...make good cheap theater with work and words that move both us and audiences.
...toe the line between spontaneous/organic vs. structured/productive, or flexibility vs. "gettin' shit done."
...collaborate in whatever iteration we can fit ourselves into to locate a good script, and then produce it. We've come to reject directorial hierarchy; we share tasks and responsibilities evenly according to our strengths, and we honor each person’s contributions.
...mindfully include everyone’s voice and vision into the process. We listen intently to each other as performers and collaborators, and communicate both our support and disagreement with respect and compassion.
...dig into joy. We're doing a play, we're playing with each other! And our shows are us playing together in front of an audience.
...have big love for each other. Which leads to trust. Which leads to a feeling that anything's possible onstage. Yeehaw!
PAST PRODUCTIONS
Virginia Woolf's ORLANDO
adapted by Sarah Ruhl
Manbites Dog Theater Other Voices Series Presentation - Durham, NC
regional premiere
AWARDS
Five NC theater critics' favorite shows & "State of Theater" 2017 round table discussion on WHUP radio's "Lights Up" (start at 11:17, 14:43)
Outstanding Production & Outstanding Ensemble Performance in Triangle Arts & Entertainment's "Best of 2017" List
One of Indy Week’s Top Ten Plays of 2017
PRESS
Interview with Frank Stasio on WUNC Public Radio's "The State of Things"
“This smart, stylish take on Virginia Woolf's novella was exceptional in all aspects, including Elsa Hoffman's intricate metal set silhouettes, Joseph Amodei's lighting, and Kim Black's costume design. Even more remarkable, superlative actors Skylar Gudasz, Rajeev Rajendran, Caitlin Wells, Dale Wolf, and Emmett (then Emily) Anderson in the title role, shared directing duties while confidently escorting us through Sarah Ruhl's daunting stage adaptation, across a half-millennium of developments in gender roles, all in eighty thrilling minutes.”
-Byron Woods, “The Top Ten Plays of 2017,” Indy Week
“Delta Boys Theater Company’s current production puts its own brilliant spin on the piece…. Four equally talented players support (Orlando’s) extremely engaging performance…. Delta Boys’ fluid, tautly paced staging is all the more impressive because the task is done collectively. Artist Elsa Hoffman’s patterned steel set pieces, including a London street scene and the queen’s elaborate dress, comprise a show of their own. Joseph Amodei’s atmospheric lighting and Kim Black’s clever gender-morphing costumes complete this nigh-perfect presentation. The timeliness of a work about gender identities is obvious in today’s political landscape but Woolf’s themes transcend the present with universal insights, marvelously rendered in this production.
-Roy C. Dicks, “Theater review: Satirical ‘Orlando’ a brilliant spin on Woolf’s novel,” The News & Observer
"It takes a mere eighty minutes to gain these… insights in the Delta Boys' triumphant production of Sarah Ruhl's stage adaptation of Orlando at Manbites Dog Theater. In that time, five self-directed actors sketch striking stage tableaux as they deftly skate across a half-millennium-long history of the human heart.... A rewarding production filled with the joy of storytelling.... At the last, Orlando remains confident in her search for understanding. An equally confident production puts that quest on the strongest ground, and earns our highest recommendation."
-Byron Woods, "A superlative adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando packs centuries of insight into a fleet eighty minutes," Indy Week
"The cast, who is onstage throughout the entire play, are energetic and well-meshed, weaving in and out of each other’s lives through the centuries, often becoming another gender (as does Orlando). Their ability to hook into each other’s lines, as well as their physical ability to choreograph the often abstract tableaux in the performance, is excellent; and together, they build an interesting and enjoyable perspective." -Dawn Reno Langley, Triangle Arts & Entertainment
LOVE AND INFORMATION
by Caryl Churchill
Manbites Dog Theater - Durham, NC
PRESS
"In conventional scripts, playwrights provide the names and identities of the characters, or at least the locations and times of events. In Love and Information, all Caryl Churchill provides are brief titles for a series of seemingly disconnected scenes, followed by anonymous lines of dialogue. In a five-star production last January, part of the Delta Boys' achievement was how imaginatively a quintet of self-directed actors filled in the blanks, sharply defining individual characters in specific situations and conveying transitions in more than 60 different relationships. This kinetic, non-stop show confronts us with what actor Skylar Gudasz called 'the constant stimulation and constant disconnect' of a culture in which the values we assign to other and ourselves can be contingent upon--and threatened by-- the next Facebook status post." -Byron Woods, Indy Week
LOVE AND INFORMATION
by Caryl Churchill
The Carrack Modern Art - Durham, NC
regional premiere
AWARDS
One of Indy Week's "Nine great local theater performances of 2015"
PRESS
"A gifted quintet played a compelling game of human pinball as Caryl Churchill's characters got the news (or didn't) in 65 relationships, ranging from snarky lovers to torturer and victim." -Byron Woods, Indy Week
MAC
by William Shakespeare
adapted by Lucius Robinson
a one-act adaptation of Macbeth performed in an old pack-house in northern Orange County.
world premiere
IPHIGENIA CRASH LAND FALLS ON THE NEON SHELL THAT WAS ONCE HER HEART
The Nightlight - Chapel Hill, NC
regional premiere