life, death and choices. Pat Craig of the Contra Costa Times says “Ripe is a force to be reckoned with because of it's unwavering commitment to fresh material, an intelligent eye for the details of modern life and a slightly off beat attitude that gives the material an individuality that shines through...”

WHO: Written and performed by Noah Kelly and Sarah McKereghan. Directed by Michael Lindsay. Designed by: Peter Q. Parish. Music by Julia Norton.

WHEN: Thursdays-Saturdays, July 10-26, 2003.

SHOWTIMES: 8:00 p.m. (Please allow time for parking!!)

WHERE: Next Stage, 1620 Gough Street (at Bush)

TICKETS: Tickets cost $15-20, sliding scale. To reserve tickets, call 415-435-7571.